Gacha game of the year, Genshin Impact, has made waves in the gaming world, taking a lot of the action RPG audience off-guard. Genshin Impact features over 23 characters, each with their own special abilities, positives, negatives, and playstyle. This is the complete Genshin Impact character tier list based on each character’s utility, viability in solo and co-op play, and the equipment that is required in order to make them useful.
S-Tier
Diluc
Element: Pyro
Weapon: Claymore
It is no secret that Diluc is a much sought-after, high tier character in Genshin Impact. The amount of damage that Diluc can pump out is ridiculous, and he is beefier than most of the other Pyro characters available.
Diluc thrives when he can stay in a fight and deal damage — both physical and elemental — while drawing aggro away from others in co-op missions.
Keqing
Element: Electro
Weapon: Sword
Keqing is the cream of the crop when it comes to electro DPS characters and electro characters in general. Her elemental skill allows her to traverse the battlefield in any direction and dodge heavy attacks from bosses.
She is one of the only characters that can go vertical on command, making her incredibly useful in exploration, combat, and puzzles. On top of it all, Keqing dishes out crazy damage thanks to her strong elemental reactions and short cooldowns.
Qiqi
Element: Cryo
Weapon: Sword
If I had to rank all of the characters, first place would be tied between Qiqi and Diluc. Qiqi is a cryo healer, but she has no lack of DPS potential. The damage that Qiqi does directly correlates to how much healing she does, opening up build potentials with maximum damage, low energy recharge, and high elemental mastery.
Not only can Qiqi pull any team out of a tight situation, but her cryo capabilities can also slow down enemy advances while she heals.
Venti
Element: Anemo
Weapon: Bow
Venti is the best character when it comes to crowd control and stunning large groups of enemies. He requires a decent amount of building before he is ready to clear the Spiral Abyss, but with the right gear, he makes clearing dungeon floors a breeze.
A-Tier
Barbara
Element: Hydro
Weapon: Catalyst
Barbara is the only other dedicated healer in Genshin Impact and is tankier than Qiqi. Where Qiqi relies on damage to scale her healing output, Barbara’s health pool determines her healing output when using her elemental skill.
Barbara comes at a high risk though, as she applies Wet to herself and those around her, making the player susceptible to cryo or electro attacks and extra damage.
Barbara is great to use in co-op for domains, but communication is important when using her abilities and ultimate.
Diona
DionaElement: Cryo
Weapon: Bow
Diona is a big personality in a small package, with a skill set that proves to be a worthwhile cryo defense character. She is a famous feline bartender at the Cat’s Tail in Mondstadt and is a sturdy cryo support. On her own, Diona has potential, but when paired up with Diluc or Razor, she can provide elemental reactions to stack damage. If she has a character like Tartaglia or Mona on her team, the hydro effect will come in handy.
She can consistently provide cryo damage and freeze enemies if they get wet slowing down the fight. As far as support characters go, Diona is an effective one capable of providing cryo shields every few seconds and healing the team in a sticky situation.
Jean
Element: Anemo
Weapon: Sword
The Acting Grandmaster of the Knights of Favonius has an incredibly fun skill set that gives her more control over enemies than anyone else in Genshin Impact. Jean focuses on displacing enemies and spreading elemental damage to large groups. She has healing potential through her elemental burst, but it doesn’t put her on par with characters like Barbara and Qiqi for healing.
Fischl
Element: Electro
Weapon: Bow
Fischl is a high mobility electro character that can deal moderate damage from a relatively safe distance, and set up devastating elemental reactions. Her main utility comes in her ability to escape heavy attacks and CC abilities by using Nightrider to take the form of a raven.
Fischl relies on charging up her elemental burst to deal out significant damage. It’s one of the more high tier elemental bursts used by any character in Genshin Impact.
Mona
Element: Hydro
Weapon: Catalyst
Out of the Hydro characters, Mona is the most well designed and interesting to play. She is not incredibly powerful, but she is great at drawing aggro and escaping unscathed. Mona’s dash allows her to travel underground and inflict hydro status, giving her team the chance to inflict elemental damage.
She doesn’t put out as much damage as other characters, and hydro requires communication in order to avoid putting her team at a disadvantage.
Razor
Element: Electro
Weapon: Claymore
The boy raised by wolves and imbued with the power of electricity, Razor feeds on his rage and thrives by staying in the fight. The longer that Razor is on the field and doing damage, the faster he charges his elemental burst, which deals out massive electro damage.
Razor thrives when a team composition is built around him. In co-op where he may be active at all times, this beast of a boy can rip through mobs.
Tartaglia
Element: Hydro
Weapon: Bow
Tartaglia is a hybrid character that, on paper, sounds powerful, but in practice, becomes tedious. Harbinger number 11 utilizes a bow and dagger to fight, forgoing a traditional elemental skill to take on a second weapon. Tartaglia wields a bow as his standard weapon, and out of all of the Hydro characters, he can provide a consistent and long-lasting wet effect through the Riptide status applied to enemies hit with the bow. While he is primarily used to deal damage, having someone like Beido or Diona on your team will boost the damage output and elemental reactions while using the blades.
B-Tier
Chongyun
Element: Cryo
Weapon: Claymore
The next best icy boy of Genshin Impact is the claymore-wielding Chongyun. Chongyun is a decent brawler, especially during co-op with someone else to stack elemental damage. The best part about him, is that when paired up with Barbara, his elemental skill can be used to freeze large enemy groups while also receiving healing.
Chongyun thrives at boosting other characters on his team, allowing for quick cryo spread and boosting elemental reaction damage.
Beido
Element: Electro
Weapon: Claymore
On a lot of other tier lists, you may find Beido near the lower half of the rankings – this is because not everyone knows how to use her. Against Ruin Guards and any other boss that utilizes projectiles. Beido puts herself at risk in order to deal devastating electro damage using her elemental skill which absorbs damage scaled to her health.
A lot of players don’t put in the effort to learn Beido and time her shield right to get the maximum damage out of her. That being said, Beido is always a high risk, high reward character, making the most impact in domains or boss fights.
Klee
Element: Pyro
Weapon: Catalyst
This cute little bundle of explosives has a high but very inconsistent damage output. Klee is good as a beginner pyro character, and can deal large AoE damage with a fairly long cooldown. Her basic attacks are weak and are often used to cause splash damage with her elemental skills, before she is swapped out for a stronger damage dealer.
Noelle
Element: Geo
Weapon: Claymore
If there is a hero in Genshin Impact that screams tank, it is Noelle. Often underestimated for her lack of damage and somewhat basic skill set, Noelle can carry any solo player through most domains when built correctly.
Most defensive heroes struggle in Genshin Impact, mostly because they only have skills that protect themselves. Noelle’s elemental skill allows her to place a shield on herself and the party that will stick through character swaps until it is destroyed or its timer runs out.
Noelle has a high elemental mastery requirement to be useful, but once that is met, she is a must-have for solo runs.
Traveler
Element: Anemo & Geo
Weapon: Sword
The Traveler is the first playable hero and the main protagonist of Genshin Impact. Traveler will eventually have a version for all of the seven elements, but currently, they only have access to two. A majority of the starter heroes are fairly vanilla, not offering much in terms of interesting mechanics.
Xiangling
Element: Pyro
Weapon: Polearm
The only thing stopping Xiangling from being an A-tier or S-tier hero is that her elemental skill is rarely ever useful. Her main attack and elemental burst do insane amounts of pyro damage, covering the area around her in flames that take out most mobs.
Xiangling is incredibly useful in the Spiral Abyss, except for the fact that she requires an Anemo hero to wrangle up enemies.
C-Tier
Xaio
Element: Anemo
Weapon: Polearm
This polearm user has a unique skill set that sacrifices health to deal damage through his elemental burst. Xaio consumes health while using his elemental burst, which turns him into a powerful beast. His DPS output doesn’t make him worth the risk of having low health, however.
Kaeya
Element: Cryo
Weapon: Sword
Kaeya is a basic Cryo DPS hero that will serve you well for the majority of the game. His damage output isn’t anything to write home about, but when built correctly, he can carry a party through most of the domains.
Cryo is an important element to have on your team, and Kaeya is one of the better basic characters that you receive early on.
Lisa
Element: Electro
Weapon: Catalyst
Speaking of starter characters, Lisa is the beginning electro character that can do AoE and group damage while applying elemental status. The big downside of Lisa is that she is vulnerable when charging up her elemental skill, and it doesn’t do a significant amount of damage.
Sucrose
Element: Anemo
Weapon: Catalyst
Sucrose is a simple and mildly useful Anemo hero that uses science to summon spirits. This hero falls short compared to Jean, Venti, and even the Traveler, with abilities that have far fewer control capabilities than the others. Sucrose only has a handful of potential combinations in terms of party setup, but as more constellation sare unlocked, Sucrose becomes more powerful.
Bennet
Element: Pyro
Weapon: Sword
Bennet is a decent pyro damage dealer who is best used to set up other heroes. His initial damage output is lackluster, but swapping for elemental combos is where the hothead thrives.
The saving grace for Bennet is his elemental burst, Fantastic Voyage, which creates an AoE that deals Pyro damage, heals allies who are under 70% health, and boosts the attack of anyone over 70% health.
Ningguang
Element: Geo
Weapon: Catalyst
Niguang is a less effective Noelle mixed with Beido, two characters that struggle to make their utility worth their presence. Ningguang can be fun to play in co-op, using the shield for big boss fights, but in solo play Beido dishes out more damage with her shield, and Noelle can absorb more damage and protect all party members.
D-Tier
Amber
Element: Pyro
Weapon: Bow
This Pyro archer is an unfortunate necessity for a large portion of the game, usually helpful in lighting lanterns to solve puzzles and obtain loot. There isn’t much to say about Amber, as she is useless after you get another pyro character that deals out more damage.
Regardless of their place on this tier list, almost every Genshin Impact character is viable when built correctly and combined with other characters that complements their element. The game focuses on building a complete team of four heroes, each with their own element and skills that combine for devastating reactions.
As more characters come to Genshin Impact, the character tier list will be updated.
