Nahida

Normal Attack: "Performs up to 4 attacks that deal Dendro DMG to opponents in front of her."

Nahida’s normal attack is typical of other catalyst users. The keyboard and mouse motif is amusing because she's the avatar of Irminsul; a metaphorical supercomputer.

The normal attack is very low priority. It only scales with attack while the rest of her kit scales with Elemental Mastery.

Energy Cost: 50 "Manifests the Court of Dreams and expands the Shrine of Maya."

"When the Shrine of Maya field is unleashed, the following effects will be separately unleashed based on the Elemental Types present within the party.

·Pyro: While Nahida remains within the Shrine of Maya, the DMG dealt by Tri-Karma Purification from "All Schemes to Know" is increased.

·Electro: While Nahida remains within the Shrine of Maya, the interval between each Tri-Karma Purification from "All Schemes to Know" is decreased.

·Hydro: The Shrine of Maya's duration is increased."

"If there are at least 2 party members of the aforementioned Elemental Types present when the field is deployed, the aforementioned effects will be increased further."

"Even if Nahida is not on the field, these bonuses will still take effect so long as party members are within the Shrine of Maya."

On its own, Nahida’s Burst does only one thing: buffs her Skill’s damage based on her teammates’ element. But be aware only Pyro, Hydro, or Electro have any effect. Later on, we’ll cover her Talent, which greatly enhances it.

Leveling Illusory Heart is a good use of resources, but it’s not a major priority compared to other teammates’ Talents. Leveling up only affects the buffs to her Skill, and not the extra buffs provided by her Passive.

On All Things Meditated

"Nahida can use All Schemes to Know to interact with some harvestable items within a fixed AoE. This skill may even have some other effects..."

On All Things Meditated is extremely unique. Not only does it pick up hard-to-reach harvestable items, it also reads the minds of Sumeru NPCs. Currently, the dialogue is limited to NPCs in Sumeru’s overworld, quests, and events. It’s highly unlikely to extend to future nations, like Fontaine.

Compassion Illuminated

"When unleashing Illusory Heart, the Shrine of Maya will gain the following effects:
The Elemental Mastery of the active character within the field will be increased by 25% of the Elemental Mastery of the party member with the highest Elemental Mastery. You can gain a maximum of 250 Elemental Mastery in this manner."

Compassion Illuminated adds a teamwide buff to Nahida’s Burst. She grants the entire team up to 250 Elemental Mastery, which is the largest EM buff to date. Not only does EM increase reaction damage, it also increases the raw damage of Skills that scales off it, like Nahida’s own.

Awakening Elucidated

"Each point of Nahida's Elemental Mastery beyond 200 will grant 0.1% Bonus DMG and 0.03% CRIT Rate to Tri-Karma Purification from All Schemes to Know. A maximum of 80% Bonus DMG and 24% CRIT Rate can be granted to Tri-Karma Purification in this manner."

Awakening Elucidated further encourages Nahida to build Elemental Mastery. Every 33 EM above 200 gives her 1% Crit Rate and 3.3% Dendro DMG. 1,000 Elemental Mastery is needed to gain the maximum bonus of 24% Crit and 80% Dendro DMG.

Nahida has excellent internal synergy with her Passive Talents and Burst. When considering her 1st passive, she only needs 800 Elemental Mastery to reach the 1,000 EM mark. When standing in the field created by her Burst, she gains 25% of 800, which is 200 EM.

"When the Shrine of Maya is unleashed and the Elemental Types of the party members are being tabulated, the count will add 1 to the number of Pyro, Electro, and Hydro characters respectively."

The Seed of Stored Knowledge theoretically allows Nahida to build more flexible teams. But in reality, it’s just a minor personal buff. The flexibility doesn’t extend too far as she still only wants teammates of Pyro, Hydro, or Electro.

"Opponents that are marked by Seeds of Skandha applied by Nahida herself will be affected by the following effects:
·Burning, Bloom, Hyperbloom, and Burgeon Reaction DMG they receive can score CRIT Hits. CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG are fixed at 20% and 100% respectively.
·Within 8s of being affected by Quicken, Aggravate, Spread, DEF is decreased by 30%."

Nahida’s 2nd Constellation seems like a complicated boost to reaction damage, but it’s fairly simple. Burning, Bloom, Hyperbloom, and Burgeon have a 20% chance to deal double damage. This comes to an average 20% damage buff for those reactions.

The second part is more powerful, as it reduces enemy defenses when affected by Quicken, Aggravate, or Spread. This DEF decrease affects most sources of damage, including some reactions and Skills.

The Root of All Fullness is the best stopping point if going for Constellations.

"Increases the Level of All Schemes to Know by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15."

Constellation 3 increases Nahida’s Skill level.

"When 1/2/3/4 (or more) nearby opponents are affected by All Schemes to Know's Seeds of Skandha, Nahida's Elemental Mastery will be increased by 100/120/140/160."

Nahida’s 4th Constellation is a minor personal buff. There isn’t anything special or spectacular about it.

"Increases the Level of Illusory Heart by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15."

The Leaves of Enlightening Speech is a Burst level-up.

"When Nahida hits an opponent affected by All Schemes to Know's Seeds of Skandha with Normal or Charged Attacks after unleashing Illusory Heart, she will use Tri-Karma Purification: Karmic Oblivion on this opponent and all connected opponents, dealing Dendro DMG based on 200% of Nahida's ATK and 400% of her Elemental Mastery."

"DMG dealt by Tri-Karma Purification: Karmic Oblivion is considered Elemental Skill DMG and can be triggered once every 0.2s."

"This effect can last up to 10s and will be removed after Nahida has unleashed 6 instances of Tri-Karma Purification: Karmic Oblivion."

The Fruit of Reason’s Culmination turns Nahida into an on-field nuker. To put this into perspective, this new attack hits harder than her Skill at level 10. But there are several requirements.

First, Nahida has to use her burst. Then mark enemies with her Skill. And finally, deal damage to them with her normal or charged attacks.

Tl;dr is Teammate set up -> Nahida Burst -> Skill -> Normal/Charged 6 times -> Repeat.

A Thousand Floating Dreams

Nahida’s signature weapon is her best-in-slot. It has the highest Elemental Mastery sub-stat available, and further enhances her stats based on the team’s elemental type.

Kagura's Verity

Kagura’s Verity is a great option as well. It swaps Elemental Mastery for Crit DMG, which is Nahida’s 2nd most important stat. Although it does take Nahida a bit longer to obtain maximum stacks, compared to Yae Miko, she still reaches it with relative ease.

The Widsith

The Widsith is the 4* version of Kagura’s Verity. It performs similarly, but has lower uptime on the passive. The 10-second up-time, 20-second down-time is a major drawback.

Mappa Mare

Mappa Mare is the 4* version of A Thousand Floating Dreams. It has less overall stats, but it’s craftable.

Sands of Eon

Elemental Mastery on the Sands pieces is the best choice, no matter what weapon Nahida is using. Use an EM Sands even if it has sub-optimal substats.

Goblet of Eonothem

The Goblet piece should also be Elemental Mastery for most players. The only time Dendro DMG% should be considered is when Nahida has already reached 800 Elemental Mastery without it. And even then, getting to 1,000 EM is more beneficial since it’ll boost her teamwide buff by another 50 EM.

Circlet of Logos

Running either a Crit DMG% or Elemental Mastery Circlet depends on the equipped weapon. Use Crit DMG% if running an EM substat weapon. And use EM if running a Crit DMG or RATE% weapon.

Sub Stats

Elemental Mastery is Nahida’s first stat to focus on. She has two marks to reach; 800 and 1,000. At 800 EM, she’ll provide 200 EM to herself and her team when unleashing her Burst. This will bump her up to the 1,000 mark, granting her the maximum 24% Crit Rate and 80% Dendro DMG from her other Talent.

The 1,000 mark won’t grant her any additional Crit Rate or Dendro DMG%, but it will provide herself and her team an additional 50 EM, maxing it out at 250.

First, decide which benchmark you’ll strive to reach. Then play with artifact bonuses, sub-stats, weapon subs, and artifact main stats. Remember, Nahida gains 115 EM from leveling up, and each artifact's main stat gives an additional 186.

After Elemental Mastery, Nahida’s 2nd focus will likely be Crit DMG%. She gains 24% Crit Rate from her Talent, so there’ll need to be more Crit DMG% stats to reach the perfect 1:2 ratio.

Energy Recharge% can be added last after a good Crit ratio has been achieved.

2-Pieces: "Dendro DMG Bonus +15%."
4-Pieces: "After Elemental Skills or Bursts hit opponents, the targets' Dendro RES will be decreased by 30% for 8s. This effect can be triggered even if the equipping character is not on the field."

Nahida has two remarkable artifact sets available, each with simple reasons to use one over the other.

If no one on the team is equipped with Deepwood Memories, use it as Nahida’s set. The 30% Dendro RES shred is invaluable. Since Dendro can’t be swirled by Anemo, it can’t be reduced with Viridescent Venerer.

2-Pieces: " Increases Elemental Mastery by 80."
4-Pieces: "Within 8s of triggering an Elemental Reaction, the character equipping this will obtain buffs based on the Elemental Type of the other party members. ATK is increased by 14% for each party member whose Elemental Type is the same as the equipping character, and Elemental Mastery is increased by 50 for every party member with a different Elemental Type. Each of the aforementioned buffs will count up to 3 characters. This effect can be triggered once every 8s. The character who equips this can still trigger its effects when not on the field."

Use Gilded Dreams when another teammate has Deepwood Memories equipped. This set will increase her overall damage more in this situation.

Nahida’s extremely high Dendro application allows her to be the solo Dendro unit to great effect. She can be paired with another Dendro character, but it’s usually to enhance their damage and not her own.

Sometimes Anemo can be an exception, since they swirl a chain reaction of elemental reactions. But most of the time, just running an additional Pyro, Hydro, or Electro unit is better.