It can be tough to decide on the best Genshin Impact Sara build, as she’s certainly not the easiest character to play, and has a unique and niche set of skills. However, when you build her properly, this electro, bow-wielding commander has the potential to be an extremely valuable sub-DPS or support, who offers great buffs to your entire team. In our Genshin Sara build guide we aim to highlight all of her strengths and weaknesses, which weapons and artifacts to equip her with, and how to make the most of her powerful yet tricky abilities.
If you want to learn more about the other faces of Teyvat, check out our Genshin Impact character guide. We also have a Genshin Impact code list full of primos and other goodies, and a Genshin Impact banner guide so you know who to save those wishes for.
Genshin Impact’s Kujou Sara
What is the best Genshin Sara build?
Kujou Sara is an Electro Vision and bow user with some interesting skills. It can a little tricky to make the most of her kit, and she’s often overlooked as a result. However, when built correctly and utilised to her full potential, she can be a real asset to many of your team comps. This guide is based on personal experience from playing Sara in-game, as well as the amazing work of the dedicated fans over on r/KujouSaraMains. I also want to give a massive shout-out to this extremely helpful post from Reddit user ThePhilosogamer.
While she can be used as a main DPS, we generally advise against it as she’s not really built for that role. She works best as a sub-DPS or a buffer support, with some potential to be used as a battery, though she doesn’t excel at this as much as other characters (like Genshin Impact’s Fischl or Genshin Impact’s Raiden).
Sara is capable of both dealing damage and offering support simultaneously, so whichever role you choose to build her as, it’s a good idea to invest in both of these strengths if you want to maximise her contributions in battle. Her main benefits are her long-ranged attacks, consistent electro application, and her ability to provide attack buffs and energy recharge for her team.
When it comes to playstyle, frequent swapping is the key to Sara’s success. When her abilities are ready, switch to Sara and use them to both buff her allies and dish out some damage, before switching to your main DPS or burst DPS make the most of the attack bonus she provides. When built, even during these brief appearances, she can deal some great damage, which only gets better if you manage to get her to C6. At this constellation, she also becomes the ultimate support for all electro characters, including Raiden.
Sadly, she’s not really viable before you get her to C2, as her automatic buff is gated behind this. Additionally, she does offer less support abilities than other characters that fit the role such as Genshin Impact’s Bennett. However, for the right team she offers some great utility that you’ll struggle to replace, and she can actually work alongside other buffers like Bennett with the right build.
Sara isn’t the easiest character to use, and it may take some practice to get used to her playstyle. But with some patience and the help of this guide, which focuses on the best sub-DPS buffer support builds, we hope to help you get to grips with this powerful but tricky ally.
What is Genshin Sara’s best weapon?
Skyward Harp is a really strong pick for Genshin Impact’s Sara. It has the highest base attack of all bows, which greatly enhances the attack buff given by her elemental skill, Tengu Stormcall. Aside from the Skyward Harp, none of the other five-star bows really suit Sara’s playstyle, but they still offer higher attack than most of the four-star options.
When it comes to four-star bows, Alley Hunter is a great choice, as it offers a strong attack bonus, and compliments her switch-dependant playstyle, as it increases her damage for every second she’s in the party but not on the field. If you have Sara at C2, Alley Hunter is perfect – and even surpasses most five-star bows at refinement rank five.
If you don’t have Sara at C2 yet, you can use Sacrificial Bow to roughly emulate the benefits of her second constellation. While you may not make the most of its skill due to the brief windows that Sara is in the field, it offers decent energy recharge and, alongside Alley Hunter, has the highest base attack of all of the four-star bows.
Alternatively, as a sub-dps, The Viridescent Hunt from the battle pass is a good shout, as it increases crit rate and boosts the damage of her elemental burst, and its skill allows you to deal damage to multiple targets at once. If you’re struggling to get any of the other weapons and are happy to pay for the battle pass, this may be the best option for you as, unfortunately, most free to play weapons that are easy to get hold of aren’t really suitable for her.
| Weapon | Effect | Where to get |
| Skyward Harp | Bonus effect: +4.8% CRIT rate Skill: Increases CRIT damage by 20%. Hits have a 60% chance to inflict a small AoE attack, dealing 125% physical attack damage. Can only occur once every four seconds |
Gacha |
| Alley Hunter | Bonus Effect: +6% attack Skill: When Sara is equipped with this weapon and is in the party but not on the field, her damage increases by 2% every second, up to a max of 20%. When she’s on the field for more than four seconds, the aforementioned damage buff decreases by 4% per second until it reaches 0% |
Gacha |
| Sacrificial Bow | Bonus effect: +6.7% energy recharge Skill: after damaging an opponent with an elemental skill, the skill has a 40% chance to end its own cooldown. Can only occur once every 30 seconds |
Gacha |
| The Viridescent Hunt | Bonus effect: +6% crit rate Skill: upon hit, normal and aimed shot attacks have a 50% chance to generate a cyclone, which continuously attracts surrounding enemies, dealing 40% of attack as damage to these enemies every 0.5 seconds for four seconds. This effect can only occur once every 14 seconds |
Battle pass reward |
What are Genshin Sara’s best artifacts?
When it comes to picking artifacts for Sara, you’ve got a few options. Your best choice is equipping her with four pieces of Emblem of Severed Fate. As Sara’s burst is her primary source of damage, this set’s boost to her energy recharge and burst damage is perfect for maximising her damage output and how frequently she can buff her allies.
Alternatively, combining two pieces of Thundering Fury with two pieces of Noblesse Oblige, is great for offering a boost to both your electro damage and burst damage.
Finally, you can use four pieces of Thundersoother. While not usually a prime choice, this set offers a 35% boost to electro damage. However, to make the most of it, it requires you having at least one other electro character on the team in addition to Sara.
| Artifact set | Effect | How to get |
| 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 |
Momiji-Dyed Court domain on Yashiori Island in Inazuma |
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| Thundersoother | Two equipped: electro resistance +40% Four equipped: increases damage dealt against enemies affected by electro by 35% |
From the Midsummer Courtyard domain in Starfell Valley, Starsnatch Cliff |
Artifact stat and sub-stat priorities
When picking artifacts for Sara, it’s best to prioritise these stats.
- Crit rate
- Crit damage
- Attack%
- Damage bonus
- Energy recharge
What are Genshin Sara’s skills?
Active skills:
| Skill | Effect |
| Tengu Bowmanship (normal) | Perform up to five shots with a bow |
| Tengu Bowmanship (charged) | Perform a more precise aimed shot. A fully charged arrow will deal electro damage, and when in Crowfeather Cover state, Sara will leave behind a Crowfeather after the attack hits. The Crowfeather she leaves behind triggers Tengu Juurai: Ambush, this deals AoE electro damage and grants the active character an attack bonus based on Sara’s base attack |
| Tengu Bowmanship (plunging) | Fire a shower of arrows in mid-air, these deal AoE damage on impact |
| Tengu Stormcall | Sara retreats and gains Crowfeather Cover for 18 seconds |
| Subjugation: Koukou Sendou | Casts down Tengu Juurai: Titanbreaker, dealing AoE electro damage. Then Tengu Juurai: Titanbreaker spreads out into four consecutive bouts of Tengu Juurai: Stormcluster to deal AoE electro damage. Titanbreak and Stormcluster provide the active character with the same attack bonus as Tengu Stormcall |
Passive skills:
| Skill | Effect |
| Land Survey | Time spent on expeditions in Inazuma is reduced by 25% |
| Immovable Will | While in Crowfeather Cover, aimed shot charge time is reduced by 60% |
| Decorum | When Tengu Juurai: Ambush hits an enemy, Sara will restore 1.2 energy to all party members for every 100% energy recharge she has. This can only be triggered once every three seconds |
What are Genshin Sara’s constellations?
Constellations are buffs that improve how a character performs in battle. You can level up Sara’s constellations when you receive her as duplicate when making a wish.
Sara’s capabilities as a support are, unfortunately, heavily tied to her constellations, meaning you need to pull her multiple times if you want to use her viably. As mentioned above, C2 is a massive game-changer when it comes to her buffing abilities, and is pretty much a necessity when it comes to getting the most out of her kit.
Her C4 and C6 are also great for maximising Sara’s utility, so the more constellations you get for her, the better. Luckily, as a four-star character who not only gets featured on rate-up banners, but is also available on the normal banner, getting constellations for her is not as difficult as a other characters – as long as the RNG gods smile upon you, of course!
| Constellation | Effect |
| C1: Crow’s Eye | When Tengu Juurai grants an attack bonus or hits opponents, the cooldown of Tengu Stormcall is decreased by one second. This can be triggered once every three seconds |
| C2: Dark Wings | Unleashing Tengu Stormcall leaves a weaker Crowfeather at Sara’s original position that deals 30% of its original damage |
| C3: The War Within | Increases the level of Subjugation: Koukou Sendou by three |
| C4: Conclusive Proof | The number of Tengu Juurai: Stormcluster released by Subjugation: Koukou Sendou is increased to six |
| C5: Spellsinger | Increases the level of Tengu Stormcall by three |
| C6: Sin of Pride | The electro damage of characters who have had their attack increased by Tengu Juurai have their critical hit damage increased by 60% |
What are Genshin Sara’s ascension materials?
Save up these items in order to ascend Genshin Impact’s Sara as soon as you reach the right level.
| Required level | Mora | Materials |
| 20 | 20,000 | One Vajrada Amethyst Sliver, three Dendrobium, three Damaged Masks |
| 40 | 40,000 | Three Vajrada Amethyst Fragment, two Storm Beads, ten Dendrobium, 15 Damaged Masks |
| 50 | 60,000 | Six Vajrada Amethyst Fragment, four Storm Beads, 20 Dendrobium, 12 Stained Masks |
| 60 | 80,000 | Three Vajrada Amethyst Chunk, eight Storm Beads, 30 Dendrobium, 18 Stained Masks |
| 70 | 100,000 | Six Vajrada Amethyst Chunk, 12 Storm Beads, 45 Dendrobium, 12 Ominous Mask |
| 80 | 120,000 | Six Vajrada Amethyst Gemstone, 20 Storm Beads, 60 Dendrobium, 24 Ominous Masks |
What are the best Genshin Sara team comps?
When built, Sara can fit into most team comps – I mean, who doesn’t love a good attack buff? However, it’s these very supporting abilities that dictate which teammates are best suited to fight alongside her.
Though extremely useful, her buff suffers from a range limitation, meaning she’s best suited to supporting close-ranged DPS allies.
Additionally, due to the short duration of the buff, it’s a good idea to team her up with sub-DPS who have talents that ‘snapshot’ (the attack’s power doesn’t change after activation). Funnily enough, all electro characters fit either one or both of these criteria – which is very handy, considering she makes a great support to most electro characters anyway, especially at C6.
Here are some great characters to put in a team comp alongside Sara, and why they work so well with her.
- Genshin Impact’s Eula – Sara’s buff matches Eula’s skill rotation, with its duration suiting it perfectly, and her status as a close-ranged DPS eliminating the issue of the buff’s range limitation. Her cryo application, in conjunction with Sara’s electro, maintains superconduct reactions, which reduces the physical resistance of nearby enemies for 12 seconds. With the addition of Sara’s buff, this allows Eula to go to town and really dish out some powerful attacks
- Genshin Impact’s Raiden Shogun – Raiden and Sara have a wonderful, mutually beneficial relationship – some may say it’s a match made in Celestia. While Raiden’s skill increases Sara’s burst damage, Sara’s burst buff’s duration lasts throughout the entirety of Raiden’s elemental burst. Additionally, they can both act as a battery for each other, and having them both on one team enables the electro resonance buff, which reduces the amount of time party members are affected by hydro, while also ensuring that superconduct, overloaded, and electro-charged have a 100% chance to generate an electro elemental particle
- Genshin Impact’s Beidou – Beidou’s burst snapshots, and benefits from Sara’s crit damage bonus. At C6, Beidou also destroys enemy electro resistance, allowing both her and Sara to dish out heaps of damage. As Beidou is also an electro character, as with Raiden, having both Beidou and Sara on a team together enables electro resonance
- Genshin Impact’s Fischl – Fischl’s handy bird-friend Oz snapshots Sara’s buff, and lasts long enough for you to use Sara to focus on strengthening your main DPS. Like Beidou and Raiden, Fischl being an electro character also enables electro resonance, and she is a brilliant battery, meaning Sara and Fischl will produce plenty of elemental particles, speeding up how often your entire team can use their elemental bursts
That’s it for our Genshin Impact Sara guide – we hope it helps you harness the power of the tengu! If you need a break from the bustling world of Teyvat, check out our list of the best games like Genshin Impact to find something fresh to play.
