How to complete the Genshin Impact Lantern Rite event and get a free character

It's that time of the year again, bringing us the Genshin Impact Lantern Rite event. Liyue Harbor's festival of floating nightlights and mini-games is looking pretty vibrant this time around, with events ranging from guessing games, to maritime salvage, to fighting a literal storm god. The rewards seem pretty decent, too, with the free four-star character Yun Jin on offer and Ningguang's new outfit. Either way, it's a nice break from Enkanomiya.

Both Ganyu and Zhongli are also back for their reruns, and with the ten free Intertwined Fates you can claim as a login bonus, you'll have that extra chance of pulling either. Alongside the character and outfit rewards, there are also shops and currencies for each mini-game, as well as challenges, meaning there's plenty of stuff on offer.

In this Genshin Impact Lantern Rite guide, I'll walk through what you need to know about the yearly festival of illumination, how each of the events work, and most importantly, how to get your hands on that free character and Ningguang's fancy new threads.

How does the Genshin Impact Lantern Rite event work?

As with the previous event, this year's Lantern Rite consists of multiple challenges and questlines, each with their own currency and range of rewards:

The Great Gathering

If you want to snag some of the Jade Pavillion's fancy furniture while kicking around some Treasure Hoarders, this might be your deal. Now that the new spick-and-span Jade Pavillion is flying in the sky above Liyue Harbor, Ningguang tasks us to head out to the Guyun Stone Forest to collect missing furniture and decorations from the old Jade Pavillion that was destroyed at the end of the Liyue Archon quest⁠⁠—who knows why she's only just remembering this?

With Beidou and Xinyan in tow, you'll take part in three different challenges: Interrogation by Night, Curio Salvage, and Midpoint Interception. The first involves clearing Treasure Hoarder camps and using firecrackers to debuff them, the second is just grabbing floating decorations around Guyun in your Waverider, and the last requires you to destroy a balloon, similar to the Danger Haul commission.

It's an easy event, but you don't need its currency to recruit a free character, and the rewards you can purchase are all furniture, so it might feel pointless if you don't use the Serenitea Pot. Still, the introductory portion of the quest is fun, and you get to try out Beidou, which might be worthwhile if you're considering her as your chosen free character.

Flameplume Starflowers

Though I'm slightly sad Yoimiya hasn't popped up as part of this firework event (at least not yet), it's a great excuse to gather some friends and create your own custom pyrotechnic display. Ningguang gives us a launch tube gadget that we can place to smelt fireworks and organize displays. The smelting process may seem confusing at first, but here's how you do it:

• Every firework has three sections that you can select: color, height, and size
• These three each have their own ideal parameter, marked by the colored section of the bar at the bottom of the screen
• If you use Single Smelt, you'll notice that the bar will fill with white towards that line
• Your goal is to fill each bar to that ideal parameter
• You can change how much white fills the bar by combining different ‘Smelting Techniques’ from the top right
• Once you've hit those perfect parameters, you can claim all of the rewards and the firework type in the event menu

Setting up your own displays also requires the launch tube, but messing around with the explosives is just as fun.

Wondrous Shadows

The simplest Lantern Rite event, Wondrous Shadows is a guessing game where you have to move and turn a shadow to work out what it is before the time limit runs out. If this game really isn't your idea of a good time, here are the answers to the three that have been released so far, so you know what to look for:

• Censer
• Ship
• Kite

If you're struggling, you can also get a hint at the bottom left of the screen. This event earns you Affluence Talismans, one of the two currencies you need to recruit the free character.

Oceanic Defender

This event hasn't been released yet at the time of writing, but from the artwork and what we know, it's going to be a challenge boss similar to the Whopperflower in the Shadows Amidst Snowstorms event. This time, we'll be revisiting the Beisht boss fight from Shenhe's recent quest, and completing challenges around it to earn Conquest Talismans. This is one of the two currencies you need to recruit a free character, so be sure to take part when it drops in a few days.

How to get Yun Jin free

As part of the Lantern Rite event, you can use Prosperous Partnerships to invite a four-star character from Liyue to your party. Here are the characters on offer, as well as their element and weapon:

• Xiangling - Pyro polearm
• Beidou - Electro claymore
• Xingqiu - Hydro sword
• Ningguang - Geo catalyst
• Zhongyun - Cryo claymore
• Xinyan - Pyro claymore
• Yun Jin - Geo polearm
• Yanfei - Pyro catalyst

To recruit a character, you'll have to earn 1,000 Affluence Talismans from Wondrous Shadows, which you can do already, and 1,000 Conquest Talismans from the Oceanic Defender challenge when it opens. In terms of who to choose, it depends on what you currently need for your party. Xiangling is a really good sub-DPS, but you can already get her for free in Spiral Abyss. If you don't have Xingqiu at all, then I very much recommend getting him, since he's a fantastic support character.

How to get the Ningguang Orchid's Evening Gown outfit

Keqing's Opulent Splendor outfit was released at the start of Genshin Impact 2.4, but you can get Ningguang's Orchid Evening Gown for free as part of the Lantern Rite. It's basically a completion reward, requiring you to earn currency from every event in order to claim it, so there's at least one reason to do the Great Gathering even if you don't want the furniture.

That's everything for this Genshin Impact Lantern Rite guide. We hope you have fun at the event!