Genshin Impact: Best Bow Tier List (2.x)

Image: miHoYo via HGG / Jeffrey Hsu

Human Made

Penned by Jeffrey Hsu

Having learned how to play video games before he could walk or read, Jeffrey is a gaming zealot. With a fixation on efficiency and details, he'll d... Read more

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

The mighty bow — the weapon of choice for those who believe in precision and exploiting the enemy’s weakness. Bows are the only weapons in Genshin that require active aiming, but they’re the most consistent means of exploiting an enemy’s weak point. Every strike aimed at a vulnerable spot is a guaranteed critical hit with a higher stagger chance. Some enemies can only be reliably put down with a perfectly aimed arrow.

To ensure that each arrow you fire strikes true, you’ll need the right bow for the job. With the ever-increasing amount of weapons being added to the game, it can be difficult to choose the right one. This week, we’re covering the best bows in Genshin Impact.

Let’s get started!

Popular Destinations..

Genshin Impact Waystone | Navigation Page

Genshin Impact 5.4 Update – Banners, Events, Changes

Best Bows in Genshin Impact — Tier List (2.x)

Before we jump into our list, we have a quick disclaimer. Our rankings largely assume you only have a single copy of each weapon. Only common three-star and free weapons obtained via events/forging are expected to have been refined with multiple copies. While not common, we will note when a weapon’s refinement level has a large impact on its ranking.

In other words, control yourself and roll responsibly. Don’t go broke trying to get Refinement Level 5 on a five-star weapon. There are plenty of great options in the meantime!

Here are our picks for the best bows in Genshin Impact:

The 9 Best Bows in Genshin Impact, Ranked Good to Best

We’ve ranked our top nine bows below — keep reading for our breakdown of the best of the best and a few strategies on how to use them effectively. If a specific weapon is considered the best overall for a character, we’ll have (BiS) next to their name for “Best in Slot.”

Honorable Mentions

While we won’t be doing a deep dive into these weapons, the Sacrificial Bow and Favonius Warbow are great choices for when you need as much Energy Recharge as possible on an archer. However, we can only really recommend these weapons for Diona at the moment.

9/9

Alley Hunter (4* Rarity)

Source: Limited-Time Weapon Banner | Good On: Fischl, Venti, Aloy

The first bow on our list is designed for characters that you bring out only for their elemental skill. It effectively charges up a damage boost on the wielder while they’re inactive. With a base attack of 565 and 27.6% bonus to ATK at max level, this weapon is all about making your character hit as hard as it can during its buff window. Each second the wielder is inactive, they will gain a 2% damage boost per second (up to a max of 20% over 10 seconds).

However, this buff will start rapidly decaying after said character remains on the field for longer than four seconds. It’s just enough time to swap to that character, unleash their skill, and switch back to another character to preserve the buff.

The buff is especially useful on characters with a persistent off-field ability such as Fischl, who is mostly used for Oz’s persistent Electro presence. Otherwise, characters like Venti and Aloy, who typically use their skill or burst one at a time, benefit the most from this bow.

Each refinement copy you add to this weapon will increase the stacking buff by 0.5% (max by 5%). Conversely, it also increases the decay rate by 1% each second. At max refinement, the wielder gains a 4% damage buff each second for a max of 40% damage.

While it provides a fairly useful effect, it’s outclassed by bows that provide better stats and a more consistent boon to the team. Still, if you ever find yourself using a bow character solely for their utility, it’s quite a useful weapon.

8/9

The Stringless (4* Rarity)

Source: Standard Banner | Good On: Venti, Aloy, Fischl, Amber

Arguably the best bow in the game to trigger elemental reactions, The Stringless is designed to bolster your skill and burst damage as high as possible. Functionally, it’s a more persistent Alley Hunter that requires no setup.

With a base attack of 510 and 165 bonus to elemental mastery at max level, you can already see what it’s geared towards. The weapon’s effect provides a very straightforward 24% damage boost to the wielder’s elemental skill and burst.

Each refinement copy increases this damage boost by 6%. At max refinement, the wielder gains a 48% damage boost to their elemental skill and burst.

To get the most mileage out of this weapon, you’ll want to use characters that can trigger powerful elemental reactions with their skill/burst. Venti is the premiere character, as Anemo characters perform best when bolstering their Swirl reactions. Triggering Vaporize and Melt reactions would be ideal, but the characters who can do so are often better suited to equipping other bows.

7/9

Rust (4* Rarity)

Source: StandardBanner | Good On: Yoimiya, Childe, FIschl

This is the odd bow out, as it heavily encourages using normal attacks and punishes the wielder for charging up any of their shots. With a base attack of 510 and 41.3% bonus to ATK at max level, this weapon is all about making your normal attacks hit like a truck. Its unique effect boosts all normal attack damage by 40% while reducing charged damage by 10%.

While normal attacking with a bow is generally considered sub-optimal, due to the arrows actually having travel time and missing occasionally, there are a couple characters who can take advantage of this weapon.

Yoimiya can fully utilize this weapon, as her skill permanently imbues all her normal attacks with Pyro and greater damage. Given that’s her main playstyle, this weapon is perfectly suited for her. Childe is similar to Yoimiya in that regard with his skill, but is limited by its cooldown. This weapon becomes very good on Fischl if you manage to unlock her first constellation and turn her into a main DPS unit.

Each refinement copy increases the damage boost to normal attacks by 10%. At max refinement, the wielder gains a 80% damage boost. As it’s a four-star weapon, it’s very feasible to accidentally end up with a fully refined Rust.

If you’re interested in making any bow user an auto-attacking machine, this is the weapon for you.

6/9

Prototype Crescent (4* Rarity)

Source: Forging | Good On: Amber, Childe, Ganyu

This is the first bow you’ll gain access to via forging, and honestly, it’s the best out of all the craftable bows. It reinforces the importance of aiming for weak points by rewarding the wielder with a substantial ATK buff.

Each charged strike on a weak point will provide the user a 10% move speed and 36% ATK buff for ten seconds. With the weapon already giving a 510 base attack and 41.3% ATK bonus at max level, this buff can become quite substantial.

As it’s a forged weapon, you can very easily reach Refinement Level 5. Each refinement copy boosts the ATK buff by 9%. At max refinement, you’ll have a whopping 72% ATK buff.

As its description would indicate, it’s best used on characters whose main damage source is charged shots. Amber synergizes incredibly well with this weapon due to her second ascension passive adding another 15% ATK buff for hitting weak points.

This is a strong contender for an affordable bow that can take advantage of weak point shots. It’s possibly even the best F2P bow in Genshin Impact.

5/9

Elegy for the End (5* Rarity)

Source: Limited-Time Weapon Banner | Good On: Venti (BiS), Amber, Kujou Sara (BiS), Diona

Number five on our list of the best bows in Genshin Impact is the ultimate team-wide support bow. To be fair, it’s also the only bow in the game that provides a buff to the party. Thankfully, it’s a pretty substantial buff.

Each time the wielder’s skill and burst hits an enemy, you’ll gain a sigil. Obtain four sigils and grant your team a 100 elemental mastery and 20% ATK buff for 12 seconds. If a skill/burst can hit multiple times, you’ll generate sigils extremely quickly.

With a base attack of 608 and a 55.1% bonus to Energy Recharge at max level, the bow provides a very good bonus to getting your burst charged again. On top of that, you’ll always have a 60 elemental mastery bonus at all times.

Each refinement copy increases the base elemental mastery boost by 15 and enhances the buff to grant 25 extra elemental mastery and 5% more ATK. At max refinement, you’ll always have 120 elemental mastery, and the buff will grant an additional 200 elemental mastery and 40% ATK to the whole party.

Characters like Venti and Amber can pretty much trigger the buff with a single burst due to their multiple hits. Venti especially benefits from all the stats, making his spammable burst more and hit harder with Swirl reactions. The buff’s cooldown also lines up perfectly with Kujou Sara’s burst cooldown and synergizes extremely well with her support role.

However, there is a cooldown of twenty seconds on gaining sigils after the buff is triggered. You’ll have eight seconds of downtime after the buff ends, but you can fill the gap with setting up elemental infusions for the next reaction.

4/9

Skyward Harp (5* Rarity)

Source: StandardBanner | Good On: Fischl, Kujou Sara, Ganyu, Amber, Childe, Aloy

Overall, this is the best bow in Genshin Impact for handling every situation. It’s also the most useful of the Skyward weapon series due to having a crit-focused stat line. While it may lose out to the more specialized bows on our list, it’s still a fantastic choice for any DPS bow user.

Right off the bat, you’ll notice that this bow is a pure stat stick of murder. With a base attack of 674 (the highest of all bows) and 22.1% bonus to crit rate at max level, it’s already set up to crit even without hitting a weak point. It also comes with a permanent 20% bonus to crit damage. On top of that, your attacks have a 60% chance to generate an AOE blast every four seconds for 125% of your ATK.

Each refinement copy increases the crit damage bonus by 5%, increases the AOE proc chance by 10%, and lowers the cooldown on the proc by 0.5 seconds. At max refinement, you’ll do 40% extra crit damage, and have a 100% chance to trigger the AOE every two seconds.

Even without any refinements (given how long it takes to charge and aim a shot), you’ll probably proc that AOE blast every other arrow. If you’re lucky enough to get multiple refinement levels, you can turn this weapon into a machine gun of death.

3/9

Polar Star (5* Rarity)

Source: Limited-Time Weapon Banner | Good On: Childe (BiS), Fischl (BiS), Ganyu, Kujou Sara

Number three on our list of the best bows in Genshin Impact is Polar Star, the latest bow to be added to the game and a rather high-maintenance weapon. However, it is extremely good on characters who actively utilize their entire kit to do damage.

With a base attack of 608 and a 33.1% bonus to crit rate at max level, this weapon provides a fairly wide stat spread on top of its effect. Each of your various damaging attacks (normal, charged, skill, burst) will grant a 10% attack buff (each with separate timers) for twelve seconds after hitting an enemy. If you get all four stacks, it’ll go up to a 48% bonus. You also have a constant passive 12% damage boost to your skill and burst.

Childe has an easy time proccing all four buffs, as his skill lets you trigger three of the conditions far quicker than conventional archers. Fischl and Ganyu also can make fantastic usage of the weapon’s effect due to their persistent field skill/burst.

Each refinement copy increases the skill/burst damage boost by 3% and each independent stack effect by 2.5% (with a 12% boost if you have all four stacks). At max refinement, your skill/burst will hit 24% harder and each stack will grant an additional 20% ATK (96% boost with all four stacks).

2/9

Amos’ Bow (5* Rarity)

Source: Standard Banner | Good On: Amber (BiS), Ganyu (BiS), Childe

This is undeniably the best bow in Genshin Impact for playing a sniper-like archer that picks off enemies with a single, well-placed shot.

With a base attack of 608 and a 49.6% ATK bonus at max level, this bow might seem a bit lackluster at first. However, it’s effect perpetually boosts all normal/charged attack damage by 12%. Additionally, for every 0.1 seconds your arrow is in flight, it gains an extra 8% damage.

We’re sure you can see why this is considered the sniper bow now.

Unfortunately, since most enemies prefer to run at your face, it can be hard to gain enough distance to fully utilize this weapon. That’s why we strongly recommend using it on characters that have a taunt, like Amber and Ganyu, to get enough distance. It helps that the damage modifiers from this weapon complements their playstyles of exploiting weak points for massive damage.

Each refinement copy increases the normal/charged attack damage by 3% and boosts the distance buff by 2% for each 0.1 second the arrow is in flight. At max refinement, your attacks have a 24% damage boost and a 16% for each 0.1 second.

1/9

Thundering Pulse (5* Rarity)

Source: Limited-Time Weapon Banner | Good On: Yoimiya(BiS), Aloy (BiS), Childe, Ganyu, Amber

The best bow in Genshin Impact is similar to the Polar Star in that it’s another high-maintenance weapon. We rank it higher due to the ever-coveted crit damage bonus, and the fact that it’s more focused on enhancing your normal attack damage into the stratosphere.

With a base attack of 608 and a staggering 66.2% bonus to crit damage, it already becomes an incredibly valuable weapon. On top of that, it also passively grants a 20% ATK bonus at all times. As for its effect, you’ll attempt to maintain three emblems triggered by different conditions to bolster your normal attack damage. Dealing damage with a normal attack grants an emblem for five seconds, using your elemental skill grants another for ten seconds, and while your burst energy is less than full, you’ll maintain a stack indefinitely.

Each emblem grants 12% extra damage to your normal attack, with the damage being boosted to 40% total if you have all three active at once. We recommend using your burst as soon as it’s available to gain back the emblem as quick as you can. If you can maintain at least two emblems at a time, you’ll find this weapon easily surpasses most other bows in damage value.

This weapon is perfect for Yoimiya, who is already all about shooting down enemies with her enhanced normal attacks. Since her skill has no cooldown and only requires a character switch, you can easily maintain the emblem as well. Aloy also benefits greatly from this playstyle but has a harder time triggering her enhanced state in comparison.

As for refinement, each copy boosts the passive ATK bonus by 5% as well as enhancing each emblem’s effect by 3% (10% if all emblems are active simultaneously). At max refinement, you have a 40% boost to ATK and each emblem grants 24% bonus to normal attacks (80% for three simultaneously).

Join the High Ground

And that’s it for our guide on the best bows in Genshin Impact! If you have any thoughts about our rankings, let us know in the comments below! Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter.

Happy gaming!