Best Nilou builds in Genshin Impact – weapons, Artifacts, & more!

Genshin Impact's Nilou is both a beautiful dancer and a formidable driver of the Bloom reaction. She does come with some caveats, though. It may be a challenge for even veteran players to build and use her to the best of her ability. Read on for more information on how to shine a spotlight on this gracious artist.

Nilou's Playstyle in Genshin Impact

Nilou's passive skill, Court of Dancing Petals, really limits her potential teams to those centered around the Bloom reaction. Even though enabling Bloom teams seems to be her only potential function, we can assure you she does it well.

Nilou can be played as either the Main or Sub DPS depending on how you use her elemental skill. Use it once, then do a string of normal attacks to have Nilou deal serious damage on-field. If you use her elemental skill three times in succession instead, she'll produce a water ring to set up further Bloom reactions. Then you can send her off-field in favor of another DPS teammate while her water ring remains.

Best Weapons for Nilou in Genshin Impact

Nilou's Best-in-Slot weapon is the Key of Khaj-Nisut. It's a five-star weapon designed just for her and is only available via the Weapon Event wish banner. It serves to provide a healthy boost to both her HP and her Elemental Mastery stats.

If you don't want to roll on the Weapon Banner, Iron Sting is a great, craftable option for Nilou that will significantly boost her Elemental Mastery and damage. You could also use the Sacrificial Sword if you have it to help with her Elemental Skill.

Best Artifacts for Nilou in Genshin Impact

The Artifact sets you'll choose for Nilou will largely depend on how you'll want to play her. If you want Nilou to be the Main DPS in a team and on-field, the four piece Gilded Dreams set should work well for you. If you want to use her as a Sub-DPS, any two piece combination of Tenacity of the Millelith with either Wanderer's Troupe, Gilded Dreams, or Heart of Depth will do.

The main stats and sub-stats you'll want to aim for in your artifacts will vary on her role in in a team. If you want her to be a Main DPS, CRIT, Hydro damage, and Elemental Mastery may provide greater value than HP. A Sub-DPS build will probably benefit from sacrificing some CRIT values and Hydro damage in favor of more HP and Elemental Mastery.

Related: Best Kokomi Builds in Genshin Impact

Nilou's Skills in Genshin Impact

Normal Attack: Dance of Samser

• Normal Attack
  • Performs up to three consecutive sword strikes.
• Charged Attack
  • Consumes a certain amount of stamina to perform a twirling slash.
• Plunging Attack
  • Plunges from mid-air to strike the ground below, damaging opponents along the path and dealing AoE damage upon impact.

Elemental Skill: Dance of Haftkarsvar

• Enters the Pirouette state, dealing Hydro DMG to nearby opponents based on Nilou’s Max HP.
• While she is in the Pirouette state, Nilou’s Normal Attacks and Elemental Skill will cause her to enter the Sword Dance and Whirling Steps stances respectively, causing damage she deals to be converted to Hydro damage that cannot be overridden and that is considered Elemental Skill damage.
• In these stances, Nilou’s third dance step will end Pirouette, and has the following effects based on the type of said dance step:
  • Sword Dance: Nilou unleashes a Luminous Illusion that deals Hydro damage to opponents it touches and grants Nilou the Lunar Prayer effect. This effect converts Nilou’s Normal Attacks into Sword Dance techniques, and her final hit will unleash a Luminous Illusion.
  • Whirling Steps: Nilou unleashes a Whirling Water Wheel that deals AoE Hydro damage and creates a Tranquility Aura that follows your active character around and applies Wet to opponents within its AoE.
• Nilou is unable to perform Charged Attacks when under the effect of Pirouette or Lunar Prayer. These effects will be removed once she leaves the field.

Elemental Burst: Dance of Abzendegi: Distant Dreams, Listening Spring

• Begins the dance of faraway dreams and springs that hear, causing a Lotus of Distant Waters to bloom, dealing AoE Hydro damage based on Nilou’s Max HP and applying the Lingering Aeon effect to all opponents hit.
• After an interval, opponents affected by Lingering Aeon will take Hydro damage.

Passive Skills:

• White Jade Lotus
  • When Perfect Cooking is achieved on Food with Adventure-related effects, there is a 12% chance to obtain double the product.
• Court of Dancing Petals
  • When all characters in the party are all Dendro or Hydro, and there are at least one Dendro character and one Hydro character:
    • The completion of the third dance step of Nilou’s Dance of Haftkarsvar will grant all nearby characters the Golden Chalice’s Bounty for 30 seconds.
    • Characters under the effect of Golden Chalice’s Bounty will increase the Elemental Mastery of all nearby characters by 100 for 10 seconds whenever they are hit by Dendro attacks. Also, triggering the Bloom reaction will create Bountiful Cores instead of Dendro Cores.
    • Such Cores will burst very quickly after being created, and they have larger AoEs.
    • Bountiful Cores cannot trigger Hyperbloom or Burgeon, and they share an upper numerical limit with Dendro Cores. Bountiful Core damage is considered damage dealt by Dendro Cores produced by Bloom.
    • Should the party not meet the conditions for this Passive Talent, any existing Golden Chalice’s Bounty effects will be canceled.
• Dreamy Dance of Aeons
  • Every 1,000 points of Nilou’s Max HP above 30,000 will cause the damage dealt by Bountiful Cores created by characters affected by Golden Chalice’s Bounty to increase by 9%.
  • The maximum increase in Bountiful Core damage that can be achieved this way is 400%.

Nilou's Constellations in Genshin Impact

• Dance of the Waning Moon: Constellation level one.
  • Dance of Haftkarsvar will be enhanced as follows:
    • Luminous Illusion damage is increased by 65%.
    • The Tranquility Aura’s duration is extended by 6 seconds.
• The Starry Skies Their Flowers Rain: Constellation level two.
  • After characters affected by the Golden Chalice’s Bounty deal Hydro damage to an opponent, that opponent’s Hydro resistance will be decreased by 35% for 10 seconds. After a triggered Bloom reaction deals damage to opponents, their Dendro RES will be decreased by 35% for 10 seconds.
  • You need to have unlocked the “Court of Dancing Petals” Talent.
• Beguiling Shadowstep: Constellation level three.
  • Increases the Level of Dance of Abzendegi: Distant Dreams, Listening Spring by three.
  • Maximum upgrade level is 15.
• Fricative Pulse: Constellation level four.
  • After the third dance step of Dance of Haftkarsvar‘s Pirouette hits opponents, Nilou will gain 15 Elemental Energy, and damage from her Dance of Abzendegi: Distant Dreams, Listening Spring will be increased by 50% for eight seconds.
• Twirling Light: Constellation level five.
  • Increases the Level of Dance of Haftkarsvar by three.
  • Maximum upgrade level is 15.
• Frostbreaker's Melody: Constellation level six.
  • For every 1,000 points of Max HP, Nilou’s CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG will increase by 0.6% and 1.2% respectively.
  • The maximum increase in CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG via this method is 30% and 60% respectively.

Related: Best Tighnari build in Genshin Impact – weapons, Artifacts, & more!

What you need to ascend Nilou in Genshin Impact

Aside from the standard amounts of Mora and Experience books, to ascend Nilou, you will need Varunada Lazurite pieces, enemy drops from the Fungal Spores family, Padisarahs, a Sumeran Regional Specialty, and Perpetual Calibers dropped by the Aeonblight Drake.

To level up Nilou's talents, you'll need more Mora and Fungal Spores, as well as Praxis talent level books found in the Steeple of Ignorance Domain. Later talent levels will require the Tears of the Calamitous God material dropped by the Raiden Shogun weekly boss. If you decide to Max out Nilou's talents, you'll need one Crown of Insight for each talent.

Best Teammates for Nilou in Genshin Impact

To take full advantage of all Nilou's kit has to offer, surround her with Hydro and Dendro teammates. Healers like Kokomi or Barbara, as well as supports like Xingqiu or Candace will make good Hydro teammates for her. Dendro teammates should be element appliers like the Dendro Traveler or Collei. This will allow Nilou to create enough Bountiful Bloom Cores to blast away mobs quickly.

Looking for more info on Sumeran characters? Check out Best Dori builds in Genshin Impact – weapons, Artifacts, & more! and Best Cyno builds in Genshin Impact – Weapons, Artifacts, & more! here at Pro Game Guides.