Keqing Genshin Impact Guide for Artifacts, Weapons, and Skills

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There are a lot of ways that you can lose in video games, but for gacha games like Genshin Impact, it looks a little different. In fact, losing might actually be the new winning. Failing to obtain the featured character in a banner results in players getting a 5-Star from the standard character pool instead. They might not be as premium as those shiny limited characters, but they can still be very powerful in their own right. Take, for example, Genshin Impact’s very own Driving Thunder, Keqing.

Keqing is introduced as the pragmatic Yuheng of the Liyue Qixing, the governing body of the Liyue region. With her sword, crackling with the power of Electro, in her hand, she’s determined to forge her own path instead of relying solely on the gods.

Like Keqing, players won’t have to rely on the gods or luck when it comes to building her. It doesn’t take catching lightning in a bottle, either. This Keqing Genshin Impact guide can fill you in on her current best setups – from artifacts to team compositions.

The Best Artifacts for Keqing

Genshin Impact’s Artifact System is one of the reasons as to why characters can be built and played in all sorts of ways. These artifacts grant powerful effects that can be used to empower the wearer’s talents, whether they come in the form of damage or other utilities like healing and shielding.

For this guide, we will be focusing on the artifact sets that best suit Keqing’s Electro variant.

Thundering Fury

The Thundering Fury artifact set grants the following effects:

• 2-Piece Bonus – Electro DMG Bonus +15%
• 4-Piece Bonus – Increases DMG caused by Overloaded, Electro-Charged, Superconduct, and Hyperbloom by 40%, and the DMG Bonus conferred by Aggravate is increased by 20%. When Quicken or the aforementioned Elemental Reactions are triggered, Elemental Skill CD is decreased by 1s. Can only occur once every 0.8s.

Thundering Fury is easily her best-in-slot (BiS) when it comes to artifacts. It grants her a big boost to her Electro DMG, and the full set effect is tailored towards buffing the DMG of her elemental reactions. This is one of the artifact sets that indirectly received a buff with the release of Dendro and its reactions with Electro, as other Electro reactions like Overload or Electro-charge were not so popular with players compared to reactions like Melt or Vaporize.

Players can also forgo the full set effect and pair Thundering Fury’s 2-piece bonus with an ATK-boosting artifact set like Gladiator’s Finale or Shimenawa’s Reminiscence to great effect.

Thundersoother

The Thundersoother artifact set gives its wearer these bonuses:

• 2-Piece Bonus – Electro RES increased by 40%.
• 4-Piece Bonus – Increases DMG against opponents affected by Electro by 35%.

Thundersoother is only ever effective and viable when its 4-Piece bonus is active. Its 2-Piece bonus of increasing her Electro Resistance is very underwhelming, to say the least. Nevertheless, this artifact set can compete with its counterpart, Thundering Fury, especially in an Aggravate team where there is a high Electro uptime. You will be glad to know that farming for either one of these sets is at least efficient since they can both be obtained from the same domain, the Midsummer Courtyard, or the Artifact Strongbox.

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Artifact Stats to Prioritize

Keqing acts as a typical DPS character with the potential of being a Sub-DPS with her spammable Elemental Burst. She’ll be dishing out most of your team’s damage, so kit her out with your best gear.

Try to max these stats as much as possible:

1. CRIT Rate / CRIT DMG (Circlet and substats)
2. Electro DMG (Goblet)
3. ATK% (Sands and subtests)
4. Elemental Mastery (Sands and substats)
5. Energy Recharge (Substats)

Consistency is key to DPS characters that rely on critical strikes to deal those screenshot-worthy numbers, and Keqing is no exception to this. Since Keqing’s ascension already gives her some CRIT DMG, players will want to get as much CRIT Rate on her as they can, whether that’s through her artifacts or her weapon. Aiming for a 1:2 ratio or even 1:3 is usually optimal if your CRIT Rate reaches around 65% or higher. You will also want a good amount of ATK stats on her, preferably reaching around 2.0k ATK to make the most out of your critical hits.

You can go with either ATK% or Elemental Mastery for her sands, depending on which artifact has the better stats. Some Energy Recharge on her is appreciated but not completely necessary due to her Elemental Burst’s low energy requirements.

Best Weapons for Keqing

Although it is tradition for a 5-Star character to come with their own signature weapon, Keqing is one of the few 5-Stars that actually do not have one. Despite this, there’s a great variety of 5-Star swords to choose from that have come out since her release. Players can now pick and choose between weapon effects that either greatly synergize with her talents or are simply great stat sticks. 

The options that stand above the rest for Keqing are the following:

• Mistsplitter Reforged (CRIT DMG) – Gain a 12% Elemental DMG Bonus for all elements and receive the might of the Mistsplitter’s Emblem. At stack levels 1/2/3, Mistsplitter’s Emblem provides a 8/16/28% Elemental DMG Bonus for the character’s Elemental Type. The character will obtain 1 stack of Mistsplitter’s Emblem in each of the following scenarios: Normal Attack deals Elemental DMG (stack lasts 5s), casting Elemental Burst (stack lasts 10s); Energy is less than 100% (stack disappears when Energy is full). Each stack’s duration is calculated independently.

Mistsplitter Reforged is Keqing’s BiS weapon for almost all of her playstyles (except Physical). It already has the innate 12% All Elemental DMG bonus from the get go but her damage really ramps up once the weapon’s effect is fully stacked, giving her an additional 28% Electro DMG bonus. Keqing can achieve max stacks rather quickly and easily as well which almost always guarantees that she’ll be getting the best out of her weapon every time. Did we mention that it scales with CRIT DMG too? It is insanely good and a must-equip on her if you have it.

• Primordial Jade Cutter (CRIT Rate) – HP increased by 20%. Additionally, provides an ATK Bonus based on 1.2% of the wielder’s Max HP.

Keqing might not be able to make the best use out of Primordial Jade Cutter’s HP passive but the sword’s high base attack as well as its staggering 44.1% CRIT Rate makes it a desirable pick for our crit-based DPS either way. If anything else, it does look aesthetically pleasing on Keqing for players who like to consider Fashion Impact.

• Haran Geppaku Futsu (CRIT Rate) – Obtain 12% All Elemental DMG Bonus. When other nearby party members use Elemental Skills, the character equipping this weapon will gain 1 Wavespike stack. Max 2 stacks. This effect can be triggered once every 0.3s. When the character equipping this weapon uses an Elemental Skill, all stacks of Wavespike will be consumed to gain Rippling Upheaval: each stack of Wavespike consumed will increase Normal Attack DMG by 20% for 8s.

Players can consider Haran as the middle ground between Mistsplitter and Jade Cutter due to having both the 12% All Elemental DMG Bonus and a 33.1% CRIT Rate scaling on the weapon ascension. Keqing can also make use of Haran’s secondary effect fairly well in an Aggravate comp where her teammates do have to switch in every now and then to use their skills before switching back. 

Budget Alternatives

Sadly, not all of us are blessed with godly luck or deep wallets. However, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t alternatives available in the game that can work just as well as the premium options.

Here are the weapons that are worth considering for Keqing:

• Lion’s Roar (ATK) – Increases DMG against enemies affected by Pyro or Electro by 20%.

Lion’s Roar is a 4-Star weapon that is obtainable in any of the wishing banners as a 4-Star drop. This Liyuean sword can almost be considered as Keqing’s canon weapon as it is clearly meant to be wielded by a swordmaster that deals either Pyro or Electro damage for best results.

• The Black Sword (CRIT Rate) – Increases DMG dealt by Normal and Charged Attacks by 20%. Additionally, regenerates 60% of ATK as HP when Normal and Charged Attacks score a CRIT Hit. This effect can occur once every 5s.

For those who have availed Genshin Impact’s Battle Pass, the Black Sword is a fantastic choice for Keqing. Not only does the weapon scale with CRIT Rate, it has an effect that increases the damage of Keqing’s Normal and Charged Attacks, which also heals her whenever she scores a critical hit.

• Kagotsurube Isshin (ATK) – When a Normal, Charged, or Plunging Attack hits an opponent, it will whip up a Hewing Gale, dealing AoE DMG equal to 180% of ATK and increasing ATK by 15% for 8s. This effect can be triggered once every 8s.

The Kagotsurube Isshin is a free weapon obtainable once you have finished Kaedehara Kazuha’s Story Quest called ‘Acer Palmatum.’ It’s a decent alternative to Keqing due to its ATK scaling, and the weapon effect is a good source of additional damage that is fairly easy to trigger.

Skill Priorities for Keqing

Keqing’s playstyle has her blinking on the field, from one opponent to the next, as she leaves lightning cuts to her enemies with great flair. She is also able to infuse her attacks with Electro, which allows her to consistently apply Electro to her targets and allow for some powerful elemental reactions. 

Maxing out any character’s talents requires a lot of resources. As Keqing herself would advise, proper planning is key to achieving great results. Here’s how you should level her talents that would be most cost-effective.

1. Yunlai Swordsmanship (Normal Attack) – Keqing performs up to 5 rapid strikes (normal). When held, it consumes a certain amount of Stamina to unleash 2 quick sword strikes (charged).
2. Stellar Restoration (Elemental Skill) – Keqing hurls her Lightning Stiletto toward an enemy. Upon hitting the target, it deals Electro DMG to opponents in a small AoE and places a Stiletto Mark on the spot hit. Using her skill again will blink her to the location of the Mark and unleash one slashing attack that deals AoE Electro DMG. Alternatively, she can use a Charged Attack to ignite a series of thundering cuts at the Mark’s location, dealing AoE Electro DMG. It can also be held down to adjust the direction in which the Stiletto shall be thrown.
3. Starward Sword (Elemental Burst) – Keqing delivers a series of lightning-quick strikes to nearby opponents simultaneously that deal multiple instances of Electro DMG, ending with one final slash that deals massive AoE Electro DMG.

Keqing’s Normal Attack will always be her most important talent, regardless of which playstyle you use on her. Her Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst are interchangeable with one another in terms of damage and priority in the Aggravate playstyle, so players can level them equally after her Normal Attack.

Keqing Team Comp

Keqing works tirelessly as the damage driver in most of her team compositions, so it’s unsurprising that she’s going to take up a lot of floor time. Whether it’s to facilitate elemental reactions or deal tons of Electro damage on her own, she’ll still need a competent crew to back her up in the hardest of challenges Genshin Impact has to offer. 

So far, here’s a list of characters who synergizes well with the Yuheng of the Liyue Qixing:

• Nahida (the best Dendro applier to enable Aggravate)
• Fischl (Oz is the best off-field Electro support)
• Kazuha (great crowd control and buffs Keqing’s electro-damage output)
• Zhongli (unbreakable shields coupled with an omni-resistance shred)
• Collei (Dendro applier with a partywide EM buff and great burst uptime)
• Kuki Shinobu (Healer that can also enable electro-reactions)
• Beidou (Burst sub-dps with high off-field damage and defensive utility)
• Sucrose (provides crowd control and an EM bonus to the entire party)

While she does have some quirky builds available to her, like Physical Keqing or Cryo Keqing that works well to a degree, most of Keqing’s kit still lends itself to a playstyle that deals consistent Electro damage with each attack. The introduction of Dendro solidified this playstyle as her best and breathed new life to this diligent swordmaster’s fairly straightforward kit.