Preview
Shenhe is the newest 5-star character that has been released in the 2.4 Version. She has a Support role and greatly increases the damage of a Cryo and Physical DPS character. You can build her to either spam her ultimate or give bigger ATK buffs. I will elaborate on this in the Weapons segment below. The materials she requires are below:
The Hellfire Butterfly is earned through defeating the weekly boss La Signora, giving 1 or 2 each time at higher levels, while the Dragonheir's False Fin required for leveling is obtained from the Coral Defenders, the newest world boss. The Energy Nectar is used to level Shenhe and her talents and is dropped by Whopperflowers. Her talent books required are Philosophies of Prosperity, which can be obtained in the Taishan Mansion Domain. She uses Qingxin as her leveling material.
This article will introduce you to the weapons and artifacts to use on Shenhe, as well as the party setup you can use on her. I will include options for free-to-play players, as well as beginners. Since Shenhe can be built to buff differently, I will elaborate on the different builds you can give her in each section.
For more information on her kit, do go to my Instagram for an in-depth explanation.
Shenhe Weapons
Shenhe works best with ATK%/Energy Recharge sub-stat weapons. If possible, I would recommend using a 5-star weapon (Calamity Queller, Engulfing Lightning). You can use the weapons below:
The Calamity Queller polearm is the best option for Shenhe, but might not be very attainable for F2P players, despite the current weapon banner wishing system. The passive of the Calamity Queller gives 12% of all Elemental DMG Bonus. 20 seconds after using an Elemental Skill, it causes ATK to increase by 3.2% per second. This ATK increase has a maximum of 6 stacks. When the character equipped with this weapon is not on the field, ATK increase is doubled.
Alternatively, you can use the Lithic Spear or Wavebreaker's Fin for the ATK% sub-stat. For every character in the party who hails from Liyue, the character who equips the Lithic Spear gains a 7% ATK increase and a 3% CRIT Rate increase. This effect stacks up to 4 times.
For every point of the entire party's combined maximum Energy capacity, the Elemental Burst DMG of the character equipping the Wavebreaker's Fin is increased by 0.12%. A maximum of 40% increased Elemental Burst DMG can be achieved this way.
The Engulfing Lightning has an Energy Recharge sub-stat and increases ATK by 28% of Energy Recharge over the base of 100%, with a maximum bonus of 80% ATK. You also gain 30% Energy Recharge for 12s after using an Elemental Burst.
For players that seldom pull on the weapon banner, I would recommend the Favonius Lance that has a 60% chance of generating an elemental orb with a CRIT hit, regenerating 6 energy for the character. You can also use The Catch, which increases Burst DMG by 16% and Burst CRIT Rate by 6%. Most of the craftable weapons (Prototype Starglitter, Crescent Pike, Dragonspine Spear, Kitain Cross Spear) aren't great options for her due to the Sub-stat or Passive.
Shenhe Artifacts
Shenhe should use a 2-set of Gladiator's Finale and a 2-set of Shimenawa's Reminiscence. Each set increases ATK by 18% which gives a total of 36% increased ATK.
The Shimenawa's Reminiscence set can be obtained from the Momiji-Dyed Court Domain.
Alternatively, you can use the 4 piece Noblesse Oblige set for increased Elemental Burst DMG for other characters in your party. This could be useful if you do not have any characters with the 4-set in your party, as it buffs damage greatly. However, I feel that you should put the 4 piece Noblesse on your healer instead and allow Shenhe to buff purely by ATK.
The stats and sub-stats that you should prioritise are as below:
- Flower sub-stats: ATK%, ER%
- Feather sub-stats: ATK%, ER%
- Watch stat: ATK%
- Goblet stat: ATK%
- Mask stat: ATK%
However, if you would prefer Shenhe to spam her Ultimate since it shreds Cryo and Physical RES, you can use Energy Recharge% instead. Overall, ER of about 180% should be enough to spam her ultimate. 180% isn't a number you have to hit, it is just a gauge. CRIT DMG and CRIT Rate isn't as important as Shenhe should be built as a Support and she doesn't need to do big Cryo DMG numbers herself.
Shenhe Talents
The best order to upgrade your talents is below.
Divine Maiden's Deliverance > Spring Spirit Summoning
You do not need to level her Dawnstar Piercer talent.
Party Setup
With Shenhe as a Support, you should use Cryo characters as your Main DPS such as Ayaka/Ganyu (you can use Eula for Physical DPS) for greater DMG. Alternatively, you can use Chongyun, since his skill converts all hits by other characters into Cryo. As of now, I would greatly recommend Ayaka as the Main DPS that you can play with Shenhe for greatly increased DMG. For example, you can see my team setup below:
I use Ayaka as Main DPS, Shenhe for Support, Qiqi for Heals and Mona to ensure I have a Permafreeze combo. You can also use Xingqiu for Permafreeze.
Conclusion
Overall, Shenhe seems to be a niche support character that is pushing MiHoYo's new Single-Element Party mechanic. She is someone that you should definitely get if you have invested heavily into a Cryo character such as Ayaka and Ganyu and would like higher damage.
We hope that you have found this article helpful and that you will enjoy the new updates in the 2.4 version of Genshin Impact (more information here)! For more information on Xiao, you can refer to this article. Do look out for more Genshin guides from me and let us know if there are other articles you would like to read!