Build

Artifacts

PRO: Xiao’s 2pc artifact sets can be very easy to build.

If farming for a 4pc set seems too daunting for you, Xiao can run any of the 2pc ATK% or Anemo DMG% sets. These consist of:

• Vermillion Hereafter (VHA)

• Gladiator’s Finale (Glad)

• Shimenawa’s Reminiscence (SR)

• Echoes of an Offering (Echoes)

• Viridescent Venerer (VV)

• Desert Pavilion Chronicle (DPC)

• Nighttime Whispers in the Echoing Woods (Whispers)

While 4pc VHA is Xiao's Best-in-Slot set, it is also only a 5~10% improvement from 2pc 2pc sets depending on weapon and buffs. While the 2pc 2pc sets only differ from another by a measly ~3%. 

PRO: Xiao’s artifacts can be very easy to farm.

• The Chasm’s VHA and Echoes domain (The Lost Valley) offers both sets as 2pc ATK options. If you are farming for 4pc VHA, you can always settle for 2pc 2pc ATK with VHA + Echoes. 

• Inazuma’s SR and EoSF domain (Momiji-Dyed Court) is widely regarded as a resin-efficient artifact domain in the game as both sets offer useful set bonuses for many characters. For that reason, many may already have strong SR artifacts available to them.

• Sumeru's Patch 3.3 domain (City of Gold) offers DPC alongside the Flower of Paradise Lost. For players who are farming for sets that benefit Dendro Hyperbloom/Burgeon teams, this can serve as a good alternative.

• Fontaine's Marechaussee Hunter domain (Denouement of Sin) offers Golden Troupe as well. The former is a competitive artifact set on Xiao especially with supports like Xianyun, while the latter is considered to be the best set bonus for Elemental Skill-based characters. For that reason, it is one of the most efficient domains in the game at the time of writing.

• Glad and VV artifacts are available through the crafting table’s Artifact Strongbox. Players who are farming in either of the three domains above, can now fodder artifacts for either of these 2pc sets. 

Weapon

PRO: Xiao can utilize some of the more niche DPS Polearm options.

Xiao is able to use most DPS-oriented Polearms to great effect. He is the only character that can fully utilize PJWS and other more niche options such as Vortex Vanquisher, Calamity Queller, and Lithic Spear. Even Skyward Spine and Engulfing Lightning can find value by offering Xiao comfortable ER stats for easy Burst uptime.

NOTE: Xiao’s F2P Polearm options.

Apart from utilizing niche 5* weapons, Xiao also has access to several F2P options that players can equip on him. 

• Blackcliff Pole, obtained from Paimon’s Bargains.

• Missive Windspear, obtained from the 3.1 Of Ballads and Brews Event.

• Favonius Lance, which is part of the standard pool of weapons.

Lithic Spear, Prospector's Drill & Deathmatch are also good on him; however they are limited banner-only and paywalled respectively.

Teams

PRO: Xiao does not directly compete for many popular characters.

Xiao does not compete for popular support characters. Most of them like Bennett, Furina or Yelan are viable on him, but he does not depend on them, and thus allows some degree of team flexibility. The only core unit that he directly competes for is Faruzan, a rather niche Anemo buffer launched in patch 3.3. It is often straightforward to run him across from your second Spiral Abyss team.

CON: Xiao’s Best Teams are limited due to his Hypercarry nature. 

Xiao is Hypercarry DPS with a very long field time; his Burst spans 15 seconds on-field (and even longer when counting Elemental Skill casts and hitlag). This means that a lot of supports do not not function with him to their maximum potential due their shorter ability duration's clashing with Xiao's. This means common buffs such as Bennett, TTDS, 4pc NO, etc. will all fail to last all of his Burst duration.

In addition, to reach Xiao’s peak hypercarry DPS, he will often require more expensive supports.

Currently there are only a select few characters who can match Xiao's long Burst Duration. These consists of: 

• C2 Faruzan's Elemental Burst 

• Zhongli's Shield 

• Albedo's Elemental Skill

• Furina's Elemental Skill

There are certain units, such as Yelan, who can almost match his duration but still come a couple of seconds short.

Most of these are limited units that make them difficult to obtain. 

PRO: Xiao’s teams can be built flexibly and F2P friendly.

Because Xiao is a Hypercarry and does majority of the damage, it lessens the need of his supports being as relevant. Building teams for him is fairly flexible as you can opt for less optimal options without too much of a damage loss. 

As an example, let’s take a look at Xiao’s popular teammate options:

• A F2P friendly substitute for Albedo or Chiori is Geo MC, who offers 10 CRIT Rate, crowd control, and Burst DMG with Wake of Earth, or Fischl, who offers easy off-field DPS.

• A F2P accessible Anemo battery is Lynette. She offers one of the highest Anemo particles generated especially with her C4 or with Sacrificial Sword.

• A F2P friendly substitute for Zhongli is Diona or Thoma. Diona especially can offer healing, shields, and energy utility.

Even if players decide not to run Faruzan together with Xiao (L), she is still by nature a buffer and shredder and not a crucial role like an enabler, and so can be replaced with other options like Bennett, Furina, Jean or Zhongli who fill respective parts of her kit.

NOTE: Does Xiao need Zhongli?

While we would be as bold as to say that Zhongli is one of the must pulls for Xiao Mains due to how much comfort, utility, and DPS he can provide for Xiao, Xiao still has many Spiral Abyss viable comps without Zhongli. While clearing with non-Zhongli teams may be more difficult (especially for high RES enemies, more on that below), Xiao is not as dependent on Zhongli as Hutao is on Xingqiu or Xiangling is on Bennett.

PRO: Xiao’s supports can be built quite cheaply.

Xiao is a Hypercarry, so he deals the vast majority of damage in his teams. Therefore, the rest of the team mostly consists of buffers, batteries and survivability units, most of whom can be built cheaply. This can let people dedicate their artifact farming to improve Xiao.

That being said, Xiao’s teams can still benefit from building secondary sources of damage, such as investing into Albedo’s 4pc Husk set.

CON: Few supports can fully take advantage of or synergize with Xiao’s mobile AOE.

Xiao’s mobility means that he can and will run across the field in different scenarios, which limits the number of off-field buffs that can actually follow him around but stay grounded. For example, Bennett’s Burst field is rooted to a fixed spot, and Kaeya’s icicles follow Xiao up and down. As such, very few support units have good synergy with his high mobility.

Gameplay

The Pros and Cons of Plunges

PRO: Xiao’s plunges offer him a wide and mobile AOE.

Xiao’s plunges have a surprisingly large AOE, which can be beneficial when facing multiple mobs; this also lets him be more efficient in crowd control since he can deal knockback and damage in the large area he covers. 

In particular, he excels against multiple enemies with high poise, in which case they cannot be staggered by his plunges. He is able to deal damage to all of the enemies present at the same time to deplete their HP at the same time, saving a lot of time versus if you had to use a more single-target oriented DPS to tackle one at a time.

NOTE: Xiao’s single-target DPS.

Xiao’s per-plunge damage was balanced with his wide AOE in mind. So while his plunges can deal say 40k to 5 different enemies for a strong amount of total damage, against single-target (ST) enemies, Xiao’s overall damage output will be decreased.

Fortunately, against many ST enemies, he can utilize techniques such as N1CJP and Collision Plunge to increase his DPS by more than 40%. With C2+ Faruzan as well, his DPS output is generally high enough to still afford most players a comfortable clear.

That being said, his single-target damage may still not compete with top teams in this niche depending on available investment and skill.

PRO: Xiao’s plunges allow him to break or bypass the majority of shields with ease.

Physical shields such as hilichurl Dendro/Geo shields are completely ignored by Xiao’s plunges. He is also capable of breaking any abyss mage’s shield in only a few plunges. And while Xiao himself does struggle somewhat against the shields of abyss heralds/lectors, the aforementioned flexibility of his teams allows him to simply bring a dedicated shield breaker to solve this.

PRO: Xiao’s plunges and aerial gameplay can allow him to dodge enemy attacks.

The vast majority of enemy attacks cannot reach Xiao while he is airborne. With proper gameplay, Xiao can safely avoid situations that would be highly dangerous for most other characters.

CON: Xiao’s plunges can leave him vulnerable to enemy attacks during and after his plunge.

What goes up must come down; although Xiao can avoid attacks while in the air, he is completely unable to act while plunging and for a brief time once he hits the ground. If the player is less skilled or simply careless, they could plunge directly into an attack that may kill them. (This is one reason shielders are highly valued for Xiao.)

PRO: Xiao’s plunges can continuously stagger and stunlock enemies.

Xiao’s plunges deal extremely high amounts of poise damage. Most humanoids, and even Geovishaps and unshielded Heralds/Lectors find themselves totally stunlocked as they are staggered by each and every one of his plunges.

CON: Xiao’s plunges deal a lot of knockback which can be annoying to correct for.

Constantly staggering enemies has a downside. At best, you occasionally have to chase enemies down. At worst, you may knock enemies away from each other, dispersing them and making it difficult to hit them all, even with Xiao’s generous AOE. This is most apparent against mobs with high throwback like Whopperflowers.

PRO: Xiao has a low skill floor.

The core of Xiao’s gameplay revolves around simply plunging over and over again, making him relatively straightforward to use. That being said, Xiao’s gameplay can also be more technical, such as being able to properly position his plunges, using Collision Plunge damage against single-target enemies, and dodging enemy attacks with plunge timing.

Elemental Burst

PRO: Xiao offers consistent DPS over a comparatively long window.

Xiao can get up to 12 high plunges during his burst duration. This allows him to deal consistent damage over that entire window, so even if you miss or don’t CRIT one or two of his plunges, he can adjust and still get some use out of the rest of his Burst. This is in contrast to characters with nuke-type Bursts where if you miss or don’t CRIT, it hurts the character’s overall DPS by a considerable amount.

Xiao’s consistent DPS also makes him great at dealing with waves of enemies, as he can continuously plunge through different waves as they perish until his Burst runs out.

CON: Xiao’s long Burst window can be detrimental against enemies with short vulnerability windows and/or high mobility.

In Abyss, we sometimes encounter boss enemies such as the Ruin Serpent or Golden Wolflord that have short vulnerability windows. In such cases, Xiao is only able to get some of his plunges out before the boss becomes invulnerable, wasting the remainder of Xiao’s Burst duration. In these cases, it’s often better to rely on front-loaded damage so that characters can get the majority of their DPS out in the short window.

PRO: Xiao’s Burst has a 15s duration but only 18s cooldown, allowing him to have little downtime in proper rotations.

Xiao’s Burst has a 15s duration, and with hitlag and animations, he often only has around a second of cooldown before his Burst is ready to be used again. Thus, when running with a full team and enough Energy management, Xiao’s rotations should consist of quickly rotating through his supports before getting him back onto the field and in his Burst as soon as possible. As such, Xiao is able to have virtually no downtime on his Burst.

CON: To have little downtime, Xiao’s Burst requires intentional Energy management.

Ensuring Xiao can repeatedly rotate through his supports and gain back his Energy to launch into his next Burst requires careful Energy management through deliberate pre-funneling and funneling of his own and his team’s particles into himself. Because Xiao’s out of Burst damage is less than impressive, if users are not careful and find themselves having to wait around for his Skill to refresh to gain enough energy, it can dramatically lower his overall DPS.

Kit Design

Plunge DPS

PRO: Xiao is the only character who is able to continuously utilize plunges to great effect.

Plunges are a unique mechanic in Genshin Impact and Xiao is one of the only characters that can utilize High Plunges to the efficacy that he does. With that, he can naturally reap all the benefits (and cons) of Plunge Attacks, including their wide AOE, high poise, and aerial maneuverability.

CON: Xiao’s damage comes mainly from his plunges, which at the moment is still a niche DMG source that leaves him with less support options than others.

Xiao’s damage sources are quite niche. He is one of the only characters that utilize plunges, and the amount of supports and artifact sets that buff plunges are limited (and potential options may also be inferior to existing best options or downright incompatible, like the 4pc Desert Pavilion Chronicle set or the 4pc Shimenawa's Reminiscence set). Furthermore, as most of his damage comes from plunges, he cannot take advantage of other common buffs such as increased Normal Attack, Charged Attack, or Elemental Burst damage.

Anemo DPS

PRO: Xiao deals damage primarily through Anemo DMG, which few enemies have particularly high resistance or immunity against.

Xiao’s Anemo DMG has prevailed against most enemies in-game due to Anemo’s nature of not being barred against certain other elements; including Azhdaha or La Signora, two examples of element-oriented enemies that may obstruct other DPSes. As an Anemo DPS, Xiao trivializes most of these difficulties, clearing most content in the game with ease since Anemo is not a common element for enemies to have a high resistance to.

NOTE: Xiao is an Anemo DPS with limited support and Resistance Shred options.

There is currently only one support in the game, Faruzan, who directly buffs Anemo damage. 

Furthermore, there are limited sources of Anemo Resistance Shred. Zhongli is the only 5* character who offers Anemo RES Shred at C0. With Faruzan, Anemo RES shred is now available on a 4* option as well, though her being a limited character still poses a restriction. Most other sources are locked behind other 5* characters’ Constellations (Venti C2 & C6, Jean C4) and Anemo Traveler is often clunky or impractical to use.

CON: Anemo Resonance is lacking.

For Xiao, who prefers having a second Anemo on the team, Anemo Resonance does not benefit him much. In the arena of Spiral Abyss, movement speed is not particularly useful. Additionally, the cooldown reduction is negligible, especially given that Xiao cannot switch out during his burst, so both his and his allies’ Skills will be off cooldown by the time it ends anyways. 

Constellations

PRO: Xiao does not need Constellations to perform favorably.

Xiao at C0 already offers a kit that enables you to clear most content in the game. There is less need to pursue his Constellation upgrades as opposed to other characters, as his performance is not gated and can be accessed favorably out of the box. 

CON: Xiao’s C1-C5 constellations are QoL at best and just plain bad at worst.

However, the above advantage is due to Xiao’s C1 to C5 constellations providing insignificant DPS upgrades to his existing C0 kit.

• C1 only provides one more Skill charge during the span of an entire 1:30 battle due to the Skill cooldowns. Thus while it can provide nice QoL by lowering energy needs up to 20% for battles needing only 2 Bursts, it otherwise is a less-than-significant upgrade to his energy management and a negligible DPS boost.

• C2, which boosts his off-field Energy Recharge, can ease a small marginal Energy requirement for Xiao. However, it ultimately does not synergize with Xiao’s main method of receiving energy which is via funneling methods, since funneling requires him to be on-field in order for it to be optimized.

• C3 is only useful for those going for C6, and is a minimal DPS increase otherwise.

• C4’s DEF bonus is also useless in most scenarios, since most of his popular utility supports already provide ample survivability anyway. The 30% damage reduction it offers may be helpful for surviving should a shielder not be utilized in specific comps.

• C5 is only a minimal DPS upgrade due the large amount of DMG bonus Xiao already receives).

C6 changes Xiao’s gameplay so much that we have an entire guide on how to play it!