Sayu is an Anemo Claymore Support who can function as a Healer, sub-DPS, or in some cases even a main DPS. How you intend to use her will determine which stats you’ll want to prioritize and which weapons to equip.
In this guide, we’ll focus mainly on her role as a Swirl-based sub-DPS with solid healing capabilities.
We will also present you with the best weapons and artifacts for builds that specialize in healing or DPS, but we won’t dive too deeply into these playstyles as a combination of Swirl sub-DPS and healing makes for Sayu’s most optimal support playstyle.
Table of ContentsShow
Talent Priority
| Talent | Description | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Attack (Shuumatsuban Ninja Blade) | Normal Attack: • Performs up to 4 consecutive strikes. Charged Attack: • Drains Stamina over time to perform continuous spinning attacks against all nearby opponents. At the end of the sequence, perform a more powerful slash. Plunging Attack: • Plunges from mid-air to strike the ground below, damaging opponents along the path and dealing AoE DMG upon impact. | Unless you’re running Sayu on some sort of meme Physical DMG build, this is by far her least important talent. |
| Elemental Skill (Yoohoo Art: Fuuin Dash) | The special technique of the Yoohoo Ninja Arts! Sayu curls up into a rolling Fuufuu Windwheel and smashes into opponents at high speed, dealing Anemo DMG. When the duration ends, she unleashes a Fuufuu Whirlwind Kick, dealing AoE Anemo DMG. Press: Enters the Fuufuu Windwheel state, rolling forward a short distance before using the Fuufuu Whirlwind Kick. Hold: Rolls about continuously in the Fuufuu Windwheel state, increasing Sayu’s resistance to interruption while within that state. During this time, Sayu can control the direction of her roll and can use the skill again to end her Windwheel state early and unleash a stronger version of the Fuufuu Whirlwind Kick. The Hold version of this skill can trigger Elemental Absorption. This skill has a maximum duration of 10s and enters CD once its effects end. The longer Sayu remains in her Windwheel state, the longer the CD. Elemental Absorption: If Sayu comes into contact with Hydro, Pyro, Cryo, and Electro while in her Windwheel state, she will deal additional elemental DMG of that type. Elemental Absorption may only occur once per use of this skill. | Fuuin Dash is one of the most fun Elemental Skills in all of Genshin Impact. The press mode is useful for generating elemental particles and proccing Swirl, but that’s not even the most exciting part. The hold version of the skill basically turns you into Sonic the Hedgehog who can dart around the battlefield, proccing numerous Swirl reactions in her destructive wake. As fun as Fuuin Dash is, though, it’s still only Sayu’s 2nd priority talent. |
| Elemental Burst (Yoohoo Art: Mujina Flurry) | The other super special technique of the Yoohoo Ninja Arts! It summons a pair of helping hands for Sayu. Deals Anemo DMG to nearby opponents and heals all nearby party members. The amount of HP restored is based on Sayu’s ATK. This skill then summons a Muji-Muji Daruma. Muji-Muji Daruma: At specific intervals, the Daruma will take one of several actions based on the situation around it: • If the HP of nearby characters is above 70%, it will attack a nearby opponent, dealing Anemo DMG. • If there are active characters with 70% or less HP nearby, it will heal the active character with the lowest percentage HP left. If there are no opponents nearby, it will heal active characters nearby even if they have 70% HP or more. | Sayu’s Burst summons a Tanuki-like balloon that can heal allies or deals Anemo DMG to enemies. Whether it will heal or dish out damage will depend on the state of your health bar, similar to how Bennet’s Burst functions. What’s most impressive is that Sayu’s healing scales with her ATK. This is her most important talent. |
Passive Talents
| Talent Name | Description | Evaluation |
|---|---|---|
| Yoohoo Art: Silencer’s Secret | When Sayu is in the party, your characters will not startle Crystalflies and certain other animals when getting near them. | If you’re playing on mobile, Sayu is worth getting for this talent alone! But even PC and PS4/5 players will find it useful. |
| Someone More Capable | When Sayu triggers a Swirl reaction while active, she heals all your characters and nearby allies for 300 HP. She will also heal an additional 1.2 HP for every point of Elemental Mastery she has. This effect can be triggered once every 2s. | This talent lets Sayu heal your party even when she’s using her Elemental Skill. And if you’re building her with Swirl DMG in mind (which you will if you follow this guide) you should have loads of Elemental Mastery. |
| No Work Today! | The Muji-Muji Daruma created by Yoohoo Art: Mujina Flurry gains the following effects: • When healing a character, it will also heal characters near that healed character for 20% the amount of HP. • Increases the AoE of its attack against opponents. | At 4th ascension, Sayu’s best Talent gets even better, offering more healing for the whole party and a higher DMG ceiling. |
As we’ve mentioned earlier, Sayu can be built in many ways, but the most optimal build will take what she’s already great at and ramp it up to eleven. And what Sayu wants to do is heal the party while proccing Swirl.
Therefore, we will focus more on Elemental Mastery than Energy Recharge while equipping her with weapons and artifacts. But before that, let’s see how good you will feel about pulling duplicates of Sayu.
Constellations
| Constellation Name | Description | Evaluation |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-Task no Jutsu | The Muji-Muji Daruma created by Yoohoo Art: Mujina Flurry will ignore HP limits and can simultaneously attack nearby opponents and heal characters. | Lazy references aside, Sayu’s first constellation feels like her most powerful one, letting you heal and dish out damage simultaneously with her Burst. |
| Egress Prep | Yoohoo Art: Fuuin Dash gains the following effects: • DMG of Fuufuu Whirlwind Kick in Press Mode increased by 3.3%. • Every 0.5s in the Fuufuu Windwheel state will increase the DMG of this Fuufuu Whirlwind Kick by 3.3%. The maximum DMG increase possible through this method is 66%. | C2 has an incredibly low floor but an immensely high ceiling. If you primarily use the Press Mode of her Skill, this is inconsequential. However, the team composition presented in this guide will let you make great use of the Hold Mode, which will only get better with this constellation. |
| Eh, the Bunshin Can Handle It | Increases the Level of Yoohoo Art: Mujina Flurry by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15. | It’s unfortunate that C3 buffs Sayu’s Skill rather than her Burst, but seeing as she’s a 4* character we can’t feel too bad about this. |
| Skiving: New and Improved | Sayu recovers 1.2 Energy when she triggers a Swirl reaction. This effect occurs once every 2s. | Sayu’s Burst costs a whopping 80 Energy, but as we’ve mentioned before, she gets more mileage out of Elemental Mastery than Energy Recharge. C4 will let you double down on Elemental Mastery, streamlining her build. |
| Speed Comes First | Increases the Level of Yoohoo Art: Fuuin Dash by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15. | You can’t go wrong by making Sayu’s already Burst even stronger. |
| Sleep O’Clock | The Muji-Muji Daruma created by Sayu’s Yoohoo Art: Mujina Flurry will now also benefit from her Elemental Mastery. Each point of Sayu’s Elemental Mastery will produce the following effects: • Increases the damage dealt by the Muji-Muji Daruma’s attacks by 0.2% ATK. A maximum of 400% ATK can be gained via this method. • Increases the HP restored by the Muji-Muji Daruma by 3. A maximum of 6,000 additional HP can be restored in this manner. | Sayu’s C6 is plain and simply bonkers! Stacking Elemental Mastery isn’t all that difficult, especially if you’ve got Kazuha or Sucrose, and the ceiling on this constellation is sky-high. If you have C6, consider running Rainslasher instead of the weapons listed below. |
Sayu looks like an S-Tier 4* character in the making. Like Bennett, she can heal and increase your overall DMG potential, even at C0. In theory, she’s even better than Bennett, as her own DMG output is decent and her constellations more impactful than Bennett’s. Plus, she can wear the 4-Piece Viridescent Venerer set.
But in practice, Sayu has seen little to no actual use for endgame content. She can still be used to great effect in fun and competent team compositions. But unfortunately, there seems to be no place for her in the meta.
This is fine, as far as we’re concerned. Not every characters needs to be equally competent at tackling the Spiral Abyss. Not all players even engage with the Spiral Abyss. But all players do go through the main story and explore the open world, both of which are activities that Sayu excels at, even at C0.
Best Weapon
| Weapon Rarity | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Skyward Pride 5* | Everything about this weapon is great on Sayu – the high base ATK, the Energy Recharge substat, and even the passive, if you want to get a few swings in before you switch to another character. |
| Wolf’s Gravestone 5* | Sayu’s healing scales with ATK, and Wolf’s Gravestone gives loads of ATK. What’s more, even a support character can make use of its passive to buff up the rest of the team. |
| Katsuragakiri Nagamasa 5* | The craftable Inazuma claymore looks like it was made for Sayu, with built-in energy generation that just happens to have the same cooldown as Sayu’s Elemental Skill after a full duration Hold. This weapon becomes amazing with refinement. Otherwise, you may prefer one of the other two 4* Energy Recharge swords listed below. |
| Favonius Greatsword 4* | The Favonius Greatsword will give you good Energy Recharge and a solid baseline ATK. Best of all, its passive can proc off of your Burst while Sayu is off-field, making it the better choice for players who don’t spend a lot of time rolling around. |
| Sacrificial Greatsword 4* | The Sacrificial Greatsword is a lot like the Favonius Greatsword, only it augments your Elemental Skill. If you like to run Sayu like Sonic, the passive of this weapon will easily let you get two full-duration Hold casts back to back for 20 seconds of spinning action. |
| Prototype Archaic 4* | Prototype Archaic is another craftable weapon that fits Sayu like a glove. The high ATK scaling with help a ton with her healing and the passive will do wonders for players who want to dish out a couple of Normal Attacks every now and then. |
Best Artifacts – 4-Viridescent Venerer
You can run Sayu in a myriad of ways, but to get the most out of the Swirl support build we recommend giving her Elemental Mastery on the Sands, Anemo DMG on the Goblet, and ATK% on the Logos.
Don’t be tempted by the idea of Healing Bonus on the Logos. This would only increase her healing capabilities, but more ATK% increases both her healing and damage. If you’re lucky enough to have a C6 Sayu, just put Elemental Mastery on the Sands, Goblet, and Logos. Also, feel free to replace the Sands with Energy Recharge in case you’re not running an ER weapon. This will make her Swirls less impactful, but it’s more important that you can cast her Burst as soon as it comes off cooldown.
In terms of substats, you’re looking for Energy Recharge, ATK%, and Elemental Mastery. CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG are normally the premium substats for most characters, but Swirl can’t crit, so you can just ignore them and finally put those artifacts you thought were trash to good use.
As far as set bonuses go, we feel that the 4-Piece Viridescent Venerer works best for Sayu. This will not only boost her Anemo DMG and Swirl DMG, but it will also make your DPS deal more Elemental DMG.
Nevertheless, this isn’t the only way to run Sayu. The 4-Piece Noblesse Oblige also works well on her, as does the 4-Piece Emblem of Severed Fate. We don’t recommend using the 4-Piece Maiden’s Beloved, but if you want to get a bit more healing you can combine the 2-Piece Maiden’s Beloved bonus with the 2-Piece bonus of any of the other sets mentioned so far or the 2-Piece Shimenawa’s Reminiscence/ Gladiator’s Finale.
All of this is to say that Sayu is a character that can work incredibly well with low-investment. Even if you don’t have a solid 4-Piece Viridescent set to give her, you can still make her work extremely well with loads of other set bonuses. On top of that, she doesn’t hog artifacts with premium main stats, like CRIT Logos or ATK% Sands.
Elemental Synergies
Anemo is the extrovert’s element – it plays well with all the other elements! Well, except for one.
- Pyro, Hydro, Cryo, and Electro all work extremely well with Sayu. Rather than looking at the elements themselves, you should consider how the kits of individual characters complement her playstyle.
The only Element that you should consider avoiding while running Sayu is:
- Geo: Anemo and Geo are mutually inert – you can’t Swirl Geo just as you can’t Crystalize Anemo. You can still run Geo characters for their Shields or other utilities, but the Element on its own is useless.
Best Team Composition
Free-to-Play
- Sayu
- Xiangling
- Kaeya
- Sucrose
Every player has Kaeya and Xiangling, so the only character that may be missing from some F2P players’ rosters is Sucrose, for whom we will offer some alternatives.
Xiangling is used for her Burst. Pyronado rotates around the active character clockwise. The best way to maximize how many tics it scores against a single enemy is to move your character counterclockwise around them. And no character can move even remotely as fast as Sayu while she’s holding her Skill!
Kayea is also used for his Burst, which functions a lot like Pyronado. Both of these Bursts will follow your Sayu around while she’s spinning and, best of all, they will proc Melt for some insane DMG.
Sucrose is used to boost the team’s Elemental Mastery, generate Anemo energy for Sayu, and activate the Anemo Resonance. Not only will the extra EM make your Swirls more powerful, but it will also increase the potency of the Melt reactions triggered by Kaeya and Xiangling.
For an entirely F2P team, consider replacing Sucrose with the Electro Traveler who can effortlessly supply Sayu with Energy. Furthermore, this will give you access to Superconduct, thereby allowing Xianging or Kaeya to also function as a Physical DPS while their Bursts are on cooldown. Alternatively, you can replace Sucrose with Amber. Amber’s taunt will help keep enemies around Sayu’s Burst and you’ll get that sweet Pyro Resonance that the whole team can benefit from.
For Whales
- Sayu
- Xiao
- Bennett
- Zhongli
A player with access to multiple 5* characters will likely not want to keep Sayu on field for long. In this team, Sayu is just one of the Supports geared at making the hypercarry unstoppable.
Xiao is the on-field Attacker. He relies of Sayu to generate Anemo particles for him, as well as to keep him alive with her healing, as Xiao’s Burst passively drains his HP.
Bennett is here to buff up Xiao, although he can also function as a healer. This redundancy might be problematic in a team where all units are expected to contribute equally to the overall DMG output, but with a hypercarry like Xiao at the helm, it really doesn’t affect the team’s DMG potential at all.
Zhongli is here for his beefy shield. In addition to helping Xiao remain uninterrupted as he goes about his business of destroying all enemies in sight, Zhongli’s shield also reduces the Anemo Resistance of nearby enemies, making Xiao even stronger.
Is Sayu Worth It?
If you’ve checked out our character Tier List, you’ll know that there aren’t many 4* characters that are considered S-Tier. Bennet is one of them, but despite sharing a lot of similarities with Bennett, Sayu ranks low on that list.
This may lead you to think that she isn’t worth it, and if all you’re considering is endgame meta viability, you’d be correct.
However, what Sayu lacks in meta viability, she more than makes up for with fun factor and versatility. For beginner players, she’s one of the best units you could get due to how incredibly well she pairs with many of the free starter characters.
So, if you’re a beginner, someone who doesn’t care much for the Spiral Abyss, or just someone looking to play a fun and quirky character, then Sayu is definitely worth it. You can learn all about how you can obtain her by clicking here.
