With new Genshin Impact banners come new characters, and Shikanoin Heizou is the latest addition to the team. He’s a detective from Inazuma’s Tenryou Commission, and he brings a new vibe to the Genshin lineup as the first male character to use a Catalyst weapon. He’s also unique as a strict melee Catalyst user who needs to get up-close-and-personal with enemies to deal damage.
If you recently got your hands on Heizou, you’ll be pleased to know that his statistics are quite good, and putting him on your team shouldn’t be detrimental to your damage output. However, you’ll have to adjust your play style to match his character. So, here are some pro-tips you can use to take your Heizou play to the next level
10/10 Be Aware Of Your Positioning
Heizou’s play style is highly atypical for Catalyst characters because he’s a melee character. This means that your positioning needs to be on point to ensure that you take as little damage as possible when using him.
Additionally, his Elemental Skill, Heartstopper Strike, is a chargeable ability that is most effective when fully charged. Since getting hit while charging Heartstopper Strike will cancel the ability, you’ll need to position yourself in a spot where you’re safe but not out of range of Heartstopper Strike.
Finally, Heizou’s Elemental Burst, Windmuster Kick, is also highly positional and a short-range skill, meaning you’ll need to be in the right place when you activate it to get the most out of it
9/10 Stack Your Team With Elemental Reactions
Heizou’s playstyle is primarily focused on Swirl Reactions. So you’ll want to stack your team to the sky with high-powered Elemental Reactions.
Not only does Heizou get a Declension stack pretty much any time he activates a Swirl reaction, but Windmuster Kick also inflicts bonus damage when it hits a target affected by Hydro, Pyro, Electro, or Cryo.
Heizou’s entire design is based around triggering as many elemental reactions as he can. The ideal damage he deals will be determined by the number of them he can trigger in a short time
8/10 Have At Least One Instructor’s Set on Your Party
The Instructor’s Set is a powerful addition to Heizou’s character, but it’s best included on him as a two-piece set combined with the Viridescent Veneer set. However, putting a full four-piece Instructor’s Set on someone else is a massive bonus to Heizou.
The Instructor’s Set at four pieces gives the entire party 120 Elemental Mastery when the character equipped with it triggers an elemental reaction. This is incredibly helpful for Heizou, whose entire playstyle revolves around Reactions, which scale off Elemental Mastery.
7/10 Heizou’s Primary Damage Is His Elemental Skill
Do you know Heizou’s skill charge time and cooldown? Well, you’d better get that burned into the back of your eyelids because you’ll need that information to make the most out of Heizou’s damage. When playing as Heizou, your entire playstyle needs to shift to be centred around making the most of Heartstopper Strike.
This means you need to be on top of raising your Declension stacks with both his passive and his basic attacks and pre-positioning to use Heartstopper Strike at maximum charge off-cooldown.
6/10 Heizou Needs to Be Your Main DPS
If you want to use Heizou, you’ll need to slot him into your main DPS slot. Unlike characters that can switch in and out as required, Heizou only does damage when he’s the primary DPS in the party. You’ll need to be able to use Heizou often to ensure that he always has the maximum amount of Declension stacks he can have.
When Heizou switches in and out, he loses his Declension stacks, so you’ll need to keep him on the field for as long as possible to get maximum Declension stacks.
5/10 Heizou Synergises Best With Other Melee Characters
Since Heizou’s play style revolves around triggering Elemental Reactions as fast as possible to increase his Declension stacks, you’ll want to pair him with other melee characters that will allow you to be in an ideal position with Heizou when he switches in.
Pairing him with characters that are best used at a long range will put either Heizou or your other characters in an unideal position when they switch in. You’ll have more fun if you don’t have to reposition every time you switch, something you’ll be doing a lot to get those Swirl reactions for Heizou’s Heartstopper Strike.
4/10 Switch Characters Often To Trigger Swirl Reactions
Your ideal rotation looks something like this: Switch Character one, two, or three, Basic Attack Rotation, Switch In Heizou, Three Basic Attacks, Fully-Charged Heartstopper Strike, Switch to Character one, two, or three.
Heizou needs to trigger Swirl reactions, but doing so will purge the current Elemental Status. Switching other characters in once Heizou has finished his rotation, it’s best to change him back out to put more Elemental statuses back on the enemies.
3/10 Switch Targets Often To Increase His Swirl Damage & Declension Stacks
Triggering a Swirl reaction will purge the current target’s Elemental status. So you want to be switching targets often as well to ensure you’re getting both the highest amount of damage and the highest amount of Declension stacks from each switch. Switching targets to one currently afflicted with an Elemental Status will give Heizou more damage from the Swirl Reaction and Declension stacks.
Since Heizou’s play style revolves around these Elemental Reactions, you’ll also want to stack your team with literally anything besides Anemo since Anemo can’t react with Anemo. If you need more damage, Pyro and Electro Swirl reactions will provide a high damage output, while Geo Swirl reactions can give you more shields
2/10 Learn Monster Telegraphs
This is really a tip for every character, but it’s essential for melee characters. Since Heizou is a melee Catalyst and a DPS character, he will be a little squishy, especially when compared to tanky characters like Noelle or Zhongli. Learning monster telegraphs allows you to pick up on where you need to be to avoid getting hit in the face with a huge attack.
Additionally, both Heartstopper Strike and Windmuster Kick are very positioning reliant. You want to preemptively position Heizou to a safe location that allows him to charge Heartstopper Strike fully. Knowing a monster’s telegraph animations will help you position yourself in a place where you can safely charge Heartstopper Strike or throw out a huge Windmuster Kick.
1/10 Invest In Basic Attack & Persistent Elemental Buffs
Characters like Albedo can set up Basic Attack buffs that don’t require the user to be on the field. This can help Heizou both deal more damage and trigger more Swirl reactions, generating more damage and Declension stacks for Heizou.
Additionally, you'll want to choose characters that can apply consistent Elemental effects, ones that stay on the field even after the character has left. Kaeya is one of the most accessible characters that can apply a persistent Elemental effect with his Glacial Waltz. Glacial Waltz further synergises with Heizou's skills by providing a persistent source of Cryo damage for Heizou to react with.
Lisa's Lightning Rose is another accessible persistent damage skill. Also, Barbara's Let the Show Begin♪ will persistently apply the Wet status to any nearby enemies, allowing Heizou to get a Hydro Swirl and healing him periodically while active.
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