Genshin Impact Nahida Best Build Guide - KeenGamer

2022-11-07 17:14:38 By : Ms. Rose Zhao

Nahida is the first 5-star Dendro Catalyst joining the ranks of Genshin Impact and she is also the next Archon to become playable. She is the God of Sumeru, the land of wisdom and the element Dendro. Unfortunately, she has been absent from the minds of its citizens for some time.

Nahida continues the trend of powerful, versatile Archon characters as playable characters. Her unique kit and expansive abilities mean that you can run Nahida in various ways, making her an easy pick on most teams. She meets the lofty expectations set by her Godhood. 

Here is everything you need to know to best build Nahida, whether you want her as a damage dealer or a backline support. This includes what order to level up her Talents, what weapons you should consider using on her, her best team compositions and more.

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Nahida is the youngest of all the current Seven Archons, being merely 500 years old. Compared to others like Zhongli or Venti, she is naive about the world and the lingering memories of Sumeru’s last God have left a sense of apathy or disinterest towards the Lesser Lord Kusanali. She is one of the wisest people on Teyvat, but without human contact and interaction, she can be seen as strange or off-kilter, with weird metaphors hidden behind childish language.

Even then, Nahida is still a God, and one with much power. She rules over the element of Dendro, the element of life. That power allows her a vast amount of control over the world and its denizens.

“When I woke up, I was riding in a flower carriage…”

Character Teaser – Nahida: Happy Birthday

You first meet Nahida in Act 2 of the Sumeru Archon Quest, where she helps you unravel the truth of the Sabzeruz Festival. Since that point, she becomes a central figure in the main story, aiding you in your mission to free Sumeru from the poisonous grasp of the Akademiya. Eventually, she may even be requesting your aid in helping save herself.

How do you get Nahida?

Like all the other Archons, Nahida is a 5-star character. She wields a Catalyst in battle and, of course, belongs to the Dendro element. To summon her, you must spend your well-earned Primogems on a specific Unique Character Banner which she appears upon.

Nahida was first introduced in Version 3.2 of Genshin Impact. She has appeared on the following banners:

To reach max Ascension level 90 with Nahida, she requires the following materials and resources:

Kalpalata Lotuses are flowers found on the cliff faces and ledges of Sumeru’s rainforests. These are small blue plants that must climb up cliffs to find, similar to the Violet Grass found in Liyue. You can find these Lotuses all over Sumeru – funnily enough, they aren’t actually Lotuses, and are only called that because of their visual similarities. To get Nahida to level 90, you will need 168 Kalpalata Lotuses. You can find their exact locations on the Teyvat Interactive Map or the Genshin Impact Interactive World Map. 

Fungal Spores are the common enemy drop that comes from killing the Fungi enemy type. These enemies exist all over Sumeru and have various elemental combinations that you can fight. However, depending on who you have in your party, getting these to drop can be quite annoying. If you kill one of these enemies with an Electro or Pyro attack, it will cause them to drop a different material more regularly than the Spores. To avoid this, try using teams that avoid these Elements to maximise your drop potential. In total, 18 Fungal Spores, 30 Luminescent Pollen and 36 Crystalline Cyst Dust are asked for by Nahida. 

The new Quelled Creeper drop comes from the newly added Dendro Hypostasis boss introduced alongside Nahida in Version 3.2. Like other Hypostasis, bring the right tools to dispatch them with appropriate Elements and reactions. To get Nahida to level 90, you’ll need to get your hands on 46 Quelled Creepers.

Lastly, you’ll need several Dendro Gemstones, specifically the Nagadus Emerald Gemstones. These are the Dendro-aligned elemental gemstones that all characters need to Ascend in Genshin Impact. The easiest way to get your mitts on these Gems is to fight Dendro-aligned bosses like the Terrorplume Jadeshroom or the Dendro Hypostasis – this is likely how you will get the majority of the Gemstones you need. The other way is through Daily Commissions, which have the chance to drop Dendro Gemstones. If you’re missing a few higher-tier Gems, you can transmute them or transform alternative elemental Gemstones at the Alchemy table. Overall, you will need 1 Sliver, 9 Fragments, 9 Chunks and 6 Gemstones.

As with every single in Genshin Impact, you will also need the appropriate amount of Mora and EXP manuals: 420k Mora and 416 Hero’s Wit EXP Books to be specific. 

Nahida’s abilities are a perfect extension of her character – powerful, versatile and filled to the brim with charm. Depending on how you want to take her build-wise, you can easily make Nahida either a damage-oriented unit or a supportive unit. As the God of Dendro, she brings out the best in the element and will likely be a mainstay in any Dendro team from now on.

Her Normal Attack is called Akara. This is a 4-attack combo that deals Dendro damage on hit, just like any Catalyst user (this will also instantly apply the Dendro status to enemies). The best part about this, however, is the animation attached to it, where Nahida does a little dance with your button presses to attack opponents. 

Meanwhile, Nahida’s Elemental Skill is All Schemes to Know. This is one of the most unique Elemental Skills in the entirety of Genshin Impact. If you simply press the button, it will deal Dendro AoE damage in front of Nahida and mark up to 8 enemies with a special debuff called the Seed of Skandha. On the other hand, holding the button will cause Nahida to float into the air and cause you to enter a state similar to a camera for 5s. While in this state, any enemy that Nahida mouses over will be marked. This deals Dendro dmg on release and inflicts them with the Seed of Skandha. 

The Seed of Skandha is a very potent tool that will influence a lot of Elemental Reaction compositions. Opponents marked by the Seed will be linked together within a set distance. If you damage one marked enemy with an Elemental Reaction or the explosion damage from a Dendro Core (which includes Hyperbloom or Burgeon), Nahida will trigger Tri-Karma Purification on all connected targets. This deals Dendro dmg based on Nahida’s ATK and Elemental Mastery. As a skill, this is very powerful and will make Nahida a great asset to any team.

Finally, her Elemental Burst is just as extravagant. Illusory Heart creates a massive AoE when cast, manifesting as the Shrine of Maya. While inside this AoE, several bonuses can trigger depending on your party composition. These bonuses are triggered separately and several can be active at the same time.

These bonuses will still trigger even if Nahida is not on the field. Additionally, these bonuses will become stronger if there is more than one character of that specific Elemental type. For example, 2 Hydro characters will further increase the duration of the Burst. 

Nahida has 3 Passive Talents which are always active. Her second and third Passive Talents are unlocked at Ascension levels 2 and 4, respectively. These Talents cannot be upgraded.

Nahida’s first Passive is called On All Things Meditated. Nahida can use her Elemental Skill, All Schemes to Know, to interact with some harvestable items within a fixed AoE. This includes a large number of specialities from the various regions of Teyvat. This skill can also be used on people in Sumeru to read their thoughts.

Her Ascension 2 Passive Talent is Compassion Illuminated. When unleashing her Elemental Burst, the Shrine of Maya will give the active character an increase to their Elemental Mastery. This increase is based on 25% of the Elemental Mastery of the character with the highest base Elemental Mastery in the party. A total of 250 Elemental Mastery can be gained this way.

Lastly, her Ascension 4 Passive Talent is Awakening Elucidated. Each point of Nahida’s Elemental Mastery beyond 200 will grant 0.1% Bonus DMG and 0.03% CRIT Rate to the Tri-Karma Purification effect of her Elemental Skill. A maximum of 80% Bonus DMG and 24% CRIT Rate can be gained in this way. 

Here is the order that you should prioritise levelling up Nahida’s Talents for the best Nahida build in Genshin Impact. This order will work for either a support Nahida build or a DPS Nahida build.

Depending on what path you want to walk with Nahida, there are a few different weapons. However, there is a single clear outlier which will be the focus for most players.

The ideal choice for Nahida is the new 5-star Catalyst A Thousand Floating Dreams. This Catalyst was released alongside Nahida in Version 3.2 and is available through the Unique Weapon Wish Banner. 

A Thousand Floating Dreams has a final base ATK stat of 542, and an Elemental Mastery substat of 265. The weapon skill on this Catalyst is called A Thousand Nights’ Dawnsong. The equipped character will gain benefits based on the composition of the team and whether they match the equipped character’s Elemental type (i.e for Nahida this would be other Dendro characters):

Both of these effects can stack up to 3 times depending on how the party is made up. For example, a party consisting of Nahida, Collei, Barbara and Nilou would give Nahida a 32 stat bonus to her Elemental Mastery (from Collei) and a 20% increase to her Dendro DMG (from Barbara and Nilou). 

A final additional effect from A Thousand Floating Dreams is that the Elemental Mastery of all characters aside from the equipped character will be increased by 40 points.

For Nahida, this is the perfect weapon no matter what. You will already be building a team around a specific composition due to her Elemental Burst. As such, getting even more bonuses to make her Elemental Reactions, ATK and even her CRIT rate and DMG (from her Ascension 4 talent) is only a net win. This weapon works as both a support weapon for amplifying her Elemental Reaction and off-field damage, as well as a main or sub-DPS weapon, increasing her raw ATK or Reaction damage. A Thousand Floating Dreams is just a must-pick weapon if you are lucky enough to get it.

However, many players will not be able to get A Thousand Floating Dreams. Fortunately, there are still plenty of backup options that Genshin Impact Travellers can choose from for Nahida.

The following options will all be of a 4-star rating. Typically, 5-star weapons will almost always be better due to higher base stats for both the main and substats. They typically have generally better weapon skills, as well. However, this varies between character-to-character. If you happen to have a Kagura’s Verity or some other 5-star option, try that out first and see if it fits your build. 

The replacement options we recommend for Nahida are Mappa Mare, Fruit of Fulfilment and the Wandering Evenstar.

Mappa Mare is a craftable weapon using normal Northlander Billets which are acquired from certain quests or Weekly Bosses. This is a good F2P choice for those who want a bit more of a damage-oriented Nahida. Mappa Mare has a base ATK of 565 at level 90 and has an Elemental Mastery substat of 110, making it a perfect pick for the Reaction-heavy Nahida. The weapon skill, Infusion Scroll, grants an 8% elemental DMG boost upon triggering an Elemental Reaction (this can stack up to 2 times for a total of 16%, the percentage of which is increased through weapon refinement). For Nahida, Tri-Karma Purification means that Reactions are bountiful and she will always be triggering them, effectively giving her a constant boost to all of the damage from her Skill and Normal Attacks. 

Meanwhile, Fruit of Fulfillment is another craftable weapon. However, this one requires the new Midlander Billets, which can be transmuted from Northlander Billets or earned from Sumeru Weekly Bosses. This weapon has an ATK of 510 and an Energy Recharge substat totalling an additional 45.9%. Fruit of Fulfillment’s weapon skill is Full Circle which gives the equipped character the Wax and Wane effect when triggering an Elemental Reaction. This will give an additional 24 points of Elemental Mastery while reducing ATK by 5%. This can stack up to 3 times for a total of 72 Elemental Mastery for the cost of 15% ATK. This weapon is certainly for a Reaction heavy support or off-field Nahida, as her Elemental Mastery would be much more important in that situation than her raw ATK value. 

Lastly, the Wandering Everstar is a new 4-star Catalyst available from the Event Wish Banners. The Everstar has an ATK stat of 510 and an Elemental Mastery substat of 165. The weapon skill on Wandering Everstar is Wilding Nightstar. This effect will trigger every 10s and give the equipped character 24% of their Elemental Mastery as bonus ATK (for a total of 12s). Nearby party members will gain 30% of this 24% bonus. For Nahida, this weapon will allow her to take both an offensive or supportive role, boosting the damage output of every part of her kit whether it is her Normal Attack, Skill, Tri-Karma Purification or even her Reactions. This is a great substitute weapon if you can get your hands on it.

As with most other parts of Nahida’s kit, there are a few options and directions you can take her artifacts. Some of these will enhance her supportive nature and make her a better off-field unit, while others will benefit her more direct damage potential. 

The main sets you will want to keep an eye out for are the Deepwood Memories set and the Gilded Dreams set. 

If you want a potent set that you don’t have to think much about that will enhance every part of Nahida, go with 2-piece Deepwood and 2-piece Gilded Dreams. While this mixed set will not reach the heights of the 4-piece Deepwood set, it will allow Nahida to do every part of her job much better and without the potential pitfalls of having to tunnel vision the Dendro element. 2-piece Deepwood will boost all of her Dendro DMG by 15% while 2-piece Gilded increases her Elemental Mastery by 80 points. Both of these benefits are big for Nahida, increasing the damage of her Normal Attacks, Tri-Karma Purification and even buffing her CRIT stats thanks to her A4 Passive. 

On the other hand, 4-piece Deepwood Memories will be more effective and result in higher output. This will not only give Nahida the 15% Dendro DMG bonus, but also the 4-piece set bonus. This bonus triggers after an Elemental Skill or Bursts hits an opponent, decreasing the targets’ Dendro RES by 30% for 8s. Thanks to Nahida’s Skill being so potent, this RES decrease will almost always be up if you play your cards right. This means that any Elemental Reaction, Normal Attack or even her Tri-Karma Purification will deal much more damage as long as you stick to Dendro.

These are the main stats you want to be hunting for Nahida:

Elemental Mastery is the backbone of everything that Nahida does. When you increase her EM, you’re not just increasing the damage to her Reactions. The Awakening Elucidated passive also means that she gets a massive bump in both CRIT stats as well. This relieves some of the pressure from your artifacts and weapons while still keeping her strong. Even without that incredible bonus, having high EM makes Nahida’s Dendro focus easier to play into and causes big damage to occur. This should 100% be your priority.

ATK is next and this should be considered so that Nahida can do her job much better as either damage support or main DPS. Having high EM will mean not having to focus so heavily on CRIT, allowing you a bit of leeway for more ATK. The higher this stat goes, the more damage Nahida will deal on the most vital portions of her kit, especially her Elemental Skill and Tri-Karma Purification. 

Lastly, CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG will always be good to have on hand. Even with the increase from her A4, having more CRIT is never bad. The reason why it is likely a lower priority, however, is thanks to Elemental Reactions like Bloom not being able to take CRIT bonuses, which lowers their potency slightly due to the Dendro-focused nature of Nahida and her team compositions. Even then, make sure to stack a little extra CRIT on Nahida so she can perform at her best. 

An additional note is to try and get a Dendro DMG Bonus Goblet. This is a go-to option for any character who heavily focuses on Elemental DMG. As a Catalyst user, Nahida is just the kind of character who will benefit heavily from this artifact. It is worth the grind and Resin to get a good Goblet for Nahida.

The following section has three example teams for Nahida in Genshin Impact. These will either have Nahida acting as a supporting character in the team or as the main damaging force. There will also be a F2P budget team where every character (aside from Nahida) can be unlocked for free in one way or another.

This team consist of Nahida, Cyno, Collei and Kokomi. 

In this team, Nahida acts as the off-field enabled for Cyno, who is our main DPS. With her Elemental Skill, Nahida can continuously give Cyno and the other characters access to Dendro for Reactions. The additional damage from Tri-Karma Purification will be excellent for overtime damage, too. Furthermore, this team composition means that Nahida’s Burst will have the additional duration and make her Tri-Karma Purification hit more often, making her even better. 

As previously stated, Cyno is our main DPS. His Burst in particular makes him capable of very high damage output. This is especially true when relying on Reactions such as Hyperbloom, Quicken and Spread. Another bonus is that he, like Nahida, relies on having high Elemental Mastery, so the benefits that Nahida will receive through the Dendro Resonance and other additional bonuses will further aid Cyno, too.

Collei does serve as a backup source for Dendro. However, her main use is to give the entire team access to the Dendro Resonance called Sprawling Greenery. This automatically increases all characters’ Elemental Mastery by 50 points, as well as granting more EM depending on the Dendro Reaction the team triggers. For every member of this team, but especially for Nahida and Cyno, this bonus is invaluable and worthy of putting Collei on your team.

Lastly, Kokomi is our healer, capable of fully healing every member very quickly. In addition to that, her status as a Hydro character will aid Nahida (through her Burst) and allow the team access to the Bloom Reaction and Dendor Cores, a sizable Reaction that will give a lot of extra damage. 

This team consists of Nahida, Nilou, Collei and Barbara/Dori.

On this team, Nahida will take up the role of backup or sub-DPS. Nilou takes up the main damage duty. Nahida’s potential for damage in this team is very high, especially with the Dendro Resonance boosting her Elemental Mastery. She can instantly create opportunities for the Hydro members to spawn Dendro Cores for Bloom and her attacks are no slouch. Her Burst will not be as effective as usual unless you are running an Electro or Pyro character, however, as it will give no additional bonuses beyond a longer duration. 

Nilou will be working her magic with Bloom Reactions to maximise the team’s overall damage. With Nahida’s skill-popping Tri-Karma Purification and Dendro damage, Nilou will have near-constant access to Bloom. Additionally, if you have Barbara on your team, Nilou will have additional EM from the Dendro Resonance as well as bonus HP from the Hydro one, improving her overall ATK and damage potential massively. 

Collei roughly serves the same role on this team as she does in the above one. She is an enabler of the Dendro Resonance and a backup for the Dendro application. Her Burst is a good source of AoE damage, but Nahida will be primarily taking the reins.

Finally, Barbara or Dori. Both will act as our team’s healers but each serves it in different ways. With Barbara, she can trigger the Hydro Resonance for bonus HP (increasing Nilou’s damage and her healing) as well as tying better into Nilou’s own kit and abilities. This does come at the cost of Nahida’s Burst being less useful. On the other, Dori doesn’t synergies as well with Nilou, especially considering that her Bountiful Cores cannot be triggered by Electro, but it does make Nahida shine a bit more thanks to her Burst being useful for buffing Tri-Karma Purification. At the end of the day, choose what is best for you.

This team consists of Nahida, Dori, Lisa and Dendro Traveller.

This budget team is a mini Reaction Damage team, only with Nahida front and centre. Without Nilou, almost all of our primary damage is going to be coming from our Archon. This will be mainly through her Elemental Skill and the Reactions it can cause. This team also has a good mix of Elements, providing her with a lot of bonuses. Overall, it is a good composition that will let her shine.

Dori is the team’s healer. She is available for free during an Event in Version 3.2. Her role as Electro will allow the team to cover the Quicken, Spread and Hyperbloom Reactions of Dendro. Her Burst allows her to fire and go with healing, prioritising Nahida’s damage without blocking or stunting it.

Lisa is another damage dealer who will be playing in the backfield. Her abilities may be a little slow but with the constant Reactions from Nahida, as well as the bonus Energy Recharge from the Electro Resonance, Lisa will almost always be useful. Even if that usefulness is just in a quick instant splash of Electro via her Normal Attacks. Lisa works well as a backup bit of damage if you ever need to retreat as Nahida.

Last but not least is Dendro Traveller. You could honestly sub them out for Collei as, once again, their main benefit is access to the Dendro Resonance. Still, they can still be very useful, especially considering that their Burst is a miniature version of Nahida’s. It works on a similar Elemental buff-based system. You can maximise a lot of quick damage due to the make-up of this Electro-Dendro heavy comp. 

That was everything you need to know to build the newest Archon, Nahida the Dendro Archon, in Genshin Impact. 

I’m a Creative Writing English graduate with a passion for writing about games. I play a lot of, and write a lot about, Destiny but I’m especially keen on RPGs, looters and action games. KeenGamer is the third publication I have written for.

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