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Kamisato Ayato is a 5-star Hydro character introduced during the Inazuma Archon quests. The mysterious Yashiro Commissioner is a balanced character with a simple yet satisfying playstyle. Since he’s a Hydro character, he has access to Hydro reactions which are the strongest in the game. These include Vaporize, Freeze, and Bloom.
Another great thing about Ayato is how easy he is to build. He requires no special, rare to find stats as he is happy with the usual Attack and Crit ratio oriented build, though some of his damage scales off his HP. Since he relies on his Hydro damage, farming for his artifacts can be quite resin efficient.
Ayato 101: An Overview of the Head of the Yashiro Commission
When we meet Ayato in the Inazuma Archon quests, he’s introduced as the cunning older brother of Ayaka who does everything in his power to protect the Kamisato family. It just so happens that this means having to serve the Yashiro commission and the Raiden Shogun, otherwise, as he directly says in his character profile, that he doesn’t really care. To Ayato, everyone outside his immediate sphere of friends and family are tools. Just like with Ei, he seems to only be on friendly terms with the Traveler because we’re Ayaka’s friend.
Despite his shady reputation and the fact that he actually does run a shadow organization called the Shumatsuuban, he is known for being intelligent and respected for his skills.
You can have Ayato fill the following roles:
- Main DPS: Ayato is designed to be a main DPS so he excels best at this role.
- Hydro reactions enabler: Ayato is a Hydro unit, incidentally the element with the most access to the strongest reactions in the game.
- Sub DPS: While powerful in his own right, Ayato is one of the few recent DPS 5-stars that aren’t completely broken meaning he can be good for keeping the pressure on your enemies while your stronger DPS is swapped out and waiting for their burst to be available.
What Are Ayato’s Talents, Priority Talents, and Stat Priorities?
Kamisato Ayato has six talents that are labeled as Kamisato Arts, just as Ayaka’s are. The first three, Marobashi, Kyouka, and Suiyuu, can be leveled up to Level 10 using Ayato’s talent materials which are Elegance books, Nobushi handguard drops, and Raiden boss’ hand drops called “Mudra of the Malefic General”.
His passive talents, Mine Wo Matoishi Kiyotaki, Michiyuku Hagetsu, and Daily Cooking, can be unlocked by ascending Ayato. You can Ascend Ayato using his Ascension materials Varunada Lazurite gems (from the Hydro hypostasis and Oceanid), Hydro hypostasis’ Dew of Repudiation, Sakura blooms, and Nobushi handguards.
Ayato Genshin Impact Active Talents
Ayato’s active talents are the source of his damage. He’s unique in that out of all the DPS characters, he’s one of the only ones to not benefit from his Normal attacks and Charged attacks. To put it bluntly, Kamisato’s normal attack skill is useless since his damage comes mostly from his skill and its Hydro-infused stance.
- Kamisato Art: Marobashi (Normal, Charged, and Plunging Attacks): Ayato performs 5 Physical damage strikes with his swords. His charged attack has him dash forward and attack while his plunging attack deals AoE physical damage.
- Kamisato Art: Kyouka (Elemental Skill): This skill has Ayato shift back from enemies, leaving behind a Hydro illusion that looks like him. When active, he deals lightning-fast water slashes that deal Hydro damage exclusively. It also triggers a stack system that improves his damage with each attack. The illusion will also explode and deal Hydro AoE damage when it ends.
- Kamisato Art: Suiyuu (Elemental Burst): Kamisato Ayato blesses the rains down in Inazuma, creating Bloomwater Blades that deal AoE Hydro damage. But really, it’s going to look like rain when you hit your Q key.
Ayato Genshin Impact Passive Talents
Ayato’s passive talents increase his damage, make it easier for him to regenerate energy, and help him cook dishes.
- Kamisato Art: Mine Wo Matoishi Kiyotaki: Ayato gets buff stacks right off the bat after using his elemental skill. It also gives him stacks after the illusion explodes meaning that you’re ready to go again as soon as your elemental skill cooldown ends.
- Kamisato Art: Michiyuku Hagetsu: When Ayato is not on the field and he has less than 40 energy, he’ll regenerate 2 energy for himself for every second he’s off field. This helps make up for his 80 energy cost burst.
- Kamisato Art: Daily Cooking: Ayato has an 18% chance of cooking a Suspicious dish which is a lower-quality copy of the dish you’re making.
Ayato Genshin Impact Passive Talents
Ayato’s skill text can be a bit misleading since it says he benefits from his Normal Attacks and HP stats. The truth is that Kyouka has different scalings so you don’t really need to pay attention to it. Because of this, you can simply focus on giving him a decent amount of Attack and Crit Rate to Crit Damage ratio.
What Weapons Should Ayato Have?
As a classic DPS, Ayato benefits from weapons with high base attack and, preferably, a Crit related substat such as Crit rate or Crit ratio. His energy regeneration is decent enough that using Energy Recharge weapons only hurt his ability to deal damage. Elemental Mastery and Hydro damage boosting weapons like Xiphos Moonlight and Lion’s Roar may have some niche uses, especially since Ayato is good in Taser (Electrocharge) teams, but are generally not recommended.
- Haran Geppaku Futsu: A 5-star with Crit rate substat, Haran’s passive gives you 12% increase for all elemental damage bonus and provides stacking buffs based on the party’s use of Elemental Skills.
- Primordial Jade Cutter: PJC has Crit rate substat and a passive that increases the user’s HP and Attack, though the latter scales off his HP. it’s a decent overall stat stick.
- Skyward Blade: Another 5-star but with Energy Recharge substat. What’s worth writing home about is the 10% attack speed increase that it grants after you use your burst.
- Mistsplitter Reforged: A Crit damage substat 5-star weapon, Mistsplitter increases elemental damage bonuses and provides a stacking buff that increases elemental damage further with a chance of rewarding Ayato with buffs for not having his burst available.
- The Black Sword: This 4-star weapon can be obtained from the battlepass. It has a Crit rate susbtat and a passive that increases Normal and charged attack damage by 20% as well as regenerating HP for your character.
- Amenoma Kageuchi: Amenoma Kageuchi is a craftable 4-star weapon with an Attack substat. Its passive gives you an energy regeneration buff system that is triggered by using your Elemental Skill. When the burst is used, it consumes the buffs to release energy particles.
What Artifacts Should I Use for Ayato?
HP percent Sands of Time won’t be as good for Ayato as an Attack sands and the only time you’ll want a non-Attack sands is if you need to make up for a lack of Energy Recharge. Otherwise, follow the usual Attack and Crit ratio formula for building Ayato that’s common for DPS characters.
- Heart of Depth: The 2-piece set gives Ayato a 15% Hydro damage bonus while the 4-piece set increases Normal and Charged attack damage by 30% after you use an Elemental Skill. This is Ayato’s overall best artifact set.
- Gladiator’s Longing/Vermillion Hereafter: Use only for the 2-piece bonuses as they grant an extra 18% attack. If you have no other artifacts, a 4-piece Gladiator set can work since it increases Normal; Attack damage by 35% for sword users.
- Emblem of Severed Fate: The 2-piece set increases Energy Recharge by 20% which can be useful if you need more ER but want to keep your Attack sands.
- Echoes of An Offering: Believe it or not, the 4-piece Echoes set isn’t as useful for Ayato as it seems, even with the 4-piece Normal Attack buffs. However, if you do have Haran, you can get good results from this set.
Team Compositions for Ayato: Elements, Roles, and More
Ayato’s quick Hydro attacks make him great for Taser teams that rely on the Electrocharged reaction. You can team him up with Fischl and Beidou who both provide good Electro application with the latter providing survivability using the shield she generates from her burst at C1. That said, Yae Miko works exceptionally well with him.
Raiden Shogun is also a good team member since she can help him quickly recover his burst, though she isn’t critical to his teams since his damage comes from his skill.
Xiangling provides great Pyro application for him to Vaporize with.
The notable team member for him is Yunjin, a Geo support that buffs Normal Attack damage.
With the release of Dendro and his quick Hydro application, you can use him with Dendro MC (Aether/Traveler), Collei, or Nahida to trigger Bloom reactions.
