Genshin Impact’s Barbara is a self-proclaimed idol who is loved by every citizen in Mondstadt. You get her for free very early on, and she’s a four-star character that provides some decent healing to help you survive your first few quests in Teyvat. Our Genshin Barbara build features all of her skills, constellations, best weapons and artifacts, and more, so you can make the most of this adorable little optimist.
Head on over to our Genshin Impact codes guide and check out our Genshin Impact tier list to see where your newly obtained character ranks. We’ve also got full guides for other strong characters like Genshin Impact’s Arlecchino, Genshin Impact’s Wanderer, and Genshin Impact’s Gaming.
Here’s everything in our Genshin Impact Barbara guide:
What’s the best Genshin Impact Barbara build?
Barbara is a four-star that you can get for free, who uses a catalyst weapon and the hydro element.
| Rarity | ★★★★ |
| Element | Hydro |
| Weapon | Catalyst |
| Best weapon | Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers |
| Substitute weapons | Prototype Amber, Everlasting Moonglow |
| Best artifact set | Maiden Beloved |
| Artifact substitutes | Ocean-Hued Clam, Songs of Days Past |
| Main stats | -Sands: HP -Goblet: HP -Circlet: Healing bonus |
| Sub-stats | HP, energy recharge |
Barbara is best suited to a support role as she can dish out some pretty impressive heals and automatically revive characters at constellation level six.
Early in the game, we recommend using her in a team with another hydro character, such as Genshin Impact’s Mona, to take advantage of hydro elemental resonance, which increases healing by 30%. Any buffs you can get will pay dividends in helping you survive those hilichurls.
Alternatively, since the arrival of Sumeru and the dendro element, players have found Barbara to be amazing when combined with Genshin Impact’s Collei and either Genshin Impact’s Tighnari or the dendro Genshin Impact Traveler. This is due to the way her elemental skill’s ring treats entities and the way the game treats the dendro seed pods created by the bloom reaction.
How do I use Barbara?
Barabara doesn’t need to be on field for you to use her – select her, use her elemental skill, and then swap to your DPS to heal them as they go – and apply the wet status to enemies. When Barbara’s burst is ready and your team needs a little TLC, swap to her and activate it for a full team heal.
What are the best Barbara weapons?
Don’t let the three-star rating fool you – the best catalyst for Barbara is the Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers. We recommend switching Barbara in and out of combat every 20 seconds to take full advantage of the attack bonus. Remember to refine this up to rank five as soon as you can.
Prototype Amber is also a great choice of catalyst as it’s craftable, which makes it very affordable for F2P players. It is energy regeneration and team-wide healing both scale well with refinements. Alternatively, you can pick Everlasting Moonglow. Its passive isn’t very useful for an off-field Barbara, but it works as a stat stick, increasing her HP% and healing bonus.
If you have the Ash-Graven Drinking Horn, you can use this to boost Barbara’s HP and improve her healing, but it also deals a percentage of her healing as damage. If you’re using Barbara early in the game, this can provide a helpful extra hit to help defeat enemies.
| Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers | Stat: HP Skill: After switching characters, the new character on the field has an attack increase of 24% for ten seconds. This can only occur once every 20 seconds. Recommended at R5 |
All banners |
| Prototype Amber | Stat: HP Skill: Elemental bursts regenerate four energy every two seconds for six seconds. All party members also regenerate 4% HP every two seconds for the duration of the effect |
Craft via blacksmith |
| Everlasting Moonglow | Stat: HP Skill: Increases healing bonus by 10%, and normal attack damage by 1% of Barbara’s max HP. For 12 seconds after using her elemental burst, any of Barbara’s normal attacks that hit opponents restore 0.6 of her energy |
Weapon banner |
| Favonius Codex | Stat: Energy recharge Skill: Crit hits have a chance to generate elemental particles, which restore six energy for Barbara |
All banners |
| Ash-Graven Drinking Horn | Stat: HP Skill: When an attack hits an opponent, Barbara deals AoE damage equal to 40% of her maximum HP at the target location. This effect can trigger once every 15 seconds |
Event reward |
What are the best artifacts for Barbara?
We highly recommend a full set of Maiden Beloved artifacts in order to make Barbara the best healer she can be. If you haven’t quite got the right set, then Ocean-Hued Clam can help in the meantime.
If the artifact archons aren’t giving you what you want, then a two-piece set of Tenacity of the Millelith or Vourukasha’s Glow can help stack up Barbara’s HP for more healing power. Whichever set you go for, make sure you have plenty of HP main stats, and a healing bonus circlet if you can get one.
| Maiden Beloved | Two pieces: Increases healing effectiveness Four pieces: Increases healing received for all party members by 20% for ten seconds when using an elemental skill or burst |
Valley of Remembrance domain |
| Ocean-Hued Clam | Two pieces: Increases healing effectiveness Four pieces: When Barbara heals a character in the party, a Sea-Dyed Foam appears for three seconds, accumulating the amount of HP recovered. At the end of the duration, it explodes, dealing damage to nearby opponents based on 90% of the accumulated healing. Each Sea-Dyed Foam can accumulate up to 30,000 HP. This effect triggers even when Barbara is not on the field |
Slumbering Court domain |
| Song of Days Past | Two pieces: Healing bonus Four pieces: When Barbara heals a party member, the Yearning effect applies to them for six seconds, which records the total amount of healing provided – including overflow. When the duration expires, the effect transforms into Waves of Days Past: When your active party member attacks an opponent, the damage increases by 8% of the total recorded healing. The effect lasts for either five uses or ten seconds. A single instance of Yearning can record up to 15,000 healing, and only one instance can exist. Standby characters can trigger this. |
Waterfall Wen domain |
Artifact stat recommendations
While using Barbara’s ultimate is more of a last resort, making use of energy recharge sub-stats is helpful when picking artifacts. You want to prioritize HP and healing bonus main stats, though.
Main stats:
- Sands: HP
- Goblet: HP
- Circlet: Healing bonus
Sub-stats:
- HP
- Energy recharge
What are the best Barbara team comps?
As a healer, Barbara is very useful in almost any team. Due to her elemental skill constantly applying the wet status, she works well in vaporize, freeze, bloom, and other elemental comps, too – but be warned, you may also freeze a lot, too.
Here are the best early-game teams for Barbara:
| Healer | DPS | Sub-DPS | Shield |
 Barbara |
 Amber |
 Xiangling |
 Noelle |
| Barbara |
 Kaeya |
 Fischl |
 Diona |
Here are some other great team options for Barbara:
| Barbara |
 Nahida |
 Nilou |
 Kaveh |
| Barbara |
 Raiden |
 Yelan |
 Kazuha |
| Barbara |
 Hu Tao |
Xiangling |
Kazuha |
What are Barbara’s abilities?
Here is a full breakdown of Barbara’s kit and what each of her moves does.
Active skills
| Normal attack | Whisper of Water Normal: Performs four hydro attacks Charged: Consumes stamina to deal AoE hydro damage Plunging: Deals AoE hydro damage upon impact with the ground |
| Elemental skill | Let the Show Begin Summons a Melody Loop that deals AoE hydro damage and afflicts the wet status. As long as the Melody Loop is active, Barbara’s normal attacks heal the full party at once, including in co-op. Charged attacks will generate four times the amount of healing. The healing scales off Barbara’s maximum HP. While Barbara is not on the field but her skill is active, the on-field character heals at regular intervals. The wet status applies to the character and any enemies that come in contact with them |
| Elemental burst | Shining Miracle Barbara heals all party members using a large amount of HP, which scales off her maximum HP |
Passive skills
| Glorious Season | When your active character has Barbara’s Melody Loop around them, their stamina consumption reduces by 12% |
| Encore | Melody Loop lasts a second longer each time a character gains an elemental orb or particle |
| With My Whole Heart | Perfect cooking has a 12% chance of doubling the product |
What are Barbara’s constellations?
You get Barbara nice and early in the game, so there’s plenty of time for you to collect some constellations and unlock new talents for her. Here are the extra boosts she can get. Her C6 is especially useful no matter how far you are in the game.
| C1 | Gleeful Songs Regenerates one energy every ten seconds |
| C2 | Vitality Burst Decreases the cooldown of Let the Show Begin by 15%. The current character gains a 15% hydro damage bonus while the skill is active |
| C3 | Star of Tomorrow Barbara’s elemental burst (Shining Miracle)’s level increases by three, up to a maximum of 15 |
| C4 | Attentiveness Be My Power Each charged attack regenerates one energy for Barbara. She can gain a maximum of five energy from one charged attack |
| C5 | The Purest Companionship Barbara’s elemental skill (Let the Show Begin)’s level increases by three, up to a maximum of 15 |
| C6 | Dedicating Everything to You If Barbara is in your party but not currently the active character and a party member falls, she revives them with 100% HP. This can only occur once every 15 minutes |
What are Barbara’s ascension materials?
Barbara needs a lot of Mondstadt and early-game materials to ascend through the levels.
| 20➔30 | 20k mora One varunada lazurite sliver Three philanemo mushrooms Three divining scroll |
| 30➔40 | 40k mora Three varunada lazurite fragments Two cleansing hearts Ten philanemo mushrooms 15 divining scroll |
| 40➔50 | 60k mora Six varunada lazurite fragments Four cleansing hearts 20 philanemo mushrooms 12 sealed scroll |
| 50➔60 | 80k mora Three varunada lazurite chunks Eight cleansing hearts 30 philanemo mushrooms 18 sealed scroll |
| 60➔70 | 100k mora Six varunada lazurite chunks 12 cleansing hearts 45 philanemo mushrooms 12 forbidden curse scroll |
| 70➔80 | 120k mora Six varunada lazurite gemstones 20 cleansing hearts 60 philanemo mushrooms 24 forbidden curse scroll |
Here is where to find each of Barbara’s ascension materials:
- Varunada lazurite – these hydro gems drop from weekly and normal bosses, especially the hydro hypostasis, Rhodeia of Loch, and Solitary Sulani
- Philanemo mushrooms – these mushrooms grow around Mondstadt city and Springvale, primarily on buildings
- Cleansing heart – this boss drop comes from the Rhodeia of Loch oceanid boss in Liyue
- Divining, sealed, forbidden curse scrolls -these items drop from Samachurl enemies in the overworld all across Teyvat. You can also buy them from the Starglitter exchange
What are Barbara’s talent materials?
Here’s the list of items you need to level up Barbara’s talents. We recommend focusing on her skill, burst, and then normal attack to get her healing up to scratch.
| 1➔2 | 12.5k mora Six divining scrolls Three teachings of freedom |
| 2➔3 | 17.5k mora Three sealed scrolls Two guides of freedom |
| 3➔4 | 25k mora Four sealed scrolls Four guides of freedom |
| 4➔5 | 30k mora Six sealed scrolls Six guides of freedom |
| 5➔6 | 37.5k mora Nine sealed scrolls Nine guides of freedom |
| 6➔7 | 120k mora Four forbidden curse scrolls Four philosophies of freedom One ring of Boreas |
| 7➔8 | 260k mora Six forbidden curse scrolls Six philosophies of freedom One ring of Boreas |
| 8➔9 | 450k mora Nine forbidden curse scrolls 12 philosophies of freedom Two rings of Boreas |
| 9➔10 | 700k mora 12 forbidden curse scrolls 16 philosophies of freedom Two rings of Boreas One crown of insight |
To find all these boss drops and talent books, head to these locations:
- Divining, sealed, forbidden curse scrolls -these items drop from Samachurl enemies in the overworld all across Teyvat. You can also buy them from the Starglitter exchange
- Freedom talent books – farm these in the Forsaken Rift domain in Mondstadt on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays
- Ring of Boreas – you can get these as a reward for the Andrius weekly boss in Mondstadt. If you don’t get the right drop, you can transform them at an alchemy station
Talent priority
- Elemental skill > elemental burst > normal attack
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