Version 3.2 of Genshin Impact is finally out and Nahida- the Dendro Archon has finally been released- not just from her imprisonment in the Sanctuary of Surasthana but also as a playable 5-star character. A few days after the update we finally have a relatively complete understanding of her kit and builds and our first impressions are in. So read on to find out what she offers and if she lives up to the reputation of playable Archons in the game like Zhongli or Raiden.
Nahida’s Basic Kit Explained
Nahida is a 5-star Dendro catalyst character which is great because Dendro is a reaction-focused element with access to some powerful transformative reactions which need consistent Dendro application and up-time. In that role, she certainly excels and is indeed godly as an Archon should be.
Normals
This little radish has fast normal attacks and even though their damage scaling is average, the quick application and the fact that she’s Dendro means that she can be used as a viable on-field DPS. Since Dendro scales off of EM, having a low attack and using Dendro attacks without reactions is of course a strict no-no. With reactions and high EM stats, however, Nahida can be scary with her fast and powerful Dendro application with her normal and charged attacks.
Her normal and charged attacks have a medium range compared to catalysts like Yanfei or Ningguang. Additionally, her normals have a low-height hitbox which means they can miss flying enemies sometimes. Her charged attack however covers that weakness with a larger hitbox and an AoE effect.
Skill
Her E skill connects opponents with a Dendro Seed of Skandha which triggers Tri-Karma Purification to deal Dendro DMG to all connected opponents once any of them take damage from a Dendro reaction. You can simply use the Press to connect opponents surrounding you in your immediate vicinity or use the aiming mode to quickly scan all the enemies in the field and connect them. Up to 8 opponents can be connected this way. Generally, this effect triggers every 2 seconds.
Her skill has hybrid scaling in the sense it scales from both ATK and EM but of these two EM is more significant to invest on for both damage and support purposes.
Burst
Nahida’s burst covers a huge AoE but it doesn’t do damage. It merely buffs your Skill within that AoE based on the composition of your party members.
- A Pyro teammate will increase the damage of your Skill every time it triggers a Tri-Karma Purification on connected enemies.
- An Electro teammate will reduce the ICD of the skill thus allowing you to trigger more reactions within the same duration.
- A Hydro teammate will increase the duration of your Burst so that your buffs last longer.
Having two of any of the above elements doubles the buff of that element.
Constellations
Nahida’s constellations call for a separate article entirely but in short, her constellations boost her damage to the point where she can be used as a game-breaking DPS. She’s one of the strongest characters at C6 and her C2 already makes her broken.
Her constellations also allow you to build Nahida with more freedom and not just focus on EM even though EM still remains preferred over ATK%. Since all her major constellations like C1, C2, C4 and C6 buff her damage in one way or another, these constellations aren’t necessary if you are just aiming for a support build.
How to Build Nahida in Genshin Impact 3.2
Nahida mainly scales off of EM and that’s all that we need to remember. Even though she has ATK scaling on her kit, it makes for a very minor contribution to her damage and kit.
As for her role in a team, she can be used as both support or DPS. You can play her using only her Skill and Burst and swapping to your other characters to deal damage. You can also use her as a sub-dps or main DPS depending on your team compositions and rotations. The stats that you should focus on are listed below in descending order of their viability:
- Elemental Mastery (EM)
- CRIT
- Dendro DMG
- Attack (ATK)
- Energy Recharge (ER)
Artifacts
Her artifact options are easy because as of now there are only two viable artifact sets for her and if you’ve been farming the new artifact domain added in Sumeru then by now you should be good to go. Her best artifacts are ranked as follows:
| Rank | Rarity | Artifact | Notes |
| 1 | 5-Star | Deepwood Memories | Best overall set. |
| 2 | 5-Star | Gilded Dreams | Can be situationally better than Deepwood set in Quicken Teams. |
| 3 | 4-Star | Instructor | Best 4-star option which can be farmed before AR45. |
Depending on whether you’re using her on-field or off-field, her stat preferences can differ. Triple EM is the safest option for whichever set and playstyle you choose. If you’re using her on-field and want to min-max your stats- using a CRIT helm or Dendro DMG Goblet can be better. Ideally however, you always want at least two artifacts to have the EM main stat.
Weapons
Nahida has a ton of weapon options and this can be the most confusing part about building her because she is just that versatile. Below we’ve ranked her best weapon options as of now.
| Rank | Rarity | Source | Weapon | Playstyle | Notes |
| 1. | 5-Star | Gacha | A Thousand Floating Dreams | Both | Her best-in-slot (BIS) signature weapon. |
| 2. | 5-Star | Gacha | Kagura’s Verity | On-field | Can be situationally better than her BIS in on-field settings. |
| 3. | 4-Star | Standard Gacha | The Widsith | On-field | At R5, it can keep up with the 5-star options but it has lots of downtime. |
| 4. | 4-Star | Battle Pass | Solar Pearl | On-field | More consistent than Widsith but doesn’t reach the highs Widsith can offer. |
| 5. | 5-Star | Standard Gacha | Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds | On-field | Needs long on-field time to shine and you can’t swap. |
| 6. | 4-star | F2P Craftable | Mappa Mare | On-field | Best Craftable option for specifically on-field usage. |
| 7. | 4-Star | Gacha | Wandering Evenstar | Both | Decent option which also buffs teammates a little. |
| 8. | 4-Star | Standard Gacha | Sacrificial Fragments | Off-field | Double E-casting also helps with ER. |
| 9. | 3-Star | F2P | Magic Guide | Off-field | At R5, it’s the best F2P support option- even better than Mappa Mare. |
Teams
Nahida is a very flexible character and she can slot into many teams for playing a variety of roles so this will have to be a separate article entirely. In general, she is a consistent and powerful Dendro applier who can play the role of both support and sub-DPS simultaneously.
Since she prefers Hydro, Pyro and Electro teammates, here are some of her best companions, including some of other elements:
- Nilou
- Kokomi
- Cyno
- Yae Miko
- Keqing
- Thoma
- Ganyu
- Zhongli
- Venti
- Kazuha
Nahida First Impressions
Other than that Nahida is a very strong unit at C0 where she’s already a broken support but also a decent enough DPS if built right. With her constellations, you can safely run DPS Nahida. Since her E skill connects enemies without having to group them, her addition to the cast of Genshin characters also nerfs the position of Anemo in the Dendro meta for its ability to CC and group enemies together.
Her best teams are usually Bloom comps which include Burgeon and Hyperbloom teams because her kit encourages players to use all 4 elements (Dendro, Pyro, Hydro, Electro) for maximum potential. Since we don’t have any good Burgeon or Burning teammates now, there’s a chance Dehya will fill that soon upon her release.
Overall Nahida looks like the Dendro support we needed all along to optimise and maximise the damage of some teams and we just got more than we bargained for. One of the downsides of her kit is that she is too good a Dendro applier so in Quicken teams, without a consistent Electro application, Nahida will quickly remove the Electro aura from enemies.
