The best Genshin Impact Xingqiu build
Learn how to put together the best possible Xingqiu build
Want to learn how to create the best Xingqiu build in Genshin Impact? Meek and nerdy on the outside and mischievous on the inside, Xingqiu is an incredibly unlikely pick for one of Genshin’s best characters, but somehow, he’s near the top of our list. I guess all of Xingqiu’s reading about heroes must have paid off — despite his 4-star rarity, this Hydro Sword user will absolutely dominate in battle as a sub-DPS character when built well.
Worried about that last part? Don’t worry, we’ve got your back. This guide will show you how to create the best Xingqiu build in Genshin Impact. Below we'll cover everything you need to know about Xingqiu, including wishing, weapons, artifacts, ascension materials, talents, abilities, and constellations.
Best Genshin Impact Xingqiu build for sub DPS
Best weapon: Sacrificial Sword
Alternatives: Festering Desire, Skyward Blade
You’ll be relying on Xingqiu’s Elemental Skill a lot, which makes Sacrificial Sword his perfect weapon, as it comes with a 40% chance of ending your Skill’s cooldown. Festering Desire is also a great option, increasing Energy Recharge and boosting your Skill’s DMG and CRIT Rate. At 4-star rarity, these two swords are perfectly obtainable options for Xingqiu, though if you’re looking to go the extra mile with an extra spiffy sword, Skyward Blade will also work wonders by increasing CRIT Rate and providing buffs upon using your Burst.
Best artifacts: Emblem of Severed Fate
Alternative: 2 pieces from Noblesse Oblige and 2 pieces from Heart of Depth
Like many of Genshin’s sub-DPS fighters, Xingqiu’s best artifacts depend on what abilities you’re using the most. If you’re going to rely on his Elemental Burst, using a 4-piece Emblem of Severed Fate set will increase your Energy Recharge by 20% and increase your Elemental Burst DMG by 25% of your Energy Recharge. Otherwise, if you’re prioritizing Xingqiu’s Elemental Skill (or using his abilities equally), you’ll want to stick with a 2-piece Noblesse Oblige and 2-piece Heart of Depth set — when combined, these two nifty sets will leave your Xingqiu with a 20% Elemental Burst DMG and a 15% Hydro DMG Bonus.
For Xingqiu’s artifacts, you’re going to want to prioritize the Energy Recharge, ATK%, and Hydro DMG Bonus stats and substats. Having a nice balance of CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG can help, too, though your priority should be Energy Recharge. Here's an example of the balance you'll want to strike:
- Circlet of Logos: ATK
- Sands of Eon: Energy Recharge
- Goblet of Eonothem: Hydro DMG Bonus
- Substats: CRITs and Energy Recharge
Talent priority: Guhua Sword - Raincutter (Elemental Burst)
Secondary: Guhua Sword: Fatal Rainscreen (Elemental Skill)
When selecting which talents to level, prioritize Xingqiu’s Elemental Burst first and then his Elemental Skill. Xingqiu’s Skill can also lend impressive buffs that allow you to one-shot bosses, so if you’re looking to show off, think about prioritizing his Skill over his Burst. Regardless, you’re going to want to hold off on leveling his Normal Attack, as this has weak base DMG and won’t be very useful. Here’s everything Xingqiu has in store:
- Normal Attack - Perform up to 5 rapid strikes.
- Charged Attack - Consumes a certain amount of Stamina to unleash 2 rapid sword strikes.
- Plunging Attack - Plunges from mid-air to strike the ground below, damaging opponents along the path and dealing AoE DMG upon impact.
- Elemental Skill: Guhua Sword: Fatal Rainscreen - Xingqiu performs twin strikes with his sword, dealing Hydro DMG. At the same time, this ability creates the maximum number of Rain Swords, which will orbit your active character. The Rain Swords have the following properties: When a character takes DMG, the Rain Sword will shatter, reducing the amount of DMG taken. Increase the character's resistance to interruption. 20% of Xingqiu's Hydro DMG Bonus will be converted to additional DMG Reduction for the Rain Swords. The maximum amount of additional DMG Reduction that can be gained this way is 24%. The initial maximum number of Rain Swords is 3. Using this ability applies the Wet status onto the character.
- Elemental Burst: Guhua Sword: Raincutter - Initiate Rainbow Bladework and fight using an illusory sword rain, while creating the maximum number of Rain Swords. Rainbow Bladework: Your active character's Normal Attacks will trigger consecutive sword rain attacks, dealing Hydro DMG. Rain Swords will remain at the maximum number throughout the ability's duration.
- Passive Talent 1 - When a Rain Sword is shattered or when its duration expires, it regenerates the current character's HP based on 6% of Xingqiu's Max HP.
- Passive Talent 2 - Xingqiu gains a 20% Hydro DMG Bonus.
- Passive Talent 3 - When Xingqiu crafts Character Talent Materials, he has a 25% chance to refund a portion of the crafting materials used.
Party composition
- Main DPS: Bennett
- Sub DPS: Xingqiu
- Support: Sucrose
- Healer: Barbara
5* alternative: Hu Tao replacing Bennett as main DPS
Xingqiu is among the best sub DPS characters Genshin Impact has to offer, and he'll perform extremely well in a huge variety of team compositions. What we've given here is just one example of a strong set-up for him. You’ll likely be using Xingqiu’s Hydro powers frequently, giving you the opportunity to stir up some trouble with Elemental Reactions.
Xingqiu is great alongside any Pyro character, all of whom will provide the Vaporize Elemental Reaction, which increases the damage deal to affected enemies, by mixing their Pyro attacks with Xingqiu’s Hydro attacks. Pair Xingqiu up with your best Pyro main DPS — such as Bennett or 5-star Hu Tao.
Place Sucrose in a supporting role, using her Swirl reaction to perform crowd control and spread Vaporize across a wider area. Sucrose can also buff the team to increase the damage dealt when Vaporize is active.
Almost any of the game's 4-star healing specialists can be used to round out the team. I've suggested Barbara because, as a fellow Hydro character, she'll resonante with Xingqiu for the Soothing Waters effect, which increases team healing by 30% (and, as a bonus, reduces the duration of incoming Pyro damage by 40%).
Alternatively, because Cryo and Hydro create the Frozen reaction, which is one of Genshin’s best, Xingqiu is great on a team with a Cryo character as DPS — such as his buddy Chongyun or 5-star Eula. Just be wary of the fact that Xingqiu’s Rain Swords grant him the Wet status, meaning he’ll be susceptible to the Frozen reaction as well.
How to level up Xingqiu in Genshin Impact
Best Xingqiu build: Ascension Materials
To fully ascend Xingqiu, you’ll need:
| Ascension Level | Materials |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1 Varunada Lazurite Sliver, 3 Silk Flowers, 3 Damaged Masks, and 20,000 Mora |
| 2 | 3 Varunada Lazurite Fragments, 2 Cleansing Hearts, 10 Silk Flowers, 15 Damaged Masks, and 40,000 Mora |
| 3 | 6 Varunada Lazurite Fragments, 4 Cleansing Hearts, 20 Silk Flowers, 12 Stained Masks, and 60,000 Mora |
| 4 | 3 Varunada Lazurite Chunks, 8 Cleansing Hearts, 30 Silk Flowers, 18 Stained Masks, and 80,000 Mora |
| 5 | 6 Varunada Lazurite Chunks, 12 Cleansing Hearts, 45 Silk Flowers, 12 Ominous Masks, and 100,000 Mora |
| 6 | 6 Varunada Lazurite Gemstones, 20 Cleansing Hearts, 60 Silk Flowers, 24 Ominous Masks, and 120,000 Mora |
| Total | 1 Varunada Lazurite Sliver, 9 Varunada Lazurite Fragments, 9 Varunada Lazurite Chunks, 6 Varunada Lazurite Gemstones, 46 Cleansing Hearts, 168 Silk Flowers, 18 Damaged Masks, 30 Stained Masks, 36 Ominous Masks, and 420,000 Mora |
Varunada Lazurite and Cleansing Hearts can be picked up by defeating the Oceanid (other bosses like the Hydro Hypostasis also drop Varunada Lazurite, though they won’t drop Cleansing Hearts, which are exclusive to the Oceanid). Silk Flowers can be picked around Liyue, especially within nooks and crannies of Liyue Harbor. Finally, ascending Xingqiu will require fighting lots of Hilichurls around Teyvat, as these guys will drop Masks.
Talents
To fully level one of Xingqiu’s talents, you’ll need:
| Talent Level (+ required Ascension Level) | Materials |
|---|---|
| 2 (2) | 6 Damaged Masks, 3 Teachings of Gold, and 12,500 Mora |
| 3 (3) | 3 Stained Masks, 2 Guides to Gold, and 17,500 Mora |
| 4 (3) | 4 Stained Masks, 4 Guides to Gold, and 25,000 Mora |
| 5 (4) | 6 Stained Masks, 6 Guides to Gold, and 30,000 Mora |
| 6 (4) | 9 Stained Masks, 9 Guides to Gold, and 37,500 Mora |
| 7 (5) | 4 Ominous Masks, 4 Philosophies of Gold, 1 Tail of Boreas, and 120,000 Mora |
| 8 (5) | 6 Ominous Masks, 6 Philosophies of Gold, 1 Tail of Boreas, and 260,000 Mora |
| 9 (6) | 9 Ominous Masks, 12 Philosophies of Gold, 2 Tails of Boreas, and 450,000 Mora |
| 10 (6) | 12 Ominous Masks, 16 Philosophies of Gold, 2 Tails of Boreas, 1 Crown of Insight, and 700,000 Mora |
| Total | 6 Damaged Masks, 22 Stained Masks, 31 Ominous Masks, 3 Teachings of Gold, 21 Guides to Gold, 38 Philosophies of Gold, 6 Tails of Boreas, 1 Crown of Insight, and 1,652,500 Mora |
If you want to crown all three of Xingqiu's talents, you'll need to collect all of this three times over, for a grand total of 9 Teachings of Gold, 63 Guides to Gold, 114 Philosophies of Gold, 18 Damaged Masks, 66 Stained Masks, 93 Ominous Masks, 18 Tails of Boreas, and 3 Crowns of Insight.
You’ll need to kill even more Hilichurls for Xingqiu’s talents, though the rest of his talent materials differ from his ascension materials. To get Gold books, head to the Taishan Mansion domain on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays. Tails of Boreas can be obtained by defeating Andrius in the Wolf of the North Challenge. Finally, Crowns of Insight can be obtained through limited-time events or by making offerings to the Frostbearing Tree and the Sacred Sakura.
Constellations
If you’re using Xingqiu mainly for Elemental Reactions, he’ll be fine at Constellation 0, as he’s only there to apply the Hydro element. However, if you’re expecting him to do damage as your team's sub DPS, we’d recommend getting him to at least Constellation 2, which massively buffs his Elemental Burst. Here’s everything Xingqiu’s Constellations have in store:
- Constellation Lv. 1: The Scent Remained - Increases the maximum number of Rain Swords by 1.
- Constellation Lv. 2: Rainbow Upon the Azure Sky - Extends the duration of Guhua Sword: Raincutter by 3s. Decreases the Hydro RES of opponents hit by sword rain attacks by 15% for 4s.
- Constellation Lv. 3: Weaver of Verses - Increases the Level of Guhua Sword: Raincutter by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15.
- Constellation Lv. 4: Evilsoother - Throughout the duration of Guhua Sword: Raincutter, the DMG dealt by Guhua Sword: Fatal Rainscreen is increased by 50%.
- Constellation Lv. 5: Embrace of Rain - Increases the Level of Guhua Sword: Fatal Rainscreen by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15.
- Constellation Lv. 6: Hence, Call Them My Own Verses - Activating 2 of Guhua Sword: Raincutter's sword rain attacks greatly enhances the third sword rain attack. On hit, the third sword rain attack also regenerates 3 Energy for Xingqiu.
How to get Xingqiu in Genshin Impact
Xingqiu is a 4-star character, meaning he’s available at any time. He can be earned by wishing on any Genshin Impact banner, including Beginner's Wish, Wanderlust Invocation (standard), and all Weapon and Character Event Wish banners. He's also sometimes feature on a 5-star Character Event Wish banner with a boosted drop rate.
As a 4-star character who's been available since launch, Xingqiu is part of the rotating Paimon’s Bargains lineup, allowing him to be purchased with Starglitter. The Paimon’s Bargains lineup changes monthly, so make sure to check in at the start of each new month if you’re on a hunt for Xingqiu!
If you're planning on wishing for Xingqiu, check out our guide on getting characters to learn the best ways to prep, or our codes list to get some free Primogems!
That’s all the info we’ve got on Xingqiu! Why not check out our character tier list to see which other characters are good to wish for?
