Character design has always been one of the key elements of Genshin Impact, and a large roster of different characters has allowed Genshin Impact to stand out amongst the crowd of other Gacha games. Every character has unique abilities and kits, allowing players to play the game according to the playstyle they enjoy.

However, with over 60 playable characters, deciding what characters to pull for can get really difficult. This is especially true for complete F2P players who are always saving up for the characters that provide the most value.

In this guide, we will take a look at some of the most valuable characters in Genshin Impact based on their versatility and strength. We will also take a look at how flexible they are in terms of different team compositions.

The list here will also consider the new Dendro element and feature characters based on Dendro reactions. Dendro element is the newest element added in Genshin Impact that has allowed for some new reactions such as a Bloom, Hyperbloom, Quicken, Aggravate, Burning, and Burgeon.

Whether you're a veteran or just starting out, this guide will help you make informed decisions and save your primogems for the most valuable characters to beat all odds throughout your journey across Teyvat.

Nahida

Nahida, the Dendro Archon, is one of the new characters introduced in Genshin Impact not long ago. If you are interested in playing teams revolving around the Dendro element, Nahida is the one character that you must have on your team. She is extremely flexible and works in many different teams, not just Dendro teams. She also works great both on-field and off-field.

Nahida's Dendro application is second to none as of now and will probably stay the same, considering she is the Dendro Archon. Nahida marks the enemies with her skill, and the mark stays on multiple enemies for a long time, dealing dendro damage upon any elemental reaction. And yes, the Dendro damage dealt by her skill is activated when ANY elemental reaction occurs, not just Dendro reactions (Bloom, Hyeprbloom, etc.). She also has no Internal Cooldown (ICD) on her skill. This means every reaction or hit will cause to apply Dendro. And all the linked enemies (up to 8 at a time) are damaged when any of the marked enemies is hurt.

It is also extremely easy to build Nahida if you are using her as a Dendro support which is the case 99% of the time you have her on your team. All you need is Elemental Mastery pieces on her. If you can get some set bonuses that's also good, such as the Deepwood Memories set that shreds the enemies' Dendro resistance.

If you're a new player, having her on your team will make the game a walk in the park if you pair her with an electro and a hydro character for Hyperbloom reactions. Not only does she work well as a strong Dendro applicator, but she also deals massive personal damage even at low investment. She has good multipliers for personal damage, so she is worth leveling up and upgrading.

Kaedehara Kazuha

Kazuha, aka our Maple Boy, has remained relevant since his release in version 1.6. Kazuha is one of the most versatile Anemo 5-star characters and a must-pull. There are several reasons why you need Kazuha on your team. He is such a versatile character that he can be slotted into several team compositions.

Kazuha is an excellent unit for crowd control. His skill allows him to pull enemies in as he jumps high into the air, allowing players to plunge back down, dealing plunge damage to all the enemies he has gathered. On top of that, Kazuha provides elemental bonus damage by shredding the enemy's elemental resistance.

Kazuha is extremely F2P-friendly to build, as all you need is a Viridescent Venerer artifact set with all Elemental Mastery pieces on him. He deals a lot of damage when you swirl an element. He also provides an Elemental Mastery buff to other characters in your party if you have his constellation 2 (C2).

His skill cooldown is also very fast and allows you to spam his skill within reasonable intervals for better crowd control. One can argue that Venti is also good at crowd control which is true. However, the Anemo Archon Venti's burst sucks all the enemies into one spot but keeps them afloat, making it difficult to hit them with melee combos or elemental reactions.

While Kazuha is a complete 5-star unit at constellation 0 (C0), he becomes extremely strong with more constellations, especially at C2, which allows you to increase Kazuha's and other party members' Elemental Mastery by 200.

Kazuha is also great for exploring the vast open world of Genshin Impact, as his skill allows you to jump higher into the air, making it easier to reach difficult-to-reach areas. This also comes in handy when gliding to a location and almost reaching the edge. Just a simple skill use will give you a bit of a jump to reach your destination.

Sangonomiya Kokomi

Kokomi is one of the most flexible units that any team requiring hydro support can utilize. Kokomi, released in 2.1, is a 5-star hydro unit with exceptional healing capabilities. She is also well-known for her hydro application in freeze teams. Her hydro application is one of the best in-game that allows cryo units to freeze opponents indefinitely.

Kokomi's skill, Kugare's Oath, allows her to heal herself and all the party members in a large radius. Her healing efficiency is also second to none and allows her to heal up to 8k per tick of her skill. Just remember, if you have Kokomi in your, your characters will never die.

Her burst also works similarly to her skill, and the cooldowns are consistent with each other, allowing for her to have a 100% healing uptime if used correctly. It's because her skill's cooldown is 15 seconds, and the duration of the healing effect lasts for 10 seconds.

Kokomi's passive, Princess of Watatsumi, reduces the cooldown of her skill, Kurage's Oath, by 2 seconds for every enemy she hits with her charged attack. With proper timing, you can have a hundred percent skill uptime.

Kokomi is also extremely easy to build as all you need is HP% and Healing Bonus pieces on her. If you go with her signature Ocean-Hued Clam set, you can also deal some physical damage thanks to the 4-piece set bonus.

Kokomi had always been a valuable premium unit in freeze compositions, but now she has a newfound popularity and purpose thanks to the introduction of the new Dendro reactions such as Bloom and Hyperbloom.

Raiden Shogun

The Electro Archon, Raiden Shogun, is a 5-star character and has always been one of the most broken characters allowing players to break their high damage numbers. But, with the introduction of the Hyperbloom reaction, she has overtaken the Dendro teams by storm.

It has always been a struggle for people in the early days of her release, when players were still trying to find how to properly build Raiden Shogun. As long as you've got the Emblem of Severed Fates artifact set with over 250% Energy Recharge and a 50:100 Crit Rate to Crit Damage ratio, you will deal over 100k damage with proper support.

However, due to the RNG element involved in artifacts farming, players have started to ditch the classic Raiden National team (consisting of Raiden Shogun, Xingqui, Bennett, and Xiangling) in favor of building an all-EM Raiden Shogun for Hyperbloom reactions.

As long as you give her EM pieces and generate enough Dendro cores for her to proc, she will deal a lot of damage. She is one of the best Electro units in Hyperbloom teams, along with a 4-star Kuki Shinobu.

If you wish to build her as the main DPS of your team, you can also do that, as she is a very strong damage dealer, regardless. And she fits in many different team comps thanks to her skill that works off-field.

One of the key reasons why you must pull for Raiden Shogun is her ability to provide energy for every member of her party. Raiden Shogun has a passive talent called 'Enlightened One,' which increases the Energy recharge of all the characters in a party by 20% when they are affected by an Electro-related elemental reaction such as Superconduct, Overloaded, Electro-charged, etc.

Nilou

If you love playing Bloom teams, Nilou is the character for you. Nilou has a very niche playstyle and is restricted to only Bloom teams due to her character kit design. Nilou is a 5-star hydro unit that scales off of HP, so it is easy to build her for a massive damage output thanks to her unique Bountiful Cores.

That's right. When you use her skill on a Dendro-affected character, she will not produce the regular Dendro Cores, but instead Bountiful Cores. These Bountiful Cores will blast very quickly compared to Dendro Cores and will cause an explosion in a large radius, dealing a lot of damage. You cannot cause Hyperbloom or Burgeon reactions with Bountiful Cores.

Nilou not only provides Elemental Mastery to other members of her party but also has a passive talent called 'Dreamy Dance of Aeons,' which allows her to deal more Bountiful Core explosion damage. For each 1,000 HP above 30,000 HP Nilou has, the damage increases by 9%. The maximum achievable damage in this way is 400%.

Nilou must be in her third dance step for all the above to occur. She is definitely F2P-friendly and easy to build as long as you have the right team. You might need a healer in your team, as the core explosions will damage you as well. This is why Kokomi is essential in this team, as she fills the role of a hydro unit and a healer. Nilou also works great with Nahida.

Yelan

Yelan is one of the strongest 5-star hydro units in Genshin Impact. She is extremely fun to play with and deals a lot of damage. The best way to describe her is that Yelan C0 is equal to Xingqui at C6. But she is even better, of course. She is a 5-star unit, after all.

She can fill not only the role of a hydro applicator and main DPS but also a sub-DPS. Yelan is also very easy to build and requires Emblem of Severed Fate with giving priority to HP%, Crit Rate, and Crit Damage. She is a F2P-friendly unit, as 4-star weapons also work great on her.

Her skill allows her to run really fast across the map and does not consume any stamina. And it can also be used to have some form of crowd control. The crowd control is definitely not the best, but it slightly pulls in the characters toward Yelan.

You can also use her skill to damage enemies with shields. For example, if you have a Mitachurl with a wooden or geo shield, you can use her skill to damage the enemies through them. It completely ignores the fact that an enemy has a shield since her rope wraps around the enemy's body.

Now, the best thing about Yelan is her off-field damage capabilities and burst-tracking ability. Her burst can track enemies and hit them without having the need to aim yourself. Overall she is a fun and strong 5-star unit that will elevate your account to the next level.

Kuki Shinobu

When Kuki Shinobu was first released, she was battered to the ground. However, ever since the release of the Dendro element, she has been consistently used by users to clear the Spiral Abyss. This is all thanks to the new Hyperbloom reaction.

Kuki Shinobu scales off of Elemental Mastery and HP. However, just having 900+ Elemental Mastery on her is more than enough for her to be the main DPS of your Hyperbloom team. Since you only use her skill to activate the cores, you don't have to worry about any Crit Rate, Crit Damage, or Energy Recharge for her.

However, if you get HP/HP% substat, prioritize those pieces over the ones without them. This is because her healing efficiency scales off of her HP. Fortunately, her healing efficiency is also increased by 75% of her EM, and her damage dealt is increased by 25% of her EM, thanks to her A4 passive. Aim for at least 900+ EM.

Xingqui

Xingqui is a 4-star Hydro character that has received nothing but positive feedback since his release. The character is extremely strong and deals massive damage as long as you meet the bare minimum requirements. Most of his damage also comes from his burst, the Rain Swords. That is why the Emblem of Severed Fate 4-piece artifact set is the best for him.

Xingqui is a 4-star character that is easily obtainable for F2P players and is also occasionally available in the Paimon's Bargain store for players to purchase using their Masterless Starglitter. This allows F2P players to get his constellations. And at C6, Xingqui is equal to C0 Yelan. So we highly advise you to invest in his constellations as he is a character that won't disappoint. Xingqui appears in the store during March and September.

As long as you build him with a 50:100 Crit Rate to Crit Damage ratio with over 200% Energy Recharge, he will be a great support and sub-DPS for your teams. To this very day, he is being used in almost all teams, whether it's a Hyperbloom team, Bloom team, Melt team, Vape team, or Freeze team. He can be used in all of them due to his versatility.

Xiangling

Xiangling is a 4-star Pyro character and a great choice if you're looking for a unit that deals excellent AoE Pyro damage. She is one of the first choices in every team comp that needs to do Melt and Overload reactions. And now she is also used in Burgeon teams since the introduction of Dendro.

Her main damage comes from her burst, and the best part about Xiangling is that just like Xingqui, she also gets extremely strong with more constellations. One of her best constellations is C4 which increases her burst duration by 40%.

Xiangling appears in the store during January & July alongside Fischl. Xiangling is also a versatile character and is used in many team comps. The most popular team is the Raiden national. Xiangling is very easy to build as well.

Bennett

Bennet is a 4-star Pyro character that buffs your teams damage and provides healing. While Bennett is definitely not a character suitable for Dendro reaction teams, he is still a highly valuable character in other teams. The supportive abilities of Bennett are one of the reasons why he is still being used by many, even after the introduction of Dendro.

Bennett is an extremely powerful healer. When your team members or Bennett are on-field and inside Bennett's burst field, they will heal. In addition, being inside the burst field also buffs their attack simultaneously. This makes him a great support in many different team comps.

Bennett does have a high energy cost, so make sure you have at least 200% Energy Recharge. Bennett's C6 is often criticized as it can cause unintended effects not desired in team comps, such as freeze or melt.

His C6 disregards most of the elemental reactions, as most of the characters with melee weapons get them infused with Pyro. This is especially not desired for players who use Eula as her weapon will be infused with Pyro and won't be able to deal physical damage.

Bennet is also available for purchase from Paimon's bargain during May & November. But we highly advise you to stop at C5 if you want to slot him in a variety of team comps.