skyward blade guide

Skyward Blade Guide

Genshin Impact is an open-world RPG game that features a rich in-game world to explore and collect unique materials. Players can manage different Genshin weapons, food items, gadgets, and many more in-game collectibles throughout their journey.

I’ve been playing Genshin Impact since day one and completing the content this game has to offer. Genshin Impact requires players to prioritize character building and optimal team compositions. Players have to focus on farming materials for their Genshin Impact characters and invest carefully because of progression cap by original resin.

Skyward Blade Guide

Even if you’re a casual player, you should pay attention to what weapons your characters are using. I agree that overworld content is relatively easy, but you may face problems when tough bosses appear. 

Genshin Impact makes weapons an essential part of the game, and players want to equip their characters with good weapons for decent damage. Here, I’ll be going over one of the weapons in-game, Skyward Blade.

Overview of the guide:

  1. What is Skyward Blade?
  2. Materials required for Skyward Blade
  3. Which characters can use Skyward Blade?
  4. Concluding the Skyward Blade Guide with FAQs

What is Skyward Blade?

The sword of a knight that symbolizes the restored honor of Dvalin. The blessings of the Anemo Archon rest on the fuller of the blade, imbuing the sword with the powers of the sky and the wind.

The skyward blade is a 5-star sword-type weapon that belongs to the Skyward series of weapons. All weapons to this series have energy recharge as their secondary stat and offer an extra crit rate. Although, critrate increase is not significant from these weapons. Energy recharge is an important stat for utilizing a character’s burst in less time.

As of writing this guide, Genshin Impact 2.4 offers only one way to get Skyward Blade through wishes. Players have a chance to get Skyward Blade from the standard banner “Wanderlust Invocation” or Weapons banner. The skyward blade also has one highest base attack in-game among swords, which makes it an excellent choice to equip on your primary party.

Skyward Blade
Image from Genshin Impact Wiki (Fandom)

Weapon details

  • Base attack: 46 
  • Secondary stat: Energy Recharge
  • Secondary stat value: 12%
  • Passive: Sky-Piercing Fang
    CRIT rate is increased by 4%.
    Gains Skypiercing Might upon using an Elemental Burst:
    Increases movement speed by 10%, increases attack speed by 10%, and regular and charged attacks deal additional damage equal to 20% of attack. Skypiercing might last for 12 seconds.

Weapon Progression

Level Base Attack Energy Recharge
(%)
1 46 12
20 122 21.2
40 235 30.9
60 382 40.6
80 532 50.3
90 608 55.1

 

Refinement Rank CRIT Rate (%) Normal and Charged ATK (%)
1 4 20
2 5 25
3 6 30
4 7 35
5 8 40

I’ve summarized the weapon’s stat progression at critical levels without listing every level’s details. As you can see, the CRIT rate increase isn’t significant compared to the damage boost you’re getting for Normal and Charged Attacks from refinements.

Materials required for Skyward Blade

Genshin Impact heavily focuses on farming in-game materials which players can obtain from the overworld. You can use most of these materials in character ascension, weapons ascension, talent upgrades, and different in-game crafting techniques. 

Although this can be a bit tedious at first, slowly, you will start to accumulate a decent amount of materials in your inventory as you progress through the game. I’ve summarized the total materials you need for the weapon’s ascension. Investing in the 5-star weapon is always beneficial in the long run, and I’ll recommend you to farm total materials than going from level to level.

Let’s go over the ascension materials you require for Skyward Blade:

Boreal Wolf’s Dead Ley Line Slime
Milk Tooth – 5 Branch – 23 Condensate – 15
Cracked Tooth – 14 Leaves – 27 Secretions – 23
 Broken Fang – 14 Sprout – 41 Concentrate – 27
Nostalgia – 6   Mora Required: 225000

With the above-listed resources, you need around 900+ mystic enhancement ores and 1.2+ million Mora to take the weapon from level 1 to level 90. 5-star weapons require extra materials in comparison to lesser rarity weapons. I would recommend you ascend your weapon until level 80, including ascension level 6. Because the resources needed to take a weapon from level 80 to level 90 start to scale relatively high, you may run out of them soon enough.

If you’re a casual player, you should prioritize which weapons you want to ascend first, or even if you’re a veteran, you shouldn’t waste resources. Though weapons and characters require a lot of overworld material, that can compensate if you’re doing your daily commissions. You can farm materials from enemies because most daily commissions wipe random enemies.

Skyward Blade Sword

Which characters can use Skyward Blade?

Now, before discussing for which characters Skyward Blade is good on, I’d like to make a few things clear:

  1. I’ll be considering refinement rank 1 of Skyward Blade
  2. For weapon’s comparison and build recommendations, prefer specific character guides
  3. Remarks will focus only on the use of Skyward Blade on character and 

The skyward blade is a decent choice if you want your characters to burst recharged fast and use it often. Energy recharge becomes essential when you fight formidable enemies in Abyss and require you to use your abilities to keep doing damage consistently. If the skyward blade isn’t optimal for a certain character, I’ll mention their best 4-star alternative for you to choose.

As of writing this guide, Genshin Impact has the following ten characters that can equip Skyward Blade:

Albedo: 5-star Geo

Albedo
Image from Genshin Impact Wiki (Fandom)

Albedo’s abilities scale off DEF, and I don’t think Skyward Blade would be of much value here. You can use this weapon if you want to use his burst more often and see those beautiful petals bursting on your enemies.

  • 4-star weapon alternative: Cinnabar Spindle

Bennett: 4-star Pyro

Bennett
Image from Genshin Impact Wiki (Fandom)

Bennett provides an ATK bonus to party members, which scales his base attack. I recommend you use the Skyward blade on him as it’ll give him decent energy recharge and a good enough base attack to give you an extra kick in dealing damage.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives (Support): The Alley Flash, Prototype Rancour, Favonius Sword

Jean: 5-star Anemo

Jean
Image from Genshin Impact Wiki (Fandom)

Skyward Blade is one of the best weapons for supporting characters like Jean. Jean’s ultimate cost is 80, and it cannot be easy to manage energy requirements for her. You can use Skyward Blade to use her burst more often to keep healing on-field party members.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives (Support): Festering Desire, Favonius Sword, Sacrificial Sword

Keqing: 5-star Electro

Keqing
Image from Genshin Impact Wiki (Fandom)

Keqing’s burst cost is relatively low compared to other characters, and it’s better to go with weapons having more offensive stats.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives (Electro DPS): Lion’s Roar, The Black Sword, Amenoma Kageuchi
  • 4-star weapon alternatives (Physical DPS): Prototype Rancour

Kaedehara Kazuha: 5-star Anemo

Kaedehara Kazuha
Image from Genshin Impact Wiki (Fandom)

Unless you have a weapon with Elemental Mastery as a secondary stat, Skyward blade is an excellent choice to pick. You can use burst more often and trigger swirl reactions area-wide.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives (Support): Iron Sting, Sacrificial Sword, Favonius Sword

Kaeya: 4-star Cryo

Kaeya
Image from Genshin Impact Wiki (Fandom)

Kaeya’s ascension stat is Energy recharge, and with his medium energy burst cost, equipping Skyward blade would be overkill. Kaeya’s skill has a low cooldown, and you can gain energy particles frequently.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives(Off-field DPS): Lion’s Roar, Favonius Sword, The Flute

Kamisato Ayaka: 5-star Cryo

Kamisato Ayaka
Image from Genshin Impact Wiki (Fandom)

It would be better to have weapons having CRIT rate or CRIT damage as a secondary stat. Ayaka acts as the primary damage dealer and is better suited for weapons with offensive stats.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives(Main DPS): Amenoma Kageuchi, The Flute, Blackcliff Longsword

Qiqi: 5-star Cryo

Qiqi
Image from Genshin Impact Wiki (Fandom)

Qiqi is indeed one of the best healers in-game, but I don’t think you should be using Skyward Blade on her. She can heal team members quite fast, but her burst doesn’t bring much to the table besides healing herself and dealing cryo damage to nearby enemies.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives(Support): Prototype Rancour, Sacrificial Sword, Favonius Sword, The Flute

Xingqiu: 4-star Hydro

Xingqiu
Image from Genshin Impact Wiki (Fandom)

There are better 4-star options, and the sacrificial sword is one of the most recommended weapons for him.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives(Off-field DPS): Amenoma Kageuchi, Festering Desire, Favonius Sword

Traveler: 5-star 

Traveler
Image from Genshin Impact Wiki (Fandom)

Anemo: Decent if you’re looking to apply CC to lightweight enemies like hilicurls and shred their anemo resistance.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives(Support): Festering Desire, Sacrificial Sword, Favonius Sword, Amenoma Kageuchi

Geo: If you have constellations unlocked, you can use his burst more often to benefit from constellations.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives: Festering Desire, Amenoma Kageuchi, Favonius Sword

Electro: Good for support role and provide battery for other team members.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives: Favonius Sword, Amenoma Kageuchi, Sacrificial Sword

If you’re looking for in-depth character builds and weapon comparison, you should head to character guides for more content. These are my remarks about building my characters and suit my playstyle.

Feel free to try different team compositions and adapt a playstyle that suits your game sense. 

FAQ:

Now you may have some questions after reading this guide, let’s go over a few common one’s

Question: Should I refine Skyward Blade?

Answer: Most of the player base is free-to-play and depends on in-game rewards for accumulating primogems to wish. If you’re a free-to-play player or light spender on the game, I won’t recommend you refine the weapon.

It’s better to have multiple copies of weapons and equipment on different characters than to refine it on a particular character. You can take advantage of weapons stat and passive ability on multiple characters.

However, if you can afford to refine Skyward Blade, you can refine it and gain an extra passive ability bonus with each refinement.

Question: Is energy recharge a good stat to have on a weapon?

Answer: Yes! I believe energy recharge is an end-game stat that is essential when clearing end-game content like Spiral abyss. Having enough energy to recharge your characters can help them gain their burst back faster. 

Energy recharge is most beneficial for support characters like Bennett, Jean, Beidou, Xingqiu, to name a few. You can use their burst more often and provide utility to your team.

Question: Do I need a 5-star weapon to clear end-game content like Spiral Abyss?

Answer: No, you don’t necessarily need 5-star weapons to clear Spiral Abyss. You can quickly clear all floors of the Abyss with 4-star weapons, and you may end up with their refinements. Refinements make the weapon’s passive stronger and help enhance your character’s abilities.

5-star weapons are a good upgrade for a character’s overall damage and can be a game-changer in some cases. I agree that clearing Spiral abyss is heavily dependent on your team composition and weapons, but you do not necessarily need a 5-star weapon for it.

It might be possible you may not end up with 36 stars on floor 9 to floor 12 because of the high HP pool of enemies. But keep investing in your characters, and you’ll be able to clear the spiral Abyss.

Question: Should I feed my 3-star weapons to higher rarity weapons?

Answer: From my personal experience, you shouldn’t feel all 3-star weapons. Firstly, they don’t provide enough weapons EXP, and secondly, some are good.

3-star weapons like thrilling tales of dragon-slayer are insanely good when it comes to buffing your primary damage dealer. Weapon’s passive gets stronger with refinements, and 3-star weapons can shine in those scenarios. You should keep at least two refinements for all 3-star weapons and feed the common ones you get from wishes. 

Conclusion

Skyward Blade is quite a good weapon for fulfilling energy requirements for characters whose burst provides utility to the team. I use Skyward blade on Jean to burst back faster and have my character’s HP regenerate.

I prefer teams that can go head-on with enemies and not worry about healing characters often. So, whenever I need healing, I switch back to Jean, use her burst to recover other party members and switch back to the primary damage dealer.

I will recommend you invest in your characters and enjoy the game. If you’re a casual player, take your time and progress through gameplay according to your leisure.

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