skyward harp guide

Skyward Harp Guide

Genshin Impact is an open-world RPG game that features exquisite in-game items for players to collect. Weapons are one of the core aspects of this game’s gameplay and players have access to a cavalcade of options, you’ll need to utilize quite a few of these options to stand a chance of clearing the abundance of content within this game. Plus, you’ll need to understand how passives and refinement alter the effect of each weapon on offer across Teyvat. 

I’ve been playing Genshin since its launch and I’m still stacking as many weapons as I can. Free-to-play players may be limited when it comes to weapon options but that’s not a problem at all. You see, even with those weapons, you’re able to clear any content that the game has to offer, including end-game content like Spiral abyss as well.

So, buckle up and join me on this journey as we discuss the benefits of seeking out and using, the Skyward harp. I’m sure you’ll learn something new from this Skyward Harp guide and I hope this helps you weigh up your options and decide if the Skyward Harp is the one for you!

Skyward Harp: Weapon Details

Skyward Harp is a great bow that symbolizes Dvalin‘s affiliation with the Anemo Archon, Barbatos. The sound of the bow firing is music to Anemo Archon’s ears. The skyward harp contains the power of the sky and wind within.

Genshin Impact character demos showcase signature weapons, that players can obtain from wishes. Here you can spot Skyward harp in Venti’s Character Demo, where he’s using this weapon to demonstrate skills. For lore enthusiasts, you should know that this weapon is Venti’s signature weapon. Now, you know that when it comes to Venti, the Skyward harp has a special significance.

Skyward harp belongs to the Skyward weapon series, which includes weapons like Skyward blade, Skyward spine, Skyward atlas, and Skyward pride. They all don’t share the same passive, but their passive is relative to their respective niche areas. 

Skyward harp features CRIT rate secondary stat, suitable for primary damage dealers or off-field damage dealers. So, if you’re looking for a bow weapon that offers both CRIT rate and CRIT DMG, Skyward harp should be your pick!

Let’s go over weapons details first and discuss it a bit before moving forward.

Weapon Details:

  • Rarity: 5-Star
  • Base Attack:48
  • Secondary stat: CRIT Rate
  • Secondary stat value:4.8%
  • Passive ability: Echoing Ballad
  • Passive ability description: Increases CRIT DMG by 20%. Hits have a 60% chance to inflict a small AoE attack, dealing 125% Physical ATK DMG. It can only occur once every 4s.

We know that Skyward harp gives CRIT Rate in-built, suitable for primary damage-dealing characters or off-field damage dealers. On top of that, it also gives CRIT DMG as its passive, which is quite rare if you ask me.

The Skyward harp is the epitome of something great that comes in a small package, giving you CRIT rate and CRIT DMG together. Then, in addition, another key part of this weapon’s passive is that it also deals with Physical DMG every 4s. So, if you’re using this weapon on a character like Fischl as the primary damage dealer, you’ll get an attack stat buff because of this passive. However, like other RNG mechanics in-game, it’s also dependent on a percentage-based chance as well.

You can obtain Skyward harp from the Standard Wish Wanderlust Invocation banner or Weapon Event Wish banners.

Most of the time, you’ll be able to see Skyward Harp listed on the weapon’s banner and have a chance to obtain it. So, if you’re planning to get it, then have some fates saved up in your account!

Well, you needn’t worry about triggering passive, if you’re using this weapon on the primary damage dealer. As the main damage dealer will attack quite a several times, you are bound to proc the passive effect. So, Skyward harp assures procing passive when it comes to the main damage dealer role.

Skyward Harp: Stat Progression

Weapon Stat Progression

WEAPON STAT PROGRESSION
Weapon Level Base Attack CRIT Rate (% Increase)
1 48 4.8
20 133 8.5
40 261 12.4
60 423 16.2
80 590 20.1
90 674 22.1

 

I’ve listed critical levels for the weapon, which you can see above. As you level up your weapon, its secondary stat CRIT rate starts increasing. However, a quick question comes to mind: What should be a pitstop for leveling up? What does that mean?

It essentially means, should you max out this weapon to level 90. Well, it depends on your resources. Eventually, if you have enough resources, you’ll level it up to 90. But if you’re running low on them, then level 80 is still a viable option.

The same goes for characters as well. Generally, resource consumption increases from level 80 to level 90, and sometimes you may not have Mora and EXP material. So, take a break at level 81 and play without the stresses of grinding. 

There is also a special thing that a perceptive player may notice. When you ascend your weapon, you’ll notice that weapon’s color becomes vibrant and more noticeable. This is something that is true of all ascended weaponry and serves as another motivating factor to upgrade weapons. So if you like the look of the standard Skyward Harp, you’ll love the ascended version even more!

REFINEMENT STAT PROGRESSION
Refinement Rank CRIT DMG ( % Increase) To inflict a small AoE attack (% Chance) Cooldown to proc passive(s)
1 20 60 4
2 25 70 3.5
3 30 80 3
4 35 90 2.5
5 40 100 2

 

Let’s talk about refinements here. Refinements boost your weapon’s passive and make them stronger. Trust me; refining weapons is one of the best investments when it comes to dealing more damage in this game.

However, it’s not feasible for free-to-play players to get extra refinements on 5-star weapons. However, even if you can muster one level of refinement on a 5-star weapon, you’ll find that these are more than capable of dealing decent damage.

The skyward harp is like having an extra CRIT DMG goblet at maximum refinement. You get a ton of CRIT DMG and couple that with the CRIT rate you get from the weapon. This means your main damage dealer will trigger CRIT hits quickly and efficiently against enemies. It’s like having an extra CRIT DMG goblet on your character.

And as you’ll see if you reach refinement rank 5, the time to trigger passive reduces to 2s. What does it mean? Well, I’ll keep it simple. You’re a killing machine at refinement rank 5. Now you’re the terminator. I am back!

In simple terms, triggering passive every 2 seconds means your passive cooldown reduces to 2 seconds. Just like your abilities have cooldowns, you need to wait before using them. A similar mechanic exists for weapon’s passives, and you need to wait for some time before they show their effect again.

Now, let’s see which characters you can use this weapon and who suits this loadout and role best.

Skyward Harp: Ascension Material

When it comes to leveling up weapons or characters in Genshin Impact, you need to feed some materials to them. Genshin Impact relies on players to farm different in-game materials to stack them in inventory. And that way, you can use them according to their rarities.

Skyward Harp Ascension Material Requirements
Boreal Wolf’s Milk Tooth = 5 Dead Ley Line Branch = 23 Firm Arrowhead = 15
Boreal Wolf’s Cracked Tooth = 14 Dead Ley Line Leaves = 27 Sharp Arrowhead = 23
Boreal Wolf’s Broken Fang = 14 Ley Line Sprout = 41 Weathered Arrowhead = 27
Boreal Wolf’s Nostalgia = 6 Total Mora Required = 225,000

You can see how many materials you need to collect to level up Skyward Harp to maximum ascension level. Indeed, 5-star weapons consume more resources than their 4-star counterparts. But, they’ll pay off in the longer run, saving your team from tough battles.

With these resources, you need around 900+ mystic enhancement ores and around a 1.2+million mora allowing you to raise the weapon to level 90. This will take you at least a few days to farm what you need, but you don’t want to burn out, so we would urge you to take it slow and gradually accumulate items. 

Skyward Harp: Characters

Let’s talk about characters who can use this weapon. The Skyward harp is a rare weapon that offers CRIT ratios in both secondary stat and passive. Also, characters have their elemental abilities, which may or may not synergize with the weapon’s passive. However, if you love bow characters, let me tell you that you’re lucky to have this weapon because it syncs with these characters beautifully.

Before giving my remarks about using this weapon on characters, you should know a few things. I’ll be giving remarks from my experience, and in no way am I telling you to play them that way. Feel free to experiment with character weapons and see which one is suitable for your team.

Check it out below:

As of writing this guide, Genshin Impact 2.5 has the following characters that can use Skyward Harp:

Amber:

Go, go, baron bunny! Outrider Amber is reporting for duty. Amber is a 4-star pyro character whose skills specialize in applying pyro and taunting enemies. You can put Baron bunny to taunt nearby enemies, attacking it instead of Amber. So, you can shoot those enemies while they’re thinking baron bunny is their enemy.

he Skyward harp isn’t the best choice because people rarely use Amber as the main DPS. Instead, she shines quite well in support roles. Unless you want to use her as the Physical main DPS, I’ll say it’s better to use some other weapon on her. That way, she can support the team, and you can switch to other characters in rotation.

  • Weapon alternatives: Favonius warbow (4-Star), Elegy for the end( 5-star)

Yoimiya:

I love fireworks, do you? Yoimiya is a 5-star pyro character who specializes in dealing pyro damage to enemies with her normal attack. However, remember you need to activate her skill first to infuse your regular attacks with pyro.

The skyward harp is quite a decent choice for her because of its CRIT rate sub-stat, allowing you to equip CRIT dmg goblet on her.  You can pair her with off-field damage dealers like Xinqqui and enjoy the vaporizing effect that comes from this duo’s partnership.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives: Rust, Prototype Crescent, Viridescent Hunt

Diona:

Let’s go, let’s go! Diona is a 4-star cryo character whose abilities focus on healing and shield benefits to the overall team. I don’t think you should use Skyward harp on her because she’s better suited for the support role.

So, rather than making her the main DPS, which is not efficient, in my opinion. It’s better to go with the best support artifacts and use a different weapon.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives: Favonius Warbow, Sacrificial Bow, Recurve Bow(3-star)

Aloy:

She’s a 5-star cryo character whose constellations are yet to introduce. However, in her skill, her regular attacks get cryo infusion, and she can fill in the role of Quickswap DPS. Currently, as her constellations aren’t out yet, you’ll be using her base kit only.

The skyward harp can work on her if you want to use that; however, I recommend using her as burst DPS. Because of her high investment, it may not be helpful to build her now.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives: Stringless, Viridescent Hunt, Prototype Crescent

Ganyu:

Ganyu is one of the best main DPS in-game because of her insane-charged attack potential. She’s a 5-star cryo character who can provide good off-field support and main damage-dealing capabilities, both at the same time. The Skyward hard is good on her if you want to use her as the primary damage dealer.

You can use that with Wanderer’s Troupe and equip CRIT DMG goblet to complement her CRIT ratios. Investing in her won’t go to waste. Trust me; I’ve triple-crowned Ganyu just because she’s super good, and yeah, I love playing her.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives: Prototype Crescent, Hamayumi, Viridescent Hunt

Fischl:

Fischl is a 4-star electro off-field damage dealer who can also act as a battery for your team. Her skill summons Oz, who can deal consistent damage and generate energy particles for your active character. Now, You can use skyward harp on her if you want to play her as a Physical DMG dealer or an off-field damage dealer.

Both roles require CRIT rate in her stats, and if you have constellations, that’ll be an extra damage boost on her skill. So, if we focus on her skill which gets more powerful with constellations, it’s better to build her as an off-field damage dealer.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives: Stringless, Prototype Crescent, Viridescent Hunt

Gorou:

General Gorou! He’s a 4-star Geo character who specializes in providing support to the team. I like to use him as a battery to funnel particles to my primary damage dealer. Also, his abilities are focused on DEF%, so that’s a better way to use your artifacts. As of 2.5, his general build focuses on 4-piece Noblesse Oblige with Favonius Warbow.

More like, you’re generating energy and giving overall team buff from the 4-piece set bonus. So, there aren’t many alternatives to use him either way. If you want to use him in the overworld, then any 4-star bow weapon would be sufficient. You can use Sacrificial bow to spam his burst often and have decent energy recharge if you want to.

Kujou Sara:

She’s a 4-star electro character who can help buff ATK on teammates and deal decent burst damage. Her abilities focused on providing team support and buffing team members.

I’ll recommend you to use her as such. Also, in specific team compositions, she may face energy recharge issues, so you need to pay a bit of attention to her energy recharge requirements.

Overall, she’s a good character who can buff your teammates and help them deal enough damage to clear enemies.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives: Sacrificial Bow, Alley Hunter, Mouun’s Moon

Tartaglia or Childe:

It’s yo boy child! He’s one of my favorite characters so far. Childe is a 5-star hydro character whose unique in his abilities. He can go into a melee stance and apply riptide to enemies with his skill. Whether you’re playing him as primary damage dealer or burst damage dealer, Childe shines in vaporize comps.

So, it would be best if you had xiangling in some team compositions. But keep an eye on the time you use his melee stance; it may go into a longer cooldown and disrupt your rotation.

The skyward harp is a good choice for him, whether you want to play him as the primary damage dealer or burst damage dealer. You can equip a CRIT DMG goblet on him, and his damage will be far better.

  • 4-star weapon alternatives: Stringless, Viridescent Hunt, Prototype Crescent, Rust

Venti:

The anemo archon of the city of freedom! Venti is a 5-star anemo character specializing in providing extensive crowd control abilities. His burst can group lightweight enemies, and when it gets into contact with an element, it gets infused with that element. So, if you want to fry your enemies, better put some pyro in his burst.

Venti’s burst can generate energy particles, and with the help of 4-piece Viridescent Venerer artifacts, you can shred elemental resistance. When it comes to an emo characters, you should be using a 4-piece Viridescent Venerer artifact set.

Now, coming to Skyward harp, you can indeed use it on him to take benefit from extra CRIT rate and CRIT DMG. However, then you’ll have to build him CRIT damage-wise. I’ll recommend you to instead go with complete Elemental mastery on set pieces.

I know its’ rare to have a 4-piece EM set on Venti so that you can build Anemo DMG on circlet and CRIT DMG on a goblet with Skyward harp.

  • 4-star weapon Alternatives: Stringless, Windblume Ode, Alley Hunter

In Conclusion

Be sure to go through these remarks and decide what type of playstyle you want for your character. Research your team compositions and choose the best weapon from your inventory.

Also, you should check out Character specific guides and see weapon comparisons there. I’ve put 4-star weapon alternatives that you can use. However, you should go with the role you want your character to fill. That way, it’ll be easier to optimize your gameplay and play style of different characters.

Skyward Harp: FAQs

Alright, time to go through some questions you may have after reading this guide.

Question: How important is CRIT rate on characters?

Answer: It depends on characters and their role in your team composition. If you have a character specializing in the primary damage dealer, you need a CRIT rate. Suppose you have a character like Diluc, whose ascension stat is CRIT rate, then you can use CRIT dmg on his artifacts. This means you’ll be maintaining an optimal CRIT rate to CRIT DMG ratio of 1:2. So, it’s better if you focus on overall stats and manage CRIT ratios according to that.

On the other hand, if you have a character who has CRIT DMG as ascension stat, you’ll use CRIT rate in the goblet. It all comes down to managing character’s stats in Genshin. So, having CRIT is helpful except for characters like Kokomi, whose CRIT rate becomes negative.

Question: How good are 5-star weapons in comparison to 4-star weapons?

Answer: 5-star weapons are generally better than their 4-star counterparts. Unless you’re a battle pass user, there aren’t many weapons that offer CRIT rate as a secondary stat. However, 4-star weapons with refinements may come close to 5-star ones in some cases. You can also look at their passives; 5-star weapons have better passives than other weapons and provide a decent damage boost.

But I’m not saying 4-star weapons are bad. I use 4-star weapons to this day and have cleared end-game content quickly with them. When it comes to Spiral abyss, team composition and rotation matters more than weapons. Though, 5-star weapons are a worthy investment for characters’ damage potential. But it doesn’t mean 4-star weapons are bad.

Question: I’m a free-to-play player. Should I refine Skyward Harp?

Answer: I won’t recommend you refine Skyward harp if you’re a free-to-play player. Simply because 5-star weapons are rare, and having more copies will be better. Wait, better, but how? Rather than using one weapon with extra refinement, use two weapons.

When it comes to Spiral abyss, you need to have two teams. And suppose you’re using Fischl in one team and Childe in the other. So, if you have two Skyward harps, you can use them on both and benefit from the CRIT rate. Even if you’re a battle pass user, I’ll recommend you to avoid refining 5-star weapons unless you can afford that.

Question: I’m a casual player. Is there any weapon level you recommend pausing at?

Answer: I’ll say if you’re taking the weapon from level 80 to 90, it consumes a lot of resources. So, you can pause level 80 ascension if you want to. That way, you’ll have decent damage and weapon level to fight in the spiral abyss. If you’re a casual player, take it to a level where you can easily fight overworld enemies.

Overworld enemies’ strength depends on your world level, and you can even lower your world level if you want to. So, as long as you’re comfortable with weapon level, keep it as it is, collect some resources then pour them into a weapon.

Closing Remarks

Weapons are an essential part of this game, and I recommend investing in them. Investing in a 5-star weapon is always better for the long term, and you can benefit from these unique passives. Skyward Harp is a unique weapon that offers a CRIT rate as a secondary stat and can help your character output decent damage. Whether you’re using this weapon on a supporting character or primary damage dealer, it’s going to shine either way.

On top of the CRIT rate it offers, you get a boost in CRIT DMG from passive, making Skyward harp a combo package of damage. I say 5-star weapons like this are rare and will even shine in clearing end-game content like Spiral abyss. So, keep it close to your heart and invest properly in it. You can pause at level 81 if you don’t have enough resources, however, make sure to max it out.

That was all from my end on Skyward harp. If you’re looking for in-depth weapon comparison, then head over to character-specific guides, and check the best weapon for your character. I wish you luck on your Genshin journey.

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