Barbara, the Deaconess of the Church of Favonius and the shining idol of Mondstadt, is adored by the folks of the City of Freedom. She can put people in a better mood, not just by her healing powers but also with her songs and positive energy.
Barbara is known to have access to miraculous healing powers through her Hydro Vision. She was blessed with this Vision for a simple but beautiful wish that took hold of her heart one night: A dream of healing the sick through the power of song. It was the same night she first sang a song, and it was to soothe a child who was crying relentlessly, missing his family.
Shining Idol Barbara is one of the few characters to have a hangout event, where players can spend time and learn what a day in the life of a Genshin Impact character is. We created a guide for Barbara’s hangout event, act one titled “Wellspring of Healing,” which you can check out by clicking this link.
How to Get Barbara
Barbara is one of the 4-star characters that all Genshin Impact players can receive a free copy of. All you need is to reach Adventure Rank 18 and do the quest titled “A Long Shot.” Part of that quest is facing the dragon named Dvalin or Stormterror to most Mondstadt folks. After defeating the beast in the quest, you will unlock “Shining Idol” Barbara for free.
Another way of getting a copy of Barbara is by making wishes on all wish banners. She is a permanent character, and so she will be one of the items that you will possibly get every time you make wishes.
To learn more about acquiring characters in Genshin Impact, click this link to read our guide on the topic.
Team Role and Party Composition
Shining Idol Barbara is a support character and is specifically a healer. She fits well with any team and has stats that are not difficult to build. She is, in fact, one of the best healers in the game despite being only a 4-star character.
Talents and Play Styles
Combat Talents
Normal Attack: Whisper of Water
This combat talent allows Barbara to perform up to 4 water splash attacks that deal Hydro damage if the button is pressed multiple times.
Holding this talent’s button-down will have Barbara perform a charged attack that deals AOE Hydro damage. But a charge attack will consume a certain amount of Stamina and has a short casting time.
When used mid-air, Barbara will gather the might of Hydro and plunge towards the ground, damaging all opponents in her path. This will also deal AOE Hydro damage upon impact with the ground.
Since Barbara is a catalyst user, all her attacks deal elemental damage. Barbara can also easily apply Hydro to the opponent to help trigger Hydro-related elemental reaction damage.
Elemental Skill: Let the Show Begin
When this skill is used, Barbara will summon water droplets that resemble musical notes forming a Melody Loop, which will deal Hydro damage to surrounding opponents and apply the Wet status to them.
While Barbara’s Melody Loop is present, hits on enemies of her normal attacks will heal all team members. The amount of HP recovered through this heal scales with Barbara’s max HP. When charged attacks hit opponents, the HP recovered is four times the amount of the normal attack heal.
Another effect of this skill is that the active character periodically regenerates HP.
Melody Loop will also apply the Wet status to the character inside the loop and opponents who come in contact with it.
With her elemental skill alone, Barbara becomes one of the best healers in the game. Although the amount of HP per hit she can regenerate for the team is not that high, the speed this is done is a lot quicker, thanks to the action speed of her normal attacks.
The main play style for Barbara to keep the team’s HP above 90 percent is to use her elemental skill whenever its cooldown has reset and continuously make normal attacks on any opponent. If the teammates have lost a lot of HP, you can make a charged attack for a greater amount of HP recovered by the team.
Elemental Burst: Shining Miracle
Using this will instantly heal Barbara’s party members and nearby teammates for a large amount of HP that scales with her Max HP.
This is an instant cast heal that can save the entire team. However, it has a high energy requirement of 80 energy that does not allow it to be spammed. With that, it would be better to save Barbara’s elemental burst for a dangerous situation where one or more teammates’ remaining HP is 20% and below.
Passive Talents
Glorious Season
With this talent unlocked, the character inside the Melody created by Barabara’s elemental skill, Let the Show Begin, will have their stamina consumption reduced by 12%.
Encore
This passive talent increases the duration of Let the Show Begin’s Melody by 1 second whenever the active character gains an elemental orb or elemental particle. The maximum extension gained for Melody Loop is 5 seconds.
Utility Passive: With My Whole Heart
Barbara’s utility passive talent is used when cooking a dish with restorative effects. If you select Barbara when cooking such a food item and perfect cooking is achieved, there is a 12% chance to obtain double the said dish.
Constellation: Crater
Constellation Level 1: Gleeful Songs
Barbara’s first constellation level lets her regenerate one energy every 10 seconds. This will help the high energy requirement of her elemental burst. She will not necessarily need another Hydro character in the team to act as a battery and share Hydro elemental particles with her.
Constellation Level 2: Vitality Burst
This constellation level will decrease the cooldown time of Let the Show Begins, Barbara’s elemental skill. At the same time, throughout the Melody Loop, the active character will gain a 15% Hydro damage bonus.
If your main DPS is a Hydro character like Childe, Yalen, Mona, or Xingqiu, Vitality Burst will heal that character and boost their damage.
Constellation Level 3: Star of Tomorrow
Star of Tomorrow is Barbara’s constellation level 3, which will increase her elemental skill by three and upgrade its maximum level to 15 from 10.
Constellation Level 4: Attentiveness by My Power
When constellation level 4 is unlocked, Barbara will regenerate one energy for every opponent she hits with her charged attack. A maximum of 5 energy can be regenerated in this manner with anyone charged attack.
Constellation Level 5: The Purest Companionship
The Purest Companionship is Barbara’s constellation level 4, which will increase her elemental skill by three and upgrade its maximum level to 15 from 10.
Constellation Level 6: Dedicating Everything to You
Barbara’s final constellation will automatically revive a party member when they fall during battle and fully restore the revived teammate’s HP to 100%. However, this effect will only occur once every 15 minutes if Barbara is at the party but not on the field. This will most likely not work in a 4-man coop game.
How to Build Barbara
Barbara is a catalyst user whose attacks deal Hydro elemental damage. However, her role is to heal the team, and the amount of HP that her heal regenerates scales with her max HP. This means that the best build for Barbara is to equip her with items with HP and Healing Bonus as their main stats.
Weapon: Catalyst
There are a few weapons that Barbara can use to increase her HP and, in turn, increase the amount of HP she heals her team. The free-to-play choice for her is the Prototype Amber because you can craft it with the town smithy.
To help you choose which weapon to use for your Barbara, you can check out our guide to selecting the best weapon for the Shining Idol of Mondstadt. You can do that by clicking this link.
Artifacts for Barbara
Several artifact sets and set combinations can be used for Barbara, and two artifact sets are designed mainly for healers like her. The said artifacts are the Maiden Beloved and the Ocean-Hued Clam.
To help you choose the best artifacts for Barbara that best fits your playstyle, please see our guide by clicking this link.
Character Ascension
Shining Idol Barbara can be ascended to 6 phases to reach the maximum character level of 90. Passive talents and special ascension stats will also be unlocked when she ascends to certain phases.
Ascension Materials for Barbara
Mora: 420,000
Mora is Genshin Impact’s main currency unit. It is accepted in all the nations of Teyvat and is also used to upgrade weapons, artifacts, talents, and character levels.
Cleansing Heart: 46
A Cleansing Heart is a palm-size dew of eternal water that, despite already being diffused among the lake’s depths, its purity remains the same.
Some of this pure water can be obtained by defeating the Oceanid in its lake in Wuwang Hill north of Bishui Plain in Liyue.
Philanemo Mushroom: 168
Philanemo Mushrooms are fungi believed to be as everlasting as the wind in nourishing life. They grow in the touch of warm wind and are commonly found under the eaves of houses in the City of Mondstadt, Springvale, and Dawn Winery.
Varunada Lazurite
These mineral crystals can be obtained from boss enemies that manipulate the Hydro element. Boss enemies such as the Hydro Hypostasis, Oceanid, Tartaglia, Childe, and Azhdaha.
You can also get these from quest and commission rewards by crafting them using the ones with lower rarity levels.
You will need 1 Varunada Lazurite Sliver, 9 Varunada Lazurite Fragments, 9 Varunada Lazurite Chunks, and 6 Varunada Lazurite Gemstones.
Samachurl Scrolls
These scrolls likely relate to some magic as they exude inexplicable but ominous warmth. They are obtained as dropped loot when you defeat all types of Samachurl and come in three types: Divining Scroll, Sealed Scroll, and Forbidden Curse Scroll.
Samachurl scrolls can also be purchased from Paimon’s Bargains shop in exchange for Masterless Stardusts. Scrolls with higher rarity can also be crafted using those with lower rarity.
The amount needed for each is as follows: Divining Scroll: 18; Sealed Scroll: 30; Forbidden Curse Scroll: 36.
Ascension Phases
Ascension Phase 1
This first ascension will be done after the character reaches level 20, and they cannot proceed to the next level without ascending to the next phase. The character level cap will be increased to 40, and Barbara’s first passive talent, Glorious Season, will be unlocked.
Materials: Mora – 20,000; Varunada Lazurite Sliver – 1; Philanemo Mushroom– 3; Divining Scroll – 3;
Unlocked Talent: Glorious Season (1st Passive Talent).
Ascension Phase 2
Ascension Phase 2 can be reached at character level 40 and will increase the character level cap to 50. After this ascension, the character’s talents can be upgraded or leveled up. Barbara will also unlock a special ascension stat on this phase: the HP Bonus of 6%.
Materials: Mora – 40,000; Varunada Lazurite Fragments – 3; Philanemo Mushroom– 10; Divining Scroll – 15; Cleansing Heart – 2;
Unlocked Special Stat: 6% HP Bonus;
Unlocked Feature: Allows leveling combat talents from 1 to 2.
Ascension Phase 3
After reaching level 50, Barbara can ascend to ascension phase 3, increasing her character level cap to 60. The 3rd ascension phase will double the HP Bonus special stat from 6% to 12%. Additionally, Barbara’s combat talents can increase to level 4.
Materials: Mora – 60,000; Varunada Lazurite Fragments – 6; Philanemo Mushroom– 20; Sealed Scroll – 12; Cleansing Heart – 4;
Unlocked Stat: HP Bonus increased from 6% to 12%;
Unlocked Feature: Allows leveling combat talents from 2 to 4.
Ascension Phase 4
At level 60, you can ascend Barbara to ascension phase 4 and upgrade her character level cap to 70. After ascending, you will unlock her second Passive Talent, Encore, and all her Combat Talents can be leveled up to 6.
Materials: Mora – 80,000; Varunada Lazurite Chunks – 3; Philanemo Mushroom– 30; Sealed Scroll – 18; Cleansing Heart – 8;
Unlocked Feature: Allows leveling combat talents from 4 to 6
Unlocked Talent: Encore (2nd Passive Talent)
Ascension Phase 5
The 5th ascension phase can be reached when Barbara is at level 70, and ascending will increase her character level cap to 80. Her special ascension stat, HP Bonus, will be increased to 18% at this phase. Barbara’s combat talents will also have an upgrade to their level cap from 6 to 8.
Materials: Mora – 100,000; Varunada Lazurite Chunks – 6; Philanemo Mushroom– 45; Forbidden Curse Scroll – 12; Cleansing Heart – 12;
Unlocked Stat: HP Bonus increased from 12% to 18%
Unlocked Feature: Allows leveling combat talents from 6 to 8
Ascension Phase 6
Barbara’s final ascension phase is at level 80, and it will increase her character level cap to 90. Her special ascension stat, the HP Bonus, will be increased to 24%, and her Combat Talents can now be upgraded to the maximum level of 10.
Materials: Mora – 120,000; Varunada Lazurite Gemstones – 6; Philanemo Mushroom– 60; Forbidden Curse Scroll – 24; Cleansing Heart – 20;
Unlocked Stat: HP Bonus increased from 18% to 24%
Unlocked Feature: Allows leveling combat talents from 8 to 10
Talent Level-Up Materials for Barbara
Building a character includes increasing the level of their combat talents, and each level will require certain items as materials for the leveling up process.
Aside from Mora and Samachurl scrolls, leveling up Barbara’s combat talents will also need a few Rings of Boreas.
Ring of Boreas
This item is a broken piece of crystallized ice from the Great Wolf King of the North. You can obtain a few of these after defeating Andrius Lupus Boreas, Dominator of Wolves in Wolvendom.
Talent Level Book: Freedom
The talent books you will need for Barbara to master his combat capabilities are the ones of the “Prosperity” series, which you can obtain from the Forsaken Rift Domain of Mastery: Frosted Altar in Springvale, Mondstadt.
These books include the Teachings of Freedom, Guide to Freedom, and the Philosophies of Freedom. The last two can be crafted using the crafting bench in the town.
Crown of Insight
Leveling a combat talent up from level 9 to 10 will need a Crown of Insight, a special item that can only be obtained as a reward from the game’s events.
Mora: 1,652,500;
Divining Scroll: 6;
Sealed Scroll: 22;
Forbidden Curse Scroll: 31;
Teachings of Freedom: 3;
Guide to Freedom: 21;
Philosophies of Freedom: 38;
Ring of Boreas: 6;
Crown of Insight: 1;
