Genshin Impact: Pro Tips For Playing as Ganyu

Genshin Impact's Ganyu is a five-star cryo character who uses a bow. Unlike most bow users though, she is made to play as a DPS character, much like Tartaglia was before her. Ganyu's range of abilities has currently crowned her as one of the most powerful characters in Genshin Impact. In the lore, she participated in the archon war and has honed her craft as a warrior over thousands of years, even making her own weapons.

Ganyu is known for having unmatched marksmanship, and even before receiving her vision, she was considered incredibly skilled in battle. Mastering her on the playfield is easy to do with the right amount of knowledge.

Set Your Enemies Up

Ganyu has a kit perfect for helping her control the battlefield while dealing massive amounts of damage. Both her elemental burst and elemental skill have a low cool-down time that allows players to constantly keep them on the field with the proper setup. It's important to remember that Ganyu is not a tanky character and won't be able to take a direct onslaught from enemies for long.

Use Trail of Qilin

To control the battlefield, players should launch Ganyu's elemental skill, Trail of Qilin, every time the CD fills. This places a lotus on the field that will quickly move Ganyu out of danger, attract enemy attention, and deal a small radius of AoE cryo damage upon finish. The lotus allows Ganyu to step back and constantly assault enemies with her charge shot. The Lily also ensures that multiple enemies will gather in one spot, making the AoE damage of the charged shot all the more effective.

Managing Celestial Show

The CD for Ganyu's elemental burst, Celestial Shower, tends to feel up rather quickly. The burst creates a huge AoE where icicles fall onto the field, inflicting cryo damage. This can be used at random with her elemental skill for high damage, or Ganyu can work with another character to deal elemental reactions to her opponents more easily.

Playing as a DPS

Ganyu's ability to be a DPS is uncontested as she has everything she needs to control the flow of battle. The most important thing to keep in mind when playing as Ganyu as your main is that support is a must. Having a healer to deal with the blows that Ganyu takes can help her stay on the field for much longer, especially when fighting bosses.

Bring a Healer

For players who prefer not to fill one of their party slots with a healer, using a hydro character is a great way to further reduce the damage Ganyu takes in battle. Hydro characters can help to freeze enemies during the small amounts of time that Ganyu can't use her elemental skill. This short reaction greatly reduces the time enemies can spend attacking Ganyu.

Freeze Enemies

Players who have Mona should place the two on a team together as her elemental skill summons a pulsating talisman that deals hydro damage to foes, allowing for constant freezing. For those who want to take the more aggressive route, using Fischl's Oz or Xiangling's burst can help Ganyu deal painful amounts of elemental reaction damage to foes.

Playing as Support

Ganyu is also suited for the role of a supporting character as both her skill and burst stay in effect when she is taken off the field. Thanks to this effect, Ganyu can support other DPS characters like Tartaglia, Diluc, and Razor by helping to trigger constant elemental reactions. It's also worth noting that Ganyu's elemental burst lasts a particularly long time, allowing for constant melt and superconduct damage.

Group Enemies

In addition, Ganyu is a powerful ally to use for players who need to group enemies together. Sending out Ganyu's Lotus and then quickly switching to a character who uses a DPS attack can help to deal massive amounts of damage to gathered enemies. Ganyu can be perfect for setting-up attacks from characters like Keqing, who benefit from gathering enemies into one spot before bursting.

One great thing about Ganyu is that she can quickly go from being a support to a DPS. This allows players to switch Ganyu's role on the fly if their principal DPS is killed or they want to change things up and use another main for a few hours.

Setting Up Ganyu's Team

Building a team around Ganyu is rather easy whether you are a free-to-play or paid player. Ganyu is a character that works well with three different elements; electro, hydro, and pyro. That allows for a large roster of potential partners for Ganyu, whether players want to use her for support or DPS. Some great choices for a DPS Ganyu are:

Xinqiu - His elemental burst would surround Ganyu with attacking hydro swords.
Xiangling - Xianglings burst and skill both deal off-filed pyro damage.
Barbara - Barbara can be used to freeze enemies while providing healing to Ganyu.
Mona - Mona's elemental skill causes pulsing hydro damage.
Fischl - Oz causes continuous electro damage.
Lisa - Lisa's burst unleashes a floating lantern that deals constant elector damage.
Beidou - Beidou's burst unleashing circling eels for constant electro damage

Support Ganyu Set-up

For players looking to add a support Ganyu to their team, there are also a ton of great characters that she can work to enhance:

Keqing - Ganyu can use her lotus to pull enemies in for Keqings burst.
Tartaglia - Ganyu’s elemental skill and burst allow for Tartaglia to constantly freeze enemies.
Diluc - Ganyu's burst can be combined with Diluc for massive melt damage.
Razor - Like Diluc, Razor can be used with Ganyu's skill for constant overload damage.
Klee - When used with Ganyu's burst, Klee's bombs players can inflict constant melt damage.
Bennett - His pyro skills mix with Ganyu's burst for reactive damage.

Next: Genshin Impact: How To Complete The Skyfrost Nail