I hit my first “grinding” phase.
I played as far in the story as the game would let me progress. Now the next story quests require a higher Adventure Rank (AR 35 to be precise) and I’m only at 31. This means I have to increase it somehow, be it by defeating Hypostasis (cube shaped elemental enemies), Regivines (giant elemental plants), discovering stuff, doing side quests, etc.
It’s a bit of a chore but I’m eager to continue playing the story.
Until I reach AR 35 I can combine the grind with farming mats for increasing my characters’ levels and their equipment (weapons and artifacts) which is necessary so I don’t have trouble defeating enemies. Cause very few Adventure Ranks the levels of the enemies increases (next time at AR 35).
But the things I can do each day to increase my AR is limited by
a) the amount of Resin I have (160 max and you have to spend a various amount to loot the chests after defeating big enemies like the Regivines/Hypostasis or at the end of a domain; it replenishes itself - 1 Resin every 8min - and you can add some yourself with Original Resin which you get rewarded after increasing your AR)
and b) the amount of things you can do daily without spending Resin (like your 4 daily quests).
And at the same time I’m farming Primogems which is an in-game currency you need for acquiring stuff in the game’s store (like Wishes, which are for rolling on items and characters).
The banners are time-limited and the drop rates for the 5-star characters of each banner are very low. That puts some pressure on you. As the amount of Primogems you can get each day is also limited, the incentive is to get you to spend real money on Genesis Crystals, which can be converted to Primogems (1:1 rate) and then used for wishes again.
update: well, I made it to AR 33 but it was quite the grind. And that for only 1900 AR Exp. Now I need 6900 until I reach AR 34 and unlock the next small side quest.
Hypostasis/Oceanids/Regivines only give 200 AR Exp and cost 40 Resin. With the Resin (and Original Resin) that I have I can only get 2700 AR Exp. The 4 daily quests give a total of 900.
This situation is quite a bit annoying.
On top of that, the high you level your characters, weapons and artifacts, the more each level increase costs. And Mora (the currency in the world of Teyvat) is - at least as of now - not that easy to obtain.
Ascending a character from 50 to 60 costs 60k Mora (ascending means to unlock the next 10 levels so you can actually level up your character). And then using the items that give your characters exp also costs Mora. So just having those items doesn’t mean you can actually level your characters, you need Mora too.