Hu Tao Genshin Impact Guide for Artifacts, Weapons, and Skills

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Genshin Impact is no stranger to having a cast of interesting personalities, all with compelling stories that can be relatable to different kinds of players. Those who enjoy a good fright along with some witty verses may find kinship with Hu Tao, Liyue’s eccentric yet talented funeral director and a fan-favorite within the community.

Hu Tao is the 77th Funeral Director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor in Liyue, having inherited the business from her grandfather at a young age. She is a prankster by heart, much to the chagrin of characters like Qiqi, but can also be quite responsible when it comes to her duties of preparing funeral rites. Although some might find her cheerful personality strange given her profession, it’s her understanding of death as a natural part of life that allows her to live her life with no regrets.

Letting Hu Tao sit on your bench underleveled and unbuilt is a fate worse than death for her. Remedy that by following this quick Genshin Impact guide.

The Best Artifacts for Hu Tao

Giving your characters artifact sets that they can use effectively and synergize with can go a long way in unleashing their potential. For Hu Tao, here are the sets that we’d recommend for her:

Crimson Witch of Flames

• 2-Piece Bonus – Pyro DMG Bonus +15%
• 4-Piece Bonus – Increases Overloaded and Burning, and Burgeon DMG by 40%. Increases Vaporize and Melt DMG by 15%. Using Elemental Skill increases the 2-Piece Set Bonus by 50% of its starting value for 10s. Max 3 stacks.

The most effective artifact set for enhancing Pyro DPS characters such as Hu Tao is the Crimson Witch of Flames set. Hu Tao’s Elemental Skill infuses her attacks with Pyro, and the Pyro DMG Bonus provided by this set is unparalleled. Considering that her most popular team composition revolves around Vaporize, the damage boost she receives for this set makes it the go-to choice for many Hu Tao players.

Shimenawa’s Reminiscence

• 2 Piece Bonus – ATK +18%
• 4 Piece Bonus – When casting an Elemental Skill, if the character has 15 or more Energy, they lose 15 Energy and Normal/Charged/Plunging Attack DMG is increased by 50% for 10s. This effect will not trigger again during that duration.

The Shimenawa’s Reminiscence artifact set is the only set that comes close to matching the power of the Crimson Witch of Flames set. It grants Hu Tao a substantial 50% boost to her Normal and Charged Attacks at the expense of 15 energy. While Hu Tao’s Elemental Burst can deal significant damage and offer instant healing, its importance diminishes if she already has proficient shielders or healers on her team which makes sacrificing her Burst’s uptime worth it.

Artifact Stats to Prioritize

While substats are under the mercy of the RNG gods, choosing which main stats to use are entirely up to the players themselves. Ideally, Hu Tao would have the following stats:

1. Pyro DMG Bonus (Goblet)
2. CRIT Rate / CRIT DMG (Circlet and substats)
3. HP% (Timepiece and/or substats)
4. Elemental Mastery (Timepiece and/or substats)
5. Energy Recharge (Substats)

You can typically determine what stats work best with a character based on their ascension stat, scalings, abilities, and the type of team they will be a part of. Hu Tao’s ascension stat is CRIT DMG, while her skills and kit center around her Max HP and triggering Pyro elemental reactions. Therefore, you should equip her with artifacts containing high CRIT stats, HP%, and Elemental Mastery. Like most hypercarry DPS characters, using an elemental goblet specific to their element significantly enhances their damage output. Energy Recharge is not important enough to be prioritized as a main stat but it is one of her better substats that helps with her survivability through her Burst. 

Best Weapons for Hu Tao

Premium 5-Star weapons offer the best stats, crazy good weapon effects, and sometimes even the most stylish appearance for your favorites. The weapon banner might be a different layer of gacha hell, but the weapons below can be worth spending for.

• Staff of Homa (CRIT DMG) – HP increased by 20%. Additionally, provides an ATK Bonus based on 0.8% of the wielder’s Max HP. When the wielder’s HP is less than 50%, this ATK Bonus is increased by an additional 1% of Max HP.

The Staff of Homa is Hu Tao’s signature best-in-slot (BiS) weapon and probably one of the best polearms ever released in Genshin Impact. While other polearm users love it for its high base ATK and CRIT DMG secondary stat, none benefit from its effects as much as Hu Tao does. The weapon enhances her Max HP, granting an ATK boost calculated from a percentage of her Max HP, which becomes even more potent when her current HP falls below 50%. 

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• Staff of the Scarlet Sands (CRIT Rate) – The equipping character gains 52% of their Elemental Mastery as bonus ATK. When an Elemental Skill hits opponents, the Dream of the Scarlet Sands effect will be gained for 10s: The equipping character will gain 28% of their Elemental Mastery as bonus ATK. Max 3 stacks.

Cyno’s complementary 5-Star polearm is designed for crit-loving DPS characters who excel at dealing damage through elemental reactions. Despite Hu Tao’s inability to fully maximize the effects of the Staff of the Scarlet Sands on a single target, its conversion of Elemental Mastery to Attack and high Critical Rate still proves beneficial for her. It’s a weapon worth considering if you are using a high Elemental Mastery build for Hu Tao.

• Primordial Jade Winged-Spear (CRIT Rate) – On hit, increases ATK by 3.2% for 6s. Max 7 stacks. This effect can only occur once every 0.3s. While in possession of the maximum possible stacks, DMG dealt is increased by 12%.

This option is perhaps the most widely accessible 5-star choice for her since the Primordial Jade Winged-Spear (PJWS) can be obtained from the standard pool of 5-star weapons. It functions as a CRIT weapon, offering a significant boost in CRIT Rate to the wielder, and possesses an offensive effect that allows stacking ATK on each hit, with a bonus damage increase upon reaching maximum stacks. Unfortunately, Hu Tao doesn’t benefit from ATK bonuses as much as other polearm DPS characters like Xiao.

Budget Alternatives

Many of us can’t splurge on gacha and some even proudly embrace their Free-to-Play status. If you haven’t been fortunate to obtain any 5-Star weapons, these 4-Star options will suffice.

• Dragon’s Bane (Elemental Mastery) – Increases DMG against opponents affected by Hydro or Pyro by 20%.

The Dragon’s Bane is a phenomenal 4-Star weapon for polearm users that love to take advantage of the powerful Vaporize reaction. Given that your enemies are consistently either wet from Hydro or scorched from Pyro effects, its damage-boosting bonus remains almost constantly active. This bonus becomes even more substantial with increased refinements, to the extent that at maximum refinements, Dragon’s Bane becomes comparable to Hu Tao’s BiS 5-Star weapon.

• Deathmatch (CRIT Rate) – If there are at least 2 opponents nearby, ATK is increased by 16% and DEF is increased by 16%. If there are fewer than 2 opponents nearby, ATK is increased by 24%.

Players will need to dip into getting Genshin Impact’s Battle Pass system in order to get the 4-Star polearm, Deathmatch. It is a CRIT Rate weapon with an offensive effect that depends on the number of enemies currently present. You could say that it is a powered down version of Primordial Jade Winged-Spear but slightly worse due to the lower rarity and stats. Nonetheless, Deathmatch is still plenty powerful and can still make her critical strikes consistent.

• Ballad of the Fjords (CRIT Rate) – When there are at least 3 different Elemental Types in your party, Elemental Mastery will be increased by 120.

Upon Fontaine’s introduction, a new series of weapons became accessible through the Battle Pass. The polearm Ballad of the Fjords is quite unique from other polearms we’ve had so far. It is the first polearm to take into consideration the team’s elemental composition, rewarding its user bonus Elemental Mastery if three different Elemental Types are currently present in the party. Since most of Hu Tao’s preferred teams meet this requirement, the Ballad of Fjords becomes an exceptionally competitive weapon choice for her.

Skill Priorities for Hu Tao

With so many characters to collect and build, players might find themselves tight on resources and will therefore need to prioritize which skills to level first. Here’s how we would prioritize Hu Tao’s skills:

1. Secret Spear of Wangsheng (Normal Attack) – Hu Tao attacks up to 6 consecutive spear strikes. Her Charged Attack makes her lunge forward, dealing damage to opponents along the way.

2. Guide to Afterlife (Elemental Skill) – Hu Tao consumes a set portion of her HP to knock the surrounding enemies back and enter the Paramita Papilio state. This state increases Hu Tao’s ATK based on her Max HP at the time of entering this state and converts attack DMG to Pyro DMG, which cannot be overridden by any other elemental infusion. Charged Attacks apply the Blood Blossom effect to the enemies hit. Enemies affected by Blood Blossom will take Pyro DMG every 4s. This DMG is considered Elemental Skill DMG. Each enemy can be affected by only one Blood Blossom effect at a time, and its duration may only be refreshed by Hu Tao herself. Paramita Papilio ends when its duration is over, or Hu Tao has left the battlefield or fallen.

3. Spirit Soother (Elemental Burst) – The funeral director commands a blazing spirit to attack, dealing Pyro DMG in a large AoE. Upon striking the enemy, regenerates a percentage of Hu Tao’s Max HP. This effect can be triggered up to 5 times, based on the number of enemies hit. If Hu Tao’s HP is below or equal to 50% when the enemy is hit, both the DMG and HP Regeneration are increased.

Hu Tao’s peak strength lies in maintaining her HP below the 50% threshold, a state she can comfortably and safely achieve with her skills. The majority of her damage comes from her Normal Attacks, particularly when her Elemental Skill is active, infusing all her attacks with Pyro. Therefore, leveling her Normal Attacks takes highest priority. This is followed by her Elemental Skill as additional levels offer better scaling for her HP-converted ATK bonus, as well as improving her Blood Blossom’s damage. It’s advisable to level her Burst last since it’s typically reserved for dire situations only. Overhealing beyond the 50% HP threshold could significantly impact her damage output, making careful use of this skill essential.

Hu Tao Team Comp

Hu Tao’s role on the team is that of a main DPS. She can easily carry her team’s damage, provided that she gets all the support that she needs. This usually involves pairing her with characters that can create shields and enable elemental reactions through off-field application. Wangsheng’s funeral director would love to hire the following characters as fellow pallbearers:

• Zhongli (Her consultant. His shields will provide her with all the protection she needs.)
• Layla (A Cryo shielder that’s a good alternative to Zhongli)
• Xingqiu (Her poetic partner in crime for Vaporize teams)
• Yelan (Another fantastic Hydro sub-DPS that can deal off-field damage for Vaporize)
• Kazuha (Provides great crowd control and shreds Pyro resistance)
• Albedo (Gives his allies additional Elemental Mastery with his Burst)
• Rosaria (Cryo enabler for Melt reactions)
• Yanfei (A Pyro catalyst that can serve as support. Can also shield with constellations)

In battle, players will want to maximize her floor time during her Elemental Skill’s duration as this time window gives her all the buffs she needs to set her enemies ablaze with her purifying flame. She is not a selfish DPS as she’s fairly underwhelming without her Skill being active, which encourages you to have allies that can tide her over until her next Skill cast. New players keen on pulling for her can rest assured that this quirky trickster is still scarily good, even years after her release.