Genshin Impact Artifacts Guide: Best Picks for Each Element

Genshin Impact artifacts are essential to a character’s performance in the game. Each artifact set is unique and offers different buffs that will benefit characters. There are five playable elements in Genshin Impact and each element has a corresponding artifact set that will boost the character’s performance and make them great fighters in-game. Whether you’re new to the game or a veteran who is looking for a refresher, this article will give you an idea about which artifacts are the best for a certain element.

In this article, we’ll be giving you a rundown on the best Genshin Impact artifacts that you can use to upgrade your team’s performance.

Also read: Genshin Impact Characters: How to Build Your Dream Team [Tier List]

What Are Genshin Impact Artifacts?

Genshin Impact artifacts are items that will grant stat increases and special buffs to your characters. You can equip your characters with up to five artifacts, but it’s better if you equip them with artifact sets as these give additional buffs. Each artifact has a main stat and a sub-stat that you should pay close attention to when you’re equipping them with your character.

In many games, it’s a general rule that high rarity artifacts are better. However, there are other things to consider in Genshin Impact.

Artifacts will greatly affect your character’s performance in the game. Stats such as damage output, critical hits and damage, healing bonuses, and even attacks are among the stats that will be affected depending on the artifacts that you choose.

Genshin Impact has a total of 30 artifact sets to date and each set has the following items:

• Flower
• Circlet
• Goblet
• Feather
• Hourglass

If you equip two or more artifacts from the same set, you’ll have a special bonus.

It’s best to find ways on how you can better optimize your artifact build. Certain artifacts work better with some characters and some work better with certain elements — it all depends on how you intend to use your characters.

Genshin Impact artifacts are flexible and any character can use them. But it’s important to review each stat and consider how you intend to build your character before giving them artifacts.

Best Genshin Impact Artifacts for Each Element

While artifacts are commonly classified by character type, it’s essential to take into consideration the character’s element. While there are artifact sets that can be equipped for all characters, it’s better if your main artifacts or focus artifacts are the ones made for the characters of your element.

Here are the best Genshin Impact artifacts for each playable element in the game.

NOTE

As of writing, there are no playable Dendro characters. The element has been excluded from the list because there are no artifact sets for Dendro characters yet.

Pyro

If you’re looking to build Pyro characters, the best artifact set to consider is the Crimson Witch of Flames. The artifact set is made for Pyro characters and gives bonuses that complement Pyro attacks and Elemental Reactions the best.

For DPS characters, usually, a four-piece Crimson Witch of Flames with a focus on Crit Rate/Damage and Attack is enough. If you lack those artifacts, you can opt to substitute them with Gladiator’s Finale. You will also need an artifact with Pyro Damage Bonus for this one since you’re not using a full set of Crimson Witch.

Creating a support artifact build for Pyro characters can be very tricky as no Pyro character is meant to be a support. Most of the characters in this element are either made for the roles of DPS, Sub DPS, or even Pyro DPS. However, that’s not to say that it’s impossible. For Support Pyro builds, you want to equip your character with a four-piece Noblesse Oblige with an extra artifact that focuses on Energy Recharge. As most Pyro characters rely on their Elemental Burst for support, you need an artifact that will enhance Energy Recharge as much as possible.

Take note that not all Pyro characters can be made into support characters. For instance, the support build is only useful on a few characters such as Xinyan and Bennett because they are made for Support and Sub DPS. You cannot make a Support character out of characters like Diluc, Yanfei, and Hu Tao because they are made to be DPS characters. Equipping them with a support build will not help you at all because it will limit their full potential.

Geo

For Geo characters, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. You can make them into DPS and Support characters while still reaching their full potential. Geo characters work best with the Archaic Petra set with a complementing Geo Damage Bonus artifact.

An alternate DPS build to consider is a two-piece Archaic Petra and two-piece Noblesse Oblige with a complimentary artifact that has Geo Damage Bonus or Crit Rate/Damage. A two-piece Archaic Petra grants a 15% Geo Damage Bonus while a two-piece Noblesse Oblige grants +20% Elemental Burst Damage which makes for a great combo.

Most Geo characters make for a great support. This is because most of them have shields and barriers that will ultimately help teams get through difficult battles. For this build, you want to have a two-piece Retracing Bolide and a two-piece Archaic Petra. Retracing Bolide increases the character’s Shield Strength by 35%. The latter is a great artifact to have if you have a Zhongli with two Constellations as you will be able to apply a shield to teammates as well.

Cryo

Like the Geo element, it’s a bit of a mixed bag with Cryo characters. This is because there are a couple of characters that can pass as Healers — more on that in a minute.

For a standard Cryo build, you want to equip your character with a four-piece Blizzard Strayer and a complimentary artifact that has either Cryo Damage Bonus or Crit Rate/Damage. Since the majority of the Cryo characters are damage dealers, this is the build that you would want to go with.

As an alternate DPS build, especially if you have a hard time acquiring Blizzard Strayer artifacts, you can consider a two-piece Blizzard Strayer and a two-piece Pale Flame. As mentioned, the majority of Cryo characters are damage dealers, and having a two-piece Pale Flame will grant them an additional damage bonus that will help them especially if they need to recharge their Elemental Skill and Burst.

In terms of support, there are two options to consider. If you’re carrying a non-Healer, you want to focus on having a two-piece Blizzard Strayer and a two-piece Noblesse Oblige with a focus on Energy Recharge. This will help you power up up your burst in battle continuously. If you have a Cryo Healer like Qiqi and Diona, you should focus on having a four-piece Maiden Beloved set because they boost your character’s Healing Effectiveness.

Electro

For Electro characters, you want to focus on a four-piece Thundering Fury with an additional piece of artifact that has either Electro Damage Bonus or Crit Rage/Damage. Thundering Fury is the standard artifact set for Electro characters because a four-piece set grants increased damage and even decreases the cost of their Elemental Skill by one second. This is more effective if your Electro character is your main carry.

If you’re looking for an alternate DPS build, consider a two-piece Thundering Fury with a two-piece Noblesse Oblige or two-piece Pale Flame. Use Noblesse Oblige for characters like Fischl and Lisa as they can’t deal direct physical damage. Use Pale Flame for characters like Beidou, Razor, and Keqing as they are the ones with melee attacks and will benefit from the physical damage boost that Pale Flame gives. Accompany these with an artifact that has Electro Damage Bonus or Energy Recharge and you’ll be good to go.

For support builds, consider using a four-piece Noblesse Oblige for the buffs on their Elemental Burst. If you have a four-piece set, the other members of your team will benefit greatly from this as well because their Base Attack will increase by 20% for 12 seconds.

Anemo

A rule of thumb for Anemo characters is to focus on their Swirl if they have one. If you have characters like Venti, Sucrose, or Kaedehara Kazura, you need to have artifacts that focus on Elemental Mastery. This will greatly benefit them when they do their Elemental Burst because it allows the Swirl to make more damage. If your character doesn’t have a Swirl ability like Anemo Traveler and Jean, stick to an artifact build that focuses on Attack Percentage and Energy Recharg, so you can easily spam opponents with your Elemental Skill and Burst.

On the other hand, you can also use a two-piece Viridescent Venerer and two-piece Noblesse Oblige for a DPS build. This not only gives you an additional Anemo Damage Bonus but also gives an increase in Elemental Burst Damage. This is recommended for characters like Jean.

For an Anemo Support build, consider using a four-piece Noblesse Oblige set and pair it with an artifact that has either Elemental Mastery or Energy Recharge. This will boost their burst and increase attack.

Hydro

In general, Hydro characters are great to have in a team. They allow so many Elemental Reactions and allow players to deal more damage because of that.

A four-piece Heart of Depth is the standard build for Hydro characters. This will deliver the most damage for them and this also increases their Normal and Charged Attack Damage by 30% for 15 seconds. Since most Hydro characters are capable of dealing damage, you can rely on this standard build for them.

For a DPS build, you won’t go wrong with a two-piece Heart of Depth and two-piece Noblesse Oblige. You get additional Hydro Damage and Elemental Burst Damage. Complement it with an extra artifact that has Hydro Damage Bonus or Crit Rate/Damage and you’ll have a formidable character on your hands.

In terms of support, you have two options. For non-healers, you can use a four-piece Noblesse Oblige with an extra Energy Recharge, so you can spam Elemental Skills as fast as possible. If you have a Barbara who is the only Hydro Healer, you can use a four-piece Maiden Beloved still with the Energy Recharge because her skills do take a while to cool down. The four-piece Maiden Beloved set increases the healing of all members in your party when an Elemental Skill or Burst is active.

How to Level Up Genshin Impact Artifacts?

To level up or enhance your Genshin Impact artifacts, you will need extra artifacts. That’s right, to level up your artifacts, you will need other artifacts to do it. This is why it’s recommended that you store lower rarity artifacts so that you can use them to enhance the artifacts that you want to keep.

Alternatively, you can use the Sanctifying Essence or Sanctifying Unction from the Realm Depot in your Serenitea Teapot. These items grant 10,000 and 2,500 Artifact EXP material respectively. These are great substitutes if you badly need to enhance artifacts but don’t have the extra ones to do so. Just bear in mind that you can only purchase these with Mora in a limited quantity per day.

Unfortunately, there are no other ways to level up or enhance artifacts apart from those two methods at present.

How to Obtain Genshin Impact Artifacts?

Obtaining Genshin Impact artifacts is quite difficult in a way. While you can obtain them by simple farming at their respective Domains, there is no guarantee that you’ll get a “good” artifact for your characters. Even when dealing with artifacts, Genshin Impact applies a Gacha System and you will not be able to choose the artifacts that you will have in Domains.

Unfortunately, multiple artifacts can be obtained from a single domain. For instance, in the Domain of Guyun, you can get artifacts such as Archaic Petra, Retracing Bolide, Brave Heart, and Lucky Dog. There is no guarantee that you’ll be able to get the artifact that you need.

Similarly, there are artifacts like Gladiator’s Finale that you can get from World Bosses. However, like the artifacts at Domains, the ones that you’ll receive will be completely random.

Even when obtaining Genshin Impact artifacts, it is still a game of luck. That said, you might want to experiment with different builds just in case you don’t have the artifacts that you need yet.

Takeaway

Genshin Impact artifacts are essential to the performance of a character. In most situations, they will make or break your build. That is why you should study different artifacts and see whether they will be a fit for how you want to build your characters. You might also need to take into consideration the role of your character because this will also be a big factor in curating their artifact set. In addition, it’s ideal to have a few back-up builds just in case your initial build doesn’t work or you lack the artifacts to complete it. This will help your characters function while you’re working on farming for artifacts for them.

Lastly, always remember that Genshin Impact is a very flexible game and so are its characters. Experimentation is one of the best ways to figure out which artifacts will work the best for your characters. Just don’t forget to keep the character’s element and role in mind when you experiment with builds to make sure that you’re still maximizing their potential.