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Genshin Impact Yelan build and materials guide

The best build for Liyue’s greatest spy

Marco Wutz

Genshin Impact Yelan build and materials guide
Genshin Impact Yelan build and materials guide /

Contents

  1. Best Yelan weapons – Genshin Impact
  2. Best Yelan artifacts – Genshin Impact
  3. Best Yelan teams – Genshin Impact
  4. Yelan ascension materials – Genshin Impact

More HP is what makes the best Genshin Impact Yelan build truly powerful: this Hydro archer has a bunch of strong abilities that scale with her maximum HP, which makes her very simple to build, as you’ll mainly have to focus on one stat. Lingering Lifeline allows you to rapidly dash and ensnare enemies, dealing Hydro damage based on Yelan’s maximum HP to them all.

Yelan’s Elemental Burst, Depth-Clarion Dice, is one of the most effective off-field abilities in the game. The skill first deals area-of-effect Hydro damage and then creates a floating die, which is following you around and automatically attacking in tandem with the currently active character’s Normal Attack.

She also offers a bunch of useful passive abilities, which boost her HP based on how many types of elements are present in the party and boost the active character’s damage output while her Elemental Burst’s effects are active. Altogether, Yelan is one of the best off-field characters and Hydro appliers in the game, making her an attractive member for many team compositions.

Best Yelan weapons – Genshin Impact

There is no competition for Yelan’s best weapon: Aqua Simulacra, her signature bow, is the clear choice.

It provides additional Critical Damage, a 16% boost to HP, and a 20% increase in damage for the wielder of the weapon whether they are on the field or not, when enemies are nearby. This is a very powerful support ability, which strengthens Yelan in her role as an off-field Sub DPS.

Here are the best weapons for Yelan in Genshin Impact:

  • Aqua Simulacra (5-star bow)
  • Elegy for the End (5-star bow)
  • Fading Twilight (4-star bow)
  • The Stringless (4-star bow)
  • Sacrificial Bow (4-star bow)
Yelan holding her signature bow.
Yelan's signature weapon, Aqua Simulacra / HoYoverse

Best Yelan artifacts – Genshin Impact

The best artifact set for Yelan in Genshin Impact needs to strike a delicate balance: While you want to increase HP and Hydro damage as much as possible, the key to Yelan’s success is her Elemental Burst – getting this ability online as much as possible requires solid Energy Recharge (aim for about 175).

Yelan is best equipped with two pieces from Tenacity of the Millelith, upping her HP by another 20%, and two pieces of Heart of Depth, which boosts Hydro damage by 15%. However, if you have problems managing your Elemental Burst, it might be worth it to switch to four pieces of Emblem of Severed Fate, which increases Energy Recharge and Elemental Burst damage.

In any case, you’ll want the following stat distribution on artifacts for Yelan:

  • Flower: HP (main stat), Critical Damage, Critical Hit Rate, Energy Recharge, HP% (secondary stats)
  • Plume: Attack (main stat), Critical Damage, Critical Hit Rate, Energy Recharge, HP% (secondary stats)
  • Sands: HP% (main stat), Critical Damage, Critical Hit Rate, Energy Recharge, Elemental Mastery (secondary stats)
  • Goblet: Hydro Damage % (main stat), Critical Damage, Critical Hit Rate, Energy Recharge, HP% (secondary stats)
  • Circlet: Critical Hit Rate or Critical Damage (main stat), Critical Hit Rate or Critical Damage, Energy Recharge, HP%, Elemental Mastery (secondary stats)
Yelan rolls the dice.
Yelan's Elemental Burst offers powerful off-field capabilities / HoYoverse

Best Yelan teams – Genshin Impact

As we already mentioned, Yelan is perfect for an off-field Sub DPS role, which means she’s only going to be in active battle for very little time. In these spells of combat, she focuses on activating her abilities and swapping in the Main DPS. Due to how her Elemental Burst works, she mainly synergizes well with characters that use their Normal Attacks a lot.

This Hyperbloom team drenches the battlefield in Hydro effects thanks to Ayato and Yelan, who also buff the entire team’s HP with the Hydro Resonance – this, of course, further boosts Yelan’s damage output. Nahida and Shinobu provide the necessary ingredients for powerful reactions as well as healing.

This variation of the infamous Raiden National Team has lots of off-field effects in store to make Raiden Shogun’s Elemental Burst a truly monstrous attack. Xingqiu was the go-to Hydro figure for this composition before Yelan’s release and still works fine, but Yelan provides more damage during the downtime periods of Raiden’s Elemental Burst.

A tall, blue-haired man holding a sword.
Kamisato Ayato / HoYoverse

  • Role: Main DPS
A fellow Hydro character, Ayato creates Hydro Resonance with Yelan to boost her HP and damage. He mainly uses his Normal Attacks, making Yelan a great partner for him.

Artwork of a young white-haired girl.
Nahida / HoYoverse

  • Role: Support
Nahida is fantastic at enabling powerful reactions, making the Dendro Archon a great addition to teams that include Yelan.

Artwork of a green-haired girl with a face mask.
Kuki Shinobu / HoYoverse

  • Role: Support
Shinobu is a great healer and her mechanics also revolve around her HP. As she was introduced to the game alongside Yelan in version 2.7, she was clearly designed with Yelan's own kit in mind.

A woman with dark violet hair pulls a sword out of her chest.
Raiden Shogun / HoYoverse

  • Role: Main DPS
Though she often acts as a Sub DPS, Raiden Shogun can be a mean Main DPS with the right team at her back – and Yelan definitely fits the bill.

Artwork of a young blue-haired man.
Xingqiu / HoYoverse

  • Role: Support
Yelan often acts as a replacement for Xingqiu, providing more damage than him instead of a bit of healing. However, they can also work together efficiently.

Artwork of Genshin Impact character Xiangling.
Xiangling / HoYoverse

  • Role: Sub DPS
One of the classic off-field characters of the game, this 4-star is still a staple in many compositions and works perfectly with Yelan.

Bennett from Genshin Impact.
Bennett / HoYoverse

  • Role: Support
One of the best Support characters in Genshin Impact, Bennett provides both buffs to damage and healing.

Artwork of a young woman wearing a hat.
Hu Tao / HoYoverse

  • Role: Main DPS
Hu Tao's mechanics revolve around her HP and her Normal Attacks, making her a double fit for Yelan's kit.

Genshin Impact Yoimiya character artwork.
Naganohara Yoimiya / HoYoverse

  • Role: Main DPS
Yoimiya fires away with her Normal Attacks, infusing them with Pyro energy. Add Yelan's off-field effects to that, and you've got a tasty stew cooking.

Artwork of a young girl with blonde-glue hair.
Sangonomiya Kokomi / HoYoverse

  • Role: Support
The premium Hydro healer in the game, Kokomi is incredibly versatile and has some HP-based mechanics as well.

Zhongli from Genshin Impact.
Zhongli / HoYoverse

  • Role: Support
The CEO of Geo is a fine addition to many compositions, protecting them with his shield effects.

This Vaporize team works best with Hu Tao at the helm, but also functions great with Yoimiya. In this case, Yelan provides valuable buffs to Hu Tao as a fellow character revolving around HP. The job of keeping Hu Tao alive falls to Zhongli, who provides shields, and Kokomi, who provides the Hydro Resonance in conjunction with Yelan as well as healing.

Yelan ascension materials – Genshin Impact

You’ll want to quickly raise Yelan’s level when you pull her, which means that you’ll need to farm her ascension materials. You’ll also require some material to upgrade her talents.

Here’s what you need to get Yelan to level 90:

  • Varunada Lazurite Sliver x1
  • Varunada Lazurite Fragment x9
  • Varunada Lazurite Chunk x9
  • Varunada Lazurite Gemstone x6
  • Recruit’s Insignia x18
  • Sergeant’s Insignia x30
  • Lieutenant’s Insignia x36
  • Starconch x168
  • Runic Fang x46
  • Mora x2,092,530

You can easily farm Lazurite by fighting the Hydro Hypostasis on Watatsumi Island or Rhodeia in Liyue. Insignia of various ranks are dropped by Fatui characters anywhere in the world. The best way to earn Mora is by farming Blossoms of Wealth.

Starconches are found on the coastlines in the northeast of Liyue. An efficient farming route starts at the Teleport Waypoint south of Mingyun Village by the bridge. Just follow the coast in the direction of Dragonspine, then teleport to the Yaoguang Shoal and collect the Starconches there. Your next stop is the coast under the cliffs that lay south of the Guili Plains. Afterwards, head to Guyun Stone Forest. Finally, Runic Fangs drop from the Ruin Serpent boss in the Chasm.

Here’s what you need to upgrade all of Yelan’s talents:

  • Recruit’s Insignia x6
  • Sergeant’s Insignia x22
  • Lieutenant’s Insignia x31
  • Teachings of Prosperity x3
  • Guide to Prosperity x21
  • Philosophies of Prosperity x38
  • Golden Scale x6
  • Crown of Insight x1
  • Mora x1,653,000

Beating up Fatui is what you do anyway, so just continue with that. You can farm the Scrolls of Prosperity at Taishan Mansion on Monday, Thursday, and Sunday. Golden Scales are a boss material dropped by Azhdaha in Liyue. The Crown of Insight is a frequent reward in timed events, so be sure to always grab it when available. You can also get some by leveling up the reward trees in Dragonspine, Inazuma, and Sumeru, or the Lumenstone in the Chasm.

For more Genshin Impact, check out the Genshin Impact character overview or read our Fatui Harbingers lore explainer.

Published
Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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