how to build characters: a guide i guess
"how do i build my characters??"
if you just want a quick and dirty answer use this instead of game8 or gamewith i beg
keqingmains has in-depth character guides including the usual artifacts/weapon/talent priority but also mechanics, optimal combos + team
optimizer op, tutorials on website or you can read my guide here !
in this guide i, a humble kyubodan, will walk you through how to build a character.
level
levels are overrated. that being said it's still a damage increase and you have to do it for ascensions and talents anyway.
levelling to 90 is not worth it unless:
- character scales off alternate stats, such as hp or def
- 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 dmg 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.
endgame i would advise ascending characters with significant personal damage to 80/90. hp- and def-scaling characters like hu tao and albedo and transformative damage dealers like taser carry sucrose and kazuha can - and should - go to 90/90 as it's actually a noteworthy damage increase for them.
supports with relevant ascension 4 talents 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 w low personal dmg that offer utility that works irrespective of stats/talent lvls e.g. amber in a hu tao team, they can be kept lowlevelled. just level them enough not to get oneshot
weapon
levelling weapons
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 pjws has 674 base atk at level 90 - almost double.
for characters where the base atk doesn't matter you should only raise the weapon as far as the substat is useful. if your diona 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 ttds for non-hp scalers and mouun's moon on yelan), keep the weapon at lvl 1 lol
what weapon do i use?
you can check weapon rankings for characters at genshin impact helper team's character builds or kqm. keep in mind that weapon rankings can be situational, and may lack nuance esp without context
if you want an idea behind the logic used to pick weapons - weapons are made up of the following:
- base atk
- substat
- passive
higher base atk is desirable for atk-scaling characters and bennett/sara who grant buffs based off their base atk.
base atk:substat ratios
base atk and substat are inversely proportional to one another, which just means that high base atk = lower substat value, low base atk = higher substat. there are well-established ratios and you can read about it 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 (see: bennett), then they might favour weapons with higher substats.
for example, aqua simulacra has only 542 base atk (lower than some 4stars) but it has a whopping 88.2% crit dmg. this makes it a very strong weapon for yelan, who 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. now, aqua simulacra having low base attack doesn't make it automatically shit for atk-scalers who don't have atk buffs - it's still a very competitive 5star weapon. it just becomes even stronger when its low base atk is no longer a concern
a weapon's substat should generally be useful to that character. crit rate/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 blackcliff weapons suddenly godly, because they still have a highly conditional passive, thus blackcliff tends to be worse than other 4star options.
atk% is always solid for atk-scalers.
er% is good for characters who need it to meet er% requirements, otherwise it should be avoided. it is for this reason that skyward pride has low value on diluc with his 40 cost burst, or that you don't want to be using skyward spine on hu tao.
em 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 whose potent 48% atk buff makes it the first choice for any catalyst support.
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 slayers - although it is a hp% weapon, it gives a 48% atk buff to the next character you swap to, making it a fantastic support option. even though shieldbot 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. stringless is a great 4star for fischl even outside of aggravate teams simply due to the passive increasing oz's dmg by 24% at r1, and twice that 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 more field-time, possibly extending rotations. in general favonius weapons tend to be favoured for energy value + lower fieldtime, but they do want you to build some crit rate%
statsticks
there are also weapons with passives that are weak, highly conditional or might not even apply: like 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 is a base atk statstick - it has 674 base atk, but there aren't any dedicated phys sword carries atm. still, it is used by bennett for the high base atk, and can be used with reduced efficacy on any atk-scaling damage dealer.
talents
talents are important !
they provide the base % scaling for the damage you do, 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
you should level them for sure, but which ones and by how much? well, first check talent priorities here or in kqm's infographics/guides.
get the important talents for your character to 8. constellations increase your talent levels by +3, so a lvl 8 talent would actually be lvl 11 if you have the constellation boosting it. don't put all your resources in a single talent first for characters with multiple relevant talents - but it's fine, for example, to only level bennett's q while ignoring his e and aa.
further than tl8 is pretty expensive so it's considered optional, it's nice to get important talents to 9 in lategame though.
not all talents need to be levelled ! you can pretty much ignore the normal attack talents for all off-field dps and supports.
some talents contribute a really small amount of damage, or scale rlly poorly like yoimiya's skill, so you can level these but you don't need to go too deep.
crowning
crowning is levelling a talent to 10 (13 w/ cons). 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 events.
levelling a character's talent from 9 to 10 costs a lot of resources for pretty much the same damage increase as the talents before it, so ppl tend to reserve these for the characters they like or use a lot. however it can be good value for highly dmging talents from characters that represent a large chunk of team damage. it's also something you can do in lategame if you've hit a wall farming artifacts and don't need any more upgrades/resources, as farming the resources for tl10 may be more resin efficient than trying to farm minor improvements for an already cracked build.
just like levelling talents, try to crown the most important or impactful talent first but hey, ppl will crown who and what they wanna crown
artifacts
rentry.co/artifacts shill
artifacts are a significant power spike, but the layers of rng involved in farming and rolling artifacts means that you might want to get guaranteed damage increases such as weapon, talent and character levels out of the way first.
mainstats > substats > set bonuses
don't force 4cw if it means you have to run a def/def/def hu tao; don't make your xiao run 4vh (even if it's his bis) if the substats are way worse than your 2vv 2atk.
one exception, 4vv is worth running on anemo supports regardless of the stats. idc if you don't have full triple em on your kazuha yet! use 4vv first and work on getting em mainstats onset later.
but not always...
set bonuses > stats for 4p viridescent venerer, 4p noblesse oblige (sometimes) + 4p blizzard strayer unless the difference in substats is >40% crit rate's worth
substats > mainstats when the difference between mainstats is marginal (e.g. crit vs. hp circlet on yelan) or when the character's energy needs are high, personal dmg is low + artifact stats are irrelevant for their utility, in which case they use the artifact with the highest er% substat (e.g. gorou, mona, amber)
regarding specific characters, check genshin impact helper team's character builds for what artifact set and stats they want as well as weapon ranking+talent priority. may lack nuance and have some misleading rankings (please read the notes guys it's not that hard), so there's keqingmains' individual character guides for context, details and math
sets
"who can use ______"?
artifact set | when to use | who can use |
---|---|---|
4p gladiator's finale | melee character who mostly does na dmg | ayato |
4p wanderer's troupe | ranged character who mostly does ca dmg | melt ganyu, tighnari |
4p noblesse oblige | loss in personal dmg is worth the 20% team atk buff | bennett, diona, kuki, shenhe, xingqiu |
4p bloodstained chivalry | never | no one |
4p viridescent venerer | anemo character who can swirl pyro/hydro/electro/cryo for debuffs+dmg | all anemo characters except xiao |
4p maiden's beloved | no. | no. |
4p crimson witch | pyro dps who does reaction dmg | diluc, hu tao, yanfei |
4p lavawalker | monopyro or reverse melt dps | klee, rosaria, kaeya |
4p thundersoother | dps when enemy has consistent electro aura | fischl, yae |
4p thundering fury | dps who benefits from electro reaction dmg + skill cooldown reduction (must be on-field to proc) | keqing, lisa, bennett, razor |
4p archaic petra | geo character that can make + pick up crystallize shard in pyro/hydro/electro/cryo dps teams | zhongli, yun jin |
4p retracing bolide | shielded character that mostly does na/ca dmg | not bis for anyone, but yoimiya can use it |
4p heart of depth | hydro dps who benefits from na + ca dmg | ayato, childe |
4p blizzard strayer | freeze/monocryo dps | ayaka, ganyu |
4p pale flame | physical dps with <7s skill cooldown | eula |
4p tenacity of the millelith | character with skill that frequently hits enemies, loss in personal dmg is worth the 20% team atk buff | zhongli, kokomi, mona, fischl, kuki |
4p shimenawa's reminiscence | character who mostly does na/ca/pa dmg and doesn't mind not being able to burst as often | yoimiya |
4p emblem of severed fate | character who mostly does burst dmg and wants er% | raiden, xiangling, yelan, xingqiu, beidou |
4p ocean-hued clam | character who heals a lot and doesn't have better sets for personal/team dmg | kokomi, qiqi |
4p husk of opulent dreams | geo dps that scales off def or character that buffs based off def | itto, albedo, noelle, yun jin |
4p vermillion hereafter | xiao. | xiao. |
4p echoes of an offering | you have low ping, character who mostly does na dmg | ayato, yoimiya |
4p gilded dreams | character who triggers reactions and benefits from both atk + em | fischl, yae, tighnari |
4p deepwood memories | dendro dps (if only dendro in team)/support in a dendro team | tighnari (solo dendro), collei, dmc, zhongli, kuki |
listed characters are just examples, not an exhaustive list of everyone who can use this set ever. |
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 w/ low personal dmg that can trigger a reaction in reaction teams e.g. bennett in melt/vape teams, amber in hu tao vape, zhongli in reaction teams
- exile good utility set for characters w/ low personal dmg in teams that need the extra energy e.g. gorou
- 4★ em vv pieces due to low drop rate. however this is less of a concern now artifact strongbox is a thing and you can farm 5★ vv pieces without ever stepping foot in the valley of remembrance.
mainstats
sands
mainstat | when to use | who can use |
---|---|---|
hp% | the character converts their max hp to atk, or scales off max hp for damage or supportive utility (e.g. heals, shields) | yelan, hu tao, zhongli, diona, kokomi, barbara |
atk% | the character scales off atk for damage or supportive utility (e.g. heals, buffs) | most characters |
def% | the character converts their def to atk, or scales off def for damage or supportive utility (e.g. buffs, shields) | albedo, itto, noelle, yun jin |
elemental mastery | the character triggers reactions as their main damage source and/or grants buffs based on their elemental mastery | kazuha, sucrose, sunfire jean, overload yanfei, rmelt rosaria/ganyu, vape yoimiya |
energy recharge% | the character requires energy recharge% sands to meet their energy recharge% requirements, which are upwards of 150+ | bennett, mona, sara, xiangling, amber |
when picking a sands mainstat you start the same way you start any character's build - do they have enough energy recharge%?
some characters don't need any at all, so you don't build er% on them. these are generally characters with low burst costs, decent-good energy generation or that don't need to use their burst as often, or even at all. hu tao, for example, only bursts every other rotation, while zhongli generally doesn't use his burst 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 a ton of factors that affect how much er% 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 comp, field-time, rotation, energy generation, weapons/cons/abilities that grant or refund energy, etc. the spreadsheet itself, paired w the tutorial, explains pretty much everything while having character-specific tips on the side, so it's fairly easy to use.
nonetheless, if you don't feel like working a spreadsheet, you could check keqingmains. they have er% requirements in most of their guides and in their infographics, although they don't have them for every character
if a character's er% requirements exceeds 150, and they don't get that er% from other sources (weapon, artifacts substats), you use an er% sands!
i don't need an er% sands, now what?
well, what your characters scale off! if you don't know, you can go to the character's talent menu and check the relevant talent attributes. this is atk for most characters, but yelan scales purely off hp, albedo's skill scales purely off def, itto/noelle convert their def to atk, and hu tao converts hp to atk.
if a character's main source of dmg is amplifying reactions (melt/vaporize) and they lack em, they will prefer an em sands! for more ambiguous cases, use the optimizer !
if a character primarily triggers transformative reactions (swirl, overload, etc.), use em sands. transformative reactions can't crit and don't scale off atk, only em and character level. kazuha + sucrose also grant the team buffs based on their em, making it even more important as a stat!
goblet
mainstat | when to use | who can use |
---|---|---|
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% from other sources | zhongli, diona, thoma, yelan with high dmg% (use optimiser) |
atk% | character scales off atk for damage and has a lot of dmg% from other sources, or scales off atk for utility (e.g. buffs, heals) | shenhe, 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 mainstat | most characters |
physical dmg bonus% | character deals physical dmg | eula |
for characters whose personal damage is relevant and not from transformative reactions, they will almost always want the corresponding elemental/physical dmg bonus% goblet because of the way the damage formula works.
there are characters such as xiao and raiden where atk% goblet is viable due to high amounts of dmg% from various sources, like xiao's plunging dmg% modifiers, raiden's passive + skill, and kazuha's a4. however, even for these characters, elemental dmg bonus% goblets will still be preferable. the difference is even bigger with atk buffs, such as 4vh and bennett.
yelan may be able to use hp% goblet with low hp and/or high dmg% (raiden skill, kazuha a4, high refine mouun's moon) - check with the optimizer!
if they deal most of their damage from transformative reactions, use an em 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 hp, so they use hp% goblet. shenhe's icy quills scale off atk, so she uses atk% goblet. yun jin provides normal attack dmg bonus based on her def, so she uses def% goblet. you get it!
for characters whose artifact stats do not matter for their buff + have high energy needs and low personal damage e.g. amber in tao teams, mona in freeze teams, gorou, you can ignore mainstat and give them whatever goblet has the highest er% substat.
circlet
mainstat | when to use | who can use |
---|---|---|
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, 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% | most characters, compounded if they have crit dmg ascension stat/weapon |
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 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 ratio, including the 40% crit rate from 4p blizzard.
there are some cases where you might consider the stat they scale off (atk/hp/def) instead, such as mistsplitter ayaka, harbinger of dawn albedo if you didn't play in 2.3, and yelan. use the optimizer.
as you already know, em is used on characters who use transformative reactions.
for pure healing output, healing bonus% will scale better than whatever stat a healer scales off. other than bigger 4ohc procs (for characters who wanted healing bonus to begin with) and kokomi converting healing bonus% to na and ca dmg during her burst, it serves no other purpose. don't use healing bonus% on your jean.
for characters whose artifact stats do not matter for their buff + have high energy needs and low personal damage e.g. amber in tao teams, mona in freeze teams, gorou, you can give them a crit rate% hat if they use favonius - otherwise just ignore mainstat and pick whatever circlet has the highest er% 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 em |
support | energy recharge% until requirement > crit rate% to proc favonius (if equipped) > [stat they scale off to support] |
transformative reaction | energy recharge% until requirement > elemental mastery |
this is very generalised so i recommend you check kqm for specific characters or just use the optimiser.
teams
(!) team building guide
this would need a guide of its own. im not doing that (yet). for now you can just read the link above or idk ask in #team-comp-advice
for specific characters, you can go to their kqm guide and scroll to the team comps section for some ideas
investment priority
weapons > talents > levels > artifacts
artifacts are a big power spike, don't get me wrong, but their rng nature means they can take months to farm. do your guaranteed dmg increases like weapons, talents and levels first!
wl | ar | build order priority |
---|---|---|
0 | 1-15 | level weapon to 20 > +4 feather > character to lvl 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 > ascend character to 80/90 > level talents to 9 > +20 other artifacts > keep farming artifacts |
this is just a rough general guideline, the exact math as to what's optimal will vary depending on team damage contribution. really just farm whatever's available in domains in terms of weapon/talent mats that day and farm world/weekly bosses on others. use seelie planner
- 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), 4p gd for supports in dendro teams and 4no for general supports. ignore stats for now.
- get your supports to 60/70 for their ascension 4 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 mainstats and desirable substats but not minmaxing 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 lvls, and get their relevant talents to 8
- farm support sets, now looking for correct mainstats and desirable substats but not minmaxing
- 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 lvls, and get their talents to 9
here, i use dps to refer to both on-field and off-field damage dealers. off-field dps like xiangling, fischl, beidou, xingqiu, yelan and rosaria would not be considered "support" and should be invested as a dps, which is what they are.