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Genshin Impact Beidou build

Our Genshin Impact Beidou build invites you aboard to meet the four-star electro claymore wielder, covering her skills, best weapons and artifacts, and more.

Genshin Impact Beidou waving in her official birthday art

Genshin Impact’s Beidou is a four-star electro claymore wielder, and the captain of The Crux. And with our Beidou build, you can make the most of her brilliant potential as a sub-DPS support, impressive damage output, and shielding abilities. So let’s take a look at her best team comps, weapons, artifacts, and more.

If you want to know who’s best, check out our Genshin Impact tier list. We’ve also got guides to all the latest Genshin Impact codes and the next Genshin Impact banner, so you can be ready for every Genshin Impact update.

Here’s everything in our best Genshin Impact Beidou build:

What’s the best Beidou build?

Beidou is a four-star electro claymore wielder. She’s a very reliable pseudo-AoE damage dealer with a unique and dynamic playstyle that revolves around her counter. She can dish out a lot of damage in the right scenarios, and she offers great survivability, both for herself and whoever has her Stormbreaker shield.

Here’s a brief overview of our best Genshin Impact Beidou build:

Rarity ★★★★
Element Electro
Weapon Claymore
Best weapon
  • Serpent Spine
Weapon substitutes
  • Wolf’s Gravestone
  • Akuoumaru
Best artifact set
  • Emblem of Severed Fate
Artifact substitutes
  • Thundering Fury
  • Thundersoother
Main stats
  • Sands: attack% / HP%
  • Goblet: electro damage bonus / attack% / HP
  • Circlet: attack% / HP / crit rate / crit damage
Sub stats
  • Attack%
  • Crit rate/crit damage
  • Energy recharge
  • HP

Generally, for the best Genshin Impact Beidou build, you should equip her with the four-star weapon, Serpent Spine, along with a full set of Emblem of Severed Fate artifacts. However, her best build changes depending on your team comp and how you plan on using her, so be sure to check out the dedicated weapon and artifact sections below for advice specific to your personal preferences.

In terms of the best stats for Beidou, we recommend prioritizing attack%, crit, energy recharge, and HP. When upgrading her talents, you should prioritize her elemental burst, then her elemental skill, and finally her normal attack.

Beidou is best suited to a sub-DPS role, and benefits from having another off-field DPS alongside her, as well as a reaction driver and a healer. She’s a great fit for hyperbloom teams as well, as her burst doesn’t trigger dendro cores so she won’t steal reactions from your hydro DPS.

She relies quite heavily on her second constellation, and, due to the high energy cost of her burst, she requires a good battery and a decent amount of investment in her equipment in order to reach her full potential. But, overall, she can be a very strong four-star unit capable of dishing out some very high damage.

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How to use Beidou

To make the most of Beidou, you need to master the timing on her elemental skill’s Perfect Counter parry. It may take a bit of practice until you know exactly when to hit it, but it becomes second nature after a while.

Outside of that, you need to be sure to set up all buffs before she uses her burst, as she ‘snapshots’, meaning buffs only apply to her if they’re active when she initiates her talent. After you’ve set up your buffs, you ideally want to start with a perfect counter, then burst straight after. This allows you to gather the counter particles to charge up her next burst, and also saves some time while dealing the best damage.

When it comes to normal attack rotations, her full, five-hit combo isn’t good for proccing Stormbreaker. Instead, community theorycrafters have noted that you should do one normal attack, walk to cancel the animation, then go in for another normal attack and repeat. This allows you to maximize discharges with ease.

What’s the best weapon for Beidou?

The best weapon for Beidou relies heavily on how you intend to use her and what teams you want to slot her into.

We generally recommend Serpent Spine as the best all-rounder weapon for Beidou, as it’s easily her best option when she’s paired up with a support unit that buffs her attack, or if you’re planning on using her in aggravate teams. It’s also her most flexible weapon, performing well in all scenarios – especially at higher refinement ranks.

Beyond that, Wolf’s Gravestone is a strong five-star option in teams that don’t rely on attack buffs or aggravate reactions – though we generally only recommend this weapon if you have a spare gathering dust in your inventory.

For another four-star option, Akuoumaru competes with Serpent Spine when Beidou is unbuffed, and is the best free-to-play option you’ll likely get.

Here are Beidou’s best weapons:

Serpent’s Spine Base stat: crit rate
Skill: every four seconds that the wielder is on the field, they deal 6% more damage and take 3% more damage, for a maximum of five stacks. These stacks don’t reset when the character leaves the field, but reduce by one stack whenever they take damage
Battlepass
Wolf’s Gravestone Base stat: attack
Skill: a
ttack is increased by 20%. Alongside this, attacks against enemies with less than 30% HP increase all party members’ attack by 40% for 12 seconds. This can only occur once every 30 seconds
Limited or standard banner
Akuoumaru Base stat: attack
Skill: for every point of the entire party’s combined maximum energy capacity, the wielder’s elemental burst damage increases by 0.12%, up to a maximum of 40%
Limited or standard banner

What are the best artifacts for Beidou?

Like her weapons, the best artifact set for Beidou depends on your situation – but, luckily, they’re all quite similar in terms of raw damage. If you want to work out the best artifacts for your specific needs, check out the super handy Genshin Optimizer.

However, a full set of Emblem of Severed Fate is generally the best option for Beidou, helping to boost her energy recharge and buffing her elemental burst damage.

Alternatively, you can go for a more electro-focused set. Thundersoother works best in aggravate or electro-charged teams, and Thundering Fury is great in on-field aggravate teams.

Here are Beidou’s best artifacts and where to get them:

Emblem of Severed Fate Two equipped: energy recharge +20%
Four equipped: increases elemental burst damage by 25% of energy recharge. You can obtain a maximum of 75% bonus damage in this way
Obtain from Momiji-Dyed Court, Yashiori Island, Inazuma
Thundering Fury Two equipped: Electro damage increased by 15%
Four equipped: Increases damage caused by overload, electro-charged, and superconduct by 40%. Triggering these effects also decreases elemental skill cooldown by one second. This can only occur once every 0.8 seconds
Obtain from Midsummer Courtyard domain in Starfell Valley, Starsnatch Cliff
Thundersoother Two equipped: electro resistance +40%
Four equipped: increases damage dealt against enemies affected by electro by 35%
Obtain from Midsummer Courtyard domain in Starfell Valley, Starsnatch Cliff

Artifact stat recommendations

When picking artifacts for Beidou, you should prioritize the following stats.

Main stats: 

  • Sands: attack% or HP%
  • Goblet: electro damage bonus, attack%, or HP
  • Circlet: attack%, HP, crit rate, or crit damage

Sub-stats:

  • Attack%
  • Crit rate/crit damage (try to maintain a 1:2 ratio)
  • Energy recharge
  • HP

To find out more about how artifacts work, check out our Genshin Impact artifacts guide.

Genshin Impact Beidou leaning her head on her hand and smiling

What are the best Beidou team comps?

Beidou is a strong character on her own, but reaches max potential when fighting alongside well-chosen teammates. She has some great synergies in the game, and works well on a variety of elemental teams, including electro-charged, aggravate, hyperbloom, overload, and even physical.

The Crux’s captain can play a few different roles, though she generally excels best as an off-field DPS. Her best teams generally consist of her alongside another off-field DPS, a reaction driver, and a support unit that can buff, heal, or both.

Here are some examples of strong Beidou team comps. You can substitute characters where necessary to suit your roster and playstyle.

Ayato Beidou Fischl Bennett
Beidou Traveler
(dendro)
Fischl Jean
Keqing Beidou Traveler
(Dendro)
Sayu
Raiden Beidou Xingqiu Traveler
(dendro)
Ayato Beidou Traveler
(dendro)
Kuki
Yoimiya Beidou Fischl Bennett
Zhongli Fischl Beidou Kaeya

What are Beidou’s skills?

Here are all of Beidou’s skills and talents.

Active skills:

Normal attack Oceanborne
Normal: 
perform five strikes with her claymore
Charged: consume stamina to deal consecutive slashes, ending with a final, more powerful slash
Plunge: plunge from mid-air and deal AoE damage on impact with the ground
Elemental skill Tidecaller
Press: 
accumulate the power of lighting and swing Beidou’s blade forward fiercely, dealing electro damage
Hold: Beidou uses her weapon as a shield. The max damage it absorbes scales off Beidou’s max HP. The shield has 250% electro damage absorption and applies the electro element on Beidou when it activates. When you release the button or the ability’s duration expires, Beidou attacks using the energy stored within the greatsword, dealing electro damage to enemies. This damage scales with the number of times enemies attacked Beidou in the skill’s duration. When you trigger this effect twice, you gain a higher damage bonus
Elemental burst Stormbreaker
Summon a Thunderbeast’s Targe around Beidou, dealing electro damage to nearby opponents. While under the effects of Thunderbeast’s Targe, normal and charged attacks create a lightning discharge on hit that can jump between opponents, dealing electro damage.  This state also increases the character’s interruption resistance, and decreases their damage taken

Passive skills:

A1 Retribution
A precise counter-attack with Tidecaller grants the maximum damage bonus
A4 Leviathan’s Protection 
After performing Tidecaller with the maximum damage boost, your attack damage and attack speed increases by 15% and the delay before unleashing charged attacks is reduced
Utility Conqueror of Tides
Decreases stamina consumption for all characters by 20% when swimming

What are Beidou’s constellations?

If you pull more than one copy of Beidou on a banner, you can unlock one of her six constellations.

Here are all of Genshin Impact Beidou’s constellations:

C1 Sea Beast’s Scourge
When you use Stormbreaker, a shield is created that absorbs up to 16% of Beidou’s max HP for 15 seconds. The shield absorbs electro damage 250% more effectively
C2 Upon the Turbulent Sea, the Thunder Arises
Stormbreaker’s lightning can jump between two additional targets
C3 Summoner of Storm
Increases the level of Tidecaller by three
C4 Stunning Revenge
Within ten seconds of taking damage, normal attacks gain 20% additional electro damage
C5 Crimson Tidewalker
Increase the level of Stormbreaker by three
C6 Bane of Evil
While Stormbreaker is active, enemy electro resistance is decreased by 15%.

What are Beidou’s ascension materials?

Here are all of Genshin Impact Beidou’s ascension materials:

20➔40
  • 20k mora
  • One vajrada amethyst sliver
  • Three noctilous jade
  • Three treasure hoarder insignia
40➔50
  • 40k mora
  • Three vajrada amethyst fragment
  • Two lightning prism
  • Ten noctilous jade
  • 15 treasure hoarder insignia
50➔60
  • 60k mora
  • Six vajrada amethyst fragment
  • Four lightning prism
  • 20 noctilous jade
  • 12 silver raven insignia
60➔70
  • 80k mora
  • Three vajrada amethyst chunk
  • Eight lightning prism
  • 30 noctilous jade
  • 18 silver raven insignia
70➔80
  • 100k mora
  • Six vajrada amethyst chunk
  • 12 lightning prism
  • 45 noctilous jade
  • 12 golden raven insignia
80➔90
  • 120k mora
  • Six vajrada amethyst gemstone
  • 20 lightning prism
  • 60 noctilous jade
  • 24 golden raven insignia

Here’s where to get all of Beidou’s ascension materials:

  • Vajrada amethyst – drops from normal and weekly bosses
  • Noctilous jade – gathered around Liyue, or you can purchase a handful of them every three days from the Jade Mystery Shop in Liyue Harbor
  • Treasure hoarder / silver raven / golden raven insignias – drops from treasure hoarder enemies
  • Lightning prism – drops from the Electro Hypostasis normal boss in Cape Oath, Galesong Hill, Mondstadt

Genshin Impact Beidou and Ningguang stood in Liyue in official artwork

What are Beidou’s talent materials?

You can upgrade Beidou’s normal attack, elemental burst, and elemental skill separately.

Here are all of the materials you need to upgrade one of Beidou’s talents to level ten:

1➔2
  • 12.5k mora
  • Six treasure hoarder insignia
  • Three teachings of gold
2➔3
  • 17.5k mora
  • Three silver raven insignia
  • Two guide to gold
3➔4
  • 25k mora
  • Four silver raven insignia
  • Four guide to gold
4➔5
  • 30k mora
  • Six silver raven insignia
  • Six guide to gold
5➔6
  • 37.5k mora
  • Nine silver raven insignia
  • Nine guide to gold
6➔7
  • 120k mora
  • Four golden raven insignia
  • Four philosophies of gold
  • One Dvalin’s sigh
7➔8
  • 260k mora
  • Six golden raven insignia
  • Six philosophies of gold
  • One Dvalin’s sigh
8➔9
  • 450k mora
  • Nine golden raven insignia
  • 12 philosophies of gold
  • Two Dvalin’s Sigh
9➔10
  • 700k mora
  • 12 golden raven insignia
  • 16 philosophies of gold
  • Two Dvalin’s sigh
  • One crown of insight

Here’s where to get each of Beidou’s talent materials:

  • Gold talent books – rewards from the Taishan Mansion domain near Jueyun Karst in Liyue on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday
  • Treasure hoarder / silver raven / golden raven insignias – drops from treasure hoarder enemies
  • Dvalin’s sigh – drops from the Stormterror Dvalin weekly boss in Stormterror’s Lair, Mondstadt

Talent priorities

When leveling up Beidou’s talents, we recommend prioritizing them in this order:

  • Elemental burst > elemental skill > normal attack

Who is Genshin Impact’s Beidou?

Beidou is the captain of The Crux, and has quite the reputation in Liyue. She’s known as the Uncrowned Lord of the Ocean due to her great strength and tremendous feats, including slaying the leviathan Haishan without the aid of her vision.

Beyond her strength, she’s recognized for her easy-going personality and good judgement of character, both of which make her well-liked by many people. She’s noble and treats her crew with fairness and respect, leading to their steadfast loyalty.

In all of Liyue Harbor, Beidou is the only one who dares to bet against Genshin Impact’s Ningguang, the Tianquan, often violating the Liyue Qixing’s rules and paying off hefty fines in turn. However, despite their clear differences, she and Ningguang appear to have a very close relationship, frequently playing chess together and discussing all sorts of topics.

There you have it! Everything you need to know in order to master Genshin Impact’s Beidou. If you’re hoping to set out on another Hoyo adventure, check out our Honkai Star Rail tier list, Honkai Star Rail codes, Honkai Star Rail update, and Honkai Star Rail events guides. We’ve also got a guide to all Zenless Zone Zero characters.