Genshin Impact Kirara Build Transforms Her Into a Ferocious Feline Defender

Hope you’re ready for a meow-velous new Genshin Impact support.

Kirara, the latest Dendro character, just debuted in Genshin Impact 3.7. She’s a nekomata (cat girl with two tails) that hails from Inazuma, thus her traditional Japanese-inspired clothing and aesthetic. Her heritage as a supernatural creature isn’t what she’s known for, though. She’s a delivery girl that travels between different countries, meeting characters from Amber to Arataki Itto. Those delivery skills are extra handy in an unexpected way: protecting packages (and teammates) and dealing Dendro DMG.

Here’s how to build Genshin Impact’s new cat girl into a Dendro shielder.

How to Build Kirara in Genshin Impact

You can build Kirara as a Dendro DPS to improve her personal damage, but she won’t deal do the job as well as characters specifically built for a DPS role like Alhaitham. She excels at shielding and applying Dendro to trigger elemental reactions in Quicken and specific Bloom teams. To do that, Kirara needs as much HP as possible with just enough Energy Recharge so that you don’t need to wait long to use her Elemental Burst.

Kirara’s HP, like with most shielders, raises her shield’s damage absorption. In her case, it mostly protects teammates from Dendro DMG. She has a talent that raises her damage based on her HP, but it doesn’t make a significant enough difference that it’s worth focusing on. Her Elemental Burst deals AoE Dendro DMG and scatters Dendro Core-like “Cat Grass Cardamoms” within its radius. It isn’t great for dealing damage, though, because it doesn’t scale based on her HP. It’s just for dealing Dendro DMG, Elemental Burst DMG, and triggering reactions. You need high Energy Recharge to keep using it for the sake of her teammates.

With that in mind, these are the best weapons for Kirara.

Best Weapons for Kirara

There’s no need to pull for a five-star weapon for Kirara because of all the four-star options that will work just as well. However, if you have either of these 5-star swords below, they could seriously boost Kirara’s HP and her personal damage as a plus.

5-star weapons

• Primordial Jade Cutter (HP) - HP increased by 20 percent. Additionally, provides an ATK Bonus based on 1.2 percent of the wielder's Max HP.
• Key of Khaj-Nisut (HP) - HP increased by 20 percent. When an Elemental Skill hits opponents, you gain the Grand Hymn effect for 20 seconds. This effect increases the equipping character's Elemental Mastery by 0.12% of their Max HP. This effect can trigger once every 0.3s. Max 3 stacks. When this effect gains 3 stacks, or when the third stack's duration is refreshed, the Elemental Mastery of all nearby party members will be increased by 0.2% of the equipping character's max HP for 20 seconds.

The best free-to-play option for Kirara is the Sapwood Blade, a craftable four-star sword you can get after completing the Aranara questline from Sumeru. However, if you haven’t made it to the Nation of Wisdom yet, you can also use any of the other popular Energy Recharge swords like Favonius Sword, Sacrificial Sword, or Festering Desire from the Chalk Prince event.

If all else fails, an Elemental Mastery sword will also work for boosting Elemental DMG and any elemental reactions Kirara causes. The Iron Sting, which you can get from the blacksmith in Mondstadt, is a craftable Elemental Mastery weapon that appears early in the game.

4-star weapons

• Sapwood Blade (Energy Recharge) - After triggering Burning, Quicken, Aggravate, Spread, Bloom, Hyperbloom, or Burgeon, a Leaf of Consciousness will be created around the character for a maximum of 10 seconds. When picked up, the Leaf will grant the character 60 Elemental Mastery for 12 seconds. Only 1 Leaf can be generated this way every 20 seconds. This effect can still be triggered if the character is not on the field. The Leaf of Consciousness' effect cannot stack.
• Favonius Sword (Energy Recharge) - CRIT hits have a 60 percent chance to generate a small amount of Elemental Particles, which will regenerate 6 Energy for the character. Can only occur once every 12s.
• Sacrificial Sword (Energy Recharge) - After dealing damage to an opponent with an Elemental Skill, the skill has a 40% chance to end its own CD. Can only occur once every 30 seconds.
• Iron Sting (Elemental Mastery) - Dealing Elemental DMG increases all DMG by 6 percent for 6 seconds. Max 2 stacks. Can only occur once every second.

Kirara’s weapon will also minorly affect which artifact stats to focus on. Here are the best artifacts to use for the HP-hungry nekomata.

Best Artifacts for Kirara

Any artifact set that boosts Kirara’s HP or Dendro DMG is a viable choice. If you want to maximize Kirara’s utility as a shielder, build her HP as much as possible. You can’t go wrong with a two-piece Tenacity of Millelith and Vourukasha’s Glow, or any artifacts with HP as their main stat.

Tenacity of Millelith is also worth considering as a four-piece set. It boosts party members’ attack by 20 percent and increases shield strength, even if Kirara isn’t on the field. It buffs your team as a whole, which is worth more than raising Kirara’s HP just that little bit more. Some content creators like Gacha Gamer also recommend Noblesse Oblige, an artifact that has been in Genshin Impact since its early days. It arguably works as a better option for additionally increasing Kirara’s personal damage and buffing her teammates.

Deepwood Memories boosts damage from Dendro reactions because it decreases Dendro RES as a four-piece set. However, if you use her in a team with a Dendro DPS, give it to the DPS instead.

Tenacity of the Millelith

• 2-Piece: HP +20 percent.
• 4-Piece: When an Elemental Skill hits an opponent, the ATK of all nearby party members is increased by 20 percent and their Shield Strength is increased by 30 percent for 3 seconds. This effect can be triggered once every 0.5 seconds. This effect can still be triggered even when the character who is using this artifact set is not on the field.

Vourukasha's Glow

• 2-Piece: HP +20 percent.
• 4-Piece: Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst DMG will be increased by 10 percent. After the equipping character takes DMG, the aforementioned DMG Bonus is increased by 80 percent for 5 seconds. This effect increase can have 5 stacks. The duration of each stack is counted independently. These effects can be triggered even when the equipping character is not on the field.

Noblesse Oblige

• 2-Piece: Elemental Burst DMG +20 percent.
• 4-Piece: Using an Elemental Burst increases all party members' ATK by 20 percent for 12 seconds. This effect cannot stack.

Deepwood Memories

• 2-Piece: Dendro DMG Bonus +15 percent.
• 4-Piece: After Elemental Skills or Bursts hit opponents, the targets' Dendro RES will be decreased by 30 percent for eight seconds. This effect can be triggered even if the equipping character is not on the field.

Best Artifact Substats for Kirara

As mentioned earlier, HP is Kirara’s favorite stat. A higher HP stat benefits all of the most useful abilities in her kit, mostly related to shielding and Dendro DMG absorption. If you can’t get an Energy Recharge weapon for whatever reason, try to get an Energy Recharge Sands (the hourglass-looking artifact) to reduce the cooldown for her Elemental Burst.