Genshin Impact's weapons are a lot like its characters. In a way, they each have personalities as well as unique roles to play and specific resources required for leveling up. Naturally, not all weapons are created equal, and some are considerably more deserving of your attention than others so you'll want to sort the wheat from the chaff.
Growing your weapon stash enough to challenge every kind of content is resource intensive. By the time you reach a point where weapons really matter (and eventually become more important than your characters) you'll probably have exhausted most of your quests and treasures chests, and burned through the primogems you gathered from them. Fear not, although Genshin's very best weapons are won via the gacha "wish" system, there are plenty of accessible alternatives that will keep your team competitive even when your primogem wallet grows thin.
Updated August 8, 2021, by Joseph Burrell: Fans and critics alike have called Genshin Impact equally "swipe-based" as it is skill-based, meaning players with the highest credit card limits will have the easiest time acquiring best-in-slot weapons. This jab isn't entirely fair, however, since many free weapons are also viable. The most significant predictor of your success is how much time you've dedicated to your characters and their gear. Whether they're four or five-star options, the arms below will always net you handsome returns on your time investment.
10 Best Claymore: Wolf's Gravestone
If someone asks what is the most powerful weapon in Genshin Impact, then the correct answer would be this one: Wolf's Gravestone. It's a claymore that doesn't care how tough an enemy is because it will just keep stacking ATK buffs.
The Gravestone has been Genshin's golden goose since launch, even now it is rivaled only by The Unforged and Song of Broken Pines — but those two claymores are harder to come by. WGS gives a permanent 20 to 40 percent base ATK increase depending on the refinement level. If that's not enough, it also gives a party-wide ATK boost when its wielder hits an enemy that's below 30 percent HP.
9 Runners-Up: Prototype Archaic And Blackcliff Slasher
Claymore users are lucky to have one of the best budget weapons in the game available to them through crafting: the Prototype Archaic (previously known as Prototype Aminus). No four-star weapon will ever be stat-for-stat comparable to a five-star competitor, but if you're lucky enough to be able to refine the Archaic a few times, its "Crush" ability rewards you with a hefty one-hit damage spike every 15 seconds, meaning it punches above its weight.
The Blackcliff Slasher is another worthwhile alternative if you have starglitter left to spend. The signature weapon of Beidou, the Slasher brings with it the highly sought-after CRIT damage sub-stat, and in ideal conditions the "Press the Advantage" ability can boost your ATK by up to 72 percent.
8 Best Sword: Primordial Jade Cutter
Now, for the best one-handed sword in the game, that would be Primordial Jade Cutter. The sword plays a role similar to that of Staff of Homa, which increases your CRIT (damage for Homa, rate for Cutter) and awards excess ATK based on how much maximum HP the wielder carries — the perfect combination if you're building a durable, jack-of-all-trades DPS carry.
7 Runner-Up: The Flute
Sadly, the Flute is only available via wishing, so getting it might be difficult since players have to do ten wishes at a time to better their odds. It's worth it though, especially if you don't want to shell out for multiple swords, as The Flute is a formidable weapon for any sword-user.
Apart from the ATK sub-stat, The Flute also boosts normal attacks with increased damage that grows with each refinement. Its Chord ability deals considerably high damage and can even deal critical hits.
6 Best Polearm: Primordial Jade Winged-Spear
It was slim pickings for polearm characters and weapons when the game launched, since Xiangling was the solitary spear wielder. Zhongli, Xiao, Rosaria, and Hu Tao have added much needed diversity to the character roster, as has the addition of their respective weapons fleshed out the armory. Among all of the shiny new spears the Primordial Jade Winged-Spear offers the most advantages to the most characters.
It gives an ATK bonus ranging from 3.2 to 6 percent on hit and this effect stacks up to seven times for a whopping max damage buff of 42 percent lasting six seconds. The cherry on top is the Elemental Skill damage boost by as much as 12 to 28 percent whenever the ATK boost stack is full. That shouldn't be too hard to achieve since most polearm wielders deal multiple hits with each press of the attack button.
5 Runners-Up: Blackcliff Pole And Deathmatch
Blackcliff Pole is a beast of a weapon thanks to the CRIT damage sub-stat, but acquiring it will cost you that valuable starglitter. The wait is worth it if you don't have a five-star polearm though as a CRIT stat on a weapon is more valued than ATK or anything else. The Blackcliff Pole's perk also further increases your character's damage output though it can get a bit useless in solo boss fights.
Deathmatch is similarly formidable and boosts CRIT rate instead of CRIT damage, its only drawback being that it is obtained solely by purchasing battle passes with real money. If you're in need of a a spear, particularly for Rosaria, and don't want to leave your gear up to the RNG gods, springing for Deathmatch is a decent investment.
4 Best Bow: Amos' Bow
If archery is your prefered mode of combat, you simply can't go wrong with Amos' Bow. It's the current best choice out of all bows and also has the highest base damage available. That's only going to get higher as this bow gives a permanent boost of 12 to 24 percent damage for normal and aimed attacks.
In addition to the damage increase, Amos' Bow also rewards true ranged combat since it gives more damage (between 8 and 16 percent) for every 0.1 second that an arrow is in flight before hitting an enemy, up to a maximum of 0.5 seconds.
3 Runners-Up: Prototype Crescent And Sacrificial Bow
This craftable bow gives huge ATK bonuses for patient and skillful bow users. Hitting an enemy weak spot increases the ATK by 72 percent max and also the movement speed. That makes it an almost ideal weapon for someone like Ganyu.
Best-in-class weapon discussions usually ignore those that make healing easier, but the Sacrificial Bow — while not explicitly meant for healing and support — massively improves Diona's utility. By reseting the cooldown of her elemental ability, Sacrificial Bow allows Diona to keep you and your team shielded almost constantly.
2 Best Catalyst: Skyward Atlas
Finally, Catalysts — the weapons of choice for mage-type characters. For elemental-focused party members, one can't go wrong with Skyward weapons. As such, Skyward Atlas is the perfect choice for characters like Klee, Mona, or Yanfei.
This five-star Catalyst increases all Elemental damage by 12 to 24 percent depending on the refinement level. Most Catalyst users only deal Elemental damage anyway so this bonus is always on. Meanwhile, all attacks with the Skyward Atlas have a 50 percent chance to release a special attack that actively seeks out enemies and dishes out 160 to 320 percent ATK damage once every 30 seconds.
1 Runners-Up: The Widsith And Prototype Amber
As mentioned earlier, CRIT main stats on weapons tend to be more powerful than those that feature ATK alone. That's why the Widsith gets our recommendation for the best budget catalyst in the game. Too bad it's only obtainable through wishes. Nonetheless, most players have no trouble picking up one or two of these — when that happens to you, make sure you don't scrap it by mistake.
The Widsith also has a unique perk that can randomly give one of three effects at a given moment. It can either be a massive ATK increase, an Elemental DMG bonus, or a whopping high Elemental Mastery boost. You need only remember to swap your catalyst wielder off, then back onto, the field every 30 seconds to keep the buff active.
Prototype Malice is also a worthy choice if your catalyst user is on healing duty, like Barbara. This craftable weapon isn't ideal for DPS, but it does reward your entire party with extra energy recharge and a generous additional HP regen everytime the wielder uses an elemental burst.