Nahida, Nilou, or their weapons? Genshin Impact 3.6 banner evaluation

Genshin Impact version 3.6 is finally here! This new version's banners will be all about Dendro, with the first half featuring the first reruns for Nahida, the Dendro Archon Lesser Lord Kusanali herself, and Nilou, star of the Zubayr Theater and a devotee of the God of Wisdom!

With how Dendro and its myriad elemental reactions have been dominating the metagame, should you pull for Nahida, Nilou, and their signature weapons to supercharge your Dendro teams? Read on and we'll help you decide.

Get Nahida to empower your Dendro teams

As the Dendro Archon, Nahida is hands-down the best character in her element. With Dendro's strength tied to its many elemental reactions, the Dendro Archon greatly empowers the damage her team deals through elemental reactions by providing reliable off-field Dendro application as well as party-wide Elemental Mastery bonuses.

Not only that, Nahida can also deal with mobs of enemies even if she doesn't have direct area-of-effect abilities.

When using the hold mode of her skill to target enemies all around her, Nahida can link them all and cause them to receive Dendro DMG whenever a linked enemy receives damage from elemental reactions. This lets Nahida and her team unleash a barrage of elemental reactions on every enemy in sight, even if they are on different ends of the battlefield.

While Nahida's burst doesn't deal damage on its own, it does buff her skill's damage, which will depend if you have Pyro, Electro, or Hydro characters in your party. A Pyro character increases her skill's damage, Electro lets it trigger more often, while Hydro increases its duration. Having two characters of each element will also enhance the buff provided by their element.

In addition, Nahida's A1 passive provides her party with an Elemental Mastery buff that is based on her own Elemental Mastery whenever she uses her burst. The more Elemental Mastery your characters have, the more damage they deal through elemental reactions.

Don't let the Dendro Archon's diminutive form fool you though, she's a capable fighter that can thrive as an off-field Sub DPS or the on-field Main DPS, depending on which compositions you're running.

As a Catalyst user, Nahida's Normal Attacks deal Dendro DMG, which makes her a great driver for reactions as the party's on-field Main DPS.

We recommend surrounding her with Electro and Hydro characters to make use of the strong Spread/Aggravate and Hyperbloom reactions. But don't forget to bring healers like Sangonomiya Kokomi or Kuki Shinobu along to protect our precious radish!

Nahida is also fairly easy to build. You just need to stack as much Elemental Mastery as possible, which will increase the damage and Crit Rate of her skill while also increasing the Elemental Mastery bonus she gives to her teammates.

Of course, you can still run a more traditional DPS build on her by getting an Elemental Mastery sands, Dendro DMG goblet, and Crit Rate/DMG main stats on her artifacts.

In short, Nahida is definitely a must-pull for players looking for a strong Dendro team! The Dendro Archon can fulfill any role and will buff her teammate's damage while dishing out some hard hits of her own.

Not to mention, Nahida is also one of the best-written characters in Genshin Impact so far. Not only were her character teasers and demos absolute tear-jerkers, the Dendro Archon also had some badass moments during the Sumeru Archon Quests and her own Story Quest.

Get Nilou for a supercharged Bloom team

While Nilou has a Hydro vision, she's practically a Dendro character. Her kit is centered around empowering the Bloom reaction, turning the Dendro Cores it summons into Bountiful Cores that explode instantly and deal much more damage.

There is a caveat, however, as Nilou can only create Bountiful Cores if she is in a party that consists of only Hydro and Dendro characters. And while this restricts her to just one team composition, it isn't much of a problem when it is one of the strongest lineups in the game.

Nilou creates Bountiful Cores by using her skill, which takes three 'steps' to fully activate and will have different effects depending on the button you press for the last step.

If you press the Normal Attack button on the last step, then Nilou's attacks will receive a Hydro infusion. Pressing the skill button on the last step will instead create a ring of Hydro, which remains even if Nilou is off-field and follows the active character.

Once Nilou's skill is active, any Dendro Cores created by the Bloom reaction will turn into Bountiful Cores that will have their damage buffed by Nilou's Max HP.

Nilou's burst also helps in this regard, unleashing a wave of Hydro on all nearby enemies to deal DMG and allow for the creation of more Bountiful Cores.

However, you should always bring a healer in your Nilou teams because Bountiful Cores also deal damage to your own characters when they explode. Since Bountiful Cores deal a lot of damage, you might end up melting alongside your enemies if you aren't careful.

While Nilou's strong kit is restrictive, she is relatively easier to build compared to other characters.

You just need to stack as much HP as possible by getting HP% main stat artifacts on your sands, goblet, and circlet slots. You should also get artifact set bonuses that provide more HP, such as the 2-piece sets for the Tenacity of the Millelith and the newly-released Vourukasha's Glow.

As for her team, you just need Hydro and Dendro characters. You should always have at least two Hydro characters to get a 25% Max HP bonus from the Hydro Resonance effect. Healers like Sangonomiya Kokomi or Barbara are great options for your second Hydro character.

From there, you can either run one Dendro character with three Hydro characters or two Dendro characters. A triple Hydro composition is ideal if your Dendro character is a great driver like Nahida. Otherwise, two Dendro characters will be the way to go.

While Nilou isn't a must-pull character, she is definitely worth having in your account. Even if she is very niche and restrictive, that niche just so happens to be one of the strongest teams in the game. If your enemy isn't immune to Dendro, then Nilou's dance and an explosion of green will be the last things they see.

Do you need to get Nahida and Nilou's signature weapons?

As with any character in Genshin Impact, giving them a 5-star weapon will go a long way towards unlocking their full potential, more so for 5-star characters with signature weapons. If you have the Primogems to spare, then it's definitely worth giving Nahida and Nilou their signature weapons.

Nahida's signature weapon, A Thousand Floating Dreams, gives her 265 Elemental Mastery at max level. Its passive also gives her stacking Elemental Mastery and Elemental DMG bonuses depending on the elements of her teammates. It also provides her teammates with a 40 Elemental Mastery bonus to further increase her team's damage output from elemental reactions.

Since Nahida scales with Elemental Mastery, her signature weapons greatly increases her damage output whether she's taking on on-field or off-field roles. It's also a versatile weapon that can be used by other Elemental Master-scaling Catalyst wielders and is not exclusive to Nahida.

Meanwhile, Nilou's signature weapon, Key of Khaj-Nisut, has a whopping 66.2 HP% substat on top of passively increasing her HP by 20% and an Elemental Mastery bonus based on her Max HP. As icing on the cake, it also gives a party-wide Elemental Mastery bonus based on her Max HP.

There are only two swords in the game that increases its wielder's HP: the Key of Khaj-Nisut and the Primordial Jade Cutter. The latter provides a passive 20% HP bonus, though Nilou has little use for the Crit Rate and ATK buffs it provides. So, if you really want to get maximise Nilou's HP and Bountiful Core damage, then the Key of Khaj-Nisut is a worthwhile investment.

With all that said, Nahida and Nilou's base kits are strong enough that they can easily clear content even if they don't have their signature weapons. So if you don't have enough Primogems or are unwilling to dish out some cash, then there's no need to pull on the weapon banner.

Nahida can make good use of 4-star weapons that have Elemental Mastery substats like the Sacrificial Fragments, Wandering Evenstar, and Mappa Mare.

While there are no 4-star swords that increase HP for Nilou, she can still go for ones with Elemental Mastery substats like the Xiphos' Moonlight, Iron Sting, and Toukabu Shigure.

Genshin Impact version 3.6 is slated to run from 12 April to 21 May. The banners for the first half will feature Nahida and Nilou while the second half, going up on 1 May, will feature the debuts of Baizhu and Kaveh as well as a rerun for Ganyu.

After version 3.6 comes version 3.7, which will see the debut of new character Kirara and is expected to be released in late May.

Yan Ku is a full-time dog parent, part-time (gacha) gamer, and part-time writer.

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