Genshin Impact's Ruin Hunters: best place to farm and a challenging open world fight

Ruin Guards are one of the hardest non-elite mobs in Genshin Impact, and drop some useful weapon upgrade materials. The only problem can be finding them in large quantities.

Of course, you can find some wandering the Guili Plains, as well as one at the Thousand Winds Temple, but that can be a little intermittent and a lot of leg work.

A far easier option is to teleport yourself over to the domain at Guyun Stone Forest and take on four at once. It’s as challenging as it sounds - but hey, faster farming and who doesn’t enjoy a challenge?

That… is a lot of Ruin Guards (picture: miHoYo)

Once you’ve made your way to Guyun Stone Forest, you’ll want to head to the southern islands, the first of which has what seems to be your typical number of wrecked Ruin Guards… except this time four of them are active.

(Picture: miHoYo)

Make no mistake, this is a tough fight. The Ruin Guards spawn in at the upper end of levels for your World Level and dodging the constant barrage of missiles, spinning behemoths and leap attacks can see you quickly forced to retreat.

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Your best bet is to use the island’s terrain to your advantage, drawing these high end mobs around the pillars and mountains and using them to block as many missiles as possible. Outside of that, make sure to bring at least one archer to aim for their “eye” weak spots as often as possible - two consecutive hits there deactivates and immobilises a Ruin Guard for a fair chunk of time.

(Picture: miHoYo)

As a bonus, once you’ve battled your way through this fight there is a sealed chest on the island to the west of the Ruin Guards protected by a Ruin Hunter - even more Chaos parts for your collection. 

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Unfortunately, while the Guards do respawn the hunter does not. Think about heading over to other Ruin Guard rich locations if you want to make the most efficient use of your time while waiting for the respawns.