The secretary of the Liyue Qixing, Ganyu, has joined as a new 5-star character in Genshin Impact in mid-January. MeinMMO presents you with the best build you can currently play. We also showcase some alternatives.
This is Ganyu: Ganyu is the secretary of the Liyue Qixing and is a follower of the Geo god Rex Lapis. She has made a contract with him and has served her god for many thousands of years.
The 5-star character fights with a bow and relies on the Cryo (Ice) element. In our Genshin Impact tier list, you will find Ganyu in the SS-tier, making her one of the strongest characters you can play in the action RPG.
How was our guide created? For this guide, we have looked at several important sites about Genshin Impact, such as Game8.co. We also examined various guides on YouTube and tried out the character Ganyu ourselves in the game, collecting and using the sets.
Overview of Ganyu’s abilities
What abilities does Ganyu have? Especially her burst and area damage can be enhanced, and in combination with other elements like Pyro (Fire) or Electro, she has no problem taking out large groups of enemies. But Ganyu also offers you interesting options that make her really strong:
- With her charged shot, she can easily take out groups of many small enemies on her own. Here you play Ganyu as a damage dealer.
- Her special ability is an Ice Lotus that she places on the field. This bloom explodes after a while, dealing ice damage in the vicinity. The bloom also remains active when Ganyu is no longer on the field.
In the next section, we will take a closer look at the abilities and show you how they work.
What you need to know about Ganyu
Ganyu’s bow works a bit differently than the other archers in the game. While characters like Amber or Fischl deal high elemental damage with a charged shot, Ganyu’s shots work differently. A fully charged Cryo shot from her deals Cryo area damage.
This is Ganyu’s special ability: The combat talent “Tracks of the Qilin” summons an Ice Lotus and provocatively draws the attacks of enemies to it. Thus, it is primarily a support ability and comparable to Amber’s combat talent “Explosive Puppet.” After a time, the Ice Lotus explodes, dealing Cryo area damage to enemies.
This is Ganyu’s ultimate ability: Ganyu’s ultimate is “Raging Descent.” With this, you let icicles fall on the enemies in a specific area, dealing high Cryo damage.
Ganyu’s talents: In general, it makes sense to upgrade the talents and constellations of the characters as much as possible.
In combination with other characters, you should mainly improve “Heavenly Shooting Art” and her special ability “Tracks of the Qilin” as much as possible. If you want to level a talent to level 10, you will need a Crown of Wisdom, which you can obtain through events.
Ganyu’s constellation: In Ganyu’s constellation, the 1st level is important because here, with every heavy hit from the bow, the Cryo resistance of enemies is reduced by 15% for 6 seconds. Additionally, Ganyu generates 2 points of elemental energy with each hit.
For those who want to get the most potential out of Ganyu, the 6th level of the constellation, “Indulgence,” is important. Because after using the Ice Lotus, you do not need to charge your weapon for the next heavy hit. This allows you to attack significantly faster.
In our guide, we present the resources you need if you want to ascend Ganyu.
The right weapon for Ganyu
This is the weapon she fights with: Ganyu fights with a bow. We present you with the currently best weapon for the character, but also an alternative that free-to-play players can easily obtain. The presented weapons are at Refinement Level 1. This means the bonuses of the weapon can still increase if you refine the weapon further.
The best weapon for Ganyu: The best weapon for Ganyu is the legendary weapon “Amos’ Bow.” This weapon increases the damage of your normal and charged attacks by 18%. Additionally, the weapon increases the damage of your arrows the longer they travel to the enemy. The attribute of the weapon is Attack.
The best free-to-play alternative: The best alternative for players who do not want to spend money is “The Stringless.” This weapon increases the damage of elemental abilities and special abilities by 24%. This not only amplifies her heavy attacks but also her Ice Lotus.
Another alternative for free-to-play players: The Prototype Amber enhances attack and also has Attack as an attribute. Uniquely,
- the weapon increases your attack by 36% with heavy hits on weak points for 10 seconds.
- Additionally, your movement speed increases by 10% for 10 seconds.
The advantage: You can craft the Prototype Amber at the blacksmith Wagner in Mondstadt. For this, you need 50 pieces of white iron and crystal along with an “Unrefined North bow.”
Here, Ganyu’s passive talent “Hidden Bow” is also helpful: If you craft a bow with it, you get 15% of the ore you used back. If you have not crafted the weapon yet, definitely use Ganyu for the crafting.
The right artifacts for Ganyu
With Ganyu, you have four options when selecting artifacts:
- Focus on Cryo damage
- Enhance the burst and area damage of the character and their abilities
- Alternatively, focus on an increased rate of critical hits. Critical hits are also the attribute that grows the most upon leveling Ganyu.
- In addition, you can rely on a pure damage set.
For every playstyle, there is a set you should use to enhance the corresponding attribute. These sets are:
Wandering Reek: This set focuses entirely on Cryo damage. The set was newly added with update 1.2. You currently only obtain it in the dungeon “Vindagnyr’s Peak.” You must first unlock this with a quest series. But the bonuses are worth it:
- 2-piece bonus: Increases Cryo damage by 15%.
- 4-piece bonus: Increases critical hit chance against enemies affected by Cryo effects by 20%. Further increases critical hit chance against frozen enemies by an additional 20%.
Ancient Court Ritual: You can already obtain some set pieces when you increase your adventure rank. As a reward, you receive legendary pieces from the set. Alternatively, you can also get the set from the dungeon “Clear Water and Rocky Heights.” This is located in the far northwest of Liyue.
- 2-piece bonus: Increases damage caused by special abilities by 20%.
- 4-piece bonus: Increases the attack of all team members by 20% for 12 seconds after using a special ability. This effect cannot be stacked.
Wander Orchestrate: This set increases your elemental mastery and all reactions with other elements. If you equip all four pieces of the set, heavy attacks with a bow are increased by 35% (with golden items). This is particularly beneficial when combined with Ganyu’s charged attack.
- 2-piece bonus: Increases elemental mastery by 80 points
- 4-piece bonus: Increases damage dealt with heavy strikes when the character is holding a catalyst or a bow by 35%.
What is the best set combination for Ganyu?
Which set or combination is most worthwhile for you depends on how you like to play or want to play Ganyu. Therefore, there are a total of 3 options:
Focus on charged attacks: If you primarily play Ganyu as a damage dealer and mainly use the charged attack, you should rely on the Wander Orchestrate set. If you equip a full four-piece set, you can significantly enhance your attack. Additionally, this improves reactions with other elements.
Focus on supportive attacks: If you primarily focus on Ganyu’s Ice Bloom and her ultimate ability “Raging Descent,” then you should use the following combination:
- 2-piece set “Ancient Court Ritual”: Increases damage caused by special abilities by 20%
- 2-piece set “Wandering Reek”: Increases Cryo damage by 15%.
What to pay attention to with the artifacts: While the flower always offers health points and the feather always offers attack, the attributes may vary with the other items. Important artifact attributes you should pay attention to are:
- Chalice: Cryo damage bonus
- Headband: Critical damage or attack (in %).
- Sundial: Attack or critical damage
You can find additional tips and tricks about artifacts in this guide, here on MeinMMO:
How to play Ganyu correctly
Where can you see Ganyu in action? The YouTuber Zy0x (currently 142,000 views as of January 14, 2021) has presented a strong Ganyu build in (English) video. Here you can also see how powerful Ganyu can be when played with the right set.
Starting from minute 13:10, you can see how much damage Ganyu deals in the Spiral Abyss.
Which characters synergize particularly well with Ganyu: Especially certain characters are worth it if you want to have Ganyu in your team. Electro and Fire cause strong elemental reactions with Cryo:
- The 5-star character Klee benefits from the elemental reaction “Melt.” This is especially powerful with Ganyu’s combat talent “Tracks of the Qilin,” as Klee can deal a lot of damage in a small radius this way. Free-to-play alternatives here would be Xiangling, who can also deal high area damage, or Bennett.
- Razor and Fischl also benefit from Ganyu. The elemental reaction “Superconduct” increases damage, and through elemental mastery, you enhance the reaction with other elements.
- With the new character Shenhe, you can also give it a try. Because through her elemental ability “Summon Spring Spirit,” allies gain the effect “Ice Shafts” and add additional Cryo damage. When normal, charged, elemental skills and elemental burst attacks deal Cryo damage to enemies, the damage dealt is increased based on Shenhe’s current attack.
What do you think? Have you already pulled Ganyu from the past wish and are playing her, or will you pull her from the upcoming wish in update 2.4? Or do you prefer to save your primogems for a different wish that is coming up?
