Xing Qiu is a graceful and refined guy armed with a one-handed sword. The blue-haired Xing Qiu is known throughout Mondstadt, because he is a member of the Feiyun merchant guild. And while his peers were having fun and enjoying themselves, Xing Qiu studied diligently, developing his combat skills and mastery of the elements.
In everyday life, Xing Qiu behaves like an ordinary introvert: at best, he will be alone, enjoying a dialogue with himself, than surrounded by friends and acquaintances who do not appreciate his mind and soul at all.
Genshin Impact Character Xing Qiu Overview
Xing Qiu is a decent character in Genshin Impact. He is a great damage dealer with a slight support focus. He drops quite often and is found in more than four prayers. The one-handed sword of the guild merchant helps him in battle. The young master also masterfully wields his element – Pyro. Therefore, Xing Qiu will be useful for elemental reactions in the squad. And although Xing Qiu’s rating is only 4 stars, this does not prevent him from taking a leading position among support damage dealers.
Advantages and disadvantages of the character
In combat, Xing Qiu is in the position of an additional damage dealer, attacks fat bosses well, and copes well with trials. In addition to this advantage, Xing Qiu shows the following types of positive qualities:
- Not a bad attack speed indicator;
- There is a great passive for playing in the world – 25% return of materials that were used to upgrade talents;
- One of the skills heals the squad and reduces enemy damage;
- Xing Qiu will be useful in any squad with a primary damage dealer who can successfully perform an Elemental Reaction.
It’s impossible to shower Xing Qiu with compliments without saying that he has plenty of downsides too:
- To make the character as effective as possible, you will have to level up the constellations;
- Basic attacks, although fast, do little damage;
- One of the skills has an excruciatingly long cooldown, which can be a frustrating condition in combat.
Features and skills
Xing Qiu’s basic attacks are quite weak, so the young master’s main gameplay tactic will be to constantly use skills. It is for this reason that Xing Qiu, despite all his advantages, cannot be the main damage dealer. He is either a total support who does not get into battle without a special reason, but only helps damage dealers by increasing attacks, or he combines the support position with a fighter and still performs the function of support, but for allies.
Basic Skill – “Gu Hua Style”
Xing Qiu draws his greatsword from its sheath and slashes enemies up to five times. If the attack is charged, Xing Qiu will swing his melee weapon powerfully and strike enemies twice. The powerful swing consumes a small amount of stamina.
If Xing Qiu attacks from above, he will fall on enemies within a small radius and deal normal damage to them.
Elemental Skill – “Gu Hua: Rain Curtain”
A rather picturesque and graceful skill, in which Xing Qiu swings his one-handed sword twice and creates 3 rain blades. The whole charm of the skill lies in these blades, because they:
- Reduces the strength of damage that will pass through the character. But if the hero still receives damage, one of the blades will be destroyed;
- Blades provide a bonus to interrupting attacks;
- Xing Qiu’s hydro damage turns into quantitative damage absorption, but only up to 20%;
- Xing Qiu, who activated the elemental, gains the Wet status.
The last point should be stopped. If the enemy, for example, fights from the Cryo element, Xing Qiu’s status can seriously spoil the fight. In this case, it is better to change Xing Qiu to a Pyro damager.
Ultimate – “Gu Hua: Rainbow Stance”
Activating the ultimate casts rain blades around Xing Qiu. In addition to the main damage, they will deal additional Hydro damage to enemies. An important advantage of this skill is that basic attacks do not consume blades while the ultimate skill is active.
Xing Qiu can even leave the battlefield, but the rain blades will still remain. The only downside to these rain blades is that they also deal damage to the active hero.
Passive Skill – “Secret of Flowing Water”
When the blades wear off or are destroyed, the talent will restore 6% of Xingqiu’s highest health.
Passive Skill – “Beautiful Handwriting”
Increases Xing Qiu’s Hydro damage by 20%.
Passive Skill – “Inspiration Surge”
When talent materials are created, Xing Qiu has a 25% chance to partially restore them.
How to Play as Xing Qiu in Genshin Impact
When playing Xing Qiu, it’s important to always be on hand – creating elemental reactions, helping with skills, or dealing extra damage. It’s not necessary to make Xing Qiu an impenetrable cyborg to effectively spam skills, because it’s enough to just show up on the battlefield at the right time.
Xing Qiu is a hybrid of support and damage dealer. With the help of the young book lover, you can create many reactions with the Hydro element. A useful addition to the character’s abilities will be an increase in attack abilities and a good heal. In other words, there is benefit from Xing Qiu, and quite a lot.
Best Xing Qiu Builds in the Game
The only build that will only have a positive effect on Xing Qiu is a combo build of support and additional damage dealer. When building, the main damage is placed on the Hydro element and its enhancement, on restoring cooldown and energy, as well as on healing. But first things first. The first weapon that is ideal for Mr. Xing Qiu will, of course, be the “Ceremonial Sword”. This sword is basically universal, both for damage dealers and for support. It will restore the cooldown if Xing Qiu successfully hits with an elemental.
The second weapon that will perfectly replace the “ceremonial” will be either the “Favonius Sword” or the “Heavenly Sword”. The action of the first sword is aimed at a good restoration of energy and a small increase in attacks. “Heavenly Sword”, in addition to restoring energy, will increase the chance of a critical strike, increase the speed of attack and movement, albeit by 10%, but still.
As for artifacts, everything is very clear – you need to collect them from the elements or from restoration. List of artifacts for Xing Qiu:
- Ancient Nobility Ceremony Set. A versatile flower that is very suitable for a young merchant. The full set increases the attack efficiency of all allies when activating an elemental explosion. The two-piece set will increase the damage from an elemental explosion by 20%. It is appropriate to collect a full set here to strengthen Xing Qiu as much as possible.
- “Heart of the Depths”. An average artifact, but it will pump up Hydro damage quite well – by as much as 15%. It will be a great replacement for “Ceremony”, but at the first opportunity it is recommended to remove this artifact and give it to those in need.
- “Exile”. The last place in the top artifacts is occupied by this set. Yes, it is not bad, and yes, it is for support, but its effectiveness is several times less than that of the top artifact. What “Exile” will please: the elemental explosion will restore energy to allies (everyone except Xing Qiu) a little, the speed of energy restoration will increase by 20%.
How to properly level up Xing Qiu
Well, a little about pumping, because the main balance of Xing Qiu’s efficiency depends on it. Pumping, as always, will begin with the constellation “Motley Tapestry”, this is the name of the cluster of stars of the cute merchant.
What to pump? In fact, absolutely all constellations will be useful here, except for 3 and 5, because they simply increase levels. Each constellation is pumped depending on the use of a particular skill, special attention to 2 and 6 constellations.
- “The smell of rain in the morning.” Another blade is added to the blades.
- “Rainbow Sky” – The ult lasts 3 seconds longer, all enemies receive a 15% debuff to Hydro damage resistance from Rain Blades.
- “Rhyming”. The level of the ult is increased by 3, the maximum increase is 15.
- “Tamer of Evil” – When the ultimate is active, the damage from the elemental ability is increased by 50%;
- “Rain’s Embrace”. Increases the level of elemental skill by 3 units, maximum available for increase is 15 units;
“Collected Works”. Every two blade attacks during the ult increase the damage of the following rain blades and restore energy quite well – by 3 units.
To level up the ascensions, you’ll need a few oddities and items. First, you’ll need to find everything related to Varunad Lazurite – gems, fragments, shards, chunks, and whole gems. Then, you’ll need to get some cleansing hearts, mullets, and masks – broken, dirty, and sinister.
Leveling up talents also requires patience and effort. In addition to finding masks, as for exaltation – dirty, broken and sinister, you will need to find books about “Gold” – philosophy, instructions and teachings. In addition, you will need several Dwalin’s claws and the rarest, but insanely useful Crown of Insight.
Secrets and tips
A convenient and worthy character in battle is the young guy Xing Qiu, who will successfully fit into almost any squad that needs strong Hydro support. And although his main potential is revealed in the game for the support, as a fighter he shows himself just as worthy.
When playing as Xing Qiu, it is important to control the combat situation. Often, squad members need Hydro support, coupled with rain blades. If reactions with water are needed, Xing Qiu is right there, because his element is quite variable.
When forming damage squads, Xing Qiu often ends up on the bench. However, this does not mean that the squads can do without him, not at all. Once you add Xing Qiu to the squad, you will never want to change him again.
Examples of units for Xing Qiu:
- Razor, Mona, Zhongli – three strong fighters and Xingqiu as support. Plus to the squad – creating decent reactions;
- Fischl, Barbara, Diluc – the same story with reactions, but now there are two fighters. Barbara for the heal, Xing Qiu for additional damage if necessary;
- Bennett, Chun Yun, Razor – here too, three powerful and reactive fighters are used. Bennett and Xing Qiu as semi-supports.
If necessary, Chun Yun can be swapped for Kaeya, Diluc for Xiangling, Barbara for Sucrose or Qi Qi.
Xing Qiu is a great character with a pretty interesting story and decent skills. Using him in a squad will mean success in creating reactions and restoring health indicators. He is quite good in independent fights with “fat” bosses and just fat opponents. If there are many enemies, Xing Qiu perfectly supports the main fighters and gives them HP and energy restoration. Xing Qiu will definitely become a regular in squads, because a good-natured Hydro guy is exactly what the squads lack