Varesa Build Guide

Overload

Varesa + Iansan + 2 of:

Chevreuse / Mavuika / Durin / Nicole

Generally Varesa’s best team in almost all situations.

• Iansan is almost always Varesa’s best partner, she is exceptionally difficult to replace. Activating Electro resonance is necessary for Varesa’s ER requirements, and Iansan’s buffs alongisde Scroll of the Hero of Cinder City are extremely difficult to find in other units. Fischl can slot in this slot with other Hexerei units for her (much less effective) buffing and extra Energy, but she will rarely, if ever, be as good.
  
• Chevreuse is The Overload unit. If you already have Durin in the team and if Chevreuse is not at C6, Nicole ends up being a fantastic alternative – she’s already quite close to C6 Chevreuse at C0R0.
• Durin: Great Varesa partner thanks to his self-sufficient Energy and RES Shred. Without another Hexerei set he can’t use Celestial Gift, which can be annoying.
• Mavuika can be as good as Durin in this slot, and even sometimes better if you can perform her Buffer Cancels or have Iansan's C6.
• Nicole will typically be used in place of Chevreuse alongside Durin, though Fischl can be alright. She can hold the very powerful Celestial Gift and will significantly increase Durin's damage

Example Rotation

( Varesa Skill + Plunge to open the fight )

1. Durin Skill + Skill + Burst ( Light Mode )
   →
2. Chevreuse Hold Skill ( + Burst with Noblesse Oblige )
   →
3. Iansan Skill + Burst
   →
4. Varesa on-field combo

Other Teams Varesa can be used in:

Lunar-Charged

Varesa - Columbina - Ineffa Xilonen or Iansan

Can be decent against content that highly incentivizes Electro-Charged / Lunar-Charged, but Varesa is not the best choice for the team almost ever. She receives very few buffs and provides little damage in return.

Xianyun Plunge

Varesa + Xianyun + 2 of:

Iansan / Furina / Columbina / Ineffa / Xilonen

Can be an okay alternative if lacking any of the strong Pyro supports. It will very rarely be better without at least a few Constellations on some of its members, but it can do the job against certain endgame scenarios.

BiS Option: Vivid Notions

Varesa's Signature and by far best option. Crit DMG secondary is ideal due to the Crit Rate given by Obsidian Codex, and the extra Crit DMG in the weapon passive is even better. An overall very strong weapon that will easily outpace other 5 star options, and 4 star or free options by up to 25-30%

Limited 5 star alternatives:

Reliquary of Truth

Nefer's Signature has a very strong statline and lots of Crit, making it a decent option even if Varesa can’t use its passive. Often her 2nd best option, though still a good bit behind Vivid Notions by about 15%.

Other 5 star Crit catalysts:

Generally various degrees of decent. Weapons that provide a good amount of Crit or ATK will be highly preferred.

Standard 5 star option: Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds

A good option if you’re able to manage its high Crit Rate. The DMG% stacks can actually be fairly useful, so refinements can make it deceptively strong. About as good as some of the limited 5 stars. Far outpaces the other Standard Banner option in Skyward Atlas, as Varesa receives quite a bit of ATK in her Overload teams.

Best 4 star option: The Widsith

Generally her best 4* option. Crit DMG secondary coupled with a usually powerful effect make it as good as some 5* options.

Free option: Blackcliff Agate

Her best technically “free” option, but not good.

BiS Option: Obsidian Codex

Varesa’s clear best-in-slot by a humongous gap. There is little reason to use anything else, especially seeing as Varesa’s best teams will almost always carry a Scroll of the Cinder City holder. It’s available in the strongbox, making it not particularly difficult to farm for.

2p2p combos: Will hold you over fine until you farm a good Obsidian Codex set, but please do that.

1. Normal Attack
2. Elemental Burst
3. Elemental Skill

All of Varesa's talents contain some of her damage. Her main source of damage is her Plunges, and even though she mainly accesses them through her Elemental Skill, the scaling is in the Normal Attack Talent. Her Burst Talent contains the scaling of her mini-Bursts, and the Skill contains the Skill hits. Skill is the least important, but still can be a bit of an increase.

Overview

Varesa’s gameplay loop revolves around using her Elemental Skill to access her strong Plunge Attacks, using those to gain Nightsoul and enter her special ‘Fiery Passion’ state to access her special ‘mini’ Burst. She will generally perform loops of 2-3 Plunge Attacks followed by a mini Burst if she has the Energy to cast it.

Nightsoul Points & Fiery Passion state

Varesa has a Nightsoul Point Limit of 40. She’s able to gain Nightsoul Points through either using her Plunging Attacks, regardless of how they were accessed, or using the Tap version of her Elemental Skill while not in the Fiery Passion state. Each Plunging Attack will give Varesa 25 Nightsoul Points, and each Tap Skill will give her 20.

When Varesa reaches 40 Nightsoul points, she will enter the Fiery Passion state. This is also achieved by using her regular Elemental Burst, which is not recommended.

In the Fiery Passion state, Varesa will gain an additional ‘free’ Tap cast of her Elemental Skill. If Varesa plunges while in the Fiery Passion state, she will consume all of her Nightsoul Points, deal increased damage and enter the ‘Apex Drive’ state. While in ‘Apex Drive’, Varesa gains access to her special ‘mini’ Burst, Volcano Kablam.

Varesa also gains special Normal Attacks during her Fiery Passion state, although they will generally go entirely unused.

Special Charged Attack & Ascension Passives

Varesa has access to a unique Charged Attack. After a short charge-up period, she will deal a bit of damage to enemies and leap up into the air, enabling her to use her Plunging Attacks. Since she won’t be in her Fiery Passion state, this attack will deal less damage; Varesa will also need 2 of these Plunging Attacks in order to max out her Nightsoul Gauge, as she will gain 25 / 40 Nightsoul Points..

Varesa’s Ascension 1 will also further strengthen the damage these Plunge Attacks deal, while her Ascension 4 will give her a 35 ATK% buff with essentially permanent uptime.

Elemental Skill

Varesa’s Elemental Skill has a Tap and a Hold version. The Hold version is generally exploration only, and not particularly useful in combat. The Tap version will have her dash a short distance forward and deal damage to enemies in her path. Varesa will also gain 20 Nightsoul points, and if she uses her Normal Attack button she will instead unleash an instant version of her unique Charged Attack, launching her into the air and allowing her to Plunge.

After completing a Skill → Plunge sequence while not in any of her special states, Varesa will max out her Nightsoul and thus enter the Fiery Passion state.

Whenever Varesa enters Fiery Passion by any means, she will also generate an extra charge of her Skill with the same properties. This extra Charge will be consumed if Varesa doesn’t use it after 15 seconds, alongside the Fiery Passion state. It is possible for Varesa to enter Fiery Passion, switch out, and switch back while still in it.

If she hits an enemy with this Skill cast, Varesa will generate 2 or 3 Electro Particles, 50% chance for both. This Skill has a cooldown of 9 seconds.

Elemental Burst & Apex Drive

Varesa’s Elemental Burst has two modes of casting. One is only available while not in Apex Drive mode and comes with a regular 5* Burst animation. It has a cooldown of 18 seconds and an Energy cost of 70. While strong, it is never worth using over her second mode of using Burst without certain Constellations.

Unlike Fiery Passion, Varesa will not maintain the Apex Drive state if she switches out.

The second is only available while in Apex Drive mode, and is much faster. It costs 30 Energy and has no cooldown – in fact, Varesa can use this special Burst as many times as she wants, with the only limitation being entering Apex Drive.

Gameplay Loop

Varesa’s combos and rotation loops generally plays out like so:

Build Nightsoul → enter Fiery Passion → consume Nightsoul and enter Apex Drive → use the special Burst → repeat

What this looks like in practice:

Elemental Skill + Normal Attack + Plunging Attack → Elemental Skill + Normal Attack + Plunging Attack → Elemental Burst → repeat

Alternatively, to skip using Skill Charges:

Charge Attack → Plunging Attack → Charge Attack → Plunging Attack → Elemental Skill + Plunging Attack → Elemental Burst → repeat

Detailed Combos

With the above information, Varesa’s gameplay loop over a full rotation will generally look like so:

build Nightsoul → enter Fiery Passion → switch out and set up with your supports → consume Nightsoul and enter Apex Drive → special Burst → repeat once → build Nightsoul for the next rotation

What this looks like in practice:

Elemental Skill + Plunging Attack → switch out and set up with supports → Elemental Skill + Plunging Attack → Elemental Burst → 2 * (Elemental Skill + Plunging Attack) → Elemental Burst → 2* (Charged Attack → Plunging Attack)

Varesa was officially released as a playable 5-star Electro character in Genshin Impact on March 26, 2025, during the Version 5.5 update.