Genshin Impact's Kuki Shinobu is hardworking and dutiful and essentially acts as a babysitter to Itto and the Arataki gang. She's a unique four-star electro sword wielder, who sacrifices her health to summon a ring that damages enemies and heals allies.
So let's take a look at the best Genshin Kuki build, including her artifacts, weapons, skills, and more. While you're here, you can also head over to our Genshin Impact tier list to see how Kuki sizes up against other characters, and grab all the latest freebies with our list of all the new Genshin Impact codes.
Here's everything in our Genshin Impact Kuki Shinobu build:
What's the best Kuki Shinobu build?
Kuki is a four-star electro sword wielder and former shrine maiden of the Grand Narukami Shrine. She's the Deputy Leader of the Arataki gang, thanks to her close relationship with Araki Itto, and is a consummate professional when it comes to the gang's business dealings. She deals a lot of electro AoE damage, at the sacrifice of her own HP, so she also has an impressive support mechanic that can benefit the wider team as well as herself.
Here's a brief overview of our best Kuki Shinobu build:
| Rarity | ★★★★ |
| Element | Dendro |
| Weapon | Bow |
| Best weapon | Hyperbloom - Freedom Sworn Quicken - Freedom Sworn Pure healer - Key of Khaj-Nisut |
| Weapon substitutes | Toukabou Shigure, The Dockhand's Assistant |
| Best artifact set | Hyperbloom - Flower of Paradise Lost Quicken - Instructor Pure healer - Tenacity of the Millelith |
| Main stats | Sands - HP/Elemental mastery Goblet - HP/Elemental mastery Circlet - Healing bonus |
| Sub stats | HP, elemental mastery, attack |
The ideal Kuki build relies on plenty of elemental mastery, as this is what her passive healing talent is based on, but she also needs a high max HP stat, as her Sanctifying Ring elemental skill scales off this. Kuki Shinobu is a fantastic support unit capable of healing your characters very quickly, along with providing plenty of electro to spark elemental reactions.
Any elemental mastery sword - especially the Toukabou Shigure - works wonders for her. As for artifacts, you want a two-piece providing an HP bonus, and one providing an elemental mastery bonus. Considering she has two stats to prioritize, Kuki is actually really easy to build as there are plenty of options.
How to use Kuki Shinobu
Kuki has really come into her own thanks to the addition of the dendro element - she works fantastically in a hyperbloom or quicken team, providing reactions left, right, and center along with her healing.
If you have her in your team, all you need to do is pop off her elemental skill and it'll do the work for you. Her burst can help with a hefty explosion of reaction-based damage, but her skill is where it's at. She's also excellent in co-op domains as her Sanctifying Ring remains on-field for quite a while, healing anyone close to your active character.
What are the best weapons for Kuki Shinobu?
Sumeru has given us some great weapon options for Kuki - the five-star Key of Khaj-Nisut and four-star Xhiphos' Moonlight both buff elemental mastery, with the Key giving a hefty HP buff and ranking as the best weapon for a full healing build.
Freedom-sworn is another solid choice due to her healing scaling with her elemental mastery, and its skill still procing when she's not on the field, making it her best in slot for hyperbloom or quicken teams. Similarly, Iron Sting essentially works as an elemental mastery stat stick, though the skill is rarely useful for her.
On the other hand, Sacrificial Sword's energy recharge means Kuki is able to use her burst more frequently, and the skill reset is always handy, especially as her skill field deals damage and therefore can trigger Sacrificial Sword's passive even if she's not on the field.
Here are the best weapons for Kuki Shinobu:
| Xiphos' Moonlight (four-star) | Bonus effect: Increases elemental mastery Skill: Every ten seconds, the equipping character gains 0.03% energy recharge for every point of elemental mastery. Nearby party members gain 30% of this buff, too. The effect is triggered even when not on field. |
Weapon banner |
| Key of Khaj-Nisut (five-star) | Bonus effect: HP increase Skill: Increases HP by 20%, and when an elemental skill hits an opponent, a Grand Hymn is gained. This increases elemental mastery by 0.12% of the max HP and can stack. Three stacks will buff party members' elemental mastery. |
Weapon banner (alongside Nilou) |
| Toukabou Shigure (four-star) | Bonus effect: Increases elemental mastery Skill: After an attack hits opponents, it inflicts an instance of Cursed Parasol upon one of them for ten seconds. If the opponent is taken out during Cursed Parasol's Duration, Cursed Parasol's cooldown will be refreshed immediately. Kuki will deal 16% more damage to opponents affected by Cursed Parasol. |
Event exclusive |
| Freedom-Sworn (five-star) | Bonus effect: Increases elemental mastery Skill: Increases damage by 10%. When Kuki triggers elemental reactions, she gains a Sigil of Rebellion (once every 0.5 seconds). This triggers even if she isn't on the field. When she reaches two sigils, she consumes both to grant all nearby party members +20% attack and +16% normal, charged, and plunging attack damage for 12 seconds. Once triggered, she gains no sigils for 20 seconds. Buffs of the same type don't stack. |
Weapon banner (alongside Kazuha) |
| Iron Sting (four-star) | Bonus effect: Increases elemental mastery Skill: Dealing elemental damage increases all of Kuki's damage by 6% for six seconds. This can occur once every second. |
Forge via Blacksmith |
| The Dockhand's Assistant (four-star) | Bonus effect: Increases HP Skill: When Kuki is healed or heals others, she gains a Stoic Symbol, lasting 30 seconds. This can stack up to three times. When she uses an elemental skill or burst, the symbols are consumed and the Round Effect takes is gained for ten seconds. Each symbol provides 40 elemental mastery and two energy. This effect can trigger every 15 seconds, even when Kuki is not on field. |
Weapon banner |
What are the best artifacts for Kuki Shinobu?
Kuki has three main roles - you can build her as a quicken or hyperbloom enabler, or as a full healer. Regardless, she can still offer a heap of healing, but it's up to you what you want to focus on.
If you plan on building her as a pure healer, we recommend going with a full set of Tenacity of the Millelith and stacking up her HP. Given enough HP (around 30k), she can easily heal teammates in seconds.
If you want to prioritize hyperbloom reactions, we recommend equipping her with four pieces of Flower of Paradise Lost, as it provides a solid elemental mastery boost and also increases her hyperbloom reaction damage.
As a quicken enabler, a full set of Instructor is her best set. Even though it's only available in three- and four-star rarities, its boost to her and her team's elemental mastery is very valuable, and it's quite easy to get hold of a full set as a new player due to it being a regular drop from elite enemies, normal bosses, and chest.
If you're struggling to get a full set, two pieces of an elemental mastery set and two pieces of either a HP or a healing bonus set are a good back-up plan.
Here are the best artifacts for Kuki Shinobu:
| Artifact set | Effect | How to obtain |
| Flower of Paradise Lost | Two equipped: Increases elemental mastery Four equipped: Kuki's hyperbloom reaction damage is increased by 40%, and when the effect is triggered, another 25% bonus damage will be applied. Effects trigger even when Kuki is off-field. |
City of Gold Domain |
| Tenacity of the Millelith | Two equipped: Increases HP Four equipped: When Kuki's elemental skill hits an opponent, increases the attack of all nearby party members by 20%, and increases their shield strength by 30% for 30 seconds. This effect can trigger once every 0.5 seconds, even when Kuki isn't on the field. |
Ridge Watch Domain |
| Instructor | Two equipped: increases elemental mastery Four equipped: upon triggering an elemental reaction, increases all party members' elemental mastery |
Drops from elite enemies, normal bosses, and weekly bosses, chests, and Domain Reliquary: Tier III |
Artifact stat recommendations
Depending how you want to use Kuki, you can either stack up her elemental mastery, or HP.
Main stats:
- Sands: Elemental mastery or HP
- Goblet: Elemental mastery or HP
- Circlet: Elemental mastery or HP
Sub-stats:
- Elemental mastery
- Energy recharge
- HP%
- HP
What are the best Kuki Shinobu team comps?
Kuki Shinobu fits into many team comps thanks to her versatility. She's a fantastic healer with almost constant uptime which means steady electro application, too.
This means she excels at creating reactions, not just healing your team, and fits brilliantly in a wide range of hyperbloom, quicken, and other elemental-driven teams. She's also a fabulous character to bring to Imaginerium Theater due to her flexibility and multi-faceted role.
Here are some examples of strong Kuki Shinobu team comps.
 Kuki Shinobu |
 Ayato |
 Yelan |
 Nahida |
| Kuki Shinobu |
 Raiden |
Yelan |
 Kazuha |
| Kuki Shinobu |
 Itto |
 Gorou |
 Albedo |
| Kuki Shinobu |
 Eula |
 Rosaria |
 Shenhe |
| Kuki Shinobu |
 Yae Miko |
 Alhaitham |
Nahida |
What are Kuki Shinobu's abilities?
Kuki has the potential to offer some great DPS and electro application, while also healing herself and her teammates. Her skill relies on her sacrificing a portion of her health, and the duration of her burst extends if her HP is below 50%. Therefore, like Genshin Impact's Hu Tao, she benefits from not being healed to full HP.
Don't be afraid to see her HP bar drop into the red - if you've got her skill level up and some decent HP and elemental mastery on her artifacts, she'll be able to survive with just a few ticks of her own healing.
Here are all of Kuki Shinobu's skills.
Active skills:
| Normal attack | Shinobu's Shadowsword Normal: Perform up to four rapid strikes. Charged: Consume stamina to unleash two rapid sword strikes. Plunging: Plunges from mid-air to strike the ground below, damaging opponents along the path and dealing AoE DMG upon impact. |
| Elemental skill | Sanctifying Ring Kuki sacrifices a portion of her HP to create a Grass Ring of Sanctification, dealing electro damage to all nearby opponents. The Grass Ring of Sanctification follows your active character, dealing electro damage to nearby opponents every 1.5 seconds, and restoring HP for active characters within the ring's AoE based on Kuki's max HP. The HP consumption from this skill can bring her HP no lower than 20%. |
| Elemental burst | Gyoei Narukami Kariyama Rite Kuki stabs an evil-excoriating blade into the ground, creating a field that cleanses the area of all that is foul, dealing continuous electro damage to opponents within its AoE based on Kuki's max HP. If her HP is less than or equal to 50% when she uses this skill, the field lasts longer. |
Passive skills:
| A1 | Inazuma Expedition Gain more rewards when dispatched on an Inazuma Expedition for 20 hours. |
| A4 | Heart's Repose The healing and damage from Kuki's elemental skill increase with the level of her elemental mastery. |
| Utility | Break Free Kuki's healing bonus increases when her HP is low. |
What are Kuki Shinobu's constellations?
If you pull more than one copy of a playable character, you can use the extra to unlock one of six special abilities called constellations.
Here are all six of Kuki Shinobu's constellations and what they do.
| C1 | To Cloister Compassion Increases Kariyama Rite's AoE by 50% |
| C2 | To Forsake Fortune Increases Grass Ring of Sanctification's duration by three seconds |
| C3 | To Sequester Sorrow Increases Sanctifying Ring's level by three |
| C4 | To Sever Sealing If the character with Kuki's Grass Ring active hits an enemy with a normal, plunging, or charged attack, they apply a Thundergrass Mark to said enemy. This deals electro AoE damage equal to 9.&% of Kuki's max HP |
| C5 | To Cease Courtesies Increases Kariyama Rite's level by three |
| C6 | To Ward Weakness When Kuki takes damage that would reduce her HP to 0, she won't be knocked out. This effect triggers when her HP reaches one and can only occur once every 60 seconds. When Kuki's HP drops below 25%, her elemental mastery increases by 150 for 15 seconds. This can also only occur once every 60 seconds |
What are Kuki Shinobu's ascension materials?
To ascend Kuki, you need plenty of Spectral Husks from wily specters and Runic Fangs from the Ruin Serpent boss in the Genshin Impact Chasm. Naku weed, thankfully, is a plentiful find in Inazuma.
Here are Kuki Shinobu's ascension materials:
| 20➔40 |
|
| 40➔50 |
|
| 50➔60 |
|
| 60➔70 |
|
| 70➔80 |
|
| 80➔90 |
|
What are Kuki Shinobu's talent materials?
Kuki, like all her fellow Genshin characters, requires a range of materials to get her talents up to scratch. The main cost is mora, the main in-game currency that's fairly easy to come by, but you also need talent books and some enemy drops. To upgrade her talents to higher levels, you also need Tears of the Calamitous God, dropped by the weekly Raiden Shogun boss fight.
Here are Kuki Shinobu's talent materials:
| 1➔2 | 12.5k |
|
| 2➔3 | 17.5k |
|
| 3➔4 | 25k |
|
| 4➔5 | 30k |
|
| 5➔6 | 37.5k |
|
| 6➔7 | 120k |
|
| 7➔8 | 260k |
|
| 8➔9 | 450k |
|
| 9➔10 | 700k |
|
Talent priority
Here are Kuki's talent priorities:
- Elemental skill > elemental burst > normal attack
When deciding which of Kuki's talents to upgrade first, we recommend focusing on her skill for healing, then her AoE burst, and then normal attack.