How To Complete The Shadows Of The Mountains Quest In Genshin Impact

The award-winning game, Genshin Impact, has delivered engaging stories and interesting characters since its inception. Each new area offers a story that builds upon previous lore, and Natlan is no exception. While there is plenty to appreciate in the main story arc, world quests often have additional lore to offer.

The Shadows of the Mountains world quest provides some interesting lore that will unfold as you go through tasks during the questline. You’ll get some nice rewards, including some primogems, which are always useful. This quest is a little lengthy, but is something you can easily complete during your free time.

How To Get The Shadows Of The Mountain World Quest

Finding this world quest can be challenging. You should see the usual blue exclamation point on your in-game map, but Natlan has more vertical layers than some other areas in Genshin Impact. If you have one of the Sulfurous Veins waypoints activated, they can get you fairly close to your target area.

This particular quest is at the circled location on this map, underneath a large stone outcropping. You’ll see an npc with “???” in place of their name. They may sometimes pace, and you can occasionally see a speech bubble over their head with the words “Shadow Pin”.

Talk to the npc and offer your help to accept the quest. There’s a waypoint nearby, so be sure to interact with it if you haven’t already.

The quest has two phases. The first phase is titled “Beneath The Crystal Rock”. You’ll get rewards for each completed phase of the questline.

Shadow Of The Mountains: Beneath The Crystal Rock Quest Phase Instructions

The First Lesser Shadow Pin

After talking to the npc, Titu, your map will be updated with a new location. You’ll need to meet Titu there to get a look at the first Shadow Pin.

Follow the path near Titu to get to the target location. Interact with the Tepetlisaurus indwelling icon, then interact with the golden inscription.

Break all the large crystals and avoid the smaller ones with red outlines since those will explode if you get near. Kill all the enemies that appear once you destroy every large crystal.

Once you interact with the golden inscription, you will not be able to change your team members. Make sure you feel comfortable with the team you have active at the moment or swap out characters before interacting with the inscription.

If you’d like to know what enemies to expect for this section to plan your party, click “Read More”.

You can expect to fight Thundercraven Rifthound Whelps (electro) and a Rockfond Rifthound Whelp (geo).

Once you’ve completed everything at the first Shadow Pin, leave the area through the new pathway and be sure to loot the treasure chest. Your special Tepetlisaurus buddy will be sitting next to the chest.

Keep an eye out for Pyroculi if you haven’t been to some of these areas previously.

The Second Lesser Shadow Pin

To reach the second Lesser Shadow Pin location, you’ll follow the path from the first pin toward the map location. The path is pretty intuitive and easy to follow.

You can use the Tepetlisaurus indwelling icon to make travel faster, but the path can also be traversed normally. Expect the usual Natlan foes along the way.

You’ll come to a dead end with a couple of enemies guarding the blocked path. Defeat the enemies and remove the rock blockade. There will be barrels of Phlogiston Crystals that you can shoot if you have an archer, which will make quick work of the blockade and keep you safely out of the blast range.

Continue on the path until you reach the second Lesser Shadow Pin. You’ll see the inscription you need to interact with, and an Anemo Hilichurl Rogue that you’ll need to defeat.

Once you interact with the golden inscription rune, you’ll have some dialogue to go through and will approach the Shadow Pin. Interact with the Tepetlisaurus indwelling icon, then break the rock cluster to reveal a Molten Fissure.

Use the Molten Fissure to search for scattered inscriptions. You’ll encounter some minor enemies and a treasure chest to loot. You’ll want to head to the lowest section in the marked search zone and dig. You can use Tepetlisaurus attacks on enemies and in circular geo-ripple areas that appear on the ground.

If you’ve done enough digging and vanquished your foes, you should have a couple areas to investigate. They should be close to one another, and pretty noticeable.

Continue along the path, making sure to dig up any special locations that have a geo-ripple around them, until the path changes to a waterway. Indwell a Koholasaurus and follow the waterway.

You should find a small cavern to your right with a lever inside, and a few minor enemies. Show those enemies who’s boss and use the lever to lower the water.

Once the water level lowers, you’ll find a new small cavern. Enter the cavern and destroy the crystals embedded in the ground to set off a chain reaction. This will further lower the water level.

You can then drop down and follow the watery path to a broken wall. Climb over the wall and continue along the path.

There will be another blocked area, with crystals embedded in the cavern wall. You can hit those to cause an explosion that will remove the rubble blocking your way.

Collect the treasure from the treasure chest directly in your path, and indwell a Koholasaurus. There should be an icon to interact with nearby.

You should now be able to interact with the inscription, and you can allow the spiritway to carry you to your next destination once you’re done. There’ll be another treasure chest at the destination, along with a marked spot to investigate.

Investigate the marked spot to collect a key. This can be used later to unlock a special treasure room during further exploration of the area.

Pass through the illuminated doorway with the inscription symbol. Interact with the next inscription, and follow it back to the second Lesser Shadow Pin. Yes, you end up right where you started; you’re not imagining things.

Interact with the Lesser Shadow Pin again. After some dialogue, you’ll be able to drop down to the lower level.

Using the indwell icon nearby, assume a Tepelitsaurus form. Interact again with the Shadow Pin to repair it and begin a challenge.

Similar to the first Lesser Shadow Pin, you’ll need to destroy the large crystals and avoid small crystals with red outlines. Defeat any enemies if they appear.

You can stay in Tepetlisaur form for an easy way to get out of the current area, or even use it to get to the next area which is nearby.

Shadows Of The Mountains: Peace To The Slumbering Phase Instructions

After repairing the second Lesser Shadow Pin, a few things happen. You’ll have dialogue and a scene, and you’ll end up right where you need to be to continue the quest.

In the second phase of this questline, your first order of business is to check the newly-discovered crater.

It’s probably best to use your glider since we’ve found that if you try to use the indwell Tepetlisaurus icon you can land precariously on one of the many outcroppings and be immediately bumped out of the form, or lose the form mid-tunneling to find yourself suddenly falling.

Once you reach the bottom, interact with the inscription piece and follow it to the stone tablet objective. There should be a waypoint to collect nearby. The stone tablet will be summarized a bit during dialogue, but you can also read the full inscription if you wish.

Continue to follow the golden inscription rune. The crystals in the ground and walls will shift, but you should be able to make it to the destination marker without too much difficulty.

Investigate The First Set Of Crystals

When you’re done following the inscription rune, you’ll be in a completely new area. You’ll need to investigate an odd set of crystal blocks that are tainted with a purple abyssal energy.

Defeat any enemies, and break the set of blocks. You’ll reveal an inscription rune. Interact with the rune, and pay attention to the direction the camera pans. It will help reveal the best path in this area.

Once you investigate the set of crystal blocks, you won’t have the opportunity to change your team. Make sure you have your preferred team active before interacting with the blocks. Also, keep in mind that the crystalline walls and ground will continue to shift at times during the remainder of this quest.

If you’d like to know what enemies to expect for this section to plan your party, click “Read More”.

You can expect to fight more Thundercraven Rifthound Whelps (electro) during this encounter.

You’ll want to follow the path on your right, if you’re facing the crystal blocks, to get to them.

Investigate The Second Set Of Strange Crystal Blocks

The second set of strange crystal blocks is easier to deal with. Once you reach them, simply break them and interact with the golden inscription rune.

There won’t be any enemies to worry about with this set of blocks. To get to the third set of blocks, you want to take the path parallel to the objective until you can reach one of the crystal pillars that moves quite high, like an elevator, at intervals. It’ll get you high enough to climb onto the proper level to reach the third block set.

Investigate The Third Set Of Strange Crystal Blocks

This third set of blocks follows the same pattern as the previous ones. Break the blocks to reveal the inscription, then interact with the inscription rune.

This time, the inscription will move, and you’ll need to follow it back to the middle of the room. Defeat all the enemies that appear.

Once you reach the middle of the room, you won’t have time to adjust your party. Ensure you have your preferred party active before leaving the third block location. If you’ve struggled with any of the previous encounters during this phase, it might be a good idea to consume some food for attack and defense buffs.

If you’d like to know what enemies to expect for this section to plan your party, click “Read More”.

You should expect many Thundercraven Rifthound Whelps (electro) and a larger Rockfond Rifthound (geo).

Once you’ve defeated the enemies, interact with the golden inscription that’s in the middle of the room. Remain on the block with the inscription piece as the ground will shift immediately after interacting. You won’t want to fall off.

Follow your special Tepetlisaurus. It will begin tunneling and will move quickly. You’ll eventually reach what appears to be a dead end, but there’s a hole in the floor that you can reach via gliding.

Investigate The Fourth Strange Crystal Blocks

Once you glide to the lower level and meet your little Tepetlisaurus, you’ve found the last set of strange crystal blocks. You’ll never guess what needs to happen next…that’s right, time to wreak some havoc on them.

Interact with the golden inscription and follow it. You’ll end up right back in the middle of the room where the Greater Shadow Pin is located.

You’ll go through some dialogue scenes, and you should choose to rewrite the story for the heroes. When you’re ready, you can speak with Titu to tell him that you are ready to battle.

Defeat all enemies, talk to the mysterious entity, then talk to Titu again. You’ll get a small scene when you reach the target location.

The enemies you encounter will be more formidable than those you’ve encountered before during this quest. For the sake of leaving some surprises, the exact nature of the enemies won’t be revealed here, but the elemental types can be revealed to help you prepare.

If you’d like to know what enemies to expect for this section to plan your party, click “Read More”.

Expect Anemo and Geo aligned enemies.

Congratulations, you’ve finally completed the entire world quest of Shadows of the Mountains!

Rewards For Quest Completion

For completing both phases of the Shadows of the Mountains quest, you’ll receive a Luxurious Chest. This also counts toward your reputation progress in Natlan.

Beneath The Crystal Rock Rewards

• 400 Adventure Experience
• 50 Primogems
• 30,000 Mora
• Five Hero’s Wit
• Four Mystic Enhancement Ore

Peace To The Slumbering Rewards

• 350 Adventure Experience
• 40 Primogems
• 20,000 Mora
• Two Hero’s Wit
• Two Mystic Enhancement Ore

Hidden Locked Treasure Room

So, remember the key we found during the first phase of the Shadows of the Mountains? This is where you can use the key.

You’ll want to go to one of your newer waypoints; it’ll be designated as “Basin of Unnumbered Flames” when you select the waypoint. The waypoint is just north of the orange lava square on your minimap, and should take you right to the area where you repaired the second Lesser Shadow Pin.

You’ll want to glide down to one of the lower levels to gain Tepetlisaurus form, or you’ll have to climb the wall normally if you stay in regular form. You’ll want to climb up the wall with a graffiti sun on it.

When you’ve arrived at the top of the ledge, you should see a small alcove with the locked room. If you followed the guide and picked up the key, you get the three treasure chests found inside.