Genshin Impact: Diluc Builds Guide

Image: miHoYo via HGG / Ethan Erekson

Human Made

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

Diluc, the Master of the Dawn Winery and the Darknight Hero, is a 5-star Pyro character in Genshin Impact. He’s fairly easy to use and has a dynamic playstyle, though he can have more depth if you want to learn some additional techniques. We’ve previously covered how you can get Diluc, so now we’ll talk about the best builds for Diluc in Genshin Impact and what you can do to take his skills and abilities to the next level.

Let’s get started!

Building a Strong Character: Diluc

Before we get into the specifics, let’s get go over a couple things. When talking about character builds in Genshin Impact, we’re going to assume that just about everything is fully leveled up unless otherwise stated. This includes character and weapon levels, and assumes that passive talents are fully unlocked as well.

However, we’re also going to assume that weapon refinement and constellations are at their base levels. We try to keep our guides free-to-play friendly, and unless you’re willing to spend some money, you likely won’t have multiple constellations for a 5-star character like Diluc. You can do it with enough grinding and a little bit of luck, but it’s not easy. Sometimes, you may need refinements and constellations for certain teams and setups to work well, but there are plenty of options and characters you can use instead if you don’t have them yet.

Also, remember to have fun with your builds. The meta may get you those high numbers and stats, but it isn’t the only way you can use these characters. Try to do what works for you and your playstyle. We’re here to offer some ideas and options, so you can get a better idea of what kind of build you want to use for your Diluc and what you can do to make that happen.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s get into Diluc’s best builds.

Best Diluc Builds in Genshin Impact: The Basics

Diluc is a 5-star Pyro character and a Claymore user, and this combination gives you access to all sorts of opportunities. Pyro plus Claymore means you can break through non-elemental shields with ease. It also sets the stage for several high-damage Elemental Reactions, like Melt or Vaporize. Overall, he’s a nice character to have, and with the right gear, teammates, and buffs, he can deal quite a bit of damage. You’ll just want to make sure to have plenty of ATK% (or Elemental Mastery), Pyro DMG, and CRIT. And while this is optional — Diluc can still deal plenty of damage without them — there are some combos you can learn to make the most of Diluc’s damage potential.

Diluc’s best moves are his Normal Attack and Elemental Skill, both of which can quickly be used multiple times in a row and weaved together to get even more out of them. This also works quite well for Elemental Reactions, as his skill doesn’t have any ICD on them. This means you can get in multiple Vaporize or Melt reactions in quick succession. He also has a pretty decent Burst, and while it’s not as good as Diluc’s Normal Attack or Skill, it can work well for getting rid of small enemies. Not to mention the Pyro infusion you get from it sticks around, even when you swap Diluc out.

All in all, Diluc is a pretty great character once you have him built. And the first step to making that happen is getting the materials you need to max out his level and talents.

Materials

You’ll need a lot of resources when building a character. To get those resources, you’ll need to explore, fight enemies and bosses, and clear domains. For the most part, you’ll get what you need just by playing the game. The rest of it you’ll get from fighting the Pyro Regisvine, doing the weekly boss domain Confront Stormterror, and clearing the corresponding Domains of Mastery.

If you’re ever short on resources, you can always do some grinding. As long as you have plenty of resin, you can keep fighting bosses, clearing domains, and completing Ley Line challenges. And if you ever need some help finding materials, you can use the HoYoLab Interactive Map to help you out. Getting everything may take some time, but building a Pyro DPS like Diluc is worthwhile. Also, feel free to take your time. You don’t need to build your characters all at once. Focus on playing the game and have fun with it.

Ascension Materials

To fully ascend Diluc, you’ll need:

420,000 Mora
46 Everflame Seeds
1 Agnidus Agate Sliver
9 Agnidus Agate Fragment
9 Agnidus Agate Chuck
6 Agnidus Agate Gemstone
168 Small Lamp Grass
18 Recruit’s Insignia
30 Sergeant’s Insignia
36 Lieutenant’s Insignia

Chances are, you’ll get the Agnidus Agate you need from fighting the Pyro Regisvine, who you need to fight anyways to get Everflame Seeds. However, if you’re ever short on it, you can always convert another ascension gem material into Agnidus Agate using an Alchemy Table. All you need is some Dust of Aozth, which you can get by exchanging Masterless Stardust in the Shop through Paimon’s Bargains.

Just take your excess ascension gems (Shivada Jade, for example) and combine it with enough Dust of Aozth to do the conversion. One Dust of Aozth converts a Sliver, three converts Fragments, nine converts Chunks, and twenty-seven converts Gemstones. This can be a great option if you have excess of another material and want to save your original, fragile, and condensed resin for another boss, domain, or challenge.

Talent Materials

To fully ascend one of Diluc’s talents, you’ll need:

1,652,500 Mora
6 Recruit’s Insignia
22 Sergeant’s Insignia
31 Lieutenant’s Insignia
3 Teachings of Resistance
21 Guide to Resistance
38 Philosophies of Resistance
6 Dvalin’s Plume
1 Crown of Insight

Stormterror is a weekly boss, and you may not want to wait that long before you can get more of Dvalin’s Plume. Fortunately, if you’re ever low on the material, you can convert some of Stormterror’s other weekly boss drops into Dvalin’s Plume. All you need is some Dream Solvent, and you’ll be able to convert Dvalin’s Claw or Dvalin’s Sigh into the material you need.

You can get Dream Solvent from fighting weekly bosses, but it’s a random drop. We suggest obtaining Dvalin’s Plume directly, as you generally can’t rely on having Dream Solvent to convert other materials into it. But if you ever have some extra materials and some Dream Solvent, it can help speed things up.

Talents

Regardless of which one of the builds you go with for Diluc in Genshin Impact, you’ll want to prioritize his Normal Attack and Skill over his Burst. They’re both on fairly equal footing, and you’ll need both of them for dealing tons of damage and triggering plenty of Elemental Reactions along the way. Leveling up talents takes a lot of materials, and you’ll want to make sure to get these leveled up before you focus on his Burst. The talent books that Diluc uses are also used by several other 5-star characters from Mondstadt, so you might want to consider putting them towards those characters (if you have them) instead of maxing out Diluc’s Burst. Level 8 Dawn is plenty for most people.

Normal Attack: Tempered Sword

First up is Diluc’s Normal Attack, Tempered Sword. With this attack, Diluc uses his blade to do up to four consecutive strikes, and he can do them relatively quickly. This is easily one of his main sources of damage, and it’s flexible enough that you can weave in other attacks in between slashes. It may not be flashy, but once his Normal Attack talent is fully leveled, his Normal Attack does upwards of 170% ATK DMG, and the final strike in his Normal Attack combo can even hit as high as 264% ATK DMG! Diluc hits pretty hard.

Then there’s his Charged Attack, which involves Diluc performing continuous slashes and then finishing off with a more powerful strike. Once you unlock his A1 Passive, it consumes half as much stamina, in addition to lasting longer. His Charged Attack does have its uses, but more often than not, Diluc can deal more damage with combos that utilize his Normal Attack and Skill.

The final part of Tempered Sword is Diluc’s Plunging Attack, and it’s pretty standard as far as Plunging Attacks go. It’s an aerial plunge that deals AOE DMG when it strikes the ground. Just use it like you would normally.

Elemental Skill: Searing Onslaught

Diluc’s next talent is his Elemental Skill, Searing Onslaught. Searing Onslaught ignites Diluc’s blade as he performs up to three slashes that each deal Pyro DMG. You also don’t have to do all of them at once. You do have a little time between slashes before Diluc’s Skill enters cooldown, meaning you can do all sorts of combos by fitting Diluc’s other attacks in between.

On top of that, the cooldown timer starts when you use his skill the first time, so if you space them out and maximize the time between slashes, you can effectively have no cooldown on Diluc’s skill. You will need to get the timing right, though, as Searing Onslaught will still enter cooldown if you go too long without using it the second or third time. Diluc’s Skill also has no internal cooldown (ICD) with Elemental Reactions, so you can trigger them as much as you want, enabling you to do stuff like frontloading four Vaporize or Melt reactions in a row.

What makes Diluc’s skill particularly great, though, is that it’s fast. Most Claymore users are kind of slow, especially when you compare them to other weapons, so having that extra speed is really nice. You can also take advantage of animation cancels. The reason the Searing Onslaught/Tempered Sword combo is as great as it is is that it can deal an absurd amount of damage in a short period of time, and Elemetal Reactions like Vape or Melt just take it to the next level.

Diluc’s Skill is also useful outside of combat. You can use it to destroy certain obstacles or clear brambles that are blocking chests. It also makes it pretty easy to activate torch puzzles and Pyro totems. Having a giant flaming sword certainly comes in handy.

Elemental Burst: Dawn

Diluc’s final talent is his Elemental Burst, Dawn. When he activates it, it summons a large, fiery phoenix that flies forward and deals Pyro DMG to all foes in its path. Shortly thereafter, it explodes and deals AOE Pyro DMG, in addition to knocking back any enemies that survive. Overall, it can be a great way to group and take out smaller opponents. However, it’s what comes next that really matters.

Following the attack with the phoenix, Diluc’s sword gets infused with Pyro DMG for up to 8 seconds, but what makes this really special is that the infusion sticks around, even when you swap Diluc out. You may only have eight seconds, but this added flexibility gives you access to more rotations and combos. It also means you can swap in certain characters to perform high-damage reactions such as Melt or Vaporize, and Diluc will still have his Pyro infusion when you swap him back in. And once you unlock Diluc’s A4 Passive, Diluc gains a 20% Pyro DMG bonus while his Burst is active. If you pair this with his Normal Attack and Skill, Diluc will be able to deal more damage than ever before.

Weapons

Now that we’re done covering the materials you need to build Diluc and how you can make the most of his talents, it’s time to get into his best weapons. Diluc works well with a variety of weapons, from 5-star Claymores like Wolf’s Gravestone to craftable options like Prototype Archaic. However, each weapon is different, and in some cases, you may need to adjust your playstyle to make the most of it.

5-Star Claymores

The best weapon overall in Genshin Impact for Diluc is probably Wolf’s Gravestone, as it works well with all of his builds. It offers plenty of ATK with a pretty good Base ATK and an ATK% substat. It’s passive boosts that even further, and once your opponents’ HP gets low enough, it boosts ATK even more. With all of that ATK, Diluc can deal quite a bit of damage. And since it’s fairly easy to activate Wolf’s Gravestone’s passive, you get plenty of flexibility in how you play. Consistent levels of high damage are always nice to have. It’s also one of the 5-star weapons on the standard banner, and that permanent availability means there’s a decent chance you’ll get it eventually.

Another good 5-star weapon for Diluc is Redhorn Stonethresher, and if you use it right, it can even outperform Wolf’s Gravestone! It offers CRIT DMG as a substat, and that can lead to some pretty high numbers when it comes to damage. Other than that, its Normal and Charged Attacks scale off of DEF, so as long as it’s properly built, you can get a pretty decent damage boost. However, the catch to using Redhorn Stonethresher is that its Base ATK is relatively low, so you’ll need to use something like Bennett’s Burst to buff your ATK if you want to use it to its full potential. Otherwise, it can fall off pretty quickly.

4-Star Claymores

Even if you don’t have any of Diluc’s 5-star weapons, there are still some solid 4-star options you can use. They’re also easier to refine, so it much easier to max out their passive and make the most of the weapon. Getting to R5 on a 4-star weapon can be worthwhile, as some 4-stars start to outperform 5-stars once you get there. This is optional, but if you have the resources, it can be worthwhile.

Diluc’s best 4-star weapon is Serpent Spine, and on the surface level, it’s pretty similar to Redhorn, though it has a better passive. On top of that, it can also be Diluc’s highest DPS weapon once its level and refinement are fully maxed out and you maintain all five stacks when you use it (compared to Diluc’s R1 5-star weapons). However, Serpent Spine does have one problem, and it’s that you can only get it if you pay for the Battle Pass. So unless you’re already paying for it, you should probably use one of Diluc’s other weapons.

One great option for free-to-play players is Rainslasher, which has a decent Base ATK and has Elemental Mastery as its substat. Since its passive boost DMG to those affected by Hydro (and Electro), it’s perfect for a Vape DPS build. The damage multiplier from EM and the DMG boost from its passive lets you make the most of the Vaporize reaction, and if you have enough Rainslashers, you should really consider refining it, as that’ll take Diluc’s DPS to the next level.

However, if you don’t have any of these weapons, just craft Prototype Archaic. It may not be Diluc’s best weapon, but its high Base ATK, ATK% substat, and the damage boost from its passive make it a great option nonetheless.

Best Artifact Builds for Diluc in Genshin Impact

Regardless of what you’re building Diluc for, the artifact set you’ll want to use for him is Crimson Witch of Flames. With just a two-piece set, you gain a 15% Pyro DMG bonus, which boosts the majority of Diluc’s attacks and combos. However, once you get the four-piece set, you gain all sorts of additional bonuses that really take Diluc’s abilities to the next level. The first part of the four-piece set bonus boosts the damage from a variety of Elemental Reactions, including a 40% boost to Overload, Burn, and Burgeon, and 15% to Vaporize and Melt.

As nice as those abilities are, it’s the second part that really matters. When Diluc uses his Skill with four-piece Crimson Witch, he gets a 50% increase to Crimson Witch’s two-piece bonus, and this ability stacks. With all three stacks, this artifact set gives Diluc a 37.5% Pyro DMG bonus. Diluc’s Elemental Skill is already powerful, but with this, it’s stronger than ever.

Getting the Crimson Witch of Flames artifacts you need can take a while, especially if you’re looking for ones with specific stats, such as sands with ATK% or EM and a circlet with CRIT. While you’re grinding for these artifacts, you can always use Gladiator artifacts in the meantime. It offers a nice ATK boost, and since Diluc is a Claymore user, he can maximize the ATK it offers. For either set, however, you’ll want to use a goblet with Pyro DMG bonus, as this will increase the power of most of Diluc’s attacks.

Artifact Locations

Crimson Witch artifacts can be found by completing the Domains of Blessing at the Hidden Palace of Zhou Formula. As for Gladiator’s Finale, you can get those artifacts from fighting bosses, including Pyro Regisvine, who you have to fight anyways for ascension materials.

Best Team Builds for Diluc in Genshin Impact

Once you’ve built Diluc and properly geared him up, it’s time to decide how you want to use him. Diluc works best as a DPS, and if you want to maximize your damage output in Genshin Impact, you’ll want to make use of builds centered around the Vaporize or Melt reactions. These have an Elemental Mastery-based DMG multiplier that’ll help you get those numbers as high as possible.

Overall, these two builds for Diluc are relatively similar, and if you want, you can just swap out a couple of characters to change up the build (thankfully, rather easy to find a viable substitute in Genshin Impact). One of the advantages of going with a Vaporize DPS build is that you get more flexibility, and it’s a little easier to use. However, a Melt DPS build can also be worthwhile. It requires specific characters and may be harder to use, but if you want to get your damage as high as possible, it’s definitely worth considering.

Here are our team recommendations for Diluc, and how you can make the most of the meta, making marring miscreants much more manageable.

Team Recommendation (Vaporize DPS)

Diluc’s Vaporize team revolves around two characters: Diluc and Xingqiu (Yelan can be used instead). Xingqiu applies Hydro, and Diluc triggers the Vaporize reaction with his Skill. As for the other two characters, it’s honestly up to you. If you want a healer, Kokomi is always a great option, and shielders like Noelle or Zhongli are always great to have.

If you’re not sure who you’d like to use, Bennett and Sucrose are always good characters to have on your team. Bennett offers a nice ATK buff with his Burst, and Sucrose makes it easier to group enemies. They also work well with Melt DPS Diluc, so it makes switching things up simple. However, Diluc and Xingqiu offer plenty of damage through the Vaporize reaction, so have fun with it and just do whatever works for your playstyle when deciding what characters you want to use.

Team Recommendation (Melt DPS)

On the surface level, Diluc’s Melt DPS team functions pretty similarly to a Vape team. It’s made up of Diluc, Bennett, and Sucrose, though instead of Xingqiu, it uses Kaeya to apply Cryo. It does require more out of certain characters, as you’ll need Sucrose to be C2 for it to work well, and you’ll also want constellations for Kaeya and Bennett, even if it is optional. However, if you get some practice in and learn the rotations, it results in Diluc dealing higher amounts of damage overall. So as long as you have the constellations and the characters, it’s definitely worth giving a go.

Join the High Ground

That’s it for our recommendations for Diluc builds in Genshin Impact. Which of these builds would you consider using for Diluc? You can leave any suggestions, comments, or questions below, and feel free to subscribe to our newsletter! We have tons of content, including more on Genshin Impact, so be sure to check it out.

Happy gaming!

Genshin Impact: Diluc Builds Guide

Building a Strong Character: Diluc

Best Diluc Builds in Genshin Impact: The Basics