Genshin Impact Tier List (Best Characters)

C

Keqing

Noelle

Eula

Yumemizuki Mizuki

Yanfei

Shikanoin Heizou

Kaveh

Kachina

Dehya

Lisa

Chongyun

Sayu

Mika

Sayu

Dahlia

Qiqi

Barbara

Traveler (Electro)

Rosaria

Candace

Dori

D

Freminet

Ningguang

Dehya

Xinyan

Aloy

Xinyan

Traveler (Geo)

Amber

Traveler (Anemo)

Traveler (Hydro)

Noelle

Chongyun

Lisa

Xinyan

Character Notes & Explanations

Updated tier rankings and character notes by SS→D. Find role-specific advice (Main DPS, Sub DPS, Support), constellation tips, and recommended weapons/artifacts.

Tier SS

Zibai

Zibai is a Lunar-Crystallize DPS who deals a mix of sustained and frontloaded damage via her empowered Elemental Skill, making her easy to use for clearing endgame content quickly.
Restricted to Geo and Hydro teammates, which limits her team options.

Mavuika

Mavuika has absurdly high-scaling burst damage that can function as on-field, off-field, or quick-swap DPS, and she performs extremely well with both Vaporize and Melt setups.
Exploration utility combines many Natlan character strengths, adding strong versatility beyond combat.

Nefer

Nefer is a Lunar-Bloom DPS that interacts uniquely with Bloom, providing a consistent way to operate in Lunar-Bloom teams without dedicated Bloom triggers.
Best teams are locked to Lunar-Bloom teammates (e.g., Lauma and Aino), making her team options currently restrictive.

Flins

Flins is a Lunar-Charged on-field DPS who primarily needs a Hydro teammate to function and is burst-reliant with a low cost that mitigates downtime.
Locked to Lunar-Charged supports and often reliant on another Electro off-fielder for energy, limiting optimal support choices.

Skirk

Skirk is an extremely fluid SS-tier DPS on her best teams (notably strong in Freeze), offering easy-to-use controls and good overworld utility.
Her peak performance is highly team-dependent and often reliant on Escoffier to reach the highest damage benchmarks.

Varesa

Varesa is a high-base-damage Plunge Attacker whose strength comes from strong base DMG rather than amplifying reactions, and she needs relatively little investment with accessible buffers like Iansan or Chevreuse.
Designed for easy, smooth play—casual players can reach her potential without heavy min-maxing.

Tier S

Arlecchino

Arlecchino deals high raw Pyro damage even outside of Vaporize and can function in Overloaded team setups, with swift wide-aoe Normal Attacks once rotations are learned.
Her extremely high-risk gameplay may be off-putting to some players.

Mualani

Mualani is a frontloaded-damage DPS excelling on both single-target and AoE when properly set up, and she performs best in Vaporize teams while offering strong exploration utility.
Her signature attack (Sharky's Bite) can miss, which is a reliability caveat.

Varka

Varka is an Elemental Skill-based DPS that wields Anemo and another PHEC element simultaneously, allowing efficient cleaving in mono-element teams.
Contributes significantly to Hexerei teams, greatly boosting his damage with Hexerei allies.

Neuvillette

Neuvillette provides outstanding and consistent damage through his Charged Attack and is highly self-sufficient, often able to function as a one-man army.
C1 removes several of his major weaknesses, improving his reliability.

Chasca

Chasca specializes in Rainbow teams by converting damage into multiple elements (Pyro, Hydro, Electro, Cryo), giving her high team-building versatility and useful flying exploration utility.
Her bullets split across enemies in AoE, making her effectively a single-target dealer in multi-enemy scenarios.

Kinich

Kinich excels in Burning or Burgeon teams as a single-target specialist with extremely mobile combat and a grappling hook that aids exploration.
Outside his optimal teams he gains Nightsoul points slower, limiting access to his signature tool (Scalespiker Cannon).

Raiden Shogun

Raiden can be an on-field Burst dealer that outputs massive damage in short windows and benefits greatly from her C2 DEF ignore effect, allowing rapid enemy takedowns.
Her burst-centric kit rewards precise timing and energy management.

Tier A

Clorinde

Clorinde offers flexible team-building and a snappy playstyle with reliable self-healing for overworld play, making her easy to pilot.
Her personal damage is team-dependent and she has no resistance to interruption at C0.

Gaming

Gaming overperforms as a 4-star at C6 with very high plunging damage on his best teams, but he is reliant on using his Elemental Burst off-cooldown to maintain damage output.
Performance drops without proper Burst uptime.

Klee

Klee attacks primarily with Normal and Charged Attacks, shredding groups of foes, and can deliver very high damage with optimized rotations.
Her clunky playstyle requires min-maxed rotations to play optimally.

Razor

Razor uses his Elemental Burst to provide consistent Superconduct coverage via his mix of Electro and Physical damage, and becomes a top Electro dealer on Hexerei teams at C6.
Synergy with Hexerei and Overloaded setups boosts his role.

Venti

Venti is an on-field powerhouse on Hexerei teams, delivering strong pure Anemo damage mixed with high-value Swirl reactions and crowd control.
Performs best when paired with Hexerei allies for amplified damage.

Navia

Navia has high frontloaded Elemental Skill damage capable of one-shotting medium opponents and chunking bosses per rotation, and she allows flexible team building beyond mono-Geo.
Her frontloaded nature can underperform on damage-over-time comparisons.

Alhaitham

Alhaitham provides superb Dendro application for setting up powerful reactions like Hyperbloom, Burgeon, and Spread, with strong AoE coverage and top-tier team damage while requiring minimal investment.
Excellent at enabling reaction-focused compositions.

Kamisato Ayaka

Ayaka infuses her Normal and Charged Attacks with Cryo after sprinting for near-permanent infusion, and her Elemental Burst has very high scaling that defines her damage potential.
With ideal supports she can rival top-tier DPS but needs significant investment.

Wriothesley

Wriothesley is a single-target focused Main DPS who specializes in triggering Melt or Freeze in close combat, delivering strong single-target damage.
His kit is incomplete without C1, and he struggles against spread-out packs of enemies.

Lyney

Lyney has a passive that compensates for lacking elemental reactions in mono-Pyro teams and deals high damage to both single targets and AoE, but is susceptible to interruptions.
Best flown with consistent uptime and minimal interruption.

Hu Tao

Hu Tao deals massive single-target Pyro damage with her Elemental Skill and Charged Attacks, infusing attacks with Pyro at the cost of HP for increased damage.
C1 allows spamming Charged Attacks without stamina consumption.

Xiao

Xiao uses his Elemental Burst to greatly increase overall DPS at the cost of his HP, with Normal Attacks and Elemental Skill enabling high-damage combos.
Requires offensive supports and healing to perform optimally.

Raiden Shogun

Tier B

Tartaglia

Tartaglia (Childe) applies strong Hydro with Riptide for excellent multi-target coverage and is currently one of the best drivers for Vaporize teams.
Excels at enabling powerful Hydro-reaction compositions.

Wanderer

Wanderer has wide-AoE Normal Attacks that can home in on enemies and gains exploration utility via floating from his Elemental Skill.
Requires dedicated supports to perform well at low constellations.

Yoimiya

Yoimiya's Elemental Skill infuses her Normal Attacks with Pyro, benefiting from high base scaling, but she needs supports that improve interruption resistance and attack speed for peak performance.
Requires stability and attack-speed buffs to maximize output.

Diluc

Diluc weaves Normal Attacks and Elemental Skill to deliver strong Pyro damage and pairs exceptionally well with supports like Xingqiu for Vaporize setups; his low burst cost covers a wide area but can push back light foes.
Works best with optimal reaction drivers.

Arataki Itto

Itto deals very high base scaling on his Charged Attacks and Elemental Skill, especially during his Burst, but he requires that Burst to be active and high investment in artifacts, weapons, and team comps to reach top-tier damage.
Switching out ends his Burst, so rotations must preserve uptime.

Kamisato Ayato

Ayato provides wide-range continuous damage via Hydro-infused Normal Attacks after using his Elemental Skill, and his Elemental Burst can self-buff his Normal Attacks for further damage.
Acts as a strong Hydro driver for reaction teams.

Ganyu

Ganyu's Level 2 Charged Shot is excellent vs groups and scales extremely well with Melt, while her charge time makes her susceptible to interruptions; her Elemental Burst combos well with pull-in effects for focused high damage.
Requires setup and protection to land long charges.

Tighnari

Tighnari deals most damage through Charged Attacks and Elemental Burst, excelling with the Spread Dendro reaction and providing strong single-target damage.
Can control aggro and distract enemies with taunt-like effects.

Sethos

Sethos is versatile, able to spam either Charged Attacks or Normal Attacks depending on Energy and Burst state, with his Charged form making him stationary and interruption-prone.
As a 4-star his raw stats are lower, requiring playstyle adaptation.

Cyno

Cyno is a solid Electro hypercarry for Dendro reactions like Aggravate and Hyperbloom, but he needs his high-energy Elemental Burst active to deal damage and is vulnerable to interruptions during his tempo-dependent rotations.
Relies on Burst uptime for peak damage.

Ifa

Ifa functions similarly to Sucrose as an on-field Swirl driver but focuses more on Electro-Charged, and can also heal while using Normal Attacks.
Tied to a specific archetype and character synergies but is free-to-play friendly.

Yumemizuki Mizuki

Mizuki is an on-field Anemo driver for Swirl comps who buffs Swirl damage and can sustain allies, offering some off-field presence but with Burst limitations and inability to Normal Attack while on her Skill.
Great constellations as a Standard character.

Dehya

Dehya deals low Skill and Burst damage without multiple buffs and has high Energy demands to reuse her Burst, making her performance constellation-dependent.
Needs more constellations and support to perform optimally.

Tier C

Keqing

Keqing performs well as either an Aggravate or Physical build and the recent element changes boosted her competitiveness among Quicken DPS roles.
Flexible across reaction and physical playstyles.

Noelle

Noelle balances ATK and DEF for sustained damage with shields and healing, gaining a stronger power spike at C6 while remaining self-sufficient.
Works well as a durable, self-sustaining DPS.

Eula

Eula's Elemental Burst accounts for a large portion of her damage, especially when enemies are Superconducted, and consuming Elemental Skill stacks increases her DPS output.
If her Burst fails to hit or crit, a significant portion of damage is lost.

Yumemizuki Mizuki

Yanfei

Yanfei is a strong Pyro Normal and Charged attacker for a 4-star, with expected lower scaling than 5-stars and high stamina usage that is eased by C1.
Good at straightforward Pyro-focused playstyles.

Shikanoin Heizou

Heizou focuses on Swirl damage or CRIT and can serve as a driver for Viridescent Venerer or a quick-swap burst dealer; his Skill can easily deal strong damage with Swirls though other sources are weaker.
Standard constellations greatly improve his utility.

Kaveh

Kaveh is a decent Dendro driver for Bloom-specific teams and provides buffs, but his personal damage output is relatively low.
Best used as a utility/buffer in Bloom comps.

Dehya

Tier D

Freminet

Freminet can function as either a Cryo or Physical DPS depending on team composition, offering flexible playstyles.
Being a 4-star limits his base stats compared to other Main DPS.

Ningguang

Ningguang is a solid Geo DPS who combines Normal and Charged Attacks for decent damage but typically requires high constellation investment to reach optimal performance.
Constellation scaling affects her late-game viability.

Dehya

Xinyan

Xinyan can use her Elemental Burst as a nuke for Physical builds, but her scaling as a Main DPS is split between ATK and DEF, forcing trade-offs that hurt overall performance.
Requires build focus on either ATK or DEF, which impacts versatility.

Aloy

Aloy can boost her Normal Attack damage with her Elemental Skill, but relies on bomblets hitting enemies to gain infusion and has no constellations to improve future performance.
Limited by lack of constellation improvements.