The Hydro Archon Furina takes the stage in Genshin Impact 4.2! Here's how you build her

Genshin Impact version 4.2 is one of the game's most exciting updates in recent memory, as it features the debut of Furina, also known as the Hydro Archon and the God of Justice!

Hydro is the most versatile element in Genshin Impact and Furina embodies her element by being a do-it-all character that provides huge off-field damage and Hydro application, healing, and even damage buffs! Not only that, she also boasts some of the best animations in the game, even able to switch outfits at will and walk on water.

If you were lucky enough to get Furina, then read on as we break down how to best build her as well as her best weapons, artifacts, and teams!

Regina of All Waters

Furina is one of Genshin Impact's most versatile characters by far, able to deal damage and apply Hydro from both on and off-field, as well as provide healing and damage buffs. Whether you'll have her take on support or DPS roles, Furina is a do-it-all character that will always perform, as befitting the Hydro Archon.

Before we get into her abilities, we must note Furina's unique mechanic, that being the ability to freely switch between Ousia and Pneuma Arkhe alignments (complete with a sleek outfit change) by using her charged attack.

Her ability to switch Arkhe alignments is tied to her skill and she will always start with the Ousia alignment.

Furina's skill, Salon Solitaire, lets her summon either the Salon members or the Singer of Many Waters based on her current Arkhe alignment.

While in her Ousia state, Furina's skill deals area-of-effect Hydro DMG based on her Max HP and summons the three Salon members: the Ball Octopus-shaped Gentilhomme Usher, the Bubbly Seahorse-shaped Surintendante Chevalmarin, and the Armored Crab-shaped Mademoiselle Crabaletta.

Each Salon member will attack nearby enemies at intervals, prioritising the target of the current active character, and will deal Hydro DMG based on Furina's Max HP.

When the Salon members attack and if the party has characters whose current HP is over 50% of their Max HP, they will consume those characters' HP to empower their attacks. If the party has 1/2/3/4 characters whose current HP is over 50% of their Max HP, the Salon members' attacks will deal 110%/120%/130%/140% of their original DMG.

Meanwhile, using Furina's skill while she is in her Pneuma state will instead summon the Singer of Many Waters. It will heal the active character based on Furina's Max HP at regular intervals.

The summoned units will stay on the field for 30 seconds and will remain even if Furina is off-field. Changing Furina's Arkhe alignment while her skill is active will also change which summons are active, and they will inherit the initial duration unless her skill is used again. Furina can also walk on water if her summons are on the field.

Since Salon Solitaire has a 20-second cooldown, Furina will have 100% uptime on her summons and her ability to walk on water.

Furina's burst, Let the People Rejoice, deals area-of-effect Hydro DMG based on Furina's Max HP and causes all party members to enter the Universal Revelry state.

While in this state, Furina will gain 1 Fanfare point for each percentage of all party members' HP increasing or decreasing. Each Fanfare point Furina has, up to a maximum of 300, will grant all party members an increase to DMG dealt and an incoming healing bonus.

Furina's burst has a 18-second duration, 60 energy cost, and a 15-second cooldown, meaning she can also have a 100% uptime on it provided she has enough energy.

Furina's passive skills lets her somewhat offset the HP drain from her Ousia skill summons while also buffing their damage.

Her A2 passive, Endless Waltz, causes all overflowed healing not from Furina to also heal another party member for 2% of their Max HP once every 2 seconds for the next 4 seconds.

Meanwhile, Furina's A4 passive, Unheard Confession, buffs the summons from her skill based on the amount of her Max HP. Every 1,000 points of Furina's Max HP will increase the DMG of the Salon members by .7%, up to a maximum of 28%, and will decrease the healing intervals of the Singer of Many Waters.

In battle, let Furina get the action started by using her burst and then immediately using her Ousia skill to summon the Salon members, who will then attack nearby enemies and allow Furina to get Fanfare points.

Since Furina's skill and burst both have 100% uptime, she can keep her rotation going as long as she has enough energy and the party is able to get healing to offset the HP drain from the Salon members.

While you can use Furina's Pneuma skill to heal, it's better to run another healer alongside Furina so that she can still use her Ousia skill and the party still gets healing — both of which will buff everyone's damage through Furina's Fanfare stacks.

When leveling Furina's abilities, prioritise her skill first and her burst second, though you should max them both out eventually. Since Furina's damage mostly comes from her abilities, you can ignore leveling up her normal attacks to save some resources.

Furina's best gear

Weapons

Furina's best weapon is obviously her signature, the Splendor of Tranquil Waters, which has a base ATK of 541 and a 88% Crit DMG substat at max level.

This weapon also passively increases her skill DMG by 8% for 6 seconds, stacking up to 3 times, whenever her own HP increases or decreases. If other party members' HP increase or decrease, then Furina's Max HP will be increased by 14% for 6 seconds, stacking up to 2 times.

If you don't want to pull on Furina's weapon banner (honestly this one is very bad, so we recommend waiting for her rerun if you want to get her signature weapon), then she has a couple of 5-star alternatives as well as solid 4-star options.

Furina's second-best 5-star weapon is the Key of Khaj-Nisut, Nilou's signature. Not only does it have a 66% Max HP bonus substat at max level, it also passively increases its wielder's Max HP by 20% — which all go towards increasing Furina's damage output. What's more, it also increases the Elemental Mastery of its wielder and other party members based on the wielder's Max HP after their skill hits enemies.

Another good 5-star alternative for Furina is the Primordial Jade Cutter, which has a 44% Crit Rate substat and passively increases its wielder's Max HP by 20% — though the ATK increase it provides based on the wielder's Max HP is wasted on Furina.

As for Furina's 4-star options, your best bet will be the Festering Desire, though it is only available to players who were able to get it from an event way back in version 1.1.

If you are one of those players though, Furina can make good use of its 46% Energy Recharge substat to ensure she can use her burst off cooldown. In addition, it also increases her skill DMG by 32% and skill Crit Rate by 12% at R5.

Your other go-to 4-star weapon will be the Fleuve Cendre Ferryman, which can be acquired from the Fontaine Fishing Association (so time to go fishing again). It has a 46% Energy Recharge substat and, at max refinement, increases its wielder's skill Crit Rate by 16% and their Energy Recharge by 32% for 5 seconds after using their skill.

If you don't have the Festering Desire and don't want to go fishing, then just go with the Favonius Sword to solve the energy needs of Furina and her fellow party members.

Artifacts

Furina's best artifact set is hands-down the 4-piece Golden Troupe. Its 2-piece set bonus increases her skill DMG by 20% while its 4-piece bonus boosts the increase to skill DMG to 25%, which then doubles if the wielder is off the field.

All other artifact set options pale in comparison to the Golden Troupe set for Furina, so best to get farming. Fortunately, the Golden Troupe domain is very resin-efficient as it also allows you to get the Marechausee Hunter set, which should be the best-in-slot for all DPS characters from Fontaine.

As for her artifact main stats, go with an HP% or Energy Recharge sands, HP% or Hydro DMG Bonus goblet, and a Crit Rate/DMG circlet.

Furina's best teammates

Hydro is Genshin Impact's most versatile element, being used in the most powerful reactions in the game like Vaporize or Hyperbloom. As the Hydro Archon and the most versatile Hydro character, Furina can be slotted into almost every team — provided there will be another healer in the party to off-set the HP drain from her Ousia skill.

With that said, let's talk about the best healers to pair with Furina. Since her Ousia skill drains the HP of all party members, you should run her with healers who have party-wide healing to keep the entire party healthy while also maximising the Fanfare stacks you gain.

Of those party-wide healers, the best by far are Jean, Kokomi, Baizhu, and Yaoyao.

The party-wide healing from Jean's burst can guarantee max Fanfare stacks for Furina with one click. Plus, she's Anemo and can use the 4-piece Viridescent Venerer to buff the elemental damage of the party.

Kokomi provides both on-field healing with her skill and party-wide healing with her burst. She can also trigger the Hydro Resonance for the party, giving a significant HP boost to Furina that helps with her damage output.

Meanwhile, Baizhu and Yaoyao have party-wide healing abilities while also providing off-field Dendro application, allowing Furina teams to make use of powerful Dendro reactions like Bloom and Hyperbloom.

As long as you have a good healer to pair with Furina, then you can slot her into pretty much any team that can make use of her off-field Hydro application to trigger elemental reactions. So we're just gonna list the teams that can use that, such as Freeze, Vaporize, Tazer (Electro-Charged), Bloom, Hyperbloom, and Burgeon teams.

Aside from that, Furina can also be run in a mono Hydro team with either four Hydro characters or three Hydro characters plus one Anemo buffer. You can go with the likes of Yelan, Xingqiu, Kokomi, and Mona in such a lineup.

Finally, the one character who has the best synergy with Furina is arguably Neuvillette, as should be expected of Fontaine's Archon and its Chief Justice. Neuvillette's absurd damage output can be further boosted by Furina while his ability to self-heal also helps her gain max Fanfare stacks as soon as possible.

You can add Jean to provide party-wide healing and act as the Anemo buffer. The final slot in this party can go to anyone as long as they can help trigger an additional Hydro-related reaction to synergise with Neuvillette's A4 passive.

Furina takes the stage in Genshin Impact version 4.2, which went live on 8 November. She is featured in the version's first half alongside the first rerun for Baizhu while the second half features reruns for Cyno and Ayato.

If you're still torn on whether or not you should pull for Furina or Baizhu in the first half of version 4.2, we've got you covered.

After version 4.2 comes version 4.3, which features the debuts of Navia and Chevreuse.

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

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