Best Xinyan Genshin Impact build: Artifacts, weapons, more

Xinyan’s Pyro prowess unites rock-solid DPS with blazing support, forging a flame-wrapped tempo that turns every fight into a concert.

General information

Xinyan is a 4-star Pyro character in Genshin Impact who wields a claymore and specializes in dealing both physical and Pyro damage. As Liyue’s rock ‘n’ roll musician, her abilities blend fiery attacks with defensive utility, making her suitable for hybrid or physical support builds. Her shield from Sweeping Fervor scales with defense while her Pyro infusion and burst skill allow her to deal consistent area damage. When equipped with gear that boosts physical damage and critical stats, Xinyan can serve as a reliable off-field support or secondary damage dealer.

Xinyan is a four-star character who fights using Claymore. She is the ideal support for players whose party is focused on inflicting physical damage. Mainly because on C4, Xinyan lowers Physical RES by 15% for 12 seconds, and her passive talent “…Now That’s Rock’N’Roll!” makes Elememtal Skill deal 15% of the increased Physical DMG.

Best compositions

Xinyan shines as a Pyro anchor who can reliably boost physical damage outputs through well-placed buffs and supportive team rotations. Build her with strong energy management and consistent uptime on buffs, prioritizing weapons and artifacts that enhance ATK, CRIT, and Pyro DMG, while keeping a steady shield-sustain or off-field support to maximize uptime for your main DPS. Her reactions and survivability enable durable frontline pressure, letting your carries trigger decisive moments in prolonged battles.

Support – Eula (Physical build)/Xinyan/Raiden/Bennet
Support – Razor (Physical build)/Xinyan/Bennet/Diona

Support Build

Xinyan can act as a strong Physical damage support by providing shields and boosting Physical DPS characters. Using her skill Sweeping Fervor generates a shield that scales with her Defense and releases a Pyro AoE attack, allowing for reaction setups. Equipping weapons like Sacrificial Greatsword or Favonius Greatsword helps maintain her ability uptime, while artifact sets such as Noblesse Oblige or a mixed Emblem of Severed Fate setup improve her burst support potential. Focus on stats like DEF%, Energy Recharge, and Crit Rate to balance her shielding and damage utility.

Xinyan’s job is to grant characters Shields to protect them from damage, and increase their physical damage (which is why Razor and Eula would be ideal candidates for a DPS).

Artifacts – 2x Bloodstained Chivalry and 2x Noblesse Oblige/2x Bloodstained Chivalry and 2x Pale Flame
Weapons – Skyward Pride/Sacrificial Greatsword/The Unforged

The two proposals for artifacts are very similar to each other. Elemental Burst deals physical damage, so the combination of 2x Bloodstained Chivalry and 2x Pale Flame is very useful. Both sets increase physical damage by 25%. 2x Bloodstained Chivalry and 2x Noblesse Oblige boosts physical damage by 25% and Elemental Burst DMG by 20%. It is also worth focusing on having the total amount of Energy Recharge at 150%.

Weapons for Xinyan should not focus on ATK, CRIT Rate or CRIT DMG converters, but mainly on Energy Recharge so you can use Elemental Skill and Burst more often. Therefore, one of the better weapons for Xinyan will be Skyward Pride. This is a five-star weapon that outside the ATK, also increases the much needed Energy Recharge. The weapon’s ability increases each type of DMG by 8%. In addition, after using Elemental Burst, the weapon creates air attacks (activated during Normal and Charged Attacks), which inflict increased physical damage (maximum 8 air attacks).

Sacrificial Greatsword is a four-star weapon that’s easier to obtain. It also strengthens ATK and Energy Recharge. Moreover, the weapon’s ability gives 40% chance that after dealing Elemental Skill damage, the skill’s recovery time will be reduced to 0 and you’ll be able to use this skill again.

The Unforged is another five-star weapon. However, instead of Energy Recharge, it offers an increased ATK%. However, the ability is very strong, as it increases the strength of the received shields by 20%, and attacking opponents increases ATK by 4% (max 5 stacks).

Talents

Xinyan’s attacks focus on inflicting Pyro damage while boosting physical output through her unique kit. Her Normal and Charged Attacks scale well for physical builds, while her Elemental Skill, Sweeping Fervor, generates a shield that also triggers Pyro damage around her. The strength of this shield depends on the number of enemies hit, making positioning important. Her Elemental Burst, Riff Revolution, delivers a powerful AoE Pyro strike and provides consistent physical damage, reinforcing her role as a hybrid support and damage dealer.

Talents are abilities that each character in the game uses. As for Xinyan, you should invest evenly in Elemental Skill and Burst, and ignore Normal Attacks.

Constellations

Xinyan’s constellations focus on amplifying her Physical and Pyro hybrid playstyle. Early constellations improve shield strength and guitar-swing damage, letting her provide sturdier protection in intense fights. Later ones enhance her burst attacks and Physical damage scaling, turning her into a more reliable off-field support or sub-DPS. Reaching higher constellations gives her smoother skill rotations and stronger damage consistency across her kit.

Best weapons for Xinyan at R1 and R5

Xinyan’s strongest options differ a bit between R1 and R5, but Serpent Spine, Redhorn Stonethresher, and good craftables like Prototype Archaic / Snow-Tombed Starsilver are consistently among her best-in-slot choices.

General 5★ options (R1 only)

Redhorn Stonethresher (R1): Top choice for both physical and Pyro Xinyan; huge CRIT DMG and DEF-scaling passive that also strengthens her shield.
Song of Broken Pines / Wolf’s Gravestone / Skyward Pride (R1): All perform very well on a main DPS or burst-focused Xinyan, mainly through high base ATK and strong passives.

Battle Pass & gacha 4★

Serpent Spine (R1): Already extremely strong on Xinyan at base refinement thanks to high CRIT Rate and a stacking damage passive she can maintain safely with her own shield.
Serpent Spine (R5): One of her absolute best weapons if you can keep max stacks; competitive with or even above many 5★ options for physical/Pyro DPS Xinyan.
Blackcliff Slasher (R1 → R5): Solid stat stick; gets significantly better at R5 if you can reliably pick up stacks, but inconsistent in short fights.

Craftable / F2P options

Prototype Archaic (R1 → R5): Very reliable F2P choice; refinement directly scales the burst-proc damage, so R5 is noticeably stronger but R1 is still good as a generalist claymore.
Snow-Tombed Starsilver (R1 → R5): Slightly ahead of Prototype Archaic for physical DPS in many tests, especially at higher refinements, thanks to its Physical DMG substat and icicle passive.
Luxurious Sea-Lord (R5): Event weapon that becomes a strong burst-support option when fully refined; at R1 it is mostly niche and tends to be outperformed by good craftables.

When to prefer R1 vs R5

If you own one high-end 5★ (e.g., Redhorn), use that at R1; its raw stats usually beat most refined 4★ claymores on Xinyan.
Among 4★ options, R5 Serpent Spine, R5 Snow-Tombed Starsilver, or R5 Prototype Archaic are excellent endgame picks, while their R1 versions are still strong placeholders until you can refine further.

Which weapon is best for Physical Xinyan at R1 vs R5

For physical Xinyan, the best weapon at R1 is a strong 5★ like Redhorn Stonethresher, while at R5 the standout 4★ is Serpent Spine if you can safely maintain full stacks.

Best R1 physical weapon

Redhorn Stonethresher R1
- Considered Xinyan’s physical BiS thanks to high CRIT DMG, very strong passive, and DEF scaling that also improves her shield, making it strong and consistent without stack management.
Other solid R1 5★ options (slightly behind Redhorn): Skyward Pride, Wolf’s Gravestone, and The Unforged when shielded, which all perform well as generic physical claymores but lack the perfect synergy Redhorn has.

Best R5 physical weapon

Serpent Spine R5 (5 stacks)
- At full stacks, Serpent Spine reaches or even surpasses Redhorn-level performance for physical Xinyan in many calculations, especially in optimized rotations.
- Xinyan’s own shield helps maintain stacks, but the extra damage taken from the passive makes good shielding and dodging important.
Among other R5 4★ options, Lithic Blade R5 (in Liyue-heavy teams), Blackcliff Slasher R5 (with stacks), and Snow-Tombed Starsilver R5 are strong, but they generally sit a tier below R5 Serpent Spine for pure physical DPS.

If you own Redhorn, use it at R1 as your best general choice; if you do not, aim for Serpent Spine R5 as your long-term physical DPS weapon, with Snow-Tombed Starsilver / Prototype Archaic as good F2P placeholders while you build refinements.