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Genshin Impact guide: Collection of Dragon and Snakes world quest book locations

Collect the five lost books in Collection of Dragons and Snakes to get a hidden Seelie and Key Sigil

By Julia Lee
A ruined library with a ghost floating in it in Enkanomiya Image: Mihoyo via Polygon
Julia Lee (she/her) is a guides producer, writing guides for games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Genshin Impact. She helped launch the Rift Herald in 2016.
Part of Genshin Impact guides and walkthroughs

Genshin Impact’s “Collection of Dragons and Snakes” world quest requires you to collect the five lost books for Ema in Enkanomiya. The books aren’t marked on your map the way other quest hints are. Our Genshin Impact guide explains where to find all five lost books.

Complete “Collection of Dragons and Snakes,” and you’ll find a specific Key Sigil, a Seelie, and the five lost books become part of your archive collection.

Table of contents

Finding Ema and ‘Collection of Dragons and Snakes’

Just like the other world quest NPCs in Enkanomiya, Ema only shows up in Evernight, so you will need to use one of the many mechanisms to swap it to Evernight if you haven’t already.

Zhongli stands in front of Ema, a ghostly librarian Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Image sources: Mihoyo

Once you swap it, they’ll be standing where Enjou originally was in the ruins.

The Serpent and Drakes of Tokoyokoku book location

Zhongli stands in front of a book salesman in Inazuma City Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Image sources: Mihoyo

This book is the easiest to find, as you just buy it from the Yae Publishing House in Inazuma City.

Hydrological Studies in Byakuyakoku book location

You’ll need to complete this puzzle before you can drop into a hole where Date is. Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Image sources: Mihoyo

To get Hydrological Studies in Byakuyakoku in Genshin Impact, you have to complete a puzzle and complete the world quest “Date’s Challenge.” Once you solve both of puzzles, you can open a treasure chest with the book inside.

In the Light, Beneath the Shadow book location

Blow up this wall to get to this puzzle solution. Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Image sources: Mihoyo

To get this book, you’ll need to complete a series of puzzles behind a breakable wall in Dainichi Mikoshi. The wall originally has a ruin guard and some pyro barrels around it. Blow up the barrels to open up the wall and reveal the puzzle.

The puzzle solution is as follows:

  1. Hit the Triangular Mechanism in Evernight.
  2. Switch to Whitenight.
  3. Hit the other Triangular Mechanism. (There’s a switching mechanism right outside the hole entrance.)
  4. Switch back to Evernight.
  5. Grab the treasure chest in the newly opened path, climb the wall, and activate the mechanism.
  6. Make note of the symbols and the number of dots by each symbol.
  7. Teleport to the gates at The Serpent’s Heart, and run through the walls in the order presented by the wall.
  8. Collect the book inside the treasure chest that appears.

If you’re having a hard time remembering what symbols you have to hit in order, here’s what the markings looked like:

Zhongli clings to a wall showing numbered dots by five different sigil symbols. Image: Mihoyo via Polygon

Before Sun and Moon book location

Zhongli stands in front of a mysterious ghost NPC Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Image sources: Mihoyo

To get Before Sun and Moon in Genshin Impact, you’ll need to complete the world quest “Antigonus,” which starts from an NPC in Dainichi Mikoshi. It’s a straightforward quest, and it’ll guide you to where you need to go, with no puzzles in the way of completion. You’ll need to fight a ruin guard to complete the quest, though.

Bathysmal Vishap Experimental Records book location

Zhongli stands in front of a Phase Gate in Enkonomiya Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Image sources: Mihoyo

To get Bathysmal Vishap Experimental Records, you need to head to an invisible island and do a short world quest called “Tricolor File.” You’ll need to take the Phase Gate shown above to get to the area, and the NPC that starts the quest will show up nearly immediately on the forward path. The Tricolor File item is in the cyro-gated cage, so you don’t actually need to fight the other vishaps. The electro-gated cage does have a Key Sigil in it, so you’ll probably want to open that one, too.