Genshin Impact: Of Thorns and Crowns Event Guide

In the nation of war, only the brave who achieve great feats can enjoy honor and accolades. The wisdom to overcome various trials is the cornerstone of greatness. Deftly apply your wisdom and strength, conquer all imaginary challenges, defeat your adversaries, and compose your own "Canticle of Crowns"!

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Gameplay Overview

Event Gameplay Duration:
➥ 2024/09/20 10:00 – 2024/09/30 03:59

Eligibility:
➥ Adventure Rank 20 or above
➥ Complete Archon Quest Prologue: Act III "Song of the Dragon and Freedom"
➥ Unlock a specific Statue of The Seven

Event Overview:
➥ There are a total of 5 challenges and a new challenge will unlock each day for the first 5 days of the event. The challenge is divided into two combat modes: "Trial of Thorns" and "Canticle of Crowns."
➥ In "Trial of Thorns," you must complete challenge objectives via the stipulated methods. The better you do in "Trial of Thorns," the more buffs you'll receive in "Canticle of Crowns."
➥ In "Canticle of Crowns," you must use the special buffs you gained to defeat as many foes as possible within the time limit to earn the highest score you can. Complete the challenge with sufficient points to reach the specified value to obtain the corresponding event rewards.

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Gameplay Tutorial

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Of Thorns and Crowns Event Guide

Stage 1 - Trial of Bedrock, Song of the Fireflies

> Enemies List

Trial of Thorns	Accumulated target trials progress to gain buffs for Canticle of Crowns. Trial Objective: Break the Praetorian Golem's Geo shield
Canticle of Crowns	Use buffs to defeat as many opponents as possible within the time limit to score as many points as possible.

> Team Recommendations

Trial of Thorns	(1) Navia + Kachina + Bennett + Fischl You can swap Bennett and Fischl for any (off-field) characters excluding Anemo, Cryo, and Geo
Canticle of Crowns	(1) Sucrose + Xingqiu + Kuki Shinobu + Dendro MC (2) Nilou + Nahida + Dendro MC + Barbara (3) Raiden + Xingqiu + Bennett + Xiangling (4) Kinich + Emilie + Bennett + Xiangling (5) Nahida + Xingqiu + Kuki Shinobu + Flex/Alhaitham

Reminder: Most of the 4-stars I owned have full constellations so the result may differ if you try the same team. With the 4-star team, I only managed to get Gold. While only with the Nilou team do I manage to get Platinum for all rewards. Feel free to share your team composition in the comment section!
In Trial of Thorns, aside from the Geo duo, bring along a Pyro and Electro character because Overload can also help in depleting Geo shield.
While for Canticle or Crowns, any team would be okay as long as you bring at least a single Dendro character because the buff in this stage revolves around that reaction so you don't want to miss out on the free buff.

> How to Complete Trial of Bedrock, Song of the Fireflies

In Trial of Thorns, you need to break the Golem's Geo shield at least 10 times within 1 minute to get the full buffs. Conveniently, they already gave us Navia and Kachina which are great starts for the team. When the challenge starts, use both of their Ultimate.

After that, swap to Bennett and Fischl and use their Skill/ Burst to trigger Overload. If you don't know, Overload also helps in reducing Geo shields (unlike other reactions that won't make a dent on Geo shield).

Finally, swap back to Navia and use her Skill to deal devastating damage. Don't forget to hold Skill if you don't want to collect the Elemental Shard on the field manually. When the Skill is on cooldown, you can also use her Basic Attack since Claymore can also break Geo shields. Then, repeat the process until you break 10 Geo shields.

In Canticle of Crowns, you need to defeat as many enemies as possible within the time limit. To get Platinum, you need the help of the buffs so your team can do much more damage. This stage provides Dendro-related buffs, so make sure to bring at least one of them. When the challenge starts, there will be Fungi spawn near each other. However, they can easily get away from each other, that's why CC is valuable here.

After the Fungi, it's 3 Tribal Warriors. Their HP is not that high but they're easily staggered so try to line them in one straight line before you attack them. This way, when they get knocked back, they won't stray too far away.

In the third wave, we have 3 Hydro Boars. They're immune to Hydro so if you bring any Hydro characters, bench them for a while and just use Dendro and other element characters. They're (almost) always near each other so just focus on depleting their HP asap.

In the fourth wave, a group of Hydro Slimes. Same as before, they are immune to Hydro (duh) so spam Dendro attacks so you can trigger Bloom.

Lastly, you'll face against 2 Ruin Guard. They will chase after you so that's good. What's not good is some of their attacks can knock back your character so beware of that, especially when you're trying to trigger Elemental Skill. After you defeat the Ruin Guards, the enemy's wave will restart from wave 1 again (the Fungi).

Stage 2 - Trial of Blossoms, Song of the Chilling Wind

> Enemies List

Trial of Thorns	Accumulated target trials progress to gain buffs for Canticle of Crowns. Trial Objective: Trigger Hyperbloom or Burgeon reactions
Canticle of Crowns	Use buffs to defeat as many opponents as possible within the time limit to score as many points as possible.

> Team Recommendation

Trial of Thorns	(1) Raiden Shogun + Yaoyao + Barbara + Collei (2) Raiden Shogun + Yaoyao + Dendro MC + Xingqiu
Canticle of Crowns	(1) Sucrose + Xingqiu + Rosaria + Kaeya (2) Neuvillette + Furina + Flex + Anemo (3) Ayaka + Shenhe + Kokomi + Kazuha (4) Ganyu + Bennett + Xiangling + Kazuha

Reminder: Most of the 4-stars I owned have high constellations so the result may differ if you try the same team with different constellations.
For the Trial of Thorns, you must have Electro/Pyro + Dendro + Hydro to trigger Hyperbloom or Burgeon. Since they already gave us Raiden, I recommend doing the Hyperbloom team rather than Burgeon. Unfortunately, we don't have many 4-star Hydro characters that can apply Hydro off-field (actually there are only 2 which are Xingqiu and Barbara, but the latter is not that good) so if you have the better 5-star counterpart (Yelan, Kokomi, Furina), do bring them.
Meanwhile, for the Canticle of Crowns, make sure you include an Anemo character- this is very important because 2/4 buffs are related to Anemo. Then, you can either bring a (1) Freeze team, (2) Hydro-related team, or (3) Cryo-related team- as long as there is a Cryo or Hydro character in the team to take advantage of the last buff.

> How to Complete Trial of Blossoms, Song of the Chilling Wind

In Trial of Thorns, remember that you need to trigger Hyperbloom or Burgeon reactions (max 50 times), NOT to defeat all enemies. Even if your team has low DPS, all you have to do is inflict Hydro + Dendro, before triggering a Hyperbloom reaction with Electro. You don't have to think about big damage here.

My strategy is pretty basic, start the challenge with Raiden's Skill before swapping to everyone else to use their Skill (and Collei's Burst). After that, switch back to Raiden and use her Burst so she can trigger Hyperbloom. It will be much easier if you bring Xingqiu and not Barbara, but since my Xingqiu is in the second half, I can only make do with Barbara.

Once Raiden's Burst ends, it should be the Hydro-related enemies make an appearance so you can bench your Hydro character for now. Make sure to activate Raiden's Skill again before swapping to Yaoyao and Collei for their Skill and Burst.

Once Breacher Primus comes, immediately swap to Barbara/Xingqiu to activate their Skill before repeating the strat all over again > Raiden's Skill > Dendro's Skill and Burst if possible > Raiden's Burst > etc.

In Canticle of Crowns, we start with 4 Nobushi that spawn near each other. Too bad they have a charge attack that makes them stray from CC so it's best if you immobilize them immediately with a Freeze reaction (if you bring them). If not, brute force.

In the second wave, there are 3 Eremite elite enemies. Focus on the Dendro lady because she's the only one here to summon a beast and didn't chase after us immediately, unlike the other 2 Eremites. Be careful of the other 2 though because their reaction can freeze you.

Then we have another trio but with Meka. Their reactions are focused on Vaporize, you can focus on any of them as the others will come after you anyway.

In the last wave, we have LOTS of Hilichurls and Slimes which are basically bonus points because their HP is low enough so your character (blessed with buffs) should be able to have an easy time defeating all of them. After you defeat the whole army of Hilichurls and Slimes, the enemy's wave will restart from wave 1 again (the Nobushi).

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Stage 3 - Trial of the Wayob, Song of Lightfall

> Enemies List

Trial of Thorns	Accumulated target trials progress to gain buffs for Canticle of Crowns. Trial Objective: Break the Wayob Manifestation's Shield or Elemental Shield.
Canticle of Crowns	Use buffs to defeat as many opponents as possible within the time limit to score as many points as possible.

> Team Recommendation

Trial of Thorns	(1) Kinich + Dehya + Bennett + Emilie (2) Kinich + Furina + Bennett + Xiangling (3) Nahida + Xingqiu/Yelan + Fischl + Kuki Shinobu (4) Nahida + Fischl + Keqing + Zhongli
Canticle of Crowns	(1) Heizou + Xingqiu + Rosaria + Kaeya (2) Raiden Shogun + Bennett + Xiangling + Xingqiu/Furina (2) Neuvillette + Furina + Flex + Anemo (3) Flex + Bennett + Xiangling + Yelan (4) Raiden + Kujou Sara + Kazuha + Bennett

Reminder: Most of the 4-stars I owned have high constellations so the result may differ if you try the same team with different constellations. With the 4-star team, I only managed to get Gold.
In the Trials of Thorns, what you need to do is inflict fast consecutive attacks on Wayob so his non-elemental shield breaks faster and you can get the Energy. Do not bring characters that rely too much on Elemental Burst because Wayob will create a shield from the start and you will lose all Energy.
For Canticle of Crowns, now this is the stage where you bring characters who rely on Elemental Burst and have low CD so they can trigger it easily once the duration and cooldown ends.

> How to Complete Trial of the Wayob, Song of Lightfall

In Trial of Thorns, when you start the challenge, Wayob will immediately absorb all your Energy and create a non-elemental shield. You can cheat him by using Elemental Burst before starting the challenge. This will be repeated for every Wayob that spawns (they will immediately create a shield once spawned). So the plan for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Wayob is to use Elemental Burst before the next Wayob spawn so they can't absorb all your Energy.

Now, if you're using the recommended Kinich team, use Furina's Skill and Burst before starting the challenge. Then, once the challenge starts, immediately use Bennett and Xiangling Burst (if you didn't manage to get their Bursts up in time, do it before the challenge starts). Then, switch back to Kinich to use his Skill and Scalespiker Cannon.

Once you get lots of Energy, use Kinich's Burst and continue with the second Wayob spawned. The others' Burst should still be there so continue using Kinich's Skill for the second Wayob's shield. Once the second Wayob's shield is down and you get another Energy, activate the Elemental Burst for all characters (Kinich's Burst should still be in cooldown now).

Use Kinich's Skill again on the third Wayob and once its shield is down, depending on your teammate's Burst cooldown;
(1) If Burst CD already ended, use it
(2) If Burst CD has not ended, continue attacking the fourth Wayob with Kinich's Skill
The first one is the safer bet IF you still have time to trigger Burst. If the instructions are too confusing, please refer to my video above.

In Canticle of Crowns, there's not much of a strategy, just make sure to keep spamming Skill and Elemental Burst and enemies should go down immediately because of the stage buff. At least, that's what my plan is (as you can see in the video above). This is the reason I recommend characters with low Burst CD; so they can keep spamming Bursts every time it ends. You can check the waves for this stage below:
Wave 1: 2 Fatui Hydrogunner
Wave 2: Lots of Hydro Mimics
Wave 3: 4 Eremite elite enemies
Wave 4: Lots of Mekas
Wave 5: Consecrated Horned Crocodile
Wave 6: Consecrated Flying Serpent
Wave 7: 2 Eremite elite enemies (beast summoners)

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Stage 4 - Trial of Thunderous Roars, Song of Swift Advances

> Enemies List

Trial of Thorns	Accumulated target trials progress to gain buffs for Canticle of Crowns. Trial Objective: Utilize the Thunderous Loops in the challenge and defeat enemies in synergy with your character's rapid movements.
Canticle of Crowns	Use buffs to defeat as many opponents as possible within the time limit to score as many points as possible.

> Team Recommendation

Trial of Thorns	(1) Mualani + Lynette + Sayu + Flex
Canticle of Crowns	(1) Yanfei + Xingqiu + Bennett + Xiangling (2) Arlecchino + Kazuha + Flex + Flex (3) Hu Tao/Noelle + Furina + Kazuha + Yelan (4) Navia + Chiori/Kachina + 2 Elemental that reacts with Geo (Preferably Pyro) (5) Itto + Gorou + Albedo/Chiori + Zhongli

Reminder: Most of the 4-stars I owned have high constellations so the result may differ if you try the same team with different constellations.
In the Trial of Thorns, you don't need DPS at all. What you need is characters with high mobility like Mualani, Yelan, Sayu, etc. If you don't have any, bring Trial characters and then characters that can decrease stamina consumption so you can sprint when the Trial characters' Skill CD has not ended yet.
In Canticle of Crowns, bring a single-target DPS because you only need to defeat the elite enemies in each wave as the stage buff will take care of the mobs.

> How to Complete Trial of Thunderous Roars, Song of Swift Advances

In the Trial of Thorns, there's no need for DPS. Once the challenge starts, use Mualani's Skill and surf through enemies for the Thunderous Loop to defeat them. You'll have Phlogiston at the start so Mualani can surf for around ~15 seconds. After her Skill ends, use other characters' Skill so they can move swiftly toward enemies until you defeat 100 of them.

In Canticles of Crowns, there will be lots of enemies in each wave, but their positions are mostly the same. The elite enemy will spawn in the middle while the mobs will spawn outside the outer circle graffiti on the floor.

The strategy here is short and sweet; focus on the elite enemy and ignore the mobs. One of the stage buffs will release a shockwave once the elite enemy is defeated, and those shockwaves are enough to wipe out the mobs. If the mob crowds in your position, still, focus on the elite one. In the first wave, it's a group of Ruin enemies, and the elite one is the Ruin Guard. Don't aim for its weak point, that's just a waste of our precious time.

In the second wave, the elite enemy is Frostarm Lawachurl while surrounded by Hilichurls. Those Hilichurls are shooters so they won't get near you. The boss has a Cryo shield so you know Pyro can melt that shield like butter.

After that, you'll face a group of Meka. The elite enemy here is Construction Specialist Mek. At this point, no one cares about Ousia/Pneuma so just brute force. But, remember that this Mek deals Cryo attack so if you bring Xingqiu or Barbara who can inflict Hydro on self, be careful not to get frozen.

The fourth wave brings you a group of Vishap, with the elite enemy being Primordial Bathysmal Vishap. They're very easy to get staggered so keep attacking and they will not have the time to attack you. Beware of their Cleansing Shower that reduces your Energy (HP if you don't have Energy).

The last wave is full with Hydro creatures, with Tainted Water-Spouting Phantasm as the elite enemy. Needless to say, it's immune to Hydro. After you defeat the whole wave, the enemy's wave will restart from wave 1 again (Ruin enemies).

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Stage 5 - Trial of Shattered Fragments, Song of Melting

> Enemies List

Trial of Thorns	Accumulated target trials progress to gain buffs for Canticle of Crowns. Trial Objective: Break the Abyss Mage's Elemental Shield.
Canticle of Crowns	Use buffs to defeat as many opponents as possible within the time limit to score as many points as possible.

> Team Recommendation

Trial of Thorns	(1) Kazuha + Heizou + Sucrose (2) Heizou + Sucrose + Dendro MC + Kuki Shinobu
Canticle of Crowns	(1) Kaeya + Rosaria + Bennett + Xiangling (2) Arlecchino + Yelan/ Xingqiu + Flex + Flex (3) Hu Tao + Furina + Yelan + Xiangling (4) Ayato/Childe + Furina + Bennett + Xiangling (5) Neuvillettte + Furina + Kazuha + Xiangling (6) Ganyu + Bennett + Xiangling + Zhongli

Reminder: Most of the 4-stars I owned have high constellations so the result may differ if you try the same team with different constellations.
In the Trial of Thorns, you need to bring Anemo CC to break the Abyss Mage's shield. If you bring Sucrose, use (hopefully R5) Sacrifical Fragment for her weapon so she can cast her Skill extra time. You can bring another Anemo if you have them, but Kazuha / Heizou / Sucrose is pretty crucial since their skills are the easiest ones to trigger Swirl and break the shields. Or, you can bring other elements for the two last slots like Dendro MC or Kuki Shinobu so they can help too. Although I recommend the full Anemo team more.
In Canticles of Crowns, bring only Vaporize or Melt team so they can take advantage of the stage buff. With other reaction teams, you may have a hard time defeating some enemies because their DEF is surprisingly high.

> How to Complete Trial of Shattered Fragments, Song of Melting

In Trial of Thorns, Your positioning here is really important because if you attack the Mages during the waves with mobs and you're in the wrong direction, the mobs can get flown away by the Anemo attacks and worse, scattered. That means you need to chase after them one by one to defeat them so the next wave can spawn = less time to break Mages' shields = less points to get all buffs.
Just make sure you are not in the middle of the enemies, but instead at the end of the group where all enemies are in one line of sight.

In every waves, there will be an Abyss Mage with mobs that can help remove their elemental shield with Swirl (like Electro Mage with Cryo Slimes, Cryo Mage with Hilichurls that have Pyro torches, etc). All you have to do is Swirl all of them and the shield would melt like a hot knife through butter. Of course, you need to defeat all the mobs too (most of them would usually be dead after the Swirl) so the next wave will start. Do this until you break 30 shields.

One more thing, don't be too stingy with the Elemental Burst and use it whenever its cooldown ends, even when the HP of enemies is lower than half. The mobs here give plenty of Energy so you should be able to get the Burst back up by the time the CD ends (in addition to using their own Skill for Energy). If you feel like there's not enough Energy, try using ER sands for non-trial characters.

In Canticle of Crowns, there's not that much of a strategy because the 3rd and 4th stage buff should make everything easier. Those 2 will create an Anemo Vortex to pull nearby opponents whenever you trigger Vaporize or Melt. This way, all you have to do is spamming every Skill and Burst you have when the CD has ended and the enemies will gather by themselves.

If, by any chance, you didn't get all 4 buffs (I really recommend you retry until you get all of them) focus on the 'elite' enemy on each wave as most of the mobs have the tendency to get near you so you don't have to chase all of them. You can check the waves for this stage below:
Wave 1: Lots of Breacher Primus (The big one is the elite)
Wave 2: Group of Hilichurls (In this case, the 'elite' one here is the Mitachurl)
Wave 3: Tribal Warriors (The elite are Yumkasaurus and Koholasaurus Warriors, the one with better design than other enemies)
Wave 4: Samachurls and Hilichurls Rogue
Wave 5: Group of Fungi (Go for the big one)

If you really can't get all the buffs, you can bring an Anemo CC in Canticle of Crowns if you have spare characters (like Venti for his Burst or Lynette for taunt) so you have an easier time with the stage.

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Gameplay Rewards

➥ Don’t forget to manually claim your rewards from the event page. By completing all the event challenges, you will get the following rewards:

• Primogem x 420
• Blazing Sacrificial Heart's Hesitance x 6
• Mora x 200000
• Hero's Wit x 15
• Mystic Enhancement Ore x 15
• Delirious Desolation of the Sacred Lord x 6
• Night-Wind's Mystic Premonition x 6
• Sanctifying Unction x 12