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Before Ganyu’s first release, the Genshin Impact community was full of leaks subscribers expecting her to be a “Cryo Amber” which considering Amber’s low damage output was meant to deride her for having a similar-looking kit to a character who’s widely considered to be bad.
When she did release, though, players quickly realized how powerful her charged attacks truly are for their ability to freeze enemies at command, provide a small AoE of Cryo, and just plain ridiculous damage.
Back before the release of characters like the Raiden Shogun and the introduction of Dendro, Ganyu’s ability to carry her team made her an ideal F2P DPS that could give maximum damage for minimal investment. With more to go around and the introduction of Dendro, she’s no longer the undisputed DPS queen she once was, but she’s still worthwhile to build and can make a huge impact on your account.
Ganyu 101: An Overview of the Liyue Qixing Secretary
Ganyu is a Cryo 5-star bow character and, right next to Ayaka, is the closest we have in the game to a Cryo catalyst character. Her charged attacks let her trigger Freeze reactions with ease, giving her built-in crowd control that helps her survivability.
In the game’s lore, Ganyu is a half-human and half-qilin, a type of mythical creature known for having a gentle nature hence her mild temper and soft-spokeness. Ganyu values the lives of others deeply and the only thing that can make her angry is other people’s cruelty. Though she once fought alongside Rex Lapis, she’s now a secretary to the Liyue Qixing and helps the human administrators of Liyue Harbor stay on top of a mountain of paperwork.
She works great in a number of roles:
- Main DPS: Ganyu is easy to build and is powerful out of the box at C0, making her an amazing DPS especially if you’re free to play. With a halfway decent Crit Rate, even the most okay-ish Ganyu can deal anywhere from 8-10k in damage with each charged attack.
- Reactions Support: Ganyu is able to put out Cryo damage and application constantly, making her great for triggering Cryo-related reactions such as Freeze and Melt.
- Crowd Control: Ganyu’s ability to trigger Freeze with no need to wait for a cooldown on her skill and burst makes her great for crowd control as long as you have another character providing sizable Hydro application. Her burst also has one of the bigger AoEs in the game, easily trapping enemies within it. Plus, the short cooldown and low energy cost makes it easy to keep her burst up.
What Are Ganyu’s Talents, Priority Talents, and Stat Priorities?
Ganyu has six talents, only half of which can be upgraded to Level 10 with a Crown of Insight that you can obtain from limited-time events. The other half are obtained naturally as you Ascend your Ganyu and unlock them.
Ganyu Genshin Impact Active Talents
Ganyu’s active talents are the ones that require leveling. Ganyu’s talent level up materials are Diligence books, Whopperflower drops, and Tartaglia boss’ Shadow of the Warrior.
- Liutian Archery (Normal, Charged, Plunging Attack): Ganyu performs up to 6 consecutive shots, but the charged attack is the important part. Her aimed shots can be held until Charged Level 2 to create a Frostflake Arrow that deals Cryo damage when fired and explodes on impact to deal AoE Cryo damage.
- Trail of the Qilin (Elemental Skill: Ganyu backs away from the battlefield and creates a trail of AoE Cryo damage that leaves an Ice Lotus in her place. This scales on her Max HP and deals continuous AoE Cryo damage before exploding, dealing another burst of AoE Cryo damage.
- Celestial Shower (Elemental Burst): Ganyu throws up a Sacred Cryo Pearl that rains down an ice storm on her enemies.
Ganyu Genshin Impact Passive Talents
Ganyu’s passive talents buff her damage and help her team improve their Cryo damage output, giving her great support capabilities.
- Undivided Heart: After firing a Frostflake Arrow, the Crit Rate of subsequent Frostflake Arrows and their resulting bloom effects is increased by 20% for 5 seconds.
- Harmony Between Heaven and Earth: Celestial Shower grants a 20% Cryo damage bonus to active party members within the AoE.
- Preserved for the Hunt: Ganyu refunds 15% of the ore used when crafting a Bow.
Ganyu Genshin Impact Talent Priority and Stat Priority
Ganyu’s most important skill is Liutian Archery, her charged attack. For a DPS Ganyu, make this your priority talent to upgrade. As for stats, Ganyu is a DPS that benefits from Crit Rate and Crit Damage though this is fairly easy to accomplish with the Blizzard Strayer artifact set and Cryo Resonance effect, both of which increase your Crit Rate.
What Weapons Should Ganyu Have?
Ganyu has tons of viable weapon options, the only problem is that most of them are 5-stars. That said, she does have great free to play options with damage output that, versus the costs of a 5-star weapon, is very comparable.
- Polar Star: Polar Star is a 5-star weapon with a Criut Rate substat. Its passive boosts all damage, granting bonuses for Charged Attacks based on a buffing system. Since Ganyu is able to trigger the stacks and maintain them with ease, this is currently her best weapon.
- Aqua Simulacra: A 5-star weapon that increases HP and has a Crit Damage substat, this helps Ganyu meet her Crit ratio needs and increased the damage of her Cryo lotus. It also increases the damage dealt by its user when there are enemies nearby even if Ganyu isn’t on the field, making it good for when you swap your Ganyu out after her burst.
- Amos Bow: Amos Bow is another 6-star weapon that used to be recognized as Ganyu’s best in slot but falls off because of the Attack substat. That said, the passive is extremely relevant for her as it increases Normal and Charged attack damage and actually favors her shooting from a distance, buffing arrow damage the longer it is in the air.
- Prototype Crescent: A former Ganyu’s best in slot free to play weapon. This 4-star weapon has an Attack substat and increases Charged attack damage if you hit a weak point. This has become less relevant as more enemies have no weak spots.
- Hamayumi: Ganyu’s current better 4-star weapon, Hamayumi increases Charged Attack damage flat out.
What Artifacts Should I Use for Ganyu?
Ganyu can make use of many artifacts from the game, even the likes of Shimenawa’s Resistance and Emblem of Severed Fate. However, her more flexible options are Wanderer’s Troupe, Blizzard Strayer, and Noblesse Oblige (2-piece).
- Wanderer’s Troupe: Resin cheap and efficient as it can work as an all-around build, Wanderer’s Troupe 2-piece effect increases Elemental Mastery by 80 and 4-piece effect increases Charged attack damage by 36%.
- Blizzard Strayer: Fantastic contender for a DPS Ganyu depending on the comp and the better option for a permafreeze team, Blizzard Strayer’s 2-piece set grants 15% additional Cryo damage bonus while the 4-piece set increases Crit Rate by 20% against enemies affected by Cryo and another 20% if they’re frozen.
- Noblesse Oblige: The 2-piece set provides Ganyu with a 20% Elemental Burst damage bonus and a the 4-piece set gives her party memes additional 20% attack increase after a burst is used. Better for a support oriented Ganyu, though not as ideal as the first two all around.
Team Compositions for Ganyu: Elements, Roles, and More
Ganyu has been around for ages versus most other characters in Genshin Impact so her current team comps are well known for having dominated the game’s meta and continuing to compete favorably against enemies in the Abyss and other teams. Her two most popular compositions revolve around the Freeze and Melt reactions.
Ganyu Freeze/Permafreeze (Genshin Morgana Team)
Originally composed of Ganyu, Mona, Diona, and Venti, the Morgana team. The Cryo resonance and other bonuses related to Cryo, as well as Blizzard Strayer, make it easy to ignore building Crit Ratio on Ganyu, letting you put it all towards Crit damage. Mona provides generous Hydro application to protect Ganyu from being damaged while shooting and Venti keeps them all in the same spot. Diona provides resonance, shields, and heals Ganyu.
Many iterations of Morgana exist, deviating from the original comp. Some versions swap out Venti with Sucrose or Kazuha as the characters also shred enemy resistances with the Viridescent Venereer set. Kamisato Ayaka can also be swapped in for Diona for a more aggressive composition, however, this removes a healer. This is remedied by swapping out Mona for Sangonomiya Kokomi.
Ganyu Melt Teams
Though powerful, Ganyu Melt compositions are harder to pilot than Freeze teams as they require some timing to trigger the reaction. However, Melt deals excellent damage, making it worth it. This version makes better use of the Wanderer’s Troupe build for Ganyu as Melt benefits from the Elemental Mastery granted by the set.
This composition partners Ganyu with Bennet, Xiangling, and Zhongli traditionally since Zhongli makes up for Ganyu’s fragility, Xiangling provides off-field Pyro application, and Bennet provides damage buffs and healing as well as Pyro Resonance damage bonus. With the introduction of Yanfei whose C4 gives her a shield after using her burst, she can protect Ganyu while providing healing when equipped with Prototype Crescent.
If you want Ganyu to be a support, she works well with Ayato whose burst lines up with the AoE of her burst and also rains down AoE Hydro damage. In this scenario, Ayato will be dealing most of the damage.
