I have noticed ( I'm late, I know
) that it is possible to play this game entirely without spending a single coin of real money. As long as you restrict yourself to a core of a certain number of party members - or 2 cores, that's great, imho, too.
The more party members you "win" through the "gacha", the more levelling ressources are needed - which are a) rare or/and b) not easy to farm. Especially the "written knowledge" items are not available in great numbers. Unlike raw materials, like, for example, ore to level weapons.
The more expensive this game looks, the more I often wonder how they get their money from ? As it is - like with some MMOs - entirely possible to play the game without any real money spent.
The "gacha" is, I think an important point of getting money for the company, I think, as it appears to me to be a bit like a "collectible cards game".
My guess is, that people who spend real money are a) those who want/pull a certain figure/character from the "gacha", and those who want to maintain a big "army" of party members.
There aren't even many cosmetic items like in other games. As far as I can see, the number of cosmetic items is even astonishingly rare - and some can even be achieved through in-game activities. Without spending any real money.
The gigantic mountain "Dragonspine" has a mechanic I haven't seen in any game before. The figure/character you play can literally freeze to death. Literally.
The environment has a bar, which shows the progress of the "freeze" or "cold" on the figure/character. Once it is full, the person rapidly loses health. And then dies of freezing.
I like that mechanic. It vaguely reminds me of the mechanic of illnesses in the old TDE "Realms Of Arcania" games. The party could die from that as well.
In Genshin Impact, you see always only 1 gigure on the screen, and this is the one freezing. The other party members don't, as long as they are not actively played. So, to some degree, a different healer character could heal the main character. Or, you could run to the next best source of warmth with a different character.
On the Dragonspine, you are greatly hindered by the fact that sources of warmth (and of other energies like with teleporters) are sparse, and must often be lit by a fire ("pyro") character in the first place.
This is especially dangerous against powerful enemies - and even more dangerous idf these powerful enemies can put out the fire ! Like with frost enemies using an attack againt the own character figure, and this attack also snuffs out the flame of a torch. THEN the Freeze begins !
This can be circumvented for a very short time by using scarlet coloured crystals, which look like blood. They stop The Freeze for a short while.
Plus, only with them, you can destroy harder ice blocks.
This mechanic has found a similar implementation in the jungle area of Sumeru with The Decay. Plants become corrupted, the environment as well, and the sources of that Decay mustg be destroyed. When staying too long in this area of decay, the own character figure decays as well, until death.
There is a certain quest line explaining that more.