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Genshin Impact Barbara build

Genshin Impact's Barbara is the adorable idol from Mondstadt, and makes for an affordable, F2P healer. Leave the healing to her, she won't disappoint you.

Genshin Impact Barbara's splash art on a blue background

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 hydro character that provides some decent heals and is best placed in a support role. 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 Diona, Genshin Impact’s Wanderer, and Genshin Impact’s Kaeya.

Genshin Impact Barbara can heal our hearts and soul – here’s how to get the best build for her!

What’s the best Genshin Impact Barbara build?

Best weapon Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers
Weapon substitutes Prototype Amber
Best artifact set Maiden Beloved
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. 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%.

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.

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How do I use Genshin Impact’s 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?

Our preferred choice of catalyst is the Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers. If you do choose this weapon, we recommend switching Barbara in and out of combat every 20 seconds to take full advantage of the attack bonus. We do recommend you try to get this weapon to refinement rank five if possible.

Prototype Amber is also a great choice, as it’s craftable which makes it very affordable for F2P players. Its energy refund and team heals 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.

Weapon Effect How to obtain
Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers (three-star) Bonus effect: HP increase
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
All banners
Prototype Amber (four-star) Bonus effect: HP increase
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 (five-star) Bonus effect: HP increase
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 (four-star) Bonus effect: Energy recharge increase
Skill: 
Crit hits have a chance to generate elemental particles, which restore six energy for Barbara.
All banners

What are the best Barbara artifacts?

We highly recommend tracking down 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 bonus of either Tenacity of the Millelith or Vourukasha’s Glow helps to 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.

Artifact set Effect How to obtain
Maiden Beloved Two equipped: Increases healing effectiveness
Four equipped: 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 equipped: Increases healing effectiveness
Four equipped: 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 equipped: Healing bonus
Four equipped: 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

Energy is not required, as you should only use Barbara’s burst as a last resort. As such, you should focus on HP to increase her healing.

Main stats:

  • Sands: HP
  • Goblet: HP
  • Circlet: Healing bonus

Sub-stats:

  • HP
  • Energy recharge

Genshin Impact Barbara singing

What are the best Genshin Impact 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.

First character slot Second character slot Third character slot Fourth character slot
Barbara Nahida Nilou Flexible slot
Barbara Raiden Yelan Kazuha
Barbara Ganyu Ayaka 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:

Skill Effect
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, characters heal 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:

Skill Effect
Glorious Season (unlocked at ascension one) When your active character has Barbara’s Melody Loop around them, their stamina consumption reduces by 12% 
Encore (unlocked at ascension four) Melody Loop lasts a second longer each time a character gains an elemental orb or particle
With My Whole Heart (unlocked automatically) Perfect cooking has a 12% chance to double 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.

Constellation Effect
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 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 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

Genshin Impact Barbara and her sister Jean looking at the camera and smiling

What are Barbara’s ascension materials?

Barbara needs a lot of philanemo mushrooms to ascend. You can find these growing on walls and roofs around Mondstadt. The scrolls drop from Abyss Mage enemies, and the cleansing hearts come from the Oceanid in Liyue.

Required level Mora Materials
20 20,000 One varunada lazurite sliver, three philanemo mushrooms, three divining scroll
40 40,000 Three varunada lazurite fragments, two cleansing hearts, ten philanemo mushrooms, 15 divining scroll
50 60,000 Six varunada lazurite fragments, four cleansing hearts, 20 philanemo mushrooms, 12 sealed scroll
60 80,000 Three varunada lazurite chunks, eight cleansing hearts, 30 philanemo mushrooms, 18 sealed scroll
70 100,000 Six varunada lazurite chunks, 12 cleansing hearts, 45 philanemo mushrooms, 12 forbidden curse scroll
80 120,000 Six varunada lazurite gemstones, 20 cleansing hearts, 60 philanemo mushrooms, 24 forbidden curse scroll

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.

Talent level Mora Materials
Two 12,500 Six divining scrolls, three teachings of freedom
Three 17,500 Three sealed scrolls, two guides of freedom
Four 25,000  Four sealed scrolls, four guides of freedom
Five 30,000 Six sealed scrolls, six guides of freedom
Six 37,500 Nine sealed scrolls, nine guides of freedom
Seven 120,000 Four forbidden curse scrolls, four philosophies of freedom, one ring of Boreas
Eight 260,000 Six forbidden curse scrolls, six philosophies of freedom, one ring of Boreas
Nine 450,000 Nine forbidden curse scrolls, 12 philosophies of freedom, two rings of Boreas
Ten 700,000 12 forbidden curse scrolls, 16 philosophies of freedom, two rings of Boreas, one crown of insight

Talent priorities:

  • Elemental skill > elemental burst > normal attack

If you’re looking for other titles like Genshin Impact, you can find some in our list of the best gacha games for iOS and Android. There’s also a new Hoyoverse title on the way: check out our Honkai Star Rail tier list and any working Honkai Star Rail codes.