Ganyu Quick TL;DR DPS Build Guide

UPDATED FOR 2.4 😁!

PSA #1: Cocogoat

PSA #2: Both Ganyu’s abilities scale off ATK, and as an adepti oh BOY does she smack hard. Must be all that cocogoat milk she’s hoarding, making her bones strong and all

PSA #3: Charged Attack/Aimed Shot bonuses DO increase Frostflake damage!

Her charged shots have a second stage that looks different compared to a regular charged shot

Releasing the Frostflake shot will shoot an arrow that, on contact with an enemy or surface, will bloom and do AoE cryo damage

IMPORTANT TIP: Shield enemies are the bane of your existence. Even if the bloom occurs behind their shield and hits them, most of the times it will block the damage

IMPORTANT TIP: E technically does two instances on damage. Once when spawned and once when it expires, and both doing the damage of multiplier indicated. Enemies who attack it will not take damage or receive a cryo application from it.

To repeat: once you press Q, make sure to stand in the Q AoE to get the 20% Cryo DMG buff while you shoot your charged shots!

Talent Leveling Order: Normal > E > Q

WEAPON #1 (Recommended for best DPS): Amos’ Bow

How do I get it D: ? – It’s time to roll boys (gacha)

Amos’ Bow is the BiS for Ganyu due to how the weapon skill works. The additional DMG bonus stack affects both the initial hit and the bloom. Meaning that even if the bloom didn’t travel a set distance, it’ll still gain the full DMG bonus of the 5 stacks.

However, Polar Star has the slight upper-hand if you are extremely lacking in CRIT% as the weapon provides a chunky 33.1% — effectively allowing you to hit 100% CRIT% with a Freeze comp. It’s a bit difficult to stack ATK properly unless you luck out with CRIT DMG rolls, so Amos overall is still easier (and arguably better) to run!

Skyward Harp is also great, as it provides CRIT% and boosts CRIT DMG. Compared to Amos’ Bow, with both starting at 127% CRIT DMG, Amos’ Bow still did roughly 9K more blossom damage and did 2.4K average DPS

WEAPON #2 (Recommended for F2P DPS): Prototype Crescent

How do I get it D: ? – Forge (Prototype x1, Crystal Chunk x50, White Iron Chunk x50)

If you don’t have any of the 5-star bows, Prototype Crescent is an extremely great weapon for Ganyu. Majority of the enemies in the game have a weak spot, with it mainly being the head, allowing the buff to essentially be up for 24/7. If you find yourself shaky with aim (or use a controller), then don’t worry as the buff lasts for 10 seconds.

Get Blackcliff Warbow if you can, as it will outperform. It will inevitably do more damage due to 1) CRIT DMG scaling, and 2) the ATK% buff it provides. At same refinements, Blackcliff will always do better at max stacks. HOWEVER, if you aren’t reliably able to stack it then Prototype Crescent will outperform it.

ARTIFACT #1 (Recommended for explosive DPS): Blizzard Strayer

How do I get it D: ? – Blizzard at Peak of Vindagnyer Domain (AR 30 locked, 20 Resin per run)

4x Shimenawa’s Reminiscence can technically outperform 4x Blizzard if you don’t need the CRIT% stopgap. While you do miss out of the 15% Cryo DMG bonus, the 50% Charged Attack bonus trumps it (especially since Ganyu’s E is on a low CD + procs twice at start and end). Only negative is you do need to constantly maintain 15 energy to be consistent!

4x Wanderer’s is much better if you have a reaction based comp with Sucrose/Venti + Bennett + Xiangling. However, for easier time and less painful rotation, run 4x Blizzard!

For burst DPS Ganyu (or sub DPS even), 2-set Blizzard Strayer + 2-set Noblesse is currently the best combination.

ARTIFACT #2 (Recommended for early DPS): Sojourner

How do I get it D: ? – Midsummer Courtyard Domain (AR 22 locked, 20 Resin per run)

Another great set early on is 4x Martial Artist, which basically provides 40% Normal/Charged Attack DMG. You get these from the Hidden Palace of Zhou Formula domain

However, you could also just run 2x Sojourner + 2x Brave Heart early on to stack the +18% ATK buffs

PSA #4: Literally her DPS playstyle is stay on the field and spam charged shots. Xiangling and Bennett are pretty great for quickly applying melt, and you can run another cryo user for cryo resonance if you need more CRIT%

Main stats:

Substats: CRIT DMG > CRIT% > ATK (ATK% if not main stat) > EM

She has so much CRIT% already CRIT DMG takes priority for Circlet

If you want other characters let me know. Hope this helped. Bye.