Our Genshin Impact Xinyan build guide tells you exactly which weapons and artifacts are best when you use the claymore-wielding pyro rockstar in both a sub-DPS and main DPS role. We also outline what each of her skills does, let you know exactly what items you need to ascend her to the max level, and which other characters compliment her.
If you’re feeling out of the loop on the comings and goings of Teyvat, check out our Genshin Impact next banner and Genshin Impact codes guides. If you’re unsure which characters to use, head over to our Genshin Impact tier list, or visit our builds for Genshin Impact’s Freminet, Genshin Impact’s Klee, and Genshin Impact’s Collei for more powerful characters.
Let’s get rocking ‘n’ rolling with everything you need to know about Genshin Impact’s Xinyan.
What’s the best Genshin Impact Xinyan build?
Xinyan has been pretty underrated for some time now, but thanks to a lot of hard work from the dedicated fans over on r/XinyanMains and the awesome information they’ve put into the A Guide to Liyue’s Rockstar Google doc, we’ve found she can make a great sub-DPS and main DPS if you invest enough into her.
One of the biggest issues with getting the perfect Xinyan build is her split-scaling. Essentially, while her shield scales based on her defense, her burst scales off attack. This means you have to choose between building her with a passable shield and mediocre burst damage, or high burst damage and a pretty useless shield. For most circumstances, it’s best to go with the latter. Her defense scaling isn’t really worthwhile, whereas with the right attack-focused build, she can dish out some super strong damage.
When building Xinyan as a sub-DPS, it’s important to focus on energy recharge and strong physical damage, so you can whip her out and hit as hard as possible with her elemental burst, then pop her away while she recharges.
What are the best Genshin Impact Xinyan weapons?
For a sub-DPS build, Wolf’s Gravestone is a great choice as with the amount of attack it gives you, you can forgo physical damage on your goblet and replace it with energy recharge. Alternatively, the energy recharge given by both Skyward Pride and Sacrificial Greatsword, plus their handy skills, give some great utility to her kit.
When it comes to DPS weapons for Xinyan, Wolf’s Gravestone and Song of Broken Pines are about on par with each other. Their damage output is pretty close, but Song of Broken Pines’ skill is easier to trigger, making it just a touch handier. Skyward Pride is still great for its energy recharge, and really helps Xinyan’s burst damage potential, and at higher ranks it becomes even more powerful.
| Weapon | Effect | How to obtain |
| Wolf’s Gravestone | Bonus stat: attack Skill: Increases Xinyan’s attack by 20%. On hit, attacks against opponents with less than 30% HP increase all party members’ attack by 40% for 12 seconds. This can only occur once every 30s |
Gacha |
| Skyward Pride | Bonus stat: Energy recharge Skill: Increases all damage by 8%. After using an elemental burst, normal or charged attack, on hit, Skyward Pride creates a vacuum blade that does 80% of Xinyan’s attack as damage to opponents along its path. Lasts for 20 seconds or eight vacuum blades |
Gacha |
| Song of Broken Pines | Bonus stat: Physical damage bonus Skill: Increases attack by 16%, and when Xinyan’s normal or charged attacks hit opponents, she gains a Sigil of Whispers. This effect can be triggered once every 0.3 seconds. When Xinyan possesses four Sigils of Whispers, she consumes all of them and all nearby party members obtain the “Millennial Movement: Banner-Hymn” effect for 12 seconds. “Millennial Movement: Banner-Hymn” increases normal attack speed by 12% and increases attack by 20%. Once Xinyan triggers this effect, she will not gain Sigils of Whispers for 20 seconds |
Weapon event gacha |
| Sacrificial Greatsword | Bonus stat: Energy recharge Skill: After Xinyan deals damage to an opponent with her elemental skill, the skill has a 40% chance to end its own cooldown. This can only occur once every 30 seconds |
Gacha |
| Skyrider Greatsword | Bonus stat: Physical damage bonus Skill: On hit, Xinyan’s normal or charged attacks increase her attack by 6% for six seconds. This stacks a maximum of four times and can only occur once every 0.5 seconds |
Chests and a stone in Guyun Stone Forest |
What are the best Genshin Impact Xinyan artifacts?
Picking artifacts for Xinyan is an interesting one. A combination of Bloodstained Chivalry and Pale Flame is the best way to max out her physical damage and works for both her DPS and sub-DPS builds.
You can use either Emblem of Severed Fate for high energy recharge sub-DPS build, or Noblesse Oblige for a team-wide attack buff, though these trade out some hefty damage for utility.
| Artifact set | Effect | How to obtain |
| Bloodstained Chivalry | Two equipped: physical damage +25% Four equipped: increases the equipping character’s charged attack damage by 50% after they defeat an opponent, and reduces the stamina cost of their charged attack to zero for ten seconds |
Clear Pool and Mountain Cavern domain in Minlin, Mt. Aozang, or from the Bloodstained Chivalry Artifact Strongbox |
| Pale Flame | Two equipped: physical damage +25% Four equipped: increases attack by 9% for seven seconds when an elemental skill hits an opponent. This effect stacks up to two times, and you can trigger it once every 0.3 seconds. Once two stacks are reached, the two-set effect is doubled |
Ridge Watch domain on Bishui Plain in Liyue |
| Emblem of Severed Fate | Two equipped: energy recharge +20% Four equipped: increases elemental burst damage by 25% of energy recharge. You can obtain a maximum of 75% bonus damage in this way |
Momiji-Dyed Court domain on Yashiori Island in Inazuma |
| Noblesse Oblige | Two equipped: elemental burst damage +20% Four equipped: increases all party members’ attack by 20% for 12 seconds after using an elemental burst. This effect cannot stack |
Clear Pool and Mountain Cavern domain in Minlin, Mt. Aozang, or from the Noblesse Oblige Artifact Strongbox |
| Brave Heart | Two equipped: attack +18% Four equipped: increases damage against opponents with more than 50% HP by 30% |
Ridge Watch domain on Bishui Plain in Liyue, Domain of Guyun in Sea of Clouds, Guyun Stone Forest, Liyue, or Hidden Palace of Guizang Formula in Luhua Pool, Liyue |
Artifact stat recommendations
DPS main stats:
- Attack and attack%
- Crit damage
- Crit rate
DPS sub-stats:
- Energy recharge
- Physical damage
Sub-DPS main stats:
- Energy recharge
- Physical damage
Sub-DPS sub-stats:
- Attack and attack%
- Crit damage
- Crit rate
What are Genshin Impact Xinyan’s abilities?
Here are Xinyan’s abilities (or talents) and what they do. To level them up, you need to use violet grass, Treasure Hoarder Insignias, and Books of Gold from Taishan Mansion. At higher levels, her talents require Tusks of Monoceros Caeli from the weekly Childe boss. We recommend prioritizing increasing the level of her Riff Revolution ability first, as it offers the highest burst damage potential.
Active skills:
| Skill | Effect |
| Normal attack: Dance on Fire | Normal: Performs up to four consecutive strikes Charged: Slowly drains stamina to perform a spinning attack. At the end of the attack, she performs a slash Plunging: Plunges from mid-air to strike the ground, dealing AoE damage on impact |
| Elemental skill: Sweeping Fervor | Deals AoE pyro damage and forms a shield. The shield’s damage absorption scales to Xinyan’s defense and the number of enemies hit.
When the shield is unleashed, Xinyan is infused with pyro. The shield also has 250% pyro damage absorption |
| Elemental burst: Riff Revolution | Launches nearby enemies, dealing physical damage and causing explosions that deal AoE pyro damage |
Passive skills:
| Skill | Effect |
| “The Show Goes On, Even Without an Audience…” | The number of enemies you must hit to activate Sweeping Fervor’s shields is decreased.
|
| “…Now That’s Rock ‘N’ Roll!” | Characters shielded by Sweeping Fervor get a 15% damage increase |
| A Rad Recipe | When pulling off a perfect cook on a defense-boosting dish, Xinyan has a 12% chance to obtain double the product |
What are Genshin Impact Xinyan’s constellations?
To level up Xinyan’s constellations, you need to receive her as a duplicate when making a wish. C2 is important for increasing her crit rate and making her shield more viable, and with both C2 and C4 she has the potential to become one of the highest-burst characters in the game.
As mentioned above, she’s a very constellation-dependent character in general, with only her C6 feeling a little lackluster. Therefore, it’s important to get as many constellations for her as possible if you want her to be a valuable unit in your team. Here’s every bonus you receive from Xinyan’s constellations.
| Constellation | Effect |
| C1: Fatal Acceleration | Critical hits increase the attack speed of Xinyan’s normal and charged attacks by 12% for five seconds. This can only occur once every five seconds |
| C2: Impromptu Opening | Riff Revolution’s physical damage crit rate is increased by 100%. It will also form a shield at Shield Level three: Rave when cast |
| C3: Double Stop | Increases the level of Sweeping Fervor by three |
| C4: Wildfire Rhythm | The swing damage of Sweeping Fervor decreases the enemy’s physical resistance by 15% for 12 seconds |
| C5: Screaming for Encore | Increases the level of Riff Revolution by three |
| C6: Rocking in Flaming | The stamina consumption of charged attacks is decreased by 30%. Xinyan’s charged attack also gains an attack bonus equal to 50% of her defense |
What are Genshin Impact Xinyan’s ascension materials?
You need a lot violetgrass to ascend Xinyan. We recommend searching around the mountain area near Mingyun Village to build up a good stock. You can also buy it from Wangshu Inn and the Bubu Pharmacy in Liyue.
| Required level | Mora | Materials |
| 20 | 20k | One agnidus agate sliver, three violetgrass, three treasure hoarder insignia |
| 40 | 40k | Three agnidus agate fragment, two everflame seed, ten violetgrass, 15 treasure hoarder insignia |
| 50 | 60k | Six agnidus agate fragment, four everflame seed, 20 violetgrass, 12 silver raven insignia |
| 60 | 80k | Three agnidus agate chunk, eight everflame seed, 30 violetgrass, 18 silver raven insignia |
| 70 | 100k | Six agnidus agate chunk, 12 everflame seed, 45 violetgrass, 12 golden raven insignia |
| 80 | 120k | Six agnidus agate gemstone, 20 everflame seed, 60 violetgrass, 24 golden raven insignia |
What are Genshin Impact Xinyan’s talent materials?
Here are all the talent materials you need to turn one of Xinyan’s talents up to ten. You can farm the insignias by beating up treasure hoarders, find the talent books in Taishan Mansion, and grab the tusks once you defeat Childe’s weekly boss fight.
| Talent level | Mora | Materials |
| Two | 12.5k | Six treasure hoarder insignia, three teachings of gold |
| Three | 17.5k | Three silver raven insignia, two guide to gold |
| Four | 25k | Four silver raven insignia, four guide to gold |
| Five | 30k | Six silver raven insignia, six guide to gold |
| Six | 37.5k | Nine silver raven insignia, nine guide to gold |
| Seven | 120k | Four golden raven insignia, four philosophies of gold, one tusk of monoceros caeli |
| Eight | 260k | Six golden raven insignia, six philosophies of gold, one tusk of monoceros caeli |
| Nine | 450k | Nine golden raven insignia, 12 philosophies of gold, two tusk of monoceros caeli |
| Ten | 700k | 12 golden raven insignia, 16 philosophies of gold, two tusk of monoceros caeli, one crown of insight |
What are the best Genshin Impact Xinyan team comps?
Picking the best team for Xinyan depends on how you want to use her. Fitting her into the right comp can be a bit tricky, due to her weird status as a physical pyro damage dealer. Here are some recommendations for characters to team her up with, and why they work with Xinyan.
- Genshin Impact’s Zhongli – arguably the best shield in the game, Zhongli can make up for Xinyan’s weak shielding abilities and has the potential to offer high burst damage in her downtime
- Genshin Impact’s Bennett – Bennett activates pyro resonance alongside Xinyan, as well as offering heals and a hefty attack buff when built properly
- Genshin Impact’s Noelle – like Zhongli, Noelle’s shield can make up for what Xinyan lacks. At C6, she also makes a great DPS when burst characters are taking a moment to recharge
- Genshin Impact’s Fischl – one of the best batteries in Genshin Impact, Fischl generates plenty of energy particles while also providing consistent off-field electro damage for overload reactions
- Genshin Impact’s Diona – once again, Diona’s shield can help Xinyan while also offering decent healing. Of course, their abilities can also cause melt interactions, but due to their inconsistent elemental application, they aren’t something to rely on
- Genshin Impact’s Kazuha or Genshin Impact’s Sucrose – both of these offer abilities that group enemies together, apply plenty of anemo damage, and increase the damage of the whole team
- Genshin Impact’s Xingqiu – offers additional damage, helps the durability of Xinyan’s shield, and his hydro helps with some great elemental interactions
- Genshin Impact’s Raiden Shogun – another awesome battery, Raiden deals great damage while also enhancing her team’s burst damage, which aids our burst-reliant rockstar significantly
Here’s an example of a strong Xinyan team comp using some of these characters:
| First character slot | Second character slot | Third character slot | Fourth character slot |
 Xinyan |
 Zhongli |
 Fischl |
 Bennett |
That’s it for our Genshin Impact Xinyan guide. Once again, a massive thank you to the hard-working fans over at r/XinyanMains and the creator of the Google doc (NyxCrab#1954 on the Xinyan Discord) who helped us look at this rockin’ and rollin’ pyro queen in a new light. While you’re here, why not get acquainted with Hoyoverse’s new game in our Honkai Star Rail tier list and Honkai Star Rail codes guide? We’ve got build guides for those characters too, including Honkai Star Rail’s Luka, Honkai Star Rail’s Clara, and Honkai Star Rail’s Topaz.
