Landing up in Inazuma was full of troubles, and many a time, the Traveler met with unforeseen circumstances. Whether it was the harsh weather of Tatasaruna island, or deceitful people trying to stir unrest in the lands of Inazuma, the Traveler always found a way to swiftly deal with them.
As the secrets started to unravel, the Traveler got acquainted with influential individuals and was able to decipher some dark mysteries. While the Traveler was beginning their journey in solving mysteries, one person was already a million steps ahead.
After solving numerous cases, Shikanoin Heizou has gained quite a reputation in the Tenryou commission and can get the truth in unexpected ways. This young detective has keen and sharp senses and doesn’t fear subduing his enemies if they try to block his path to the truth. Coming from humble beginnings, Heizou has a track record of solving some major cases in Inazuma, and it’s clear that no one comes closer to him in excellence.
In this Heizou Genshin Impact guide, let’s get to know more about this young detective from Inazuma, who’s not only keen and sharp but vigorous enough to take matters into his hands when things take an unpredictable turn.
I will go over his weapons, artifacts, and best team compositions and discuss how you can benefit from his abilities in the best possible way. That said, the time’s come to know more about this prodigy detective.
Shikanoin Heizou
Heizou is a young detective from the Tenryou commission known for his keen sense and sharp skills. Considered a prodigy by many, Heizou’s able to solve cases in unexpected ways and believes that one should be evil’s natural enemy. He was admitted into the Tenryou commissions based on his sheer genius and came from humble beginnings.
Despite starting from zero, Heizou has never underperformed and put many criminals behind bars. He takes pride in his achievements and even claims that criminals know his name more than the name of the Raiden shogun herself.
Once you complete a few quests in the game with Heizou, you will realize his genius, and he is a remarkable character. Heizou prefers to use his intelligence to counter enemies, but if the situation demands, he doesn’t hesitate to practice martial arts.
It may seem trivial to others, but after losing his childhood friend to the sins of the world, Heizou swore to wipe out all the evils that plague society.
Heizou’s journey has been tough since childhood, but that won’t shake his unbreakable will to wipe out the criminals. Well, his character is the only reason I pulled for a C6 Heizou, and I don’t regret spending all my primogems on him.
Ascension & Talent Material
Heizou’s ascension stat Anemo damage bonus helps to buff his elemental damage to enemies. This makes him a really good main DPS candidate and allows you to flexibly build teams around him. Whether you want to play him in a DPS or burst-support role, Heizou will sync perfectly with your characters and yield outstanding results.
Here are Heizou’s ascension materials that you need to level him up to level 90:
- Mora x 420,000
- Treasure hoarder insignia x 18
- Silver raven insignia x 30
- Golden raven insignia x 36
- Onikabuto x 168
- Vayuda turquoise sliver x 1
- Vayuda turquoise fragment x 9
- Vayuda turquoise chunk x 9
- Vayuda turquoise gemstone x 6
- Runic fang x 46
Talent materials to level up a single talent:
- Mora x 1,652,500
- Treasure hoarder insignia x 6
- Silver raven insignia x 22
- Golden raven insignia x 31
- The meaning of aeons x 6
- Crown of insight x 1
- Teachings of transience x 3
- Guide to transience x 21
- Philosophies of transience x 38
If you are going for the main DPS role, then you should invest in his normal attacks before leveling up his elemental skill and elemental burst. However, my rule of thumb is to invest in all talents of Catalyst characters because I want to capitalize on every ounce of damage source.
If you want to go with a complete reaction build with elemental mastery on artifacts, you can avoid leveling up the talents. That will buff your swirl damage, as that depends on your character’s total elemental mastery.
Talents
Normal attack: Fudou Style Martial Arts
- Normal attack: Heizou strikes 5 times with his fists to deal Anemo damage
- Charged attack: After consuming a certain amount of stamina, Heizou performs a sweeping kick to deal Anemo damage
- Plunging attack: Heizou deals area-of-effect Anemo damage on the ground by plunging in mid-air
You can level up his normal attack talent if you want to play him as the main damage dealer. Honestly, I prefer to level up Catalysts’ normal talents if they are my main DPS, as this eventually adds up some extra damage.
In Heizou’s case, you can use his normal attacks to swirl elements on enemies and deal Anemo damage simultaneously.
Elemental Skill: Heartstopper Strike
- Press: Quickly deal Anemo damage with a heartstopper strike
- Hold: Heizou charges up his blow to gain a Declension effect that increases the strike’s power. Once the hold is released or the skill duration expires, Heizou deals Anemo damage.
- Declension:Â Increase the output of the heartstopper strike with a maximum of 4 stacks. A conviction effect is produced when you get 4 stacks that deal Anemo damage in a large area in front of you.
A really good skill to deal massive damage in a short window. You can get the Declension stacks after charging your skill for some time. However, I won’t recommend you to go that route.
It’ll be better to use his passive to generate the Declension stack and combine his normal and charged attacks to swirl the elements. After you gain enough stacks or get the Conviction status, you can use his skill to dish out severe damage.
Elemental Burst: Windmuster Kick
Heizou jumps in the air to perform a kick that explodes on contact with enemies and pulls nearby objects to deal area-wide Anemo damage.
If the kick comes in contact with Hydro, Electro, Cryo, or Pyro, then a further explosion of that element occurs. Only a maximum of 4 enemies can be hit with this, and a single enemy cannot be affected by different elements simultaneously.
I love characters who have low energy burst costs because you can easily spam those bursts to scale up the damage output. Heizou’s burst makes him a viable choice to play either as the main damage dealer or a burst one, depending on the team composition you are on.
However, remember that it’s better in elemental reaction team comps because the burst can come in contact with other elements and amplify the effects. The burst is average in case of grouping the enemies and falls off compared to characters like Sucrose, Kazuha, or Venti. To compensate for that, you may swap another crowd-control character if facing multiple enemies.
Passive: Paradoxical Practice
Heizou gains one Declension stack for his elemental skill after triggering a swirl reaction on the field. This effect can be triggered once every 0.1 s
An amazing passive that helps to generate the Declension stacks on Heizou. You can quickly swap to him, do a normal and charge attack, and gain a Declension stack. On top of that, the cooldown is a fraction of a second, so you won’t have any problem getting those stacks.
Passive: Penetrative Reasoning
All party members’ elemental mastery increases by 80 after Heizou’s elemental skill hits an enemy. This effect persists for 10 seconds and excludes Heizou.
Another decent passive that can help to buff other characters’ elemental mastery. If you are running an elemental reaction team with reactions like electro-charged, vaporize, or melt, then it’s a must to have good elemental mastery on characters.
The passive is more oriented towards elemental reaction teams, but this doesn’t mean that you should only run that. In my opinion, stick with the setup that works for you.
Passive: Pre-Existing Guilt
The sprinting stamina consumption of your party members decreases by 20 %. This effect doesn’t stack with other talents that have the same effect.
A good passive when it comes to exploration. If you don’t have Heizou on your team, then you can use Kaeya for the same.
Constellations
Named Juvenile Casebook
Heizou’s normal attack speed increases by 15 % and gains 1 Declension stack on taking the field for 5 seconds. This effect has a cooldown of 10 seconds.
I found this constellation helpful in teams where I had to use him to quickly damage characters and swap to my main damage dealer.
I often use Catalyst users like Ningguang, Yae Miko, or Wanderer in a burst damage role to fill up some DPS loss, and Heizou can do the same. Overall, this constellation is a nice addition to his kit, allowing for flexible rotation.
Investigative Collection
The Windmuster kick’s suction effect is enhanced, and the duration increases by 1 second.
I have a C6 Heizou, and honestly, this constellation doesn’t do much. You may see a better grouping effect, but it falls off quite early when you compare it with characters like Sucrose, Kazuha, or Venti.
Esoteric Puzzle Book
The level of heartstopper strike increases by 3 levels with a maximum limit of 15.
Tome of Lies
The first explosion in each Windmuster kick will regenerate 9 energy for Heizou, with every subsequent explosion in that Windmuster kick will each generate 1.5 energy. This way, one Windmuster kick can regenerate a total of 13.5 energy for Heizou.
The constellation is good for teams that can capitalize on elemental reactions and provide a decent elemental application. One thing that you should keep in mind before bursting is to apply an element to enemies. You may miss the elemental effect on the burst and be unable to benefit from this constellation.
Secret Archive
The level of Windmuster kick increased by 5 with a maximum limit of 15
Curious Casefiles
The CRIT rate of the heartstopper strike increases by 4 % for each Declension stack. Additionally, when Heizou possesses a Conviction status, the CRIT damage of this strike increases by 32%.
Applicable for teams where you want to take advantage of the main DPS build. With this constellation, you can buff your Anemo damage and enjoy an extra CRIT rate and CRIT damage. I love to use Heizou in Anemo damage roles, and this constellation really helps to buff the CRIT attributes.
Weapons
5-Star Weapons
A Thousand Floating Dreams
A really good weapon for Heizou in elemental reaction team comps because you can benefit from the elemental mastery. The weapon’s substat and passive helps to increase the elemental mastery for the equipping character. Ultimately, this weapon with a full build elemental mastery artifact set will yield amazing results.
Kagura’s Verity
Kagura’s verity features a CRIT damage substat that can help to increase Anemo damage. A really good weapon for teams where you want to play him as the main damage dealer and use his skill to burst damage the enemies.
Once you use your elemental skill, this weapon’s passive will buff your elemental damage bonus and skill. So, that’s a guaranteed win if your playstyle is centered around Heizou’s elemental skill.
Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds
I love this weapon, not because it has a CRIT rate substat, but because its passive features a nice quality-of-life change. You get an increase in the movement speed and stack elemental damage bonus over time up to 4 times.
However, this weapon is good only if you play Heizou as the main damage dealer. Once your character falls or swaps to another one, the buffs will reset. So, remember to have support characters whose abilities last long on the field.
Memory of Dust
The weapon is good for teams where you want to boost your attack percentage off the roof. The passive helps to increase your attack by 100 % when shielded and features attack percentage as a substat.
However, this forces you to have a shield character in the team to benefit from the passive. I would say it’s still good with a character like Diona, Layla, or Thoma, who can also provide some off-field elemental application.
Skyward Atlas
The weapon features attack percent as a secondary stat and increases its elemental damage bonus by a certain percentage from its passive. However, the passive isn’t that great when it comes to dealing damage to nearby opponents and has a long cooldown of 30 seconds. So, if you don’t have other options, you can use this weapon for its high base attack and elemental damage bonus.
Tulaytullah’s Remembrance
The weapon features a CRIT damage substat and a passive that helps to increase the normal attack speed after using an elemental skill. The normal attack’s damage also increases over time and grants damage buffs to normal attacks. However, the peculiar thing about the passive is that it resets after using the elemental skill again.
The weapon is curated for Wanderer, but you can make it work for Heizou in a way. Keep the passive reset condition in mind, and you can churn out decent damage with normal attacks or benefit from damage buffs.
4-Star Weapons
Mappa Mare
A really good weapon if you want to use Heizou in elemental reaction teams. The weapon has an elemental mastery substat, and the passive helps to increase the elemental damage bonus on a reaction. You can easily trigger good reactions with this weapon on Heizou, and extra elemental mastery helps to increase the swirl damage on him.
Sacrificial Fragments
This weapon is usually recommended on Sucrose; however, if you want to stack up some elemental mastery on Heizou and don’t have Mappa mare, then this weapon is your best pick. The passive helps to reset the elemental skill, which can help you to generate more energy particles. Though, I don’t think you need to rely on the passive, as the burst cost is already quite low.
Solar Pearl
The Solar pearl is a battlepass weapon you can obtain after purchasing the battlepass and completing the required levels. The weapon features a CRIT rate substat with a passive that helps to increase a character’s damage.
Basically, the passive buffs normal attacks, elemental skill, and elemental burst damage with a combination of attack patterns.
In Heizou’s case, this can help massively because it’s recommended to use a variety of attack sequences with him to trigger swirl reactions. I would suggest you to go with this weapon if you want to play him as the main damage dealer.
The Widsith
The Widsith is one of the favorite weapons in the game because of its extremely potent passive. The weapon features a CRIT damage substat and a passive that depends on RNG to grant attack, elemental damage, or elemental mastery buff. Depending on the passive’s effect, you can churn out severe damage.
Because Heizou’s kit is so flexible, the RNG may not affect his damage output much because two of the three given effects are oriented towards a main damage dealer role. However, if you want to go with a complete elemental mastery build, you should equip Mappa Mare or Sacrificial fragments.
Blackcliff Agate
You can get the Blackcliff agate from the Paimon’s bargains shop and exchange the masterless starglitter for this weapon. I won’t recommend you to use this weapon unless you don’t have another viable option. The weapon features a CRIT damage substat and a passive that helps to increase attack after defeating an opponent.
Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers
This weapon is an amazing choice if you want to play Heizou in a support role. The weapon passive helps to buff the next swapping character’s attack by a massive value and allows Heizou to be a bit flexible with the Viridescent venerer artifact set.
Artifacts
Viridescent Venerer
Viridescent Venerer is one of the most potent artifact sets in the game that grants an Anemo damage bonus and elemental resistance shred from enemies. You can use this set on Heizou when you want to play him on an elemental reaction team besides a mono Anemo team.
The artifact’s set bonus helps you to shred elemental resistance from enemies after you swirl an element on them. If you want to play Heizou with a complete elemental mastery build, then the Viridescent Venerer should be your go-to choice. Indeed, this artifact set is a mind-blowing choice for teams focusing on elemental reactions.
Thundering Fury
Thundering fury focuses on elemental reactions like overload, electro-charged, Hyperbloom, and Quicken in Heizou’s case. You can equip this artifact set on him with another Anemo character with the Viridescent venerer set to maximize the damage potential. The thundering fury will help reduce the elemental skill cooldown on Heizou, which can be triggered to deal burst damage.
Artifacts Summary
In certain situations, you can use Wanderer’s Troupe, Gladiator’s Finale, Shimenawa’s Reminiscence, or even use 2-piece 2-piece combinations. Eventually, it all depends on the type of enemies you face and the characters you have that can synergize with Heizou.
Coming to artifacts’ attributes. You should go with a complete EM artifact combination on Heizou in a support role where he can benefit from the elemental mastery to trigger reactions. If you want to go with a DPS role, then attack percentage on sands, Anemo damage bonus on the goblet, and CRIT rate or damage on circlet would be optimal choices.
Team Compositions
With so many characters on the roster, you can form many teams that may or may not work out in your situation. Though the teams recommended in the sections below are good to use, I’d still recommend you to test characters on your account.
Some teams are constellation dependent, while others may require a niche weapon. Nonetheless, a rule of thumb is to pay attention to enemy types, form a team that can counter their abilities, and keeps your energy recharge in check.
Mono Anemo
Heizou Anemo Anemo Flex
A mono Anemo team focuses on dealing only Anemo damage to the enemies. You can also use the Viridescent venerer artifact set on another Anemo character to shred elemental resistance from enemies if they have an elemental aura on them. Another recommendation would be to use dedicated Anemo support like Faruzan, who can buff Anemo damage and reduce Anemo resistance from enemies.
Additionally, you can use a character like Zhongli in the team to have a shield to reduce enemies’ elemental resistance. The catch here is to maximize the Anemo damage output or trigger as many reactions as possible with Anemo characters. You should also keep the energy recharge of characters in mind so that you can use their burst.
Team examples:
- Heizou, Jean, Venti, Zhongli
- Heizou, Sucrose,Faruzan, Jean
Anemo Resonance
Heizou Anemo Flex Flex
The catch here in this team is to prioritize the Anemo resonance that helps to reduce the skill cooldown by 5 % and decrease stamina consumption. You can benefit from this passive if you want to use charged attacks on a character like Keqing and save some stamina. On top of that, you get a movement speed increase that can help you to easily position on the battlefield.
Anemo characters like Kazuha, Sucrose, or Venti are good options if you want massive crowd control on enemies. You can swap in some characters to benefit from elemental reactions, or you can go with a double resonance setup with two characters from the same element.
Team examples
- Heizou, Faruzan,Fischl, Beidou
- Heizou, Sucrose, Kokomi, Xingqiu
Elemental Reactions
Anemo characters are popular for their ability to maximize elemental reaction damage by using the Viridescent venerer artifact set, which unlocks unlimited team comp possibilities. You can couple your characters with Heizou and equip him with the Viridescent Venerer artifact set to shred elemental resonance from enemies to deal massive amounts of reaction damage.
In the teams below, Heizou will continue to shred elemental resistance from enemies so that other characters can trigger respective reactions. For these teams, you must max out the elemental mastery on your Heizou or the character who will trigger reactions.
Do check our guides on elemental mastery and Dendro reactions, where you’ll learn about the core elemental mechanics of the game.
Vaporize: Heizou Hydro Pyro Flex
- Xingqiu, Heizou, Hu Tao, Sucrose
- Kokomi, Heizou, Xiangling, Kazuha
Melt: Heizou Cryo Pyro Flex
- Heizou, Kaeya, Xiangling, Sucrose
- Heizou, Rosaria, Diluc, Jean
Freeze: Heizou Cryo Hydro Flex
- Heizou, Rosaria, Kokomi, Diona
- Heizou, Kaeya, Xingqiu, Barbara
Bloom: Heizou Dendro Hydro Flex
- Heizou, Collei, Xingqiu, Sucrose
- Heizou, Dendro Traveler, Kokomi, Nahida
Hyperbloom: Heizou Dendro Hydro Electro
- Heizou, Collei, Kokomi, Fischl
- Heizou, Dendro Traveler, Xingqiu, Kuki Shinobu
- Heizou, Collei, Yelan, the Raiden Shogun
Electro-charged:Â Heizou Hydro Electro Flex
- Heizou, Xingqiu, Fischl, Sucrose
- Heizou, Yelan, Kuku Shinobu, Kokomi
Support
Support team compositions focus on using the Viridescent Venerer artifact on Heizou. Suppose you don’t have a suitable Anemo character or any Anemo character. In that case, you can equip the Viridescent Venerer artifact set on Heizou to benefit from the artifact’s set bonus. You can equip him in teams where you want to shred elemental resistance from enemies and deal massive amounts of elemental damage.
Questions
Question: Is Heizou a DPS or support?
Answer: Being an Anemo character with the ability to equip the Viridescent venerer artifact set, Heizou can opt for any role. Ultimately, it depends on how you build and use him in your team.
Question: How do I get the maximum damage on Heizou?
Answer: Invest in his talents, level up his artifacts and take advantage of the Declension stacks to obtain a Conviction status. Once you have enough Declension stacks, Heizou can unleash a burst of damage with his elemental skill.
Question: Can you recommend a good 4-star team with Heizou?
Answer: I recently played Heizou, Xingqiu, Xiangling, and Fischl in a team and loved the experience. You can benefit from this team’s reactions or go with other 4-star options like Beidou, Collei, Kuki Shinobu, Diona, or Faruzan.
Conclusion
Heizou is an amazing 4-star character that can be a great Anemo damage dealer. His abilities allow him to pair with other off-field damage dealers that can provide utility on the battlefield. His abilities are rock-solid and potent enough to destroy enemies in a blink. With passives that enhance his skill and burst damage, Heizou wins over other 4-star characters in terms of damage.
Being a character with an Anemo vision, Heizou can equip the Viridescent Venerer artifact and benefit massively from the elemental resistance shred. I’ve cleared many abyss floors with him on my team, and if you love his gameplay, you should invest in him properly.
With that being said, the time’s come to take the leave and meet you in another guide. Feel free to check our guides on other 4-star characters who shine in their respective roles and can bring much utility to your teams. Take care and see you soon!
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