5 best Genshin Impact characters you should be using

James Busby
Genshin Impact characters next to the logo

MiHoYo’s latest free-to-play title, Genshin Impact, continues to be a huge hit amongst anime and action role-playing fans alike. In order to make your journey through Teyvat as painless as possible, we’ve covered 5 of the best characters you should add to your party. 

Genshin Impact’s Breath of the Wild-inspired world is absolutely brimming with colorful characters, deadly mobs, dangerous dungeons, and monolithic bosses. However, unlike Nintendo’s open-world masterpiece, Genshin Impact’s combat largely revolves around party synergies. In fact, the game’s best players constantly switch between characters in order to combine each unit’s unique abilities. 

Not only does this mechanic allow for some extremely flashy spell combinations, it also enables you to make short work of Genshin Impact’s most notorious foes. Of course, you’ll need to hope the gacha gods are in your favor as pulling the game’s best characters can prove difficult, especially if you’re aiming to snag yourself elusive ultra-rare five star pulls. 

While you can get through all the current content with just the game’s base characters, you’ll want to add the following units to your party if you wish to maximize your DPS. 

Fischl

Fischl abilities
Fischl is an excellent addition to most team comps.

This electrifying archer offers some shockingly good combo setups thanks to her elemental summon, Oz. Fischl’s deadly raven deals consistent Electro damage to nearby enemies for the ability’s duration, effectively doubling your damage output. The great thing about this move is that it stays on the battlefield even when you switch to another character. 

Meanwhile, Fischl’s ultimate sees her take Oz’s form. During the ultimate, she receives increased movement speed and can quickly inflict multiple enemies with lightning. This move is best used in coordination with other character ultimates to unleash devastating AoE elemental effects. 

For example, one of Genshin Impact’s most lethal elemental combos is Superconduct. This elemental blast lowers the target’s defense and is triggered whenever an enemy takes Cryo and Electro damage. Once activated, simply switch out to your strongest physical attacker to quickly mop up the battlefield. Fischl’s high versatility and overall team synergy make her a must pick.

Venti

Venti ability
If you manage to pull this five-star character, then you’re in for a treat.

Venti is currently one of the most highly sought after characters in the game due to his superior crowd control capabilities. His Skyward Sonnet deals wind damage and knocks up all foes, giving you plenty of opportunities to reposition or go on the offensive. Meanwhile, Venti’s ultimate (Wind’s Grand Ode) pulls nearby objects and enemies together.

This move is absolutely huge as it not only stops all foes from attacking, it also allows for some incredibly lethal elemental combinations. In fact, you can quickly decimate hordes of enemies in one fell swoop. For example, if the hurricane comes into contact with either Hydro/Pyro/Cryo/Electro elements, it will deal additional damage and spread there effects.

If that wasn’t enough, Venti’s Storm Eye passive regenerates 15 energy to all characters when an elemental combo has occurred, drastically lowering your party’s ultimate cooldowns and increasing your overall damage output. Lastly, the bard’s Skyward Sonnet also speeds up exploration as you can ride the wind’s current to reach higher vantage points. It’s certainly not hard to see why this godly entity remains a staple pick. 

Diluc

Diluc ability
Setting your opponents ablaze is all part of the fun when playing as Diluc.

While Amber’s fiery arrows are essential to beating armored units and solving Genshin Impact’s various overworld puzzles, you’ll almost certainly want to switch her out for Diluc when you get the chance. Swinging a blazing claymore around doesn’t just look incredibly cool, it’s also extremely powerful. In fact, Diluc currently has one of the highest DPS rates in the entire game thanks to his excellent Combat Talents.

His Soaring Onslaught ability sees the pyromaniac perform a forward slash that deals heavy fire damage up to three times before going into cooldown. This allows you to quickly set fire to multiple targets and create some early-game elemental combos. However, it’s Diluc’s ultimate that really hits like a truck. 

Once activated, Diluc releases a fiery inferno that both damages and knocks back all nearby enemies. The surrounding flames converge into Diluc’s claymore, then transform into a Phoenix which explodes when it comes into contact with enemy units. These abilities absolutely melt through both mobs and bosses, especially when you compliment his fiery plays with other elemental combos. 

Qiqi

Qiqi abilities
Qiqi decimates enemies with her chilling abilities.

Qiqi may look small and unintimidating but this pint-sized tot is capable of unleashing some pretty big damage numbers. Her affinity towards the Cryo element allows Qiqi to freeze her opponents dead in their tracks, giving her team the chance to weave in their hardest hitting moves. Her Herald of Frost ability sees Qiqi summon an icy sprite that follows Qiqi around and deals Cryo damage to surrounding enemies. 

This move also has great healing potential as whenever Qiqi hits an enemy with a normal or charged attack, she heals all party members and nearby allied characters. Not only does this allow you to provide life-saving heals without having to switch units, it also rewards those who are aggressive in their playstyle. The amount of healing also scales with Qiqi’s attack stat, so make sure you use damage boosting artifacts.

Lastly, her ultimate (Preserver of Fortune) unleashes a huge wave of frost that damages and marks her foes with the Cryo element. This ability also heals Qiqi’s allies whenever she damages those inflicted with Cryo. Combine this ultimate with any Electro-based ultimates/abilities and you have an incredibly potent combo that can delete your opponents in mere seconds.   

Mona

Mona abilities
Mona is one mage you don’t want to miss out on.

Those of you looking for a Hydro character will want to aim for Mona. This water bending mage delivers devastatingly potent attacks that leave them wet behind the ears. Mona’s Reflection of Doom creates a water-infused phantom that both attracts enemy fire and continuously damages foes before detonating. Upon exploding, the phantom unleashes a wave of Hydro damage onto any survivors.

Mona’s ultimate, Stellaris Phantasm traps enemies in an AoE pool of illusory magic and sets them as Wet. This move applies an Omen to the opponent, which gives bonus damage and also increases the damage taken by those entrapped. As a result, it’s best to switch out to any Electro users who can deliver a shocking finisher. 

While Mona’s special combat abilities offer some fantastic crowd control, her base attacks and dash are insanely fast. In fact, you can effortlessly dance around your opponents, weaving in attacks before switching into another unit. If you wish to outmaneuver and barrage your opponents with the water element, then Mona could be the ace up your sleeve.  

About The Author

James is Dexerto's Associate Games Editor who joined the website in 2020. He graduated from university with a degree in Journalism, before spending four years freelancing for GamesRadar+, PCGamesN, RPS, LoL Esports, Red Bull Gaming, and many more. You can find him covering everything from CoD, Apex Legends, Genshin Impact, and Monster Hunter. Need to get in touch? Email James at james.busby@dexerto.com.