If you’re a brand new Genshin Impact player, all the different challenge types in the game can feel really overwhelming at first. Two of the most common questions new players ask are about the Forgotten Hall and the Spiral Abyss challenge. This guide will break down everything you need to know, so you can plan your progression and character leveling path clearly.
What Is The Forgotten Hall?
Plenty of new players mix the Forgotten Hall up with the game’s recurring Spiral Abyss rotation, but the two are completely separate pieces of content. The Forgotten Hall is a one-time challenge area that launched with Genshin Impact Version 2.6, located in the underground mines of The Chasm, and it never resets or gets updated on a cycle.
Forgotten Hall Gameplay & Rewards Breakdown
You can unlock the Forgotten Hall after you gain access to The Chasm’s underground area and finish the required pre-requisite exploration quests. The challenge is split into three total stages, and you just need to defeat every enemy within the given time limit to clear. After clearing the entire challenge, you’ll get a one-time payout of rewards including Primogems, Artifacts, Adventure EXP, and Enhancement Ore. Since it’s completely cleared after your first run, you never need to challenge it again — that’s a huge difference from the Spiral Abyss, which resets twice per month and lets you claim rewards repeatedly.
This confusion mostly pops up because some players accidentally mislabel the Spiral Abyss’s location as the Forgotten Hall when talking to new players. In reality, the recurring Abyss challenge is located near the waters of Chenyu Vale, off the northeast coast of Liyue Harbor, and has zero connection to the Forgotten Hall in The Chasm.
When Should New Players Start Challenging The Abyss?
Many new players hear that the Spiral Abyss hands out tons of free Primogems every month, so they rush through early progression just to try and get a full clear with all stars as soon as possible. But challenging the Abyss too early doesn’t just ruin your overall game experience — it can also force you to level the wrong characters and spread your resources too thin, leaving you worse off in the long run. Full-starring the Abyss was never meant to be a goal for new players in the early game.
Clear Criteria To Know When You’re Ready For Abyss
We’ve put together a few simple guidelines to help you figure out if you’re ready to start challenging the Spiral Abyss. If you check all these boxes, you’re good to give it a shot:
First, you’ve fully built two complete, functional teams. All four characters on each team are ascended to your current World Level’s level cap, and their talents are leveled up to at least level 6. Every role on your team, whether that’s main damage, support, or healer, has enough base power to hold their own, so your characters won’t get taken out instantly mid-fight.
Second, you’ve already collected most of the easy-to-get Primogems from open world exploration and quest rewards, and you want a steady source of extra Primogems to pull for characters you love. Once you hit this point, the Spiral Abyss becomes a reliable long-term source of extra Primogems every month.
Third, you’ve already finished the main story, all the world quests, and every other piece of content you wanted to enjoy, and you’re looking for a high-difficulty challenge to test how strong your character builds are. This is another great time to start dipping your toes into Abyss challenges.
One important thing to remember for your first run: you never have to force yourself to get full stars right away. Just clear as many floors as you can, collect whatever rewards you qualify for, and push for full stars gradually as your characters get stronger over time. You don’t need to second-guess your character building plan just because you don’t get a great result on your first attempt.
To wrap everything up: the Forgotten Hall is a one-time exploration challenge located in The Chasm, and once you clear it and collect your rewards, you never need to pay it any attention again. The Spiral Abyss, on the other hand, is a high-difficulty endgame recurring activity, so there’s no reason to push through it early in your Genshin Impact playthrough. Wait until your characters are strong enough, and you’ll have a much easier, more enjoyable experience challenging it when you’re truly ready.
