Nilou Guide and Best Builds for Genshin Impact

As a support, Nilou's role is to increase the parties' Bloom damage using her unique Bountiful Cores created using Dance of Haftkarsvar with Court of Dancing Petals active. She can function on-field or off-field but due to the nature of how this reaction works, you will often be rotating throughout the entire party to maintain Elemental Application.

BiS Weapon	Key of Khaj-Nisut
Alternative Weapons	The Dockhand's Assistant Freedom-Sworn Xiphos' Moonlight Iron Sting
Best Artifacts	2-piece Tenacity of the Millelith and 2-piece Vourukasha's Glow
Main Stats	Sand Stats: HP % / Energy Recharge Goblet Stats: HP % Circlet Stats: HP %
Substat Priority	HP % to 74,444 HP HP Energy Recharge Elemental Mastery CRIT Rate / DMG
Talent Priority	Elemental Skill Elemental Burst Normal Attack

Nilou is incredibly easy to build, only really requiring HP up to 74,444 which caps her 4th ascension, Dreamy Dance of Aeons.

Key of Khaj-Nisut and The Dockhand's Assistant are significantly better than other weapons due to there being very few options for HP-scaling swords. Because of this, most alternate weapons provide very similar contributions to team DPS.

Energy Recharge requirements entirely depend on whether you plan to use your Elemental Burst, Dance of Abzendegi: Distant Dreams, Listening Spring every rotation or every other. You normally want to burst every other rotation and therefore you want 150-180% Energy Recharge. When building with Triple Hydro teams do not need Elemental Mastery due to Nilou not triggering Bloom.

Nilou's talent levels do not require heavy investing due to the fact that they do not increase Nilou's buff to your parties Bloom damage.

Nilou's Main mechanic centres around the use of her Elemental Skill, Dance of Haftkarsvar. You want to use Dance of Abzendegi: Distant Dreams, Listening Spring every other character rotation but this can vary depending on your Energy Recharge and team compositions.

Nilou's Dance of Haftkarsvar has 2 separate forms, Sword Dance Form and Whirling Steps Form. Ending Nilou's Elemental Skill with a Normal Attack will activate Sword Dance Form, while ending with an Elemental Skill will activate Whirling Steps Form.

Use Whirling Steps to create more Bloom reactions, for example in parties with 2 Hydro characters. Use Sword Dance when they want to minimize Nilou's personal Bloom ownership, such as in parties with 3 Hydro characters.

Nilou excels in Bloom compositions due to her niche kit, making her incredibly powerful in that niche but less powerful outside of it. Due to Nilou's Chalice's Bounty, created by Court of Dancing Petals, the entire party should consist of only Dendro and Hydro characters. This means you can either run 2 Hydro and 2 Dendro characters or 3 Hydro and 1 Dendro characters. 1 Hydro would not be enough Elemental Application.

Main DPS	Sub DPS	Sub DPS	Support
Nahida	Nilou	Yelan	Baizhu
Alhaitham	Nilou	Yelan	Yaoyao
Nahida	Nilou	Dendro Traveler	Sangonomiya Kokomi

2-Hydro teams can generally make more Bountiful Cores than 3-Hydro teams but can make it difficult to know who in the party is actually triggering the Bloom. Therefore, your entire party should build Elemental Mastery to increase Bloom damage and therefore your DPS.

Main DPS	Sub DPS	Sub DPS	Support
Nahida	Nilou	Yelan	Sangonomiya Kokomi
Alhaitham	Nilou	Xingqiu	Barbara

Having 3 Hydro and 1 Dendro characters in your team ensures that all Bountiful Cores come from your on-field Dendro character such as Nahida or Alhaitham allowing you to focus your builds more effectively. This however does mean there will be less reactions and Bountiful Cores.