In thisGenshin Impactarticle we’re going to explore what build is right for you. In order to celebrate the first anniversary of Genshin Impact, I thought it would be a good idea to put an index guide for the builds I have made, and help players choose the right one for them. It isn’t always straightforward how to pick the best build for you or your team, as it involves a lot of factors. I’ve seen this question surface many times on reddit, and the community Discord: “I have these characters, help me build the right teams” or, “I have these characters, which other ones should I wish for?” So I thought it would be useful to help answer those questions with this guide, to help you pick your own team, and especially if you areFree to Play.
Genshin Impact: Which Build Is Right For You?
The first thing to establish when choosing aGenshin Impact Buildis quite obvious and that is what characters you have already and how many constellations you have for them, especially for four-star characters. That’s one major factor to keep in mind while theory-crafting your team, or picking one of our builds.
Guaranteed Characters Everyone Has
Genshin Impactis a gacha game, where luck is the main source of getting new characters and weapons. It might be a sad truth for those who hate gambling in-game, but that’s not the whole story. Since Genshin Impact guarantees every single player a lot of characters, aside from the gacha system. There are 7 characters that are given to every single player, by merely playing the game, regardless of when they play. Then there are characters that are granted as event completion rewards, and you get more of these by playing the game longer and finishing more events.
Genshin Impact Seven Free Characters
You get at least one free character with one of the six playable elements in the game, and then a second Pyro character. They also cover all the five weapon archetypes, so they give you a nice starting selection. These characters are:
Among these characters, onlyKaeyaandXianglingcan play a main damage dealer role with low investment. However, they are better suited to play a support role, because their power will be added to another character power for a higher DPS ceiling. But overall, they are the best free characters worth investing, in both short-term and long-term. On the other hand,Noellecan be a damage dealer at endgame, with high investment, exactly at (C6).Barbarais a suitable healer for a few teams, but not the best healer you should aim for.Lisais the least valuable character outside ofearly levelsbuild unless you have no other Electro characters at all.
The Main Character (the Traveler) is a very nice support in both Anemo and Geo elements, as long as you don’t have a five-star replacement. However, Electro MC is probably worse than four-star supports in 95% of cases.
The importance of sorting the starting characters out is to build the foundation of how you pick your final build from gacha banner choices later.
Event Characters
Throughout the lifespan of Genshin Impact, MiHoYo gave away several four-star characters as event rewards. During the 1st anniversary event, they will be giving a five-star character from the collaboration event for all platforms (Playstation gained Aloy in Patch 2.1). These characters are:
Who you have among these, depends on when you started to play, and how many events you’ve finished. These characters are much more useful and can be used much a wider range of team combinations. Among them,Ningguangcan be the main damage dealer,Xinyan,Fischl, andChongyuncan also double as a main DPS or support. WhileXingqiu,Diona, andBeidouare some of the best supports in the entire game. They open up so many choices for builds, later in the game.
You can build an entire team with only free characters, and still, be quite competitive. For example, a team ofFischl,Beidou,Diona, and Anemo MC is a solid Meta team that can beat all content in-game. This focus on Electro and Physical damage, with eitherFischlorBeidouas the Carry.Dionaas a healer and a source of Superconduct, and Anemo MC usingViridescent Venererto shred Electro Resistance.
On the other hand, a party withXiangling, as main a DPS, will always be better withBennett, a non-guaranteed character. Xiangling will most likely need bothChongyun, andXingqiu, orSucroseandXingqiu. So you need to start considering picking the powerful, four-star, support characters from limited banners, which is the next milestone in building your account.
What Support Characters Do You Need and Which Need High Constellations?
When it comes to four-star characters, most of them work fine at low or high Constellations, with some benefiting more than others from unlocking their Constellations. Being a four-star, they are easier to obtain, level up, and unlock their Constellations. But that needs time, resources, and Primogems. So being smart about what characters you choose to rank up is a key for success in challenging the hardest content in Genshin.
Universal Best Supports
Genshin Impact relies on creating a team, and switching characters. With that team you need to fulfill several roles to make it function. Usually, a character can fill one role, but in some cases such as strong support characters, they can fill more than one role. That’s what makes them best for the job, since they free up more party slots, and increase party efficiency.
Pyro supports
Hydro supports
Cryo supports
Anemo supports
Electro supports
Geo supports
Geo support characters are five-star only. They are some of the best supports in the entire game, especiallyZhongli, he enables so many Geo and none-Geo comps.
It’s important to mention that you don’t need all these supports, since any account needs only two teams. So 8 characters including the main damage dealer, and maybe one or two additional swap characters. On average, 8 support characters and two main damage dealers on an account is ideal. You get to choose your supports depending on which type of teams you intend to build. That’s the next major factor in deciding your build.
How to Arrange Your Support characters Over Two Abyss Teams
On other hand, some support characters will be the limiting factor in your team building. Characters such asBennett,Xiangling, andXingqiuenable so many different teams, and when you build one team with either of them, sometimes you may’t build whole other archetypes.Xingqiuis wanted in any freeze team, as well as reverse vaporize team, as well as electrocharged and Over-Vape teams. So you get to pick only one Archetype from these for a team, and build the other teams from other archetypes that don’t requireXingqiu.
The same goes forBennettwho enables an even wider range of builds; such as Reverse Melt, Forward Melt, Overload, Overvape, and especially any build involvingXiangling, since he’s the ideal energy battery forXiangling. So if you build Raiden Shogun for example, and go with her best team that consists of herself,Bennett,Xiangling, andXingqiu, you pretty much screws your other team. If you have used all these supports in one team, your second team is locked out of the most popular options. For instance, yourGanyucan’t Freeze withoutXingqiu, and she can’t reverse melt withoutXianglingandBennett. So she needs to build her most expensive alternative withMonaandVenti, which you probably don’t have if you are free to play.
You might end up running expensive mono Anemo or Geo second team with expensive five-star characters to compensate for missing all these support characters that went into the first team. So be careful while wishing for characters, and building your account.
Quick examples of good two Abyss teams
A good team is one that doesn’t starve the account of all top tier enablers supports, and leaves room for other teams to shine as well. Here are some examples in no particular order:
What Team Archetype is Right for You?
Usually, the team Archetype is usually determined by the element of the main DPS. Or in the case of an element having too many different reactions, it’s determined by the exact reaction your main DPS can create. Then there are mixed teams that utilize more than one reaction, but these are usually limited.
Reverse Melt Teams
Melt is one of the highest DPS reactions in-game, it’s amplifying reaction, that increases damage of the hit that causes Melt. So it prefers a heavy setup towards using Pyro support characters to apply Pyro Aura, and the main damage dealer causes massive damage with their Cryo ability. The prime example of such teams isGanyu Reverse teams, then the rest of the teams listed on ourReverse Melt tier list. Here’s the main Pros & Cons of Reverse Melt teams:
Reverse Vaporize Teams
Vaporize is similar to Melt, an amplifying reaction that increases the damage of original hit, rather than proccing new instance of damage. It’s also reliant on a heavy setup to apply Hydro Aura, then Proc Vaporize with Pyro characters. Vaporize having a wider range of main damage dealers, but a more strict roster of Hydro supports. These are some of top DPS in this category, such asDiluc,Hu Tao,XianglingandYanfei. While some others such asKlee, apply too much Pyro, they struggle to build Reverse Vaporize team. For more details on such teams, check out ourReverse Pyro Vaporize Tier List, andHu Tao Guide to Sublimation. Here are the Pros & Cons of Reverse Vaporize teams:
Permanent freeze teams
Freeze is a defensive reaction that stops enemies from moving and attaching. It requires Cryo and Hydro element, where Cryo characters usually play the DPS role. The main strength of the Permanent freeze teams come from the artifact setBlizzard Strayer, which gives a 15% Cryo damage bonus, and an insane 40% Crit Rate. On top of the additional 15% Crit Rate from Cryo Resonance. It enables characters to build pure Crit Damage artifacts and weapons, and goes great heights in DPS. Check outAyaka The Snow Bird buildfor more details on how these teams work. Here’s the main Pros & Cons of Freeze teams:
Physical Teams
Physical takes on the attack type of a Normal Attack for all characters, with the exception of Catalyst users. However, not all characters are able to be physical damage dealers, due to the elemental nature of their skills, or the ability to convert their normal attacks to elemental ones. But still, the physical DPS category is broad and versatile, as you can see in ourPhysical tier list. It’s obvious that the majority of physical builds will prioritize using a superconduct reaction to shred enemy physical resistance. However, Superconduct is strictly a reaction between Electro and Cryo Elements, so if the physical character is a none Electro nor Cryo, they might find other combinations viable without Superconduct.
An example of this is two Pyro, and two Geo teams withXinyanandZhongli, then a second Pyro and second Geo. While a standardXinyanin a superconduct team looks like our buildXinyan, The Dragonspine Explorer, which is a nice team for exploring the open-world.
BothFischl, the Night raven, andRazor, the incredible wolfare physical builds with electro characters. With Razor Build easily realizing a huge portion of his full potential, because of the natural synergy of Fischl and Xingqiu as support characters to Razor. While Fischl’s build enjoys a ranged playstyle, but leaves something to be desired since there are newer characters that released that can support Fischl better.
We have dedicated aGeo tier listfor this kind of team. There are all kinds of Geo teams, with quick-swap teams, and hyper-carry teams. But what’s common between them all, is that Geo characters can support each other. So it’s possible to have a mono Geo team, with four Geo characters, and it will function very well. While some rareZhongliteams rely on Elemental Skill resonance with Geo traveler constructs. Other teams rely on Burst DPS ofZhongliandNingguang. Overall, Geo is a very solid element on its own, or with other elements, and has some of the decent teams. They can face hardest-hitting enemies and live to tell the tale, even though its clear time might be a bit slower than other teams.
A build that has been solid since launch, up until the very latest version of the game isNoelle, The Invulnerable Maid. Noelle has the survivability, damage, AOE, and versatility for all content in-game, be it Abyss, open world, or challenges. But it requires heavy investment, and at the very least C6 Noelle to start with.
On other hand,Ningguang, The Geo Empressbuild is more of a single target focuse, and requires some precise rotations to fully utilize it. It works without C6Ningguang, but gains a heavy advantage at C6, so keep this in mind.
Anemo Teams
Anemo characters are mostly support, withXiaobeing the main exception. Kazuha can be a sub DPS, or even main DPS with whale-level investment, but we mainly treat him as a support.Xiaois similar toNoelle, that he requires Anemo batteries in his teams to provide him energy. But contrary to Geo, Anemo DPSXiaois a glass cannon. With severe survivability issues, but massive damage output. He doesn’t utilize Swirl reactions, so his teams are fairly straightforward. He prefersZhonglias support for Anemo resistance shred and shield, and he also goes well with Anemo healers such asJean. This make such an Anemo team the most expensive team in Genshin Impact prior to Sayu’s release. If you want more info about the Anemo role overall, orXiaohyper-carry teams, check ourAnemo Swirl tier list.
The reaction between Pyro and Electro is Overload, a transformative reaction with decent damage and AOE explosion. Overload is usually an annoying reaction for melee characters, since it sends small enemies flying further away from you. However, Overload has its niche use with ranged characters, such as Yoimyia, Yanfei, and sometimes Klee. If built correctly, Overload becomes the best choice of team for ranged a DPS focused playstyle. It not only uses characters with the longest range keeping out of harms way, but also keeps enemies at arms length by knocking them back, preventing them from reaching your team.
Overload teams prefer to use a Pyro carry with a fast attack speed, to enable top electro supports such asFischl,Beidou, and Baal to realize their off-field DPS full potential. You can build your main carry for forward damage, Reaction damage with EM, or hybrid. The reason is that support characters apply Electro Aura, and your carry has the chance to proc the Overload by themselves. Overload does AOE damage, so if enemies are close together, it can shotgun enemies for a great damage increase.
If you are interested in making an Overload team, check outYanfei The Smoky Scarlet Witchranged build, andKeqing The Driving ThunderMelee Build. Keep an eye out for our Yoimyia guide in the coming weeks.
Electrocharged Teams
Electrocharged is a reaction created when Hydro meets Electro. It’s a reaction that has a condition where it doesn’t consume the elements involved. That enables some unique combos for some characters. Electrocharged itself has deals less damage, but its damage can be repeated twice, and with characters such asChildeandXingqiuwho apply Hydro rapidly, they can also proc it consistently.
Similar to Overload, Electrocharged use top Electro supports such asFischl,Beidou, and Baal. They deal massive off-field damage in Electrocharged teams, especiallyFischlwith her Fourth Ascension passive that procs with every electro reaction, and has no cooldown. Electrocharged stun enemies briefly, to add some AOE crowd control, without knocking them out of reach.
Since Electrocharged keeps both Electro and Hydro elements on the enemy, it can be a medium for other reactions also. Its compatible with Pyro, proccing both Overload and Vaporize, or what’s known as Over-Vape.
Forward Melt & Forward Vaporize
These combos are rarely used in Meta, since you can hardly proc forward amplifying reactions. The reason is, the stronger element such as Pyro in melt teams tend to leave a stronger aura on enemies. That makes proccing Melt with Pyro several times a lot harder, so you sacrifice consistent damage for one or two stronger procs every rotation. That can work for burst builds, but are not ideal for sustained DPS.
Forward Vaporize relies on vaporizing the second part of Mona Elemental Burst, for a massive single hit that goes up to six digits number. For maximum damage it requires a very specific setup, with several damage amplifying support characters such asBennett, andSucrose. Another instance of huge forward Vaporize isChilde’s burst in Melee form, with a less complicated setup. If you want a basic vaporize build with Mona, check outMona The Divination Witchbuild.
Forward Melt is usually more forgiving withHu TaoandDiluc, since frozen enemies are considered to have a Cryo aura. Cryo support such asKaeyahave very frequent Cryo applications, he can freeze enemies frequently ifXingqiuis present. So you may alternate between forward Melt and reverse Vaporize for excellent damage. These setups are still considered Reverse Vaporize builds, and sacrifice an Anemo support buff for the sake of the extra damage from melt. However, there’s one true forward Melt arrangement withBennettas the carry, two Cryo supports, and an Anemo buffer. That build can consistently MeltBennett’s Elemental Skill, and output a surprisingly great amount of damage.
Check outDiluc The Darknight Hero,Klee The Short Fuse, or the more optimizedHu TaoThe SublimeBuildfor examples of forward Melt builds.
This should wrap up the majority of build archetypes in Genshin Impact. If you enjoyed thisGenshin Impact Guidebe sure to check out even more info on ourGenshin Impact Wiki.You can also keep an eye out for more guides andTier listsfor the upcoming version 2.2. We wish you a Happy 1st Genshin Impact Anniversary, and good luck with exploring this wonderful world!
