Animalistic demigod, maritime lawyer, Pyro Catalyst wielder — Genshin Impact's Yanfei certainly has a lot of plates spinning. This young polymath from Liyue has achieved a lot in a short time, so if you end up with her in your adventuring party, you'll be unsurprised to learn that she performs best when leading the charge as your DPS main with the help of her trusty book of elemental power.
It's worth noting that Yanfei compares favourably to fellow Pyro Catalyst user Klee. While Klee undeniably outdoes Yanfei in overall power, she's a 5-star character who's only available during limited events; while Yanfei is a 4-star character who can be pulled at any time, and yet with the right build can be just as useful in your party. Read on below for our tips and suggestions for putting together the best Yanfei build.
Best Genshin Impact Yanfei build for main DPS
Best weapon: Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds
Alternative: The Widsith
Learned and bookish Yanfei carries a Catalyst as her weapon of choice. Unlike other weapon types in Genshin Impact, which focus on more traditional melee combat attacks, Catalysts enhance the wielder's elemental attacks.
Having a Catalyst character as your DPS main is a unique challenge, and the most important consideration when choosing Yanfei's weapon is improving her crit rate. To best achieve this, you want to equip her with Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds. This Catalyst increases the bearer's Movement Speed by 10%, as well as granting them an Elemental DMG Bonus every 4 seconds. This bonus stacks up to four times and persists until Yanfei falls or otherwise leaves combat.
Since Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds can be tricky to obtain as a 5-star weapon, a good 4-star alternative is The Widsith. When Yanfei enters the field of combat equipped with this Catalyst, she will gain a random theme song for 10 seconds. Depending on the song this will either grant a huge increase to her Base Attack (Recitative), Elemental DMG (Aria), or Elemental Mastery (Interlude).
Best artifacts: Crimson Witch of Flames
Alernatives: Wanderer's Troupe
Since Yanfei, in her role as a Catalyst wielder, by necessity goes all-in on her elemental attacks, you want to equip the Artifact set that supports her Pyro powers most directly. Cut to the chase and equip four pieces from the Crimson Witch of Flames set as soon as you have them in hand. The two-piece bonus is a 15% increase to all Pyro DMG. Meanwhile, the four-piece bonus increases the DMG from Overloaded and Burning elemental reactions by 40%, and the Vaporise and Melt reactions by 15%; in addition to giving you a very nice 50% again on top of your two-piece set bonus when you use Yanfei's Elemental Skill (for up to 10 seconds, and stacking up to three times).
Alternatively, equip four pieces from the Wanderer's Troupe set for a highly desirable 35% increase to Yanfei's Charged Attacks from her Catalyst (on top of the +80 Elemental Mastery you'll get from the two-piece set). There aren't too many artifacts that specifically support Normal Attacks with a Catalyst, so this is well worth considering when working with a Catalyst wielder as DPS.
Focus on the follow stat and substat priorities when choosing Yanfei's artifacts:
- Circlet of Logos: CRITs
- Sands of Eon: ATK
- Goblet of Eonothem: Pyro DMG Bonus
- Substats: CRITS, ATK, and Elemental Mastery
Talent priority: Seal of Approval (Normal Attack)
Knowledge is power in Yanfei's case, so unsurprisingly it's her Catalyst Normal Attack Seal of Approval that's most worth prioritising as part of her best build. It's all about CRIT Rate with Yanfei, but uniquely she also produces stamina-boosting Scarlet Seals with every normal attack, which allow her to stay active in battle for longer.
Below is a full list of Yanfei's Talents and their uses:
- Normal Attack: Seal of Approval
- Normal Attack - Shoots fireballs that deal up to three counts of Pyro DMG. When Yanfei's Normal Attacks hit enemies, they will grant her a single Scarlet Seal. Yanfei may possess a maximum of 3 Scarlet Seals, and each time this effect is triggered, the duration of currently possessed Scarlet Seals will refresh. Each Scarlet Seal will decrease Yanfei's Stamina consumption and will disappear when she leaves the field.
- Charged Attack - Consumes Stamina and all Scarlet Seals before dealing AoE Pyro DMG to the opponents after a short casting time. This Charged Attack's AoE and DMG will increase according to the amount of Scarlet Seals consumed.
- Plunging Attack - Gathering the power of Pyro, Yanfei plunges towards the ground from mid-air, damaging all opponents in her path. Deals AoE Pyro DMG upon impact with the ground.
- Elemental Skill: Signed Edict - Summons blistering flames that deal AoE Pyro DMG. If this attack hits an enemy, Yanfei is granted the maximum number of Scarlet Seals.
- Elemental Burst: Done Deal - Triggers a spray of intense flames that rush at nearby opponents, dealing AoE Pyro DMG, granting Yanfei the maximum number of Scarlet Seals, and applying Brilliance to her. Brilliance periodically grants Yanfei a Scarlet Seal and increases the DMG of her Charged Attacks; the effect stops when Yanfei leaves the field or falls in battle.
- 1st Ascension Passive: Proviso - When Yanfei consumes Scarlet Seals by using a Charged Attack, each Scarlet Seal will increase Yanfei's Pyro DMG Bonus by 5%. This effect lasts for 6 seconds. When a Charged Attack is used again during the effect's duration, it will dispel the previous effect.
- 4th Ascension Passive: Blazing Eye - When Yanfei's Charged Attack deals a Crit Hit to opponents, she will deal an additional instance of AoE Pyro DMG equal to 80% of her Attack. This DMG counts as Charged Attack DMG.
- Utility Passive: Encyclopedic Expertise - Displays the location of nearby resources unique to Liyue on the mini-map.
Party composition
- Main DPS: Yanfei
- Sub DPS: Xingqiu
- Healer: Bennett
- Shield: Noelle
5* alternative: Zhongli replacing Noelle on shield
Yanfei is an unusual Genshin Impact character, in that she has an ideal team composition that's widely agreed upon by what feels like an actual majority of players. You'll be hard pressed to find anyone who'd argue against pairing her with Xingqiu as sub DPS to take advantage of the extra damage granted by the Vaporize reaction, which Xingqiu can trigger continuously whenever Yanfei uses her Pyro element. Similarly, having Bennett on the team as a healer is a no-brainer, since his Elemental Burst buffs the team's ATK and heals, while his Fervent Flames resonance with Yanfei adds a further 25% to the team's ATK while reducing their vulnerability to Cryo DMG.
Zhongli is widely agreed to be Yanfei's best shield support, since his Elemental Burst provides crowd control, and with the right artifact set (Archaic Petra) he can buff the team's Pyro DMG. However, as a 5-star character he can be difficult (and expensive) to obtain, so his fellow Geo shield character Noelle will do in a pinch. What she lacks in crowd control she makes up for with healing, which isn't vital when she's placed on a team with Bennett, but is nice to have nevertheless.
Best Yanfei build: Ascension Materials
Fully ascending Yanfei requires the following materials:
| Ascension Level | Materials |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1 Agnidus Agate Sliver, 3 Noctilucous Jades, 3 Treasure Hoarder Insignias, and 20,000 Mora |
| 2 | 3 Agnidus Agate Fragments, 2 Juvenile Jades, 10 Noctilucous Jades, 15 Treasure Hoarder Insignias, and 40,000 Mora |
| 3 | 6 Agnidus Agate Fragments, 4 Juvenile Jades, 20 Noctilucous Jades, 12 Silver Raven Insignias, and 60,000 Mora |
| 4 | 3 Agnidus Agate Chunks, 8 Juvenile Jades, 30 Noctilucous Jades, 18 Silver Raven Insignias, and 80,000 Mora |
| 5 | 6 Agnidus Agate Chunks, 12 Juvenile Jades, 45 Noctilucous Jades, 12 Golden Raven Insignias, and 100,000 Mora |
| 6 | 6 Agnidus Agate Gemstones, 20 Juvenile Jades, 60 Noctilucous Jades, 24 Golden Raven Insignias, and 120,000 Mora |
| Total | 168 Noctilucous Jades, 46 Juvenile Jades, 36 Golden Raven Insignias, 30 Silver Raven Insignias, 18 Treasure Hoarder Insignias, 9 Agnidus Agate Chunks, 9 Agnidus Agate Fragments, 6 Agnidus Agate Gemstones, Agnidus Agate Sliver, and 420,000 Mora |
What stands out on this list is how much jade you're going to need. Fortunately, the Noctilucous Jade can be fairly easily foraged from caves throughout Yanfei's native Liyue. Meanwhile, Juvenile Jade is obtained by defeating Primo Geovishap enemies at Lvl 30+.
Talents
To fully level up one of Yanfei's talents, you'll need the following materials:
| Talent Level (+ required Ascension Level) | Materials |
|---|---|
| 2 (2) | 6 Treasure Hoarder Insignias, 3 Teachings of Gold, and 12,500 Mora |
| 3 (3) | 3 Silver Raven Insignias, 2 Guides to Gold, and 17,500 Mora |
| 4 (3) | 4 Silver Raven Insignias, 4 Guides to Gold, and 25,000 Mora |
| 5 (4) | 6 Silver Raven Insignias, 6 Guides to Gold, and 30,000 Mora |
| 6 (4) | 9 Silver Raven Insignias, 9 Guides to Gold, and 37,500 Mora |
| 7 (5) | 4 Golden Raven Insignias, 4 Philosophies of Gold, 1 Bloodjade Branch, and 120,000 Mora |
| 8 (5) | 6 Golden Raven Insignias, 6 Philosophies of Gold, 1 Bloodjade Branch, and 260,000 Mora |
| 9 (6) | 9 Golden Raven Insignias, 12 Philosophies of Gold, 2 Bloodjade Branches, and 450,000 Mora |
| 10 (6) | 12 Golden Raven Insignia, 16 Philosophies of Gold, 2 Bloodjade Branches, 1 Crown of Insight, and 700,000 Mora |
| Total | 6 Treasure Hoarder Insignias, 22 Silver Raven Insignias, 31 Golden Raven Insignias, 3 Teachings of Gold, 21 Guides to Gold, 38 Philosophies of Gold, 6 Bloodjade Branches, 1 Crown of Insight, and 1,652,500 Mora |
To triple crown Yanfei's talents, you’ll need to collect all of these materials three times over. You'll be able to pick up Gold books at the Taishan Mansion domain on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays. As ever, Insignias come from defeating Treasure Hoarder enemies, while Bloodjade Branches are awarded for successfully completing the Azhdaha Challenge at Lvl 70+. Finally, Crowns of Insight are earned through limited-time events or by making offerings to the Frostbearing Tree and the Sacred Sakura.
Constellations
Many of Yanfei's Constellations increase the power and utility of her Scarlet Seals. If you're committed to building Yanfei as your DPS main, it's well worth getting her Constellations all the way up to Level 6, so you can benefit from an increased cap on this useful stamina bonus.
Here's a full list of Yanfei's Constellations and what they do:
- The Law Knows No Kindness (Lvl 1): When Yanfei uses her Charged Attack, each existing Scarlet Seal additionally reduces the stamina cost of this Charged Attack by 10% and increases resistance against interruption during its release.
- Right of Final Interpretation (Lvl 2): Increases Yanfei's Charged Attack Crit Rate by 20% against enemies below 50% HP.
- Samadhi Fire-Forged (Lvl 3): Increases the level of Signed Edict by 3. (Maximum upgrade level is 15.)
- Supreme Amnesty (Lvl 4): When Done Deal is used it creates a shield that absorbs up to 45% of Yanfei's Max HP for 15 seconds. This shield absorbs Pyro DMG 250% more effectively.
- Abiding Affidavit (Lvl 5): Increases the level of Done Deal by 3. (Maximum upgrade level is 15.)
- Extra Clause (Lvl 6): Increases the maximum number of Scarlet Seals by 1.
Edit by Rebecca Jones