Updated for Version 3.2
Nilou is a 5* Hydro Sword character who specializes in maximizing Bloom damage in teams of strictly Hydro and Dendro characters.
More extensive testing is in progress. Note that the information given is subject to change if and when new discoveries are made.
Join our Discord to check on and participate in the theorycrafting process. Visit #nilou-albedo-help for questions and #tc-nilou (grab the theorycrafting role from #theory-readme) to help with theorycrafting.
Table of Contents
New Content
| Content | Description |
| Nahida (Character) | Nahida’s Dendro application allows her to slot nicely into Nilou teams, bringing buffs and some much-appreciated team diversity. See the Teams section for additional details. |
Character Overview
Talent Priority
Level 90 is highly recommended to maximize Nilou’s HP and Bloom damage.
Talent levels do not affect Nilou’s buff to Bloom damage, so heavy investment in Talents is not necessary to get good mileage out of her teams.
Skill > Burst
Leveling Nilou’s Normal Attacks is not recommended.
Talents
Normal Attack | Dance of Samser
Talent Description
Normal Attack
Performs up to 3 consecutive sword strikes.
Charged Attack
Consumes a certain amount of Stamina to perform a twirling slash.
Plunging Attack
Plunges from mid-air to strike the ground below, damaging opponents along the path and dealing AoE DMG upon impact.
Nilou’s Normal Attacks are fairly unimpressive and can be neglected.
Elemental Skill | Dance of Haftkarsvar
Talent Description
Enters the Pirouette state, dealing Hydro DMG to nearby opponents based on Nilou’s Max HP.
While she is in the Pirouette state, Nilou’s Normal Attacks and Elemental Skill will cause her to enter the Sword Dance and Whirling Steps stances respectively, causing DMG she deals to be converted to Hydro DMG that cannot be overridden and that is considered Elemental Skill DMG.
In these stances, Nilou’s third dance step will end Pirouette, and has the following effects based on the type of said dance step:
· Sword Dance: unleashes a Luminous Illusion that deals Hydro DMG to opponents it touches and grants Nilou the Lunar Prayer effect. This effect converts Nilou’s Normal Attacks into Sword Dance techniques, and her final hit will unleash a Luminous Illusion.
· Whirling Steps: Nilou unleashes a Whirling Water Wheel that deals AoE Hydro DMG and creates a Tranquility Aura that follows your active character around and applies Wet to opponents within its AoE.
Nilou is unable to perform Charged Attacks when under the effect of Pirouette or Lunar Prayer. These effects will be removed once she leaves the field.
After casting Nilou’s Elemental Skill, players can press either the Normal Attack or Elemental Skill button to cast Sword Dance or Whirling Steps, both of which deal damage that scales based on Nilou’s max HP.
If the third cast of either Sword Dance or Whirling Steps is Sword Dance, then Nilou will be able to continue casting Sword Dance for another 8 seconds. If the third cast is Whirling Steps, then Nilou will summon a ring around the active character that will apply Hydro over time.
Elemental Burst | Dance of Abzendegi: Distant Dreams, Listening Spring
Talent Description
Begins the dance of faraway dreams and springs that hear, causing a Lotus of Distant Waters to bloom, dealing AoE Hydro DMG based on Nilou’s Max HP and applying the Lingering Aeon effect to all opponents hit.
After an interval, opponents affected by Lingering Aeon will take Hydro DMG.
Deals HP-scaling damage twice within a short period of time.
Ascension 1 Passive | Court of Dancing Petals
Talent Description
When all characters in the party are all Dendro or Hydro, and there are at least one Dendro character and one Hydro character:
The completion of the third dance step of Nilou’s Dance of Haftkarsvar will grant all nearby characters the Golden Chalice’s Bounty for 30s.
Characters under the effect of Golden Chalice’s Bounty will increase the Elemental Mastery of all nearby characters by 100 for 10s whenever they are hit by Dendro attacks. Also, triggering the Bloom reaction will create Bountiful Cores instead of Dendro Cores.
Such Cores will burst very quickly after being created, and they have larger AoEs.
Bountiful Cores cannot trigger Hyperbloom or Burgeon, and they share an upper numerical limit with Dendro Cores. Bountiful Core DMG is considered DMG dealt by Dendro Cores produced by Bloom.
Should the party not meet the conditions for this Passive Talent, any existing Golden Chalice’s Bounty effects will be canceled.
In a team containing exclusively Hydro and Dendro characters, casting either Sword Dance or Whirling Steps a third time after casting Nilou’s Elemental Skill will cause all Blooms to summon Bountiful Cores instead of Dendro Cores, as well as provide all teammates an EM buff.
These Bountiful Cores explode much faster than Dendro Cores and in larger AOEs.
Ascension 4 Passive | Dreamy Dance of Aeons
Talent Description
Every 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 9%.
The maximum increase in Bountiful Core DMG that can be achieved this way is 400%.
This Passive provides Reaction Damage Bonus for any Bountiful Cores based on Nilou’s Max HP.
Constellations
Constellation 1 | Dance of the Waning Moon
Constellation Description
Dance of Haftkarsvar will be enhanced as follows:
· Luminous Illusion DMG is increased by 65%.
· The Tranquility Aura’s duration is extended by 6s.
C1 increases Hydro application and can result in more Blooms. Potentially strong for Whirling Stance.
Constellation 2 | The Starry Skies Their Flowers Rain
Constellation Description
After characters affected by the Golden Chalice’s Bounty deal Hydro DMG to an opponent, that opponent’s Hydro RES will be decreased by 35% for 10s. After a triggered Bloom reaction deals DMG to opponents, their Dendro RES will be decreased by 35% for 10s.
You need to have unlocked the “Court of Dancing Petals” Talent.
C2 is a significant boost to team damage.
Constellation 3 | Beguiling Shadowstep
Constellation Description
Increases the Level of Dance of Abzendegi: Distant Dreams, Listening Spring by 3.
Maximum upgrade level is 15.
C3 is a negligible increase for Nilou’s personal damage.
Constellation 4 | Fricative Pulse
Constellation Description
After the third dance step of Dance of Haftkarsvar‘s Pirouette hits opponents, Nilou will gain 15 Elemental Energy, and DMG from her Dance of Abzendegi: Distant Dreams, Listening Spring will be increased by 50% for 8s.
C4 lowers the ER requirements to Burst every rotation to ~140%, allowing you to run triple HP mainstats.
Constellation 5 | Twirling Light
Constellation Description
Increases the Level of Dance of Haftkarsvar by 3.
Maximum upgrade level is 15.
C5 is a negligible increase for Nilou’s personal damage.
Constellation 6 | Frostbreaker’s Melody
Constellation Description
For every 1,000 points of Max HP, Nilou’s CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG will increase by 0.6% and 1.2% respectively.
The maximum increase in CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG via this method is 30% and 60% respectively.
C6 is a decent damage increase for Sword Dance, and relatively mediocre for Whirling Steps.
Combos
N# = Corresponding number of consecutive Normal Attacks
E = Elemental Skill
Q = Elemental Burst
On-Field Focus
| Combo | Usage |
| (Q) E 6N3 (Sword Dance) | Default combo. |
Off-Field Focus
| Combo | Usage |
| (Q) E E E E (Whirling Steps) | Default combo. |
| (Q) E N3 (Sword Dance) | Use this to apply Nilou’s buff while minimizing her own Bloom ownership. |
Artifacts
ER Requirements
NOTE: It is generally recommended to Burst every other rotation, especially with Barbara.
Double  | Triple | |
| With Kokomi | Every other rotation: 100% Every rotation (on-field Nilou): ~180–210% Every rotation (off-field Nilou): ~170–190% | Every other rotation: 100% Every rotation (on-field Nilou): ~160–180% Every rotation (off-field Nilou): ~150–170% |
| With Barbara | Every other rotation: ~130% | Every rotation: ~210% Every other rotation: ~110% |
ER requirements can be lower in energy-rich, multitarget contexts where Nilou teams shine. For a more accurate estimate of ER requirements for your specific situation, use Zakharov’s Energy Recharge Calculator.
Artifact Stats
Main Stats
 Sands |  Goblet |  Circlet |
| ER / HP% | HP% | HP% |
Substats
ER if bursting every rotation > HP% > Flat HP > EM > CRIT
Full HP builds will generally outperform CRIT builds.
EM is unnecessary if Nilou isn’t triggering Blooms, such as in Triple Hydro teams.
Artifact Sets
ToM = Tenacity of the Millelith
HoD = Heart of Depth
GD = Gilded Dreams
NO = Noblesse Oblige
WT = Wanderer’s Troupe
DM = Deepwood Memories
| Artifact Set | Description |
| 2 ToM + 2 HoD/2 GD/2 NO/2 WT | Pick the second set based on whichever has the best substats. Note that 2GD/2WT bonuses provide no benefit if Nilou isn’t triggering Blooms (e.g. in Triple Hydro teams). |
| 4 DM | Can be an option if other teammates are not good holders/have better sets. Not great for Whirling Steps since Tranquility Aura does not refresh duration of the RES shred. |
Weapons
The relative performance of weapons will vary depending on context.
- It is generally suboptimal for Nilou to trigger Blooms, as she cannot afford to stack EM over HP. However, in the event that she does trigger Blooms, EM weapons will have better relative performance for her personal damage the more Blooms she triggers. EM stats on weapons provide no benefit if Nilou isn’t triggering any Blooms.
- Weapons with ER perform better if Bursting every rotation.
- Key of Khaj-Nisut is her overall BiS in all circumstances.
NOTE: Not listed in strict order.
| Weapon | Description |
| Key of Khaj-Nisut | Nilou’s BiS. Converts HP to EM for both herself and the team. |
| Sacrificial Sword | Strong weapon that is easy to proc on Nilou, allowing her to use Sword stance attacks while her Tranquility Aura is active. Not recommended below R4 (or R3 if using 22s+ rotations). |
| Xiphos’ Moonlight | Decent stat stick and benefits team. Great at high refines. |
| Iron Sting | Potent F2P option; at R5 it is competitive with some of the other options listed here. |
| Primordial Jade Cutter / Freedom Sworn | Decent stat sticks. |
| Festering Desire | Strong option if opting to Burst every rotation. |
| Favonius Sword | Strong option if opting to Burst every rotation. On-field Nilou can proc high-refine Favonius Sword multiple times if she has some CRIT Rate, greatly lowering her team’s energy needs. |
| Sapwood Blade | Viable F2P option with small EM buff to ally. |
Teams
Team-Building
- Bring a strong healer like Kokomi or Barbara to offset Bloom self-damage.
- Team choices will affect her teammates’ builds more so than her own builds.
- Future Dendro units may significantly change things.
2 Hydro 2 Dendro
Further testing is needed to determine Bloom ownership.
3 Hydro 1 Dendro
Dendro will have full ownership of Blooms; however, fewer total Blooms will be triggered.
Notable Teammates
| Character | Description |
| Kokomi / Barbara | Provides much-needed healing and some Hydro application. |
| Xingqiu / Yelan | Provides off-field Hydro application, Hydro particles, and non-reaction damage. |
| Nahida | Provides off-field Dendro application. Must be used with another Dendro character due to how her Skill works. Preliminary testing indicates that on-field Nahida as solo Dendro 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. |
| Collei / Dendro Traveler | Dendro units with off-field Dendro application. |
Credits
Emiliabyss#1641, XenoVX#6150, xf3#3123, Leifa#1359, ShampooBrain#9583, kol#1593, Not Logic#6705, mina#4448, Rare Possum#0511
Team images courtesy of the KQM portrait generator.