Being a gacha game,Genshin Impact’s characters are not made equal. While (almost) every character has a solid use, there are those that are objectively better than others. Some are so good, in fact, that trying to play without them can mean making your time in Genshin a lot harder than it needs to be.
If you’re a casual player who’s only playing because you love the world of Teyvat, it’s perfectly fine to pull for whoever you like the best. However, if you’re aiming to create an account full of characters that can beat the Spiral Abyss and the Imaginum Theater, here are the best characters to pull for from a meta standpoint!
10Sucrose
Best Viridescent Venerer User
For any decent Genshin Impact account, you’ll need anAnemo character than can make use of the Viridescent Venerer setdue to its immense buff that decreases enemy Elemental RES. While any Anemo character can do the job, for four-star characters, no one else comes close toSucrose.
Sucrose provides a large number of Elemental Particles due to how many times you can use her skill. She also provides decent grouping, as well as plenty of buffs through her constellations and Ascension Passives.
9Xiangling
Best Pyro Off-Field DPS
The queen of memes and copypasta herself,Xianglingis such a strong character that she can often do more damage than your on-fielder. Being one of the earliest characters released, it’s clear the developers didn’t put too much thought into balancing her for a four-star. We likely won’t ever see a four-star with such high DPS as an off-fielder until the last days of Genshin.
Snapshotting skills are those that calculate their values when they get cast, including any buffs. Dynamic skills, on the other hand, are those that change their attributes with time.
What makes Xiangling so strong is certain attributes of her Elemental Burst’s Pyronado, a whirling wheel of fire that spins around your active character. This wheel has no ICD, which means Xiangling can apply Pyro and trigger reactions more than once a second, making her the fastest off-field Pyro in the game. Pyronado also snapshot buffs, letting Xiangling exploit buffs with shorter durations or those that only affect the active character, such as Bennett’s; simply put her on enough Energy Recharge, give a Favonius weapon to a teammate like Bennett, and watch your enemies burn to ashes!
8Fischl
Best Off-Field Electro
Electro characters benefit greatly from hitting fast due to the nature of reactions such as Electrocharged or Aggravate and Spread. Fortunately, the best Electro character for these roles is a four-star character, that beingFischl!
Fischl has immense off-field damage and Electro application, increasing even more as you get her constellations. Her A4 Passive lets Oz deal an instance of Electro damage whenever your on-fielder triggers a reaction, and her C6 has Oz hit enemies that you use Normal Attacks on. Overall, due to the sheer versatility of Fischl as an off-field DPS, as well as her superb Particle generation, she’s one of the best four stars unit for any account.
7Xingqiu
Best Off-Field Hydro Application
Xingqiuprovides pretty much everything when it comes to being a good support, even more so than his five-star peers. He has great defensive utility with DMG Reduction and Interruption RES, as well as a small amount of healing. He also deals good damage while being thebest Hydro support in the gamefor characters that want to Vape their hits, such as Hu Tao.
Furthermore, since Hydro is one of the best elements in Genshin impact due to all its reactions being great, Xingqiu’s fast application means for any team that would want a Hydro unit (which would be most teams in Genshin) Xingqiu would be one of the top choices!
6Bennett
Best ATK Buff In The Game
Often jokingly referred to as the true Pyro Archon,Bennettis a four-star Pyro support that has decent healing and a huge buff. This buff, granted by his Elemental Burst, Fantastic Voyage, is one of the best in the entire game, granting you the biggest bonus to your ATK of any other support.
Bennett works with any character that scales well with ATK, making him a perfect fit for pretty much all teams that perform the best in the Spiral Abyss. While his universality has gone down a bit due to the release of solid HP scaling characters and the addition to Dendro, no account won’t benefit from a high constellation Bennett.
5Nahida
Best Dendro Support
Dendro shifted the Genshin Impact meta greatly by introducing you to entirely new reactions that broke the game such as Hyperbloom or even Aggravate. This shift still stands true, with many of the top teams consisting of Dendro characters, such asNilouorAlhaithamteams, or good oldHyperbloom.
Of the three teams we just mentioned,Nahidais the best in-slot in all three. This is due to the sheer amount of benefits a Nahida can provide Dendro teams with: an Elemental Mastery buff, lots of off-field Dendro application, Dendro Energy, as well as very significant personal damage. If you ever plan on working toward a Dendro team, which you should, Nahida will almost always be the best option, making her a pull you’ll never regret.
4Kazuha
Best Universal Buff In The Game
Many considerKaedehara Kazuhato be the five-star version of Sucrose. While the truth is certainly more nuanced, there’s no arguing that Kazuha provides a lot of things that Sucrose doesn’t. His grouping is better, he deals higher damage, and his buff is also much more universal.
Kazuha can perform Double Swirls by applying Pyro to himself with Bennett’s Fantastic Voyage and another element like Cryo or Hydro on an enemy.
Kazuha’s buff directly affects the Elemental DMG Bonus of the Swirled element instead of a specific stat like ATK or Elemental Mastery. This makes his buff apply to any character (except Dendro, Anemo, or Geo) regardless of whether they scale off of EM, ATK, HP, or DEF. This makes Kazuha the single best Viridescent Venerer user in the game, and with how many top teams need a VV user, this makes Kazuha one of the most important characters for any account focusing on improving their DPS.
3Furina
Everyone Is Fontainian
Many of the best characters in Genshin Impact do the same thing, just in different ways. Zhongli andLaylaboth give shields, Sucrose and Kazuha both buff allies, and Fischl andYae Mikoboth deal off-field Electro damage. However,Furinadoes something for your account no other character can.
The Marechaussee Hunter hasone of the best artifact effectsin Genshin, giving you a huge 33 percent CRIT Rate at all times. However, since this is tied to both taking and healing damage, something you might not always be doing, only Fontaine characters able to drain their HP can make full use of it. However, Furina’s ability to deal damage to allies lets any character utilize it to its fullest extent, on top of the already massive buff that Furina gives with her Elemental Burst.
2Zhongli
Unbreakable Shield
Zhongli fills a very simple role, but he’s the best at it. He’s thebest shielder in the gameby a huge margin, having an almost unbreakable shield. He also grants a decent Elemental RES shred to enemies near the shield, but little else in terms of utility or personal damage.
The reason Zhongli is an amazing pull is not due to how much he increases any of your teams' DPS. Instead, it’s due to the sheer comfort he provides, letting you play more casually without focusing too much on dodging to survive. Zhongli can also be put in any team as the last slot without interfering with reactions, making him the single most versatile character in the game.
1Xilonen
Universal Elemental Shred
Xilonen fills the same role as Kazuha, being a universal buffer due to her ability to shred Elemental RES, as well asher access to the Scroll of The Hero of Cinder Cityartifact set, another absurdly strong artifact set that grants your active character even more buffs.
The Scroll of The Hero of Cinder City set buffs don’t stack. If you have any other party member on the set, using a different one on Xilonen is always better.
There are certain differences between the two. Xilonen’s buff lasts a longer time, whereas Kazuha provides more personal damage and a slightly bigger buffer. If you’re too concerned about which one to choose, going for both of them is a perfectly fine option, as they can be paired up together orput in different teamsdue to their buffs stacking.
