There’s nothing more frustrating as a new Genshin player than standing at the top of Mondstadt’s Windrise cliffs, staring at the anemoculus floating 100 meters out over the lake, and realizing you have no clue how to get there without falling in. I fumbled through my first three hours of the game climbing every small hill and avoiding any edges higher than my character’s waist, until I finally unlocked the basic wind glider. Once you learn how to fly in Genshin Impact, the entire map opens up: you can skip tedious enemy camps, collect oculi in half the time, and even turn long cross-region trips into a fun, fast glide.
How to Unlock Gliding (The First Step to Flying in Genshin Impact)
You don’t have to grind for hours or reach a high Adventure Rank to get your first glider. It unlocks automatically during the “Windrider” archon quest, which you’ll get within 30 minutes of starting the game, right after you leave the tutorial beach and meet Amber in Mondstadt. The quest walks you through a short gliding tutorial, and gives you the base Mondstadt wind glider for free, no extra steps required. You don't need to reach a higher Adventure Rank to unlock basic gliding, even though a lot of new players assume you do, and waste time climbing everywhere before they get to that quest.
If you want nicer themed gliders later, you can unlock regional variants by raising your reputation level to 8 in each nation, from Liyue’s elegant silk glider to Fontaine’s sleek hydro-themed design. These are just cosmetic, though, so don’t feel pressured to grind for them if you don’t care about looks. I still use the base Mondstadt glider on my main account, even after 2 years of playing, because it’s lighter and easier to see through when I’m gliding through tight canyon areas.
Core Rules for Safe, Long-Distance Flying Across Teyvat
Once you have your glider, there are a few basic rules you need to remember to avoid crashing or running out of stamina mid-flight. First is stamina management: Gliding consumes 1 stamina point per second, so your max stamina dictates how far you can fly without stopping. You can increase your max stamina by collecting oculi in each region and offering them to the corresponding archon statue; each level up gives you one extra stamina bar, which adds up to a lot of extra flight time once you collect all oculi in a region.
You don’t have to end a flight just because your stamina is running low, either. Using a wind current or Four-Leaf Sigil will pause stamina consumption while you're ascending, so you can use those to get extra altitude and let your stamina recharge a little before you keep gliding. You can also cancel your glide mid-air to plunge, then re-open it right before you hit the ground to avoid fall damage, which is perfect for short bursts down hills.
A lot of new players make avoidable mistakes that cut their flights short, or even get them killed. Here are the most common ones to watch out for:
- Holding the jump button too long when launching off a cliff, which wastes stamina before you even open your glider
- Forgetting to adjust your camera angle downward to gain speed, which makes you lose altitude faster than necessary
- Gliding directly into storm clouds in Fontaine or heavy wind areas in Mondstadt, which will knock you out of the sky immediately
- Ignoring updrafts from dandelion patches or fire flowers, which can give you free altitude without spending stamina
I learned that last one the hard way when I tried to glide from the top of Dragonspine to Liyue Harbor on my first playthrough. I ignored three dandelion updrafts along the way, ran out of stamina 200 meters from the harbor, and crashed straight into a hilichurl camp with three mitachurls. I spent 10 minutes fighting them off, and I still didn’t collect the geoculus I was aiming for. Don’t be like me.
Character and Item Tricks to Extend Your Flight Time
Once you’ve got the basics down, you can use certain characters and items to make your flights even longer, or cover distance way faster. The best universal buff for gliding is Venti’s passive talent, “Windrider”: Venti's passive talent "Windrider" is the best universal buff for long flights, no matter what region you're in. It reduces gliding stamina consumption by 20% for your entire party, as long as he’s in your team, no extra work required. Jean has the exact same passive, so if you don’t have Venti, Jean works just as well.
If you want to skip gliding entirely sometimes, Wanderer is the only character that can actually fly instead of just glide. His elemental skill lets him hover for up to 10 seconds at a time, and you can chain it with jumps and glides to cover three times the distance of a regular glider, even with average stamina. I use Wanderer for 90% of my exploration now, and I’ve cut the time I spend collecting oculi in new regions by more than half.
You don’t need 5-star characters to extend your flight time, though. Stamina food like Chicken-Mushroom Skewers or Adeptus' Temptation can give you a 20-30% stamina reduction buff for 30 minutes, which stacks with character passives for even longer flights. The Wind Catcher gadget, which you unlock via Mondstadt reputation level 3, lets you create a temporary wind current anywhere, even in the middle of the ocean, so you can re-launch your glider if you’re about to fall in. It’s one of the most underrated gadgets in the game, and I always keep one in my inventory when I’m exploring new areas.
Hidden Advanced Flying Hacks Most Players Miss
Once you’ve mastered the basics, there are a few little-known tricks that can make flying even easier, or let you cover distance you never thought possible. First is the plunge re-glide trick: when you’re running low on stamina, angle yourself down to plunge towards a sloping hill, land on it while running, which recovers stamina almost instantly, then jump off again and re-open your glider. Plunge re-gliding can cut your travel time across mountainous regions by 50% if you master the timing, and you don’t need any special characters or items to do it.
Four-Leaf Sigils, which you’ll find in Sumeru, Fontaine, and Natlan, are another underused tool for long-distance travel. A lot of new players think you have to be directly facing a sigil to activate it, but that’s not true: You don't have to be directly facing a Four-Leaf Sigil to activate it, as long as it's within your line of sight and 50 meters of your current position. You can chain sigils together to fly across entire regions without using any stamina at all, which is perfect for farming resources or completing daily commissions fast.
Another fun trick is combining wind sources to get extreme altitude. If you use Venti’s elemental burst, then hold Kazuha’s elemental skill to launch yourself higher, then use a Wind Catcher, you can get up to 100 meters of extra altitude, which lets you glide for almost two full minutes if you have max stamina. I used this trick once to glide from the top of Natlan’s highest volcano all the way to the Sumeru desert border, and I didn’t have to stop once along the way. It’s also great for collecting hard-to-reach oculi that are floating high above mountains or canyons.
If you do find yourself falling off a cliff with no stamina left, don’t panic. You can use a geo construct like Zhongli’s pillar or Albedo’s elevator to catch yourself mid-fall, then re-open your glider once you land on it. I’ve saved myself from falling into the Chasm’s bottomless pit so many times with this trick, it’s become second nature when I’m exploring high areas.
Learning how to fly in Genshin Impact doesn’t take a lot of work, but it completely changes how you interact with the game’s huge open world. You don’t need rare 5-star characters or expensive items to get the hang of it, either: even the base glider with a few extra stamina bars will let you travel almost anywhere you want to go. Next time you log in, try practicing the plunge re-glide trick on the cliffs around Windrise, or take a long glide from the top of Mondstadt’s cathedral to the Dawn Winery. You’ll be surprised how much faster you can cross the map once you stop climbing every hill.