Nilou is a five-star Hydro character in Genshin Impact and will make her first appearance in the 3.1 update. Hailing from Sumeru, Nilou works as a dancer for the Zubayr Theater and usually mesmerizes the crowd with her elegant and graceful dance performance on the stage. Aside from being a highly anticipated character, her play style and kit are unique and powerful. This guide will discuss all the information about Nilou in Genshin Impact along with the best artifacts, best weapons and talent materials.
Nilou’s Playstyle and Skillset
In this section of the guide, we will discuss the playstyle and skillset of Nilou in Genshin Impact.
| Name/ Description | Type |
|---|---|
| Performs up to 3 consecutive sword strikes. | Normal Attack |
| Consumes a certain amount of Stamina to perform a twirling slash. | Charged Attack |
| Plunges from mid-air to strike the ground below, damaging opponents along the path and dealing AoE DMG upon impact. | Plunging Attack |
| Dance of Haftkarsvar | Elemental Skill |
| Enters the Pirouette state, dealing Hydro DMG to nearby opponents based on Nilou’s Max HP. While she is in the Pirouette state, Nilou’s Normal Attacks and Elemental Skill will cause her to enter the Sword Dance and Whirling Steps stances respectively, causing DMG she deals to be converted to Hydro DMG that cannot be overridden and that is considered Elemental Skill DMG. In these stances, Nilou’s third dance step will end Pirouette, and has the following effects based on the type of said dance step: Sword Dance: Unleashes a Luminous Illusion that deals Hydro DMG to opponents it touches and grants Nilou the Lunar Prayer effect. This effect converts Nilou’s Normal Attacks into Sword Dance techniques, and her final hit will unleash a Luminous Illusion. Whirling Steps: Nilou unleashes a Whirling Water Wheel that deals AoE Hydro DMG and creates a Tranquility Aura that follows your active character around and applies Wet to opponents within its AoE. Nilou cannot perform Charged Attacks when under the effect of Pirouette or Lunar Prayer. These effects will be removed once she leaves the field. | |
| Dance of Abzendegi: Distant Dreams, Listening Spring | Elemental Burst |
| Begins the dance of faraway dreams and springs that hear, causing a Lotus of Distant Waters to bloom, dealing AoE Hydro DMG based on Nilou’s Max HP and applying the Lingering Aeon effect to all opponents hit. After an interval, opponents affected by Lingering Aeon will take Hydro DMG. |
Talents Leveling Priority
Main DPS Build
Elemental Skill > Elemental Burst > Normal Attacks
Nilou’s Passive Talents
Court of Dancing Petals
When all characters in the party are all Dendro or Hydro, and there are at least one Dendro character and one Hydro character. The completion of the third dance step of Nilou’s Dance of Haftkarsvar will grant all nearby characters the Golden Chalice’s Bounty for the 30s upon its completion.
Characters under the effect of Golden Chalice’s Bounty will increase the Elemental Mastery of all nearby characters by 100 for 10s whenever they are hit by Dendro attacks. Also, triggering the Bloom reaction will create Bountiful Cores instead of Dendro Cores. Such Cores will burst very quickly after being created, and they have larger AoEs.
Bountiful Cores cannot trigger Hyperbloom or Burgeon, and they share an upper numerical limit with Dendro Cores. Bountiful Core DMG has considered DMG dealt by Dendro Cores produced by Bloom. If the party does not meet the conditions for this Passive Talent, any existing Golden Chalice’s Bounty effects will be cancelled.
Dreamy Dance of Aeons
Every 1,000 points of Nilou’s Max HP above 30,000 will cause the DMG dealt by Bountiful Cores created by characters affected by Golden Chalice’s Bounty to increase by 9%. The maximum increase in Bountiful Core DMG that can be achieved this way is 400%.
White Jade Lotus
When Perfect Cooking is achieved on Food with Adventure-related effects, there is a 12% chance to obtain double the product.
Nilou’s Constellations
In this section of the guide, we will discuss about the different constellations of Nilou in Genshin Impact.
| Constellation Level | Constellation Name | Effect(s) |
|---|---|---|
| C1 | Dance of the Waning Moon | Dance of Haftkarsvar will be enhanced as follows: Luminous Illusion DMG is increased by 65%.·The Tranquility Aura’s duration is extended by 6s. |
| C2 | The Starry Skies Their Flowers Rain | After characters affected by the Golden Chalice’s Bounty deal Hydro DMG to an opponent, that opponent’s Hydro RES will be decreased by 35% for 10s. After a triggered Bloom reaction deals DMG to opponents, their Dendro RES will be decreased by 35% for 10s. You need to have unlocked the “Court of Dancing Petals” Talent. |
| C3 | Beguiling Shadowstep | Increases the Level of Dance of Abzendegi: Distant Dreams, Listening Spring by 3. The maximum upgrade level is 15. |
| C4 | Fricative Pulse | After the third dance step of the Dance of Haftkarsvar’s Pirouette hits opponents, Nilou will gain 15 Elemental Energy, and DMG from her Dance of Abzendegi. Distant Dreams, Listening Spring will be increased by 50% for 8s. |
| C5 | Twirling Light | Increases the Level of Dance of Haftkarsvar by 3. The maximum upgrade level is 15. |
| C6 | Frostbreaker’s Melody | For every 1,000 points of Max HP, Nilou’s CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG will increase by 0.6% and 1.2% respectively. The maximum increase in CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG via this method is 30% and 60% respectively. |
Best Artifacts Build for Nilou in Genshin Impact
DPS Build
Nilou has a unique kit which focuses on Bloom reactions with two distinctive playstyles, depending on the situation. She can be played as both DPS and Support in Bloom teams. Her primary source of damage comes from the Bountiful cores, which are simply the enhanced version of Dendro cores. Nilou is very flexible since her Elemental skill has two stances, which allows her abilities to work both on-field and off-field on her and her allies. In this section of the guide, we will discuss about the best artifact build for Nilou in Genshin Impact.
Unlike most other characters, Nilou scales only with HP, which makes her a very easy character to build. Her optimal builds only require HP, EM and ER%. There is no need for Crit or ATK% stats except the DPS stance of the elemental skill which does scale with ATK%.
Nilou can be equipped with a myriad of powerful artifact sets that can boost her damage massively. Ideally, she does not have a Best-in-Slot 4pc artifact set. However, 2pc Tenacity of the Millelith + 2pc Gilded Dreams / 2pc Wanderer’s Trope is considered universally good. Alternatively, for pure DPS Nilou, 2pc Tenacity of the Millelith + 2pc Heart of Depth is also a great choice.
Heart of Depth
Set Bonuses
- 2-Piece Bonus: Hydro DMG Bonus +15%
- 4-Piece Bonus: After using an Elemental Skill, increases Normal Attack and Charged Attack DMG by 30% for 15s.
Gilded Dreams
Set Bonuses
- 2-Piece Bonus: Elemental Mastery +80
- 4-Piece Bonus: Within 8s of triggering an Elemental Reaction, the character equipping it will obtain buffs based on the Elemental Type of the other party members. ATK is increased by 14% for each party member whose Elemental Type is the same as the equipping character. Elemental Mastery is increased by 50 for every party member with a different Elemental Type. Each of the aforementioned buffs will count up to 3 characters. This effect can be triggered once every 8s. The character who equips this can still trigger its effects
Tenacity of the Millelith
Set Bonuses
- 2-Piece Bonus: HP +20%
- 4-Piece Bonus: When an Elemental Skill hits an opponent, the ATK of all nearby party members is increased by 20% and their Shield Strength is increased by 30% for 3s. This effect can be triggered once every 0.5s. This effect can still be triggered even when the character, who is using this artifact set is not on the field.
Hybrid Artifact Sets
For Nilou, hybrid artifact sets of 2pc are much better than any other 4pc set, since no other artifact set can perfectly complement Nilou’s abilities. Moreover, they are much easier to farm and usually have better substats than that 4pc sets. Nilou has many options to choose from when it comes to artifact. She has to decide whether the main one is 2pc Tenacity of the Millelith + 2pc Gilded Dreams / 2pc Wanderer’s Trope. Players can also make other variations with 2pc ToM, like 2pc Totm + 2pc NO, 2pc GD + 2pc HoD and even 2pc ToM + 2pc EOSF, if you need more ER%.
Artifact Stats Priority: DPS
In order to bring the damage potential to the maximum for any character, min-maxing will always have the utmost importance. Nilou mainly uses her Elemental Skill to generate Hydro aura and make Bountiful cores as much as possible in standard rotations. Since she scales with HP%, her builds are quite easy to make. Aside from the general stats, you should aim to clear the ER% threshold first, because, in optimal rotations, her burst is quite important. Once ER% is not an issue, then focus on boosting HP and EM as required.
- Desired Substats: HP% = EM = ER% > CR / CD / ATK%
| Artifact Type | Main Stat | Sub Stat Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Flower | HP | HP% = EM = ER% > CR / CD / ATK% |
| Plume | ATK | HP% = EM = ER% > CR / CD / ATK% |
| Sands | HP% / ER% / EM | HP% = EM = ER% > CR / CD / ATK% |
| Goblet | HP% | HP% = EM = ER% > CR / CD / ATK% |
| Circlet | HP% | HP% = EM = ER% > CR / CD / ATK% |
ER% requirement for Nilou
Nilou’s main source of damage comes from her Bountiful cores, which are generated by both her Elemental Skill and Burst, which makes her Burst very important for most rotations.
Since Nilou can work on both on-field and off-field, you can get away with bursting in every rotation or using the burst in every second rotation. For the latter, Nilou will require at least 180 ER%, since most characters in this rotation will likely quick-swap with less time for energy generation. Nilou’s Best in slot weapons won’t have Energy Recharge as a sub-stat. Therefore, all the ER% has to be acquired from artifacts substats, therefore, players need to farm and level up artifacts accordingly.
Best Weapons for Nilou
Key of Khaj-Nisut is the signature weapon for Nilou and is one of the best weapons for her due to the weapon’s powerful passive that is tailor-made for her. The signature weapon outclasses every other weapon in the game. Therefore, if players want to make the most out of Nilou, they should probably get the weapon.
Due to Nilou’s unique scaling, most of the damage-oriented weapons won’t work on her, instead, the support weapons will provide much more utility. Other 5-star viable options include the Primordial Jade Cutter or the Skyward Blade. These are only good for pure DPS Nilou. In this guide, we will discuss the best weapons for Nilou in Genshin Impact.
Among the four-star weapons, Sacrificial Sword, Festering Desire, Favonius Sword and the limited weapon Xiphos’ Moonlight are great choices as well. Nilou has a highly complex kit, due to which ranking weapons on the power level are quite difficult. Aside from her signature weapon, 4-star high refinement support weapons should be better than other 5-star weapons in most cases.
Key of Khaj-Nisut
- Base ATK– 542 (Level – 90)
- Substat– 66.2% HP
- Weapon Passive: Sunken Song of the Sands
HP increased by 20%. When an Elemental Skill hits opponents, you gain the Grand Hymn effect for 20s. This effect increases the equipping character’s Elemental Mastery by 0.12% of their Max HP. This effect can trigger once every 0.3s. Max 3 stacks. When this effect gains 3 stacks, or when the third stack’s duration is refreshed, the Elemental Mastery of all nearby party members will be increased by 0.2% of the equipping
Primordial Jade Cutter
- Base ATK– 542 (Level – 90)
- Substat– 44.1 Crit Rate
- Weapon Passive: Protector’s Virtue
HP increased by 20%. Additionally, it provides an ATK Bonus based on 1.2% of the wielder’s Max HP.
Sacrificial Sword
- Base ATK– 454 (Level – 90)
- Substat- 61.3% ER
- Weapon Passive: Composed
After dealing damage to an opponent with an Elemental Skill, the skill has a 40% chance to end its own CD. It can only occur once every 30s.
Festering Desire
- Base ATK- 510 (Level – 90)
- Substat- 45.9% ER
Xiphos’ Moonlight
- Base ATK– 510 (Level – 90)
- Substat– 165 EM
- Weapon Passive: Jinni’s Whisper
The following effect will trigger every 10s. The equipping character will gain 0.036% Energy Recharge for each point of Elemental Mastery they possess for 12s, with nearby party members gaining 30% of this buff for the same duration. Multiple instances of this weapon can allow this buff to stack. This effect will still trigger even if the character is not on the field.
Materials Requirement for Ascension for Nilou
In this guide, here are the materials required for Nilou’s levelling and ascension all the way to max level 90.
| Ascension Level | Ascension Materials |
|---|---|
| Level: 0-20 | 1x Varunada Lazurite Sliver, 3x Fungal Spores, 3x Padisarah, 20k Mora |
| Level: 20-40 | 3x Varunada Lazurite Fragment, 2x Perpetual Caliber, 15x Fungal Spores, 10x Padisarah, 40k Mora |
| Level: 40-50 | 6x Varunada Lazurite Fragment, 4x Perpetual Caliber, 12x Luminescent Pollen, 20x Padisarah, 60k Mora |
| Level: 50-60 | 3x Varunada Lazurite Chunk, 8x Perpetual Caliber, 18x Luminescent Pollen, 30x Padisarah, 80k Mora |
| Level: 60-70 | 6x Varunada Lazurite Chunk, 12x Perpetual Caliber, 12x Crystalline Cyst Dust, 45x Padisarah, 100k Mora |
| Level: 70-80+ | 6x Varunada Lazurite Gemstone, 20x Perpetual Caliber, 24x Crystalline Cyst Dust, 60x Padisarah, 120k Mora |
Talent Upgrade Materials for levelling up
In this Genshin Impact guide, here are the materials required for Nilou for levelling up skill talents.
| Level Target | Materials Required |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | – |
| Level 2 | 3x Teachings of Praxis, 6x Fungal Spores, x12500 Mora |
| Level 3 | 2x Guide to Praxis, 3x Luminescent Pollen, x17500 Mora |
| Level 4 | 4x Guide to Praxis, 4x Luminescent Pollen, x25000 Mora |
| Level 5 | 6x Guide to Praxis, 6x Luminescent Pollen, x30000 Mora |
| Level 6 | 9x Guide to Praxis, 9x Luminescent Pollen, x37500 Mora |
| Level 7 | 4x Philosophies of Praxis, 4x Crystalline Cyst Dust, 1x Tears of the Calamitous God, x120000 Mora |
| Level 8 | 6x Philosophies of Praxis, 6x Crystalline Cyst Dust, 1x Tears of the Calamitous God, x260000 Mora |
| Level 9 | 12x Philosophies of Praxis, 9x Crystalline Cyst Dust, 2x Tears of the Calamitous God, x450000 Mora |
| Level 10 | 16x Philosophies of Praxis, 12x Crystalline Cyst Dust, 2x Tears of the Calamitous God, 1x Crown of Insight, x700000 Mora |
Special Dish
- Name: Swirling Steps
In-game Description: Nilou’s speciality. The crystal-clear cup that reminds one of an ornate jewel case contains a soft, melt-in-your-mouth pudding. The reddish colouration, like a fleeting trance, reminds ever so much of Nilou’s radiant, dancing form. Everyone hopes this dance might last forever.
- Food Effect: It decreases all party members’ climbing and sprinting Stamina consumption by 25% for the 1500s. In Co-Op Mode, this effect only applies to your own character(s).
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