Shikanoin Heizou is a 4*Anemo Catalyst DPS and Genshin Impact’s first brawler-type character.
Unlike every other Catalyst user before him, Heizou is a melee character who uses punches and kicks to deal Anemo DMG. With a focus on personal DMG output, Heizou is positioned as a great replacement for Sucrose in Electro-Charged teams.
That being said, Heizou can work as a DPS in any Pyro, Cryo, Hydro, or Electro team with enough off-field DPS.
To help get your Heizou up and running optimally, we’ll evaluate his:
- Talent prioritization
- Constellations
- Weapon options
- Artifact set bonuses
- Best teammates
By the end of this Heizou build guide, you’ll have all the knowledge necessary to get the best value out of this character.
Table of ContentsShow
Heizou’s Talent Priority
Talent | Description | Priority |
---|---|---|
Normal Attack (Fudou Style Martial Arts) | Normal Attack Performs up to 5 fisticuffs empowered by a mighty wind, dealing Anemo DMG. Charged Attack Consumes a set amount of Stamina to perform a sweeping kick, dealing Anemo DMG. Plunging Attack Calling upon the surging wind, Heizou plunges towards the ground from mid-air, damaging all opponents in his path. Deals AoE Anemo DMG upon impact with the ground. | While Heizou’s Elemental Skill is his largest DMG contributor, it is dependent on his Normal and Charged Attacks to function properly due to his passive ascension talent. This means Heizou needs to spend most of his time attacking, making this his 2nd-priority talent. |
Elemental Skill (Heartstopper Strike) | Press Wields the swift winds to launch a Heartstopper Strike that deals Anemo DMG. Hold Charges energy to unleash an even stronger blow. He will obtain the Declension effect while charging, which will increase the power of the Heartstopper Strike. When the skill button is released or the skill duration ends, he will strike forward, dealing Anemo DMG. Declension Increases the power of the next Heartstopper Strike. Max 4 stacks. When you possess 4 Declension stacks, the Conviction effect will be produced, which will cause the next Heartstopper Strike to be even stronger and have a larger AoE. | Heizou’s Elemental Skill deals a ton of DMG, especially if you procure max Declension stacks before firing it off. While you can Hold the Skill to generate these stacks, it’s better to generate them by triggering Swirl Reactions. In any case, a max stack Heartstopper Strike has a ridiculously massive DMG multiplier, making this Heizou’s highest priority talent. |
Elemental Burst (Windmuster Kick) | Leaps into the air and uses the Fudou Style Vacuum Slugger and kicks his opponent. The Vacuum Slugger will explode upon hit and create an Arresting Windtunnel that pulls in nearby objects and opponents, dealing AoE Anemo DMG. When Fudou Style Vacuum Slugger hits enemies affected by Hydro, Pyro, Cryo or Electro, it afflicts them with Windmuster Iris. Moments later, Windmuster Iris explodes and dissipates, dealing AoE DMG of the corresponding elemental type. Fudou Style Vacuum Slugger can afflict a maximum of four enemies with the Windmuster Iris. A single enemy cannot be afflicted by Irises of different elemental types at the same time. | Heizou’s Elemental Burst is a ranged kick that deals AoE Anemo DMG and offers minuscule crowd control. This is easily Heizou’s lowest priority talent. |
Heizou’s Passive Talents
Talent Name | Description | Evaluation |
---|---|---|
Pre-Existing Guilt | Decreases sprinting Stamina consumption for your own party members by 20%. Not stackable with Passive Talents that provide the exact same effects. | This is one of the best passive utility talents in the game, useful both in and out of combat. |
Paradoxical Practice | When Shikanoin Heizou activates a Swirl reaction while on the field, he will gain 1 Declension stack for Heartstopper Strike. This effect can be triggered every 0.1s. | This passive is integral to Heizou’s playstyle, allowing him to generate Declension stacks without Holding his Elemental Skill. |
Penetrative Reasoning | After Shikanoin Heizou‘s Heartstopper Strike hits an opponent, increases all party members’ (excluding Shikanoin Heizou) Elemental Mastery by 80 for 10s. | Elemental Mastery sharing is always a nice perk to have. On Heizou, this pays double dividends, since his best teams are Electro-Charged teams that love Elemental Mastery. |
Heizou has a surprisingly coherent kit for a 4* Inazuma character.
He wants to get maximum Declension stacks by triggering Swirl Reactions and then Press his Elemental Skill to turn into One Punch Man.
At talent level 10 and with maximum stacks, his Elemental Skill hits with a DMG multiplier of over 1000% on a cooldown of only 10 seconds.
If you’ve ever wanted to play a martial artist in Genshin Impact, Heizou delivers on this fantasy in a fun and powerful way.
His Elemental Skill is a bit disappointing, offering little DMG and negligible crowd control, but this doesn’t take away from Heizou’s Skill. He’d be a perfectly playable character even if he only had his Elemental Skill and nothing else.
And, while his constellations aren’t necessary for Heizou to perform, they offer some decent value.
Heizou’s Constellations
Constellation Name | Description | Evaluation |
---|---|---|
Named Juvenile Casebook | For 5s after Shikanoin Heizou takes the field, his Normal Attack SPD is increased by 15%. He also gains 1 Declension stack for Heartstopper Strike. This effect can be triggered once every 10s. | Heizou’s C1 is an amazing quality-of-life constellation that significantly speeds up the time needed to get max Declension stacks on his Elemental Skill. |
Investigative Collection | The pull effect of the Arresting Windtunnel created by Windmuster Kick is enhanced, and its duration is increased to 1s. | Heizou’s C2 is disappointing. The crowd control on his Burst is bad, with or without this constellation. |
Esoteric Puzzle Book | Increases the Level of Heartstopper Strike by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15. | Heizou’s C3 is amazing. His Elemental Skill is his biggest source of DMG, and this constellation greatly increases its DMG multiplier. |
Tome of Lies | The first Windmuster Iris explosion in each Windmuster Kick will regenerate 9 Elemental Energy for Shikanoin Heizou. Every subsequent explosion in that Windmuster Kick will each regenerate an additional 1.5 Energy for Heizou. One Windmuster Kick can regenerate a total of 13.5 Energy for Heizou in this manner. | Heizou’s C4 is a decent constellation. It effectively turns his 60 Energy Burst into a 40 Energy Burst. This seems better than it actually is until you remember that Heizou’s Burst is the least important part of his kit. |
Secret Archive | Increases the Level of Windmuster Kick by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15. | Heizou’s C5 is okay. The problem with Heizou’s Burst is that it doesn’t do a lot of DMG and offers poor crowd control even with C2. However, this constellation will make his Burst DMG significantly less bad. |
Curious Casefiles | Each Declension stack will increase the CRIT Rate of the Heartstopper Strike unleashed by 4%. When Heizou possesses Conviction, this Heartstopper Strike’s CRIT DMG is increased by 32%. | C6 is amazing. The worst thing that can happen when playing Heizou is not scoring a Critical hit on his max stack Elemental Skill. This constellation not only reduces the chances of this happening by providing 16% extra CRIT Rate but also rewards you with extra CRIT DMG on top of that. |
We’ve said this once, but we need to say it again—Heizou is perfectly playable at C0.
His constellations are all good, but none of them are overpowered must-have constellations like Bennett’s C1, Beidou’s C2, Xiangling’s C4, or Xingqiu’s C6.
What’s more, his best constellation is arguably his first one.
With it, the fastest way to get max stacks (assuming there’s off-field Elemental DMG to Swirl in the first place) is by taking the field and performing two Charged Attacks back-to-back.
This will let his Swirl 3 times, providing him with 3 stacks plus the 1 he gets from this constellation. Then just tap his Elemental Skill and that’s it.
C3 and C6 are the other two constellations worth contemplating, but—again—they’re not game-changing so we don’t recommend trying to get them unless you’re the biggest Heizou fan there is.
Best Weapons For Heizou
Weapon Rarity | Explanation |
---|---|
Skyward Altas 5* | For lack of a better 5* Catalyst, Skyward Atlas is the BiS weapon for Heizou. It will provide him with loads of ATK and some Elemental DMG bonus to boot. It’s not particularly synergistic with his kit, but it gets the job done as a stat stick. |
Solar Pearl 4* | The Battle Pass exclusive Solar Pearl is an amazing weapon on Heizou, providing him with a decent base ATK, the invaluable CRIT Rate substat, and a passive that buffs his Elemental Skill DMG (among other things). |
The Widsith 4* | The Widsith is arguably the best 4* gacha Catalyst for Heizou, offering a decent base ATK, lots of CRIT DMG, and one of three powerful buffs via the passive. While you, unfortunately, don’t have the option to choose which passive buff to proc, all of them are beneficial to Heizou’s kit. |
Mappa Mare 4* | The best F2P weapon for Heizou is the craftable Mappa Mare. It offers high base ATK for a 4* weapon, some Elemental Mastery to buff Swirl DMG, and a passive that can easily give Heizou 16% extra Anemo DMG Bonus at r1. At r5, the cap on this passive’s Anemo DMG Bonus goes up to 32%, which is quite substantial. |
Best Artifacts For Heizou – 4-Viridescent Venerer
Heizou’s best artifact set bonus is the 4-piece Viridescent Venerer. This set bonus gives him extra Anemo DMG Bonus and increases his Swirl DMG by 60%. Moreover, it reduces the enemies’ Resistance to Swirled Elements by a massive 40%.
While this Resistance reduction can’t benefit Heizou’s personal DMG output, it will significantly buff the team’s overall DPS since Heizou works best in teams with lots of off-field Elemental DMG.
As far as main stats go, Heizou wants:
- ATK% on the Sands
- Anemo DMG on the Goblet
- CRIT Rate/ CRIT DMG on the Logos (aim for a 1:2 ratio)
As for substats, the best you can hope for is:
- CRIT Rate
- CRIT DMG
- ATK%
- Elemental Mastery
- Energy Recharge
If you don’t have a 4-piece Viridescent Venerer with proper main stats, you can instead give him a combination of the 2-piece Viridescent Venerer and 2-piece Gladiator’s Finale (or any other ATK +18%) set bonuses. This is far and away the inferior option, but it’s the best alternative Heizou’s got.
Best Team Composition For Heizou
F2P Electro-Charged Heizou
This team uses Heizou as the on-field attacker to drive Beidou’s and Xingqiu’s Bursts. The goal is to provide a steady source of both off-field Hydro and Electro DMG and trigger as many Electro-Charged and Swirl Reactions as possible. Fischl also provides off-field Electro DMG and helps generate Energy for the team.
You can replace Beidou or Fischl with Electro Traveler, Lisa, or Kuki Shinobu. There are no viable F2P replacements for Xingqiu.
F2P Pyro Heizou
This team relies on Bennett to buff both Heizou’s and Xiangling’s DMG. Heizou then reduces the enemies’ Pyro Resistance while Xiangling provides Pyro for Heizou to Swirl. The team synergy is reliant only on these three characters, none of whom are replaceable.
Xingqiu was added to provide off-field Hydro DMG and trigger Vaporize, but you can easily replace him with Kaeya or Rosaria.
Whale Heizou
To maximize Heizou’s personal DMG output, all you need to do is take his F2P Pyro team and add C4 Jean instead of Xingqiu. Having C4 allows Jean to reduce the Anemo Resistance of enemies by 40%. There is no better way than this to buff Heizou’s DMG.
Alternatively, you can use Kazuha instead of Jean if you don’t have her C4 or you want to buff Xiangling. This will make the overall team stronger, but it won’t affect Heizou’s personal DMG output at all.
Is Heizou Worth It?
Heizou is something of an anomaly among the Inazuma roster of 4* characters.
Most of them are mediocre, clucky, or extremely niche:
- Thoma, Shinobu, and Sayu rank near the bottom of our Genshin Impact Tier List
- Kujou Sara is unplayable without C2 and needs C6 to be worthwhile
- Gorou is admittedly great at C0 but only works in Geo Teams with Itto or Noelle and nowhere else
Heizou suffers from none of these issues, as he:
- Has a coherent kit
- Is great even at C0
- Can be played in a variety of teams
Just make sure you have some sort of off-field Elemental DMG, perform a couple of Swirls, and then tap his Elemental Skill to obliterate enemies with one punch.
His only drawback is that he is an on-field DPS and therefore doesn’t work in a team with other—more powerful—on-field DPS characters like Xiao, Eula, Hu Tao, Ayaka, etc.
All of these 5* on-field DPS characters are more powerful than Heizou, so if you’re chasing the meta, he’s not worth it.
Nevertheless, Heizou can still challenge all of the game’s content and come out on top if you follow this guide, so if you’re intrigued by his playstyle (which is super fun) and need a change of pace, then he is definitely worth it.