Every few days somebody posts the same screenshot to the Genshin subreddits. They burned Dust of Enlightenment on a reshape, picked CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG, and the game handed both guaranteed rolls to CRIT Rate. The comments split between "working as intended" and "that is a bug, report it".
It is working as intended, and HoYoverse says so in the tutorial you skipped. The problem is that the sentence doing the work turns on one word, and almost no guide quotes it.
So this is the full mechanic: what Reshaping changes, what it costs per piece, how the Hallowed Exegesis counter turns into Advanced and Decreed Reshape, and — the part nobody prints — how much Dust an account actually earns per version, which is what decides whether any of this is worth doing at all.
Quick answer: Artifact Reshaping consumes Dust of Enlightenment to reallocate the Minor Affix enhancements on a fully-leveled (+20) 5-star artifact. You select exactly 2 Minor Affixes, and the game guarantees those two a combined total of at least 2 enhancements — not one each, which is the misreading behind almost every "my reshape is broken" post. Cost is 1 Dust for a Flower or Plume and 2 Dust for a Sands, Goblet or Circlet, so a full five-piece pass is 8 Dust. Every Dust spent grants 1 Hallowed Exegesis; at 6 points the next reshape becomes an Advanced Reshape (at least 3 enhancements to your picks), and the third consecutive Advanced Reshape becomes a Decreed Reshape instead (at least 4). A free-to-play account earns about 3 Dust per version from repeatable sources, which is one Advanced Reshape every two versions.
Article status: verified 18 September 2026 against Genshin Impact Version 7.0. Mechanic wording and thresholds are quoted from the in-game Artifact Reshaping and Artifact Definition and Extraction tutorials. Event windows and reward wording come from the live in-game announcement feed, read on 18 September 2026 (announcements 21818, 21847 and 21857). Dust and Elixir source lists are cross-checked against the Genshin Impact Wiki. Reshaping was introduced in Version 5.7; the Artifact Transmuter and Sanctifying Elixir arrived in Version 5.0. No datamine or beta build is used anywhere in this article.
What does Artifact Reshaping actually do in Genshin?
Reshaping does not reroll which substats an artifact has. It reallocates the enhancements — the upgrade rolls those substats received on the way to +20.
The requirements are narrow:
- The artifact must be 5-star and fully leveled to +20. A +16 piece is not eligible.
- You must select exactly 2 Minor Affixes to favour.
- On confirmation, all Minor Affix enhancements are reallocated, not just the two you chose.
- You can then keep the original or the reshaped result. The Dust is consumed either way and is not refunded.
Here is the in-game tutorial text in full, which is the primary source for all of the above:
"You may consume Dust of Enlightenment to reallocate the enhancements of Minor Affixes on a fully-leveled 5-star Artifact. When reshaping this artifact, you must select 2 Minor Affixes. The affixes selected for reshaping will, at minimum, receive a total of 2 enhancements. Consuming Dust of Enlightenment will grant a fixed amount of Hallowed Exegesis. Once you reach a certain amount of progress, a higher level of Artifact reshaping shall become available..."
— Genshin Impact, in-game Artifact Reshaping tutorial
One more interaction that catches people out: if the artifact was created by the Artifact Transmuter, the Minor Affixes you defined at creation are automatically selected and cannot be changed. You do not get to pick a different pair later. That is a meaningful constraint on how you spend Sanctifying Elixirs in the first place.
Why did my reshape put both rolls on one substat?
Because the guarantee is a shared pool. Read the tutorial line again and watch the preposition: the selected affixes "will, at minimum, receive a total of 2 enhancements."
A total of two. Between them. Not two each, and not one each. A reshape that dumps both guaranteed enhancements into CRIT Rate and leaves CRIT DMG untouched has satisfied the guarantee exactly as written.
This is not an isolated quirk of Reshaping either — it is how the whole artifact-shaping family behaves. The Artifact Definition tutorial states the same rule even more explicitly:
"Artifacts defined through the consumption of Sanctifying Elixirs are guaranteed to get at least 2 rolls for the defined Minor Affixes when fully leveled up. Multiple defined Minor Affixes will share this pool of rolls."
— Genshin Impact, in-game Artifact Definition and Extraction tutorial
"Share this pool of rolls" is the plain-English version of the sentence that confuses everyone in the Reshaping panel. The system is a floor on how much value lands in your two priority stats, with no promise at all about the split between them.
The practical consequence is that picking two stats you genuinely want is the whole skill. There is no hedging. If you select CRIT DMG plus Energy Recharge because you would be happy with either, you have accepted a real chance of ending up with a pile of Energy Recharge and nothing else.
How much Dust of Enlightenment does each artifact piece cost?
Cost scales with the slot, and the split is not intuitive — the two slots with fixed main stats are the cheap ones.
| Artifact piece | Dust of Enlightenment per reshape |
|---|---|
| Flower of Life | 1 |
| Plume of Death | 1 |
| Sands of Eon | 2 |
| Goblet of Eonothem | 2 |
| Circlet of Logos | 2 |
A single pass across a full five-piece set therefore costs 8 Dust. Hold that number — it is about to look much larger than it does right now.
How does Hallowed Exegesis pity work?
Hallowed Exegesis is a progress counter that upgrades the guarantee. The rules, again from the in-game tutorial and the artifact system description:
- Every 1 Dust of Enlightenment consumed grants 1 Hallowed Exegesis.
- At 6 Hallowed Exegesis, the accumulated progress is consumed to trigger Advanced Reshape, which guarantees the selected affixes at least 3 enhancements instead of 2.
- Trigger Advanced Reshape for the third time in a row and Decreed Reshape fires instead, guaranteeing at least 4 enhancements.
Note the word "instead" in that last rule. Decreed Reshape replaces the third Advanced Reshape rather than stacking on top of it, so the cycle is 6, 6, 6 Dust — 18 Dust total — to see one Decreed.
Because the counter tracks Dust spent rather than reshapes performed, your slot choice silently changes how the pity paces:
| Slot reshaped | Dust each | Reshapes until Advanced triggers |
|---|---|---|
| Flower of Life or Plume of Death | 1 | 6 |
| Sands, Goblet or Circlet | 2 | 3 |
Neither route is cheaper — both cost 6 Dust — but a Circlet-focused player reaches the upgraded guarantee in half as many attempts, which matters if you are trying to land Advanced Reshape on a specific piece rather than spreading it around.
One honest gap: HoYoverse has not published whether a 2-Dust reshape that carries you from 5 progress to 7 applies the Advanced effect to that same reshape or to the next one. Every source we could find either skips the question or asserts an answer without citing anything. Until it is documented, do not build a spending plan that depends on the answer — if you want Advanced Reshape on a particular Circlet, arrive at exactly 6 points before you touch it.
How much Dust can you actually earn per version?
This is the number that decides whether Reshaping is a system you use or a system you read about. Dust has exactly three repeatable taps.
| Source | Dust per version | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Stygian Onslaught — Menacing and Fearless clears | 2 | Free |
| Stygian Onslaught — 1,200 Dire Prestige during Disturbance Outbreak | 1 | Free |
| Gnostic Hymn Battle Pass, Level 38 | 2 | Paid |
| Gnostic Chorus Battle Pass | 1 | Paid |
So a free-to-play account earns 3 Dust per version. A Gnostic Hymn buyer earns 5. Gnostic Chorus tops out at 6. The event "To Temper Thyself and Journey Far" adds roughly half a Dust per version on average when it is running, which does not change the shape of anything.
Now put that against the costs:
- A full five-piece reshape pass costs 8 Dust — nearly three versions of free-to-play income for one sweep of one character's set.
- Advanced Reshape needs 6 Dust, so free-to-play sees it roughly once every two versions.
- Decreed Reshape needs 18 Dust, which is six versions of free-to-play income. At the recent six-week version cadence that is about eight months to see the best guarantee once.
There is one large exception, and if you have never gone looking for it you are probably sitting on it right now. Dust also appears in one-time open-world Hidden Troves — Kuuhenki's Hidden Troves award 6, Shadow Realm Treasure Vault awards 3, and Noblesse Secret Treasury and Secret Hall of the Realms award 1 each. That is 11 Dust available exactly once, which is more than three versions of repeatable free-to-play income sitting in chests. Clearing those before you spend anything is the single highest-value thing in this article.
What is closing in the next four days?
Version 7.0 is in its final week, and both free Dust taps close before it ends. All times below are read directly from the live in-game announcements.
- "Frostfarer" Battle Pass period ends 2026/09/21 03:59. The Gnostic Hymn Level 38 reward and the Gnostic Chorus Dust are gone at that point, and the level counter resets with the new period. Watch the hour gap: the announcement states that purchasing Gnostic Hymn, Gnostic Chorus and Travel Notes ends at 2026/09/21 02:59, a full hour before the period itself closes — although "Travelers can still complete Battle Pass Missions and claim rewards after the purchase period ends." So if you were planning to buy in on the 21st specifically to bank the Dust, your real deadline is 02:59, not 03:59.
- Stygian Onslaught ends 2026/09/22 03:59. The 2 Dust from the Menacing and Fearless clears are still claimable until then if you can beat them.
- The Disturbance Outbreak window already closed on 2026/08/29 03:59. The 1,200 Dire Prestige Dust for this cycle is no longer obtainable — the announcement is explicit that after the Outbreak ends, players can no longer consume Resin to claim the rewards from their selected Domain of Blessing. Your realistic ceiling for the rest of Version 7.0 is the 2 clear-reward Dust.
- Version 7.0 ends 2026/09/23 06:00, and Version 7.1 "A Rekviem for the Underworld" begins the same day. A fresh Stygian cycle and a new Battle Pass period reset the taps.
If you have not touched Stygian Onslaught this version, Menacing and Fearless are the last two Dust on the table, and you have until the early hours of the 22nd. Our Genshin 7.1 release date guide covers the maintenance window server by server, and the Genshin 7.1 events calendar tracks what replaces the current cycle.
How is Reshaping different from Sanctifying Elixir definition?
They are two halves of the same toolkit, introduced seven versions apart, and they solve different problems.
Artifact Definition uses the Artifact Transmuter gadget and Sanctifying Elixirs to create an artifact of a chosen set with chosen Minor Affixes. It decides what an artifact is. Definition costs 1 Elixir for a Flower or Plume, 2 for a Sands, 3 for a Circlet and 4 for a Goblet, and you may only define 2 pieces per artifact set per cycle. Elixirs come from Artifact Extraction (once per version), Imaginarium Theater at 9 and 12 Stellas, the Gnostic Hymn Battle Pass at Level 26, exploration in Natlan (Tribal Secret Spaces and Tona's Flame's Restitution), Nod-Krai Meeting Points at construction Level 5, Frost Moon's Ancient Moon's Remnant at Level 5, and events.
Artifact Reshaping uses Dust of Enlightenment to redistribute the enhancement rolls on an artifact you already have at +20. It decides how good an artifact got.
The two interlock in a way worth planning around. Because a Transmuter-created artifact has its defined Minor Affixes locked as the reshape selection, the pair you choose at definition is the pair you are stuck guaranteeing forever. If you are spending a 4-Elixir Goblet definition, the substat pair is a bigger decision than the set.
Extraction rewards care as well: the Transmuter takes up to 25 artifacts at once, yields a maximum of 1 Elixir per cycle at 100 Extraction Progress, requires 5-star artifacts at Level 4 or above, and pays out most efficiently at the level breakpoints of 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20. Feeding it a +3 piece wastes progress. Our Imaginarium Theater guide for September 2026 covers the Stella thresholds that pay the other two Elixirs.
Which artifacts are actually worth reshaping?
Given 3 Dust per version, the answer is "far fewer than you think". A workable filter:
- The piece must already be endgame-viable. Reshaping moves enhancements between substats the artifact already has. It cannot add CRIT DMG to a piece that rolled HP, DEF, Energy Recharge and Elemental Mastery.
- The main stat must be correct and the set one you will use for years. Spend a scarce, slow-accruing resource on a Goblet for a character you have built around, not on a piece you replace next domain run.
- Prefer pieces where both of your picks are live. Because the guarantee is a shared pool, an artifact carrying both CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG is a far better target than one where your second pick is a stat you are lukewarm about.
- Bank to 6 before you spend on anything important. Advanced Reshape is 50 percent more floor for the same per-reshape cost. Dribbling Dust into Flowers as you get it is the most common way to waste the pity.
Reshaping is a finisher, not a farming replacement. It puts a floor under an artifact that is already close, and the arithmetic is why: eight Dust for one full pass, against three Dust a version.
The banners arriving on 23 September determine which sets are worth saving Dust for — we break the wish line-up down in our Genshin 7.1 banners guide, and cover the endgame floor where these artifacts get tested in our Spiral Abyss Floor 11 guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Artifact Reshaping change which substats an artifact has? No. It reallocates the enhancement rolls among the Minor Affixes the artifact already has. If a substat is not on the piece, reshaping cannot add it.
Why did both guaranteed rolls go into one of my two selected substats? Because the guarantee is a combined total, not one per stat. The in-game tutorial states the selected affixes "will, at minimum, receive a total of 2 enhancements", and the Artifact Definition tutorial makes the same point as "Multiple defined Minor Affixes will share this pool of rolls."
Can I reshape an artifact that is not fully leveled? No. The artifact must be 5-star and fully leveled to +20.
Do I get the Dust of Enlightenment back if I keep the original artifact? No. You may keep either the original or the reshaped result, but the Dust is consumed regardless.
How many Hallowed Exegesis points do I need for Advanced Reshape? Six. Each Dust of Enlightenment consumed grants 1 point, and at 6 points the progress is consumed to guarantee at least 3 enhancements to your selected affixes.
What triggers Decreed Reshape? Triggering Advanced Reshape three times in a row. The third one becomes a Decreed Reshape instead, guaranteeing at least 4 enhancements. That is 18 Dust across the full cycle.
How much Dust of Enlightenment can a free-to-play player get per version? Three from repeatable sources: 2 from clearing Menacing and Fearless in Stygian Onslaught, and 1 from reaching 1,200 Dire Prestige during the Disturbance Outbreak window. There are also 11 Dust available one time from open-world Hidden Troves.
Can I change which substats are selected on a Transmuter-created artifact? No. For artifacts created with the Artifact Transmuter, the Minor Affixes defined at creation are automatically selected when reshaping and cannot be changed.
When was Artifact Reshaping added to Genshin Impact? Version 5.7. The Artifact Transmuter and Sanctifying Elixir system that it complements arrived earlier, in Version 5.0.
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