5 Best Weapons for Nilou in Genshin Impact

Image: miHoYo via HGG / Ethan Erekson

Human Made

Penned by Ethan Erekson

Ethan is our resident Stardew Valley expert. He has also covered Genshin Impact, Animal Crossing, and LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Hsu

Nilou is a 5-star Hydro character in Genshin Impact known for her dancing abilities, high synergy with Dendro teams, and surprising capability to wield the sword as a weapon. With high HP and a flexible skill that scales off of it, Nilou can tank hits while dealing significant damage to enemies.

However, if you want this dancer to take center stage in your team, you’ll need to equip her with the most fitting weapon. In today’s article, we’ll be going over the best weapons for Nilou in Genshin Impact, so you can fully unleash the star of the Zubayr Theater’s talents!

Let’s get started.

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Foreword on the Best Weapons for Nilou

Whether you’re building a new character or working on one you’ve previously built, choosing the right weapon is incredibly important. However, it’s not always easy to figure out which weapon will work best for your character and the rest of your team.

With different Base ATKs to secondary stats to passive effects, there are a lot of factors to consider. Fortunately, that’s where we come in. After carefully examining all the different sword options available, we’ve handpicked the top weapons for Nilou in Genshin Impact.

Below we’ll go over the different stats, passive effects, and drawbacks of each weapon so you can get a better idea of what will work best for your Nilou build. We also cover what items each weapon needs to be fully ascended too!

Our list covers the best 4-star and 5-star weapons available for Nilou. We’re not covering any 3-star weapons this time around (though R5 Harbinger of Dawn is a good option if you don’t have any of the weapons on our list yet), but we do go over some great free-to-play options. Our rankings are also assuming no refinements for most of the weapons listed, but they’re definitely worth considering. It’s a solid option for taking your weapons and characters to the next level if you have the resources.

It’s also worth noting that most of the weapons we recommend are available year-round, but a couple are time-limited. If you missed those weapons, consider using one of the other weapons on our list in the meantime. Just keep an eye on the new weapon banners each update, and with enough Primogems, you should get them eventually.

How to Choose a Weapon for Nilou in Genshin Impact

Before we get into the recommendations, let’s go over some basics about swords in Genshin Impact. 

Stats

For the most part, the best weapons for a character are going to be a 3, 4, or 5-star rarity. This is because these weapons offer two stats and a passive effect. The first stat will always be the Base ATK, and it’s a pretty good baseline for determining how good a weapon is. It also combines with the ATK from your character and artifacts to create your character’s full ATK stat.

While all weapons have ATK as their primary stat, there are a variety of secondary stats that can be offered. ATK isn’t everything, and depending on your playstyle, a different stat may be far more valuable.

Secondary sword stats can be any one of the following:

• ATK%
• CRIT DMG%
• CRIT Rate%
• DEF%
• Elemental Mastery
• Energy Recharge
• HP%
• Physical DMG Bonus

Catering Nilou’s Weapon to Her Best Role

Nilou is a very versatile character, and she can work quite well with an on- or off-field focus. She’s a pretty good DPS and Hydro applicator on her own. However, regardless of which specific role you choose for her, her real specialty is maximizing Bloom damage with Bursts and her Elemental Skill, Dance of Haftkarsvar.

Nilou’s Elemental Skill and Burst both scale off of max HP, so that’s the main stat you should be prioritizing when building Nilou. Building Nilou’s HP also has the benefit of making her a tank, on top of enabling her to deal a ton of damage. However, due to the fact that there’s only one sword with the HP substat (and that sword is time-limited), you’ll likely need to go with a different weapon.

As such, Energy Recharge is a great alternative, as this stat lets you use Nilou’s Burst more often. The increased frequency helps make up for the lower damage. As long as you’ve built Nilou’s HP properly, she’ll still be a tank and a heavy hitter. Overall, she can work well with a variety of weapons, and with the right artifacts, stats like Elemental Mastery, CRIT DMG, and CRIT Rate will suffice.

Takeaway

Nilou has a lot of strengths, and she can work well in a variety of situations. However, the most important thing is finding a weapon that works well with how you play the game. If that ends up being a weapon that fits the meta, then great! But if not, it doesn’t really matter.

Overall, we made this list to help you know what to look for as you decide what weapon to use for Nilou in Genshin Impact. There are plenty of options out there, and hopefully, you’ll be able to find one that fits your playstyle and one-shots your enemies.

5 Best Weapons for Nilou in Genshin Impact, Ranked

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get into the recommendations. Here are Nilou’s top 5 weapons in Genshin Impact, ranked from good to best.

5/5

Iron Sting (4-Star)

First up is Iron Sting, a 4-star sword that can be crafted fairly early on in the game.

This is easily the best free-to-play weapon for Nilou in Genshin Impact. With some ascension and refinement, it’s also pretty competitive. Getting some of the materials may take a bit of work, but once you have the resources, Iron Sting is definitely worth having. Overall, this sword is great for free-to-play players and people who regularly make use of Elemental Reactions.

Stats and Effects

Base ATK (Level 90): 510

2nd Stat Type: Elemental Mastery

2nd Stat (Level 90): 165

With a high Base ATK and respectable levels of Elemental Mastery, Iron Sting is a good option for Nilou for its stats alone. If you plan on using Nilou to trigger Elemental Reactions, EM is a great stat to have, as it increases the damage for most reactions.

However, its passive bumps up its potential even further, as Infusion Stinger increases all DMG as Nilou deals Elemental DMG. This starts out as a 6% increase that lasts 6 seconds, and it also stacks. As Nilou’s best moves are her Skill and Burst, she regularly deals Elemental DMG, making it fairly easy to get and maintain the maximum of 2 stacks. That’s a 12% DMG buff from just using the character as you would normally!

This only gets better as you refine Iron Sting, and if you get it to R5, you can have a DMG bonus as high as 24%! It’s also worth mentioning that Infusion Stinger also can occur every second, so you can essentially maintain both stacks for as long as you need.

Drawbacks

Elemental Mastery generally isn’t the best stat for Nilou, and you’re often better off having someone else on your team trigger Elemental Reactions. Nilou’s Tranquility Aura from the Whirling Steps stance of her Skill also sticks around when you switch out characters, so even if you need Hydro application, you’re still usually better off using a character with better EM stats.

Just activate her Tranquility Aura and any character can trigger Hydro-based reactions! However, this largely depends on your playstyle, and the meta isn’t everything. Depending on how you’ve built your Nilou, this could still work quite well.

However, the main drawback is that Northlander Sword Billets, which you need to craft the Iron Sting, are kinda hard to get. Weekly bosses have a chance of dropping them, but it’s not a guarantee, so getting the resources you need can take some time. And it takes even longer if you’re trying to refine it as well.

But if you don’t want to rely on chance and would rather not spend money, this is the best F2P weapon for Nilou in Genshin Impact.

Materials

To forge the Iron Sting, you will need the following materials:

• 500 Mora
• 50 White Iron Chunk
• 50 Crystal Chunk
• 1 Northlander Sword Billet

White Iron and Crystal are fairly common, and you can find both of these materials throughout Teyvat. However, Northlander Sword Billets are much harder to come by. There is a single Sword Billet in Marjorie’s shop in Monstadt, With Wind Comes Glory, but if you’ve already used this one, you’ll have to get them through weekly bosses.

You’ll have up to half a dozen chances each week to get one as a weekly boss drop, but it is just a chance. Depending on your priorities, the amount of resin you’ll have to use may or may not be worth it, but overall, it’s a great free-to-play weapon. Going with a crafted weapon also saves you some Primogems.

If you want to take it a step further, you can craft multiple and use them to get Iron sting to Refinement Rank 5. The improved passive substantially increases Nilou’s DPS capabilities. R1 Iron Sting is still pretty good, and fully ascending it might be enough for most people. But as long as you have the time and resources, getting the Iron Sting to R5 can be very worthwhile.

To fully ascend the Iron Sting, you’ll need the following materials:

• 150k Mora
• 3 Grain of Aerosiderite (2-star weapon material)
• 9 Piece of Aerosiderite (3-star weapon material)
• 9 Bit of Aerosiderite (4-star weapon material)
• 4 Chunk of Aerosiderite (5-star weapon material)
• 15 Fragile Bone Shard (2-star enemy drop)
• 18 Sturdy Bone Shard (3-star enemy drop)
• 28 Fossilized Bone Shard (4-star enemy drop)
• 10 Whopperflower Nectar (1-star enemy drop)
• 15 Shimmering Nectar (2-star enemy drop)
• 18 Energy Nectar (3-star enemy drop)

4/5

Xiphos’ Moonlight (4-Star)

The next weapon on our list is Xiphos’ Moonlight, a 4-star sword with great stats, and it also has a passive that benefits the rest of your team. Whether your team needs some extra ER or you want to trigger plenty of Elemental Reactions, Xiphos’ Moonlight is a great sword to have.

Stats and Effects

Base ATK (Level 90): 510

2nd Stat Type: Elemental Mastery

2nd Stat (Level 90): 165

Xiphos’ Moonlight is another great weapon with great stats. Its passive effect, Jinni’s Whisper, also triggers automatically every 10 seconds, so it’s pretty much always in effect. The simplicity is nice, but what exactly does it do?

Simply put, Jinni’s Whisper provides an Energy Recharge buff that scales off of Elemental Mastery. With the EM from the sword alone, that’s a 6% increase, which isn’t half bad. And it only goes up from there. However, what makes Xiphos’ Moonlight even better is that its passive extends to the rest of your party as well. It’s only 30% of what Nilou gets, but it all adds up.

Overall, Xiphos’s Moonlight offers quite a bit in terms of stats, including both EM and ER. This makes it a much more well-rounded weapon for Nilou. The ER boost definitely comes in handy, and if you’re using Nilou as a Bloom support, this is one of the better options out there. However, you don’t necessarily have to equip it for Nilou to benefit from this weapon. If you have another sword character on your team, consider giving them Xiphos’ Moonlight, and Nilou will still get the ER bonus, even if it’s a little lower than it would otherwise be.

Drawbacks

Like Iron Sting, Xiphos’ Moonlight has EM as its secondary stat, which generally isn’t the best stat for Nilou. However, its passive sort of makes up for it, and if you’re using Nilou as a Bloom support, it can work quite well, especially if you’re planning on having Nilou be off-field for a good amount of time. But if you’re planning on using Nilou as a DPS, one of the other weapons might be a better option.

The main drawback to Xiphos’ Moonlight is that it’s time-limited. It is a 4-star weapon, so it’ll show up more often than the time-limited 5-stars. You’ll need to keep an eye out for it if you want to have a chance at getting it. However, given that the other weapons on this list are available year-round—with the exception of Nilou’s best-in-slot—it’s one of the least accessible weapons on our list. If you have it, it can be worth using, but if not, you’ll probably be better off using something else.

Materials

To fully ascend the Xiphos’ Moonlight, you’ll need the following materials:

• 150k Mora
• 3 Copper Talisman of the Forest Dew (2-star weapon material)
• 9 Iron Talisman of the Forest Dew (3-star weapon material)
• 9 Silver Talisman of the Forest Dew (4-star weapon material)
• 4 Golden Talisman of the Forest Dew (5-star weapon material)
• 15 Damaged Prism (2-star enemy drop)
• 18 Turbid Prism (3-star enemy drop)
• 28 Radiant Prism (4-star enemy drop)
• 10 Faded Red Satin (1-star enemy drop)
• 15 Trimmed Red Silk (2-star enemy drop)
• 18 Rich Red Brocade (3-star enemy drop)

3/5

Favonius Sword (4-Star)

At the halfway point in our recommendations is the 4-star Favonius Sword! With ER as its substat, this weapon enables Nilou to use her Elemental Burst more frequently. And like Xiphos’ Moonlight, it also has some effects that benefit the rest of your team.

Stats and Effects

Base ATK (Level 90): 454

2nd Stat Type: Energy Recharge

2nd Stat (Level 90): 61.3%

Iron Sting is a great free-to-play weapon, and Xiphos’ Moonlight is a great support option. And the other weapons on this list also have their own unique advantages. However, what makes the Favonius Sword special is its energy generating capabilities.

From the get-go, it offers a substansial ER boost, and it has a passive that has a chance of creating Elemental Particles whenever you land a CRIT hit. This can occur every 12 seconds, and these particles regenerate 6 Energy for your characters.

On one hand, this combination of ER and Windfall can let Nilou use her Burst more frequently, and it can even let her use it every rotation. Windfall can also be used to generate energy for your teammates. If either of these use cases are appealing to you, then the Favonius Sword might be what you’re looking for.

Drawbacks

Between its ER substat and energy generating capabilities, the Favonius Sword offers quite a bit. However, if you want to fully take advantage of Windfall, you’ll need a decent amount of CRIT Rate.

Depending on your artifacts, this may or may not be a problem. However, if you want to maximize Nilou’s DPS potential, all of her artifacts should have HP% as their primary stat. As such, you’ll need to get plenty of CRIT Rate from the artifacts substats.

Grinding for artifacts already takes a while, and getting specific artifacts with specific stats takes even longer. The extra damage is usually worth it, but again, it’s time-consuming. But if you’re just looking to burst more often, the Favonius Sword is probably sufficient, even if its passive’s potential is somewhat limited.

Materials

To fully ascend the Favonius Sword, you’ll need the following materials:

• 150k Mora
• 3 Tile of Decarabian’s Tower (2-star weapon material)
• 9 Debris of Decarabian’s City (3-star weapon material)
• 9 Fragment of Decarabian’s Epic (4-star weapon material)
• 4 Scattered Piece of Decarabian’s Dream (5-star weapon material)
• 15 Heavy Horn (2-star enemy drop)
• 18 Black Bronze Horn (3-star enemy drop)
• 28 Black Crystal Horn (4-star enemy drop)
• 10 Firm Arrowhead (1-star enemy drop)
• 15 Sharp Arrowhead (2-star enemy drop)
• 18 Weathered Arrowhead (3-star enemy drop)

2/5

Sacrificial Sword (4-Star)

In second place is the Sacrificial Sword. With great stats and plenty of flexibility, it’s a great weapon option for Nilou, especially since it enables you to use her as both a Bloom support and DPS simultaneously.

Stats and Effects

Base ATK (Level 90): 454

2nd Stat Type: Energy Recharge

2nd Stat (Level 90): 61.3%

Sacrificial Sword’s passive effect is Composed, which has a chance to end the cooldown for Nilou’s Elemental Skill whenever she uses it. This may not sound like much, but Nilou’s Skill has two stances. By ending the cooldown immediately, Composed lets you use both of them at the same time.

Swords Dance lets Nilou unleash “Luminous Illusions” that deal Hydro damage whenever she uses her sword. This stance is a great option when you’re using Nilou as a DPS. The other stance, Whirling Steps, deals AoE Hydro damage and creates a Tranquility Aura that applies Hydro to nearby enemies. This sticks around when you switch Nilou out, making it a great option when you’re using Nilou as a support.

Nilou is already a flexible character, and Composed just adds even more flexibility. Whether you’re using it to let you use one of these stances even longer or to use them both at the same time, Sacrifical Sword is a great weapon option for Nilou.

Drawbacks

Nilou’s Skill is her best move, and the Sacrificial Sword makes it even better. From letting you use it more frequently to enabling you to use both stances simultaneously, this weapon lets you make the most of Nilou’s talents. However, there are a couple of limitations.

First of all, there’s a limit to how often it can be used, and at refinement rank 1, Composed can only be used once every 30 seconds. On top of that, there’s only a 40% chance that the cooldown ends, so it’s also not very consistent. The passive is still very useful, but these two factors make it less reliable.

Of course, both of these issues are resolved once you refine the Sacrificial Sword, but getting multiple Sacrificial Swords isn’t a guarantee. If you do end up getting more than one, refining it can make it that much more useful, but if not, R1 Sacrificial Sword is still pretty great.

Materials

To fully ascend the Sacrificial Sword, you’ll need the following materials:

• 150k Mora
• 3 Fetters of the Dandelion Gladiator (2-star weapon material)
• 9 Chains of the Dandelion Gladiator (3-star weapon material)
• 9 Shackles of the Dandelion Gladiator (4-star weapon material)
• 4 Dream of the Dandelion Gladiator (5-star weapon material)
• 15 Chaos Device (2-star enemy drop)
• 18 Chaos Circuit (3-star enemy drop)
• 28 Chaos Core (4-star enemy drop)
• 10 Divining Scroll (1-star enemy drop)
• 15 Sealed Scroll (2-star enemy drop)
• 18 Forbidden Curse Scroll (3-star enemy drop)

1/5

Key of Khaj-Nisut (5-Star)

Finally, we have the Key of Khaj-Nisut, which is the best weapon for Nilou in Genshin Impact. If you have the Primogems, you’ll definitely want to pull it when you get the chance.

Stats and Effects

Base ATK (Level 90): 542

2nd Stat Type: HP

2nd Stat (Level 90): 66.2%

Most of Nilou’s attacks scale off of her max HP, so the more HP you have, the more damage Nilou can do. Because of this, the Key of Khaj-Nisut is the best weapon for Nilou by far, as it offers a ton of HP from the get-go.

Once it’s fully ascended, it provides a 66.2% max HP boost, and that’s before you factor in the additional 20% boost you get from its passive, Sunken Song of the Sands. All of this results in a weapon that lets Nilou hit hard, along with letting her take hits. With all that HP, she’s a tank after all.

However, that’s not all. The second part of Nilou’s passive is the Grand Hymn effect, which triggers whenever Nilou hits opponents with her Elemental Skill and lasts for 20 seconds. Grand Hymn boosts Elemental Mastery by 0.12% of the user’s max HP, and it also stacks. This adds up very quickly, and with enough HP, you can get an extremely high EM boost. On top of that, Grand Hymn provides an additional 0.2% max HP EM boost to party members whenever you get the third stack.

So what does that amount to? Assuming your Nilou’s max HP is around 70k—which is pretty doable with R1 Key, 2 piece Tenacity & all HP artifacts, and Hydro Resonance—you can get a 252% EM boost with all 3 stacks, along with a 140% EM buff for the rest of your team. That’s a lot.

All of this makes the Key of Khaj-Nisut the best weapon for Nilou in Genshin Impact by a huge margin, whether you’re using her as your primary DPS or as a Bloom support that can provide massive EM boosts to your Dendro characters, along with the additional effects from Nilou’s passive talents. If you have this weapon, you’ll want to immediately equip it on Nilou, and if you don’t, you’ll want to get it once you get the chance.

Drawbacks

Other than its limited availability, there aren’t a lot of downsides to the Key of Khaj-Nisut. This is Nilou’s best-in-slot after all. The passive is a little complicated. However, the maximum is 3 stacks, so there isn’t that much to keep track of.

Stacks can also be gained every 0.3 seconds, and they last 20 seconds, which is longer than the cooldown for Nilou’s skill. So if you’re ever unsure about how many stacks you have, just use Nilou’s skill a couple of times, and you should be good.

Materials

To fully ascend the Key of Khaj-Nisut, you‘ll need the following materials:

• 225k Mora
• 5 Copper Talisman of the Forest Dew (2-star weapon material)
• 14 Iron Talisman of the Forest Dew (3-star weapon material)
• 14 Silver Talisman of the Forest Dew (4-star weapon material)
• 6 Golden Talisman of the Forest Dew (5-star weapon material)
• 23 Damaged Prism (2-star enemy drop)
• 27 Turbid Prism (3-star enemy drop)
• 41 Radiant Prism (4-star enemy drop)
• 15 Faded Red Satin (1-star enemy drop)
• 23 Trimmed Red Silk (2-star enemy drop)
• 27 Rich Red Brocade (3-star enemy drop)

Join the High Ground

What are your thoughts on the weapons we’ve chosen for Nilou in Genshin Impact? Is there a weapon you prefer that didn’t make our list? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to check out some of our other weapons guides. We ranked the best weapons for Ayaka here and the best weapons for Yanfei here. 

For now, ad astra abyssosque and happy gaming!