Genshin Impact: How to Thaw All the Shards Out in In the Mountains

When it comes to completing quests in Genshin Impact there are a few quests that are going to leave players puzzled for a while simply because they have a number of steps to complete.

To be completely honest the Thaw All Shards out In the Mountains is a quest that I left uncompleted for weeks simply because I wasn’t interested in searching my world for hours on end.

The reality is, even though I was a bit of a lazy player who didn’t complete this quest the fastest as possible, I ended up completing this quest by mistake by following the Seelies (Orange Mysterious Spirits) which actually seem to lead you to a number of chests and quests on a regular basis.

The reality is that I wasn’t aware that the Seelies were actually required to advance one of the Shards players must melt, but I will cover that soon enough.

Players will initially acquire the “The All Shards Out” Mission by unlocking the Frostbearing Tree, essentially meaning that players will have to thaw out at least one shard before they even start the mission as the Frostbearing Tree requires a player to melt an initial shard in order to acquire.

ICE SHARD #2 (ENTOMBED CITY OUTSKIRTS PUZZLE)

To begin our journey, players are going to have to head to the Dragonspire, Mondstadt Teleport Waypoint/area that is to the north west of the area.

In this area players will be met with 5 Ice Pillars that are locked by a barrier.

In order to start this puzzle players must must head to the the cube that has an orange Seelie on top.

Activating the cube will cause the Seelie to float above the Cryo cubes in the pattern which players must use Cryo abilities to unlock them.

If for some reason players do not have a Cryo character they will be unable to proceed through this quest until they do.

Luckily there is a free character with Cyro, Kaeya, meaning that players will not have to pray for the RNG gods to have mercy on them when they are doing their wish rolls. 

Above is the pattern that players must complete in order to reach the next stage of this area, being a battle between a few bosses.

As players are in the mountains they risk being being too cold and freezing to death. To avoid this, players must head to the heat lamps on the side to reduce their cold.

Take note, these heat lamps will shut during the final boss battle and only one will be open at a time, meaning that players will have to run around to locate a safe place to complete the majority of the battle. Players can potentially complete this battle without standing next to any heat lamps, however, this is not advisable simply due to the fact that oftentimes players will not be able to outheal both the damage of the final boss and the cold.

Upon completing this puzzle players will unlock the area below the frozen water where the Seelie ends up heading, players will want to head into the hole to find the second shard.

Similar to the first shard, players will have to locate the Scarlet Quartz found in this area to melt it.

Players can be any character when destroying the Scarlet Quartz and melting the ice, though I suggest being a melee character simply due to how fast it is to destroy the Scarlet Quartz.

After consuming all of the Scarlet Quartz in this area, players will take note that the Ice Shard is not melted, to find the final Scarlet Quartz players must head to the top of the largest Ice Shard to lead the Seelie to its resting point. After lead, players will witness a chest appear behind a gate. 

Take this opportunity to switch onto a Pyro character, the best option in this case being Amber.

Use Amber to melt any remaining Ice in the area, though the piece of Ice you’re most interested in is on the Left of the main Ice Shard.

Once the leftmost shard is melted, players will witness a second Seelie appear which they will have to lead to its resting point in order to open the gate. 

Behind this gate is the chest that appeared from the first Seelie as well as the the final Scarlet Quartz. Take this opportunity to reveal a Seelie behind the Ice Wall and allow the Scarlet Quartz to respawn, note that this is the only Scarlet Quartz which respawns in the area. 

Upon having the Scarlet Quartz respawn you will be able to melt the Ice Shard completely successfully acquiring 2/3 melted Ice Shards.

ICE SHARD #3 (STARGLOW CAVERN)

The next part of the puzzle is a bit more long winded and will require players to head to the south center waypoint.

Players will have to complete a timed challenge down here, though I strongly recommend that players attempt to locate all of the Seelies down here first as the timed challenge features a number of mobs that can freeze you and was hands down one of the hardest timed challenges I have ever participated in.

At first, players will be lured into believing that this timed challenge is easy to complete, however, it will require players to head to each of the three locations a Seelie rests in having to kill a variety of mobs that get more difficult the further along into the challenge the player gets.

Completing the timed challenge will allow players to actually reach the Ice Shard in order to use the Scarlet Quartz.

Similar to the area above, players will have to locate unique Scarlet Quartz to break out this shard, though this should be more simple than the previous shard as there is Scarlet Quartz on each side of the shard.

Congrats you have now melted all three Ice Shards!