Genshin Impact’s Xiao is a five-star anemo polearm wielder, adeptus, and sole surviving member of Morax’s five Yakshas. Plagued with karmic debt, our vigilant yaksha is quite a loner these days. In this comprehensive Xiao build guide, we teach you how to make the most of him on the battlefield, showcasing his kit, best weapons and artifacts, top team comps and synergies, and more.
If you’re looking for more content like this, take a look at our Genshin Impact Kokomi, Genshin Impact Raiden, and Genshin Impact Albedo build guides. We’ve also created a Genshin Impact tier list so you can see where all your favourite characters rank, and a Genshin Impact codes list so you can get your hands on some extra primogems.
Here’s everything in our Genshin Impact Xiao build:
What’s the best Xiao build?
Xiao is a five-star anemo polearm wielder. He’s a powerful DPS with a unique kit that offers great mobility and an impressive damage ceiling. His long burst time makes him a pretty greedy character who requires a dedicated team of supports to truly shine. Luckily, most of his best teammates don’t require a high level of investment, though.
Here’s a brief overview of our best Genshin Impact Xiao build:
| Rarity | ★★★★★ |
| Element | Anemo |
| Weapon | Polearm |
| Best weapon | Primordial Jade Winged-Spear |
| Weapon substitutes |
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| Best artifact set | Vermillion Hereafter |
| Artifact substitutes |
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| Main stats |
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| Sub stats |
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In terms of equipment, we recommend equipping him with the five-star weapon Primordial Jade Winged-Spear, along with a full set of Vermillion Hereafter artifacts. He requires quite a bit of energy recharge, along with plenty of crit rate/damage and attack%. For more info on his best stats and alternative weapons and artifacts, check the dedicated sections below.
When leveling up Xiao’s talents, your priority changes depending on how many constellations you have him at. For C0 – C5, you should prioritize his normal attack first, followed by his elemental burst, then his elemental skill.
If you’re lucky enough to have Xiao at C6, you should level up his elemental skill and normal attack equally, then level up his elemental burst after.
How to use Xiao
Xiao’s kit is very unique, offering a lot of mobility and fluidity in battle. In combat, you can use his elemental skill to either blitz through enemies or reposition yourself, regardless of whether you’re in the middle of a burst, in the air, or on the ground. It takes a bit of practice, but once you get into the rhythm he’s very fun to use.
Xiao’s burst lasts for a pretty long time, and it cancels if he leaves the field or dies. It also happens to be where his damage hits its highest peaks. Unfortunately, Xiao’s a pretty squishy guy, too, and his HP drains during his burst. Therefore, you should always be mindful of when you activate it, and ensure you set up all the off-field elemental application, buffs, shields, and heals you need before letting rip.
Also keep in mind that Xiao’s burst doesn’t snapshot. Therefore, if you’re using a support with a buffing and healing field like Bennett, you should aim to keep Xiao inside said field throughout his burst. To make this easier, you can use another support with grouping capabilities, such as Kazuha, Sucrose, or even Faruzan to an extent, in order to pull all of your enemies together.
What’s the best weapon for Xiao?
Xiao’s best weapon is the Primordial Jade Winged-Spear. Its high base attack, easy-to-proc passive, and crit rate boost are all extremely helpful, and you can even get it on the standard banner if you’re lucky.
Next up is Staff of Homa, which is generally the best all-rounder polearm in the game due to its high base attack and crit damage. However, we strongly advise against forming your team around the idea of keeping Xiao at low HP in order to trigger its passive – in most situations it’s simply not worth it, especially as Xiao’s best teams rely on Genshin Impact Bennett‘s hefty attack buff. Staff of Homa is also a highly contested weapon, and may be better used on other characters – especially if you’ve got Genshin Impact’s Hu Tao.
If you’re looking for other five-star polearms, we’ve not included them in the table below for the sake of brevity, but Vortex Vanquisher and Calamity Queller are decent back-up options if you don’t have PJWS or SoH. Though their skills aren’t quite as useful, they both act as strong stat sticks – but they may require you to switch around your artifacts to ensure he has enough crit. Other five-star polearms are generally sub-optimal and likely better
