Nahida, the Dendro Archon, is a versatile five-star character known for her flexibility and powerful kit.
This guide dives into the essentials of maximizing Nahida’s potential, covering her abilities, optimal builds, team compositions, and more.
Complete Nahida Guide: Mastering Genshin Impact's Dendro Archon
Nahida's Abilities and Playstyle
Elemental Skill: All Schemes to Know
Marks enemies, enabling passive damage triggers.
Press: Marks nearby enemies and deals Dendro damage.
Hold: Enters an aiming mode to mark enemies in a larger area.
Exceptional range and area coverage.
Each passive hit reapplies Dendro, enhancing reaction potential.
Lasts 25 seconds, allowing for continuous damage and Dendro application.
Short, facilitating frequent re-marking of new enemy waves.
Elemental Burst: Illusory Heart
Buffs Elemental Skill and adds elemental-based effects (Pyro, Electro, Hydro).
Buff Effects
- Pyro: Increases Elemental Skill's damage.
- Electro: Reduces the interval between skill damage triggers.
- Hydro: Extends burst duration.
- EM (Elemental Mastery) Transfer: Boosts on-field character’s Elemental Mastery based on Nahida's EM.
- Low Energy Cost: Ensures high uptime and frequent usage.
Passive Talents
EM Focus: Enhances Nahida's damage and crit rate proportional to her Elemental Mastery.
1000 EM Cap: Ideal EM cap for maximizing passive talent benefits.
On-Field Driver Role: Boosts her own EM when actively used, allowing for lower EM build requirements.
Talent Priority
Elemental Skill
This is Nahida's most crucial talent, especially for triggering passive damage through her skill marks.
For an off-field support role, this skill ensures continuous Dendro application and passive damage.
As an on-field driver, this skill remains essential for setting up and maintaining Dendro reactions.
Elemental Burst
Though not as crucial as her Elemental Skill, her burst still provides significant support by boosting Elemental Mastery and enhancing her skill.
Offers additional buffs based on team composition, enhancing Nahida's flexibility and reaction output.
Normal Attack
This should be leveled if you're using Nahida as an on-field driver, where she actively engages enemies with normal and charged attacks.
If Nahida is primarily an off-field support, you can deprioritize her normal attack, as her passive skill damage doesn't rely on it.
Artifacts for Nahida
Primary Sets
Deepwood Memories (4-piece)
Ideal for enhancing Dendro reactions.
Provides a Dendro DMG Bonus and reduces Dendro RES of enemies, making it a top choice if no other team member uses it.
Gilded Dreams (4-piece)
Maximizes Nahida's personal damage.
It offers a significant boost in Elemental Mastery (EM), enhancing her reaction damage and overall effectiveness.
Alternative Sets
Wanderer's Troupe (2-piece) + Gilded Dreams (2-piece)
A mix for additional EM.
Emblem of Severed Fate (2-piece) + Gilded Dreams (2-piece)
For balanced EM and Energy Recharge if needed.
Main Stat Priorities
- Sands: Elemental Mastery or ATK%, depending on whether Nahida's role is more reaction-focused (EM) or damage-focused (ATK%).
- Goblet: Dendro DMG Bonus, to maximize her elemental damage output, or EM for a stronger focus on reactions.
- Circlet: Crit Rate/Damage, balancing with sub-stats, or EM for a stronger focus on reactions.
Sub-stat Focus
Prioritize Crit Rate/Damage, Elemental Mastery, and Energy Recharge (to a lesser extent).
Weapons for Nahida
5-Star Options
A Thousand Floating Dreams (Signature Weapon)
Best for off-field support.
Boosts EM and enhances party members' Elemental DMG based on their elements.
Kagura's Verity
Excellent for on-field playstyle.
Increases Elemental Skill DMG and provides a high Crit DMG bonus.
4-Star Options
Sacrificial Fragments: Great for EM and resetting Elemental Skill.
The Widsith: Offers Crit DMG and dynamic DMG buffs depending on the song played.
Solar Pearl: Good for on-field role with Crit Rate bonus and skill/burst damage increase.
Free-to-Play Friendly
Magic Guide: Provides EM and increased DMG against enemies affected by Hydro/Electro, aligning with common reaction setups.
Hakushin Ring (if using Electro characters): Enhances reaction DMG and offers Energy Recharge.
Nahida's Constellations
C1: The Seed of Stored Knowledge
Adds an extra count of Pyro/Electro/Hydro elements present in the team towards triggering her Elemental Burst's effects.
Enhances her Elemental Burst's buffing ability, making it more versatile in mixed-element teams.
C2: The Root of All Fullness
Allows Nahida's Dendro-related reactions (like Bloom, Hyperbloom, Burgeon) to crit, with a 20% CRIT Rate and 100% CRIT DMG bonus.
It also decreases the DEF of enemies affected by Quicken, Spread, and Aggravate.
Significantly boosts her damage potential in reaction-centric teams, making this constellation a major power spike.
C4: The Stem of Manifest Inference
Gains Elemental Mastery based on the number of enemies affected by her Elemental Skill, up to 160 EM for four or more enemies.
Useful in scenarios with multiple enemies, enhancing her reaction damage.
C6: The Fruit of Reason's Culmination
Her normal and charged attacks deal additional Dendro DMG inside her Elemental Burst's AoE.
This damage is considered Elemental Skill DMG and scales with EM.
Transforms her into a formidable on-field DPS, especially potent in prolonged fights where she can continuously apply Dendro.
Team Compositions
Hyperbloom Teams
Composition: Nahida, Electro support (e.g., Fischl, Kuki Shinobu), Hydro enabler (e.g., Xingqiu, Yelan), and a flexible fourth slot.
Nahida and the Electro support create constant Hyperblooms, while the Hydro character ensures frequent Hydro application.
The fourth slot can be an Anemo support for grouping or another Hydro/Electro for increased reaction output.
Nahida acts as a trigger for Hyperbloom reactions with the Electro support, amplifying damage output significantly.
Burgeon Teams
Composition: Nahida, Hydro character (e.g., Barbara, Kokomi), Pyro support (e.g., Xiangling, Thoma), and a flexible slot.
Combines Dendro and Hydro for Bloom reactions, then uses Pyro for Burgeon, causing area-of-effect Dendro damage.
The fourth member can be an Anemo character for crowd control or a shield support for added protection.
Nahida facilitates Bloom reactions, while the Pyro character ignites them, leading to high burst damage.
Quicken/Spread/Aggravate Teams
Composition: Nahida, main Electro DPS (e.g., Raiden Shogun, Keqing, Cyno), Hydro support (for Spread) or Pyro support (for Aggravate), and an Anemo support.
Uses Nahida’s ability to apply Dendro quickly, combined with Electro for Quicken reactions.
Hydro or Pyro adds another layer of reaction, either Spread or Aggravate, enhancing damage further.
Focus on swift Dendro application by Nahida, followed by reaction-triggering attacks from the Electro character.
Freeze Teams
Composition: Nahida, main Cryo DPS (e.g., Ganyu, Ayaka), Hydro support, and Anemo support/shield support.
While not traditional for Nahida, she can fit into Freeze comps by providing supplementary Dendro reactions and damage.
The Hydro character ensures constant Freeze alongside the Cryo DPS.
More flexible, with Nahida offering burst damage and utility while the Cryo character handles consistent DPS.
Exploration and Utility-Focused Teams
Composition: Nahida with any combination of characters, focusing on her utility for exploration, such as collecting resources.
Nahida’s Elemental Skill is extremely effective for resource gathering, making her a great choice for exploration teams.
Casual and exploratory, leveraging Nahida's abilities for ease of gameplay during open-world exploration.
Playstyles and Advanced Tips
Off-Field Support Playstyle
Applies Dendro from off-field for consistent reaction triggers.
Use Nahida’s Elemental Skill to mark enemies, enabling passive Dendro application.
Prioritize Elemental Mastery to enhance reaction damage.
Swap Nahida in briefly to reapply her skill for fresh waves or new enemies, maximizing uptime.
On-Field DPS/Driver Playstyle
Serves as the main field character, actively applying Dendro.
Combine normal and charged attacks to apply Dendro consistently.
Integrate charged attack cancels for faster Dendro application.
Use jump or dash cancels right after the charged attack animation starts for quick execution.
Balance between normal, charged attacks, and Elemental Skill for optimal Dendro spread.
Reaction-Based Playstyle
Focuses on triggering Dendro-based reactions like Hyperbloom, Burgeon, or Aggravate.
Pair Nahida with specific elemental supports (Electro, Hydro, or Pyro) to trigger desired reactions.
For Hyperbloom or Burgeon teams, timing Nahida’s skill with Hydro/Electro/Pyro applications is key.
In Quicken teams, ensure consistent Electro application for regular Aggravate/Spread triggers.
Utility and Exploration Playstyle
Uses Nahida for her utility in exploration, resource collection.
Use Nahida's Elemental Skill to gather resources efficiently.
Ideal for quick overworld exploration and resource farming without engaging in combat.
Conclusion
Nahida's strength lies in her adaptability, fitting into multiple team compositions and excelling in both on-field and off-field roles.
Whether maximizing Bloom reactions with Nilou or driving Quicken teams, understanding and increasing her unique abilities are key to harnessing her full potential.
