Genshin Impact: Are Battlepass Weapons Good?

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They’re great! Battlepass (BP) weapons work well with most DPS units. Thanks to their CRIT rate stats, they’re especially good weapon candidates for balancing your characters’ CRIT ratios. But they do have a lot of competition.

There are plenty of other strong free weapons – oftentimes better than the BP weapons.

Because of this, it’s always recommended to look up a character’s best weapons before getting any of the BP ones.

But still, their versatility makes them really nice weapons to have.

And if you’re planning to get one, here’s a cheat sheet for their synergies with all the current playable characters.

Weapon Great With Decent With Not Recommended
Serpent Spine Itto, Beidou, Chongyun, Diluc, Eula, Noelle, Razor Xinyan Sayu
Viridescent Hunt Fischl, Melt Ganyu, Tartaglia Aloy, Amber, Sara, Yoimiya Diona, Gorou, Venti, Yelan, Freeze Ganyu
Deathmatch Hu Tao, Raiden, Rosaria, Xiao Xiangling, Zhongli Shenhe, Thoma, Yunjin
Black Sword Jean, Kaeya, Ayato, Keqing, Geo Traveler Bennett, Ayaka, Anemo Traveler, Xingqiu Albedo, Kazuha, Kuki, Qiqi, Electro Traveler
Solar Pearl Lisa, Ningguang, Heizou, Klee Mona, Yae, Yanfei Barbara, Kokomi, Sucrose
  • Great means that it’s one of the character’s best 4-star weapon options.
  • Decent means that it works on the character, but there are other much better 4-star options.
  • Not Recommended means that there are significantly better options (usually 4-star or 3-star) or it simply doesn’t have synergy with the character.

Additionally, here’s a closer look at each Battlepass weapon.

 

Serpent Spine

 
Serpent Spine / Genshin Impact
Serpent Spine
 

Serpent Spine (SS) is an exceptionally powerful weapon.

Its passive has a stack mechanic that’s gained by spending 4s on-field. This has a maximum of 5 stacks.

At R1, each stack increases the damage you deal by 6% but also increases the damage you take by 3%. Plus, taking damage removes a stack.

Because of this strong passive, SS is easily one of the strongest claymores and weapons in-game – it can even outperform most 5-star claymores with higher refinements.

Among all the BP weapons, this is the one most worth getting.

It simply works well with every DPS claymore user, and it’s just significantly better than its fellow 4-star weapons.

 

Serpent Spine Pre-Stacking

 
Pre-stacking Serpent Spine stacks in Spiral Abyss / Genshin Impact
Pre-stacking Serpent Spine stacks in Spiral Abyss
 

A great technique for using Serpent Spine in Spiral Abyss is pre-stacking its passive.

This can be done by placing the character with SS in the first slot. Doing so effectively lets you get all 5 stacks before starting an Abyss chamber.

 

Serpent Spine Stacks Cooldown

 
Serpent Spine losing stacks on burning grass / Genshin Impact
Serpent Spine losing stacks on burning grass
 

There’s an internal cooldown between losing Serpent Spine stacks.

Only one stack can be lost every second. So even if your character takes multiple hits within a second, only one stack will be lost.

Similarly, if you take multiple hits for 2s, only a maximum of 2 stacks will be lost.

This is demonstrated by the photo above.

Diluc has sustained 3 instances of damage from burning grass. But because losing stacks has a cooldown, Diluc still has 4 SS stacks on him.

Basically, you lose stacks at a much slower rate than taking damage – which is great! You get to keep more stacks than initially stated.

 

Viridescent Hunt

 
Viridescent Hunt / Genshin Impact
Viridescent Hunt
 

Viridescent Hunt is a good general bow.

At R1, its passive has a 50% chance of creating a Cyclone when the wielder hits an opponent with a normal or charged attack. This cyclone pulls opponents to its center and deals 40% of ATK as Physical damage every 0.5s. This lasts for 4s and can only occur once every 14s.

This cyclone functions as a situationally useful source of crowd control, especially against AOE. And for single-target, its damage is still a decent but small damage gain.

But there are already other great 4-star bows. Very often these are the better option for most bow users.

So it’s best to treat Viridescent Hunt as a general bow. It’s often not the best option, but it definitely works.

 

Viridescent Hunt for Tartaglia / Childe

 
Tartaglia’s Riptide with Viridescent Hunt’s grouping against multiple opponents / Genshin Impact
Tartaglia’s Riptide with Viridescent Hunt’s grouping against multiple opponents
 

Tartaglia is currently the best unit that can take full advantage of this Viridescent’s passive.

His Riptide has a quadratic scaling. So his total DPS exponentially increases the more opponents he hits. This makes him an exceptional unit against AOE.

Viridescent’s grouping pulls opponents closer to him and lets him trigger Riptide against multiple opponents at once.

This is especially useful when you’re not using a grouper with Tartaglia.

 

Deathmatch

 
Deathmatch / Genshin Impact
Deathmatch
 

Deathmatch is a good polearm with notably high CRIT value and relatively lower Base ATK.

This makes it great for units that don’t heavily rely on ATK (like Hu Tao and Zhongli) but slightly worse for those that do – especially without any external ATK buffs.

But its passive does help give a bit more ATK. When there are 2 or more opponents nearby, the wielder gains 16% ATK and DEF. And when there are less than 2 opponents, their ATK is increased by 24%.

Still, there are plenty of other 4-star polearms that are just better choices for other units.

For instance, Deathmatch is great on Hu Tao, but Dragon’s Bane with higher refinements will be better.

So it’s best to look them up before going for Deathmatch.

Still, the gap between Deathmatch and the best 4-star weapon of other units often isn’t that big – so Deathmatch is definitely still a good option.

 

Black Sword

 
Black Sword / Genshin Impact
Black Sword
 

Black Sword is a great but pretty niche weapon. Its passive increases the wielder’s normal and charged attacks by 20%. Plus it regenerates 60% ATK as HP when normal or charged attacks score a CRIT hit – this can be triggered once every 5s.

This passive is great, but there aren’t many characters that can take full advantage of it. The only notable ones are Ayato and Keqing.

Besides them, Black Sword is just considered a CRIT stat stick.

Because of this, it’s only recommended when you’re planning to use it for the characters mentioned. Otherwise, Amenoma Kageuchi and Favonius Sword are often enough for most sword users.

 

Solar Pearl

 
Solar Pearl / Genshin Impact
Solar Pearl
 

Solar Pearl is a pretty flexible weapon – it works on all ATK-scaling DPS catalyst users.

When the wielder’s normal attack hits an opponent, it increases their skill and burst damage by 20% for 6s. And when their skill or burst hits, their normal attack damage is increased by 20% for 6s.

This passive is quite versatile, and most catalyst DPS units can benefit from it.

But, while Solar Pearl is a great weapon in its own right, it often loses value because of The Widsith.

This is a 4-star gacha weapon with a very strong passive, especially with refinements. It even competes with other 5-star catalysts at R5.

In most cases, Widsith just outperforms Solar Pearl – or they’re very interchangeable.

Because of this, there’s absolutely no need to get Solar Pearl if you already have Widsith. Otherwise, Solar Pearl is a viable and more consistent replacement.

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Maeri Mgdrg

Maeri is an avid gacha player currently in the clutches of Genshin Impact. She mainly focuses on character analyses, underlying game mechanics, and occasionally reading game code. She also yearns for the day that Dainsleif is finally playable.