Genshin Impact Kirara Build Guide: Best Weapons, Artifacts, and Teams - Genshin Impact Guide - IGN (2024)

Kirara is a 4-star Dendro Sword character who features in the first Genshin Impact banners of Version 3.7. This guide to the best Genshin Impact Kirara build will explain the best weapons, artifact sets, constellations, and team compositions for Kirara.

Table of Contents:

• How to Get Kirara
• Kirara Gameplay Overview
  • Kirara Talents and Attack Combos
  • Kirara Constellation Analysis
  • Kirara Weapon Rankings
  • Kirara's Best Artifacts
  • Kirara's Best Teams

How to Get Kirara in Genshin Impact

Kirara first debuts on the limited banner in Genshin Impact's 3.7 patch. She will be added to the standard banner after 3.7's conclusion.

Genshin Kirara Gameplay Overview

• Element:Dendro
• Weapon:Sword
• Rarity:4-star

Kirara is a shielding support, best in teams involving Dendro reactions, and can be played either on-field or off-field, depending on how you use her Skill. A shielder's main purpose is to protect your teammates from damage and interruption, and a shielder is often run alongside a healer for comfortable gameplay. Depending on your skill level, you may be able to use a shielder in your team without a healer.

Because of Kirara's focus on utility, it is not advised to focus on her damage output. As a DPS unit, it is easy to find stronger alternatives, even in the same element and rarity. Instead, one should focus on making her shield as strong as humanly possible for your team. Since her shield scales with Max HP, this makes building Kirara simple: stack HP% on every artifact and weapon, while also maintaining Energy Recharge requirements through substats or weapon stats. Luckily, ER needs are low for this character, maxing out around 160%, but can still be as low as 120% or even 100% based on team comp. Bursting every rotation is inessential to her usefulness, so don't feel pressured to invest in it. Any ER weapon will do the job just fine for satisfying the requirements.

Shields are especially useful in Burgeon teams, which use Dendro, Hydro, and Pyro characters to deal heavy damage to enemies at the cost of taking a small portion of the blast's damage. However, she is put to better use with Nilou, who specializes in Bloom reactions, which deals increased Bloom explosion damage (and also recoil damage) so long as your team purely consists of Hydro and Dendro characters.

Kirara could also find success in Quicken teams, which use the additive damage buffs from Dendro and Electro interactions to eliminate enemies quickly. In these cases, she will be supporting Electro characters like Keqing and Fischl.

Outside of combat, Kirara will be noteworthy for her quick transportation Skill while holding it down. It is similar to Sayu's Skill, but with better control and the ability to climb.

Genshin Kirara Talents and Attack Combos

Normal Attacks are effectively useless with Kirara. There is no reason to want to Normal Attack with her, as her scaling and output, even after buffs, is low.

Kirara's Skill, on the other hand, is her bread-and-butter. It kicks an opponent, generates a shield, and while held down, Kirara travels terrain quickly while applying Dendro to enemies as she rams through them. There are three ways to use this talent:

• Tap
  • Uses the least field time. Useful for off-field use to give more time to your damaging units. Generates three Dendro particles. Not very effective Dendro application. Not recommended.
• Short Hold
  • Spends an extra second on-field in order to generate one additional Dendro particle, then tap again to finish the Skill for a total of four particles. Not very effective Dendro application, but more efficient than Tap.
• Long Hold
  • Useful for Dendro application to fuel Dendro-based reactions and more particle generation. Usually, Kirara will not be an optimal driver, since she doesn't use Normal Attacks like Nahida or Alhaitham to apply Dendro. This is relevant because it can't be used with Yelan or Xingqiu, two of the best Hydro applicators for reactions.

Kirara's Burst deals decent damage and can hit satisfying numbers, but investing into its potential hinders her greatest strengths. It also unleashes several mines that can explode, which can be interacted with by certain Anemo characters.

Next, come her passives. Her first ascension passive helps her shield absorb up to 60% more damage the more she hits enemies with her held Skill, while her fourth ascension passive increases her Burst and Skill damage based on her Max HP. Finally, wildlife that drops meat will not be alerted to your presence in the open world as long as Kirara is in your party.

For her combos, her time on field is straightforward:

1. Skill (Short Hold or Long Hold) for protection, application, and particle generation.
2. Burst (if available) for damage.
3. Switch out to other party members.

Genshin Kirara Constellation Analysis

4-star constellations are typically essential in comparison to 5-stars, but they are also easier to acquire. Keep that in mind when budgeting your primogems to roll. Kirara's constellations are quite weak, so don't feel the need to pull for them.

Genshin Kirara Weapon Rankings

Kirara only cares about HP and, to a lesser degree, Energy Recharge, which limits her viable weapon choices. However, she is quite Free-to-Play friendly, despite her best weapon being a limited 5-star.

Genshin Kirara's Best Artifacts

Kirara only needs HP, so the artifacts needed are straightforward.

• Sands: HP
• Goblet: HP
• Circlet: HP, CRIT Rate if absolutely necessary for Favonius triggers.

That said, Kirara's artiifact set options are also typical for support units in Dendro.

Genshin Kirara Best Teams

There are really only four possible team options, and most of these team options utilize the same characters. For this section, I will list the general team structures alll at once, and then list the viable characters to pair with Kirara.

Nilou Bloom

These teams use Nilou and only other Hydro and Dendro characters to create as many Dendro cores as possible, then detonates them with Nilou's passive for extra damage. It's wise to have additional protection options on this team, which is what Kirara is here for. A healer in addition to this shield is necessary for survival.

It is advised to use Kirara off-field in this team, only short-holding her Skill for the shield, since we don't want her triggering Bloom reactions, due to her low investment in Elemental Mastery. This means your other Dendro character should be able to apply lots of Dendro. 4pc Deepwood is a necessity if your other Dendro doesn't use it. Otherwise, 4pc Instructor will add plenty of EM to the team.

Hyperbloom

Hyperbloom teams are best for single-target scenarios, but have proven themselves to be a staple team for Spiral Abyss. You always need at least one Dendro, Electro, and Hydro character, and Nahida is strongly recommended as she increases everyone's Elemental Mastery. Otherwise, Sucrose, who can also buff the Elemental Mastery of the team, or a healing unit is recommended.

Burgeon

The AoE explosive equivalent of Hyperbloom. Burgeon deals recoil damage to you if you're caught in the explosions, and these hits of damage add up. Kirara's shield offers some protection when Thoma's is on cooldown. Keep in mind, though, that shields do not stack; an attack that deals 3,000 damage will damage both shields for 3,000 damage. However, if you don't have Thoma, you can instead use a character with slow Pyro application like Dehya.

Quicken (Spread/Aggravate)

Thanks to Kirara's short cooldown on her Skill at only 6 seconds, Kirara works well in quickswap teams. Quickswap teams involve rapidly switching between characters to use Skills and Bursts and facilitates an aggressive playstyle. Since Quicken teams benefit from both ATK% and EM buffs, Tenacity of the Millelith is a great choice for Kirara if you're not using a second Dendro character who already has it equipped.

Basically, if the team has two Dendro characters, this becomes a Spread-focused team. If the team has two Electro characters, it becomes an Aggravate-focused team. Aggravate-focused teams will benefit from an Anemo character equipping Viridescent Venerer to reduce opponent Electro resistances.

Specific Teammate Choices

• Hydro Characters for Making Dendro Cores
  • Nilou
    • The best character for pure Bloom teams, hands down,, thanks to her massive buff to Dendro Core damage. However, she restricts team options to only Hydro and Dendro characters.
  • Xingqiu
    • The best 4-star Hydro applicator. His Burst applies Hydro and deals respectable damage in synchonicity with the active character's Normal Attacks and the orbiting swords that act as defensive utility also apply Hydro to enemies when in direct contact.
  • Yelan
    • Mainly best for amplifying teammates DMG% while dealing high HP-scaling damage. Very similar to Xingqiu, but less application
  • Ayato
    • If Kirara's on-field, Ayato will mainly be used for his Burst, which applies Hydro in a massive area and has potentially unlimited uptime.
  • Kokomi
    • The best Hydro option if you want good healing and Hydro application rolled into one character. Almost essential in Nilou teams.
  • Barbara
    • The free/budget version of Kokomi. Her healing is worse and her Skill and Burst have long cooldowns, but her Skill creates a Hydro ring that helps generate Dendro cores when attacking at close range.

• Dendro Characters to Help Kirara's Application
  • Nahida
    • The best choice for maximizing the damage potential of Dendro-based reactions. She needs almost no field time and shares EM with the active character.
  • Baizhu
    • The best defensive choice for teams focusing on Dendro-based reactions. Offers shields and plenty of healing to the party, all of which enhance reaction damage.
  • Collei
    • Mainly best for Quicken/Spread/Hyperbloom teams as a utiliity buffer holding Elegy for the End. However, in a pinch, Collei can work in Bloom teams.
  • Dendro Traveler
    • Better suited for Bloom based reactions than Collei, and prefers to build full EM with a Favonius sword. The most budget possible option.

• Electro DPS Characters for Quicken Teams
  • Keqing
    • The most aggressive quickswap DPS. Originally one of the weakest characters in the game, the introduction of the Dendro element gave her a massive boost in playability due to her rapid Electro application.
  • Fischl
    • Perhaps the best off-field Aggravate DPS, especially at C6. Fischl spends two seconds on the field and somehow can carry the team in single-target scenarios. This is because her passives create a feedback loop of applying Electro for elemental reactions, which trigger another passive that deals damage while applying Electro.
  • Yae Miko
    • Comparable to Fischl. However, Yae Miko has an exceptionally powerful Burst that acts like a nuke. EM buffs are especially good with Miko due to her passive that adds DMG% to her Skill totems based on her EM. Miko's drawback, in exchange for her raw power, is the amount of field time required for an "off-field" unit.
  • Lisa
    • Lisa is free from the beginning of the game and also gained a lot of viability thanks to Quicken being introduced to the game. Her Burst also shreds enemy defenses -- a very rare debuff. She is usually played on-field.
• Hyperbloom (Electro) Triggers
  • Kuki Shinobu
    • The most sensible dedicated Hyperbloom trigger, due to her healing and spaced out, yet consistent Electro application that has full uptime.
  • Raiden Shogun
    • Technically better with Hyperbloom than Shinobu, but building full EM on Raiden takes away her potential as a DPS, which remains attractive to many players.

• Burgeon (Pyro) Triggers
  • Thoma
    • The most sensible dedicated Burgeon trigger, thanks to Thoma's slow Pyro application and shield generation, protecting the teams from Burgeon reactions created.
  • Dehya
    • Worse than Thoma in just about every way, but some people really want to use Dehya. On the plus-side, her Skill is decent at triggering Burgeon reactions without relying on a Burst like Thoma does. In exchange, she does a little under half the damage.

• Anemo Utility Options (all assumed to be equipping 4pc Viridescent Venerer)
  • Kazuha
    • The best all-around choice for most Anemo needs. Kazuha scales well with EM, provides a huge DMG% buff to teammates depending on what elements he swirls in his Burst, offers good crowd control, and has short cooldowns on his entire kit.
  • Sucrose
    • Sometimes better than Kazuha, depending on the team comp, due to her ability to weild Catalysts known for their support functions, the ability of Catalyst-wielders to apply their element with Normal Attacks. She offers crowd control and energy generation ontop of decent driving capabilities.
  • Venti
    • The Anemo Archon and the god of crowd control. He can buff teammates while equipping Elegy for the End and is an excellent choice for Fridge teams, due to his ability to group enemies while keeping them frozen.
  • Jean or Sayu
    • These characters fulfil similar roles in their ability to heal as well as Swirl. Jean has special synergy with Bennett, but since Bennett is less needed on these teams, we can argue that their usefulness is equivalent to one another.