Genshin Impact Xinyan Build and Guide

by Skyfrid

Xinyan’s skills are a split between pyro and physical damage. She also has the capabilities of forming a shield to protect herself and her teammates from harm. Xinyan has a mix of physical DMG, Pyro DMG, and shield generation, making her a versatile character. She can provide both defense and offense, but isn’t the best at any of them because her skillset is spread widely between them both. Xinyan doesn’t know whether to be a tank or DPS in most cases. Lastly, her potential is locked behind her constellation levels and requires at least C2 for her to compete with other characters.

Xinyan’s normal attack, Dance on Fire, consists of 4 heavy strikes with her claymore. Her skill set relies heavily on her Physical DMG, so her normal attack should be strong against the enemy. She also gets an ATK% boost based on her ascension level, making her hits even more powerful. At C6, her charged attack gets a buff and will reduce the stamina used and increase its damage based on Xinyan’s DEF. As a physical attacker, I wouldn’t recommend raising her DEF stat that high because it would cut into her normal attacks that don’t get that buff.

Xinyan’s elemental skill, Sweeping Fervor, deals Pyro DMG to nearby enemies and forms a shield around her. This shield scales with her DEF stat and characters will take less DMG from Pyro attacks when protected by her shield. Her shield will have different levels, depending on the number of enemies hit. Hitting 3 or more enemies will grant her Shield Level: Rave, and deal Pyro DMG to nearby enemies. This skill is great for protecting Xinyan and your other party members from Pyro DMG. However, most Pyro enemies are immune or resistant to pyro attacks, making her pyro attacks useless. Both her ascension talents will provide a boost to her shield. At Ascension 1, the amount of enemies needed to reach level 3 is reduced to 2, and at Ascension 4, characters protected by her shield get a boost to their physical attack. Her Ascension 4 talent is especially good to increase her potential as a Physical DPS. The shield is also helpful in providing a boost to other physical DPS like Razor while protecting them from damage at the same time.

Xinyan’s elemental burst, Riff Revolution, will unleash an initial Physical DMG explosion and blast them with Pyro DMG afterward. Her burst deals both types of damage to the enemy, so it will be hard to find a balance to increase her physical DMG or elemental DMG. The cooldown is only 15 seconds, making it relatively short. I would focus on her overall ATK% and Physical DMG% because of Xinyan’s C2 and C4 effects. At C2, her Crit Rate increases by 100% when she uses her burst, guaranteeing a critical hit. If she hits a critical hit, Xinyan will also increase her ATK SPD with her C1 skill. Her C4 effect will also lower the physical defenses of the enemies. If you have her at a high constellation level, her kit focuses a lot more on her Physical DPS potential.

Xinyan is more of a single-mode character. She doesn’t offer much support in co-op play, besides dealing damage.

Passive Talents

Most of Xinyan’s passive talents provide a boost to her elemental skill, Sweeping Fervor.

Her first talent, A Rad Recipe, will give you a 12% to obtain an extra DEF-boosting dish when cooking. This skill is shared with Noelle, which is a character that anything can get through the Beginning Wishes banner. This nullifies the effectiveness of this skill because you only need 1 character to cook and most players will already have Noelle.

At Ascension 1, Xinyan gets the talent “…Now That’s Rock ‘N’ Roll!” This talent grants characters protected by her shield a boost to their Physical DMG. This skill allows Xinyan to support both herself and other Physical DPS units in your team.

“The Show Goes On, Even Without an Audience…”, allows Xinyan to easily gain more shield levels by lowering the number of enemies hits required. This skill is great if there aren’t a lot of enemies around like in a boss fight.

Note: Xinyan gets a boost to her ATK% based on her ascension rank.

Constellations

Xinyan’s constellation levels are needed for her to really shine. Her constellations increase her physical skillset, allowing her to deal more damage. Depending on her constellation level, her build and role in a team will be different. She should at least be C2 for her to provide decent physical coverage for your team.

C1:Fatal Acceleration will increase Xinyan’s ATK SPD whenever she scores a CRIT HIT by 12%. If you only have her at C1, CRIT Rate will be viable in her build to trigger this effect. As a claymore user, her hits are slow, but this effect will allow her to hit enemies faster.

At C2: Impromptu Opening, Xinyan starts to become a powerful physical DPS unit. This raises her Crit Rate by 100% when she uses her elemental burst, dealing massive Physical DMG to surrounding enemies. The skill will also form a shield and deal Pyro DMG to nearby enemies.

C4: Wildfire Rhythm will decrease enemies’ Physical RES by 15% when she uses her elemental skill. This skill is useful to deal more damage to the enemy.

C6: Rocking in Flaming will increase the power of Xinyan’s charged attacks. It will decrease the stamina consumed and give her a power boost based on her defense stats. This skill is decent and will rely on your play style and build for her. It also only affects her charged attack, so building up her defense isn’t recommended for just this buff.

Constellation 0 Build

At 0 constellation levels, Xinyan should act more like a support character for other physical DPS units like Razor. Her shield can absorb damage and help shield her teammates. Her passive talent at ascension 4 will also increase the physical damage of any character protected by her shield. Your team should be built around providing support to your physical DPS. Having two pyro units in the team will also increase ATK% for everyone in the team. Bennett is a powerful support character that can boost ATK% and heal with his elemental burst. Diona can provide coverage with her long-ranged attacks and can also provide a shield that can boost movement speed. The skills you should focus on are Xinyan’s elemental skill and burst. Her normal attack is optional if you want to attack with her. For this build, you should focus on using her elemental burst and skill, then switching to another character to deal damage.

Recommended Weapons

Xinyan’s recommended weapons should be either the Prototype Aminus or the Whiteblind. You can use a five-star weapon like the Wolf’s Gravestone, but at C0, Xinyan won’t be able to utilize it properly. The Prototype Aminus is a farmable weapon that boosts Xinyan’s attack. It can also deal ATK DMG to surrounding enemies every 15 seconds. The Whiteblind can also be crafted and increases her overall DEF. The passive effects of this weapon will increase Xinyan’s ATK and DEF when she hits an enemy. I recommended the Whiteblind over the Prototype Aminus because it can boost her DEF, which scales with her shield.

Other weapons you can use are The Bell, Favonius Greatsword, and the Sacrificial Greatsword. The Bell will absorb DMG based on Xinyan’s HP. It will also create a shield and increase Xinyan’s damage. The Favonius Greatsword will increase her energy recharge for you to her burst faster. Crit Hits will also generate additional energy to recharge her burst. Lastly, the Sacrificial Greatsword will reset the cooldown of her elemental skill after damaging an enemy. This weapon is great for Xinyan because of her heavy reliance on her elemental skill in this build.

For 3-star weapons you can use, the White Iron Greatsword can be used to increase Xinyan’s DEF and heal her. The Debate Club can also be useful in increasing Xinyan’s attack after using her elemental skill. However, These weapons won’t be as effective in the late game.

Recommended Artifacts

Xinyan has 2 artifact sets she can use for this build. My preferred set is the Noblesse Oblige because of its 4-piece set bonus that will buff another character’s ATK by 20% when Xinyan switches to them. This set will also increase the power of her elemental burst by 20%. If you are using Noblesse Oblige on another character like Diona or Bennett, you can use a 2-piece Bloodstained Chivalry or a 2-piece Gladiator’s Finale along with a 2-piece Noblesse Oblige to boost Xinyan’s Physical ATK% or ATK%. The stats you should mainly focus on are Energy Recharge, Physical ATK%, ATK%, and DEF. Focus on Energy Recharge if you plan on using her burst often. Physical ATK% and ATK% will help you deal more damage with her burst. Xinyan’s shield scales with DEF, so you should have sub stats in DEF on her artifacts. I wouldn’t recommend having DEF as the main stat on her artifacts unless you want to use her as a tank.

Constellation 2 Build

Xinyan’s potential is locked behind her constellation levels. At C2, she can become an incredible Burst DPS unit with her elemental burst and physical DMG. With her C1 skill, her ATK SPD will increase whenever she lands a critical hit. Her constellation 2 skill will also allow her to land a critical hit with her elemental burst. This skill increases her Crit Rate by 100% when she uses Riff Revolution, which can deal massive amounts of Physical DMG to nearby enemies. It will also form a level 3 shield to protect Xinyan from damage. This is where Xinyan will shine the most and deal the most damage.

Having her at C4 is optional, to decrease enemy Physical RES when hit by her elemental skill. This build is mostly focused on her elemental burst, but can be revamped for a more Physical DPS build as well. Her teammates can include a variety of characters that can provide elemental reactions and support. You should primarily level up Xinyan’s elemental burst and normal attack to increase her DPS potential. Her elemental skill is optional if you want to build her shield protection.

Recommended Weapons

For her recommended weapon, the Skyward Pride is the perfect weapon due to its energy recharge secondary stat to use her burst more often. The Skyward Pride can increase Xinyan’s overall DMG and will deal Physical DMG to surrounding enemies after you use her burst or normal attack. You can also use the Wolf’s Gravestone for more ATK on Xinyan for a Physical DPS build.

Her second option is the Favonius Greatsword. This weapon will generate elemental energy for her burst every time you hit a Crit. This pairs nicely with her C2 skill, because you are guaranteed a Crit every time you use her burst.

The Whiteblind or Prototype Aminus are also decent weapons to use if you don’t have access to the two above weapons because they can be crafted from the materials gathered from the world bosses.

Recommended Artifacts

For her recommended artifact set, I would go for a mix between the Bloodstained Chivalry set and the Noblesse Oblige set. The Bloodstained Chivalry will increase her physical damage while the Noblesse Oblige will boost Xinyan’s elemental burst. Both of these sets are meant to power up her elemental burst damage. You can also switch the Noblesse Oblige with a Gladiator’s Finale if you want a more Physical DPS build. The main stat you should focus on is Crit DMG%. You are already guaranteed a critical hit on her burst, so Crit Rate is less important for this build. Energy recharge is also important to use her burst more often. Lastly, Physical ATK% and overall ATK% will help boost her damage output. Focus on the last two if you want to build her as a Physical DPS.