What kind of music do you like? Classical, Clubhouse, EDM, Lo-fi, the list of genres goes on. Some of my friends love to listen to Lo-fi beats at work while I blast Eurobeats.
Whatever you enjoy, there is something out there for everyone. In a world full of mystical melodies, music plays such a vital role in our lives, acting as our own personal soundtrack for our stories, and it seems that the same love of music is present in Teyvat.Â
However, the land of wisdom has a very contrasting view of music and the arts in general, considering them a waste of time. The scholars of Sumeru are nerdy fellows who oppose recreational activities throughout their dominion. I can’t imagine living in such an environment where people impose such oppressive ideas on you.
Even if the scholars control everything, there will always be some who will rise against their oppressive rule. People who yearn to be free would find ways to nurture their art and flourish under any circumstances.
Like any other generic plot following an oppressive rule, some fellows continue to practice their art despite any fear of the scholars.
Zubayr Theatre’s star is a passionate dancer who can charm anyone with her fluid and flamboyant dance moves. A symbol of rebellion against the orthodox opinions of society, Nilou’s dance performances mesmerize people from all junctures of life.
In this Genshin Impact Nilou guide, we will learn about this cheerful dancer whose abilities can tear apart enemies in style.
We will go through ascension materials, best artifacts, team compositions, and tips to help you achieve efficient gameplay. Without further ado, let’s hurry up to Zubayr Theatre and watch Nilou’s radiant performance.
Step Up Sumeru, A Dance Revolution Is Here
Once you cross the Chasm to the wilderness in Sumeru, the archon quest Through Mists of Smoke and Forests Dark starts. Usually, archon quests are quite intense and throw a bunch of lore bombs at the player. However, it was something unique this time. I wasn’t expecting to meet this many characters in a single quest.
The quest had a runtime of around 3 hours, and I got to know so much about the land of wisdom. Collei, Tighnari, Alhaitham, Dehya, Nilou, and Dori, I was overwhelmed with interactions.
Though it sounds weird, we get to meet all of these characters while finding clues to cure Eleazar, a disease native to Sumeru. Collei was suffering from it, and the Traveler wanted to help her.
As we followed our path, we met another woman, Dunyazard, who happened to be a follower of Lesser Lord Kusanali and was helping to organize the Sabzeruz festival. If there’s a festival in Sumeru, there’s no way Nilou won’t be there.
After a lot of commotion with some mercenaries, we eventually meet Nilou in the Grand Bazaar, where she explains the festival’s cultural significance.
So far, we have met characters with sweet personalities. Our beloved Outrider Amber, the most adorable Klee, confused Qiqi, Mondstadt’s idol Barbara, and now the shining star of Sumeru, Nilou. You can immediately feel her huge presence in the Grand Bazaar. Everyone loves her dance and treats her as their family.
Some people might consider her odd, as she didn’t follow the usual scholarly path and became a dancer. None of that could have been possible without immense support from her family, which became her motivation.
I like that she’s surrounded by people who support her ambitions, and she goes out of her way to help others. Her smile can melt anyone’s heart, and her voice soothes people’s souls.
Nilou didn’t belong to an influential or artistic family. She was a simple girl with a lot of talent. Nilou was impressed with her teacher’s dance performance and started dancing along, where her teacher spotted her talent and asked her to mentor her.
It’s quite wholesome that she considers everyone at the Grand Bazaar, a big family. Though sometimes, she has to mediate among people and settle disputes, as nobody would say no to her precious smiling face.
I have to give a shoutout to Hoyoverse’s animation team because of how pleasingly they animated Nilou’s dance performance.
Ascension and Talent Materials
It’s that time of the year when you have got Nilou, and the hunt for ascension and talent materials start again. Nilou’s ascension stat, HP, is a must to level up. Her abilities rely on the maximum HP; the more HP you have, the better results you can expect from your team. To ascend Nilou to level 90, you need the following ascension materials:
- Mora x 420,000
- Perpetual Caliber x 46
- Padisarah x 168
- Fungal Spores x 18
- Luminescent Pollen x 30
- Crystalline Cyst Dust x 36
- Varunada Lazurite Sliver x 1
- Varunada Lazurite Fragment x 9
- Varunada Lazurite Chunk x 9
- Varunada Lazurite Gemstone x 6
As for the talents, you need to grab the following materials to take talent to the maximum level:
- Mora x 1,652,500
- Teachings of Praxis x 3
- Guide to Praxis x 21
- Philosophies of Praxis x 38
- Tears of Calamitous God x 6
- Fungal Spores x 6
- Luminescent Pollen x 22
- Crystalline Cyst Dust x 31
- Crown of Insight x 1
I highly recommend leveling up Nilou’s Elemental skill and Elemental burst, as her Normal attack talent is worthless to invest into. If you are running Bloom teams, you don’t need to invest in her talents at all, as the Bloom damage depends on a character’s level and Elemental mastery.
Combat Talents
Normal Attack: Dance of Samser
- Normal attack: Nilou strikes up to three times with her sword
- Charged attack: After consuming some stamina, Nilou does a twirling strike with her sword
- Plunging attack: Nilou plunges from mid-air to strike the ground to make an area-wide attack on the enemies below.
I don’t recommend leveling up Nilou’s normal attacks unless you want to play her as a Physical damage dealer. At that point, you are running a meme team and losing out on her abilities.
Elemental Skill: Dance of Haftkarsvar
Nilou’s elemental skill helps her to do Hydro damage to the enemies. Nilou enters the Pirouette state that can help the player activate either Sword Dance or Whirling Steps stances. Her damage is converted to Hydro damage which any other external elemental application cannot override. The damage is considered Elemental skill damage.
During the stances, performing the third dance step would end the Pirouette state, and Nilou can enable one of the following effects:
- Sword Dance: Nilou embraces the Lunar Prayer effect after unleashing a Luminous Illusion that deals Hydro damage to the enemies. Nilou’s normal attacks deal Hydro damage, and the final hit unleashes a Luminous Illusion. You cannot perform a charged attack in this pose.
- Whirling Steps: Nilou summons a Hydro aura around her that deals area-of-effect Hydro damage to the nearby enemies. The Whirling Water Wheel, as the aura, follows the active character and also applies Wet status to the enemies in its area.
You cannot perform charged attacks with Niloue under the effect of Lunar Prayer or Pirouette. The effects are removed once Nilou leaves the field.
An insanely powerful skill. I would rank Nilou’s skill among the top contenders for the best Elemental skills in the game. The only reason you would want to use Nilou is the Elemental skill that defines her entire playstyle and makes her a monstrous Hydro support in the game.
I’m in love, really am, because of how versatile her skill is. While using her skill, you must decide whether to trigger Sword Dance or Whirling steps.
A visual indicator shows the type of state you would switch into. Once you press Nilou’s elemental skill, you can decide the stance after the third dance step.
Once the visual indicator shows three marks, you can perform a normal attack to go into the Sword dance state or the skill to trigger the Whirling steps state. You can fill the visual indicator by pressing the skill button thrice or by combining the skill and normal attacks. Keep an eye on the indicator to perfectly switch into a state.
Nilou’s Sword Dance State has beautiful normal attack animations that cover a range and pierce through the enemies. Some community members compared her normal attacks to Kamisato Ayato’s normal attacks.
However, Nilou’s normal attacks in the Sword Dance state cover quite a range and go through the enemies. How do I know? I lined up slimes in a row, threw the last hit, and voila! Test confirmed.
Elemental Burst- Dance of Abzendegi: Distant Dreams, Listening Spring
Nilou performs a dance move to unleash a wave of area-of-effect Hydro damage to nearby enemies to apply the Lingering Aoen effect. The effect applies to all the enemies hit by the wave. After some time, the enemies impacted by the Lingering Aeon effect take another instance of Hydro damage.
I love the burst animation. It’s serene and portrays a beautiful animation with flowing flower petals. You have plenty of Hydro application with the Elemental skill. On top of that, if you use your Tranquility aura and Elemental burst’s Lingering Aeon, you can maximize the Hydro application. Nilou becomes a perfect Hydro support for Bloom teams.
Ascension Passive: Court of Dancing Petals
The passive focuses entirely on Dendro and Hydro characters. If there are only Dendro or Hydro characters in the party or at least one Dendro and one Hydro character, the third dance step of Nilou’s Elemental skill, Dance of Haftkarsvar, grants the Golden Chalice’s Bounty effect for 30 seconds.
The Golden Chalice Bounty has the following effects on the characters on the team:
- Whenever characters are hit by Dendro attacks, their Elemental mastery increases by 100 units for 10 seconds.
- The bloom reaction evolves to produce Bountiful Cores instead of normal Dendro Bloom cores. The Bountiful Cores have a larger area-of-effect with a short fuse for the explosion. You can summon more cores, and once the maximum limit of Bloom cores reaches, the existing ones will burst, dealing a massive amount of Dendro damage.
- The Bountiful Cores, however, cannot trigger reactions like Hyperbloom or Burgeon and share an upper limit with the Dendro Bloom cores. The damage, though, is still considered Bloom damage by these cores.
The passive only activates if the characters satisfy preliminary conditions of having Dendro or Hydro characters in the team.
Two and two make four. The entire Bloom playstyle revolves around two parts of Nilou’s kit, the Elemental skill, Dance of Haftkarsvar’s Whirling Steps, and this ascension passive.
Nilou’s abilities are definitely cracked in Bloom reactions. Because of this ascension passive’s dominant effect on her Bloom-reaction playstyle, you are restricted to Hydro and Dendro team compositions.
You can still pivot towards other team compositions; however, that will yield diminishing returns as this ascension passive cascaded into her constellations, other passives, and abilities.
Once you unlock this passive, the Bloom cores will evolve into more potent Bountiful cores. Basically, this passive makes Nilou overpowered and a must-have character in Bloom team compositions. I will talk more about these teams in the Team Composition section. Nilou’s Bloom teams really did blow my mind.
Ascension Passive: Dreamy Dance of Aeons
The damage dealt by the Bountiful Cores produced under the effect of Golden Chalice Bounty increased by 9 percent for every 1000 units of Nilou’s maximum HP above 30,000 units. You can achieve a maximum of 400 % damage bonus via this passive.
An amazing passive that synergizes with Nilou’s other ascension passive, Court of Dancing Petals. At this point, it’s clear that you have to stack a lot of HP on Nilou to capitalize on Bloom team compositions.
Utility Passive: White Jate Lotus
Nilou has a 12 % chance to double the cooking produce when you achieve Perfect Cooking on food items with Adventure-related effects. These food items include dishes that affect a character’s stamina consumption, like Barbatos Ratatouille, Sticky Honey Roast, etc.
Constellations
C1: Dance of the Waning Moon
Nilou’s Elemental skill, Dnace of Haftkarsvar, gains the following effects:
- The damage of Luminous Illusion increases by 65 %
- The duration of Tranquility Aura extends by 6 seconds.
It completely depends on you whether you want to utilize the Sword Dance stance to strike Hydro damage to enemies. However, I recommend opting for the Whirling Steps stance, which immensely benefits Bloom teams.
C2: The Starry Skies Their Flowers Rain
To benefit from this constellation, you must unlock Nilou’s ascension passive, Court of Dancing Petals. Once your characters, under the effect of the Golden Chalice Bounty, deal Hydro damage to an enemy, their Hydro resistance decreases by 35 % for 10 seconds.
Additionally, if you trigger a Bloom reaction to deal damage to the enemies, their Dendro resistance will be decreased by 35 % for 10 seconds.
Quite a powerful constellation. There aren’t many sources of Dendro resistance shred in the game besides some characters’ abilities and the Deepwood Memories artifact set.
The Hydro damage resistance shred is a sweet addition. However, you won’t use offensive Hydro DPS characters like Kamisato Ayato or Childe in Nilou’s teams. Still, a decent damage boost to off-field Hydro-supporting characters like Xingqiu and Yelan.
The Dendro resistance shred, on the other hand, would help the Bountiful Bloom cores to obliterate squishy enemies. Enemies will have less Dendro resistance, and you can potentially clear the Spiral abyss chambers quite faster.
C3: Beguiling Shadowstep
A standard constellation that increases Nilou’s Elemental burst Dance of Abzendegi: Distant Dreams, Listening Spring’s level by 3 with a maximum cap of 15 levels.
C4: Fricative Pulse
The damage of Nilou’s Elemental burst, Dance of Abzendegi: Distant Dreams, Listening Spring, increases by 50 % for 8 seconds, and she gains 15 units of Elemental Energy if the third step of her Elemental skill, Dance of Haftkarsvar’s Pirouette hits enemies.
The constellation introduces more flexibility to Nilou’s rotations. You can burst more often and don’t have to worry about building Energy recharge on her.
C5: Twirling Light
A standard constellation that increases Nilou’s Elemental skill, Dance of Haftkarsvar, by 3 levels with a limit of 15 levels.
C6: Frostbreaker’s Melody
With a maximum limit of 30 % and 60 % in CRIT Rate and CRIT damage, respectively, Nilou’s CRIT rate and CRIT damage increase by 0.6 % and 1.2 % for every 1000 Nilou’s Maximum HP units.
Quite a weird constellation. Don’t pull for a C6 Nilou if you aren’t focusing on her personal damage. The Bloom reactions rely on a character’s level and Elemental mastery. Even if you build her for personal damage, you won’t be using her passives effectively.
Artifacts
2-Piece Combinations
Usually, you will find me recommending 4-piece sets in character guides, but I have to take a step back for this one. Nilou’s best artifacts are combinations of 2-piece artifact sets that increase her health or Elemental mastery.
I’m currently running a 2-piece Tenacity of the Millelith and 2-piece Vourukasha’s Glow combination on Nilou, and the results have been astronomically amazing so far. Literally, Nilou is an insane supporting character. You can use the following 2-piece artifacts in a 2-piece 2-piece combination on Nilou to get either HP or Elemental Mastery:
- Tenacity of the Millelith: the 2-piece set provides a 20 % increase in health
- Vourukasha’s Glow: the 2-piece set increases the character’s health by 20 %
- Wanderer’s Troupe: the 2-piece set increases the Elemental Mastery by 80 units
- Noblesse Oblige: the 2-piece set increases the Elemental burst damage by 20 %
Vourukasha’s Glow
2-piece effect: Increases the health of a character by 20 %
4-piece effect: The Elemental skill and burst damage increase by 10 %. The damage is further increased by 80 % for 5 seconds if the equipped character takes damage. The effect can stack up to five times, each with an independent duration. Even if your character is off the field, they can activate this set’s effects.
Basically, the set increases an equipped character’s skill and burst damage. To maximize its effects, you need to take some damage. I’m not a fan of this set on Nilou because it is oriented for a main DPS playstyle. However, if you plan to use Nilou in vaporize team compositions, feel free to go with the set.
Artifact Attributes
Some characters need to have balanced stats, whereas others just need to stack that one stat which helps them to achieve perfection. Nilou is the latter case, who only needs HP stats.
To build her, you only need to focus on HP stats for the Sands, the Goblet, and the Circlet. My Nilou has 70k HP on her, and she obliterates enemies with the Bountiful cores. As for the substats, you should focus on HP %, Elemental Mastery, and Energy recharge.
Though the stats mentioned above are viable for a supporting Nilou build, some players tend to play her as a Hydro DPS instead. There’s nothing wrong with that besides one thing that it’s not her best role. I don’t recommend using a supporting character as a main DPS because it eventually is anti-synergetic to her passives.
Still, if you want to play her as a main DPS, you should equip ATK%/EM on the Sands, Hydro damage bonus % on the Goblet, and CRIT rate or CRIT damage on the Circlet.
Weapons
Key of Khaj-Nisut
Nilou’s signature weapon from the Deshret series features a massive 80 % HP buff with its passive. I was lucky to get this weapon from the promoted weapon’s banner. The passive is mindblowing because it increases Nilou’s Elemental mastery according to her health.
Additionally, the passive also increases team members’ Elemental mastery for 20 seconds. I highly recommend this weapon for optimal performance in Nilou’s Bloom team compositions.
Besides the Key of Khaj-Nisut, you can opt for the following Swords:
- Favonius Sword
- Xiphos’ Moonlight
- Sacrificial Sword
- Iron Sting
- Sapwood Blade
These weapons feature stats and passives that increase Elemental Mastery, Energy recharge, or the health of the equipping character.
There are swords with CRIT rate, CRIT damage, or ATK % stats; however, only opt for them if you plan to build Nilou as a main Hydro DPS. I don’t think that will be a good idea unless you have a very good vaporize team composition. Still, I don’t recommend building Nilou as a main Hydro damage dealer.
Team Compositions
Mono Hydro – Nilou Anemo Flex Flex
A few team compositions:
- Nilou,Kaedehara Kazuha, Xingqiu, Barbara
- Nilou,Sangonomiya Kokomi, Yelan, Sucrose
- Nilou, Kaedehara Kazuha, Sangonomiya Kokomi, Xingqiu
A mono Hydro team will focus on dealing as much Hydro damage as possible to the enemies. You won’t be able to trigger Nilou’s passives as they require a Dendro character in the team.
I highly recommend having an Anemo character like Kaedehara Kazuha, Sucrose, or Jean to equip the Viridescent Venerer artifact set. You can swirl the Hydro element on enemies to reduce their elemental resistance and deal more damage to them.
Kaedehara Kazuha can provide you with the Elemental damage bonus and crowd control. Sucrose can buff the Elemental mastery for her teammates for more potent reaction damage, and Jean can heal the characters. Depending on your requirement, you can use these characters in suitable roles for your team.
I highly recommend using a Double resonance setup to benefit from the Anemo and Hydro resonance. The Anemo resonance, Impetuous Winds, decreases the stamina consumption by 15 %, increases movement speed by 10 %, and reduces the skill cooldown by 5 %.
On the other hand, the Hydro resonance grants you a 40 % reduction from the Pyro aura and increases the maximum HP of characters by 25 %. Though you don’t have to build your team around Elemental resonances, it’s better to have additional buffs if your team is already good.
Bloom ( Bountiful Cores ) – Nilou Dendro Flex Flex
A few team compositions:
- Nilou, Sangonomiya Kokomi, Nahida, Dendro Traveler
- Nilou, Nahida, Barbara, Xingqiu
- Nilou, Yaoyao, Dendro Traveler, Xingqiu
Nilou excels in Bloom teams. You can capitalize on her ascension passives to buff the Bloom cores. The Bloom cores are morphed into Bountiful cores whose damage depends on characters’ Elemental mastery and level. I suggest going through our Dendro reactions guide to understand the Bloom reaction in detail.
I did mention that 5 % self-damage from Bloom cores is trivial; however, when you are bursting several Bountiful cores around you, the damage does become noticeable.
There were times when the Dendro and Hydro applications from my characters summoned a ton of cores, and their explosions eventually took down my characters. Sure, the enemies didn’t have a chance against my characters. Still, because of the Bountiful cores’ self-damage, my characters’ health pool was continuously depleted.
To compensate for the health loss, I highly recommend having a healer or shielder on your team. Sangonomiya Kokomi, Barbara, Yaoyao, or Baizhu can fulfill your healing requirements. Sangonomiya Kokomi and Barbara are good for Hydro resonance, Hydro application, and consistent healing for the team.
I love Sangonomiya Kokomi’s Bake-Kurage, as it can heal your on-field characters. As for Barbara, her Elemental skill applies Hydro to the enemies near you and also heals your on-field character.
As for Dendro healers, Yaoyao and Baizhu are marvelous. Yaoyao’s kit scales her maximum health and can tank heavy enemy hits. Her Elemental burst can heal your party members, and the Yuegui provides an off-field Dendro application.
Dendro characters like Nahida, Alhaitham, Collei, and Dendro Traveler are essential for Nilou’s bloom teams. Nahida is a really good on-field Dendro applicator whose skill can be triggered during reactions.
I do feel that Nilou’s teams without Nahida lack potent Dendro applications. You can also use Alhaitham instead of Nahida if you don’t have enough Dendro applications. Finally, as for the off-field Hydro application, Xingqiu and Yelan are amazing characters.
Genshin Impact Nilou Guide: FAQs
Question: Should I Pull for Nilou’s Signature Weapon, the Key of Khaj-Nisut?
Answer: I know that free-to-play players don’t have much flexibility in gacha pulls, and they shouldn’t wish recklessly. That’s why, as a free-to-play player, you should stick with 4-star options.
Swords like the Sacrificial sword can help you use the Elemental skill twice and the Favonius sword to recharge the Energy. However, I highly recommend wishing on the weapon if you can afford the Key of Khaj-Nisut.
Question: Should I Use Nilou in Vaporize Teams?
Answer: Definitely no! She can still be used in those teams to trigger reactions, but you won’t benefit from her abilities and passives. Stick to Bloom reactions, and you can deal massive damage.
Question: Can you Use Characters from Other Elements Besides Dendro and Hydro?
Answer:Â You can use Anemo and Geo characters as they don’t have any reaction with the Dendro element. I found Zhongli, Sucrose, Jean, and Kaedehara Kazuha good picks for her teams.
Music Knows No Language Barriers
Without a doubt, Bloom teams are amazing. However, you have to play cautiously, as the self-damage from Bloom cores can kill your characters. I was playing Nahida and Alhaitham as on-field Dendro appliers in the Spiral Abyss when they died to Bloom cores’ damage. You shouldn’t even think about bursting Bountiful cores without a decent healer.
Despite that, Nilou excels in Bloom teams. No one comes close to her in this niche, and she clearly dominates the meta regarding Bloom’s reactions. That was it for the guide, and I hope to see you burst as many cores as possible in the abyss. Show those enemies how brutal the Bloom reactions are.
Besides writing about his favourite games, Himanshu prefers to keep himself up-to-date with the latest happenings in the financial world, watching anime, cooking and listening to music from all around the world.
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