Welcome to another Genshin Impact guide! Today, we will be discussing Nilou, the newest character release in the first half of update 3.1. Chiefly, we will be talking about how to build Nilou, including her Ascension and Talent Materials/Costs, our thoughts and suggestions on her talent priority, constellations, artifacts, weapons, and team comps. Of course, let us first introduce the character briefly.
Nilou, Titled “Dance of Lotuslight”, is a theatrical performer at the Zubayr Theater. She is a 5-star Hydro Sword user. Her kit does DMG based on HP, her abilities and scalings allow her to serve as a DPS or reaction-enabling character in your teams.
The following paragraphs and images/gifs are subject to change.
A Summary
Using her skill and burst, Nilou does massive Elemental DMG based on her HP. Using HP and Hydro DMG % pieces, players will want to build Nilou using a combination of the Heart of Depth/Gilded Dreams and Tenacity of the Millelith artifact sets. Her best in-slot 5-star weapon is the Key of Hierophany with the best 4-star option being Festering Desire.
Nilou’s Ascension and Talent Costs/ Mats
When Nilou ascends past certain level milestones, she gains a boost in HP% up to a maximum of 28.8%. Thus, leveling Nilou will bring out the best in any build you decide to equip her with.
Nilou’s Ascension Costs
Players will have to have access to large quantities of the Varunada Lazurite. They’ll also have to defeat Floating Fungi to get their Spores, Pollen, or Cyst Dust. Furthermore, Travelers will have to brandish their Dull Blade and defeat the boss, Aeonblight Drake,(coming in 3.1) several times to get the Perpetual Caliber item. Finally, if the Traveler has already completed the Archon Quest, It’ll come off as no surprise that players will also have to gather a bouquet of Padisarah‘s.
Ascension Level | Materials Required | Mora Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Level 20 | x1 Varunada Lazurite Sliver x3 Padisarah x3 Fungal Spores | 20,000 |
| Level 40 | x3 Varunada Lazurite Fragment x2 Perpetual Caliber x10 Padisarah x15 Fungal Spores | 40,000 |
| Level 50 | x6 Varunada Lazurite Fragment x4 Perpetual Caliber x20 Padisarah x12 Luminescent Pollen | 60,000 |
| Level 60 | x3 Varunada Lazurite Chunk x8 Perpetual Caliber x30 Padisarah x18 Luminescent Pollen | 80,000 |
| Level 70 | x6 Varunada Lazurite Chunk x12 Perpetual Caliber x45 Padisarah x12 Crystalline Cyst Dust | 100,000 |
| Level 80 | x6 Varunada Lazurite Gemstone x20 Perpetual Caliber x60 Padisarah x24 Crystalline Cyst Dust | 120,000 |
| Totals | x1 Varunada Lazurite Sliver x9 Varunada Lazurite Fragment x9 Varunada Lazurite Chunk x6 Varunada Lazurite Gemstone x18 Fungal Spores x30 Luminescent Pollen x36 Crystalline Cyst Dust x46 Perpetual Caliber x168 Padisarah | 420,000 |
Nilou’s Talent Upgrade Costs
The following figures only represent the cost of leveling one of Nilou‘s three combat talents. This is an essential part of any build schedule, including Nilou‘s. Players will have to brave the Steeple of Ignorance domain in Sumeru on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and/or Sundays to get the Praxis series. The Tears of the Calamitous God item can be obtained by defeating the Raiden Shogun in battle, weekly.
| Talent Level | Materials Required | Mora Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Level 2 | x3 Teachings of Praxis x6 Fungal Spores | 12,500 |
| Level 3 | x2 Guide to Praxis x3 Luminescent Pollen | 17,500 |
| Level 4 | x4 Guide to Praxis x4 Luminescent Pollen | 25,000 |
| Level 5 | x6 Guide to Praxis x6 Luminescent Pollen | 30,000 |
| Level 6 | x9 Guide to Praxis x9 Luminescent Pollen | 37,500 |
| Level 7 | x4 Philosophies of Praxis x4 Crystalline Cyst Dust x1 Tears of the Calamitous God | 120,000 |
| Level 8 | x6 Philosophies Praxis x6 Crystalline Cyst Dust x1 Tears of the Calamitous God | 260,000 |
| Level 9 | x12 Philosophies of Praxis x9 Crystalline Cyst Dust x2 Tears of the Calamitous God | 450,000 |
| Level 10 | x16 Philosophies of Praxis x12 Crystalline Cyst Dust x2 Tears of the Calamitous God x1 Crown of Insight | 700,000 |
| Totals | x3 Teachings of Praxis x21 Guides of Praxis x38 Philosophies of Praxis x6 Fungal Spores x22 Luminescent Pollen x31 Crystalline Cyst Dust x6 Tears of the Calamitous God x1 Crown of Insight | 1,652,500 |
Nilou’s Talents
Nilou‘s skill infuses her Normal Attacks with Hydro. Her Burst does massive AoE Hydro DMG based on her HP.
Passively, when Nilou cooks Adventure-related food, she has a chance to provide some extra. She also provides an upgrade to the Bloom reaction when her party consists of Dendro and Hydro only. Another passive empowers the already existing Bloom-upgrade passive, buffing its DMG by a certain degree of her HP.
Nilou’s Passive Talents
White Jade Lotus
When Perfect Cooking is achieved on Food with Adventure-related effects, there is a 12% chance to obtain double the product.
Adventure-related foods i.e the ones that give extra stamina or reduce stamina consumption when doing certain activities such as sprinting, climbing, swimming, or gliding.
Court of Dancing Petals
The in-game text was too large, so let us summarise it for you: Firstly, this passive only works when your entire party consists of either Hydro or Dendro characters, but, at least one of each must be present.
Secondly, after performing your 3rd Normal Attack, your active units will gain an effect “Golden Chalice Bounty”, increasing their EM by 60 if they’re attacked with Dendro. Also, replacing the Dendro Cores with Bountiful Cores that explode near instantly dealing more DMG in a larger AoE. Also, note that these cores cannot undergo the subsequent Dendro reactions such as Hyperbloom or Burgeon.
Finally, you may not have more than 5 Bountiful Cores on-field at the same time.
Dreamy Dance of Aeons
Each 1,000 points of Nilou’s Max HP above 30,000 will cause the DMG dealt by Bountiful Cores created by characters affected by Golden Chalice’s Bounty to increase by 7%.
The maximum increase in Bountiful Core DMG that can be achieved this way is 300%.
This passive further incentivizes using Hydro x Dendro-only teams. To put it into perspective, a 5000HP increase can provide 35% extra DMG.
Nilou’s Normal Attack
Dance of Samser
Nilou‘s Normal attacks perform 3 consecutive strikes while her Charged attacks consume stamina to perform a stronger slash.
This ability doesn’t need to be upgraded when building Nilou, but the player may indulge based on their preferences.
Nilou’s Elemental Skill
Dance of Haftkarsvar
Putting it simply, When the ability is unleashed, Hydro DMG is dealt to all enemies that are nearby. Then, the player can proceed to unleash powerful Normal attacks that are Hydro Infused. Sometimes, Nilou‘s attacks can create an aura around her that applies Wet to your opponents within an AoE.
In-depth explanation:
Firstly, when activating her skill, Nilou enters the Pirouette state, dealing Hydro DMG to nearby enemies. When Nilou attacks while in the Pirouette state, she enters the Sword Dance and Whirling Steps stances, respectively.
Pause. Let’s discuss this further. Essentially, Nilou has stances within her stances. When you use her skill for the first time, attacking enemies will activate the Sword Dance stance. After this expires, or Nilou leaves the field, using her skill again will activate the Whirling Steps stance.
When Nilou uses her third attack while within her Sword Dance stance, the Pirouette state is removed and Nilou deals an upwards slash, Luminous Illusion, that travels forward for a bit and deals Hydro DMG to all opponents it touches. After this has happened, Nilou is granted the Lunar Prayer effect that converts her normal attacks BACK into Sword Dance techniques, recursively allowing the player to stay in the Sword Dance stance. Do note, however, that this recursive Lunar Prayer effect lasts for 8s only, meaning, she can only unleash her Sword Dance techniques for as long as Lunar Prayer is active.
When Nilou uses her third attack while in her Whirling Steps stance, she unleashes the Water Wheel attack and surrounds herself (and other party members) with a Tranquility Aura that applies Wet to enemies.
Now, if you were crazy enough to read all that, one final thing. Her Skills DMG depends entirely on her HP.
Nilou’s Elemental Burst
Dance of Abzendegi: Distant Dreams, Listening Spring
This one’s pretty simple (and I’m only saying that because the skill was a mess). Upon activation, Nilou deals massive AoE Hydro DMG based on her HP. The opponents not yet annihilated are affected by Lingering Aeon. These opponents are punished severely and are dealt another wave(haha) of Hydro DMG.
The ability has a cost of 70, a cooldown of 18s, and, at Lv8 deals 29.49% HP as DMG with an additional 36.04% HP being Lingering Aeon DMG.
Is Nilou like Childe?
No, she is not. Nilou’s stance change is much more complicated than Childe‘s:
- Childe users can stay for as long as they wish (below 30s) inside of his Melee stance. While Nilou has a noticeable time limit.
- Nilou‘s stance change has two subsequent steps/stances/states. Each deals DMG differently and is dependent on which one was used before unleashing her Skill. On the other hand, Childe has just one stance change, Ranged to Melee.
- Childe scales off ATK, Nilou on HP.
- Childe‘s kit uniquely makes use of Riptide to deal DMG in different scenarios. Nilou does not have anything like this.
- Nilou affects enemies with Lingerin Aeon that does extra DMG 100% of the time. Childe‘s Melee burst Riptide Blast only when the enemies is inflicted with Riptide .
Nilou’s Constellations
A brief note is necessary here.. C0 Nilou is an amazing unit. Please do not feel forced to roll for a character’s constellations. They are nice to have and can boost the effectiveness of a character but aren’t worth spending real-world currency on unless you have a large reserve of expendable income.
However, if you do end up getting more constellations, congratulations! Let us get you familiar with Nilou‘s Stella Fortuna.
Nilou‘s constellations are very, very good. Increasing your Skill DMG at c1 and Burst DMG at c4, reducing the enemy’s resistance to certain elements at c2, and even providing a massive CRIT Rate/DMG boost at c6.
Constellation Lv.1
Dance of the Waning Moon
Dance of the Seven Realms = Dance of Haftkarsvar (E Ability) Water moon = Luminous Illusion (Sword Dance third attack)
Upon activation, Nilou does 65% more DMG when unleashing her third attack while in Sword Dance stance.
Constellation Lv.2
The Starry Skies Their Flowers Rain
Upon activation, dealing Hydro DMG to opponents reduces their resistance to Hydro by 35%. When opponents take DMG from Bloom reactions, their Dendro resistance is reduced by 35%. Both resistance reductions last for 10s and require the “Court of Dancing Petals” passive to be unlocked
Constellation Lv.3 + Lv.5
Beguiling Shadowstep + Twirling Light
These two constellations buff the Skill and Burst talent level of every character in the Genshin world. Usually, Lv.3 upgrades the Skill, and Lv.5, the burst. In Nilou‘s case, this is reversed. This is a very important detail to note when pulling for Nilou‘s constellations.
Constellation Lv.4
Fricative Pulse
When Nilou uses her Skill and completes her attack sequence, she gains a 15 Energy and 50% burst DMG bonus.
Constellation Lv.6
Frostbreaker’s Melody
This is an incredible upgrade. As an example, equipping Nilou with 40,000 HP would give her 40 x 0.6 = 24% CRIT Rate and 40 x 1.2 = 48% CRIT DMG, additionally.
Nilou’s Best Artifact Sets
To make use of her DPS capabilities, you’ll want as much HP on Nilou as possible. Thus, the 2-piece Tenacity of the Millelith set is a good build option for Nilou. The 2-piece Heart of Depth and 4-piece Gilded Dreams sets are viable as well.
Universally, you can go for the Gladiator’s Finale or Shimenawa’s Reminiscence for a temporary ATK boost if you do not have the desired sets.
Tenacity of the Millelith
The 2-piece HP boost is the main focal point of this set. We recommend pairing it up with the 2-piece Heart of Depth set when deciding what to build Nilou with.
Gilded Dreams
If the Traveler decides to use Nilou in a team that makes use of her Bountiful Cores, this is the set for them. The initial 80 EM increase plus an additional 50 for every Dendro character will empower your Bloom DMG like nobody’s business. A 14% ATK buff is also given to your party for every other Hydro character. We will discuss this set further in the team’s section of the article.
Heart of Depth
The two-piece effect, paired with the Tenacity 2-piece bonuses will produce a deadly build combination for Nilou. If you do not have good Gilded Dreams pieces, we highly recommend going for this build on Nilou.
Of course, since we are merely building upon information based on leaks, these sentences are marked for potential updates.
Nilou’s Best Stats on Artifact Sets
As shown, stacking as much HP on Nilou as possible will increase her DMG. That means HP on circlet, sands, and goblet can be your go-to stats.
The recommended stats, however, would make use of both HP stacking and CRIT. So, we recommend a CRIT Rate/DMG circlet, a Hydro DMG goblet, along with HP sands build for Nilou.
Nilou’s Best Weapons
Nilou has a tonne of good weapon options. With the Key of Hierophany being her signature 5-star weapon. Primordial Jade Cutter, Mistsplitter Reforged, Haran Geppaku Futsu, Festering Desire, Sapwood Blade, The Black Sword, and, Cool Steel are all viable options. However, for the sake of readability, we will only be discussing a few of these options.
Key of Hierophany
Nilou‘s signature sword massively increases HP and Elemental Mastery based on her HP. This weapon also allows Nilou to increase her team-mate’s EM by a certain %age of her own HP.
Festering Desire
Some players may not have access to this limited-time event weapon. Either way, we recommend anyone who has this blade sheathed to quickly level it up and equip Nilou with it.
Sapwood Blade
After triggering Burning, Quicken, Aggravate, Spread, Bloom, Hyperbloom, or Burgeon, a Leaf of Consciousness will be created around the character for a maximum of 10s. When picked up, the Leaf will grant the character 60 Elemental Mastery for 12s. Only 1 Leaf can be generated this way every 20s. This effect can still be triggered if the character is not on the field. The Leaf of Consciousness’ effect cannot stack.
The newest f2p-friendly, craftable weapon introduced in 3.0 along with Sumeru is also a good option for Nilou. This weapon will work best with teams based around the “Court of Dancing Petals” passive.
Cool Steel
If you are a newer player, then this weapon should serve your Nilou faithfully. At Lv.90, the ATK% goes up to 35.2% and the Base ATK reaches 401.
Nilou’s Best Teams
Nilou can serve as the DPS character in your teams.
Players can make use of Candace, whose burst provides a 20% normal attack buff to your active character. In this team, Collei and Dendro Traveler are welcome teammates. Both of these characters can apply Dendro from off-field, aiding Candace or Nilou to proc the Bloom reaction and producing Bountiful Cores that can deal massive DMG based on Nilou‘s Elemental Mastery. Furthermore, equipping Nilou with Gilded Dreams and Collei/Traveller with Deepwood Memories can maximize this team’s DMG output.
Players may also replace Candace with Barbara or Xingqiu. The former character’s c2 can provide Nilou with a 15% Hydro DMG bonus. While the latter is a Hydro DPS machine who can reduce opponents Hydro Res by 15% with his c2. If you’re using both of these characters with Nilou, you may equip Barbara with Deepwood Memories and Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers at r5 to buff Xingqiu‘s DMG and reduce opponents Dendro Res by 30%. Your 4th character can be Collei/Traveler to proc Bloom from off-field.
Both of these teams can help maximize Nilou‘s skill and passive DMG.
Please, go ahead and don’t be afraid to innovate and come up with your team. The examples we include in our articles are just our thoughts and recommendations!
We will be sure to update this section of the article when we have more information!
Conclusion
That’s it from me, everyone! Be sure to be vocal about any mistakes I may have made in the comments section, also, give your thoughts on Sumeru and Nilou there!
