Genshin Impact: Xiao guide — Weapons, artifacts, and talents

Xiao’s best weapon: Primordial Jade Winged-Spear

Although the Primordial Jade Winged-Spear is featured in the “Epitome Invocation” wish, it’s still a 5-star weapon. That means RNG (and any fates/cash you want to spend) will heavily affect whether you get it or not.

Anyway, I still consider this the best-in-slot weapon for Xiao due to its crit rate stat and inherent effect (ATK increase with a maximum of seven stacks, and an overall DMG increase once you have the max stacks). Given that Xiao will often use his plunging attacks after popping his ult/burst (more on this later), you should have an easy time keeping this effect active.

Other suggestions:

• Deathmatch (from the Gnostic Hymn Battle Pass) – It has crit rate as a stat. The ATK (and DEF) boosts are fairly decent, and you should have consistent uptime due to enemies.
• Blackcliff Pole (from Paimon’s Shop) – It has crit damage as a stat. You gain stacks after defeating enemies which is very useful when fighting multiple mobs.
• Royal Spear (from Paimon’s Shop) – Although it has ATK% as a stat, you get stacks of crit rate when you damage an enemy. Getting a critical hit clears all stacks. This might be viable especially when you’re spamming plunging attacks while Xiao’s ult is active.
• Prototype Starglitter, Crescent Pike, and Dragonspine Spear (from the blacksmith, although the Dragonspine Spear’s recipe comes from a quest) – Not counting the starglitter currency, these are your 4-star, free-to-play options.

All right, in the next section of our guide, we talk about Xiao’s best artifacts in Genshin Impact.