As Cavalry Captain of the Knights of Favonius, Genshin Impact's Kaeya Alberich is highly respected by the people of Mondstadt, even with his Khaenri'ahn lineage. Kaeya is a four-star cryo sword wielder and is one of the first characters you meet in Genshin Impact, as well as being an early get. In this Genshin Kaeya build guide, we take a look at his skills, weapons, artifacts, and more so that you can capture his full potential for your comp.
If you're after even more handy builds, make sure to check out our Genshin Impact Baizhu , Genshin Impact Nahida, and Genshin Impact Noelle guides, and if you're wondering where your favorites sit in the meta, we have a regularly updated Genshin Impact tier list, too. For who's coming up next, check our Genshin Impact banner schedule, and you can check out our Genshin Impact Eide guide to learn a bit more about the future of Kaeya's story.
Here's everything in our Genshin Impact Kaeya build:
What's the best Genshin Impact Kaeya build?
Kayea is a four-star sword wielder best suited to freeze teams. A build with plenty of attack, crit stats, and energy recharge with some Blizzard Strayer artifacts is the best way to go to get good damage and elemental reactions out of his skill and burst.
Here's a brief overview of our best Kaeya build:
| Rarity | ★★★★ |
| Element | Cryo |
| Weapon | Sword |
| Best weapon | Mistsplotter Reforged |
| Weapon substitutes |
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| Best artifact set | Blizzard Strayer |
| Main stats |
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| Sub stats |
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He doesn't quite compare with some of the stronger, five-star cryo DPS units like Genshin Impact's Ayaka and Genshin Impact's Ganyu, and he can also struggle to beat out his main competition - Genshin Impact's Rosaria - when it comes to general attack and her synergy with melt teams. However, a strong freeze build makes full-use of his kit and provide unbeatable particle generation, making him a surprisingly valuable teammate.
How to use Kaeya
Love him or hate him, Kaeya is a great unit for the early game and a versatile sub-DPS reaction enabler even through the Spiral Abyss. He has low energy recharge requirements, provides consistent cryo application as you use his skill and burst, and is free to all new players, making him a reliable staple in your roster from the start.
What are the best Genshin Impact Kaeya weapons?
Mistsplitter Reforged is the best weapon for Kaeya's personal damage and is his best-in-slot thanks to its high base attack, crit damage boost, and useful passive, even though he can't make full use of it.
Light of Foliar Incision and Haran Geppaku Futsu are also solid stat sticks for Kaeya, though, like Mistsplitter, he can't make the most of their passives, so are often better used on other characters.
The Alley Flash at R5 is Kaeya's best four-star weapon, offering high base attack, though Kagotsurube Isshin is considered his main, go-to F2P option - just remember to use one normal attack before his burst to make full use of its passive.
Here are the best weapons for Kaeya:
| Weapon | Effect | How to obtain |
| Mistsplitter Reforged (five-star) | Bonus effect: crit damage Skill: gain a 12% elemental damage bonus for all elements and receive the might of the Mistsplitter's Emblem. At stack levels 1/2/3, Mistsplitter's Emblem provides a 8/16/28% elemental damage bonus for the wielder's elemental type. The wielder gains one stack of Mistsplitter's Emblem when a normal attack deals elemental damage, upon casting an elemental burst, and when their energy is less than 100%. Each stack's duration is calculated independently |
Weapon banner (alongside Ayaka) |
| Light of Foliar Incision | Bonus effect: crit damage Skill: increases crit rate by 4%. After normal attacks deal damage, gain the foliar incision effect, increasing normal attack and elemental skill damage by 120% of the wielder's elemental mastery. This effect disappears after 28 damage instances over 12 seconds. You can obtain foliar incision once every 12 seconds |
Weapon banner (alongside Alhaitham) |
| Haran Geppaku Futsu | Bonus effect: crit rate Skill: obtain 12% bonus to all elemental damage. When other nearby party members use elemental skills, the equipping character gains one wavespike stack (max two stacks). You can trigger this effect once every 0.3 seconds. When the wielder uses an elemental skill, consume all stacks of wavespike and gain rippling upheaval, increasing normal attack damage by 20% per stack for eight seconds |
Weapon banner (alongside Ayato) |
| The Alley Flash | Bonus effect: elemental mastery Skill: increases the wielder's damage dealt by 12%. Taking damage disables this effect for five seconds |
Weapon banner |
| Kagotsurube Isshin | Bonus effect: attack Skill: when a normal, charged, or plunging attack hits an opponent, it whips up a hewing gale, dealing AoE damage equal to 180% of attack and increasing attack by 15% for eight seconds. This effect can trigger once every eight seconds |
Kazuha's story quest |
What are the best artifacts for Kaeya?
In a freeze team, Blizzard Strayer is the best option for Kaeya without a doubt. It offers a nice boost to his cryo damage and pushes his crit rate even higher, which synergizes perfectly with the cryo resonance bonus.
If you're hoping to put him in anything but a freeze team (i.e. reverse melt or a team that doesn't rely on either melt or freeze), we recommend a full set of Emblem of Severed Fate, offering a boost to energy recharge and burst damage. Alternatively, combining two pieces of Blizzard Strayer with two pieces of Noblesse Oblige is a flexible option if you're struggling to get a full set with decent stats.
Here are the best artifacts for Kaeya:
| Artifact set | Effect | How to obtain |
| Blizzard Strayer | Two equipped: Cryo damage bonus Four equipped: Increases Crit rate by 20% when attacking an enemy affected by cryo. If the enemy is frozen, it increases crit rate by an additional 20% |
Peak of Vindagnyr domain |
| Emblem of Severed Fate | Two equipped: Increases energy recharge Four equipped: Increases elemental burst damage by 25% of energy recharge. You can obtain a maximum of 75% bonus damage in this way |
Momiji-Dyed Court domain |
| Noblesse Oblige | Two equipped: Increases elemental burst damage Four equipped: Using an elemental burst increases all party members' attack by 20% for 12 seconds. This effect cannot stack |
Clear Pool and Mountain Cavern domain |
Artifact stat recommendations
When choosing artifacts for Kaeya, it's worth prioritizing the following stats.
Main stats:
- Sands: Attack %
- Goblet: Cryo damage bonus
- Circlet: Crit damage
Sub-stats:
- Energy recharge to requirements
- Crit damage
- Attack%
- Crit rate (aim for around 45%)
What are the best Kaeya team comps?
While Kaeya can be an affordable main DPS, he benefits from a little help that can really boost his numbers. To get the best out of him, we recommend team comps with supports like Bennett or Chongyun, and an anemo grouper such as Kazuha or Sucrose to really get things going.
Here are some examples of team builds for Kaeya:
 Kaeya |
 Chongyun |
 Xiangling |
 Bennett |
| Kaeya |
 Hu Tao |
 Xingqiu |
 Zhongli |
| Kaeya |
Chongyun |
Xingqiu |
 Kazuha |
| Kaeya |
 Diluc |
Kazuha |
Bennett |
What are Genshin Impact Kaeya's abilities?
Here are all of Kaeya's skills.
Active skills:
| Normal attack | Ceremonial Bladework Normal: Perform five strikes. Charged: Consume stamina to unleash two fast sword swings. Plunging: Plunge from mid-air to deal AoE damage on impact with the ground |
| Elemental skill | Frostgnaw Unleashes a frigid blast, dealing cryo damage to opponents in front of Kaeya |
| Elemental burst | Glacial Waltz Coalescing the frost in the air, Kaeya summons three icicles that revolve around him. These icicles will follow the active character around and deal cryo damage to opponents in their path for the ability's duration |
Passive skills:
| A1 | Cold-Blooded Strike Frostgnaw also regenerates HP to Kaeya equal to 15% of his attack |
| A4 | Glacial Heart Enemies frozen by Frostgnaw produce elemental particles |
| Utility | Hidden Strength Decreases sprinting stamina by 20% for the party |
What are Kaeya's constellations?
You can level up Kaeya's constellations if you receive him as a duplicate when making a wish. Here's every bonus you receive as you level up.
Here are all six of Kaeya's constellations and what they do:
| C1 | Excellent Blood Increases normal and charged attack critical hit rate against enemies affected by Cryo by 15% |
| C2 | Never-Ending Performance Increases the duration of Glacial Waltz by 2.5 seconds for a maximum of 15 seconds when it defeats an enemy |
| C3 | Dance of Frost Increases the level of Frostgnaw by three |
| C4 | Frozen Kiss Triggers the following effects automatically when Kaeya's HP falls below 20%:
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| C5 | Frostbiting Embrace Increases the level of Glacial Waltz by three |
| C6 | Glacial Whirlwind Summon an additional icicle when Glacial Waltz is used. It also regenerates 15 energy when cast |
What are Genshin Impact Kaeya's ascension materials?
You can fully ascend Kaeya through multiple levels. Here are all the materials needed to ascend Kaeya.
| 20➔40 |
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| 40➔50 |
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| 50➔60 |
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| 60➔70 |
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| 70➔80 |
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| 80➔90 |
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Here's where to get all of Kaeya's ascension materials:
- Shivada jade - dropped by Cryo Regisvine, Cryo Hypostasis, Coral Defenders, Iniquitous Baptist, Maguu Kenki, Perpetual Mechanical Array, Aeonblight Drake, Primo Geovishap, Icewind Suite (Coppelius)
- Hoarfrost cores - dropped by Cryo Regisvine
- Calla lillies - around any body of water, particularly Starfell Lake, Dadaupa Gorge, and around Dawn Winery
- Raven insignia - dropped by Treasure Horders or obtained through alchemy or purchased from Paimon's Bargains
What are Kaeya's talent materials?
You can upgrade Kaeya's talents with the ballad family of books - farmed in Mondstadt's Forsaken Rift domain - and spirit lockets of Boreas. These are drops from the weekly Andruis, Wolf of the North boss.
Here are all the materials you need to get one of Kaeya's talents to max level.
| 1➔2 |
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| 2➔3 |
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| 3➔4 |
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| 4➔5 |
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| 5➔6 |
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| 6➔7 |
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| 7➔8 |
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| 8➔9 |
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| 9➔10 |
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Here's where to get all of Kaeya's talent materials:
- Treasure hoarder insignia - Springvale in Monstadt, Luhua Pool in Liyue, or south of and between Mt. Tianheng and Lingju Pass in Liyue
Talent priorities:
- Elemental burst > elemental skill > normal attack
When leveling Kaeya's talents, we recommend prioritizing his elemental burst first, then his elemental skill. After that, level up his normal attack as required.