In our Genshin Impact Lan Yan build, we teach you how to make the most of this talented Liyue crafter’s impressive shielding kit. Follow our recommendations for her best weapons, artifacts, and team comps to get her in fighting shape in no time.
If you’re running low on currency to pull for Lan Yan, make sure to use our Genshin Impact codes for a top-up. You can also see how she stacks up to the rest of Teyvat’s colorful cast in our Genshin Impact tier list, and explore the world’s goings-on in our Genshin Impact events guide.
Here’s everything in our best Lan Yan build:
What is the best Genshin Impact Lan Yan build?
Lan Yan is a four-star anemo catalyst wielder. Her kit makes her perfectly suited for shield support and swirl driver roles, depending on how you build her, meaning she’s incredibly versatile and a real asset to any team. Plus, her exploration talent is fantastic for collecting crystalflies before they run away.
Here’s a brief overview of our best Genshin Impact Lan Yan build:
Rarity | Four-star |
Element | Anemo |
Weapon | Catalyst |
Best weapon |
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Weapon substitutes |
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Best artifact set | Viridescent Venerer |
Artifact substitutes |
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Main stats |
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Sub-stats |
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Lan Yan’s best shielding weapon is Memory of Dust and her best swirl weapon is Starcaller’s Watch. Her best artifact set is Viridescent Venerer, built with plenty of attack, elemental mastery, and energy recharge stats. We recommend prioritizing her elemental skill above all else, as this is her most useful ability in combat.

What’s the best weapon for Genshin Impact’s Lan Yan?
As a shield support, Lan Yan’s best weapon is Memory of Dust. This five-star catalyst’s bonus stat and skill are both perfect for an attack-scaling shielder like Lan Yan, massively increasing her shield’s strength and her personal damage at the same time.
As a swirl driver, Lan Yan’s best weapon is Starcaller’s Watch. Genshin Impact Citlali’s signature weapon prioritizes elemental mastery over attack, so while it doesn’t provide as many buffs for Lan Yan’s shield, it makes her a solid on-field reaction driver, especially when you unlock her A4 passive, and it buffs your teammates’ damage when using her shield.
Lan Yan’s best four-star weapon is Sacrificial Fragments thanks to its elemental mastery bonus stat and its ability to reduce her elemental skill’s cooldown, meaning you can offset her shield’s lower strength by increasing its uptime. As with most catalyst wielders, Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers is a great free-to-play option purely thanks to its attack buff for incoming characters.
Here are Lan Yan’s best weapons:
Memory of Dust | Bonus stat: increases attack Skill: increases shield strength by 20%. Scoring hits on opponents increases attack by 4% for eight seconds. Max five stacks. Can only occur once every 0.3 seconds. While protected by a shield, this attack increase effect is increased by 100% |
Limited banner |
Starcaller’s Watch | Bonus stat: increases elemental mastery Skill: increases elemental mastery by 100. Gain the “Mirror of Night” effect within 15 seconds after Lan Yan creates a shield: The current active party member deals 28% increased damage to nearby opponents. You can gain the “Mirror of Night” effect once every 14 seconds |
Limited banner |
Sacrificial Fragments | Bonus stat: increases elemental mastery Skill: after dealing damage to an opponent with an elemental skill, the skill has a 40% chance to end its own cooldown. Can only occur once every 30 seconds |
Limited or standard banner |
Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers | Bonus stat: HP Skill: when switching characters, the new character taking the field has their attack increased by 24% for ten seconds. This effect can only occur once every 20 seconds |
Limited or standard banner |
What are the best artifacts for Lan Yan?
Lan Yan’s best artifact set is Viridescent Venerer, which is typically the best-in-slot set for all anemo characters. Its four-piece bonus hugely increases her swirl damage potential and lowers enemy resistance to infused elements, helping you to shred through opponents no matter your team composition.
For a shield build, two pieces of Shimenawa’s Reminiscence and Gladiator’s Finale are a good pick. Both sets provide attack boosts, increasing Lan Yan’s shield strength, but you won’t benefit from any four-piece bonuses.
Instructor is a good, early-game option for Lan Yan thanks to its elemental mastery buffs and interaction with elemental reactions.
Here are Lan Yan’s best artifacts:
Viridescent Venerer | Two equipped: increases anemo damage by 15% Four equipped: increases swirl damage by 60%. Decreases opponent’s elemental resistance to the element infused in the swirl by 40% for ten seconds |
Valley of Remembrance domain in Mondstadt |
Shimenawa’s Reminiscence | Two equipped: increases attack by 18% | Momiji-Dyed Court domain on Yashiori Island, Inazuma |
Gladiator’s Finale | Two equipped: increases attack by 18% | Normal and weekly boss drops |
Instructor | Two equipped: increases elemental mastery by 80 Four equipped: upon triggering an elemental reaction, increases all party members’ elemental mastery by 120 for eight seconds |
Chests and enemy drops |
Artifact stat recommendations
We recommend prioritizing these stats when picking artifacts for Lan Yan.
Main stats:
- Sands: attack% (shield) or elemental mastery (swirl)
- Goblet: attack% (shield) or elemental mastery (swirl)
- Circlet: attack% (shield) or elemental mastery (swirl)
Sub-stats:
- Attack%
- Energy recharge
- Elemental mastery
To find out more about how artifacts work, check out our Genshin Impact artifacts guide.
What are the best Lan Yan team comps?
As a versatile anemo shield support and swirl driver, Lan Yan can find a home in any number of strong team comps, depending on your other needs.
Here are some examples of strong Lan Yan team comps:
What are Lan Yan’s skills?
Here are all of Lan Yan’s skills and attacks. Note that you can level them up using the materials listed further down this guide.
Active skills:
Basic attack | Black Pheasant Strides on Water Normal: performs up to four attacks with her Feathermoon Rings, dealing anemo damage Charged: consume stamina to throw out a Feathermoon Ring, dealing anemo damage Plunging: plunge from mid-air, dealing AoE anemo damage on impact with the ground |
Elemental skill | Swallow-Wisp Pinion Dance Lan Yan summons the Swallow-Wisp Shield, dashes forward, and, upon making contact with her target, leaps back into the air. The Swallow-Wisp Shield’s damage absorption scales based on her attack, and has a 250% absorption efficiency against anemo damage. While in mid-air due to the effects of her Swallow-Wisp Pinion Dance, pressing her elemental skill again or pressing the normal attack causes Lan Yan to hurl her Feathermoon Rings at an opponent, sending them spinning between nearby opponents twice and, upon hit, dealing anemo damage. Hold the skill button to enter aiming mode and change the direction of Lan Yan’s dash |
Elemental burst | Lustrous Moonrise Lan Yan creates a Feathermoon Swallow Array, pulling in nearby opponents and objects and dealing multiple instances of AoE anemo damage |
Passive skills:
A1 | Four Sealing Divination Charms When the dash from the elemental skill Swallow-Wisp Pinion Dance hits a target, if it interacts with hydro, pyro, cryo, or electro, the Swallow-Wisp Shield will undergo elemental absorption, with the converted shield absorbing damage from the corresponding element with 250% efficiency. Additionally, if this use of Swallow-Wisp Pinion Dance causes the Swallow-Wisp Shield to undergo elemental absorption, the Feathermoon Rings that Lan Yan throws at her foes additionally deal elemental damage equal to 50% of the original in the corresponding elemental type. This damage is considered elemental skill damage |
A4 | Skyfeather Evil-Subduing Charm The elemental skill Swallow-Wisp Pinion Dance and the elemental burst Lustrous Moonrise deal increased damage equal to 309% and 774% of Lan Yan’s elemental mastery respectively |
Utility | Thought and Intent, Like Silken Scent When Lan Yan is in the party, your characters will not startle crystalflies and certain other animals when getting near them. Check the “Other” sub-category of the “Living Beings / Wildlife” section in the Archive for creatures this skill affects |
What are Lan Yan’s constellations?
When you pull extra copies of Lan Yan, you can unlock her constellations. These provide bonus effects for her kit, unlocking her potential even further.
C1 | “As One Might Stride Betwixt the Clouds” After triggering the elemental absorption from the passive talent “Four Sealing Divination Charms,” this instance of Lan Yan’s elemental skill Swallow-Wisp Pinion Dance produces another Feathermoon Ring when thrown at opponents. You must first unlock the Passive Talent “Four Sealing Divination Charms” |
C2 | “Dance Vestments Billow Like Rainbow Jade” While the Swallow-Wisp Shield is active, when your active party member’s normal attacks deal damage, 40% of the shield’s damage absorption is restored, up to its original maximum absorption. This effect can occur once every two seconds |
C3 | “On White Wings Pierce Through Cloud and Fog” Increases Lan Yan’s elemental skill level by three, up to a maximum level of 15 |
C4 | “With Drakefalcon’s Blood-Pearls Adorned” After Lan Yan uses her elemental burst Lustrous Moonrise, the elemental mastery of all nearby party members increases by 60 for 12 seconds |
C5 | “Having Met You, My Heart is Gladdened” Increases Lan Yan’s elemental burst level by three, up to a maximum level of 15 |
C6 | “Let Us Away on Slyphic Wing, the Silvered Ornaments to Ring” The elemental skill Swallow-Wisp Pinion Dance gains one additional charge |
What are Lan Yan’s ascension materials?
You’ll need to ascend Lan Yan at certain intervals to completely level her up and max out her stats.
Here are all of Lan Yan’s ascension materials:
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 Lan Yan’s ascension materials:
- Vayuda turquoise – drops from normal and weekly bosses
- Clearwater jade – found or sold in Chenyu Vale, Liyue
- Whopperflower, shimmering, and energy nectar – drops from Whopperflower enemies
- Gold-inscribed secret source cores – drops from the Secret Source Automaton: Configuration Device normal boss located in Toyac Springs, Natlan
What are Lan Yan’s talent materials?
You can upgrade Lan Yan’s normal attack, elemental skill, and elemental burst to a maximum of level ten each.
Here are all the materials you need to upgrade one of Lan Yan’s talents to level ten:
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 Lan Yan’s talent materials:
- Whopperflower, shimmering, and energy nectar – drops from Whopperflower enemies
- Diligence books – rewards from the Taishan Mansion domain on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays
- Eroded sunfires – drops from the Lord of Eroded Primal Fire weekly boss in Natlan
Talent priority
When leveling up Lan Yan’s talents, you should prioritize them in this order:
- Elemental skill > elemental burst > normal attack
That’s everything you need to know about Genshin Impact’s Lan Yan. If you’re looking for more character-building tips for this free mobile game, check out our other builds for Genshin Impact’s Kachina, Genshin Impact’s Kirara, and Genshin Impact’s Jean next.