If you’ve just started exploring Chenyu Vale, those glowing fish-shaped collectibles are probably one of the first things that make you stop and wonder what exactly you’re looking at. They are not part of Genshin Impact’s fishing system, and grabbing them will not help with any angling-related progress. If you’re trying to figure out what Spirit Carps are for in Genshin Impact, the short answer is simple: they are Chenyu Vale’s regional offering collectible, used to level up the Rainjade Oblation. In this guide, we’re breaking down what Spirit Carps do, how to unlock their system, where to find them, and how to clean up the ones you may have missed.

What Are the Spirit Carps for Genshin Impact

Spirit Carps are a Chenyu Vale-exclusive collectible tied directly to that area’s progression system in Liyue. Even though they look like spectral fish and the name naturally makes people think of fishing, they are not fishing resources at all. You do not catch them with a rod, you do not need bait, and they are completely separate from the game’s normal fishing mechanics.

What they actually do is feed into the Rainjade Oblation, which is Chenyu Vale’s local offering system. You’ll find Spirit Carps floating around the open world on cliff edges, inside caves, above waterfalls, and behind small exploration puzzles. In practice, they work much more like Oculi than anything else.

That’s really the easiest way to think about them. Spirit Carps sit in the same general category as Anemoculi in Mondstadt, Geoculi in older Liyue zones, Electroculi in Inazuma, and even newer region-based collectibles like the Memory Factor in the Temple of Space from Version 6.5. Every major area in Genshin Impact tends to have some collectible tied to a reward tree, and Spirit Carps are Chenyu Vale’s version of that system.

A lot of the confusion comes down to the word “carp.” It sounds like something you should be catching at a fishing spot, but that is not how this works. Treat them as exploration collectibles that you gather in the world, then offer at a dedicated shrine for rewards and regional progress.

Spirit Carp Use and Rainjade Oblation Rewards

The place where you turn in Spirit Carps is called the Votive Rainjade. This is the stone altar in Chenyu Vale that handles the Rainjade Oblation system. If you’ve used the Frostbearing Tree in Dragonspine or the Sacred Sakura in Inazuma, the process will feel very familiar right away.

You interact with the Votive Rainjade and offer the Spirit Carps you’ve collected to raise your Oblation level. As that level goes up, you unlock a series of rewards that gradually become more valuable. It’s a pretty standard regional progression loop, but honestly, the rewards are solid enough to make full collection worth your time.

The Rainjade Oblation reward pool includes:

• Primogems

• Mora

• Hero’s Wit

• Mystic Enhancement Ore

• Weapon Ascension Materials

• Talent Level-Up Materials

• Acquaint Fates

• Chenyu Vale Treasure Compass-related rewards

• Crown of Insight at the top end

Here’s a quick look at the reward flow:

Oblation Level Range	Notable Rewards
Early Levels (1–4)	Primogems, Mora, Enhancement Ore
Mid Levels (5–8)	Hero's Wit, Talent Materials, Acquaint Fates
High Levels (9–12)	Weapon Ascension Materials, Namecard
Max Level	Chenyu Vale Treasure Compass Upgrade, Crown of Insight

One nice thing here is that you do not need to hoard every Spirit Carp before turning them in. You can offer them gradually as you explore, which makes the whole system feel way less grindy. If you pick up a few while roaming around, you can just cash them in whenever you pass by the altar.

How to Unlock Spirit Carps in Genshin Impact

Before you can fully use Spirit Carps, you need access to Chenyu Vale and the Rainjade Oblation system itself. Since Chenyu Vale is part of Liyue, you’ll want to be far enough into the Liyue Archon Quest line and have a suitable Adventure Rank so getting into the area is not a problem.

The bigger requirement, though, is unlocking the Rainjade Oblation through Chenyu Vale’s World Quest chain. That quest introduces the Votive Rainjade, explains how the offering system works, and effectively turns the feature on for your account. Until you do that, the altar will not accept your Spirit Carps.

That part trips up a lot of players. You can still collect Spirit Carps before unlocking the system, and they will still count. They get stored in your inventory under Key Items, so nothing is wasted. But the actual offering interface stays locked until the relevant World Quest is completed.

Once that quest is done and the Votive Rainjade is active, tracking becomes much easier. At that point, both the in-game map and external tools like the Game8 interactive map become much more useful, especially if you’ve already uncovered enough of the region through Statues of the Seven and normal exploration.

Spirit Carp Locations in Genshin Impact

Spirit Carps are spread all over Chenyu Vale, and collecting all of them means dealing with surface routes, caves, vertical terrain, and a few puzzle checks along the way. The region has a lot of elevation changes, and the carp placement follows that same pattern, so you’ll be moving up and down constantly rather than just sweeping one flat zone.

Upper Vale clusters are usually the easiest starting point. A good number of Spirit Carps are placed along northern ridges, mountain ledges, and elevated shrine areas. If you start from high Teleport Waypoints, you can glide through several of these in one pass without much backtracking.

Southern mountain routes are a little more awkward. Some carps are tucked into cliff walls, hidden behind waterfalls, or placed along narrow terraced paths that are easy to skip if you’re moving too fast. Characters with better mobility or just strong stamina management help a lot here.

Underground cave spots are where things get more annoying. Chenyu Vale has a fairly dense underground network, and several Spirit Carps are hidden in those lower sections. Some only become available after minor environmental interactions, while others are placed in corners that are easy to miss if you are not checking vertical space carefully.

Puzzle-locked Spirit Carps deserve special attention. A handful of them only appear after you complete nearby content, such as:

• Following a Seelie

• Clearing a timed combat challenge

• Defeating local enemies

• Solving a mechanism puzzle

If you’re using a location guide and one seems to be missing, this is usually why. The carp may not be visible yet because the nearby puzzle or challenge has not been cleared.

Fast Farming Route

If your goal is to grab every Spirit Carp in one focused session, or just clean up the map efficiently, a teleport-chain route is easily the best approach. Start from the northernmost Teleport Waypoint in Upper Chenyu Vale and use the high ground to your advantage. From there, glide across the upper ridges and pick up the clustered carp spawns before moving lower.

After that, work your way south through the mid-elevation waypoints and mountain paths. Once the surface routes are mostly done, drop into the cave entrances from the valley floor and finish the underground sections last. That route tends to waste the least time because you are following the region’s natural vertical flow instead of constantly climbing back up.

A few things make this cleanup much smoother:

1. Mark each Spirit Carp on an interactive map as you collect it

2. Use high-altitude waypoints first to reduce repeat climbing

3. Leave cave systems for later so your route stays organized

4. Double-check puzzle spots before assuming a location is bugged

Using an interactive map from a resource hub like Game8 is especially helpful in real time. It keeps you from circling back to places you already cleared, and it makes the final few missing carps way less frustrating. The Chenyu Vale Treasure Compass, unlocked through the Rainjade Oblation, can also help during the late cleanup phase by pointing you toward hidden chests that may be tied to puzzle areas nearby.

Spirit Carp Tracking and 100 Percent Collection

If you’re aiming for full Chenyu Vale completion, you’ll eventually need to account for every Spirit Carp. They contribute to the region’s exploration percentage, much like Oculi do in other parts of the game, so leaving a few behind can absolutely be the reason you’re stuck just short of 100%.

Chenyu Vale does have a built-in way to help with the last stretch. The closest thing to a Resonance Stone here is the Votive Rainjade itself. At certain higher Oblation levels, it gains a reveal function that helps point out the general area of any uncollected Spirit Carps when you’re nearby. It’s not a perfect pin-drop solution, but it does make the final hunt much more manageable.

If you’re stuck at 99% and missing one or two, the usual problem spots are pretty consistent:

• Puzzle-locked Spirit Carps in caves

• Carps placed unusually high on cliff faces

• Seelie-related spawns that never appeared because the puzzle was left unfinished

The best fix is to compare your in-game progress against an external interactive map where you can manually mark each pickup. That kind of one-by-one cross-check is still the most reliable method. It’s also worth making sure every Seelie trail in Chenyu Vale has been fully completed, because several hidden Spirit Carps are tied directly to those puzzle chains.

Spirit Carp FAQ in Genshin Impact

Once players understand what Spirit Carps are for in Genshin Impact, the same few questions usually come up. Here’s the quick version.

Question	Answer
How many Spirit Carps are there in total?	There are approximately 60–65 Spirit Carps spread across Chenyu Vale, sufficient to max out the Rainjade Oblation.
What happens if you collect extra Spirit Carps beyond the max level?	Excess Spirit Carps remain in the inventory but cannot be offered further once the Oblation is maxed. They do not disappear.
Can co-op partners help collect Spirit Carps?	Spirit Carps can be picked up in co-op, but they only register for the host's inventory. Guests must collect them in their own world.
Is there a best time or day to collect Spirit Carps?	No. Spirit Carps do not respawn and are not time-gated. They are permanent collectibles that only disappear from the world once picked up by a given player.

The co-op point is worth stressing a bit because it catches people off guard. Helping a friend collect Spirit Carps in their world does not progress your own inventory. Just like other Oculi-style collectibles, these are tied to the host world for pickup credit.

Conclusion

Spirit Carps are Chenyu Vale’s regional collectible for the Rainjade Oblation, not a fishing material and not part of the normal angling system. You gather them across the map, offer them at the Votive Rainjade, and earn rewards like Primogems, Acquaint Fates, talent materials, and Chenyu Vale-specific utility items as your Oblation level rises.

If you want the smoothest route, unlock the Rainjade Oblation World Quest first, then collect Spirit Carps by starting in the upper vale and working your way south through mountain paths before cleaning up the underground caves. Most missed pickups come from puzzle-locked spawns and awkward vertical placements, so those are the first places you should recheck. Once you know what Spirit Carps are actually for in Genshin Impact, the whole system stops feeling confusing and starts looking like what it really is: a pretty rewarding regional progression track for anyone serious about finishing Chenyu Vale.