This sits outside the game itself, which is exactly why it is hard to find a straight answer about it.

Short answer

The short version: it is canon where the developers say it is, and enjoyable regardless.

Official art books contain material that never appears in the game itself. Adaptations take liberties, and the interesting ones take them deliberately. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over.

Whether it is worth your time

Licensed soundtracks are the most likely part to be missing from a re-release. Fan work is frequently better than official work and is not the same thing. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. Release order and chronological order are different, and both have their advocates.

Canon status is decided by the developers rather than by the adaptation's writers. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. Assets circulated online are often ripped rather than released, which affects what you can legally do with them.

What is fan-made

None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing.

  • Buy from the publisher's own store where one exists.
  • Look for an official assets page before downloading anything.
  • Keep a save or backup from before you start — it costs nothing and occasionally saves an evening.
  • Play first if you mind spoilers — adaptations rarely respect them.
  • Check whether something is official before treating it as canon.

Where it fits with the game

The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different.

The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts.

What exists officially

A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about.

The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. Genshin Impact is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep.

Where to find it legitimately

Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it.

Where people go wrong

  • Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.
  • Trusting a video thumbnail that promises a result the video never actually shows.
  • Treating a rare edge case as the normal behaviour and planning around it.
  • Ignoring the platform-specific note and then wondering why the steps do not line up.

Genshin FAQ

Is it canon?

Where the developers have said so, yes. Adaptations produced under licence are frequently their own continuity.

Do I need any mods or third-party tools for this?

No. Everything described here works with the base game on any supported platform.

Does this work the same on console and PC?

The logic is identical. Menu paths and button prompts differ, and any real difference is flagged above.

Is this still accurate after the latest Genshin Impact update?

The method is; individual numbers may not be. If a value on your screen differs, trust the screen and keep the sequence.

That is the whole of it — if something here stops matching Genshin Impact, the game changed, not the method.