Xiao is a powerful main DPS inGenshin Impactand, with the right team composition, he can dish out a good amount of damage during your travels in Teyvat. If luck has been on your side, and you’ve managed to add him to your team, then there are a few tips we have to share to get the most out of Xiao.

If you’re using Xiao for battling through the quests of Genshin Impact, you’ll have no trouble dishing out damage to the various bosses with a simple team build. But, if you’re enlisting Xiao for the Spiral Abyss, then you’ll benefit from spending time on a more robust team.

A split image from Genshin Impact of Jean, Baizhu, Charolette, and Xianyun, who are all healers that can heal the entire team’s HP at once.

Best Roles For A Xiao Team

Xiao is a 5-star polearm-wielding Anemocharacter who resides in Wangshu Inn in Liyue. With his talents,he’s only really suited as a main DPS for combat- although he offers a lot of mobility that works well for exploration.

As Xiao is a main DPS, he works best by havingamix of support and sub-DPS characterswaiting in the wings to make him do even more damage. Once you’vebuilt Xiao to a good standard, you’re ready to pick out who else is going to be on your team.

Faruzan from Genshin Impact in the House of Daena

The characters in this guide allow for a variety of different compositions, meaningno matter if you’re a free-to-play player or a collector of 5 stars, there’ll be something for you.

Not all main DPS characters need a healer to survive, but as Xiao deals damage to himself during his Elemental Bursthe needs someone to help out and either heal or shield him.With his Burst being the window in which you can deal most of your damage, it’s also helpful to havecharacters who can get as manyElemental Particlesas possible.

Raiden Shogun using her Elemental Skill in Inazuma in Genshin Impact.

Thirdly, with Xiao being an Anemo character, Elemental Reactions are pretty easy to pull off. TheSwirl reactioncan be triggered bymixingAnemo with Pyro,Electro,Hydro, or Cryo- widening the pool of characters you’re able to choose from even more.

Faruzan

You may think at first that another Anemo character won’t necessarily boost Xiao’s arrack. However, Faruzan is a fantastic addition to a Xiao team becauseher Elemental Burstreduces enemies' Anemo resistance. Furthermore, if you have her C6, it increasesCrit Damage of your team by 40 percentwhen they deal Anemo damage.

With this in mind, if you’re running an Anemo team, then Faruzan at C6 needs to be a part of it.

Xianyun from Genshin Impact on Mt. Aocang

With Faruzan’s C6 on your team, Xiao can easily hit over100,000 damage.

Raiden

The Raiden Shogun isn’t just the formidable Electro Archon’s puppet, she’s also arguablythemost versatile character in the game. Whilst Raiden isn’t the very best choice of a sub-DPS for Xiao,she allows for a pretty fluid and easy rotation.

Her Baleful Omenskill allows for almost permanent Swirl reaction uptime on enemies, as well as increasing the damage of Xiao’s Burst depending on the Energy Cost of Raiden’s Elemental Burst during the Baleful Omen’s duration.

Furina hugging her Hydro Summon, Surintendante Chevalmarin in Genshin Impact.

If you have Raiden at C4,her Musou Isshin phase ending will increase your party’s ATK by30 percent for ten seconds. Whilst this is a really strong buff for Xiao, it does mean having to switch out of using him and onto Raiden to use her Burst - something that isn’t optimal for using Xiao.

Raiden’s C6 allows each hit in her Musou Isshin phase toreduce your nearby teammate’s Burst cooldown byone second.Similar to her C4, this is a good buff for allowing Xiao to use his Burst more frequently - but it then means more time spent using Raiden and less time with Xiao.

Jean from Genshin Impact outside Mondstadt

Xianyun

Not only is Xianyun a Cloud Retainer in human form, but she’s alsoa formidable Anemosub-DPS and Healer. Her skillset revolves aroundboosting plunging damage, particularly if you have her best in-slot weapon. If you’re looking to boost the damage that Xiao does, then Xiangyun is a very good choice.

Although Xiao’s Elemental Burst already increases his jump height, Xianyunprovides continuous healing with herBurst,which heightens Xiao’s strength as he continuously harms himself.

Bennett from Genshin Impact using his Elemental Skill

If you really want to get the full potential out of a Xiao and Xianyun team,you need Xianyun’s weapon. If you have this, it increases the plunging damage for everyone in your team after Xianyun uses her Elemental Skill.

If you’ve managed to get C1 of Xianyun,you gettwo charges of her Elemental Skill, which means even more damage as you can stack the effect. At C2, Xianyun can increase the Plunging Damage of her teammates even more (by 400 percent of Xianyun’s Attack). Furthermore, Xianyun’s C4 heals Xiao even more when achieving plunging damage.

Sucrose from Genshin Impact at an Alchemist’s Crafting Bench

To sum up, Xianyun at C0 can boost Xiao by a good degree, but Xianyun at C4 unlocks the absolute fullest potential: healing Xiao during his burst, boosting his damage twofold, and allowing an additional charge for all of this.

Furina

Furina is a necessity for most characters due to her ease ofHyrdo application,as well as the wide area for her healing. However, for Xiao teams,Furina works best as your healer- as opposed to a sub-DPS.

Xiao moves around a lot during his moveset, especially so during his Burst - therefore, a healer such as Furina is superior to Kokomi due to her large area in which she can heal. If you have Furina’s C2, it increases both the Team’s DPS and the teambuilding flexibility - due to her being able to grant Fanfare points more easilygiving Xiao 100 percent damage bonus.

Genshin Impact - Zhongli quest

You don’t necessarily need Furnia’s C2, but if you do, it will give an even bigger damage bonus for Xiaio.

Jean

Jean is a good addition to any team due toherElemental Burst healing and crowd control. In a Xiao team, you can use her at C0 in order topush your enemies to the location you need themin and then use her Burst to heal Xiao as he goes to town on their health.

However,he will needanother element present beyond Jeanto maximise the Swirl elemental reaction.

Bennett

There’s not too much to be said about our resident damage booster, Bennett, as he works so well with so many teams. With Xiao, in particular,he works best using hisElemental Burst just before Xiao uses his Burstto take advantage of the amount ofSwirl damagethat Xiao does.

Luckily, Bennett’s constellation does not need to be fully unlocked to utilise his damage-boosting properties. On the other hand,you will need to level him up to match the rest of your teamto fully reap the benefits of his damage-boosting Elemental Burst.

Sucrose

As a support, Faruzan is the superior choice. However, if you haven’t been lucky enough to get her, thenSucrose can make things easier for you if you’re looking for crowd control. You don’t need to even build her out becauseher Elemental Skill allows you to group enemies togetherfor Xiao to destroy them once in his Elemental Burst state.

Zhongli

If you’ve managed to pull the five-star Geo archon, then you’ll know thathe can act as an impenetrable shield for your team. Having someone like this in your party means that Xiao can use his Burst and not have to worry about dying due to self-injury.

However, if you really want to maximise this then you’ll need Zhongli’s C3 to get shields for your whole party -although this is in co-op only.