Genshin Impact Weapons Guide

Weapons are one of the most important aspects of Genshin Impact, and with a plethora of options, a player might be overwhelmed with the choices. You will notice that the Genshin characters have access to weapons, but they don’t have laser sights or thermal sensors. Instead, they are normal medieval-era weapons.

Although the weapons themselves don’t really pack a punch, extra abilities to their kits make all the difference. Weapons in Genshin Impact are rather unique and come in ranging rarities that you can equip on your characters to boost their abilities.

Let’s go over weapons in Genshin Impact in brief detail so that you can get a gist of them. Weapons in Genshin Impact are unique on their own and have their own mechanics that a player needs to get hold of.

Once you go through our Genshin Impact weapons guide, I’m pretty sure you will be able to understand weapons in a much better sense. So, without further ado, let’s hop into our knowledge train and learn about weapons in the game.

General Details

I’m sure you do know what weapons are as, like me, you must have played a lot of games. I’ve played a lot of first-person shooters, and I must say transitioning to a game that doesn’t feature the usual modern weaponry was a learning curve for me.

Weapons are in-game equipment that you can equip on your character to deal damage to the enemies. Currently, a character can only equip one type of weapon in combat and not use multiple weapons. Though, there are cases like Childe where he can use his Hydro blades instead of a bow in his elemental skill. But that’s a variation in his kit, and ultimately he’s a bow user in the end.

Now, Weapons in Genshin Impact have unique aspects about them that equipping them will give you a passive and a secondary stat. Let’s break down the weapon into more details to grasp the concept.

Availability

Weapons can be obtained in the game from various sources, but you need to keep in mind that it depends on their rarity. Depending on the rarity, their sources may differ, and you may have limited means to get them.

Let’s discuss them in the order of rarity and see where you can get them.

1-Star or 2-Star Weapons

Although the Traveler uses a dull blade in the game’s cutscenes, I don’t recommend you to equip weapons of this rarity. Simply because, let alone featuring a secondary stat, they don’t even have a passive at all.

They are pretty easy to obtain as they are available in abundance, and you can get a couple of them from just opening chests in the overworld. You can also purchase some of them from the Blacksmiths shop or after interacting with NPCs that offer a reward for following dialogue branches.

In a sense, I use these weapons to feed to other weapons because they don’t have enough use in the end-game and are not even sufficient for the early game at all. 

3-Star Weapon

If you are in the early game or just starting out the game, then I recommend you use at least a 3-star weapon on your character. You can find them in chests like luxurious chests or precious chests or from the Wishes. Also, some of them are available in the vast open world or obtained from NPCs after following certain dialogue branches.

Usually, they won’t be potent in the long run, but some of them are really good when you refine them to their maximum level. Some notable mentions are the Harbinger of Dawn, Thrilling Tales of the Dragon Slayers, and White Tassel, which are quite good weapons featuring useful stat and passive. Also, on top of that, 3-star weapons are easier to refine to their maximum level because of their easy availability.

4-Star Weapon

You can say these weapons are the common ground for most of the player base because they can be obtained from numerous sources. They can be received through wishing on character or weapons banners.

Though there have been instances when some 4-star weapons were given to players during major events and were event-exclusive only where their refinements were given for free. Also, you can receive them from quests, adventure rank rewards, or battle passes.

With a variety of sources for these weapons, you can be sure to get at least one of them in the early game and equip them with your characters. If you manage to save up some Masterless Starglitter, then you can exchange some of it for a weapon on periodic rotation in the Paimon’s Bargains Shop.

I wouldn’t advise you to use up Masterless Starglitter because it’s a rare item and instead can be used on buying a character constellation or obtaining a new 4-star character. As you will progress through the game, you will get more 4-star weapons. But I won’t say that they are as abundant as 3-star weapons because you need a purple drop to get a 4-star weapon.

5-Star Weapon

These weapons are of the highest rarity in the game and can be obtained through the Standard banner Wanderlust Invocation or promoted Weapons banners only. With these two sources only to get the weapon, consider yourself lucky if you are able to get these weapons.

I remember I got Aquila Favonia and Skyward Blade in one multi-pull and was on cloud nine after the wish. I was in the early-game phase of the game and exploring the Liyue region, where I got on the statue of seven near Qingyun Peak and wished. I saw the golden star but wasn’t expecting 2 5-star weapons and since then leveled them up to level 90.

Ascension and Refinement

Just like characters, you can also ascend weapons to level 90, and they will change their appearance after the second phase’s ascension. There are currently six phases of ascension, and you need weapon ascension materials to ascend the weapons. Usually, it will depend on the rarity of the weapon for how a large number of resources it will take to ascend that weapon.

Additionally, you will need other weapons or Weapon enhancement ores to level up a weapon. There are special cases when you are trying to ascend a weapon in an event, and that event-exclusive weapon gets a 1.5x EXP boost.

A boost of this type can help you to save up your precious ores, mora, and EXP materials that you can use elsewhere. You can also use a character like Raiden Shogun, whose passive All preserver helps decrease the Mora expended while ascending Swords and Polearms by 50%.

As for the refinements, they help to increase the weapon’s passive bonus that scales up to 5 levels. You need to feed 4 copies of the same weapon to take it to refinement level 5, which is the maximum refinement level for a weapon.

Though you may get a creative idea to refine higher-level weapons where one weapon is refinement rank 3, and the other is 1. The result will be a refinement rank 4 weapon but notice that you won’t get back your invested materials.

There have been certain occasions where refinement items were unique event-exclusive items and not identical weapon copies. A good example of it is The Catch weapon, whose refinements can be exchanged for fish at the Inazuma fishing association.

You will get these refinement materials from major events that happen after major updates and get an EXP boost for their ascension. Festering Desire, Oathsworn Eye and Fading Twilight are a few examples that come to my mind right now.

Base Attack, Passive and Secondary Stat

A weapon’s base attack is its bread and butter of it because it contributes directly to a character’s damage potential. Characters like Bennett can take the most benefit from swords like Aquila Favonia, which offers the highest base attack among swords. At the end of the day, you will find yourself equipping higher base attack weapons on your characters with potent passives to boost team damage.

Passives are effects that are active when your character equips a certain weapon. Generally, they come into effect when your active character wields the weapon and doesn’t trigger unless mentioned in the weapon.

There aren’t many weapons that will offer multiple passives like The Widsith, but most of them will feature a single passive that your character can take benefit from. Generally, the weapons whose rarity is higher than 3-star are the ones that get passive.

Secondary stats can be found in weapons that have a rarity above 3-star and provides extra bonus stat to the wielder. They are quite helpful in the end-game because you need to face challenging enemies, and equipping a weapon with a better stat can boost your existing stat of the same type.

Suppose you need extra energy recharge on Jean, then equipped Skyward Blade on her would be phenomenal because it features Energy recharge as its secondary stat. You can fill up the gap between stat optimization with the help of a relevant weapon on your character and optimize their utility even further.

Coming to secondary stats, you can find the following secondary stats on weapons with 3-star or higher rarity:

• Attack percent
• Crit rate percent
• Elemental mastery
• Energy recharge percent
• Physical damage bonus
• Defense percent
• HP percent
• Crit damage percent

Weapon Types

Let’s go over the different weapon types that we have in the game and discuss them briefly in the sections below. Currently, there are five types of weapons that you can get in the game, and it depends on your taste which weapon you prefer to use the most.

I’ve put my short remarks over the weapons and penned down some reviews from my experience. Remember that not all the characters from the same weapon type will have a similar type of attack animation.

It’s possible that the characters from the same class will have unique animation or even attack patterns. Nonetheless, they will be a bit different from the general attack patterns, but the class will be the same. 

Also, In no way am I discouraging anyone from sticking to a particular set of weapons at all. You should feel free to try out and experiment with the weapons in your inventory and have fun with them! Without further ado, let’s go over weapon types and get to know more about them. 

Bow

Bows are long-ranged weapons that you can use in the game and deal elemental damage to enemies with a charged shot. Depending on your character’s element, the bow will deal the same elements’ damage with a charged shot.

Normal bow attacks don’t have enough range as the charged ones and usually have less precision at the enemies. Unless you want to build a character as a physical damage dealer like Fischl, then you won’t be using normal bow attacks. I mostly use them to try to slay animals in close range for meat or just break some boxes around me. That’s all for me when it comes to normal bow attacks.

Charged bow attacks deal elemental damage to the enemies and apply the element to them. After holding the shot for a moment, you will notice element gathering at the point of the arrow, indicating that the shot will deal elemental damage.

These attacks are more precise but require more time to aim at the enemy, and the camera shifts to one side of your character. There are some characters like Yelan whose charged shot time reduces by 80 %, but that’s all thanks to her kit and abilities. Usually, you will use Charged attacks with bow characters to shut down Ruin guards or graders temporarily.

In a plunging attack, you will notice a shower of arrows coming down at the point of impact, and it will deal damage to enemies in a small area. I don’t think plunging is the best strategy for bow users. Only Venti can create an upcurrent at a place for you to use your plunge attacks, and you don’t get any elemental bonuses for doing so.

Continue reading related Genshin Bow Guides:

• Skyward Harp Guide
• Amos Bow Guide

Sword

Swords are good in a melee range where your character can deal damage with faster attack patterns. Sword’s normal attacks can be used to deal physical damage to the enemies. However, there are characters like Ayaka or Keqing whose normal attacks can get elemental infusion due to their abilities.

As for the charged attacks, generally, your character will deal area-wide damage to enemies in the front, but there are some characters who are an exception to this. Characters like Jean, Kaeya, or Kamisato Ayaka are a few examples who don’t follow the usual charged attack routine.

I won’t go into the details, and listing other characters would be overkill because some players may not have those characters. I’d urge you to check out our character guides to know more about the characters and see if their charged attacks are unique or not.

In the case of plunge attacks, you will deal area-wide damage in a small area, and the damage will be physical damage. I generally use plunge attacks to jump down to a location or when my character’s stamina is about to run out.

Personally, I don’t think that it matters much unless you want to level up to normal attacks and try to build physical damage characters or take benefit from an elemental infusion. Kamisato Ayaka is a prime example whose normal attacks can be leveled up so that you can take the benefit of her cryo infusion on normal and charged attacks.

Dealing with charged attacks will consume a small amount of stamina, so I’ll recommend you position yourself better on the battlefield.

Here’s a list of specific Swords we have thorougly covered:

• Aquila Favonia Guide
• Skyward Blade Guide
• Sacrificial Sword Guide
• Black Sword Guide
• Favonia Sword Guide

Polearm

Polearms also cover a melee range, but you can say they cover a few more steps than a melee range. Their normal attacks are fast combinations, and charged attacks consist of a character charging at the enemy. There are a few exceptions to the charged attack animation in the case of Raiden Shogun, Xiao, and Zhongli, where they have unique charged attacks.

In case of a plunging attack, the character will deal damage in a small area at the point of impact and is somewhat effective in breaking ores. There have been some events where players glitched the polearm plunging animation, and it feels like a nail drilling down. 

But there are characters like Raiden Shogun, whose’ polearm gets converted to a sword-type weapon in her elemental burst. You will notice that the attack sequence will follow sword-type attacks, and the effect can be seen on the plunge attacks as well. 

Continue reading related polearm guides:

• Blackcliff Pole Guide
• Primordial Jade Winged Spear Guide
• Deathmatch Guide

Catalyst

Catalysts are the only weapons that deal pure elemental damage on normal, charged, and plunge attacks. You can classify the characters as mages in other games’ terms because they command their elemental powers to defeat their opponents. Whichever catalyst weapon you equip, the element will be based on the vision of the character.

Coming back, catalysts’ normal attacks can deal area damage and single target damage depending on the character and range. Some characters like Ningguang can cover a lot of distance with their projectiles, whereas characters like Klee can only cover the melee range.

Plunging attacks in case of Catalyst users deal elemental damage in a small area. As hinted earlier, all the catalyst users deal elemental damage in their attack patterns unless you use the Eye of the Perceptron weapon to passively deal physical damage to opponents. Usually, catalyst users are fun to play with and have a variety of attack animations that you will enjoy playing with.

Continue reading related Catalyst guides:

• Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds

Claymore

I refer to Claymores as large-sized swords that the character needs to wield with both hands. Though it’s not completely true because Diluc uses a single-handed claymore attack in his elemental skill. But, Claymores are quite useful in breaking shields, ores, or constructs and help to deplete their health faster than other weapons.

Claymore’s normal attacks cover a melee area where characters have a unique set of attack patterns. These attacks are powerful, cover an area, and can smack away lightweight enemies.

In the case of charged attacks, the characters also have variations that depend on their attack patterns, but usually, they will be area-wide attacks. Charged claymore attacks consume stamina continuously until the sequence finishes and end up the sequence with a final blow.

Some characters will cover an arc-wide area in front of them while dealing charge attack, or others will rotate like a Beyblade. It was actually so fun when I discovered that Noelle was rotating like a Beyblade, and the animation was so funny to watch.

As for the plunging attacks, Claymores deal with an area attack on the place of impact and hit enemies in a small area. But, still, these attacks aren’t feasible in the spiral abyss chambers, and it’s better to stick to the usual elemental burst and elemental skill combination.

You will be more comfortable with elemental damage than physical damage. Although exceptions like Eula and Razor exist who are awesome physical damage dealers. In fact, Razor was the one who carried me through early game phases, and eventually, I crowned his normal attack and elemental burst.

Here’s a list of Claymores we have specifically guided you through:

• Skyward Pride Guide
• Wolf’s Gravestone Guide
• Prototype Animus Guide

Weapon Suited Artifacts

Now there are some artifacts that are niche to the weapons in the game and support certain weapon types. These artifact sets are good for the characters that equip those weapons and provide additional buffs from their set bonuses.

When you reach the end-game or higher adventure ranks, then you will find yourself using these artifacts most of the time. I highly encourage you to try out artifacts on your characters to find out the best one that can help your character to utilize their best damage potential.

Gladiator’s Finale

• 2-piece set bonus: Increases attack percent by 18 %
• 4-piece set bonus: Increases wielder’s normal attack damage by 35 % if the wielder uses a Sword, Claymore, or a Polearm

Gladiator is a good choice for most of the main damage-dealing characters. Suppose you don’t have a better-suited Crimson witch set for your Diluc, then using a Gladiator’s may be a good option on him for the time being.

Personally, I do have a Heart of Depth artifact set for Kamisato Ayato, but I prefer to use Gladiator because of its good artifact substats. It’s possible that though you may end up with the best artifact set for your character, other sets with better substats may outclass the best option.

Wanderer’s Troupe

• 2-piece set bonus: Increases elemental mastery by 80 units
• 4-piece set bonus: If the character uses a bow or a catalyst weapon, then increase their charged attack damage by 35 %

Wanderer’s Troupe is an insane artifact set for characters like Ganyu, who can pump out tons of damage to the enemies. Ganyu is a broken character that can shell out an insane amount of Cryo damage to her enemies and clear out spiral abyss floors in a breeze.

A Few Questions

Final Remarks

Weapons are bread and butter in Genshin Impact when it comes to dealing damage to enemies and acing through challenging boss fights. Weapons contribute immensely to your character’s firepower and command a major portion of damage in battles. As an efficient player, you should know which kind of weapon would be best for your character and which passives will result in better team synergy.

I like to use a variety of weapons in combat because unless the weapons are from the same series, they won’t have the same passive. Also, it’s not universally true that they will have the same passive even if they are from the same series; it may be different on other weapon types.

But in the end, you should have fun while playing the game and be able to equip the best weapons on your characters. Feel free to check our weapon guides and see if you can find your favorite weapon. A tip from my side would be to be hungry for knowledge and try to learn more about the game.

That way, you can help your friends and feel confident in your game knowledge. Also, I’ll recommend you check character guides so that you can see whether their attack patterns follow a general sequence or a unique one.

I believe the more you research, the more you know about the game. So, feel free to roam our site and hunt for interesting content!

Read More:

• Genshin Impact Jadefalls Spendour Guide
• Genshin Impact Beacon of the Reed Sea Guide

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Himanshu Verkiya

Himanshu is a passionate writer who loves to write about open-world games featuring anime style characters. He admits that his love for interesting anime stories and characters were a major reason he started playing Open world role playing games.Having played different Open world games in the past, now he prefers to play casual role playing games which feature beautiful sceneries and vast worlds to roam in.
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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