Gorou Genshin Impact Guide for Artifacts, Weapons, and Talents

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In this article:

• Gorou’s ability to boost his team’s defense makes him an indispensable member of mono Geo teams.
• Gorou serves as a great support for mono Geo teams and is capable of being a Geo battery for both Noelle and Itto.
• Because he needs minimal investment and has negligible personal damage, Gorou thrives on simply stacking defense artifacts on himself.

Gorou is a support for Geo characters introduced alongside Kokomi during the Inazuma archon quests. Along with Kujou Sara, he marked a transition towards more niche supports that provided better damage boosts to specific team compositions and characters while sacrificing the flexibility that early supports such as Bennet and Xingqiu brought to the table. 

Gorou’s ability to boost his team’s defense makes him an indispensable member of mono Geo teams where Itto serves as a main DPS due to Itto’s defense scaling. He also makes a great partner for Albedo, who split scales attack and defense, and Noelle, who also needs high defense stats.

Aside from Ningguang and Zhongli, it’s clear that he’s the most important support for Geo in general and with the direction that newer Geo characters have taken, he’ll only become more valuable. 

Gorou 101: An Overview of the General of Watatsumi Island

Gorou may look young but he’s actually the general of Watatsumi Island’s forces, leading local rebels against the Raiden Shogun together with Kokomi. He’s also one of the few characters who are confirmed to be part animal. While it’s not clear whether his dog attributes are similar to Yae and Ganyu’s mystical origins, he does move his ears and tails naturally just like Diona does. 

His canine-themed design comes with a canine-inspired personality as Gorou is said to be extremely loyal to his comrades and subordinates, caring for them on a personal level and not just as a general. 

When Gorou joins your team, he does so as a support for your hyper carry characters, taking a back step from the spotlight to focus on buffing the rest of the team with his defense stat increase effects and, to a lesser extent, his healing.

Gorou fills several needs in your team:

• Geo resonance: Mono Geo teams that are centered on Itto/Noelle and Gorou don’t really need to be in a mono Geo team. Since they are the vital team members, you can just as easily get away with pairing them with double Cryo (to get the crit rate increase effect) or double Pyro (to get the attack stat increase effect). 

• Geo battery: The characters that benefit the most from Gorou, Itto and Noelle, are reliant on their bursts to generate most of their damage. For Itto, his burst cost is 70 while Noelle’s burst cost is 60. While those aren’t as high as some in the game, the point is that you want as much uptime for your bursts as possible making it crucial to have a team member that can generate energy particles to charge their bursts.

• Healer: Gorou isn’t the best healer in the game but he is rewarded for investing heavily in Geo with a 4th constellation that allows him to provide more survivability to your team. At C4, Lapping Hound: Warm as water heals your active character for 50% of Gorou’s total defense every 1.5s provided that they’re inside the AoE of his burst. 

Defense is the name of the game when it comes to building Gorou. You’re looking at one of the most low investment supports in the game. All he really needs is to get his defense stat as high as possible which means you don’t even need a Geo goblet. You don’t even need Geo damage for that matter since Gorou isn’t intended to deal personal damage. You can give him a defense circlet, goblet, and sands and your team will do great.

What Are Gorou’s Talents, Priority Talents, and Stat Priorities?

Gorou has six talents. Half of these you can upgrade to Level 10 with a Crown of Insight or to Level 13 provided that you get additional constellations. Doing this is fairly affordable since Gorou is just a 4-star and you’ll typically get constellations by pulling on banners he is featured on as you progress in the game.

Gorou Genshin Impact Active Talents

Gorou’s active talents are Rippling Fang Fletching (Normal, Charged, and Plunge Attacks), Inuzaka All-Round Defense (Elemental Skill), and Juuga: Forward Unto Victory (Elemental Burst). Out of these three, the only one you shouldn’t level is Rippling Fang Fletching as Gorou has very negligible personal damage.

• Rippling Fang Fletching (Normal, Charged, and Plunging Attacks): Gorou deals 4 consecutive shots that deal physical damage.

• Inuzaka All-Round Defense (Elemental Skill): Deals AoE Geo damage and places a General’s War Banner that provides three buffs depending on how many Geo characters are in your team. You get a basic defense bonus for having one Geo teammate, two Geo teammates give resistance to interruption, and three Geo teammates give the team a Geo damage bonus.

• Juuga: Forward Unto Victory: Gorou casts an AoE called General’s Glory within which he provides buffs to Geo characters in his party and moves the AoE with him, kind of like Xinagling’s Pyronado.

Gorou Genshin Impact Passive Talents

Gorou’s passive talents boost his defense buffing capabilities further. 

• Headless of the Wing and Weather: After using his burst, Gorou increases the defense of his teammates by 25% for 12 seconds.

• A Favor Repaid: Gorou receives stack bonuses based on his defense that increase the skill damage of his Elemental Skill by 156% of his defense and his burst by 15.6% of his defense.

• Seeker of Shinies: Gorou displays Inazuma specialties on the mini-map. 

Gorou Genshin Impact Talent Priority and Stat Priority

Defense. Defense. Defense. That’s really all Gorou needs. Depending on what weapon you use on him, he may need some amount of crit rate and crit damage, but it’s such a small difference compared to how much work it takes that just stacking him with defense is a more resource-efficient technique. 

What Weapons Should Gorou Have?

Gorou is one of the few characters whose weapon doesn’t really matter all that much. In fact, he has a fairly limited amount of choices for his weapons. One thing to remember though is that his best skill, the one you should really prioritize, is his burst because it gives him the most buffs and lets your on-field character move around with ease both in the overworld and in Abyss.

• Favonius Warbow: The Favonius Warbow is hands down Gorou’s best 4-star weapon and given that he’s a support that is rarely on the field, it’s really the only one you need. The weapon has an energy recharge substat to power your burst and a passive that generates energy particles depending on whether Gorou crits. 

• Fading Twilight: Fading Twilight is a limited-time event weapon with an energy recharge substat. The passive provides damage buffs that increase by 12%, 20%, and 28% each time an attack hits opponents. This effect triggers even if the weapon holder is off the field.

• Sacrificial Bow: If you have neither Favonius Warbow nor Fading Twilight, you can use Sacrificial Bow for its energy recharge substat.

What Artifacts Should I Use for Gorou?

Gorou isn’t picky with his artifacts or his artifact stats which is why a lot of people actually build him with mostly defense stat artifacts. He really doesn’t need a Geo damage cup so don’t worry about getting one for him. 

• Husk of Opulent Dreams: The 2-piece set gives Gorou an additional 30% defense. He can’t consistently trigger the 4-piece set bonus so you can swap that with a different 2-piece set. 

• Emblem of Severed Fate: The 2-piece set gives Gorou a 20% energy recharge increase. This can be paired nicely with a 2-piece HoODset or 2-piece Maiden’s Beloved or Ocean Hued Clam if you want to get more healing out of your Gorou.

• Noblesse Oblige: The 4-piece Noblesse Oblige set is a staple for supports because it increases the entire team’s attack by 20% for 12 seconds just by having the set holder use their elemental burst. For similar reasons, you could use the Tenacity of Millelith 4-piece set especially if you have Zhongli or another shielder on the team. 

Team Compositions for Gorou: Elements, Roles, and More

Gorou is a very straightforward character. Given that only Geo characters can truly benefit from what he brings to the table, your only real options for a team member are Itto, Noelle, and Albedo since they’re the only ones that can benefit from his defense stat increases.

Again, while Ningguang and Zhongli are Geo characters, they do not benefit from Gorou. Ningguang finds a better teammate in Yun Jin and Zhongli as they buff normal attacks and protect her squishy catalyst self, respectively.