Genshin Impact – Beidou Guide & Review

This post is up to date with Version 3.4 Phase 1

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Beidou is a 4-Star Electro Claymore character from Liyue. In addition to the gacha, she can be obtained with Masterless Starglitter in “Paimon’s Bargains” during the months of February and August. Primarily, Beidou serves as an Off Field DPS for her team.

Base Kit

Beidou is the first ever playable character in Genshin Impact with a parry mechanic. When she  uses her Elemental Skill, Tidecaller, she performs an Electro spin attack with her Claymore. While this Talent can be used at any given time, its full power materializes when you hold the Skill button. Doing so will have Beidou form a temporary shield around her to absorb incoming attacks. Once she absorbs one or two hits, release the Skill button and the spin attack will deal increased DMG. The increase is naturally higher if Beidou absorbs two hits as opposed to just one. With Beidou’s A4 passive, a maximized counter also yields her increased Normal and Charged Attack DMG and SPD, though this is essentially irrelevant for Beidou’s off field playstyle. If you’re very good with the timing, Beidou’s A1 passive allows her to alternatively release a maximized counter if the Skill button is pressed right as she is about to get hit. At Lv. 6, Tidecaller has a base multiplier of 170.24%. Absorbing one hit will add 224% and absorbing two doubles this increase. If Beidou absorbs two hits, her Skill multiplier totals to an impressive 618%, making Tidecaller one of the hardest hitting Elemental Skills in the game when done right.

Counterattacking with Beidou is undeniably the flashiest of her Talents and it is most certainly a lot of fun to pull off. It can however be at odds with Genshin’s combat loop. Thing is, Beidou can only perform a maxed counter if the enemy is willing to cooperate. While enemies in Genshin typically telegraph their attacks, they also tend to just do their own thing and rarely can they be manipulated into performing certain actions for you. Sometimes, enemies will just stand around and waste your time as you wait to hit back at them. Be it poor timing on your part or Beidou not getting attacked enough, a subpar parry will naturally lead to a DPS loss. This can be tolerated in the open world but for timed challenges such as the Spiral Abyss, you cannot afford to waste seconds to anticipate enemy behavior to parry and you have to be good at perfectly timing your counters to make them worthwhile. Beidou’s parry mechanic can be satisfying but it has an odd place in Genshin’s meta as the game’s combat simply does not encourage waiting around to efficiently kill things. Evidently, miHoYo may have realized this as well as later characters with a parry mechanic such as Yun Jin and Candace have a far more generous requirement for their perfect counter.

Despite the flashiness of her Elemental Skill, the real reason you’d use Beidou is actually her Elemental Burst, Stormbreaker. Upon activation, Beidou will create a Thunderbeast’s Targe around herself. While this aura is active, it will deal Electro DMG in coordination with your active character’s Normal and Charged Attacks. In addition to that, the aura also grants your active character a DMG Reduction and increased resistance to interruption. The coordinated attack is especially noteworthy for its ability to “jump” onto other enemies near your target, about 2 times for a C0 Beidou. In other words, if you strike one opponent and there are two nearby, all of them will get struck by Beidou’s Burst. Because of this, Beidou makes for a good Electro Off Field DPS in group encounters as well as a good contributor to Electro-related Reactions.

As a trade off, Stormbreaker has a high Energy cost of 80, making Energy a huge issue for Beidou. Adding onto that is the impracticality of Beidou’s particle generation. Tidecaller with 2 absorbed hits under its belt generates 4 Electro particles if it hits an enemy. While actually not a bad amount, this gain only procs if you get the full counter. Any other tier and Tidecaller only generates 2 Electro particles so the Skill can make for an inconsistent source of Energy. While it is recommended to give Beidou Energy Recharge for her Burst, the impracticality of her particle generation more or less necessitates the need for a battery support.

Constellations

• C1 – Gives you an Electro-based shield when Beidou casts her Elemental Burst. It’s a nice bonus but I wouldn’t rely too much on it as it absorbs off of Beidou’s Max HP and very poorly at that, a measly 16% in fact. The only other thing that scales on HP is the temporary shield Beidou puts on when using her Skill so it is not a stat you’ll be actively stacking on her. 
• C2 – Adds 2 jumps to her Elemental Burst’s coordinated attack, thus increasing the maximum number of targets to 5. It is an invaluable spike to Beidou’s DPS potential. 
• C3 – Adds three Levels to Beidou’s Elemental Skill
• C4 – Allows Beidou to deal an extra Electro attack alongside her Normal Attacks within 10 seconds of taking DMG. Note that she doesn’t actually need to lose HP, she just needs to get hit so parrying will trigger this Constellation. On the off chance that you do use Beidou on field, this Constellation might be worth having. Obviously, an Electro Infusion would be better but there currently does not exist a character who can provide Beidou with one so this is the closest thing she has for now. You can also use this in conjunction with Candace’s Hydro infusion or C6 Bennett’s Pyro infusion for Electro-Charged or Overloaded respectively.
• C5 – Adds three Levels to Beidou’s Elemental Burst
• C6 – Adds a 15% Electro RES debuff to her Burst. This effect lasts throughout the Burst’s entire 15 second duration and enemies only need to be near your active character in order to get afflicted with it. It is essentially a permanent DPS boost.

As always, 4-Star Constellations are a complete gamble so pull at your own discretion. Bear in mind also that Beidou’s Constellations can be obtained over time via Paimon’s Bargains. Besides C0 and C6, a solid stopping point for Beidou is C2.

Weapons

The following list of weapons is largely organized by descending rarity and alphabetical order. Stats provided in the parentheses are assuming the respective weapon is at Lv. 90.

• Skyward Pride (5-Star | 674 ATK | 36.8% Energy Recharge) – One of Genshin Impact’s standard 5-star weapons. The Skyward Pride is a solid stat stick for Beidou, providing her high base ATK, a good amount of Energy Recharge, and a universal DMG Bonus. Beidou can’t make practical use of the weapon’s vacuum blade but that won’t matter much considering it deals Physical DMG.
• Wolf’s Gravestone (5-Star | 608 ATK | 49.6% ATK) – Genshin’s other standard 5-Star Claymore. In addition to having ATK% as the second stat, the stat is provided by the weapon’s passive. If the wielder lands a hit on an enemy with less than 30% HP, the entire team’s Base ATK will be buffed for 12 seconds. Note that the buff itself has a 30 second cooldown. The Wolf’s Gravestone is a solid choice for Beidou. Also, it looks really hot on her.
• Akuoumaru (4-Star | 510 ATK | 41.3% ATK) – Limited 4-Star weapon. This can be equipped to augment Beidou’s Elemental Burst DMG but the DMG Bonus is dependent on the combined Energy costs of your team. Beidou does contribute a good amount here but she’ll still need teammates with high Energy costs to compliment the passive.
• Lithic Blade (4-Star | 510 ATK | 41.3% ATK) – Limited 4-Star weapon. This increases Beidou’s ATK And CRIT Rate but only for every character on your team that is from Liyue. It can be strong but obviously, it also limits your team comp options. 
• Luxurious Sea-Lord (4-Star | 454 ATK | 55.1% ATK) – Version 2.1’s Event Weapon. The passive increases Elemental Burst DMG. If the wielder’s Burst lands a hit, the Luxurious Sea-Lord will deal a tuna-themed shockwave. Not only does it work well with Beidou’s Burst, it also looks really funny on her (and every other Claymore user, really). 
• Prototype Archaic (4-Star | 565 ATK | 27.6% ATK) – Craftable. In Beidou’s case, this is exclusively a stat stick. The passive is irrelevant for her and it’s better suited by other Claymore users so only give this weapon to her if you have nothing else.
• Serpent Spine (4-Star | 510 ATK | 27.6% CRIT Rate) – Requires the purchase of the Battle Pass. The passive increases DMG up to 5 times over a period of time. One stack is lost when the wielder takes a hit; otherwise, the stacks last indefinitely. Due to how strong the passive gets at higher refinements, Serpent Spine is a popular option for a lot of Claymore users, including Beidou. Provided that Beidou has enough field time, keeping the stacks at max shouldn’t be too difficult with her staying off field. And if she is about to lose a stack, she can prevent this by countering with her Elemental Skill. 

Artifacts

Set(s):

• Emblem of Severed Fate (4) – Energy Recharge set; provides Elemental Burst DMG Bonus in proportion to 25% of the former stat. Since much of Beidou’s DPS is concentrated in her Burst, this set is perfect for her. A lot of other characters in Genshin want Emblem of Severed Fate and this set is farmable alongside Shimenawa’s Reminiscence (another useful set) so any Genshin player ought to farm this set in general.

Stats:

• Sands: ATK% of Energy Recharge
• Goblet: Electro DMG Bonus
• Circlet: CRIT Rate or CRIT DMG
• Sub-Stats: ATK%, CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, Elemental Mastery, Energy Recharge

If you’re running Beidou as your sole Electro unit for whatever reason, she’ll want both her Sands and her weapon to provide Energy Recharge. If Beidou has a battery support on her team, you just need one of the items equipped on her.

Synergy

Beidou excels in Aggravate, Electro-Charged, and Overloaded comps. Aggravate is the de facto Elemental Reaction for Electro DPS though bear in mind that Dendro is still a fairly new Element and its roster is therefore small compared to other Elements. In the case of Overloaded, Beidou works fine with the reaction’s knockback effect as her Elemental Burst coordinates with Normal and Charged Attacks. Its range is only hindered by that of her driver. You can use Beidou for Superconduct to support a Physical DPS. However, given Beidou’s Energy needs, I’d argue that you should opt for someone less unwieldy such as Fischl.

Regarding Hyperbloom, it doesn’t really work with Beidou. Oddly enough, Beidou’s Elemental Burst is incapable of triggering Dendro Cores for Hyperbloom. This can be manipulated in your favor. For example, I could have Sucrose, someone who is almost always built with high Elemental Mastery, use Swirl on Beidou’s Electro application and cause a strong Hyperbloom proc. That said, I could also just use someone else who fits more in a Hyperbloom team.

As mentioned earlier, Beidou has high Energy needs and running her as your sole Electro unit is a bit impractical due to the nature of her Elemental Skill. It is therefore recommended that you have a second Electro character as Beidou’s battery.

Elemental Resonances that benefit Beidou are Dendro (increased Elemental Mastery; more so if Dendro-related reactions are triggered), Electro (extra particle generation), Geo (15% Shield Strength and 15% more DMG while protected by a shield), and Pyro (25% ATK).

As a disclaimer, the following lists of recommended teammates and example teams is not necessarily a comprehensive one. Also, the example teams may include characters that are not included in the recommendations as they arguably synergize more with someone else on the team and less so with Beidou.

Recommended Teammates:

• Bennett (4-Star | Pyro) – A great support for many other units in the game, thanks to his Elemental Burst providing healing and ATK buffing. The latter effect is valuable for Beidou as she snapshot it onto her Elemental Burst.
• Fischl (4-Star | Electro) – While it sounds redundant to have a second Electro Off Field DPS on the team, Fischl is almost essential for Beidou. With her Elemental Skill providing a steady flow of particles, Fischl is arguably the best choice as Beidou’s battery.
• Kujou Sara (4-Star | Electro) – The low duration of Sara’s ATK buff is no issue for Beidou as the latter’s Burst can snapshot it. At C6, Sara becomes the premier buffer for Electro teams as she can now buff Electro CRIT DMG. Unfortunately, Beidou’s Burst can’t snapshot it but the CRIT DMG buff can be reapplied to it even after it has already snapshotted buffs. 
• Sangonomiya Kokomi (4-Star | Hydro) – Kokomi can wield both Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers and Tenacity of the Millelith (4) and Beidou can snapshot both of these items’ buffs. Kokomi can also serve Beidou’s driver in an Electro-Charged though you’ll need Energy Recharge and a battery support in order for her to enhance her basic attacks with her Elemental Burst every rotation.
• Sucrose (4-Star | Anemo) – Sucrose’s Ascension Talents provide Elemental Mastery buffs that Beidou can use to augment her Elemental Reaction DMG or, in the case of Aggravate, her Electro DMG Bonus. Additionally, Sucrose provides crowd control and has access to Viridescent Venerer (4), allowing her to debuff enemy Electro RES for Beidou.
• Tartaglia (5-Star | Hydro) – With a fast Normal Attack string and deadly AoE effects, Tartaglia is an extremely synergistic driver for Beidou. The only thing you need to be mindful of is Tartaglia’s Elemental Skill cooldown. Stay too long in Melee Stance and Tartaglia has a lot of downtime to contend with. If the two are used together, Beidou ought to be the trigger for Electro-Charged procs though ownership can be murky if you have another Electro character in the team.
• Yanfei (4-Star | Pyro) – Yanfei being a ranged attacker makes her a good candidate to team up with Beidou for an Overloaded comp. Between Beidou’s Elemental Burst and Yanfei’s Charged Attack, the two characters can cover a lot of ground together.
• Yoimiya (5-Star | Pyro) – Yoimiya’s fast Normal Attack string makes her an ideal driver for Beidou. The only thing that’s holding Yoimiay back is the fact that her playstyle is strictly single target, meaning that any AoE DMG the team deals is usually from Beidou’s Elemental Burst and Overloaded procs.

Example Teams:

Tartaglia

Fischl

Beidou

Bennett

Sangonomiya Kokomi

Fischl

Beidou

Sucrose

Yoimiya

Fischl

Beidou

Bennett

Closing Words

Beidou is a solid pick for an Electro Off Field DPS, with her Elemental Burst excelling in group encounters. Me personally however, she is not my favorite one for the role. I acknowledge her strength but I’d rather use someone whose kit demands less work such as Fischl. I’m also conflicted over Beidou’s parry mechanic. It’s cool in concept but it’s a bit impractical for her Energy needs and it can be at odds with Genshin‘s combat loop.

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This post was originally published on July 30, 2021

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