Yaoyao has an interesting history in the Genshin community. She was one of the first characters teased in the game since its start in September 2020. Though she was only teased in one of the official artworks on the Chinese Server, players all over the world soon got to know about it. We’ve known for a long time that she was a Liyue character as she featured alongside the likes of Qiqi and Xiangling.
She’s been teased multiple times after that in online web events and other official artworks. Initially, we all thought she was going to be a Pyro character due to her relationship with Xiangling as her junior in training under the same master. After Sumeru’s release, she was finally leaked to be a 4-star Dendro character. We finally have her leaked kit so read on to find out what she’s capable of!
Yaoyao’s Talents in Genshin Impact 3.4
Yaoyao is already officially revealed to be a healer and a Dendro support. The only thing she shares with her senior- Xiangling, is that they both use polearms for their combat. She uses a bunny-like device to throw small AoE Dendro bombs and also heal your active character. Below, we’ve listed her skills and talents in detail.
Normal Attack: Toss ‘N’ Turn Spear
Normal Attack: Performs up to 4 consecutive spear strikes.
Charged Attack: Consumes a certain amount of Stamina to lunge forward, dealing damage to opponents along the way.
Plunging Attack: Plunges from mid-air to strike the ground below, damaging opponents along the path and dealing AoE DMG upon impact.
E. Raphanus Sky Cluster
Calls upon “Yuegui: Throwing Mode”, a special device created by a certain adeptus to help Yaoyao solve her problems. This skill will be used differently in Holding Mode.
Hold: Enters Aiming Mode to adjust the throw direction.
Yuegui: Throwing Mode
Throws out White Jade Radishes that will explode upon hitting characters or opponents, dealing Dendro DMG to opponents within a certain AoE, and healing characters within that same AoE based on Yaoyao’s Max HP. If a radish does not hit either an opponent or a character, the radish will remain where it is and explode on contact with a character or opponent or will explode after its duration expires.
Yuegui: Throwing Mode will choose its radish-throw targets as follows:
- If all nearby characters have more than 70% HP remaining, then it will throw the radish at a nearby opponent.
- If nearby characters have 70% or less HP remaining, it will throw a radish at the character with the lowest HP percentage remaining.
If no opponents exist nearby, Yuegui will throw White Jade Radishes at characters even if they all have more than 70% HP remaining. A maximum of 2 instances of Yuegui: Throwing Mode can exist at any one time.
“A radish a day keeps trouble away! … Oh, this isn’t about a radish’s medical properties, exactly, but it does have some health benefits, yeah!”
Q. Moonjade Descent
At the enjoinment of a certain adeptus, Yuegui’s full potential can be unleashed in an emergency, dealing Dendro DMG to nearby opponents and entering an (in some sense) unsurpassed Adeptal Legacy state.
Adeptal Legacy
- White Jade Radishes generated will be changed to heal and deal DMG according to this skill. Explosions will heal all nearby party members, and the Dendro DMG that they deal will be viewed as Elemental Burst DMG instead.
- Summons “Yuegui: Jumping Mode” at intervals until their limit has been reached. The behaviour of this version of Yuegui is the same as that of “Yuegui: Throwing Mode” in the Elemental Skill: Raphanus Sky Cluster. A maximum of 3 “Yuegui: Jumping Mode” can exist at any one time.
- Yaoyao’s Movement SPD is increased by 15%.
- Yaoyao’s Dendro RES will be increased.
The Adeptal Legacy state will end once Yaoyao is off-field, and all remaining Yuegui: Jumping Mode will be cleared once this state ends.
“Eh? Which one of these is actually Yuegui, you ask? Arent they all Yuegui?”
Passive Talents
To no one’s surprise, Yaoyao’s passives focus on making Yuegui more useful. Her first ascension passive lets her throw her White Jade Radishes as she sprints, jumps or runs during the duration of her elemental burst. Her second ascension passive increases the healing abilities of her kit overall. If you want to use her as your healer, you then better level her up for that A4 passive.
As for her overworld passive, she’s looking like the only other character in the game other than Sayu who won’t startle Crystalflies. Those who have missed out on Sayu can thus instead get her- even for free since she’ll be a reward during the Lantern Rite festival in Version 3.4. With her in the party, farming for Crystal Cores will be much easier.
Starscatter
While affected by the Adeptal Legacy state caused by Moonjade Descent, Yaoyao will constantly throw White Jade Radishes at nearby opponents when she is sprinting, jumping, or running. She can throw White Jade Radish this way once every 0.6s.
In Others’ Shoes
When White Jade Radishes explode, active characters within their AoE will regain HP every 1s based on 0.8% of Yaoyao’s Max HP. This effect lasts 5s.
Tailing on Tiptoes
When Yaoyao is in the party, your characters will not startle Crystalflies and certain other animals when getting near them. Check the “Other” sub-category of the “Living Beings / Wildlife” section in the Archive for creatures this skill works on.
Overall Thoughts
Yaoyao would be a great addition to the Dendro roster as Bloom and Burgeon teams would benefit greatly with more survivability. Especially if these teams aren’t using a shielder like Zhongli, they only have Hydro healers like Kokomi and Barbara to rely on- which is too limiting.
Nilou teams for example desperately need a healer since her Bountiful Cores are so damaging to your own party members. As of now, Kokomi is the only reliable option to use with Nilou since she’s the best healer in the game and has a great Hydro application range with her Jellyfish. Provided Yaoyao is a good enough healer, she can instead swap in for the Dendro Traveler and provide the necessary healing to the party.
This would open up a lot more party composition options for Nilou. She can now reliably be used with Childe (Tartaglia), Ayato and Yelan- all of whom are better DPS units than Kokomi. The same goes for Burgeon teams involving Thoma. Since he will be built with triple EM, his shield will be almost useless. Yaoyao can provide enough healing to increase the survivability of this team.
We still don’t know her damage numbers, Dendro application and ICDs in practice so we’ll still have to wait for her release to determine her true worth. As hopeful as we are that she will synergise with Alhaitham, there’s also a chance she will be an underwhelming unit like Genshin’s recent string of 4-stars. But just like Kuki Shinobu, her kit may be meant to synergise with a future unit like Dehya who’s rumoured to be a Pyro Burgeon DPS.