Why You Should Pull For Heizou (Plus Heizou’s Ascension & Talent Materials)

Genshin Impact version 2.8 is coming soon, with its Phase 1 banners featuring the return of Klee and Kazuha, and the arrival of the newest four-star Anemo catalyst user, Shikanoin Heizou. If you’re still on the fence about whether or not to pull for him, here are a few things that can help convince you to do so.

1. Heizou is the Genshin Impact’s first character with “unarmed” attacks

While Heizou uses a catalyst, his animation doesn’t utilize it the way Ningguang or Sucrose does. The Tenryou Commission detective is a martial artist who uses Anemo-infused punches and kicks to attack. Heizou is the first character in the game to apply this kind of game mechanic, which is interesting because he completely subverts the mage archetype: usually characters having a spellbook/catalyst as their primary weapon are spellcasters, not close-combat fighters.

According to a July 9 Hoyolab release, Heizou’s Fudou Style Martial Arts offers a fast five-hit normal attack and a more powerful sweeping kick charged attack:

His Elemental Skill is called Heartstopper Strike, a powerful punch that deals Anemo damage. When held, it gains him Declension, increasing its power up to a maximum of four stacks. At four stacks, Conviction will take affect, which causes Heartstopper Strike to create a greater AoE.

2. Heizou can do crowd control

If you don’t have Venti or Sucrose, then Heizou is your next choice for crowd control. Heizou’s Elemental Burst, the Windmuster Kick, produces a vacuum effect, and can also create Windmuster Iris which infuses AoE damage with the element that an enemy is afflicted with. Check out the details below:

If previous leaks are to be believed, Heizou’s Elemental Burst has only an energy cost of 40 and a cool down of 12 seconds, which means that you can basically spam it. It would definitely make domain runs easier.

3. Heizou is F2P-friendly

While Heizou is seen with the paid Battle Pass weapon Solar Pearl, you can actually just forge a Mappa Mare, which offers 8% Elemental DMG bonus when triggering an elemental reaction. The Widsith is also a good alternative with its random buffs increasing ATK, Elemental DMG, and Elemental Mastery, but if you’re lucky enough to have pulled Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds in the past, then slap it on Heizou. He’ll definitely benefit from the 10% increase in Movement SPD (not to mention he’ll look even cooler) and the 8% stacking Elemental DMG bonus.

Heizou’s ascension materials are also pretty easy to find. Hoyolab has released a list, but while there isn’t any official number on how many you need per item, we referenced it from the Genshin Impact Wiki:

1	Vauyda Turquoise Sliver
9	Vauyda Turquoise Fragment
9	Vauyda Turquoise Chunk
6	Vauyda Turquoise Gemstone
18	Treasure Hoarder Insignia
30	Silver Raven Insignia
36	Golden Raven Insignia
168	Onikabuto
46	Runic Fang (dropped by the Ruin Serpent in The Chasm)
420,000	Mora

You’ll probably be working on Heizou’s talent materials for a while, especially since it requires you to fight the Raiden Shogun on a weekly basis. Nonetheless, collecting them is not any harder than other four-star characters:

6	Treasure Hoarder Insignia
22	Silver Raven Insignia
31	Golden Raven Insignia
3	Teachings of Transience
21	Guide to Transience
38	Philosophies of Transience
6	The Meaning of Aeons (dropped by the Raiden Shogun in the End of the Oneiric Euthymia domain)
1	Crown of Insight
1,652,500	Mora
	*Total is for one (1) talent

If you’re pulling for Kazuha, then you’re pretty much hitting two birds with one stone when it comes to artifacts, since both use Viridescent Verener pieces. We’ll find out what kind of build works best for him, but in the meantime, check out our other character guides:

Need more Anemo crowd control characters in your line up?

• Genshin Guide | Venti
• Genshin Guide | Sucrose

Curious about other character builds?

• Genshin Guide: Zhongli
• Genshin Guide: Chongyun
• Genshin Guide: Diona
• Genshin Guide: Klee
• Genshin Guide: Yoimiya
• Genshin Guide: National Team Comp

About author

Mecha Sushi

Mecha Sushi is not your average girl gamer. A fusion of Sailor Moon and the Wing Gundam, she hails from the future to spread the message of love, justice, and equality for all gamers regardless of gender and belief.