Genshin Impact birthdays: complete character birthday list, and what happens on the player's birthday

What birthday rewards are there in Genshin Impact? In Genshin Impact, you're asked to input your birth date. Does this mean you get presents from Paimon? Maybe she leaves you alone for one damn second on your birthday? Well, we've found out what happens on your birthday in Genshin Impact so you know whether or not to lie about it.

Further down this page, we've also put together a complete list of playable character birthdays, so you need never miss a birthday message (and accompanying special gift) from your pals around Teyvat. Yes, in Genshin Impact your friends send you a gift on their birthday. Just go with it.

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What happens on your birthday in Genshin Impact?

On your birthday, a very special item will become available to you - the Cake for Traveller. When your birthday comes around, click the 'mail' icon in the menu. You'll be looking for the mail item that says 'best wishes on your birthday'. Simply click the 'claim' button and it'll be added to your inventory!

The item's description reads, 'A gift given to a very special someone on a very special day. Here's to you, the brightest star in the night sky. Wishing you a joyous journey in this great big world.'

You can find the cake in your inventory under 'Precious Items' - the option on the right. Clicking 'use' on the cake gives you a Fragile Resin, an item which replenishes your Original Resin by 60. Don't worry though - the cake stays in your inventory, so you never have to lose the gift. Yes, in Genshin Impact you can literally have your cake and eat it too.

However, you do need to log in to Genshin Impact on the actual day of your birthday (or the day you've claimed is your birthday, at least) in order to receive the birthday item in your mailbox. Miss the big day, even by a few hours, and the game doesn't acknowledge your latest trip around the sun in any way whatsoever. (We tested this so you don't have to!)

How to change your birthday in Genshin Impact

When you first boot up the game, you can open the Paimon menu (the pause menu with all your icons and options on it). Click the icon next to your character's name and select 'Edit birthday'. It'll have a little exclamation mark next to it.

You cannot change your birthday after setting it the first time when on the same server, so be careful not to get it wrong. Even if you're playing on a European server, the date format needs to be MM/DD as favoured in China and the USA, so take extra care not to reverse the month and day of your birthday.

If you're really desperate for the cake (like I was when beginning a new game on a new server), you can just set your birthday to the same day and it'll be put directly into your mailbox, accessible just after you interact with the first Anemo statue in the game's tutorial phase.

Genshin Impact character birthday list

In addition to celebrating your own birthday (or whatever you claimed your birthday was when you set up your profile), Genshin Impact also gives you the opportunity to celebrate the birthdays of all the game's playable characters — plus Paimon.

On a character's birthday you will receive a short in-character message from them in your in-game mailbox, as well as one dish of their signature recipe and a small assortment of other items, such as crafting or levelling materials or more food dishes. (Since Paimon doesn't have a special dish, she'll instead send you the ingredients to bake her a rather gross-sounding cake. The materials are nice to have, though.)

As a game with live service elements, Genshin Impact wants to encourage you to log on every day. Because of this, just like claiming your own birthday gift, you need to actually log on on the day of each character's birthday in order to receive their birthday message and claim the accompanying reward. However, if you don't want to play quite that often, here's a handy list of each character's birthday:

It's important to note that you don't have to have a character in your roster in order to claim their birthday mail: every Genshin Impact player can claim the birthday message and reward for every playable character currently available in the game. This is true even of any characters you haven't met in-story yet. Therefore, alongside granting you a parcel of useful freebies, birthday messages are a nifty way of getting hold of high-end character specialty dishes with powerful effects that you can't access via the members of your roster.

Finally, it's worth noting that Bennett and his fellow leap-day babies among the player base will receive their birthday gifts on February 28th when it's not a leap year.

That's all for our Genshin Impact birthday guide! There's plenty more to discover in this world though - why not check out the best Genshin Impact characters tier list, or our tips on how to earn more Primogems and Wishes?