Updated for Version 3.2
Nahida is a 5* Dendro Catalyst character who provides consistent and frequent Dendro application and damage both on-field and off-field, with a heavy focus on Dendro Elemental Reactions.
More extensive testing is in progress. Note that the information given is subject to change if new discoveries are made.
Join our Discord to check on and participate in the theorycrafting process. Visit #nahida-yoimiya-help for questions and #tc-nahida-layla (grab the theorycrafting role from #theory-readme) to help with theorycrafting.
Table of Contents
Playstyles
Off-Field Focus
Relies on the Tri-Karma Purification from Nahida’s Skill to periodically apply Dendro while a damage-dealer or driver is on-field.
On-Field Focus
Uses Nahida’s Normal Attacks, Charged Attacks, and Tri-Karma Purification from her Skill to constantly apply Dendro and trigger/enable reactions.
Character Overview
Talent Priority
Level 90 is recommended to maximize Nahida’s reaction damage in teams where she triggers a lot of reactions.
Skill > Burst > Normal Attack
Most of Nahida’s damage comes from her Skill and reactions. Upgrading Nahida’s Normal Attacks is only recommended if using her on-field, and even then, she does not deal a significant amount of damage with them.
While her Burst is important, its value and the value of Talent levels for it can vary significantly based on the team she is used in. This is detailed further below in the Elemental Burst section.
Talents
Normal Attack | Akara
Talent Description
Normal Attack
Performs up to 4 attacks that deal Dendro DMG to opponents in front of her.
Charged Attack
Consumes a certain amount of Stamina to deal AoE Dendro DMG to opponents in front of her after a short casting time
Plunging Attack
Calling upon the might of Dendro, Nahida plunges towards the ground from mid-air, damaging all opponents in her path. Deals AoE Dendro DMG upon impact with the ground.
Nahida’s Normal and Charged Attacks are used primarily for their high-frequency Dendro application. Outside of triggering reactions, their raw damage is negligible. As with most characters, her Normal and Charged Attacks have different ICDs.
Elemental Skill | All Schemes to Know
Talent Description
Sends forth karmic bonds of wood and tree from her side, dealing AoE Dendro DMG and marking up to 8 opponents hit with the Seed of Skandha.
When held, this skill will trigger differently.
Hold
Enters Aiming Mode, which will allow you to select a limited number of opponents within a limited area. During this time, Nahida’s resistance to interruption will be increased.
When released, this skill deals Dendro DMG to these opponents and marks them with the Seed of Skandha.
Aiming Mode will last up to 5s and can select a maximum of 8 opponents.
Seed of Skandha
Opponents who have been marked by the Seed of Skandha will be linked to one another up till a certain distance.
After you trigger Elemental Reactions on opponents who are affected by the Seeds of Skandha or when they take DMG from Dendro Cores (including Burgeon and Hyperbloom DMG), Nahida will unleash Tri-Karma Purification on the opponents and all connected opponents, dealing Dendro DMG based on her ATK and Elemental Mastery.
You can trigger at most 1 Tri-Karma Purification within a short period of time.
Nahida’s main source of damage, only source of off-field Dendro application, and another source of on-field Dendro application. Tri-Karma Purification (TKP) has no ICD and can proc as often as once every 2.5 seconds at base. Nahida only generates particles from her TKP procs; the Energy generation can occur every 7 seconds and makes 3 particles each time.
The range of the Tap variant is a small circle around Nahida, while the range of the Hold variant spans across all enemies marked while in aiming mode. Enemies can be marked extremely quickly simply by panning the camera onto them while the Skill is held.
Elemental Burst | Illusory Heart
Talent Description
Manifests the Court of Dreams and expands the Shrine of Maya.
When the Shrine of Maya field is unleashed, the following effects will be separately unleashed based on the Elemental Types present within the party.
- Pyro: While Nahida remains within the Shrine of Maya, the DMG dealt by Tri-Karma Purification from “All Schemes to Know” is increased.
- Electro: While Nahida remains within the Shrine of Maya, the interval between each Tri-Karma Purification from “All Schemes to Know” is decreased.
- Hydro: The Shrine of Maya’s duration is increased.
If there are at least 2 party members of the aforementioned Elemental Types present when the field is deployed, the aforementioned effects will be increased further. Even if Nahida is not on the field, these bonuses will still take effect so long as party members are within the Shrine of Maya.
Nahida’s Elemental Burst creates a very large AoE field and grants buffs to Nahida’s Tri-Karma Purification and the Burst itself depending on the current elements in the party. Nahida’s Burst costs 50 Energy, a 13.5s CD and a 15s base duration; this allows her to maintain full uptime on her Burst if needed.
The value of Nahida’s Elemental Burst depends largely on the team she’s being used in. There are two situations where her Burst provides notable value:
- In teams where the on-field unit benefits from Nahida’s A1 EM buff; and/or
- In teams with one or more Electro units, where the decrease in her Skill’s trigger interval actually makes a difference to the amount of reactions triggered.
Outside of these two situations, it is possible that her Burst may not provide much value and may not be worth using or investing in. However, this idea is subject to change, as further testing and calculations are needed.
For example, in a Burgeon team, Nahida’s Burst seems to provide minimal value because the Burgeon trigger (usually Thoma or Xiangling) will usually be off-field and thus will not receive the benefit of the A1 buff. Additionally, the damage buff to Nahida’s TKPs from her Burst as a result of having a Pyro unit in the team is probably not very significant to overall team DPS.
In a Hyperbloom team in single-target where Nahida is on-field and can maintain Dendro aura on her own, neither the A1 buff nor the increased TKP trigger rate provide much value since Nahida is not triggering reactions and the faster Dendro application is not needed. Conversely, in multi-target when driver Nahida is paired with Xingqiu/Yelan, the A1 buff and increased TKP proc rate may be valuable because Nahida may be triggering Spreads on the non-primary target(s).
If Nahida is off-field in a Hyperbloom team, the increased TKP trigger rate may allow for more Hyperblooms to be triggered, and the extension of her Burst due to having a Hydro unit in the team would allow Nahida to gain this buff for longer.
Ultimately, the benefit of her Burst is highly context-dependent and requires more investigation.
Ascension 1 Passive | Compassion Illuminated
Talent Description
When unleashing Illusory Heart, the Shrine of Maya will gain the following effects:
The Elemental Mastery of the active character within the field will be increased by 25% of the Elemental Mastery of the party member with the highest Elemental Mastery.
You can gain a maximum of 250 Elemental Mastery in this manner.
Provides a sizable EM buff to the on-field character, including Nahida herself if she is the character on-field. This is particularly valuable if the on-field character is triggering reactions, or has talents that benefit from EM such as Nahida’s own Skill and A4. It is worth noting that the buff is based on the character with the highest EM on the party, which might not necessarily be Nahida.
Flat EM from external sources—such as weapons, 4pc Instructors, and flat EM character buffs such as Albedo’s A4 Passive—are included in this EM share. However EM share based on a percentage, such as Sucrose’s A4 Passive, are not.
Ascension 4 Passive | Awakening Elucidated
Talent Description
Each point of Nahida’s Elemental Mastery beyond 200 will grant 0.1% Bonus DMG and 0.03% CRIT Rate to Tri-Karma Purification from All Schemes to Know.
A maximum of 80% Bonus DMG and 24% CRIT Rate can be granted to Tri-Karma Purification in this manner.
A significant stat boost for Nahida that further incentivizes building EM. All EM from external sources is included in this buff.
Utility Passive | On All Things Meditated
Nahida can use All Schemes to Know to interact with some harvestable items within a fixed AoE.
This skill may even have some other effects…
Constellations
When the Shrine of Maya is unleashed and the Elemental Types of the party members are being tabulated, the count will add 1 to the number of Pyro, Electro, and Hydro characters respectively.
Can result in a longer Burst duration, and more damage and Dendro application, but its overall performance varies largely based on Nahida’s team..
Opponents that are marked by Seeds of Skandha applied by Nahida herself will be affected by the following effects:
- Burning, Bloom, Hyperbloom, and Burgeon Reaction DMG can score CRIT Hits. CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG are fixed at 20% and 100% respectively.
- Within 8s of being affected by Quicken, Aggravate, Spread, DEF is decreased by 30%.
Extremely significant damage increase for all of Nahida’s teams. A good point to stop at if wishing for Constellations.
Increases the Level of All Schemes to Know by 3.
Maximum upgrade level is 15.
While at first seemingly a substantial boost to Nahida’s main damage source, due to her best teams utilizing Spread and Bloom, this Constellation becomes less relevant as it only increases Talent multipliers and not reaction damage.
When 1/2/3/(4 or more) nearby opponents are affected by All Schemes to Know‘s Seeds of Skandha, Nahida’s Elemental Mastery will be increased by 100/120/140/160.
Sizeable reaction damage increase that also provides some stat leniency by making it easier to achieve the recommended EM benchmark of around 1000 EM. See the Artifacts section for details.
Increases the Level of Illusory Heart by 3.
Maximum upgrade level is 15.
Negligible damage and/or quality-of-life increase depending on Nahida’s teams and teammates’ Elements.
When Nahida hits an opponent affected by All Schemes to Know‘s Seeds of Skandha with Normal or Charged Attacks after unleashing Illusory Heart, she will use Tri-Karma Purification: Karmic Oblivion on this opponent and all connected opponents, dealing Dendro DMG based on 200% of Nahida’s ATK and 400% of her Elemental Mastery.
DMG dealt by Tri-Karma Purification: Karmic Oblivion is considered Elemental Skill DMG and can be triggered once every 0.2s.
This effect can last up to 10s and will be removed after Nahida has unleashed 6 instances of Tri-Karma Purification: Karmic Oblivion.
Grants Nahida excellent frontloaded AoE damage that results in a massive increase in Nahida’s personal damage. However, because Nahida is generally not a large portion of her teams’ damage, the actual increase in team damage is not nearly as significant.
Therefore, taking full advantage of C6 may require Nahida’s teams or even playstyle to be changed.
Combos
Note: See the Elemental Burst tab in the Talents section for information on the value of using Nahida’s Burst.
Off-Field Focus
Off-field Nahida simply casts Skill into Burst before promptly exiting the field. In quickswap teams, Nahida can also swap in more frequently to recast her Skill for higher Dendro application.
On-Field Focus
On-field Nahida’s main goal is to apply as much Dendro as possible with her Attack string while also driving the rest of the team.
Most rotations typically start with Skill into Burst, followed by some sequence of Normal Attacks. Mixing in Charged Attacks may yield slightly more AoE Dendro application, but is more stamina-intensive.
A second cast of her Skill can be used for additional Dendro application during her field-time.
Artifacts
ER Requirements
These numbers are approximate; ER requirements will vary depending on team and context. For a more accurate estimate of your ER requirements, use Zakharov’s Energy Recharge Calculator. Moreover, general ER recommendations may change as Nahida’s best teams and rotations are further experimented with.
| Situation | Off-field | On-field |
|---|---|---|
| Aggravate, Double Electro | ~100-120% | ~100-120% |
| Double Dendro | ~120-140% | N/A |
| Bloom (Solo Dendro) | N/A | 120-140% |
| Hyperbloom/Quickbloom | ~130-140% | 100-120% |
| Burgeon | ~140-160% | 130-140% |
Note: ER requirements may be lower if using batteries (such as Fischl and Raiden) or a second Dendro unit, funneling teammates’ particles, running Favonius/Sacrificial weapons, etc. ER requirements may increase dramatically if forcing Nahida to Burst off cooldown; however, this is generally rare in most of her teams.
Artifact Stats
 Sands |  Goblet |  Circlet |
| EM | EM or Dendro DMG Bonus | EM or CRIT |
Nahida’s stat requirements heavily depend on the team and role she is used in. These can be broadly divided into three categories: off-field, on-field, and Nilou Bloom teams.
Off-field:
ER until requirement > 900-1000 EM > Dendro DMG% Bonus > CRIT > EM
In an off-field role, Nahida’s damage almost entirely revolves around her Skill alongside her support capabilities from her A1, potentially boosted by Spread. This puts a high emphasis on building EM until she reaches about 900-1000 in it, including EM provided by external buffs. Once she has met this value, stats such as DMG% and CRIT become more valuable.
On-field:
ER until requirement > Dendro DMG% Bonus ≥ CRIT ≥ EM > ATK%
On-field Nahida also incorporates Normals to her damage profile alongside her Skill — as her Normals do not scale off of EM, this slightly devalues the stat.
Furthermore, on-field Nahida typically does not trigger many reactions, or tends to trigger Spread, which scales off of DMG% and CRIT.
Finally, on-field Nahida benefits from her own A1 Passive, providing her with further EM; this is particularly notable if another unit is the source of EM share over Nahida. All this tends to make her prefer DMG% and CRIT — that said, Elemental Mastery is still valuable even in such a build.
Nilou Bloom:
ER until requirement > EM >> DMG% > CRIT
If in a Nilou Bloom team where Nahida can trigger Blooms, it is worthwhile to build EM on Nahida even past the typical 1000 EM benchmark.
Artifact Sets
| Artifact Set | Description |
|---|---|
| 4-piece Deepwood Memories | BiS if no other teammate is holding it. Increases Nahida’s personal damage in addition to shredding Dendro RES and increasing Spread, Bloom, Hyperbloom, and Burgeon damage for her team. |
| 4-piece Gilded Dreams | If another character is already holding 4pc Deepwood, Nahida can benefit more from running 4pc Gilded Dreams. However, 4pc Gilded Dreams is not recommended in scenarios where Nahida does not trigger reactions very often. Further investigation is needed on the consistency of activating the 4pc effect from off-field in teams without Quicken or Electro-Charged. This is due to how Nahida’s Elemental Skill applies Dendro, since it hits after a reaction has been triggered or Dendro Core damage occurs. It may thus have a tendency to apply Dendro as an aura rather than triggering a reaction, unless there is leftover aura from the previous reaction or if an element is applied before the Dendro Core damage hits. This interaction and the consistency of 4pc GD on Nahida more generally require further testing. |
| 4-piece Tenacity of the Millelith | Potential BiS if the team has ATK-scaling damage dealers who deal disproportionately more damage than Nahida. |
| 4-piece Noblesse Oblige | Alternative to 4pc Tenacity with typically lower uptime. |
| 2-piece combinations: Wanderer’s Troupe, Gilded Dreams, Deepwood Memories | 2-piece combinations can be situationally stronger than 4-piece Gilded Dreams as they provide unconditional stats. |
Weapons
Due to Nahida being played both on and off-field as well as having high or low reaction ownership depending on the team composition, specific weapon performance can vary considerably.
| Weapon | Description |
|---|---|
| A Thousand Floating Dreams | BiS, though not a huge damage increase compared to other 5* and cheaper options. Provides lots of EM and DMG Bonus for Nahida, in addition to a bit of EM for the team. |
| Kagura’s Verity | Competitive option for both on-field and off-field Nahida. While on-field, she can easily obtain full stacks going into the 2nd rotation with her short Skill cooldown, but with the nature of Kagura’s stacks only obtainable with the initial Skill DMG proc, off-field Nahida will inevitably reap less benefit from this weapon overall. Even then, at a consistent one stack per rotation, Kagura’s Verity will still perform well. |
| Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds, Solar Pearl, The Widsith | Competitive options for on-field Nahida, but weaker for off-field Nahida. The Widsith in particular excels at bursting in shorter windows and generally performs less impressively in extended rotations. |
| Sacrificial Fragments | Good EM stat stick. The extra Skill cast may add some damage, but is generally not particularly useful since Nahida does not generate particles on Skill cast. |
| Wandering Evenstar | Very competitive option with an unconditional passive, with its value increasing depending on how much Nahida’s teammates benefit from an ATK buff. |
| Mappa Mare | Slightly better or worse than Magic Guide for on-field Nahida depending on Magic Guide’s passive uptime. Acts purely as a stat stick for her off-field build. |
| Magic Guide | Baseline F2P option. Surprisingly good, though its passive uptime varies heavily between teams due to Nahida’s Dendro application overtaking Hydro and Electro auras on certain teams. |
| Hakushin Ring | Grants ER to Nahida and a DMG Bonus to both Nahida and her Electro allies. Strong with Electro damage-dealers, especially those that can snapshot the DMG Bonus (such as Fischl) or when Nahida needs the ER to meet her requirements. |
| Favonius Codex | On-field Nahida can trigger high-refine Favonius Codex multiple times per rotation, greatly lowering team ER requirements and boosting overall team DPS. Aside from providing enough ER for most of her teams, it provides no additional value as Nahida’s off-field builds do not prioritize CRIT. |
| Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers | Tanks Nahida’s damage for a strong ATK% buff on a teammate. Generally not worthwhile, but can be a decent supportive option for off-field Nahida. |
Teams
Hyperbloom / Quickbloom
Nahida’s Dendro application allows an Electro unit to deal significant damage with Hyperbloom, all while Spread and Aggravate are still being triggered, albeit less consistently than in dedicated Quicken teams. Nahida’s Quickbloom teams focus more on her on-field Spread damage and the Electro character’s Aggravate damage. The Hydro slot will apply less Hydro to enable Hyperbloom while still maintaining decent Quicken aura uptime.
Nahida’s high rate of Dendro application while on-field allows her to run as the sole Dendro unit in these teams, allowing the last slot to be used to fill roles such as additional Elemental application, healing, shielding, or buffing.
Off-field Nahida may want to run with another Dendro unit to supplement her Dendro application and ease both of their ER requirements.
Notable Teammates
| Character | Description |
|---|---|
 Electro: Raiden, Fischl, Yae, Kuki Shinobu, Lisa | Trigger Hyperbloom and Quicken, while providing damage and/or utilities. Raiden and Kuki are the most consistent Hyperbloom triggers. |
 Hydro: Xingqiu, Yelan, Kokomi, Ayato, Candace | Provides Hydro application. In on-field Hyperbloom Nahida teams, a second Hydro unit can be used in the Flex spot to keep up with Nahida’s Dendro application. For Quickbloom teams, however, this is undesirable. |
 Flex: Kazuha, Sucrose | Offers both enemy and Dendro core grouping, while building EM to trigger powerful Hyperblooms alongside access VV Shred. Kazuha and Sucrose also have access to DMG% and EM buffs respectively for their team. |
Flex: Beidou | Even though Stormbreaker does not target Dendro Cores, Beidou can still be used in tandem with another Electro unit for her powerful AoE damage output. Additional Electro application also ensures high Quicken and Electro-Charged uptime. |
Flex: Zhongli | Combines offensive and defensive support via a strong shield, a universal 20% RES Shred, and Tenacity of the Millelith buffs; eliminates the need for a healer aside from content with Corrosive enemies. |
Quicken
On-field Nahida Quicken teams revolve around using Nahida’s Normal and Charged Attacks in combination with her Skill and Burst to maximize her own Spread triggers, while driving off-field Electro units and allowing them to trigger Aggravate.
Off-field Nahida’s role on Quicken teams is to provide Dendro application and buffs for her Electro teammates to consistently trigger Aggravates. Nahida’s A1 increases the on-field character’s reaction damage, and she typically wants to max out her A4.
The only major difference in the team composition of on-field versus off-field Nahida Quicken teams is the inclusion of an On-field Electro/Dendro unit in off-field Nahida teams.
Notable Teammates
| Character | Description |
|---|---|
On-Field Electro: Keqing, Cyno | On-field Aggravate drivers. |
 On-Field Dendro: Tighnari | Nahida has potential in Double Dendro Spread teams alongside Tighnari. More testing needs to be done to quantify the strength of this pair. |
Off-Field Electro(s): Fischl, Beidou, Yae, Kuki Shinobu, Lisa | Off-field Aggravate damage-dealers, most with various additional utilities. |
 Anemo Flex: Kazuha, Sucrose, Jean, Sayu | Provide 40% Electro RES shred via Viridescent Venerer and an assortment of other buffs, grouping, and/or healing. However, it is often difficult to Swirl Electro in certain setups due to Nahida’s Tri-Karma Purification wiping Electro auras. |
Other Flex: Zhongli, DMC, Collei | Zhongli combines offensive and defensive support via a strong shield, a universal 20% RES shred, and Tenacity of the Millelith buffs; eliminates the need for a healer. Alternatively, players can run Double Dendro Double Electro teams; however, depending on the units used they may struggle with damage or survivability. |
Burgeon
Nahida’s Dendro application allows a Pyro unit to build high EM to maximize Burgeon damage. However, this team has a delicate setup; if Burning is triggered, Burgeons can easily be lost. Running a defensive unit such as a healer/shielder is necessary due to Burgeon self-damage.
Notable Teammates
| Character | Description |
|---|---|
 Pyro: Thoma, Xiangling | Sustained off-field Pyro application. Thoma is built purely for EM and ER; Xiangling also values these stats but may prefer DMG% and CRIT main stats when buffed. It is worth noting that Kazuha can absorb Pyro from Bennett’s Burst to substitute in this role. |
Hydro: Xingqiu, Yelan, Kokomi, Ayato, Childe, Candace | Provides Hydro application. In on-field Nahida teams, a second Hydro unit must be used in the Flex spot to keep up with Nahida’s Dendro application and prevent Forward Vaporizes. |
Flex: Bennett | Batteries Xiangling; provides massive ATK buff and healing. Not as valuable with Thoma, but can still potentially buff the Hydro option. |
Flex: Kazuha, Sucrose, Jean, Sayu | Provide utility through grouping or healing. Be careful about absorbing Pyro in Kazuha/Sucrose Bursts or running Jean with Bennett, as the additional Pyro application will interfere with Burgeon setups. |
Nilou Bloom
Because Nahida’s TKP procs rely on Elemental Reactions being triggered, she cannot be used as solo Dendro off-field for Nilou Bloom teams and must be run with another Dendro unit. Even then, on-field solo Dendro Nahida and off-field double Dendro compositions are both viable options.
Preliminary testing indicates that Nahida-Nilou’s dedicated Bloom teams may lead to somewhat inconsistent Bloom ownership. Further investigation is needed on Bloom ownership in various team compositions and how to best optimize team builds.
Note that some players may find it difficult to survive against Bloom self-damage with on-field Nahida if she and the dedicated healer are built to optimize for EM.
Notable Teammates
| Character | Description |
|---|---|
 Nilou | Converts Dendro Cores to Bountiful Cores with her A1, increases Bountiful Core damage with her A4, and has off-field Hydro application. |
Hydro: Xingqiu, Yelan, Kokomi, Barbara | Provides off-field Hydro application and additional utility. At least one healer is necessary due to Bountiful Core self-damage. |
Dendro: Collei, Dendro Traveler | Provides off-field Dendro application. If running off-field Nahida, either Collei or Dendro Traveler must be included in the team. |
Burnmelt
With Nahida, Burning can now be used to enable Melt teams via her Skill’s Dendro application. However, the setup is rather delicate, so characters or teams with higher rates of Cryo application may find it more difficult to take advantage of Burning teams.
The viability and consistency of such teams is still being investigated.
Credits
- Leifa#1359, Kuro_kami91#6652, Sir Von | Skill Deficiency Cult#7672, ඞඞ#6874, Raikh / Vailen#8564, sigurd#3854, *jrm.spirit#2671, Akane#0926, Emiliabyss#1641, Reens#9389, ChibiChu#2334, mina#4448, kol#1593, jamberry#7142, Ayzel#7399, juko#9385, Rare Possum#0511, koko#1111, idkanonymized#4166, Cuzimori#1535, Seima#4597.
Artifact Comparison Calcs- Weapon Comparison Calcs
- Team images courtesy of the
KQM portrait generator.