The right Genshin Impact Heizou build lets your non-Dendro parties shine with strong elemental reactions and a constant, speedy source of Anemo damage. Unless you’re after ideal Artifact stats, a good Heizou build doesn’t take too much effort to put together, either, and best of all, like other Anemo fighters, Heizou works with almost any team you can imagine.
Also like other Anemo characters, Heizou needs plenty of time on the field if you want his skillset to reach its full potential.
Heizou needs Onikabuto Beetles to level up, so bear that in mind if you're deciding to focus on him or Arataki Itto. The lil' critters aren't easy to find.
When is the Heizou banner?
Heizou’s second banner is part of the second half of Genshin Impact 3.2 on both Tartaglia's and Yae Miko's banners. Thoma and Layla join him as the banners' other two 4-star characters.
Is Shikanoin Heizou a DPS character?
Yes, or as much as any Anemo character can be. Heartstopper Strike, Heizou’s elemental skill, packs a strong punch and even more so if you use it consecutively. His burst, Windmuster Kick, pulls enemies in, delivers a mighty Anemo explosion, and if another element is on the enemy when the kick connects, it applies a Windmuster Iris to them. The Iris lingers for a few seconds and then explodes, dealing elemental damage of the type that triggered it.
He’s essentially a four-star Kazuha, a character who excels at grouping enemies, applying elements in broad areas, and causing powerful elemental reactions. He’s not quite strong enough to warrant making him your main DPS character, not without a full Viridescent Venerer set at least, but Heizou is an excellent sub-DPS and elemental supporter.
The downside is that Heizou's cooldown timers are fairly long, so you need to rely on normal attacks in between the Heartstopper Strike skill. You also need to aim Windmuster Kick well, or the vortex and Iris will completely miss your opponents.
If you’re running a melt, vaporize, or freeze team, though, you’ll probably want Heizou on the field even less often. His third passive talent is Penetrative Reasoning, which boosts the party’s – not Heizou’s – elemental mastery by 80 after Heizou uses his elemental skill. The character who triggers the reaction is the one whose elemental mastery gets taken into effect, and since Heizou is usually the one doing the triggering, the effect is mainly there to help buff your party while he's on cooldown. If you’re mostly using Swirl, then this doesn’t matter so much, but there’s also no reason you can’t run both if you want to.
Should I pull for Heizou
It depends on your current party needs. If you already have Kazuha, Venti, or Sucrose,Heizou isn’t a necessity. Those three can trigger Swirl, group enemies, and deal heavy damage more effectively than he can. However, using Heizou does warrant a different kind of playstyle than the usual Anemo fighters, so if you just want to shake things up, he’s worth investing time and materials in for that alone.
If you have no other Anemo characters aside from the Traveler yet, then yes, Heizou is absolutely worth your EXP books and beetles. Since he’s a catalyst user, Heizou deals Anemo damage with every attack, making him almost literally a Swirl machine. Pair him with someone like Fischl, Mona, or Xiangling for constant Swirl reactions.
What is the best Shikanoin Heizou build?
Whether you want a Swirl team or something else, any Heizou build should revolve around boosting his Anemo damage and increasing elemental mastery.
The best Heizou weapon – Kagura’s Verity
Since Heizou revolves entirely around elemental damage, Kagura’s Verity is the best choice for him. The secondary stat boosts critical rate, which is fairly pointless, but the passive skill increase elemental skill damage by 12% at the base level and stacks three times.
Skyward Atlas or Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds are two good 5-star alternatives, but if you’d rather use something a bit less fancy, Sacrificial Fragments is a solid choice. It raises elemental mastery and has a decent chance of ending the user’s skill cooldown timer, which is particularly handy for Heizou. The energy recharge boost doesn't do him any harm either.
Finally is Solar Pearl, obtainable once you reach tier 30 of the battle pass. This one boosts elemental skill damage when you use a normal attack and normal attack damage when you use an elemental skill, so it's a win-win for Heizou.
Best Heizou Artifacts – Viridescent Venerer
This likely comes as no surprise if you’ve used any Anemo character before, but Viridescent Venerer is ideal for Heizou. The two-piece effect increases Anemo damage by 15%, but the four-piece effect is what really makes this an excellent choice. It boosts Swirl damage by 20% and decreases enemy resistance to the swirled element by 40% for 10 seconds.
Even if you don’t care much about running meta teams – freeze teams and the like – it’s still worth including at least one other character with strong elemental abilities in Heizou’s team just to take advantage of these effects.
Ideally, you’ll try rolling for Artifacts with Anemo or elemental damage boosts and elemental mastery increases. That always takes a lot of time and luck, though, and while it is helpful to get these stats, it's not essential.
What is the best Heizou F2P build?
Heizou’s F2P build follows similar guidelines, just with different weapons.
Best Heizou F2P weapon – Mappa Mare
Craftable catalysts are pretty hit and miss, but Mappa Mare is a strong pick for Heizou. Its secondary stat increases elemental mastery by 24 at level 1, and the passive skill raises elemental damage for a short time after the user triggers an elemental reaction.
Best Heizou F2P Artifacts – Viridescent Venerer
Heizou’s F2P Artifacts are the same as with the paid build, and with the same stat emphases.
Best Heizou team comps
Like other Anemo characters, Heizou would work well with pretty much anyone. Adding an extra Anemo character to get the Impetuous Winds resonance effect and reduce skill cooldown times is a smart option, since Heizou is built around triggering elemental reactions. Sucrose is probably the easiest fit if you’ve been playing for a while, though Sayu would be ideal since she has healing skills as well.
Aside from that, we recommend characters with skills that continue to function even after they’re off the field. Yelan or Xingqiu are strong Hydro picks, but if you need an F2P option, you could use Barbara. Group enemies together with Heizou’s abilities, then switch to Barbara, use her skill, and touch them all to apply Hydro.
Diona, Ganyu, or Kaeya would work well for Cryo, and Xiangling or Klee have useful Pyro skills that linger too.
These are just choices to get the most out of Heizou’s abilities, but literally any combination would work with him.
If you're saving up for future Genshin Impact banners, make sure to check out our up-do-date list of Genshin Impact codes for some free Primogems.
