Dancer Nilou from Sumeru shows elegance not only on stage, but also in battle: The Hydro swordswoman introduced in Genshin Impact’s 3.1 update uses her learned footwork and hand movements to banish her enemies with majestic sword strokes. To learn how to best equip and utilize this DPS character, check out our build guide for Nilou.
Genshin Impact Nilou: best weapons
Nilou brings some very strong advantages: she increases your team’s Elemental Mastery, her passive and active Hydro application is outstanding, and she is perfect for destroying large groups of enemies with her Hydro Dendro reactions. However, her skills severely restrict the kind of team she can effectively be part of, making her more of a long-term investment.
The same somewhat goes for her weapons. The best weapon for Nilou is the Key of Khaj-Nisut, a 5-star sword that was included with her in update 3.1. It increases the wielder’s HP and improves the Elemental Mastery based on the maximum HP on hits with elemental abilities. When this effect reaches three stacks, it expands to the rest of the team.
Alternate weapon options for Nilou are:
- Freedom-Sworn (5-star sword) – increases Elemental Mastery, damage, and Attack.
- Xiphos’ Moonlight (4-star sword) – increases Elemental Mastery and Energy Recharge.
- Sacrificial Sword (4-star sword) – increases Energy Recharge, skips cooldowns.
- Iron Sting (4-star sword) – increases Elemental Mastery and ability damage.
Genshin Impact Nilou: best artifacts
For the reaction build targeted in this guide, HP and Elemental Mastery are the most important stats, whereas Critical Hit Rate and Critical Damage can be somewhat neglected. They are still useful to boost Nilou’s damage, but since Bloom reactions can’t trigger critical hits, they are of less importance than is usually the case.
For this reason, it is recommended to use a mixture of two parts of the Gilded Dreams or Wanderer’s Troupe set and two parts of the Tenacity of the Millelith set. Gilded Dreams or Wanderer’s Troupe provides 80 points in Elemental Mastery, while Tenacity of the Millelith provides 20 percent more HP.
Target the following stat distribution on your artifact pieces:
- Plume: Attack (main stat), HP %, Elemental Mastery, Energy Recharge, Critical Hit Rate, Critical Damage (sub stats).
- Flower: HP (main stat), HP %, Elemental Mastery, Energy Recharge, Critical Hit Rate, Critical Damage (sub stats).
- Sands: HP % (main stat), Elemental Mastery, Energy Recharge, Critical Hit Rate, Critical Damage (sub stats).
- Goblet: HP % (main stat), Elemental Mastery, Energy Recharge, Critical Hit Rate, Critical Damage (sub stats).
- Circlet: HP % (main stat), Elemental Mastery, Energy Recharge, Critical Hit Rate, Critical Damage (sub stats).
Genshin Impact Nilou: best teams
At the time of her release, Nilou is a character that fits into very few groups – her abilities require other Hydro characters as well as Dendro characters on her team for her to perform at her best. She also requires a healer, as her Bloom reactions harm her own team members. The selection of suitable options is currently quite limited, so Nilou is mainly an investment for the future. Her second Constellation is also recommended to increase her effect on the field.
The following compositions are currently available with Nilou:
- Nilou (Main DPS), Kokomi (Sub DPS), Collei (Support), Dendro Traveler (Support).
- Tighnari (Main DPS), Nilou (Sub DPS), Collei (Support), Kokomi (Support).
In the first variant, Nilou spends most of her time on the field, using her Hydro effects to create powerful reactions with the Dendro effects contributed by Collei and the Dendro Traveler. Kokomi provides healing and additional Hydro damage.
In the second variant, Nilou is an off-field character that supports Tighnari with Hydro effects. Instead of Kokomi, Barbara, and Xingqiu are options, but the former decreases the team’s DPS potential, while the latter is a risk due to his lower healing.
It’ll take a while for Nilou’s full power to be explored and brought to the field, and she’ll never be the most flexible of characters, but in her niche, she’ll be a potent option.
Written by Marco Wutz on behalf of GLHF.
