Xiao is the latest character in Genshin Impact that has received a rerun banner. We will tell you how to deal a lot of damage with the popular Anemo DPS.
This is Xiao: Even though Xiao looks like a young man, one should not be fooled by his appearance. The enlightened adept is actually several thousand years old and is the last of the 5 Yaksha warriors who protected Liyue from demons.
Xiao is a quiet and reserved character. However, he is also very direct and gets straight to the point. He takes his duties towards Liyue and his contract with Rex Lapis very seriously.
In battle, Xiao uses spears as weapons and his element is Anemo.
Xiao – A selfish Anemo DPS
Xiao is a pure Anemo DPS. He has no abilities that could support the group, but his damage output and mobility are quite high.
In our guide, we show you what equipment you need for a killer Xiao, what alternatives there are, and which characters synergize best with him.
In this guide, we have compiled recommendations from various sources such as YouTube, game8, keqingmains.com, or Genshin.gg.
What you need to know about Xiao
The normal 6-step combo of Xiao is very fast and thanks to the wide AoE damage of each hit, it can easily dispatch smaller groups of enemies. Moreover, his charged attack’s damage scaling is quite high considering how quickly it can be executed.
Unlike other characters in Genshin Impact, Xiao takes no damage when executing a jump attack, regardless of how high he jumps.
Xiao’s specialty: Double Wind Wheel is an excellent skill, whether it’s about raw damage or mobility. When you have just obtained Xiao, the double wind wheel has 2 charges that you can use consecutively.
This allows Xiao to dash across the battlefield and deal Anemo damage to all targets in his path. It can also be performed in the air, which can be very useful during exploration.
Xiao’s ultimate ability: Spirit’s Banquet is a double-edged sword. Xiao dons his Yaksha mask, which transforms his attacks into Anemo damage and allows him to jump much higher. It also increases the radius of his AoEs and amplifies his attack damage.
The Anemo damage cannot be overridden by other elements. At the same time, Xiao continuously loses his HP as long as his specialty is active. The effect of the ability ends when Xiao leaves the battlefield.
You can watch what Xiao’s abilities look like in action here:
Xiao’s talents: When it comes to talents, Xiao is one of the most expensive characters to level up. All three of his passive talents are very useful and provide him with a significant damage boost.
Therefore, it is advisable to prioritize leveling all 3 talents to level 6 first. After that, you can focus on his normal attack and work it up to level 9 or even 10. His specialty does not get much better after level 7, and his elemental skill is already close to optimal at level 6.
Xiao’s constellation: The first level of Xiao’s constellation directly offers a comparatively cheap and strong option for increasing damage. It grants the specialty Double Wind Wheel a third charge that you can use in combat.
However, to maximize Xiao’s potential, one cannot skip level 6 of his constellation. It grants Xiao’s ultimate ability a new effect. Whenever you have the specialty active and hit 2 or more enemies with an attack, you receive a free charge for your Double Wind Wheel.
The right weapons for Xiao
Xiao uses a spear as his weapon in battle. Here we show you the best weapons for the character and also present alternatives that are less rare and do not require spending real money.
The weapons in this list are all at refinement level 1. You can still further upgrade and improve them to maximize damage with Xiao.
In general, the rule for Xiao is that he deals the most damage with fall attacks. Accordingly, you should try
Therefore, weapons with charge rate, ATK %, or CRIT are more suitable for him than pure physical damage.
Best weapon: The top weapon for Xiao is his signature weapon Primordial Jade Winged Spear. This legendary spear increases your critical hit chance by +4.8% and boosts your damage for 6 seconds by 3.2%.
The damage boost increases with each hit and can accumulate up to 12%. The base attack value of the spear is 48.
Best Free2Play alternative: If you don’t want to throw money into the gacha machine in hopes of getting the legendary spear, your best alternative is the Favonius Lance. You receive it early on during the main quest for free, but for additional copies, you will need some luck in the gacha.
As a craftable option, the Prototype Starglitter is also recommended. The spear increases damage by up to 16% every time Xiao uses his Double Wind Wheel. The spear can be relatively easily crafted at the blacksmith. You will need
- Raw Northern Polearm
- 50 chunks of Crystal
- 50 chunks of White Iron
Further alternatives (conditionally Free2Play suitable):
If you possess the following spears, they will also work well for a Xiao build:
- Blackcliff Polearm (currently in the in-game shop)
- Dueling Spear (from the Battle Pass)
- Millelith Polearm
- White Tassel (3-star option)
- Polearm (3-star option)
The right artifacts for Xiao
The damage output of Xiao revolves around his fall attacks during his specialty. Since these deal Anemo damage and no 4-piece set bonus helps fall attacks, the best artifact combination for Xiao consists of two sets, each with 2 pieces:
- 2 pieces from the “Green Shadow” set: +15% Anemo damage bonus
- 2 pieces either:
- from the “Gladiator’s Finale” set: +18% ATK
- or from the “Shimena’s Memory” set: +18% ATK
This set combination influences every aspect of Xiao’s abilities and is the best choice if you want to maximize his skills.
The 2 pieces from “Gladiator’s Finale” and “Shimena’s Memory” have the same stat effect. However, you might have already obtained the appropriate Gladiator set while playing, whereas for the perfect Shimena piece you can farm more purposefully.
The priority for the individual pieces should be distributed as follows:
- ATK % on the Hourglass
- Anemo damage on the Chalice
- CRIT or CRITICAL RATE on the Helm
For the other attributes, CRIT, CRITICAL RATE, ATK %, and charge rate are optimal. Acceptable attributes are elemental mastery and ATK.
You should aim to have about double the CRITICAL RATE with Xiao as compared to CRIT. With an Anemo battery like Sucrose, you only need about 120 – 130 % charge rate to regularly utilize Xiao’s strong specialty.
Green Shadow 
Gladiator’s Finale 
Memory of Shimenawa
These alternatives are available: If you lack good pieces from the “Green Shadow” set, you can resort to a nearly equally good alternative:
- 2 pieces from the set “Memory of Shimenawa”: +18% ATK
- 2 pieces from the set “Gladiator’s Finale”: +18% ATK
Unfortunately, the 4-piece bonuses of both sets do not influence Xiao’s fall attacks, which are very important for his damage output. Therefore, it is better to combine the two bonuses from the 2-piece sets than to rely on a 4-piece set.
How to play Xiao correctly – His best team
The YouTuber Zy0x introduced the character Xiao in his video. Towards the end of the video, you can see how much damage Xiao can deal (the video is linked at minute 21:38):
These characters harmonize with Xiao: If you have decided to include Xiao in your group, he will undoubtedly be your main DPS. However, he is a very selfish DD who wants to stay on the battlefield for as long as possible to deal a lot of damage.
You should assemble the rest of the group with characters that can support Xiao in his damage escalation:
- Anemo characters like Jean, Venti, or Sucrose work well as “Anemo batteries” that provide Xiao with energy. An additional Anemo character in the group also grants you the “Impetuous Winds” buff.
- Characters that can heal or shield Xiao to reduce his HP loss and increase his uptime on the battlefield are also very strong. Zhongli – who will also have his rerun soon –, Bennett, and Jean are particularly good options.
- Jean can function as both a healer and an “Anemo battery” and is therefore a fantastic choice.
What do you think about this? Have you already obtained and tried Xiao? What combinations and equipment do you think are best for him? Give us your feedback in the comments.
All further information about the new update 2.4 can be found here:
Genshin Impact: Everything about update 2.4 – leaks, release, banners, characters
