What do magical teapots and virtual video game visits have in common? They’re both parts of Genshin Impact’s new housing feature, revealed to the gaming community with the 1.5 update back in April 2021. With this new system, players can design their own homes, craft different items to decorate their custom world space, and open these realms for friendly visits.
Read on to find out how to unlock this unique feature and of course, drop by your friends’ teapots for a visit.
How to Join a Friends’ Teapot in Genshin Impact
The developers at miHoYo have done it again with another feature that has fans talking. Although the community was abuzz with talk about the newest characters introduced in the 1.5 update and the Zhongli banner rerun, one facet of the update took gamers by surprise – the housing system.
If you’re eager to see how your friends have decorated their new world or to show off your own, you’re not alone. Learn everything you need to know to get started with this system, and more importantly, how to drop by for visits.
Serenitea Pot Basics and Access
The teapot or Serenitea Pot became available to all players who have an Adventure Ranking (AR) of 35 or higher and completed a specific part of the Archon Questline. Once you reach the requisite level and complete Chapter 1 Act 3, “A New Star Approaches,” you’ll see a new World Quest available. The quest is called “A Teapot to Call Home,” and Madame Ping in Liyue Harbor is the person to talk to about it.
Before you panic, the quest to unlock the Serenitea Pot is relatively short and mainly involves going to different locations within the Port. Once you complete this mini-quest, you’ll receive the Pot as a reward and effectively unlock the housing system. You’ll also receive your first set of furnishings blueprints to decorate your new home.
Joining a Friend’s Realm
If you want to visit a friend’s realm via Pot, the process is relatively simple. Check out the steps below to get started:
- Open your game menu.
- Select the “Friends” icon.
- Scroll the list and find the friend you’d like to visit.
- Select your friend’s avatar.
- Press “Request to visit Serenitea Pot” from the list of options in the drop-down menu.
- Wait for your friend to accept or decline the visit request.
- When a friend accepts your request, you’ll be transported into their Pot.
The good news is that your friend doesn’t need to be inside their Serenitea Pot when you want to visit them. They can adjust their realm settings to accept or decline visit requests automatically. If you’re going to pass along the information or change your own presets, this is how you do it:
- Open the Serenitea Pot realm map.
- Go to the icon on the right side of the screen to open a pop-up window. It’s next to the “Close” icon.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the “Guest of the Realm” list and select “Serenitea Pot Permissions.”
- Change request settings as needed.
The “Serenitea Pot Permissions” will give you three options:
- Join After Approval
- Reject Join Requests
- Allow Direct Join
The first option allows players to approve all visit requests manually, while the last one bypasses the approval process and gives instant access. These permissions don’t affect your Homeworld, though. If friends would like to enter your Teyvat map, you still need to grant access per visit.
Since Teapot Rank and some Battlepass Weekly tasks depend on realm visits, you may want to keep those direct permissions active; at least on Saturday through Monday, to help your friends out.
Visiting Chubby
One of the most popular reasons for visiting a friend’s realm is to go shopping. Chubby is a Teapot Spirit Bird traveling salesman who sells rare goods in the teapot realm between Friday and Sunday. His unique decoration items make him a very popular guy each weekend.
However, he offers different items for each player. What you see for sale in your realm may not be the same when in a friend’s realm, so it’s a good idea to make the rounds on the weekends to see what he has on offer.
If you have a long list of friends and don’t want to be tied to your game all weekend, it’s also a good idea to enable direct visits. Your friends can visit your realm during shopping days to get some rare décor, and hopefully, they’ll return the favor for you.
Remember, though, that Chubby only takes Realm Currency, so make sure you pick up all available funds from Tubby the Teapot Spirit before venturing out on your retail expedition.
Buy It While You Can
Seeing how friends have decorated their realm-space is an excellent source of conversation and inspiration. However, keep in mind that the inventory sold in a teapot realm is shared and in limited supply. If you or a friend buys an item in the Realm Depot, it gets listed as “Sold,” so you may want to give your friends a heads-up first (or vice-versa) before buying up all the decorations.
Do you visit a friend’s realm to explore or to shop? Tell us about it in the comments section below.
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