Updated for Version 3.4

Credit to yai_sea_ball on IG!

“The name’s Shikanoin Heizou, the sharpest and most successful detective of the Tenryou Commission… Ooh, my goodness, life’s really put you through the wringer recently, hasn’t it? I can tell. Here, why don’t you take a seat, tell me the whole story.”

Glossary

Introduction

Heizou is a 4* Anemo Catalyst whose flexibility allows him to fulfill various roles as an on-field driver or a supportive quickswap DPS. Though Heizou is often overshadowed by his highly popular 5* Anemo boy counterparts, he possesses a highly unique and effective kit making him a strong addition to many rosters. Whether it be detective work or practical gameplay, knowledge is power; this guide seeks to instruct players on how to best optimize Heizou’s kit.

Pros

• Much more accessible as a 4* character compared to his mainly 5* competition
• Capable quickswap DPS unit, with a strong Elemental Skill
• Great as a driver due to to his fluid attack combos and low stamina cost Charged Attack 
• Strong on-field Anemo application enables high rate of reactions 
• Being an Anemo Catalyst user enables strong support artifact/weapon options—such as 4VV and TTDS
• Versatile build options as he can utilize both CRIT and EM builds effectively
• 4th Ascension Passive—Penetrative Reasoning—provides a simple yet potent EM buff to his teammates 
• Constellations can be significant, but are not necessary to play Heizou 
• You can punch enemies out of their ability to live

Cons

• Faces stiff competition from fellow Anemo units, namely Kazuha and Sucrose, who can offer stronger buffs and/or utility in comparison
• Does not have the liberty of Sucrose’s range as an on-field driver 
• Weak grouping even with C2
• Wants Constellations and/or higher levels of investment for more offensive builds
• Weak Normal Attack scaling

Talents

Talent Priority

Quickswap: E > Q > NA
Driver: E > NA > Q

Constellations

Preface:
Heizou’s Constellations are not needed when using him as a quickswap Viridescent Venerer support or as a Swirl driver, and he is fully functional at C0. However, they do improve his personal damage significantly, increasing his value on ADC builds, and provide other utility that can be valuable at times. The raw DPS value of some of his Constellations can therefore be hard to evaluate, due to their importance varying on both his team and the content faced.

Quickswap or Driver

Heizou’s two primary and most effective playstyles are Quickswap and Driver. Let’s dive into how each playstyle works and how to use his kit for each.

Quickswap

Quickswap Heizou swaps in to apply relevant buffs and deal a significant amount of damage with his Talents, then swaps out to allow other units to deal the majority of the team’s damage. In this case, you’ll almost always go with an Attack Damage CRIT build (ADC), which includes an Attack Sands, Anemo Goblet, and CRIT Rate/DMG Circlet. The goal of the quickswap playstyle is to use Heizou’s skill with maximum Declension stacks and then quickly swap off.

There are two combos to get Heizou to max stacks: N1CQE (N1QE for C1 and above) and 2N1CE (N1CE for C1 and above). The former is preferable when his Burst is available, while the latter is preferable when it is not. It can also be beneficial to use Heizou’s Skill earlier in the combo so that he can collect the particles it generates more easily—however, if you do use his Skill earlier in the combo, make sure to consistently use it earlier in subsequent rotations. If Heizou is used alongside characters whose effects trigger on using Normal Attacks (e.g. Xingqiu, Yelan), these combos can be further optimized by weaving N1s between various parts of the combo. The given combos will generally not give Heizou max stacks for his first Skill use in a chamber. To remedy this, you can perform a Normal Attack directly after the Burst to achieve max stacks; however, performing a full N1C combo after the Burst may prove more reliable. Alternatively, you may choose to proceed with the rotation without max stacks on your first combo, as it is typically not vital to clearing.

Driver

Heizou as a driver uses his high rate of on-field Anemo application to trigger both Hydro and Electro Swirls in an Electro-Charged team, allowing him to trigger significant Electro-Charged reaction damage. For artifacts, it is recommended to run triple EM (Sands, Goblet, Circlet) to maximize Swirl and Electro-Charged damage. 

While combos are not needed for this playstyle and will usually depend on the rotation, N4C is the most effective and should be used for Electro-Charged teams due to its high Swirl rate and reasonably good value for driving off-field units. If Heizou is being used with Beidou, N2D becomes the most optimal if maximizing Stormbreaker triggers. If a shorter combo is necessary in situations where rotation timing is tight, N2C can also be used and is similar to N4C in performance.

Summary Table

The combos below do not give maximum stacks on the first rotation. Players can perform the first rotation without maximum stacks, or perform an extra NA after Burst to fully stack his Skill

Playstyle:	Quickswap	Driver
Artifact Main Stats:	ATK/Anemo/CRIT	EM/EM/EM
Optimal Combos:	C0: With Burst: N1CQE Without Burst: 2N1CE C1+ With Burst: N1QE Without Burst: N1CE	Overall Best: N4C With Beidou: N2D Shorter Combo: N2C

Artifacts

Heizou’s stat requirements vary depending on his build and are discussed in the section above. His ER requirements also vary depending on the team, and it is best to use Zakharov’s Energy Recharge Calculator for a more accurate value. However, a rough estimate of Heizou’s ER requirements can be found in the table below.

Conditions		C0-C3	C4+
Quickswap	1 Skill per Burst	>200%	160-170%
	2 Skills per Burst	120-130%	100%
Driver	1 Skill per Burst	170-180%	130-140%
	2 Skills per Burst	100-110%	100%

Assumptions:
KQMC standards for substat distribution and weapons
1 Level 100 10% enemy resistance
Primary weapon used is R3 Mappa Mare 
Level 90 Bennett with 4p NO and Pyro resonance

Weapons

Heizou has a plethora of weapons at his disposal, some of which increase personal damage, while others increase team damage. What kind of weapon he prefers varies based on multiple factors, including but not limited to his teammates, investment, and Constellations unlocked.

For a quickswap playstyle, Heizou will almost always prefer supportive weapons at lower investments. TTDS is the prime candidate for this, particularly if only one teammate is contributing most of the team’s damage. However, at higher investments and Constellations, this gap tends to close—choosing Heizou’s weapon to benefit his personal damage becomes much more viable and often equally competitive. 

As a reaction-based EM driver, Heizou will generally almost always use supportive weapon choices such as Hakushin Ring, Prototype Amber or TTDS. This is due to the weapon stats being much less relevant due to a large part of Heizou’s damage coming from reactions, making buffing teammates more effective. Nonetheless, weapons with EM substats will still tend to serve him well.

ADC

Assumptions:
KQMC standards for substat distribution
Calculated with the combo N1CQE > 2N1C E, with both skills having 4 Declension stacks
Buffed calcs assume +1071 Flat Attack and +20% ATK on N1CQE attack string, with a flat +25% ATK across all attack strings from Pyro Resonance
The Widsith is averaged based on the different note buffs and buff scenarios across 3 rotations

EM

EM builds focus primarily on EM stats. Hence, the weapons are mainly gauged by the amount of EM stat value they supply, as well as their accessibility and—if applicable—other benefits such as buffs.

Weapon Name	Notes
R1 Sacrificial Fragments	Sacrificial Fragments is Heizou’s best option as it has the highest 4-star EM substat in the game—the primary stat that EM Heizou builds want. Its passive also provides Heizou with additional AoE Swirls, which is a nice bonus to his personal damage in multi-target situations.
R1-5 Magic Guide	A decent option should players not have the aforementioned catalyst at their disposal. Whilst its passive does not affect Swirl damage, this 3-star weapon still supplies a rather high amount of EM for Heizou.
R1 Mappa Mare	Provides less EM than Magic Guide but is a largely more versatile weapon option should players want to tap into his ADC build, where Mappa Mare performs well in. However, do not craft this weapon if you’re only looking to play Heizou in EM builds as Magic Guide is a cheaper yet more accessible option.

Support

Support weapons are NOT ranked in the table. Rather, the table should be looked at as a list of weapon options for Heizou as a support for players to pick from given the positives and negatives of using each of the weapons.

Weapon Name	Notes
R5 Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers	A low-investment option with an extremely potent ATK buff of 48%, albeit only for one team member. Since the weapon passive limits the flexibility of rotations in order to be optimally utilized, it is most advisable to run this weapon when playing an already rotation-strict team to pass the buff effectively while the rotation remains fluid.
R5 Hakushin Ring	A potent weapon option that shines best in the Electro-Charged team archetype as it can buff both Electro and Hydro party members. This is owed to a strong multi-character buff with a flexible trigger condition past the initial set-up.
R5 Prototype Amber	For teams without healers, Prototype Amber has a unique passive that aids healer-less teams with micro-heals, in addition to managing his ER requirements when Heizou can only manage to use one Skill per Burst. In longer rotations, Prototype Amber can also enable 2 Bursts per rotation with the high reduction in ER requirements from its passive. Do note that the value of the Energy refund is diminished should the player have his C4, which already provides a large reduction to his ER requirements.

Heizou vs Sucrose vs Kazuha

As an Anemo Catalyst user with an EM buff from his A4, it is difficult to talk about Heizou’s teams and use cases without discussing how he compares to other popular Anemo buffers—particularly Sucrose and, to a lesser extent, Kazuha too. It is worth noting that despite their strengths and shortcomings over each other, Anemo buffers are generally invaluable; having multiple of them is always advantageous.

Sucrose

In summary, Heizou mostly serves as a sidegrade to Sucrose. The table below summarizes the differences between them. However, it is recommended to read the write-up below for a more comprehensive analysis.

Heizou	Sucrose
This table is a summary which does not cover all the nuances between the two units
Quickswap
Higher personal damage Burst grouping is meager, but consistent Burst is cheaper with a lower cooldown, and thus easier to consistently use Burst does not interfere with reactions in teams using Amplifying Reactions Does not have any bugs with N1 Both units are mostly equal, Heizou is significantly better for Freeze teams	Stronger EM buff Burst has strong grouping potential, but can also anti-group some mobs Range can help make some VV setups much easier Unrivaled battery potential Can Guoba Swirl Both units are mostly equal, Sucrose is better in teams using Catalyze and most Xiangling teams
Driver
More fluid Normals let him drive Beidou better Less Stamina intensive Charged Attack Higher poise Overall, mostly equal	Range means Sucrose is less likely to miss Charged Attack has noticeably more AoE than Heizou Burst has strong grouping potential, but can also anti-group some mobs Overall, mostly equal

As a quickswap VV support, Sucrose’s main advantages are her lower field time and much larger buff when invested in. However, in numerous team compositions, Heizou compensates for this with his own personal damage.

There are a few nuances to using Sucrose, namely: 

• Sucrose’s Burst has a much stronger grouping capacity than Heizou’s. However, its higher Burst cost and low uptime makes it relatively inaccessible, its Elemental Absorption inconsistency can often mess with a team’s reactions, and it can also anti-group certain enemies with lower Interruption Resistance such as Bathysmal Vishaps. 
• Sucrose’s Elemental Skill possesses the ability to Swirl Pyro off of Xiangling’s Guoba—enabling her to execute certain Pyro VV setups in situations that Heizou would not be able to replicate. More information on this interaction can be found on the Xiangling Guide.
• Though preventable through only entering precise inputs, Sucrose’s N1 is bugged to occasionally completely disappear, which can sometimes cause issues. On the flipside, her range makes some VV setups which rely on Normal Attacks much easier.
• Finally, compared to Heizou, Sucrose has unrivaled battery potential for units like Xiao.

Overall, Sucrose will generally be a slightly better choice in teams using Amplifying and especially Additive Reactions due to her advantages. That said, it can vary in reality, with the difference often depending on the team, and also the investment levels of not only Heizou and Sucrose but also their teammates. One exception to this is in Xiangling teams, where Guoba Swirls give Sucrose an uncontested advantage. While Heizou is an undeniable step up from Sucrose in Freeze teams, serving as a strong low rarity Anemo option, other units often outdo both Heizou and Sucrose in this role. 

As an on-field EM driver, they are still mostly comparable with only minor playstyle differences between them. Heizou’s Normal Attack strings are mostly more fluid, while possessing a lower Stamina cost Charged Attack—this enables him to drive units like Beidou slightly better without difficult combos, while also being less Stamina-intensive. That said, Sucrose’s range can allow her to be a better option in practice as players would not need to worry about missing her Normal Attacks. Furthermore, her AoE on her Charged Attacks in combination with her Burst capacitates her to trigger more Reactions in certain situations.

Kazuha

Heizou	Kazuha
This table is a summary which does not cover all the nuances between the two units
Comparison
Burst does not interfere with reactions Is much less contested than Kazuha Is a better driver than Kazuha Usually worse, competitive and mostly simpler to use on teams using Amplifying Reactions	Stronger grouping Generally stronger buff Burst can enable reactions in some teams Benefits more from chain reactions due to building EM Typically the better option

Sample Team Compositions

It is worth noting that due to Heizou’s personal damage, buffs, and further supportive capabilities through VV and potentially his weapon choice, he is extremely versatile and can fit on a wide variety of teams. The following list of archetypes is not exhaustive. Instead, they are meant to illustrate some of the teams Heizou fits most comfortably in and how he can be used.

(Faded characters have further caveats for their use)
The top left of Yanfei’s icon indicates what her role is; the sword implies that she’s an on-field DPS while the shield means she’s built as a shield bot—Yanfei can only fulfill this role at C4+.

Closing Thoughts

Thank you for reading this guide! I hope it has solved the mysteries of our favorite detective so that you can use him to his fullest potential. While he might share a role with his supportive Anemo brethren, Heizou more than differentiates himself with his unique kit and it was a pleasure to delve into it. For any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me at Cuzimori#1535.

-Cuzi

Funny-punchy man actually kinda pog

-Luno

Acknowledgements

For their work as authors of this guide:
ultimate.noob, Luno#1337, sexyeboy69#2687, Cuzimori#1535

For providing calculations for Heizou, a special thanks to:
Luno#1337, Aftermath#7658, Rare Possum#0511, Prévisible#7440, ultimate.noob

For their assistance in editing the guide into its final, polished form, thanks to:
Aftermath#7658, Latiwings#3308, Seima#4597, Leah, euphorysm#1618, pweep#0150, juko#9358, acie#1290, koko#1111, Halleyscomet08#8285, idkanonymized#4166

For transcribing the guide, thanks to:
pai#3602

And further thanks to everyone in KQM for making this guide possible!

Calculations Repository

Heizou Unbuffed Weapon Calcs
Heizou Buffed Weapon Calcs
Ultimate Noob’s Heizou Artifact Calcs