How to build Xinyan for shield support in Genshin Impact
For this build, we’re going to focus primarily on Xinyan’s potential as a shield support character, though we’ll give details on how to build into her damage-dealing abilities as well. Simply put, Pyro DPS characters aren’t a rarity in Genshin Impact, and frankly Xinyan isn’t the best choice to fill that role if you have almost any other candidates; but Pyro shields are more or less Xinyan’s unique selling point, and Pyro support is a fairly rare specialisation as well.
Best weapon: Prototype Archaic
Alternative: Sacrificial Greatsword When putting together your Xinyan build, her elemental abilities should be the star of the show. Therefore, you want to equip her with a weapon that deals a decent chunk of damage so she can pull her weight and protect herself, but perhaps don’t want to focus on obtaining a 5-star Claymore for a character who won’t make the best use of it. Since Xinyan makes for such a good crowd control character, I recommend giving her the Prototype Archaic to slash away with between elemental attacks. With this weapon, there’s a 50% chance that her normal and charged attacks will deal a huge (minimum 240%) additional attack damage to enemies within a small radius. While it may be a fairly pedestrian alternative, the Sacrificial Greatsword is also a good choice of weapon for Xinyan, especially if you’re really leaning in to her elemental attacks. While wielding this weapon, there’s a minimum 40% chance that Xinyan’s Elemental Skill cooldown will end itself, allowing her to activate her Pyro powers more often.
Best artifacts: 2 pieces each from Gladiator’s Finale and Noblesse Oblige
Alternative: 2 pieces each from Bloodstained Chivalry and Noblesse Oblige The three best Artifact sets to mix-and-match for Xinyan are Gladiator’s Finale, Bloodstained Chivalry, and Noblesse Oblige. Equipping two items each from any two of these sets will grant Xinyan a hefty increase to, respectively, her attack damage, physical damage, or Elemental Burst damage (basically, pick the one you want to cut loose and focus on the other two, though I recommend keeping Elemental Burst Damage in the mix somewhere). For shield support, it’s best to lean heavily into DEF bonuses for Xinyan’s artifact stats and substats. Try to go for a combination along the following lines:
Circlet of Logos: CRITs Sands of Eon: DEF Goblet of Eonothem: DEF Substats: CRITs or ATK
Talent priority: Sweeping Fervor (Elemental Skill)
Secondary: Riff Revolution (Elemental Burst) Both of Xinyan’s Elemental Talents should be priority in her build, though which you put first depends on exactly how you want to deploy her within your party. Her Sweeping Fervor Elemental Skill creates a shield that’s most useful in her support capacity, while her Riff Revolution Elemental Burst is a more purely offensive move if you have Xinyan focusing on DPS. Xinyan’s full list of Talents is as follows:
Normal Attack: Dance on Fire Normal Attack - Performs up to 4 consecutive strikes. Charged Attack - Drains Xinyan’s Stamina over time to perform continuous spinning attacks against all nearby opponents. At end of the sequence, Xinyan performs a more powerful slash. Plunging Attack - Xinyan plunges from mid-air to strike the ground below, damaging opponents along her path and dealing AoE DMG upon impact. Elemental Skill: Sweeping Fervor - Xinyan brandishes her instrument, dealing Pyro DMG on nearby opponents and forming a shield. The shield’s DMG Absorption scales based on Xinyan’s Defense and on the number of opponents hit. When unleashed, the shield infuses Xinyan with Pyro and has 250% DMG Absorption effectiveness against Pyro DMG. Shield Level 1: Ad Lib - Hit 0-1 opponents. Shield Level 2: Lead-In - Hit 2 opponents. Shield Level 3: Rave - Hit 3+ opponents. At this level, the shield will also deal intermittent Pyro DMG to nearby opponents. Elemental Burst: Riff Revolution - Strumming rapidly, Xinyan launches nearby opponents and deals Physical DMG to them, hyping up the crowd. The sheer intensity of the atmosphere will cause explosions that deal Pyro DMG to nearby opponents. 1st Ascension Passive: “The Show Goes On, Even Without an Audience…” - Decreases the number of opponents Sweeping Fervor must hit to trigger each level of shielding. Shield Level 2: Lead-In - Requirement reduced to 1 opponent hit. Shield Level 3: Rave - Requirement reduced to 2+ opponents hit. 4th Ascension Passive: “…Now That’s Rock ‘N’ Roll!” - Characters shielded by Sweeping Fervor deal 15% increased Physical DMG. Utility Passive: A Rad Recipe - When Perfect Cooking is achieved on a Defense-boosting dish, Xinyan has a 12% chance to obtain double the product.
Party composition
DPS: Kaeya DPS/support: Fischl DPS/healing: Bennett Support/shields: Xinyan
5-star alternative: Eula replacing Kaeya as Cryo DPS Like most support characters with a specialised role, Xinycan can prove very useful in many different team combinations. We’ve listed her here as the team’s shield support character, but really the benefit of this particular composition is that every character gets the chance to do both DPS and support activities that play to their strengths. It’s a party built around its elemental resonances and reactions, but every character is more than capable of pulling off some powerful normal attacks, too. Pairing Bennett and Xinyan in the healer and shields support roles, respectively, gives you the passive benefit of their combined Fervent Flames Pyro resonance, which reduces the team’s vulnerability to Cryo attacks and increases their attack power by 25%. They’re both also dab hands at DPS, which means you can effectively cycle through the whole party triggering elemental and physical attacks for some serious sustained damage. Putting Xinyan (and Bennett) in with a Cryo DPS character allows them to trigger Melt, a reaction between Pyro and Cryo that massively increases the damage received by afflicted foes — particularly if the Cryo character stacks their elemental attack on top of one laid down by a Pyro support character. 4-star Cryo DPS candidates are thin on the ground in Genshin Impact and I have an admitted fondness for starting character Kaeya; but, conversely, there are almost too many 5-star Cryo DPS characters to choose from, and if you have one in your roster then it’s a good idea to substitute them for Kaeya. I’ve opted for Eula, but Ganyu and Ayaka get the job done just as well. Finally, round off the team with an Electro DPS/support-capable character, like Fischl. Activating the Super-Conduct reaction between Cryo and Electro will reduce foes’ defences and allow Xinyan’s Elemental Burst to spread across a wider area, increasing the damage she can deal when she switches to DPS mode around her shield duties.
How to level up Xinyan in Genshin Impact
Ascension Materials
In order to fully ascend Xinyan, you’ll need the following materials: Violetgrass can only be obtained in and around Xinyan’s native Liyue, either by foraging around the region’s cliffs or by purchasing from vendors in the town. The rest of Xinyan’s ascension materials are dropped by defeated enemies, primarily Treasure Hoarders and Pyro Regisvines.
Talents
To fully level up one of Xinyan’s talents, you’ll need: To triple crown Bennett’s talents, you’ll need to collect all these materials three times over. You can pick up the books required for Xinyan’s talents at the Taishan Mansion domain (Wednesday/Saturday/Sunday only), Tusks can only be picked up as rewards from completing the Childe Challenge at Level 70+. Finally, Crowns of Insight come from limited-time events or by making offerings to the Frostbearing Tree and the Sacred Sakura.
Constellations
Xinyan’s Constellations focus primarily on her normal weapon attacks and the damage dealt by her elemental Talents. Whether you want to focus on levelling up her Constellations will, therefore, largely depend on what role you have her playing in your party, since they make much more of her DPS than her shield support capabilities. On the other hand, as a 4-star character Xinyan is pretty easy to pull repeatedly, so you might find that you end up working through at least a few of her Constellations without even trying. Below is a full list of Xinyan’s Constellations:
Fatal Acceleration (Lvl 1): Upon scoring a Critical Hit, the Attack Speed of Xinyan’s Normal and Charged Attacks increase by 12% for 5s. (Can only occur once every 5s.) Impromptu Opening (Lvl 2): Riff Revolution’s Physical DMG has its Crit Rate increased by 100%, and will form a shield at Shield Level 3: Rave when cast. Double-Stop (Lvl 3): Increases the level of Sweeping Fervor by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15. Wildfire Rhythm (Lvl 4): Sweeping Fervor’s swing DMG decreases opponent’s Physical Resistance by 15% for 12s. Screamin’ for an Encore (Lvl 5): Increases the level of Riff Revolution by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15. Rockin’ in a Flaming World (Lvl 6): Decreases the Stamina Consumption of Xinyan’s Charged Attacks by 30%. Additionally, Xinyan’s Charged Attacks gain an Attack Bonus equal to 50% of her Defense.
How to get Xinyan in Genshin Impact
Since her introduction in Version 1.2, Xinyan has been available to pull from the gacha any time you Wish on the Wanderlust Invocation banner (standard wish). She’s also included in the wish pool of all Character Event Wishes and Weapon Event Wishes, and will sometimes feature on the former with a boosted drop rate. Whether you choose to put her centre-stage or have her playing back-up, you now know everything you need to put together your Xinyan build in Genshin Impact. Xinyan is just one of nearly forty heroes available in the game (at the time of writing, and the roster grows in number with every monthly update), so you’ll benefit from checking out our Genshin Impact character tier list to see who else you want for your party.
