Hu Tao is a 5-star Pyro Polearm DPS in Genshin Impact. Here are the best weapons, artifacts, and teams to create more business for our funeral director.
Playstyles
Hu Tao is an on-field DPS. Her Skill sacrifices some of her own HP to infuse her Normal and Charged Attacks with Pyro. This HP drain is actually important, since her Ascension 4 passive grants her a 33% Pyro DMG Bonus when she is below 50% HP. Her Burst heals back some of her HP and deals one big hit of Pyro damage.
Start your rotation by setting up your supports. Swap to Hu Tao, use her Skill, and spam your Charged Attack combo of choice. If her health is low, use her Burst to heal back up.
Hu Tao’s main source of damage is her Vaporized Charged Attacks. You can choose between two attack combos (N1C or N2C) and two animation cancels (dash or jump). If you’re not interested in learning mechanics, you can simply spam Charged Attacks with no cancels, but Hu Tao’s performance scales significantly with player skill. Once you get some practice with cancels, she’ll start feeling a lot better to play.
N1C vs N2C attack combos
N1C stands for 1 Normal Attack followed by a Charged Attack. In practical gameplay, this manifests as spamming Charged Attacks, since the Normal Attack happens automatically while you hold down the attack key. This combo lets you perform more Charged Attacks, but comes at a greater stamina cost.
N2C stands for 2 Normal Attacks followed by a Charged Attack. This means you click once to do one Normal Attack, then hold to do another Normal followed by a Charged Attack. This combo helps conserve stamina, and I generally recommend N2C for most situations.
Dash vs jump cancels
After each Charged Attack, there is a fraction of a second where Hu Tao finishes her animation and cannot perform another attack. You can cancel out of this by either dashing or jumping as soon as Hu Tao deals her Charged Attack damage.
Dash canceling tends to be faster and more intuitive, but it comes at a massive stamina cost. Stamina is already a precious resource since Charged Attacks consume stamina too.
Jump canceling can be a bit tougher, but is more stamina-efficient. Use this when you want to conserve stamina.
Weapons
Staff of Homa
Hu Tao’s signature weapon and her best-in-slot. It’s one of the better weapons to pull for if you pull on the weapon banner at all.
Staff of Scarlet Sands / Primordial Jade Winged-Spear
These 5-star options are still good if you happen to have them.
Deathmatch / Ballad of the Fjords
The battle pass weapons are actually quite good on Hu Tao. Deathmatch’s buff depends on how many enemies you are against and Ballad of the Fjords’ passive is only active if you have three different elements in your team.
Dragon’s Bane
This is Hu Tao’s go-to if you don’t want to pull on the weapon banner or pay for the battle pass. It performs decently well for a 4-star.
White Tassel
This 3-star Polearm is an option for those who have none of the above. It can be found in chests around Liyue.
Artifacts
4pc Crimson Witch of Flames (4CW) / 4pc Shimenawa’s Reminiscence (4SR)
These two 4pc sets perform similarly, though 4SR comes with the drawback of draining Hu Tao’s Energy. Farm whichever is most efficient for you.
4pc Gilded Dreams (4GD)
4GD gives Hu Tao a metric boatload of Elemental Mastery, depending on her team. While not quite as potent as the two sets above, it’s still perfectly fine to use if you’d rather farm this domain instead.
2pc combos
If all else fails, you can mix and match 2pc sets with Elemental Mastery, HP, Pyro DMG Bonus, and Normal/Charged Attack Bonus.
Artifact Stats
| Sands | Goblet | Circlet |
| Elemental Mastery HP | Pyro DMG | CRIT Rate/DMG |
Hu Tao’s Burst is generally used as an emergency heal, so you don’t need to go out of your way to achieve a certain Energy Recharge threshold.
Hu Tao’s stats should be a mix of CRIT, Elemental Mastery, and HP. ATK is still good, but HP is more important since it grants a bigger buff from her Skill and helps mitigate the effects of her HP drain.
Teams
Hu Tao excels in Vaporize teams. These teams feature one or two Hydro units (usually Xingqiu and/or Yelan) that apply Hydro to enemies. Provided a consistent Hydro aura, Hu Tao can trigger Vaporize with her Charged Attacks for big damage. You can try other teams like Burgeon or Pure Pyro, but Vaporize generally has the best results.
Here are some example teams you can try out or use as a starting point.
- Hu Tao – Xingqiu – Yelan – shielder
Combining Xingqiu and Yelan results in a potent double Hydro core that deals substantial DPS on top of ensuring a permanent Hydro aura on enemies. The shielder can be practically anyone who provides interruption resistance and damage mitigation. - Hu Tao – Xingqiu/Yelan – Albedo – Zhongli
This team requires multiple limited 5-stars, but if you have them, you can’t go wrong with double Geo. Geo Resonance buffs Hu Tao’s damage and Albedo is a decent off-field DPS when paired with Zhongli. - Hu Tao – Xingqiu/Yelan – Kazuha/Sucrose – Pyro
Adding a 4pc Viridescent Venerer holder like Kazuha or Sucrose can boost Hu Tao’s damage quite a bit. These two also offer additional buffs that benefit Hu Tao. The second Pyro teammate is there to apply Pyro for Kazuha/Sucrose to Swirl before you swap to Hu Tao. Your defensive options for this slot include Thoma, Yanfei (C4), and Dehya. Amber is a niche choice, but if she equips Elegy for the End, she can use her Burst to activate the weapon’s passive. She provides no defensive utility though, so use at your own risk.
C6R5 Hu Tao images courtesy of lychee.mochi
