Genshin Impact – Shikanoin Heizou Abilities, Artifacts, and Team Comp Guide

Shikanoin Heizou is the newest Anemo character to join the Genshin Impact roster, and he’s a surprisingly good four-star option depending on how you build him up. He’s a solid on-field DPS who can be effective with either high Crit and ATK stats, or constant Swirls that use Elemental Mastery. Here’s what you need to know about his best builds, right down to artifacts, weapons, and team comps.

Abilities

Elemental Skill – Hearstopper Strike

• This aptly named move is a single Anemo-infused punch that can deal serious damage to any enemy unlucky enough to be standing in front of Heizou.
  • Tapping the button/key unleashes an immediate punch that deals Anemo damage.
  • Holding the button/key provides up to four Declension stacks. Charging up all four Declension stacks increases the move’s damage and AoE.

Elemental Burst – Windmuster Kick

• Heizou jumps into the air and uses a powerful kick to create a wind tunnel that pulls enemies into one spot and deals AoE Anemo damage. When the Anemo kick hits enemies that are affected by Pyro, Cryo, Electro, or Hydro, it’ll leave a Windmuster Iris mark.
  • This mark explodes after a short time, dealing AoE damage of the element that the enemy was affected by. Only four enemies can receive the mark at once, and a single target cannot receive a mark for two different elements at the same time.

Passive Talents

• Heizou’s Paradoxical Practice Talent allows him to gain one Declension stack whenever he causes a Swirl effect. He can gain a stack this way every 0.1 seconds, which means that, ideally, the stacks will always be full on a team with elemental damage dealers.
• The Penetrative Reasoning Talent provides a buff of 80 Elemental Mastery to the entire party (excluding Heizou) for 10 seconds whenever Heartstopper Strike hits an opponent.

Best Artifact Stats

Heizou can be an on-field sub DPS or main DPS depending on how he’s built, and there are two main ways to build him when looking at where his damage comes from.

He can be built by focusing either on his ATK and Crit stats, or his Elemental Mastery Stat. He’ll deal plenty of damage no matter which build you go with, but team comp should play a major role in your decision. If you only want to use Heizou for Swirls and constant elemental reactions on a Taser team, going for full Elemental Mastery is best. Go for ATK and Crit if you want Heizou to be a threat in nearly every other situation.

As you can see, there’s a bit of room for flexibility when it comes to main stats here as long as you know what you want in a full team setup. As for substats, they will usually be nearly identical for either build. Raise Elemental Mastery as much as possible if that’s your focus, but, otherwise, stack ATK and Crit.

Also, Energy Recharge isn’t the most necessary stat if Heizou is constantly on-field using his Skill and normal attacks, but it can come in handy if you’re having trouble getting his Burst up consistently.

Best Artifact Set

Viridescent Venerer

• Two-Piece Set: Gain a 15% Anemo damage bonus.
• Four-Piece Set: Increase Swirl damage by 60%, and decreases enemies’ Elemental Resistance to the elements in the Swirl by 40% for 10 seconds.

As with all other Anemo characters, Viridescent Venerer is the best set for Heizou, no matter the build. He’ll be causing Swirl reactions left and right, and this set increases Swirl damage by a ridiculous amount while weakening opponents. Thundering Fury might work in Taser teams if you only want Electro-related damage, and Noblesse Oblige can help if Heizou isn’t on-field very often. However, Viridescent Venerer is, without a doubt, the set to farm over all others.

Best Weapons

Heizou is blessed in that he’s able to perform well with a number of different weapons, which includes nearly every five-star catalyst and several four-star catalysts. Here are three great options for Heizou that are available for both free-to-play players and those who like to spend a bit.

Skyward Atlas

• Main Stat: ATK%
• Effect: Increases Elemental Dmg bonus by 12/15/18/21/24%. Normal attacks have a 50% chance to seek out opponents to attack for 15 seconds, dealing 160/200/240/280/320% ATK Dmg. This effect can only happen once every 30 seconds.

The Skyward Atlas is likely to be the one five-star catalyst that most players own if they have one at all. it increases Heizou’s ATK stat while providing an Elemental buff alongside additional damage from his normal strikes. Essentially, it’s all about increasing damage, which is perfect for him.

Sacrificial Fragments

• Main Stat: Elemental Mastery
• Effect: After damaging an opponent with an Elemental Skill, the skill has a 40/50/60/70/80% chance to end its cooldown. This effect can only happen once every 30/26/22/18/14s.

Sacrificial Fragments leans more into the Elemental Skill part of Heizou’s kit by regularly providing quick cooldowns to allow the use of Heartstopper Strike far more often. That move is where most of his damage will come from, so this is a useful–and relatively easy-to-obtain–four-star weapon.

Mappa Mare

• Main Stat: Elemental Mastery
• Effect: Causing an elemental reaction grants an 8/10/12/14/16% Elemental Dmg bonus for 10 seconds, and this effect can stack twice.

The Mappa Mare is a free-to-play four-star option that can be crafted at any blacksmith by using the catalyst drop from weekly bosses. The weapon provides a simple yet effective all-around buff to Elemental Dmg.

Team Comps

Heizou likes to be on-field more than off, so putting him on teams where he can make use of other characters’ effects while they’re off-screen is the way to go. The most popular team to put him on is a Taser team, which means that the main elemental reaction being created is Electro-charged. Taser teams often contain at least two Electro characters and one Hydro, or vice versa. He also excels in Vaporize teams, allowing him to Swirl Hydro and Pyro.

Here are a few examples of good team comps for Heizou:

• Expensive team comps:
  • Heizou, Yelan, Raiden Shogun, Yae Miko
  • Heizou, Kokomi, Raiden Shogun, Sara
  • Heizou, Yelan, Zhongli, Yae Miko
• Budget team comps:
  • Heizou, Beidou, Fischl, Xingqiu
  • Heizou, Bennett, Xingqiu, Xiangling
  • Heizou, Thoma, Xiangling, Xingqiu
  • Heizou, Beidou, Lisa , Barbara

Heizou isn’t necessarily the best character in the game, so he isn’t necessarily a must-pull. Though, he is a ton of fun to use since his play style and animations are so different from anyone else on the current roster. He’s a solid four-star that is worth building up if you’re tired of the same old Anemo characters that have remained strong for some time now.