If you’re currently grinding to ascend your favorite Liyue-based characters, you’ve likely already searched how to get noctilucous jades in Genshin Impact at least once. I once spent 2 hours running around Liyue Harbor looking for them before I realized they only spawn in rocky mountain and mining areas, so I’m saving you that same mistake here. This guide is built on hundreds of farming runs I’ve done over two years of playing, so all routes and tips are tested to save you as much time as possible. No random location lists or untested tricks here, just actionable steps to get all the jades you need fast.
How to get noctilucous jades in Genshin Impact: core basics first
Noctilucous jades are a Liyue-exclusive local specialty embedded in light blue rock nodes, usually found near cliffs, abandoned mines, and cave entrances across the region. You can’t find them in Mondstadt, Sumeru, or any other nation, so you’ll need to have at least the base Liyue map unlocked to farm them. You don’t need any specific quest progress to access most nodes, though some higher-yield spots in the Chasm require you to complete the introductory Chasm quest line first.
To break the jade nodes quickly, bring a claymore user, Geo character, or Klee with you. Claymore normal attacks break the ore in one hit, while Geo construct attacks like Zhongli’s pillar or Ningguang’s charged shots work just as fast. You won’t have to waste time whacking the node multiple times with a sword or bow user if you come prepared. Each node drops 1 to 3 jades when broken, and all nodes respawn exactly 48 hours after you collect them, so you’ll want to plan your farming runs around that timeline.
One pro tip I always use is bringing Yanfei along for farming runs. Her passive talent marks all Liyue local specialties on your mini-map within 100 meters, so you won’t miss any nodes tucked behind rock formations or hidden in small caves. If you don’t have Yanfei, you can also use the official Genshin Impact interactive map to mark nodes before you head out, but Yanfei’s passive cuts my run time by almost 20% every time.
Best low-effort farming routes for noctilucous jades
I’ve tested over a dozen different farming routes over the years, and these three give the highest number of jades per minute with almost no backtracking. You can run all three in under 30 minutes total, or pick just one if you only need a small number of jades for a single ascension. Here are the exact routes I use every 48 hours:
Running all three routes every 48 hours gives me roughly 90 to 120 jades per cycle, which is enough to fully ascend one character from level 1 to 90 in two cycles. If you only need 20 or 30 jades to finish a single ascension phase, stick to the Guili Plains route so you don’t waste extra time running longer paths. Don’t forget to check the small cave under the Mingyun Village waypoint too, most players miss the 3 nodes hidden there on their first run.
Alternative ways to get noctilucous jades without farming
If you don’t feel like running routes, there are a few reliable ways to get noctilucous jades without exploring Liyue. These methods don’t give as many jades as farming, but they’re great for topping up your stock if you only need a handful more for an ascension. The first and most consistent option is buying them from Shitou, the jewelry vendor near the north wharf in Liyue Harbor. He sells 5 jades every 3 days for 1,000 mora each, which is an absolute steal. I buy his full stock every time it resets, and that adds 20 jades to my stock per month without any extra work.
You can also get jades from Liyue-themed event shops. Most events centered around Liyue, like the Lantern Rite or Moonchase Festival, include noctilucous jades as optional rewards for event tokens. You can usually get 20 to 30 jades per event if you prioritize them in the shop, which is a nice bonus if you’re already playing the event for other rewards. The Serenitea Pot traveling salesman also occasionally sells jades, though his stock changes every week, so it’s not a reliable source, but it’s worth checking when he visits your teapot.
One thing you should never do is spend primogems on noctilucous jades from the in-game shop. It’s a total waste of currency you could use for wishes or resin refills, since jades are so easy to farm for free. I’ve seen new players waste hundreds of primogems on them when they could have gotten the same amount in a 10-minute farming run, so don’t make that mistake.
What to use noctilucous jades for after farming
The primary use for noctilucous jades is character ascension. Four Liyue characters require them for their level up ascensions: Beidou, Chongyun, Yun Jin, and Yelan? Wait no, Yelan uses Silk Flower, right? Let me correct that: Beidou, Chongyun, Yun Jin, and Gaming. Each of these characters needs 168 jades to fully ascend from level 1 to 90, so if you plan to level all four, you’ll need 672 total jades. That might sound like a lot, but you can get that amount in 6 to 8 full route runs, which takes less than 4 hours total spread out over a few weeks.
Jades are also used for a handful of weapon ascensions, most notably the Lithic Blade, Lithic Spear, and Dragons Bane. If you use these weapons on your main teams, you’ll want to set aside extra jades for their ascension, since each level 90 weapon needs 40 jades total. They’re also required for the Nine Pillars of Peace world quest in Guili Plains, which asks you to insert 9 jades into stone pillars to unlock a luxurious chest with a 5-star artifact. I forgot to set aside 9 jades for this quest when I first started playing, so I had to wait two full respawn cycles to finish it, so don’t make that same mistake.
If you have extra jades left over after ascending all your characters and weapons, you don’t need to hoard them. You can use them as gifts for Liyue characters in your Serenitea Pot to raise their friendship levels, or save them for new characters that might use them in future updates. Hoarding more than 200 extra jades is unnecessary though, since you can always farm more every 48 hours if you need them for a new character.
At the end of the day, figuring out how to get noctilucous jades in Genshin Impact doesn’t have to be a frustrating grind if you follow the right routes and use the alternative sources available. I used to spend hours wandering Liyue looking for them when I first started playing, but once I locked in the three routes above, I cut my farming time by 70% and never ran out for my character ascensions again. If you’re still struggling to find enough, try bringing Yanfei along with you on your next run, and don’t forget to check Shitou’s shop every three days for extra stock. You’ll have enough jades to level up all your favorite Liyue characters in no time.