Genshin Impact’s Shenhe is a stunning, cryo-wielding adepti disciple with a heart-wrenching story and plenty of power in those delicate hands. To help you harness her great potential, we’ve put together this Genshin Shenhe build guide, diving into her skills, constellations, best weapons and artifacts, and more.
Need some extra Primogems to wish for new characters on the Genshin Impact banner? Take a look at our regularly updated Genshin Impact codes list. We also have a Genshin Impact tier list and information on the recent Genshin Impact update too.
Here’s everything in our Genshin Impact Shenhe build guide:
What’s the best Genshin Impact Shenhe build?
| Best weapon | Calamity Queller |
| Weapon substitutes | Skyward Spine, Favonius Lance |
| Best artifact set | Crimson Witch of Flames, Gladiator’s Finale |
| Main stats | Sands – Energy recharge Goblet – Cryo damage bonus Circlet – Attack |
| Sub stats | Attack, crit rate, crit damage |
Shenhe is a cryo polearm wielder, with both support and sub-DPS capabilities, who can buff her own and her teammate’s cryo damage, making her a perfect teammate for icy powerhouses like Genshin Impact’s Ganyu and Genshin Impact’s Ayaka. She can also debuff enemies with her elemental burst, giving your DPS character the perfect opportunity to smash through enemy defenses.
Depending on your team comp, you can use Shenhe as a main DPS, granted you have another hydro and a cryo character on the sidelines.
How do I use Shenhe?
Shenhe is a support unit geared toward cryo and physical characters. She provides different buffs depending on whether you tap or hold her elemental skill.
Simply put, it is best to use Shenhe’s skill and burst before you swap to your main cryo DPS, as the buffs she applies to teammates and debuffs onto enemies allows you to deal a lot more damage.
What are the best Shenhe weapons?
The best weapon for Shenhe is Calamity Queller, a five-star polearm that appears alongside her reruns in the weapon banner. The Engulfing Lightning, as another five-star, is a good option due to its high energy recharge stat.
As most of these options are gacha, they can be a little hard to obtain for F2P players, so we’ve also included the Dragonspine Spear which can be forged in-game and will synergize well with Shenhe’s cryo damage bonuses.
| Weapon | Effect (level one) | How to obtain |
| Calamity Queller (five-star) | Bonus effect: Increases attack Skill: Shenhe gains a 12% elemental damage bonus, and obtains Consummation for 20 seconds after using a skill, causing her attack to increase by 3.2% per second. This attack increase has a maximum of six stacks. When Shenhe is not on the field, Consummation’s attack increase is doubled |
Weapon banner (alongside Shenhe) |
| Engulfing Lightning (five-star) | Bonus effect: Increases energy recharge Skill: Increases attack by 28% of Shenhe’s energy recharge over the base 100%. Gain a maximum bonus of 80% attack. Gain 30% energy recharge for 12 seconds after using an elemental burst |
Weapon banner (alongside Raiden Sogun) |
| Skyward Spine (five-star) | Bonus effect: Increases energy recharge Skill: Increases critical rate by 8% and increases normal attack speed by 12%. Additionally, normal and charged attack hits on enemies have a 50% chance to trigger a vacuum blade that deals 40% of attack as damage in a small AoE. This effect can occur no more than once every two seconds |
Standard banner |
| Favonius Lance (four-star) | Bonus effect: Increases energy recharge Skill: Crit hits have a 60% chance to generate a small number of elemental particles, which regenerate six energy for Shenhe. Can only occur once every 12 seconds |
All banners |
| Lithic Spear (four-star) | Bonus effect: Increases attack Skill: For every character in the party who hails from Liyue, Shenhe gains a 7% attack increase and a 3% crit rate increase. This effect stacks up to four times |
Weapon banner |
What are the best Shenhe artifacts?
As with any Genshin character, you can equip Shenhe with a set of five artifacts. A four-piece set of Blizzard Strayer is a great pick, as it boosts her cryo and critical damage to dizzying heights, but the two attack-boosting sets work well, too. You can mix sets of two artifacts, or a full set to make the most of your desired benefits. For example, the in-game trial equips Shenhe with two Gladiator’s Finale and two Shimenawa’s Resistances to dramatically increase her attack.
| Artifact | Effect | How to obtain |
| Blizzard Strayer | Two equipped: Increases cryo damage bonus by 15% Four equipped: When Shenhe attacks an enemy affected by cryo, her crit rate is increased by 20%. If the enemy is frozen, her crit rate is increased by an additional 20% |
Peak of Vindagnyr domain |
| Gladiator’s Finale | Two equipped: Increases attack by 18% Four equipped: Increases Shenhe’s normal attack damage by 35% |
Weekly boss drops, world boss drops, Spiral Abyss rewards, and Artifact Strongbox |
| Shimenawa’s Reminiscence | Two equipped: Increases attack by 18% Four equipped: When casting her elemental skill, if Shenhe has 15 or more energy, she loses 15 energy, and her normal/charged/plunging attack damage is increased by 50% for ten seconds. This effect will not trigger again during that duration |
Momiji-Dyed Court domain |
Artifact stat recommendations
When picking which artifacts to give Shenhe, pay close attention to the stats on each one. Here are the stats you should aim for:
Main stats:
- Sands: Energy recharge, attack %
- Goblet: Cryo damage bonus, attack %
- Circlet: Attack, crit rate, crit damage
Sub-stats:
- Attack %
- Attack
- Energy recharge
What are the best Shenhe team comps?
Shenhe works best as a supporter for other cryo units like Ayaka and Ganyu. She’s flexible despite this and can be used in melt, reverse melt, freeze, and many more team types.
 Shenhe |
 Kazuha |
 Ayaka |
 Kokomi |
| Shenhe |
 Eula |
 Raiden |
 Bennett |
| Shenhe |
 Ganyu |
 Xiangling |
Bennett |
| Shenhe |
 Wriothesley |
Kazuha |
Kokomi |
What are Shenhe’s abilities?
Here’s a look at all of Genshin Impact Shenhe’s talents and abilities that massively help cryo units in battle:
Active skills:
| Talents | Effect |
| Normal attack: Dawnstar Piercer | Normal: Performs up to five consecutive spear strikes. Charged: Consumes a certain amount of stamina to lunge forward, dealing damage to opponents along the way. Plunging: Plunges from mid-air to strike the ground below, damaging opponents along the path and dealing AoE damage upon impact |
| Elemental skill: Spring Spirit Summoning | Press: Rushes forward together with Talisman Spirit, dealing cryo damage to opponents along the path Hold: Commands the Talisman Spirit to deal AoE cryo damage Icy Quill: When normal, charged, and plunging attacks, elemental skills, and elemental bursts deal cryo damage to opponents, the damage dealt is increased based on Shenhe’s current attack. The Icy Quill’s effects will be cleared once its duration ends or after being triggered a certain number of times. When held rather than pressed, the Icy Quill’s effect lasts longer and can be triggered more times. When one cryo damage instance strikes multiple opponents, the effect is triggered multiple times based on the number of opponents hit. The number of times the effect is triggered is calculated independently for each party member with Icy Quill |
| Elemental burst: Divine Maiden’s Deliverance | Unleashes the power of the Talisman Spirit dealing AoE cryo damage. The Talisman Spirit creates a field that decreases the cryo resistance and physical resistance of opponents within it. It also deals periodic cryo damage to opponents within the field |
Passive skills:
| Skill | Effect |
| Deific Embrace (unlocked at ascension one) | An active character within the field created by Divine Maiden’s Deliverance gains a 15% cryo damage bonus |
| Spirit Communion Seal (unlocked at ascension four) | After Shenhe uses Spring Spirit Summoning, she will grant all nearby party members the following effects: Press: Elemental skill and elemental burst damage increased by 15% for ten seconds. Hold: Normal, charged, and plunging attack damage increased by 15% for 15 seconds |
| Precise Comings and Goings (unlocked automatically) | Gains 25% more rewards when dispatched on a Liyue Expedition for 20 hours |
What are Shenhe’s constellations?
Here are all the bonuses you can get from leveling up Shenhe’s constellations. You can only ascend these by pulling her on her gacha banner more than once, so good luck!
| Constellation | Effect |
| C1: Clarity of Heart | Spring Spirit Summoning can be used one more time |
| C2: Centered Spirit | Divine Maiden’s Deliverance lasts for six seconds longer. Active characters within the skill’s field deal 15% increased cryo crit damage |
| C3: Seclusion | Increases the level of Spring Spirit Summoning by three. Maximum upgrade level 15 |
| C4: Insight | When characters under the effect of Icy Quill applied by Shenhe trigger its damage bonus effects, Shenhe will gain a Skyfrost Mantra Stack. When Shenhe uses Spring Spirit Summoning, she consumes all stacks of Skyfrost Mantra, increasing the damage of that Spring Spirit Summoning by 5% for each stack consumed. Max 50 stacks, stacks last for 60 seconds |
| C5: Divine Attainment | Increases the level of Divine Maiden’s Deliverance by three. The maximum upgrade level is 15 |
| C6: Mystical Abandon | When characters trigger Icy Quill’s effects using normal and charged attack damage, it does not count toward the trigger quota |
What are Shenhe’s ascension materials?
Shenhe needs the following materials to ascend through each stage and increase her level cap.
| Required level | Mora | Materials |
| 20 | 20,000 | One shivada jade sliver, three qingxin flowers, three whopperflower nectar |
| 40 | 40,000 | Three shivada jade fragments, ten qingxin flowers, 15 whopperflower nectar, two Dragonheir’s false fin |
| 50 | 60,000 | Six shivada jade fragments, 20 qingxin flowers, 12 shimmering nectar, four Dragonheir’s false fin |
| 60 | 80,000 | Three shivada jade chunks, 30 qingxin flowers, 18 shimmering nectar, eight Dragonheir’s false fin |
| 70 | 100,000 | Six shivada jade chunks, 45 qingxin flowers, 12 energy nectar, 12 Dragonheir’s false fin |
| 80 | 120,000 | Six shivada jade gemstones, 60 qingxin flowers, 24 energy nectar, 20 Dragonheir’s false fin |
Here’s where to get all of Shenhe’s ascension materials:
- Shivada jade – obtain from normal and weekly bosses – especially the cryo hypostasis and Andrius – or craft via alchemy
- Qingxin – gather from around Liyue, especially on mountaintops and Wuwang Hill
- Whopperflower nectar, shimmering nectar, energy nectar – obtain from whopperflower enemies around Teyvat, especially Liyue and Mondstadt
- Dragonheir’s false fin – drops from the Coral Defenders boss in Enkanomiya
What are Shenhe’s talent materials?
Below is a list of all the materials you need to upgrade each of Shenhe’s three talents.
| Talent level | Mora | Materials |
| Two | 12,500 | Six whopperflower nectar, three teachings of prosperity |
| Three | 17,500 | Three shimmering nectar, two guides to prosperity |
| Four | 25,000 | Four shimmering nectar, four guides to prosperity |
| Five | 30,000 | Six shimmering nectar, six guides to prosperity |
| Six | 37,500 | Nine shimmering nectar, nine guides to prosperity |
| Seven | 120,000 | Four energy nectar, four philosophies of prosperity, one hellfire butterfly |
| Eight | 260,000 | Six energy nectar, six philosophies of prosperity, one hellfire butterfly |
| Nine | 450,000 | Nine energy nectar, 12 philosophies of prosperity, two hellfire butterflies |
| Ten | 700,000 | 12 energy nectar, 16 philosophies of prosperity, two hellfire butterflies, one crown of insight |
Here’s where to get all of Shenhe’s talent materials:
- Prosperity talent books – obtain from the Taishan Mansion domain on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays
- Whopperflower nectar, shimmering nectar, energy nectar – obtain from whopperflower enemies around Teyvat, especially Liyue and Mondstadt
- Hellfire butterflies – drops from La Signora’s weekly boss in Tenshukaku, Inazuma
Talent priorities:
- Elemental skill > elemental burst > normal attack
And that’s everything you need to know about Genshin Impact’s Shenhe. For more Hoyoverse goodness, check out our Honkai Star Rail tier list and all the working Honkai Star Rail codes.