Best Build for Childe in Genshin Impact: Weapons, Artifacts & Talent Focus

Famously infamous, Childe is the favorite of Genshin Impact having seen the most reruns out of all five stars in the game. First seen in Liyue, he’s been a big part of the Traveler’s journey for as long as Genshin has been around. He’s definitely one of the most fun characters to play but getting used to his gameplay can be a bit tricky. Not to be thwarted by this devious ginger, let’s dive into how properly build your Childe so he’s ready to do some sick damage in Genshin Impact.

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Genshin Impact – The Many Forms of Riptide

One of the most essential features of Childe’s kit is his Riptide status which can be afflicted to enemies. Visually, this looks like a watery crosshair that clings to the enemy. Riptide can add additional bonus damage once Childe strikes, either by aiming charged shots at enemies or attacking them with Childe’s alternate melee stance.

There are two types of effects that can come from Riptide once it hits an enemy in Childe’s bow stance where if he hits the enemy with another charged shot after the enemy is affected, it’ll continue to do rounds of Hydro damage once they are attacked. If enemies happen to be defeated with Riptide, a short AOE of Hydro damage will burst and, if it happens to hit nearby enemies, will then trigger them to have the Riptide status. 

Skill and Burst

Foul Legacy: Raging Tides is probably one of the most unique character skills that exist in Genshin Impact as of 3.2 since it was among the first that Hoyoverse challenged itself to change the weapon a character wielded. Since Childe is a master of many weapons and learning how to use a bow properly, we get to see the arsenal of weapons he can use in his Elemental Skill. While it has a long cooldown from what you’ll hear from already existing Childe mains, it does have a long duration as well to allow you to freely play with the swords, daggers, and a polearm during Childe’s melee attacks. 

Riptide Status is mentioned in his Skills, and what this means is that the damage done by Childe in his melee stance once his Skill has been activated has a chance of dealing more damage if enemies are afflicted with the Riptide Status. Either you can trigger numerous characters to have this status by using one of Childe’s Bursts (since there are two variations) or aiming a charged shot at enemies to trigger the effect before you change to melee damage. With the charged shot on the triggered enemies, this will attack them with a bonus Hydro Slash that counts as Elemental Skill Damage every 1.2 seconds while the Riptide status is on the enemy. 

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For Childe’s Burst, dramatically named Havoc: Obliteration, we have two forms that can be used. One where Childe uses his bow to target an enemy and have it trigger an AOE of Hydro Damage while it triggers all of the enemies in the area to be afflicted with the Riptide Status. Using this burst can also return a bit of Energy cost to Childe afterward so you can use Childe’s Burst to attack a group of enemies to trigger Riptide, so that when you switch over to his melee Elemental Skill, you’ll be able to continuously trigger more damage on top of Childe’s attack. 

Since Childe has two different types of stances, he has two different types of bursts with his first one being the bow stance, thus resulting in a bow burst. His second stance revolves around his polearm burst, swinging the polearm, he triggers a large area of attack and damages any enemy that happens to be in that arena. For enemies that have the Riptide crosshairs, this will clear the status effect but damage them with a burst of Hydro damage in turn that counts as further Elemental Burst damage. 

Weapon of Choice

Childe has some pretty niche abilities so gunning for his weapon, Polar Star, wouldn’t be a bad plan for those who enjoy Childe’s gameplay. He’s seen many reruns and often with the character, their signature weapon is sure to follow them in tandem with the weapon banner. Polar Star’s main stat is Crit Rate and has a special passive bonus that gives more damage to the character’s Elemental Skill and Burst by 12 percent. In addition to that, there are special stacks called Ashen Nightstars that can scale up to four times with the bonuses to Attack increasing by 10/20/30/48 percent. The way to utilize this bow is by triggering that scaling by consecutively stacking normal attack, charged attack, elemental skill, or elemental burst four times to gain a total of four Ashen Nightstars so that the next hits Attack will increase based on the percentage above on how many Ashen Nightstars you are able to collect. 

But for those who are newly wishing for him and have a select few bows in their inventory, these are still good options for him to use. As a DPS, any Crit Rate or Crit Damage bow will work on Childe with Attack being a close second. Another five-star weapon that works for Childe and can be found in the Standard banner is the Skyward Harp. Also based on Crit Rate, this weapon boosts Crit Damage in the passive by 20 percent, and any hit that lands on an enemy have a chance of dealing a small range of attack dealing 125 percent of Physical Damage Bonus. 

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The easiest two bows that every player is likely to come across are Stringless and the Hamayumi. Stringless is one of the easiest four-stars to come across when wishing across any standard banner. It’s based on Elemental Mastery, but can boost both Elemental Skill and Burst damage by 24 percent. If you are able to refine it, that damage is then increased to 48 percent. The Hamayumi is a free-to-access weapon that players are able to craft once completing the objectives is Inazuma. Out of bows that are craftable and based on Attack, this is the best option for Childe since it offers a high Attack Percentage as its base, and increases normal attack damage by 16 percent and charged attack damage by 12 percent. Getting to maximum energy for your Burst will boost these status effects to 100.

Other options that are viable and yet tricky to achieve are in Paimon’s Bargains where we have the Royal Bow and the Blackcliff Warbow. The Royal Bow is based on Attack and, with each hit, will increase your Crit Rate, sure to make this ginger crit at some point in your battle, hopefully during his Burst. The Blackcliff Warbow is based on Crit Damage and will increase Attack Percentage whenever an enemy is defeated. Both of these weapons can be found in Paimon’s Bargains for 24 Starglitter and alternate every month. 

Artifact Set – The One and Only

The wonderful thing about Childe is that there is only one artifact set that does him well on all accounts. Heart of Depth is made for characters that excel in Hydro damage through their Skills and Attacks. At two pieces, it’ll increase Hydro Damage and at four pieces, it’ll increase all damage for Normal Attacks, and Charged Attacks by 30 percent after the character uses an Elemental Skill. While you can split this between Heart of Depth and a set that does Attack damage such as Gladiator that’ll increase Attack damage by 15 percent, you’re better off with your damage getting four pieces of Heart of Depth.

Artifact Stats

As a DPS, Childe is pretty easy to build! For his Sands, you’re going to want the main stat to be Attack Percentage, and for his Goblet, you’re going to want to find yourself a good Hydro Damage Bonus. Depending on what you need more, you’ll want to find a Crit Rate or Crit Damage Crown while trying to aim for that approximate 1:2 ratio.

For sub-stats on all of his artifacts, you’ll want to try for Attack, Crit Rate, and Crit Damage. For those who have Childe at C0, you’re going to want to go for some Energy Recharge as well. His cooldown for his Elemental Skill is no joke and you’re going to be waiting for some time if you bank on his melee damage more than his ranged attacks. They both have their advantages though, and there’s always your supports to help you get back that energy or a Sub-DPS to switch to give Childe time to breathe.

Talent Focus – DPS Makes it Easy

Since Childe can deal a lot of damage whether you use his Attack, his Skill, or his Burst, it’s hard to narrow it down on which branch to focus on, especially when Talent Branches can be so expensive and cost a lot of resources. Since most of his damage is going to be through melee, focusing on his Elemental Skill and upgrading that branch first will be your best bet. His Elemental Burst can come next or you can alternate between his Burst and Normal Attack. You don’t need to crown his main attack, but getting his Skill and Burst as far along on the tree as you can, closer to level 10 will promise you the best type of damage from Childe.

Like the guide? Let us know which other characters you’d like to see and if taking a refresher course for four-star characters should be another focus!