How to Build Characters in Genshin Impact
There are various factors that go into building a character, and this guide will address them in detail:
Resources
- Genshin Impact Helper Team's Character Builds
- KeqingMains for in-depth character guides including the usual artifacts/weapon/Talent priority but also mechanics, optimal combos, and teams
- Genshin Optimizer to generate optimal builds for your characters using your artifacts and weapons; tutorials on website or read the text guide here
Many build guides are wrong.
Google is an unreliable source for character builds. Sites like game8.co, gamewith.net, and most gaming journalism websites are highly misinformative when it comes to character builds.
Level
Levelling characters increases base stats, while Ascending them increases their Ascension Stat, as well as how high their Talent levels can go.
Levelling characters to 90/90 is not worth it unless:
- The character scales off alternate stats, such as HP or DEF
- The character's main source of damage is Transformative Reactions, such as Swirl or Overload
For characters that scale off ATK, which is most characters, levelling them to 90 is a marginal damage increase due to the small gain in base ATK.
For example, the character with the highest Base ATK in the game, Xiao, only gains 25 Base ATK going from 80 to 90! You can find this information for other characters at sites like Genshin Wiki, Honey Impact, and Project Amber.
Ascending to 80/90, however, is something that's recommended for any character with significant personal damage—mostly for the Ascension Stat and Talent level increase.
HP- and DEF-scaling characters such as Hu Tao and Albedo, and Transformative Reaction-based damage dealers such as Kazuha and Taser Carry Sucrose can—and should—go to 90/90, as it is a noteworthy damage increase for them.
Supports with relevant 4th Ascension Passives should be 60/70 minimum, but 70/80+ is advised for Ascension Stat, higher Talent levels and base stats if they benefit from them.
For characters with low personal damage that offer utility irrespective of their stats/Talent levels (e.g. Amber in a Hu Tao team), they can be kept low-levelled. You can just level them enough not to get one-shot.
Weapon
For damage dealers, you should absolutely prioritise maxing their weapons for the gain in Base ATK and substat. Characters get most of their Base ATK from weapons—for example, Xiao has 349 base atk while Primordial Jade Winged-Spear has 674 Base ATK at level 90—almost double.
For characters whose Base ATK is irrelevant, you should only raise the weapon as far as the substat is useful.
If your Diona, for example, already meets Energy Recharge% requirements, then there's no point in levelling her Sacrificial Bow any further.
If both the Base ATK and substat are useless for a character (like R5 Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers for non-HP scalers and Mouun's Moon on Yelan), keep the weapon at Level 1.
What weapon do I use?
You can check weapon rankings for characters using Genshin Impact Helper Team's Character Builds or KeqingMains. Keep in mind that weapon rankings can be situational, and may lack nuance, especially without context.
The following section is if you want an idea behind the logic used to pick weapons. If not feel free to skip to the Talents section.
Weapons are made up of the following:
- Base ATK
- substat
- passive
Higher Base ATK is desirable for ATK-scaling characters, as well as Bennett/Kujou Sara who grant ATK buffs based off their base ATK.
Base ATK:Substat Ratios
Base ATK and substat are inversely proportional to one another, which just means that weapons with higher Base ATK will have lower substat values, while weapons with lower Base ATK will have higher substats. There are well-established ratios that you can read about here.
For example, Song of Broken Pines has 741 Base ATK but its substat is only 20.7% Physical DMG, while Snow-Tombed Starsilver has 565 Base ATK and 34.5% Physical DMG. This doesn't mean Song of Broken Pines is weaker than Snow-Tombed Starsilver—quite the opposite. Its significantly higher Base ATK and better passive make it a stronger weapon.
For characters that don't care about ATK, or can compensate the low Base ATK with ATK from other sources (e.g. Bennett), then they might favour weapons with higher substats.
Aqua Simulacra has only 542 Base ATK (lower than some 4★s) but it has a whopping 88.2% CRIT DMG. This makes it a very strong weapon for Yelan, whose damage scales entirely off HP and thus doesn't care about Base ATK. Additionally, even for ATK-scalers it becomes much stronger in the presence of ATK buffs, such as Bennett. Aqua Simulacra's low Base ATK does not disqualify it from being a very competitive 5★ weapon for ATK-scalers who don't have ATK buffs—far from it. It just becomes an even stronger option when its low Base ATK is no longer a concern.
A weapon's substat should generally be useful to that character. CRIT Rate% and CRIT DMG% are always nice for damage dealers who can crit, but are not the be-all-end-all. Having a CRIT DMG% substat doesn't make weapons in the Blackcliff series suddenly godly, because they still have a highly conditional passive, making Blackcliff weapons often outclassed by other 4★ options.
ATK% is always solid for ATK-scalers.
Energy Recharge% benefits characters who need it to meet their Energy Recharge% requirements, otherwise it should be avoided. It is for this reason that Skyward Pride has low value on Diluc, who needs very little Energy Recharge% with his 40-cost Burst, or that you don't want to be using Skyward Spine on Hu Tao, whose Energy Recharge% requirements are also low.
Elemental Mastery weapons are great on characters that trigger Reactions for damage, otherwise they should be avoided.
HP%/DEF% substat weapons are very niche and generally only good on characters who scale off HP/DEF respectively, with the exception of R5 Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers.
A good passive does wonders.
While weapon substat is quite important, there are weapons where the passive alone make them great candidates for a character. These include R5 Thrilling Tales of Dragon—although it has a HP% substat, it provides a 48% ATK buff to the next character you swap to, making it a fantastic support weapon. Even though Shield Support Zhongli doesn't need Energy Recharge% as his burst is a DPS loss, Favonius Lance is useful for the clear Particles it generates, lessening the team's Energy needs. The Stringless is a great 4★ weapon for Fischl even outside of Aggravate teams simply due to the passive increasing Oz's DMG by 24% at R1, and 48% at R5.
Sacrificial weapons are primarily recommended for characters with longer Skill cooldowns who need the Energy, or to generate it for another character of the same Element. Note that the double Skill use takes up more field-time, possibly extending rotations. In general, Favonius weapons tend to be favoured for their Energy value and lower field-time, but they do require some CRIT Rate% to be built in order to trigger the passive.
Statsticks
Some weapons have passives that are weak, highly conditional, or might not even apply to a character—such as Blackcliff weapons, Royal Weapons, and Amos' for non-Charged Shot Bow users. Weapons with bad passives with good Base ATK and/or substats are often dubbed "statsticks" as they are used purely for their stats. Aquila Favonia is a Base ATK statstick—it has 674 Base ATK, but there aren't any dedicated Physical DMG% Sword carries at the moment. Still, it is used on Bennett for the high Base ATK, and can be used with reduced efficacy on any ATK-scaling damage dealer.
Talents
Talents are important, as they provide the base % scaling for the damage you do, provide DMG Bonuses%, or increase support capabilities (healing/shielding/debuffing) and, in some instances, how long an ability or its effect lasts. You can check Talent scalings at sites like Genshin Wiki, Honey Impact, and Project Amber.
Talent Priority
Talent priority refers to the order and proportion in which you should level your Talents to get the most out of your Resin and resources. You can check Talent Priorities for each character here or in KeqingMains' infographics/guides.
For example, putting one level in Itto's Normal Attack will net you a bigger damage gain than putting that level into his Elemental Burst. One level of Itto's Normal Attack might also be worth two levels of his Elemental Skill.
Thus, Itto's Talent priority is Normal Attack > Elemental Burst > Elemental Skill.
Get the important Talents for your character to 8. Constellations increase your Talent levels by +3, so a Level 8 talent would actually be Level 11 if you have the Constellation boosting it.
For characters with multiple relevant Talents, try to distribute your resources between them as Talent priority would dictate, instead of putting all your resources into a single Talent.
For characters with a single relevant Talent in their role, you can invest only into that one Talent e.g. levelling only Bennett's Burst.
Levelling Talents further than 8 is fairly expensive so it's considered optional, but levelling important Talents to 9 can be worth the gain late-game.
Not all Talents need to be levelled! You can pretty much ignore the Normal Attack talents of off-field DPS and supports.
Some Talents only contribute a small amount of damage, or scale poorly like Yoimiya's Skill. You can level these, but they're much lower priority.
Crowning
Crowning is levelling a Talent to 10 (13 with Constellations). It gets its name from the material it requires—the "Crown of Insight", which you can only get from each region's Offering System (e.g. Sacred Sakura) and limited-time Events.
Levelling a character's Talent from 9 to 10 costs a lot of resources for roughly the same damage increase as the Talents before it, so people tend to reserve Crowns for the characters they like or use a lot. However it can be good value for Talents that contribute the most damage on characters that represent a large chunk of team damage i.e. Hypercarries. Crowning is also something you can do in late-game if you've hit a wall farming artifacts and don't require further upgrades/resources, as farming the resources for Talent Level 10 may be more Resin efficient at a point than trying to farm minor substat improvements for an already highly invested build.
Just like levelling Talents, try to crown the most important or impactful Talent first, but ultimately it is up to your discretion which characters and Talents you crown.
Artifacts
Artifacts are a significant power spike, but the layers of RNG involved in farming and rolling artifacts means that it's recommended to get guaranteed damage increases, such as weapon, Talent and character levels out of the way first.
Main Stats > Substats > Set Bonuses
Prioritise proper stats over forcing set bonuses with the wrong stats. Additionally, vastly superior substats override most set bonuses. Remember that correct main stats and great substats are more beneficial than most set bonuses.
An exception to this rule is 4p Viridescent Venerer, which is worth running on Anemo supports regardless of stats due to the 40% RES Shred it provides, which is an effective 27.78% damage increase for the Element Swirled (assuming the Enemy has the standard 10% Resistance). Additionally, 4p Noblesse Oblige is worth running on supports who have low stat requirements regardless for the 20% ATK buff to the team. To be better than 4p Blizzard Strayer on a Freeze DPS, alternative sets would require stats that outweigh the value of 40% CRIT Rate, or 80 CV.
Regarding specific characters, you can check Genshin Impact Helper Team's Character Builds for optimal Artifact Sets and stats as well as weapon rankings and Talent priorities. Some rankings may be misleading and lack nuance on their own, so it is highly recommended you read the notes. You can also consult KeqingMains' individual character guides for context, details and math.
Sets
Artifact Set | Who Can Use | Examples |
---|---|---|
4p Gladiator's Finale (GF) ![]() |
Melee character who mostly does Normal Attack DMG | ![]() |
4p Wanderer's Troupe (WT) ![]() |
Ranged character who mostly does Charged Attack DMG | ![]() ![]() |
4p Noblesse Oblige (NO) ![]() |
Character whose loss in personal DMG is worth the 20% team ATK buff | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
4p Bloodstained Chivalry (BSC) ![]() |
No one | N/A |
4p Viridescent Venerer (VV) ![]() |
Anemo character who can Swirl Pyro/Hydro/Electro/Cryo for debuffs and DMG | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
4p Maiden's Beloved (MB) ![]() |
No one | N/A |
4p Crimson Witch (CW) ![]() |
Pyro DPS who does Reaction DMG | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
4p Lavawalker (LW) ![]() |
Mono Pyro or Reverse Melt DPS | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
4p Thundering Fury (TF) ![]() |
DPS who benefits from Electro Reaction DMG and the Skill cooldown reduction (must be on-field to trigger) | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
4p Thundersoother (TS) ![]() |
DPS when enemy has consistent Electro aura | ![]() ![]() |
4p Archaic Petra (AP) ![]() |
Geo character that can make and pick up a Crystallize shard in Pyro/Hydro/Electro/Cryo DPS teams | ![]() ![]() |
4p Retracing Bolide (RB) ![]() |
Not BiS for anyone, but shielded character that mostly does Normal Attack/Charged Attack DMG | ![]() |
4p Heart of Depth (HoD) ![]() |
Hydro DPS who benefits from Normal Attack and Charged Attack DMG | ![]() ![]() |
4p Blizzard Strayer (BS) ![]() |
Freeze or Mono Cryo DPS | ![]() ![]() |
4p Pale Flame (PF) ![]() |
Physical DPS with <7s Skill Cooldown | ![]() |
4p Tenacity of the Millelith (ToTM) ![]() |
Character with Skill that frequently hits enemies and whose loss in personal DMG is worth the 20% team ATK buff | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
4p Shimenawa's Reminiscence (SR) ![]() |
Character who mainly does Normal Attack/Charged Attack/Plunging Attack DMG that doesn't mind not being able to Burst often | ![]() |
4p Emblem of Severed Fate (EoSF) ![]() |
Character who mostly does Burst DMG and wants Energy Recharge% | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
4p Ocean-Hued Clam (OHC) ![]() |
Character who heals a lot and doesn't have better sets for personal/team DMG | ![]() ![]() |
4p Husk of Opulent Dreams (Husk) ![]() |
Geo DPS that scales off DEF or character whose buffs scale off DEF | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
4p Vermillion Hereafter (VH) ![]() |
Xiao. | ![]() |
4p Echoes of an Offering (Echoes) ![]() |
You have low ping; character who mostly does Normal Attack DMG | ![]() ![]() |
4p Deepwood Memories (DM) ![]() |
Solo Dendro DPS, support in a Dendro team | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
4p Gilded Dreams (GD) ![]() |
Character who triggers Reactions (e.g. Hyperbloom, Quicken, Spread; competitive for some Vaporize DPS) for damage and benefits from ATK and/or Elemental Mastery | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Desert Pavilion Chronicle (DPC) ![]() |
Anemo DPS who deals significant amounts of damage through Normal, Charged and/or Plunging Attacks | ![]() ![]() |
Flower of Paradalise Lost (FoPL) ![]() |
Character that deals the vast majority of their damage via Bloom, Hyperbloom or Burgeon; keep in mind that this set is only marginally ahead of GD while being generally less Resin efficient | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
4★ Artifacts
At AR 45+, avoid using 4★ artifacts on your DPS and seek to replace them with 5★s with proper stats as soon as possible. However, you may want to keep the following:
- Instructor Strong support set for characters with low personal damage that can trigger a Reaction in teams that benefit from the Elemental Mastery e.g. Bennett in Melt/Vaporize teams, Amber in Vaporize Hu Tao, Zhongli in Reaction teams.
- Exile Good utility set for characters with low personal damage in teams that benefit from the extra Energy e.g. Gorou.
- 4★ EM VV pieces due to low drop rate. With the introduction of the Artifact Strongbox, this is less of a concern as now you can farm 5★ VV pieces without ever stepping foot in the Valley of Remembrance.
Mainstats
Sands
Main Stat | Who Can Use | Examples |
---|---|---|
HP% | Character converts Max HP to ATK, or scales off Max HP for damage/utility (e.g. heals, shields) | Zhongli, Diona, Kokomi, Barbara, Yelan, Hu Tao |
ATK% | Character scales off ATK for damage/utility (e.g. heals, buffs) | Most characters |
DEF% | Character converts DEF to ATK, or scales off DEF for damage/utility (e.g. buffs, shields) | Albedo, Itto, Noelle, Yun Jin |
Elemental Mastery | Character's main DMG source is Reactions/grants buffs based on their Elemental Mastery | Kazuha, Sucrose, Sunfire Jean, Overload Yanfei, Reverse Melt Rosaria/Ganyu, Vaporize Yoimiya |
Energy Recharge% | Character's Energy Recharge% requirements are over 150+ and are not met by other sources | Bennett, Mona, Kujou Sara, Amber, Xiangling |
When picking a Sands main stat, you start the same way you start any character's build—do they have enough Energy Recharge%?
Some characters require little to no Energy Recharge%, so they don't use an Energy Recharge% Sands. These are generally characters with low Burst Energy costs, decent to good Energy generation, and/or that don't need to use their Burst as often or at all. Hu Tao, for example, only wants to Burst every other rotation, while Zhongli generally doesn't use his Burst in the first place as it's a DPS loss.
Many characters will want some amount of Energy Recharge%. The question is: how much? And the answer is:
There are many factors that affect how much Energy Recharge% a character needs, and the Energy Recharge Calculator takes them all into account for you: Burst cost, how often a character needs to Burst, team composition, field-time, rotation, Energy generation, weapons/Constellations/abilities that grant or refund Energy, etc. The spreadsheet itself, paired with the tutorial, includes explanations and character-specific tips on the side, making it fairly easy to use.
Nonetheless, if you don't feel like working a spreadsheet, you can check KeqingMains. They have Energy Recharge% requirements in most of their guides and in their infographics, although they don't have them for every character.
If a character's Energy Recharge% requirements exceed 150%, and they don't get that Energy Recharge% from other sources (weapon, artifact substats), you use an Energy Recharge% Sands.
If your character doesn't need an Energy Recharge% Sands, the Sands' main stat will be the stat the character scales off. If you don't know, you can go to the character's Talent menu and check the relevant Talent Attributes and Talent Description. Unless notated/mentioned otherwise, you can assume a character scales off ATK by default.
Examples of alternate-scaling characters are: Yelan whose Skill and Burst scale purely off Max HP, Albedo whose Skill scales purely off DEF, Itto and Noelle who convert DEF to ATK upon using their Burst, and Hu Tao who converts Max HP to ATK upon using her Skill.
If a character's main source of DMG is Amplifying Reactions (Melt/Vaporize) and they lack Elemental Mastery including from external buffs, they will prefer an Elemental Mastery Sands. For more ambiguous cases, it is recommended you use the Genshin Optimizer.
If a character primarily triggers Transformative Reactions (Swirl, Overload, etc.), use an Elemental Mastery Sands. Transformative reactions do not crit or scale off ATK—only Elemental Mastery and character level. Kazuha and Sucrose additionally grant the team buffs based on their Elemental Mastery, making it even more important a stat!
Goblet
Main Stat | Who Can Use | Examples |
---|---|---|
HP% | Character scales off HP for utility (e.g. shields, heals), or scales purely off HP for damage and lacks HP/has a lot of DMG% | Zhongli, Diona, Thoma, Yelan with low HP/high DMG% (use the Optimizer) |
ATK% | Character scales off ATK for utility (e.g. buffs, heals), or scales off ATK for damage and has a lot of DMG% | Shenhe, Qiqi, Raiden, non-4VH Xiao |
DEF% | Character scales off DEF for utility (e.g. buffs, shields) | Yun Jin |
Elemental Mastery | Character deals Transformative Reaction DMG and/or grants buffs based on their Elemental Mastery | Kazuha, Sucrose, Sunfire Jean, Overload Yanfei |
Elemental DMG Bonus% | Character deals Elemental DMG corresponding with Goblet main stat | Most characters |
Physical DMG Bonus% | Character deals Physical DMG | Eula |
For characters with relevant personal damage that is not from Transformative Reactions, they will almost always want the corresponding Elemental/Physical DMG Bonus% Goblet because of the way the Genshin damage formula works.
ATK% Goblets
There are characters such as Xiao and Raiden where ATK% Goblet is viable due to high amounts of DMG% from various sources, such as Xiao's Plunging DMG% modifiers, Raiden's Skill and 4th Ascension Passive, and Kazuha's Elemental DMG% buff. However, even for these characters, Elemental DMG Bonus% Goblets are still preferable. The difference is larger still with ATK buffs, such as 4VH and Bennett.
Yelan may be able to use a HP% Goblet with low HP and/or high DMG% (Raiden's Skill, Kazuha's A4, high refinement Mouun's Moon)—check with the Optimizer!
If the character deals most of their damage from Transformative Reactions, use an Elemental Mastery Goblet. DMG Bonuses do not increase Transformative Reaction damage!
Supports will use the stat they scale off for utility e.g. shields/heals/buffs.
Zhongli, Diona and Thoma's shields scale off Max HP, so they use a HP% Goblet. Yun Jin provides Normal Attack DMG Bonus based on her DEF, so she uses DEF% Goblet. Shenhe's Icy Quills scale off ATK, so she uses ATK% Goblet.
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For characters whose artifact stats do not matter for their buff, with high Energy needs and low personal damage e.g. Amber in Hu Tao teams, Mona in Freeze teams, and Gorou, you can ignore main stat and give them the Goblet with the highest Energy Recharge% substat available.
Circlet
Main Stat | Who Can Use | Examples |
---|---|---|
HP% | Character scales off HP for utility (e.g. shields, heals), or scales purely off HP for damage (substat-dependent) | Zhongli, Diona, Thoma, Yelan |
ATK% | Character scales off ATK for utility (e.g. buffs), or damage while having a lot of DMG% from other sources | Shenhe, Mistsplitter Ayaka |
DEF% | Character scales off DEF% for utility (e.g. buffs), or damage while having a lot of CRIT% | Yun Jin, R5 Harbinger of Dawn Albedo |
Elemental Mastery | Character deals Transformative Reaction dmg and/or grants buffs based on their Elemental Mastery | Kazuha, Sucrose, Sunfire Jean, Overload Yanfei |
CRIT Rate% | Character does damage that can crit, and using CRIT Rate% brings them closer to a 1:2 ratio than CRIT DMG%; support characters using a Favonius weapon that have enough of their other stats | Most characters, compounded if they have CRIT DMG% Ascension Stat/weapon; Favonius Warbow Amber/Gorou |
CRIT DMG% | Character does damage that can crit, and using CRIT DMG% brings them closer to a 1:2 ratio than CRIT Rate% | Characters with enough CRIT Rate% from Ascension Stat, weapon and/or substats already; 4p Blizzard Strayer users |
Healing Bonus% | Character primarily heals and doesn't benefit more from other stats for damage/utility | Kokomi, Barbara, Qiqi |
A CRIT Circlet will almost always be optimal for characters who deal damage that can crit. Use whatever gets you closer to a 1:2 CRIT ratio, including reliable sources of CRIT such as 4p Blizzard Strayer and Cryo Resonance in Freeze/Mono Cryo teams, and "The Catch"'s passive on Burst-focused characters.
1:2 CRIT Ratio
Most characters who can and want to crit follow a 1:2 CRIT Rate:CRIT DMG ratio i.e. CRIT DMG is twice as high as CRIT Rate. Due to Yanfei's 4th Ascension Passive however, her ideal CRIT ratio is closer to 3:5.
CRIT Rate | CRIT DMG |
---|---|
60 | 120 |
70 | 140 |
80 | 160 |
90 | 180 |
and so on... |
There are some cases where you might consider the stat they scale off (ATK/HP/DEF) instead, such as Mistsplitter Ayaka, R5 Harbinger of Dawn Albedo if you didn't get R5 Cinnabar Spindle in 2.3, and Yelan.
Use the Optimizer.
As you already know, Elemental Mastery is used on Transformative Reaction-based characters.
For pure healing output, Healing Bonus% will scale better than the stat a healer scales off. Other than bigger 4OHC procs (for characters who wanted Healing Bonus% to begin with) and Kokomi converting her Healing Bonus% to Normal Attack and Charged Attack DMG% during her Burst, Healing Bonus% serves no other purpose. Even if a character happens to heal, there may be a better Circlet main stat for their personal DMG or utility. Jean, for example, heals your team to full HP or close to it with a DPS build already and thus wants a CRIT circlet.
For characters whose artifact stats do not matter for their buff, and have high Energy needs and low personal damage (e.g. Amber in Hu Tao teams, Mona in Freeze teams, and Gorou), you can give them a CRIT Rate% hat if they use a Favonius weapon—otherwise just ignore Circlet main stat and pick whatever Circlet has the highest Energy Recharge% substat.
Substats
Character Type/Role | Substat Priority |
---|---|
DPS | Energy Recharge% until requirement > CRIT Rate/CRIT DMG > [Stat they scale off] |
Freeze DPS | Energy Recharge% until requirement > CRIT DMG > [Stat they scale off] > CRIT Rate |
Reaction DPS | Energy Recharge% until requirement > Elemental Mastery until ~100 > CRIT Rate/CRIT DMG > Elemental Mastery until ~300–400 >= [Stat they scale off] > More than 400 Elemental Mastery |
Support | Energy Recharge% until requirement > CRIT Rate to trigger Favonius (if equipped) > [stat they scale off to support] |
Transformative Reaction | Energy Recharge% until requirement > Elemental Mastery |
This is highly generalised—it is recommended you check Genshin Impact Helper Team's Character Builds o r KeqingMains for specific characters, or just use the Genshin Optimizer.
Teams
Team Building Guide
For specific characters, you can go to their KeqingMains guide and scroll to the Team Comps section. For your roster, you can go to team-building channels in Genshin Discord servers and send your character list while providing context e.g. what content you need the team for.
Investment Priority
Weapons > Talents > Levels > Artifacts
Artifacts are a large power spike, but their RNG nature means they can take months to farm. Do your guaranteed damage increases like weapons, Talents, Ascensions and levels first!
WL | AR | Build Order Priority |
---|---|---|
0 | 1–15 | Level weapon to 20 > +4 Feather > Level Character to 20 > +4 other artifacts (optional, skip if tight on resources) > Ascend character to 20/40 |
1 | 16–24 | Level weapon to 40 > Level character to 40 > +8 feather > +8 other artifacts |
2 | 25–29 | Level weapon to 50 > Replace Feather/artifacts with 4★s (if available) > Ascend character to 40/50 > Level damage-based Talents to 2 > Level character to 50 |
3 | 30–34 | Level weapon to 60 > Ascend character to 50/60 > Level relevant talents to 4 > +12 artifacts > Level character to 60 |
4 | 35–39 | Level weapon to 70 > Ascend character to 60/70 > Level relevant talents to 6 > +16 feather > Level character to 70 |
5 | 40–44 | Level weapon to 80 > Replace artifacts with 4★s > Ascend character to 70/80 > Level character to 80 |
6 | 45–49 | Level talents to 8 > Replace Feather with a 5★ one (+20) > Replace all artifacts with 5★s (+16) |
7+ | 50+ | Level weapon to 90 > +20 other artifacts > Ascend character to 80/90 > Level talents to 9 > Keep farming artifacts |
These are just rough general guidelines—the exact math as to what's optimal will vary depending on team damage contribution. Simply farm whatever's available in Domains in terms of weapon/Talent materials that day, and farm World/Weekly Bosses on others. Planners such as Seelie.me and Genshin Center can be useful in this exact purpose.
- Level your DPS' weapon as far as you can.
- Get your DPS to 60/70 and get their relevant Talents to 6.
- Level your supports enough to not get oneshot.
- Farm a 4p of basic support sets, e.g 4VV for Anemo supports (priority), 4GD for supports in Dendro teams and 4NO for general supports. Ignore stats for now.
- Get your supports to 60/70 for their 4th Ascension Passive and get their relevant Talents to 6.
- Level your supports' weapons somewhat if they need the stats, otherwise they can be ignored.
- Get your DPS to 70/80, get their relevant Talents to 8, and 90 their weapon.
- Farm DPS' sets, looking for correct main stats and desirable substats, but not min-maxing too hard yet.
- Get your DPS to 80/90 and get their relevant Talents to 9.
- Get your supports to 70/80 if they benefit from the stats/Talent levels, and get their relevant Talents to 8.
- Farm support sets, now looking for correct main stats and desirable substats, but not min-maxing.
- Farm DPS artifacts, trying to get a good balance of stats now.
- Get important supports to 80/90 (e.g. Bennett) if they benefit from the stats/Talent levels, and get their Talents to 9.
Here, and in the context of this guide, DPS is used to refer to both on-field and off-field damage dealers. Off-field DPS such as Xiangling, Fischl, Beidou, Xingqiu, Yelan and Rosaria would not be considered "supports" and should be invested as a DPS, which is what they are.
written by bei#9877