Genshin Impact: Is Heizou Good? (Pros & Cons)

Shikanoin Heizou is an overall good character with a well-designed kit. But he does fall behind his fellow Anemo units. Other Anemo characters can easily fulfill his roles – and often perform better.

So there’s really no meta reason to use him. Instead, he’ll perform well if you build him – he’s just not the best option.

More about his pros and cons are discussed below.

Note: This is based on meta only. If you like Heizou regardless of his power level, don’t let this stop you from pulling him.

Pros & Cons

Heizou Strengths

1. Multiple Team Comps

Heizou can easily slot into multiple team comps – both as a DPS and support.

Since he’s viable in a lot of scenarios, this basically makes him a bit more resin-efficient to build than other units.

This is mostly thanks to his Anemo element.

He can easily use the 4pc. Viridescent Venerer (4VV) set to buff teammates and boost his overall damage. It’s basically a really strong set that Heizou can take full advantage of.

It allows him to slot in any team that needs an Anemo unit – he’s often less effective but definitely viable.

2. Artifact Mainstat Combinations

Heizou’s total DPS is pretty spread out between his abilities and swirl damage.

These are two different types of damage that are affected by different stats.

His abilities (normal attack talent, skill, and burst) are mainly only affected by ATK, CRIT, and damage bonus. Whereas, swirl damage is only affected by Elemental Mastery (EM) and character level.

Because of this, Heizou can effectively use a variety of mainstat combinations.

For instance, he can use a full EM build (EM/EM/EM) to significantly buff his swirl damage.

This is great for teams that chain multiple elemental reactions like electro-charged – and especially if Heizou spends a lot of field time.

Or he could also use a full DPS build (ATK/Anemo/CRIT) to buff his abilities. This build works best for quickswap teams and against single-target content.

Basically, he has a lot of combinations between ATK/EM/Anemo/CRIT mainstats that are generally viable.

3. Good Personal Damage

Heizou deals good personal damage regardless of his build.

And although he’s less favored than other Anemo units, he can still effectively function in all of his teams. He does have less utility and buffing, but this is compensated by his personal damage.

This applies to both his swirl and Anemo damage – and it falls in line with his ‘multiple team comps strength’.

Aside from his versatility as an Anemo unit, Heizou also deals respectable damage. So he can be considered a side-grade (not upgrade) to some teams – most notably freeze.

Heizou Weaknesses

1. Other Anemo Units

Anemo has a lot of really good units, and Heizou often competes with them for the same slot.

And in most cases, other units outperform him. Here’s a deeper comparison between Heizou vs other notable Anemo units.

Are Heizou’s Constellations Good?

Heizou has great constellations, but he doesn’t need any of them to properly function.

Still, they’re highly recommended if you’re especially fond of playing him.

For early constellations, C2 is a great place to stop pulling for utility and C3 for damage.

Since it’s generally harder to get a specific 4-star character off a banner, it’s not resource-efficient to continue pulling past C3 – especially if you don’t want the featured 5-star.

You can just leave Heizou’s C4-C6 to RNG – don’t worry, you’ll likely get them from other future gacha banners.

Additionally, here’s a closer look at each of his constellations.

C1: Names Juvenile Casebook

For 5s after Heizou goes on-field, his normal attack speed is increased by 15%, and he gains 1 Declension stack. This can only be triggered once every 10s.

This is a pretty good constellation that lets Heizou deal a bit more damage and trigger more swirl reactions.

The extra Declension stack is also useful in quickswap teams. It lets him gain Declension stacks faster without spending much field time.

C2: Investigative Collection

The pull effect of Heizou’s burst is enhanced, and its duration is extended by 1s.

This is a good quality-of-life constellation that buffs Heizou’s grouping ability. It’s especially useful against AOE.

C3: Esoteric Puzzle Book

Increases his elemental skill talent level by 3.

This serves as a direct damage increase. It basically just buffs his skill multipliers even more, which is great for a DPS Heizou build.

C3 is a great place to stop pulling for constellations.

C4: Tome of Lies

The first Windmuster Iris explosion of Heizou’s burst regenerates 9 elemental energy for him. And every subsequent explosion regenerates an extra 1.5 energy. His burst can regenerate a total of 13.5 energy this way.

C4 is a good quality-of-life constellation that mainly decreases Heizou’s energy requirements.

But since Heizou already has a low energy cost burst and good particle generation, C4’s extra energy can be overkill in some scenarios.

Still, it’s a nice safety net that helps him charge his burst every rotation.

C5: Secret Archive

Increases his elemental burst talent level by 3.

This is a damage gain but not a significant one. It’s more of just a stepping stone for C6.

C6: Curious Casefiles

Each Declension stack increases his skill’s CRIT rate by 4%. And when Heizou possesses Conviction (or 4 Declension stacks), his skill’s CRIT damage is increased by 32%.

This is a really good constellation. Its effects are very easy to trigger, and it significantly buffs Heizou’s total DPS.

Solar Pearl vs. The Widsith on Heizou

Solar Pearl and The Widsith are very similar – the gap between them is only around ~1%.

They’re both great weapons for Heizou, and he can easily benefit from their passives.

So just use whichever one you have or the one with higher refinements.