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As one of the few four-star Anemo characters in Genshin Impact, Sayu is often overlooked by more effective options. In a lot of ways, Sayu is a weaker version of Jean due to how she can heal with her Skill and Burst, but Sayu has some hidden talents that allow her to stand out if you want to invest time into her.

Related: Genshin Impact: Sayu Build Guide

You want your Anemo characters to be able to group enemies up and since you don't get this with Sayu, you have to settle for her healing and Swirl reaction capabilities to get the job done. However, it will almost be necessary to have her at Constellation Six to make it as easy as possible to play her.

Sayu's Constellations Are Crucial

Genshin Impact - Sayu Constellation Six

Without any Constellations, Sayu's healing abilities are significantly stifled when it comes to her Elemental Burst. When used, this ability will decide to either attack enemies or heal allies, depending on how much HP your active character has. This means that it will only perform attacks or healing, not both.

Her Constellation One effect will remove this allied HP check and be able to simultaneously deal damage in a large AoE while also healing any of your allies within the circle the Daruma creates. Having this effect locked behind a Constellation means your Sayu will need it to be more viable, but you will get a buff to Sayu's healing while using her Skill due to her first Ascension Talent.

The best Constellation for Sayu is her sixth and final one since it allows her Daruma created by her Elemental Burst to benefit from Sayu's Elementary Mastery stat. This changes the scaling for her damage and healing when using the Elemental Burst, meaning her attack and healing will now be significantly increased, and with it Sayu's utility.

Sayu's Burst And Skill: When And How To Use

Genshin Impact - Sayu surrounded by three elements

Holding down Sayu's Elemental Skill will start her rolling around. While rolling, Sayu will infuse her roll with the first element she comes in contact with, dealing a combination of Anemo damage each time you hit an opponent and any extra damage on top of that with whichever element she may be infused with. The Swirl Reaction will also trigger in these cases, which makes her Skill especially useful for spreading elements.

To make the most of this, you'll want to have characters with Sayu who have off-field elemental applications. Use one or a few of these off-field Elemental Skills or Bursts first to get an element, switch to Sayu, and start rolling into enemies at your pleasure.

Sayu's Burst will throw out a party-wide heal when used and then continue to heal or attack (or both, Constellations depending). For the most part, you should typically avoid using Sayu's normal attacks since they have very little benefit. If her Skill is on cooldown, switch her out to someone else to re-apply Elements and then start rolling again as Sayu when you can.

Tap Or Hold Sayu's Elemental Skill?

Genshin Impact - Sayu Talent screen highlighting her passive healing

It depends, but for the most part, you'll always want to hold it down so Sayu starts rolling around in true Sonic fashion. The key difference between tapping and holding her Elemental Skill is the cooldown and how many energy particles Sayu creates when using her Skill.

Pairing Sayu with the Viridescent Venerer's Artifact set will give her the added bonus of being able to shred enemy resistances with her Swirl, letting Sayu take out elemental shields fairly effectively.

Sayu can swirl like the best of them, meaning you'll see an increase in attack and bigger numbers across the board with this set.

Tapping her Skill will release an Anemo-infused kick which generates two particles and has a cooldown of six seconds. Holding her skill lets you roll around for ten seconds, generate one particle every time she hits an enemy, and has a cooldown of 11 seconds. Generally, which one you'd rather use will depend on each situation you're in but it's typically best to hold her Skill.

If for example, you use Sayu as an off-field healer who just needs energy, you will want to tap her Skill and switch her out. On the other hand, using Sayu as a support unit instead of being fully geared towards healing, you'll want to hold down her Skill to get as many Swirl reaction hits as you can.

Sayu's Healing Comes From Elemental Mastery And Attack

Genshin Impact Favonius Greatsword stats

As mentioned, Elemental Mastery will only be extra beneficial to Sayu when she's at Constellation Six. At Constellation zero, Sayu's healing will only be increased by her Attack stat. If you want to run her like this as a heal bot, then you'll just want to make sure all of her Artifact stats are attack percentage, topped off with a healing bonus circlet. This setup will be at the expense of any meaningful Elemental Mastery stats.

You can use an Energy Recharge Artifact and have Sayu equip a claymore with Elemental Mastery, but this is not recommended.

Regardless, running EM Artifacts on Sayu will also buff her Swirl effects, making her excellent in Reaction team comps. Bear in mind the reason we say Constellation Six is necessary for Sayu is because you have to build her with stats split between Attack percentage (which dictates her healing) and EM (to get more out of reactions). Getting her sixth Consettelation removes this hiccup and lets you pump her full of Elemental Mastery to get the best of both worlds.

Who Works Well With Sayu?

Genshin Impact - Sayu Team Comp with Kuki, Traveler and Barbara

Sayu works extremely well with any character whose ability will follow your on-field character around. In this setup, we recommend using Kaeya, Xiangling, Sayu, and Barbara. Using Kaeya and Xiangling's Burst, as well as Barbara's Skill will give you three elements rotating around your Sayu. Simply roll into a crowd of enemies and profit.

Sayu can also work in a Hyperbloom team thanks to Dendro reactions. For this specific setup, you want to use any Hydro, Electro, Dendro, and Sayu. This team uses the same principle and you'll be able to do a lot more damage thanks to how much Dendro cores deal when they explode.

Hyperbloom relies on Electo coming into contact with Dendro cores which results in firing it immediately at enemies.

Your rotation will be similar to any normal reaction comp. First use your off-field character's Skills or Bursts, switch to Sayu, and then start rolling around at the speed of sound. Having a lot of off-field supports for this will ensure you're triggering plenty of reactions which, thanks to the Viridescent Venerer's Artifact Set, will reduce enemy resistances and result in a lot more damage from all your characters.

Don't Sleep On Energy Recharge

An image from Genshin Impact of the Skyward Pride claymore's stats

Throwing yet another curveball at you, Sayu requires a whopping 80 energy to use her Elemental Burst. On almost all occasions, you'll want to opt for an Energy Recharge weapon to account for any energy issues you might roll into. With this in mind, you'll want to make up for any lost Energy Recharge by using a weapon with it as a substat.

Focusing your stats on Attack percentage for healing at Constellation One – or Elemental Mastery for an overall buff at Constellation Six – will leave you without any Energy Recharge for Sayu's high-cost Burst.

Sacrificing an Artifact slot with ER will be wholly unnecessary when you can slap on either a Favonius Greatsword or the Skyward Pride claymore, which will give you plenty of Energy Recharge. If it's not enough, you might need to take a look at your Artifact sub-stats and try to aim for any which have Energy Recharge. Getting Sayu's ER stat to about 150 percent will be plenty to juggle her Burst.

Next: Genshin Impact: Pro Tips For Playing As Yanfei