The apprentice and herb gatherer of the Bubu Pharmacy in Liyue Harbor is a little girl with a bone-white complexion and seldom has much in words or emotion.
As a zombie, Qiqi keeps up a calisthenics regimen to retain a human-like form and move like one. And since zombies require orders to act, Qiqi presently gives herself orders to do things.
It was believed Qiqi was an ordinary herb-picking girl who lost her way and trespassed the realm of the adepti. When she ran into a cavern to bandage her injured leg and rest, she was caught in the fight between the adepti and demons. Qiqi wished to freeze time to live happily again in the last moment of her life.
Qiqi, staying true to being an apprentice of Liyue’s most famous pharmacy, is one of the best healers. She can provide more frequent healing ticks with high amounts of HP regenerated per tick.
How to Get Qiqi
Qiqi is one of the permanent 5-star characters, which means she is always available on the Standard Wish banner and on any time-limited Character Event Wish banners.
Despite this, it is still not guaranteed that the next 5-star character you get is Qiqi, but the chance of getting her is higher than the special event characters.
Please see our guide here to know more about acquiring 5-star characters in Genshin Impact.
Team Role: Consistent Healer
Qiqi is designed to be and will always be a healer for the team. Even if you build or equip her with items that lean towards a DPS-type character, her kit always allows her to heal her teammates.
Since Qiqi is a Cryo Vision wielder and despite being a support character, she can still deal Cryo damage to opponents with her elemental skill and elemental burst.
Talents: One of the Best Healing Kit
Adeptus Art: Herald of Frost is Qiqi’s elemental skill talent. This will have her summon the Herald of Frost, attacking surrounding opponents with Cryo attacks.
When the Herald of Frost is present, Qiqi’s regular and charged attacks will regenerate HP for all party members. The active character or the one followed by the Herald of Frost will restore HP periodically.
The Adeptus Art: Preserver of Fortune, Qiqi’s elemental burst talent allows her to release the Adeptus power sealed within her body. These talents will deal Cryo damage to nearby opponents and then mark those targets with a Fortune-Preserving Talisman.
When a character hits an opponent marked by a Fortune-Preserving Talisman, that character will regenerate HP.
A Glimpse Into Arcanum is one of Qiqi’s passive talents. This one gives Qiqi a 50% chance to apply a Fortune-Preserving Talisman on enemies she hit with a standard or charged attack.
However, this effect can only occur once every 15 minutes, but having a second chance in a domain challenge or boss battle will always be handy.
Qiqi Playstyle: Hit! Hit! Hit!
The manner of how Qiqi heals her party members is when she hits an opponent. This means Qiqi needs to keep on hitting the enemies to maximize her capability. This means the entire party will continue to regenerate their HPs if Qiqi hits an opponent.
You should know Qiqi’s standard attack combo is faster than many melee-type characters. It might be a tiny detail, but she can better heal the entire party and trigger the passive Talent that applies a Fortune-Preserving Talisman to the enemy.
Team Composition: Versatile Support
Although Qiqi’s attack deals Cryo damage, this does not affect her role as a healer. She can fit in any party with any other character regardless of their elements.
However, you may want to consider Elemental Resonance, a special effect related to the elements present in your current party or team composition.
The Elemental Resonance effect of two Cryo characters in the party is called Shattering Ice. With this, when the active character is affected by Electro, that debuff will last 40% less time. This effect also gives a 15% Critical Rate increase against opponents frozen or affected by Cryo.
Qiqi Build: ATK and more ATK
When building Qiqi, whose role is to be a support or healer, you need to give importance to the stat that boosts the HP that her healing gives. Since Qiqi’s heal scales off her ATK, you need to prioritize getting flat ATK and ATK%, Energy Recharge bonus, and Healing Bonus or Healing Effectiveness.
Although the talent description only states “ATK,” the amount of HP that Qiqi regenerates for the team scales off her maximum ATK. This means all ATK stat you can build from weapons and artifacts will impact Qiqi’s heal.
The Energy Recharge bonus should be considered due to the energy requirement of Qiqi elemental burst talent. On top of that, her elemental skill has a long cool-down time and is not easy to spam, making it difficult for her to quickly accumulate energy for her elemental burst.
Healing Bonus and Healing Effectiveness are special stat bonuses that enhance the heal amount the character gives. This can be obtained from a Circlet artifact and artifact set bonuses.
Weapons
Qiqi wields a sword and is quite adept at using it. Her short stature contributes to her high-speed movement in combat.
Several weapons work well for Qiqi, given the nature of support capabilities, and below are some of the weapons you should consider for this little zombie.
Sacrificial Sword
The best weapon for Qiqi is the Sacrificial Sword. Despite being a 4-star weapon, the passive effect of this sword will make up for the long cool-down time of Qiqi’s elemental skill talent.
If equipped with the Sacrificial Sword, when Qiqi’s elemental skill hits an opponent, that skill will have a chance to reset or end its CD. This effect can be triggered by the summoning hit of the elemental skill talent and when the Herald of Frost hits an opponent.
The secondary stat of this weapon, which is Energy Recharge, will help build up enough elemental energy for Qiqi and have her elemental burst talent ready most of the time.
Skyward Blade
Being a 5-star weapon, the Skyward Blade has Base ATK compared to the majority of the available 4-star swords. This sword’s energy Recharge secondary stat is beneficial for the 80 energy requirement of Qiqi’s elemental burst.
Although the passive effect of this 5-star weapon leans towards boosting the overall damage output of the wielder, it will not be a bad idea for Qiqi to help reduce a few numbers off the opponent’s HP.
Favonius Sword
This 4-star sword is designed to work as an energy battery for its wielder. Its secondary stat is the Energy Recharge bonus, and the passive effect gives a chance to regenerate the character’s energy if they trigger a critical hit.
These weapon features make the Favonius Sword a good option for characters with elemental bursts with high energy requirements and a play style that includes using a lot of the said elemental burst talent.
Other Swords to Consider
The Flute, Lion’s Roar, and Royal Longsword
These two 4-star weapons have ATK% as their secondary stat. This feature will increase Qiqi’s maximum ATK and, in turn, will increase the amount of HP that her healing regenerates for the entire party.
The passive effect of these swords leans towards increasing the damage output of the wielder, which is not so bad for Qiq because you will need to hit an opponent at all times always to heal her teammates.
Festering Desire
This exclusive weapon can only be obtained from The Chalk Prince and the Dragon event. It has a decent Base ATK, and the Energy Recharge secondary stat is beneficial for Qiqi’s elemental burst talent.
Amenoma Kageuchi
The Amenoma Kageuchi is one of the weapons you can obtain by crafting with the town smithy, making it a very accessible sword for all players. This sword may not have the highest Base ATK among all 4-star swords, but it has a secondary stat bonus of up to 55% ATK.
The passive effect of this sword can somehow help with the high energy requirement of Qiqi’s elemental burst, but based on the nature of her basic skill, only a single stack of Succession Seed can be utilized per rotation.
Artifacts
Again, since Qiqi’s HP regeneration amount scales off her ATK, it should be the priority. But certain artifacts worn in sets will give some special bonuses.
Maiden Beloved
The 2-piece Maiden Beloved will increase Qiqi’s healing effectiveness by 15%. The 4-piece set, aside from the bonus of the 2-piece set, will further increase the healing received by all party members by 20% after Qiqi uses her elemental burst talent.
Ocean-Hued Clam
This artifact set is perfect if you want a character to be a healer and a damage dealer hybrid. The 2-piece effect is a healing bonus of 15%, while the 4-piece set effect will damage the surrounding enemies.
This works if Qiqi heals the party, a Sea-Dyed Foam will appear for 3 seconds and accumulate the amount of HP that everyone recovered. After the 3-second duration, the Sea-Dyed Foam will explode and damage the surrounding opponents. The damage dealt is 90% of the accumulated healing.
Gladiator’s Finale and Shimenawa’s Reminiscence
Aside from the artifact sets designed for healers, you can also use a 2-piece set of Gladiator’s Finale and Shimenawa’s Reminiscence. They give the same bonus of 18% ATK, which totals 32% if you use 2-piece sets.
This pair of artifacts works for Qiqi because her healing scales off her maximum ATK stat.
You can also have a 2-piece of either two and then pair it with another two sets of either Maiden Beloved or Ocean-Hued Clam.
Circlet: Healing Bonus
For all healers, it is recommended to have a circlet with the primary stat as Healing Bonus. The perfect artifact sub stat for Qiqi are the ones that include a flat ATK, ATK percentage, and Energy Recharge.
Ascension Materials
To increase Qiqi’s level and ascend her to reach the maximum ascension level, you need to collect or farm the following items.
Hoarfrost Core
This material is the exposed core of a Cryo Regisvine and can only be obtained by defeating one. You will need 46 Hoarfrost Core to max Qiqi’s level.
Violetgrass
This is a Liyue-exclusive flower, meaning it can only be found in the said nation. This flower usually grows on cliffs and mountain walls, making it a challenge to farm.
Shivada Jade Silvers, Fragments, Chunks, and Gemstones
They can be obtained from boss enemies that use the Cryo element. You can also get these as rewards from quests and purchase them from city jewelry, souvenir shops, or Paimon’s Bargains shop.
Crafting is also a good option to get a Shivada Jade mineral crystal. You can use the lower quality or rarity to craft a higher quality.
Divining, Sealed, and Forbidden Scrolls
These Samachurls scrolls are obtained as dropped loot when you defeat that particular Hilichurl.
Talent Level-Up Materials
You will need Talent Level-Up materials to level up Qiqi’s active talents.
Aside from Mora and Samachurl scrolls, you will also need the “Prosperity” Talent books, the Teachings of Prosperity, Guide to Prosperity, and Philosophies of Prosperity.
