Genshin Impact: Hu Tao returns to send your enemies to the afterlife, here's how to build her

Hu Tao, the eccentric 77th-Generation Director of Liyue's Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, has returned for her second rerun in the second half of Genshin Impact version 3.4!

While Hu Tao appears as merely a quirky and cheerful girl, she is more than meets the eye! This 5-star Pyro polearm user is one of the strongest DPS characters in the game, easily able to send your enemies to the afterlife with a flurry of fiery butterflies.

Here's everything you need to know about Hu Tao!

Let the living beware!

Hu Tao's kit revolves around her Charged Attacks, which decimates single targets when empowered with her skill and combined with Hydro attacks from other party members to trigger the powerful Vaporize reaction.

Hu Tao's skill, Guide to Afterlife, is her bread-and-butter. When used, Hu Tao consumes a portion of her HP to enter the Paramita Papilio state, which infuses her attacks with Pyro, increases her ATK based on her Max HP, and increases her resistance to interruption for 9 seconds.

In addition, hitting enemies with Charged Attacks while in the Paramita Papilio state applies the Blood Blossom effect to them. Enemies affected by Blood Blossom take Pyro DMG every 4 seconds, though only one can be active at a time.

Hu Tao's burst, Spirit Soother, lets her unleash a blazing spirit to attack enemies in a large area-of-effect around her. Hitting enemies with your burst regenerates a portion of Hu Tao's Max HP, and can be triggered up to five times.

In addition, Spirit Soother's damage and healing effects are increased if Hu Tao's current HP is either equal to or below 50% of her Max HP.

Hu Tao's A1 passive, Flutter By, gives her some utility by increasing the Crit Rate of your other party members by 12% for 8 seconds once she the Paramita Papilio state ends. Hu Tao herself does not receive this Crit Rate bonus.

Hu Tao's A4 passive, Sanguine Rouge, directly increases her own damage output by giving her a 33% Pyro DMG Bonus when her current HP is either equal to or below 50% of her Max HP.

With all the damage bonuses tied to her HP values, Hu Tao scales with HP. The more Max HP she has and the lower her current HP is compared to her Max HP, the more damage Hu Tao deals.

However, don't just stack as much HP as possible on your Hu Tao. You will still need a good balance of Crit and Elemental Mastery, which increases the damage dealt by your attacks that trigger the Vaporize reaction.

When leveling up your talents, prioritize leveling up your Normal Attacks and skill first as almost all of your damage output will be tied to those skills. Hu Tao isn't really reliant on using her burst all of the time, so leveling up her burst is not a priority.

Papilio Charontis: Hu Tao's best constellations

Hu Tao is already one of the strongest DPS characters in the game at C0, but if you're looking for constellations, then you should go for her C1 and C6.

Hu Tao's C1, Crimson Bouquet, is definitely her best constellation outside of her C6 as it removes the stamina consumption from her Charged Attacks while in the Paramita Papilio state.

While Hu Tao's C1 doesn't directly increase her damage numbers, it does increase her damage output by letting her keep using her Charged Attacks throughout her skill's duration. You won't also be penalized for using dodges to either avoid enemy attacks or cancel her animations to sneak in more Charged Attacks.

Meanwhile, Hu Tao's C6, Butterfly's Embrace, makes her a nigh-unstoppable force of nature. When her HP drops below 25% or to just 1 HP, Hu Tao cannot be killed by any damage sustained and will gain 100% Crit Rate, 200% Physical and Elemental RES, and greatly increased resistance to interruption for 10 seconds.

This effect can only occur once every 10 seconds, however, so make sure your Hu Tao gets healed enough to survive afterwards.

Once you've unlocked her C6, you can forego any Crit Rate on your artifacts and instead go all in on Crit DMG to boost Hu Tao's damage output to insane levels. It's also perfect for the Spiral Abyss, as not many enemies can survive her 10-second C6 onslaught and it should get reset once you get to the next chamber.

The Funeral Director's employees: Hu Tao's best teams

Hu Tao's role is firmly set as the Pyro Main DPS in either a Vaporize or Melt team. However, Vaporize will be her best team composition as there aren't any off-field Cryo characters in the game that can keep up with Hu Tao's barrage of Pyro attacks yet.

If you have Hu Tao, then there are a handful of characters that you outright NEED. They are Xingqiu, Yelan, and Zhongli.

Xingqiu is hands-down Hu Tao's best support. The off-field Hydro application from Xingqiu's burst, especially at C6, lets Hu Tao trigger Vaporize with practically every attack. The resistance to interruption and incremental healing he provides also helps Hu Tao survive sticky situations.

Meanwhile, Yelan is only marginally behind Xingqiu in how important she is in a Hu Tao team because of her 5-star rarity. While Yelan's burst doesn't have as much Hydro application as Xingqiu's (though this is solved by her C2), the DMG buff it provides is indispensable.

Finally, what is the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor Director without her trusty consultant?

Since Hu Tao's kit requires her to toe the line between life and death, you need a hefty shield to make sure she actually stays alive to deal her damage. And if you need a strong shield, there's no one better to give you that than Zhongli.

The universal RES shred he provides also nicely buffs Hu Tao's damage.

Double Hydro Hu Tao: Hu Tao, Xingqiu, Yelan, Flex

This is Hu Tao's best team composition, as having both Xingqiu and Yelan gives her all the off-field Hydro application she needs on top of activating the Hydro Resonance effect. The Hydro Resonance increases the Max HP of all party members by 25%, which increases the damage output for both Hu Tao and Yelan.

The last slot in this team can be taken by Zhongli if you think you need his shield. He'll also benefit from the Hydro Resonance, which will make his shield even stronger while increasing the damage of his burst.

If you think you're lacking damage, then you can slot in Xiangling, who will provide beastly off-field Pyro damage and activate the Pyro Resonance buff, which gives a party-wide 25% increase in ATK.

Hu Tao + Anemo: Hu Tao, Xingqiu/Yelan, Anemo support, Pyro support

If you want to buff Hu Tao's Pyro damage with an Anemo support with the 4-piece Viridescent Venerer effect, then go for this team composition. We recommend either Sucrose or C2 Kazuha as Anemo supports that also give Hu Tao additional Elemental Mastery.

However, in order for this team to work, you will need another Pyro unit other than Hu Tao to let your Anemo support Swirl Pyro. We recommend Thoma, who can provide a shield, though he is liable to steal a couple of Vaporize attacks away from Hu Tao.

Double Geo Hu Tao: Hu Tao, Xingqiu/Yelan, Zhongli, Albedo

Before the Hydro Resonance buff was reworked, this used to be Hu Tao's best team. Albedo will provide Hu Tao bonus Elemental Mastery after using his burst while also activating the Geo Resonance buff, which increases shield strength by 15% and buffs the damage dealt by shielded characters by 15%.

MeltVape Hu Tao: Hu Tao, Xingqiu/Yelan, Cryo, Flex

This team composition lets Hu Tao take advantage of both the Vaporize and Melt reactions. We recommend having two Cryo characters in this team, preferably those with off-field damage capabilities and utility, such as Kaeya, Rosaria, Diona, and Layla.

Funerary vestments: Hu Tao's best weapons and artifacts

Hu Tao has a good amount of options for her gear and can perform well at both high and low investment.

Let's start with her artifacts, she has three sets to choose from: 4-piece Crimson Witch of Flames, 4-piece Shimenawa's Reminiscence, and 4-piece Gilded Dreams.

4-piece Crimson Witch of Flames gives Hu Tao a 15% Pyro DMG Bonus while also increasing the damage dealt by most Pyro-related elemental reactions, with Vaporize and Melt getting a 15% DMG increase. While Hu Tao can't trigger this set's max stack effect, it still greatly increases her damage output across the board.

4-piece Shimenawa's Reminiscence gives Hu Tao a 18% ATK buff while also increasing the damage from her Normal and Charged Attacks by 50% for 10 seconds after using her skill. While the energy drain may look like a detriment, it really isn't since Hu Tao doesn't need to use her burst in every rotation.

4-piece Gilded Dreams gives Hu Tao a ton of ATK% and Elemental Mastery, letting her focus on getting Crit and HP with her substats.

All three of the above sets perform similarly, with any significant difference coming from how good your substats are. So, choose the set with the best substats.

We recommend farming either the Shimenawa's Reminiscence or Gilded Dreams domains, as they are both resin-efficient domains with artifact sets used by tons of other characters. Should you not get any good artifacts from farming those domains, feed all your duds to the Crimson Witch of Flames Artifact Strongbox.

The main stats you should be looking for are HP% for your sands, Pyro DMG Bonus for your goblet, and Crit Rate/DMG for your circlet. Substats to look for are Crit Rate/DMG, Elemental Mastery (you want at least 100, but ideally 200 to 300 depending on your set), HP%, and ATK%.

As for Hu Tao's weapons, her best-in-slot is hands-down the Staff of Homa. It gives her a ton of Crit DMG and HP, and she is also the only who can fully utilize its passive in conjunction with her skill.

Good 5-star alternatives are the Staff of Scarlet Sands, which gives Crit Rate, Elemental Mastery, and ATK, as well as the Primordial Jade-Winged Spear, which gives Crit Rate and stacking ATK bonuses.

Hu Tao's best 4-star options are the Battle Pass weapon Deathmatch and the Dragon's Bane. The former gives valuable Crit Rate while the latter gives Elemental Mastery and DMG bonuses against enemies affected by Hydro or Pyro.

Hu Tao is featured alongside Yelan in the second half of Genshin Impact version 3.4, making this one of the best banners in the game so far. If you're torn between pulling for Hu Tao or Yelan, we've got you covered.

After version 3.4 comes version 3.5, which will feature the debuts of Dehya and Mika. Genshin Impact version 3.5 is expected to be released in late February.

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

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