Neuvillette arrives to deliver judgement in Genshin Impact! Here's how you build him

Genshin Impact version 4.1 is finally here! Headlining this new update is the debut of Neuvillette, the Chief Justice of Fontaine and a 5-star Hydro Catalyst DPS character.

Neuvillette draws upon a mysterious ancient power to deliver judgment upon enemies with powerful torrents of water, boasting a hard-hitting yet versatile kit that puts him squarely in the top tier of the game's DPS characters.

Neuvillette is one of the featured 5-star characters in the first half of Genshin Impact version 4.1, running alongside another great DPS character, Hu Tao. If you're still torn on whether or not you should pull on this banner, read our guide to help you decide.

And, if you were lucky enough to have the Chief Justice of Fontaine at your side, here's how you build him.

An ancient dragon's power

Neuvillette boasts a powerful kit centred on his Charged Attack, which lets him unleash a powerful torrent of water in front of him to wipe the battlefield clean at the cost of his own HP. His skill, burst, and passive talents help him maintain a constant barrage while giving him additional sources of damage.

Neuvillette's primary source of damage is his enhanced Charged Attack, Equitable Judgment, which deals continuous area-of-effect Hydro DMG based on a percentage of his Max HP in a straight-line area in front of him for 3 seconds.

If Neuvillette's current HP is above 50% of his maximum, then he will continuously lose HP while using Equitable Judgment.

It will take some time for Neuvillette to charge up Equitable Judgment, but absorbing Sourcewater Droplets created by his skill and ultimate will let him charge it up quickly while also healing him. While charging up and using Equitable Judgment, Neuvillette can freely move and change the direction he is facing so you can focus on the right targets.

Neuvillette's skill, O Tears, I Shall Repay, lets him deal area-of-effect Hydro DMG based on his Max HP to enemies in front of him. If the skill hits an opponent, then it will also create 3 Sourcewater Droplets so he can use Equitable Judgment faster.

Neuvillette's burst, O Tides, I Have Returned, lets him unleash three powerful waves that deal Hydro DMG in a large area. This ability will unleash one huge initial wave and then two smaller ones after a short interval that affect a smaller area. In addition, it will also create 6 Sourcewater Droplets to let Neuvillette use Equitable Judgment.

Neuvillette's A1 passive, Heir to the Ancient Sea's Authority, empowers Equitable Judgment by giving him stacks of Past Draconic Glories whenever a party member triggers a Hydro-related elemental reaction, up to a maximum of 3 stacks. At max stacks, Past Draconic Glories boosts the damage of Equitable Judgment by a whopping 160% of its original damage.

Meanwhile, Neuvillette's A4 passive, Discipline of the Supreme Arbitration, provides another boost in his damage output by giving him 0.6% Hydro DMG Bonus for each 1% of his current HP greater than 30% of his maximum HP. The Hydro DMG Bonus from this passive is capped at 30%.

In battle, make sure to use your support character's abilities first before switching to Neuvillette, as he will need to take up a lot of field time to dish out damage. If you don't have his C1, make sure that he has a shield so he won't be interrupted while using Equitable Judgment.

Start your rotation with Neuvillette by using his skill to create Sourcewater Droplets and then use Equitable Judgment. After that, unleash his burst and then use Equitable Judgment two more times to deliver judgment on any enemies foolish enough to stand in his way.

Neuvillette's best weapons, artifacts

Weapons

Neuvillette's best weapon is obviously his signature, the Tome of Eternal Flow, which gives a solid 541 Base ATK and has a whopping 88% Crit DMG substat.

This weapon also passively gives Neuvillette a 16% HP increase and, whenever his current HP increases or decreases, buffs his Charged Attack DMG by 14% for 4 seconds. The Charged Attack DMG buff also stacks up to 3 times and can be triggered once every 0.3 seconds.

Additionally, when Neuvillette reaches 3 stacks or has the third stack's duration refreshed, the weapon will also restore 8 energy for him. The energy restoration effect can be triggered once every 12 seconds.

If you're not willing to spend your Primogems on the weapon banner, then Neuvillette can make use of solid 5-star alternatives, including two Standard 5-star Catalysts.

Neuvillette's second-best weapon is arguably the Jadefall's Splendor, which has a 608 Base ATK and a 49% HP substat — which may look bad at first glance, but will actually significantly help with his damage output.

One of this weapon's passives is also very good for Neuvillette, as it will give him a 0.3% Hydro DMG Bonus for every 1,000 Max HP he has for 3 seconds after he uses his burst. The Hydro DMG Bonus goes up to 12% if his Max HP reaches 40,000.

Another good 5-star option for Neuvillette is the Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds, which has 608 Base ATK and a 33% Crit Rate substat. It passively increases his movement speed by 10% and gives him a 8% Hydro DMG Bonus every 4 seconds he is in combat, stacking up to 4 times for a 24% Hydro DMG Bonus.

You can also go for the Skyward Atlas, which has a 674 Base ATK and a 33% ATK substat. It passively increases Neuvillete's Hydro DMG Bonus by 12% and causes his normal attacks to have a 50% chance to summon an additional attack that deals 160% of his ATK as damage to enemies every 30 seconds.

If you don't have any of the above 5-stars, worry not as Neuvillette still has some very good 4-star options.

First up is The Widsith, which has a 509 Base ATK and a 55% Crit DMG substat. It randomly grants its wielder one of three effects for 10 seconds after taking the field, namely a 60% ATK bonus, a 48% Elemental DMG Bonus, and 240 Elemental Mastery bonus.

Since the Widsith has been available since the start of the game, longtime players should have it at high refinements. When the Widsith is at R5, it's bonuses are boosted to 120% ATK, 96% Elemental DMG Bonus, and 480 Elemental Mastery.

Another good option is the Ballad of the Boundless Blue, which has a 564 Base ATK but a less-than-ideal 30% Energy Recharge substat. However, it does have a good passive that increases his Charged Attack DMG by 6%, stacking 3 times up to 18%, for 6 seconds after hitting enemies with a Normal or Charged Attack.

There's also the Flowing Purity, which has a 564 Base ATK and 28% ATK substat. After its wielder uses their skill, it gives them an 8% Elemental DMG Bonus for 15 seconds and creates a Bond of Life worth 24% of their Max HP. This effect can be triggered once every 10 seconds.

When the Bond of Life is cleared, every 1,000 HP cleared in the process will provide Neuvillette another 2% Elemental DMG Bonus, up to a maximum of 12%. This effect lasts 15 seconds.

Finally, there's Dodoco Tales, which has a 454 Base ATK and 55% ATK substat. It passively increases its wielder's Charged Attack DMG by 16% for 6 seconds after they use Normal Attacks.

Artifacts

Neuvillette's best-in-slot artifact set is undoubtedly the 4-piece Marechaussee Hunter set, which increases his Normal and Charged Attack DMG by 15% while also increasing his Crit Rate by 12% for 5 seconds, stacking up to three times, whenever his current HP increases or decreases.

If ever you've not yet farmed up a good 4-piece Marechaussee Hunter set for Neuvillette, you can go with the 4-piece Heart of Depth set as an alternative. Heart of Depth gives him a 15% Hydro DMG Bonus and increases his Charged Attack DMG by 30% for 15 seconds after using his skill.

Assuming you have enough 5-star Artifacts as fodder, you can quickly get a 4-piece Heart of Depth set from the Artifact Strongbox to use for Neuvillette while you farm for a 4-piece Marechaussee Hunter set.

While Neuvillette's artifact main stat setup is similar to other DPS characters, with a HP% Sands, Hydro DMG Bonus Goblet, and a Crit Rate/DMG Circlet, getting HP substat rolls aren't a waste with him and are instead very much welcome.

Of course, try to get Crit Rate/DMG and Energy Recharge on your substats on top of HP.

Neuvillette's best teams

Hydro is the most versatile element in Genshin Impact and is used in the strongest elemental reactions in the game.

Because of this, Neuvillette has plenty of strong teambuilding options. With that said, we recommend running Neuvillette in teams that can trigger multiple reactions so he can easily get the damage bonus to Equitable Judgment from his A4 passive.

We recommend focusing on the following reactions: Freeze, Hyperbloom, and Vaporize.

Having Neuvillette as the main on-field DPS in a Freeze team lets him freely use Equitable Judgment without fear of enemy retaliation.

In this composition, we recommend running him with Cryo characters like Shenhe, a support build Ganyu, Rosaria, or Kaeya for off-field Cryo application as well as Layla or Diona for shielding.

Meanwhile, Neuvillette can also drive the powerful Hyperbloom reaction while he's using Equitable Judgment, giving this team a great mix of single-target and area-of-effect damage.

For this Hyperbloom team, we recommend Nahida, Baizhu, Kirara, Collei, or the Dendro Traveler for the Dendro slot and Kuki Shinobu, Fischl, Beidou, or Raiden Shogun (with a Hyperbloom build) for the Electro slot. The fourth slot in this team can go to a second Hydro, Dendro, or Electro character of your choice, or even an Anemo character like Kazuha or Venti for crowd-control and Hydro damage buffs.

Then there's Vaporize, a powerful reaction that can be triggered by either using Neuvillette's attacks on Pyro-afflicted enemies or Pyro attacks on enemies afflicted by Hydro from Neuvillette's attacks.

Your best options for this composition are Xiangling, the best off-field Pyro damage-dealer in the game, and Thoma, who can provide a Pyro shield to protect Neuvillette while he's using Equitable Judgment.

Don't feel forced to limit your Neuvillette to the team compositions we've listed, as his versatility lets you mix-and-match the party members and elemental reactions you can use alongside him depending on what enemies you'll be facing.

With that said, we do recommend running Neuvillette with a second Hydro character as a healer as well as an Anemo buffer as much as possible.

Kokomi and Barbara will be your go-to as the second Hydro character in a Neuvillette team to provide off-field healing as well as trigger the Hydro Resonance buff, which gives a party-wide 25% Max HP buff.

Kazuha and Venti should be your Anemo buffers. While Kazuha's buffing capabilities are second to none, Venti can be the better pick against enemies susceptible to crowd-control as the vortex created by his burst is targetable by Neuvillette's Equitable Judgment.

What's upcoming in Genshin version 4.1

The second half of this version will also feature another new character in Wriothesley, who will be running alongside Venti.

Version 4.1 will also host the celebratory event for Genshin Impact's third anniversary on 28 September, so there's lots to be excited about!

After Genshin Impact version 4.1 comes version 4.2 in early November, which will feature the debuts of Furina, also known as the Hydro Archon Focalors, and the Steambird reporter Charlotte.

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

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