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

You’ve seen Kamisato Ayaka unleash devastating Cryo abilities, but have you seen what her older brother can do? Alone, these two make for some outstanding units, but together, these siblings really pack a punch to Freeze comp teams. Enter in Genshin Impact’s beloved Yashiro Commission Head, Kamisato Ayato. 

The Use of Ayato’s Skill and Burst in Genshin Impact

The primary source of Ayato’s damage will come from his skill, the Kamisato Art: Kyouka. Summoning a water version of himself that does absolutely nothing except stand there because once in leaks, it was discovered that it could be a distraction to enemies, now is just a fun remnant of Ayato. During this state, Ayato will take a stance and attack outwards to the nearest enemy and track the closest one to deal a large slash of Hydro Damage. Each hit that lands on an enemy will start a stack that begins to increase the damage done by Ayato’s slash by a certain percentage dependent on Ayato’s Max HP. This is why there is a debate going on in the Genshin Community about just how important HP is to his kit and whether an artifact should be dedicated as a main stat. Normally, this is better as a sub-stat so that it adds a boost instead of detracting from Ayato’s damage. 

Related: All Materials Required for Ascending Kamisato Ayato in Genshin Impact

His Burst increases his damage by setting up a perimeter around himself, a watery deluge that drops rain droplets around the arena to attack enemies periodically. But Ayato and team members will receive an attack boost if they are inside the Kamisato Art: Suiyuu. This means that it’ll be important to set up Ayato’s Burst first and other factors that will increase his damage before using his skill in battle. On the same coin, however, Ayato’s skill in dealing Hydro damage will help to increase his Burst marginally by giving him lots of Elemental Particles to build it up. Ayato’s Passive, Michiyuku Hagetsu, also ensures that whenever Ayato is off the field and his Energy is below 40, he will gain 2 Energy for himself every second he’s off the field. This gives you time to set up between characters or switch to a Sub-DPS to wrangle up his Burst again. 

Crit, Crit, Crit, the Weapons to Look Out For

As a DPS and a character who gains Crit Damage bonus every time he ascends, you will primarily want a Crit Rate or Crit Damage weapon on Ayato. Naturally, an Attack weapon can go a long way since in trial versions, the Flute is the weapon they often give to Ayato. The Flute works for Ayato as a free-to-play and easy-access weapon because out of all the four-star weapons that are based on Attack, it is probably the best one because of its harmonics. Seeing as how you’ll likely be doing a lot of attacks and hits with Ayato, similar to Kaeya in battle, he’ll gain music notes called harmonics, and that’ll deal Attack Damage to surrounding opponents. 

While we’re still on free-to-play weapons, we’ll cover the next best weapon that would be good for Ayato that doesn’t require you to use the wish system or Paimon’s Bargains. In Inazuma, there’s the Amenoma Kageuchi, the sword that you can craft once you unlock the recipe. It’s based on Attack, and every time you use a Skill, you’ll gain a seed. Up to three can exist, and once the character uses their Burst, they will consume the seeds and gain 6 Energy back for each seed consumed. This is obviously a good sword for Ayato, who uses a Skill that is meant to regenerate more Energy for him through its Hydro Attacks. Once his skill is deployed, you can both switch characters, and rest assured that between his weapon and his Passive, he’ll regain his energy for his Burst in the blink of an eye.

Related: It’s Time for Genshin Impact to Finally Give Us an HP Main Stat Four-Star Sword

Now onto the weapons that aren’t so free-to-play friendly but aren’t exactly impossible to get even if you don’t spend money in Genshin Impact. Naturally, the best weapons that Ayato is going to work off of are going to be the Crit Rate and Crit Damage weapons, Haran Geppaku Futsu, and Mistsplitter. Ayato’s signature weapon is based on Crit Rate and will increase Elemental Damage by 12 percent. It also has a special feature that using the skills of other members in your party will give Ayato a stack that increases his Normal Attack damage. Mistsplitter is a great weapon because it’s based on Crit Damage and, like Haran, will increase Elemental Damage by 12 percent. But its passive is that it will gain stacks of 1/2/3 and do corresponding damage of 8/16/28 for the Elemental Burst, depending on which one it lands on. These stacks come at the cost of certain parameters, however, one being a Normal Attack doing Elemental Damage, the second is by casting an Elemental Burst, and the last stack can be obtained by having less than 100 percent Energy. Other five-star weapons are always good on your units, but let’s move on to the selections that we can find at Paimon’s Bargains.

Either weapon that you gain at Paimon’s Bargains is bound to be good, the first of which being the Blackcliff Longsword. It’s based on Crit Damage and will add a massive boost to Ayato’s damage since he already comes preset with Crit Damage Boost, and because of the swords’ passive, it’ll increase his Attack by 12 percent every time he defeats an enemy. No, it doesn’t match his aesthetic, but it is a great weapon if you happen to have saved enough and bought it from the shop. The other selection of weapons from Paimon’s Bargain is called the Royal weapons, the Royal Longsword is based on Attack, which isn’t entirely lost on Ayato. Its passive also increases his Crit Rate by 8 percent each time he damages an opponent. This can hit a max of up to 5 stacks, and once a Crit hits, it’ll remove the stacks and start again. This sword allows you to build your artifacts more into Crit Damage, but before we get to that, we have to acknowledge the Battlepass weapon. 

The one weapon that is guaranteed once you drop money on Genshin Impact, it’s not a bad sword at all as it is based on Crit Rate. Equipping this sword increases damage dealt by Normal and Charged Attacks by 20 percent. And every time Ayato scores a Critical hit, he’ll gain back HP based on his overall Attack. So it’s a sword that both deals a lot of damage and heals its character the more they fight on the battlefield. It’s not a bad option at all and at least is one of the few on this roster of weapons that is for sure guaranteed to enter your inventory. 

Artifacts Sets and What Works Best For You Based on What You Have

Ever since Raiden debuted with her new artifact set, it was thought that you have to use certain sets in order to make the best use of your characters. And while Raiden is a peculiar case, that isn’t the case for all characters. For Ayato, there is indeed an artifact set that suits him but he is flexible enough in that he doesn’t have any particular need for Elemental Mastery, Energy Recharge, or Hp that would boost his stats like other characters. So while you can use his set, you can also just as easily go for the Heart of Depth set or a mix of Heart of Depth and a set that boosts Attack. 

The first of the sets that better Ayato’s kit is going to be Echoes of an Offering. This set is one of the many that have popped up in recent updates that add to the Attack Percent Boost roster. At two pieces, it’ll increase the Attack percent by 18 percent just like Gladiator and all the rest of the Attack-based sets. But at four pieces, the set performs an abnormal function of increasing the attack of your character based on a form of stacks. These stacks are called Valley Rites and with each stack you gain, you run a chance of increasing your attack damage by 70 percent. If the stacks don’t roll in your favor, the stacks will grow and decrease the chance each time you fail to hit the odds. In short form, this means that out of the many attacks that Ayato does in his Skill or Normal Form, he can hit like a battering ram every so often. But before Ayato was released, people were already doing their farming elsewhere.

The next set that suits Ayato is going to be the Heart of Depth. This set at two pieces increases Hydro Damage Bonus by 15 percent, but at four pieces, it will increase damage done after an Elemental Skill is used by 30 percent for 15 seconds. Naturally, this is going to be really good for Ayato too, because it targets his Hydro damage specifically, which is going to be the bulk of where his damage comes from. But because of his build and ascension bonus of Crit Damage, you shouldn’t have to worry about the lack of attack damage in his Normal Attack. It won’t take as big of a hit as many other players would have you believe. These are the two most popular sets that are going to be seen on Ayato but say you don’t have really great pieces.

Ayato is flexible enough in his own right that he should be perfectly fine if you decide to mix it up with two pieces that boost his Attack and two pieces that boost his Hydro Damage. Two-piece Gladiator and two-piece Heart of Depth was the popular set for a while because one of the trickiest parts of Genshin Impact is rolling good odds on your artifacts. Even if you are free-to-play, the game figures out how to spring a Gacha system on you anyhow. But Ayato can still be a supreme damage dealer any way you build him based on these sets and with newer versions of sets coming out, we’re just waiting to see how else we can take advantage of his unique kit. 

Related: Everything About the Ayaka and Lisa Skins in Genshin Impact 3.4

Artifact Stats – HP is a Good Boost but Isn’t Really Necessary

As a DPS, Ayato is pretty straightforward but I say that about most DPS. I mean it this time though. The sub-stats that you are going to want to focus on for Ayato are going to Attack, Crit Rate, and Crit Damage. It’s mentioned before that HP isn’t entirely viable on him even if it does increase his Attack chances marginally in his skill. More so, it’s similar to Ushi in Itto’s build where having the HP Percentage insures that Ushi is on the field longer and able to tank more damage. Having an HP Percentage in the sub-stats isn’t going to hurt Ayato so if one of your artifacts happens to roll into it, it’s not the end of the world.

Onto the Sands, Goblet, and Crown, you’ll find that very few people actually build into Ayato’s HP Percentage based on the information gathered by Hoyoverse so it’s best to build an Attack Percentage Sands for Ayato. For his Goblet, you’re going to want to find a good Hydro Damage bonus Goblet or rip it off of one of your other characters if you’re having a rough go with it. Sorry, Childe. For his Goblet, you’re going to want to follow the 1:2 ratio rule and make sure that your Ayato has a good Crit Rate to Crit Damage ratio. This can be impacted by the weapon that you choose to run on him and be aware of the passives because some of the weapon’s passives can actually build into Crit Rate so if you find you’re a bit short on it, maybe going on Crit Damage for the Crown is the best option. But if your Crit Rate is running at about 10 percent and your Crit Damage is making its way to the 200s, you might just want to get a Crit Rate Crown to even him out.

Talent List of Priority

Tackling Ayato’s talents shouldn’t be too difficult. The best Talent Branch to gun for when it comes to leveling up and crowning is going to be his Elemental Skill. This is where the bulk of his attack comes from and is just the most important of the bunch. The next you’re going want to aim for is going to be his Burst. Kamisato Art: Suiyuu increases team members’ attacks as well as targets enemies by dropping Hydro droplets of damage if they are in the large AOE. Leaving the last to be leveled, his Normal Attack, it wouldn’t hurt to put in a few more levels to Ayato’s Normal Attack, mostly because he can do such heavy hits even when you haven’t built much in his Attack. DPS characters are fun in that whenever it comes to their talent branches; it’s all people want to Crown. 

How have you built your Ayato? And what character are you looking forward to next?