Wuthering Waves Taoqi, the pink-haired, cool-looking lady from Jinzhou, is the director of defense in the city. This translates well to her kit which focuses on providing a shield, parries, and damage reduction for your team. Here are the best broadblade options for her, and which echoes pack a punch.
Our Wuthering Waves tier list can help you decide which DPS to prioritize, plus the new Wuthering Waves codes may get you a new one on the Wuthering Waves banner. Check out our other build guides for characters like Wuthering Waves Zhezhi, Wuthering Waves Yinlin, and Wuthering Waves Camellya.
Here’s everything in our Wuthering Waves Taoqi guide:
What’s the best Taoqi build?
Taoqi is a four-star character that uses a broadblade and the havoc element. She’s available on all banners and can be a great asset. To get the best out of her, we recommend the Dauntless Evernight broadblade and a set of five moonlit clouds echoes to improve her energy regeneration. More than anything, you want to build her defense stat, as her shields scale off this.
How do I use Taoqi?
In your team rotation, you want to focus on Taoqi’s resonance skill, and her outro skill to boost other teammates’ damage. Her resonance skill provides three stacks of a shield, which is key to keeping your DPS safe while they let the enemy have it. You don’t need to use Taoqi’s basic attacks outside of charging her forte gauge and resonance liberation, as she is a very slow attacker.
What are Taoqi’s stats?
Here are Taoqi’s base stats at level one and level 90, without any echo or weapon buffs.
| Stat | Level one | Level 90 |
| HP | 716 | 8,950 |
| Attack | 18 | 225 |
| Defense | 128 | 1,564 |
| Energy regen | 125 | 125 |
| Crit rate | 5% | 5% |
| Crit damage | 150% | 150% |
| Healing bonus | 0% | 0% |
| Havoc damage bonus | 0% | 0% |
What are Taoqi’s skills?
Taoqi’s kit revolves around her shield, reducing the damage taken, and providing a resonance skill damage buff to the next character you swap to.
Here are all of Taoqi’s skills and attacks:
Taoqi’s active skills
| Basic attack | Concealed Edge Taoqi performs up to four consecutive attacks which deal havoc damage |
| Heavy attack |
Taoqi consumes stamina to deal havoc damage. Hold the basic attack button to enter Rocksteady Defense state Rocksteady Defense |
| Mid-air attack | Consume stamina to perform a plunge attack while in mid-air |
| Dodge counter | Use Taoqi’s basic attack after a successful dodge to attack the target with havoc damage |
| Resonance skill | Fortified Defense Taoqi deals havoc damage to enemies around her and generates three Rocksteady Shields. She also heals herself. If she’s attacked during this skill, she casts Strategic Parry. When the active character gets attacked, they consume one Rocksteady Shield charge to reduce damage taken |
| Resonance liberation | Unmovable Launch an attack that deals damage based on Taoqi’s defense stat |
| Intro skill | Defense Formation Taoqi attacks the target with havoc damage |
| Outro skill | Iron Will The next resonator you swap to after Taoqi has their resonance skill damage boosted by 38% for 14 seconds, or until they switch out |
Taoqi’s passive skills
| Forte circuit | Power Shift Timed Counters When Taoqi has Resolving Caliber, use a basic attack after a heavy attack or intro skill to perform Timed Counters. Taoqi then does three strikes, dealing havoc damage. This counts as basic attack damage. Each hit of Timed Counters consumes one Resolving Caliber charge upon hitting an enemy to grant a shield to Taoqi. Resolving Caliber Taoqi can hold three charges of Resolving Caliber. Her fourth basic attack consumes all of her Rocksteady Sheilds to grant as many Resolving Caliber stacks. If Taoqi gets attacked, she consumes one Rocksteady Shield and gains a Resolving Caliber charge instead |
| Inherent skill – (unlockable at resonator rank two) | Steadfast Protection While Rocksteady Shield lasts, Taoqi’s defense increases by 15% |
| Inherent skill – (unlockable after Steadfast Protection) | Unyielding After successfully triggering Strategic Parry, Taoqi recovers 25 stamina |
What is Taoqi’s resonance chain?
If you get more than one of Taoqi as you pull on banners – or purchase her wavebands from the store – you can unlock extra skills for her.
Here are the skills you get with Taoqi’s wavebands:
| Sequence node one | Essence of Tranquility Forte circuit (Power Shift)’s shield strength increases by 40% |
| Sequence node two | Silent Strength The crit rate and damage of resonance liberation (Unmovable) increase by 20% each |
| Sequence node three | Keen-eyed Observer Increases the duration of Taoqi’s skill, Rocksteady Shield, to 30 seconds |
| Sequence node four | Heavylifting Duty When Taoqi triggers Strategic Parry, she restores 25% HP and increases her defense by 50% for five seconds. This can trigger every 15 seconds |
| Sequence node five | Benevolent Guardian Increases the damage of Taoqi’s forte circuit (Power Shift) by 50%. Taoqi restores 20 resonance energy when it hits a target |
| Sequence node six | Defender of Peace Increases the damage of Taoqi’s basic and heavy attacks by 40% while her shield holds |
What’s the best weapon for Taoqi?
Remember that when building Taoqi, you need as much defense as you can get. Taoqi’s best weapon option is the Dauntless Evernight as it gives her more attack when using her intro skill, along with adding a significant percentage to her defense. The best broadblades for Taoqi right now are all four- and three-star options, so make sure to syntonize them into a higher level if you get more than one copy of your chosen weapon.
| Dauntless Evernight (four-star) | This weapon has a defense substat. When using Taoqi’s intro skill, her attack increases by 8% and her defense by 15%, for 15 seconds | All banners |
| Discord (four-star) | This weapon has a defense substat. When using Taoqi’s resonance skill, she restores eight concerto energy. This can trigger once every 20 seconds | All banners |
| Originite: Type I (three-star) | This weapon has a defense substat. When casting her resonance skill, she heals 3% of her maximum HP. This can trigger once every 12 seconds | All banners |
What are the best echoes for Taoqi?
When picking an echo set for Taoqi, aim for a five-piece set of moonlit clouds to greatly increase her energy regeneration. This set also provides an attack boost to the next character you swap to.
The best main echo to equip Taoqi with is the Bell Borne Geochelone, or an Impermanence Heron. Both provide boosts to your team and character, and you can get an extra shield with the Geochelone.
| Bell-Borne Geochelone | This echo gives your active character a shield along with a 50% damage reduction and a 10% damage boost. It lasts for three hits |
| Impermanence Heron | Transforming into the Impermanence Heron performs a dive attack, or holding the echo button lets you stay as the Heron and deal constant havoc damage for a few seconds. After the attack, the current character gains ten resonance energy and gains an outro skill boost for 15 seconds. This also gives a damage boost of 12% for the next character, for 15 seconds |
Taoqi stat recommendations
When it comes to Taoqi’s echoes, you need to prioritize defense above all else to get her shields as strong as possible.
Main stats:
- Defense
- Havoc damage bonus
- Crit rate/defense
Sub-stats:
- Defense
- Energy regeneration
- Crit rate/defense
What’s the best Taoqi team comp?
While Taoqi can heal herself, you may want to take a specific healer with you to improve your survivability in harsh combat situations, but it isn’t a requirement compared to other support units.
The best synergies for Taoqi are:
- Wuthering Waves Changli – Changli’s kit turns a lot of her basic attack damage into resonance skill damage, so she really excels with Taoqi’s buffs. Plus, the shields help keep her safe as she can be a little squishy on the field
- Wuthering Waves Jinhsi – Again, Jinhsi does a lot of damage with her resonance skill. Taoqi is a good support for her as she can boost this, along with providing a shield and damage reduction
- Wuthering Waves Danjin – Danjin, as a four-star fusion DPS, also prioritizes resonance skill damage as her main damage output – therefore, she too benefits from Taoqi’s outro skill
Here are two examples of the best Taoqi team comps:
 Taoqi |
 Changli |
 Yinlin |
Taoqi |
 Jinhsi |
 Verina |
What are Taoqi’s ascension materials?
To ascend Taoqi, you need some key items you can find all over Jinzhou.
| Ascension rank | Materials required |
| One – level 20 | 5k shell credits and four LF howler cores |
| Two – level 40 | 10k shell credits, four iris, three gold-dissolving feathers, and four MF howler cores |
| Three – level 50 | 15k shell credits, eight iris, six gold-dissolving feathers, and eight MF howler cores |
| Four – level 60 | 20k shell credits, 12 iris, nine gold-dissolving feathers, and four HF howler cores |
| Five – level 70 | 40k shell credits, 16 iris, 12 gold-dissolving feathers, and eight HF howler cores |
| Six – level 80 | 80k shell credits, 20 iris, 16 gold-dissolving feathers, and four FF howler cores |
Here’s where to find all of Taoqi’s ascension materials:
- Gold-dissolving feather – this item drops from the Impermanence Heron boss located in the Desorock Highlands
- Iris – these flowers grow around the Whining Aix’s Mire area
- LF, MF, HF, and FF howler cores – obtain from normal enemies, the store, the weapon shop, or forgery challenges
- Shell credits – shell credits are the in-game currency, which you can obtain via farming, enemy and boss drops, through quests, or by selling things in the in-game store
What are Taoqi’s forte materials?
Here are Taoqi’s total forte materials and where to find and buy them:
- 25 LF howler cores, 28 MF howler cores, 40 HF howler cores, and 57 FF howler cores
- Obtain from normal enemies, the store, the weapon shop, or forgery challenges
- 25 waveworn residue 210, 28 waveworn residue 226, 55 waveworn residue 235, and 67 waveworn residue 239
- Obtain from the Eroded Ruins forgery challenge, via the synthesizer, Jinzhou’s weapon shop, or Jinzhou’s souvenir store
- 26 dreamless feather
- Obtain from the Statue of the Crownless: Heart weekly challenge
- 2,030,000 shell credits
Taoqi skill priority
Taoqi’s resonance skill and basic attack are her key skills to focus on, so build them in this order:
- Forte circuit > resonance liberation > resonance skill > intro skill > basic attack
Wondering what the next Wuthering Waves update is? We’ve got you covered. If you want to give Hoyoverse’s quick-swapping combat a try, check out our builds for Zenless Zone Zero’s Nicole, Zenless Zone Zero’s Anby, and Zenless Zone Zero’s Zhu Yuan.