Genshin is known for its wonderful cast of characters and its dynamic, element-based combat system. With seven elements available, you’re able to create a variety of reactions that help you hit huge damage numbers. Pyro is one of the most popular elements since it’s part of the strongest reactions, vaporize and melt, and Pyro characters are some of the most well-designed and likable characters in the game.
With eleven characters to choose from, it can be hard to decide who to add to your party. While each of them has something different to bring to the team, some are more useful than others. This list will rank the worst and best of the Pyro element to help you make your decision.
12 Xinyan
Rock and Roll star Xinyan is a musician from Liyue who is as bold and brash as the genre she plays. While she is fun and endearing as a character, her skills in the game make her a little forgettable. She provides a shield for the team and can do some good burst damage, but she doesn’t excel in either aspect.
Other characters have better shields and do better damage with less investment. Not to mention that she’s meant to be a physical DPS, which is probably the weakest damage type.
11 Amber
Everyone gets Amber for free when they start the game, so in that aspect, she’s great. However, as one of the first playable characters in the game, she is definitely a victim of being a tutorial character.
Unless you play her in a specific way, her DPS output is quite low, and it takes significantly more investment to make her work than other characters. Still, she was the face of Genshin when it was first released, which should count for something.
10 Dehya
Sumeru’s strongest mercenary Dehya slammed her way onto the roster with a completely new mechanic in Genshin Impact. Damage mitigation is usually done through shields, but Dehya can provide that utility without one, using her own health in place of her teammates. You’re encouraged to maximize her health, so she can absorb more damage.
Unfortunately, the rest of her kit is very aggressive and requires her Attack stat to be high as well. Being stuck between defense and damage, she ends up being kind of mediocre.
9 Yanfei
The lawyer from Liyue is quite the force to be reckoned with. Yanfei uses a catalyst and charged attacks to literally explode the enemy. The problem is she needs a little wind-up before she’s full power, which means at least three normal attacks before doing your charged attack. Luckily both her skills help fix that problem, keeping her at full power more often.
However, if you don’t like her as a DPS, she can be a decent shielder at Constellation Four, which gives her a shield when she uses her Burst.
8 Klee
The Knights of Favonius have a bomb problem in the form of Klee, a little girl with too much expertise in explosives. With her skill, she throws out Jumpty-Dumpty, which explodes into even more bombs, and her Ultimate automatically shoots fire at enemies in her way. What she can do is amazing, but despite that, you may find her hard to play.
Since she’s just a little kid, she can’t throw her bombs far, so her range is very small. As a catalyst user, that can be difficult to deal with. Not only that but to get the most out of her, you’ll need to learn some animation canceling, which can be more effort than it’s worth.
7 Diluc
Diluc is your average guy with a sword, but he can set his sword on fire. Since he’s been around from the beginning of the game, he’s been outpaced by many other 5-star Pyro characters, but that doesn’t mean he’s bad. Diluc is comfortable to play with a kit that’s easy to understand.
While his numbers may not be the biggest, he is one of the most consistent damage dealers available. He’s also been available on the standard banner since launch, so your chances to get him are a little higher than other 5-stars.
6 Thoma
This housekeeper was quite lackluster on release. Thoma was originally presented as another Pyro shield character with the unique feature of being able to stack shields. However, many other shielders were available, so he was left unused by most players.
With the addition of Dendro, Thoma quickly climbed in popularity since he could achieve Burgeon very consistently. This reaction requires Pyro to hit Dendro cores to do huge AOE damage, and Thoma can release waves of fire with each swing. All you need to do is build him with Elemental Mastery and add him to your team.
5 Yoimiya
When it comes to Pyro DPS, Yoimiya is one of the best for bosses. This firework-loving archer can quickly take down enemies by infusing her arrows with fire. Something you must know, however, is she needs to complete her normal attack combo to achieve her best damage.
Unfortunately, She has very low resistance to interruption, so you’ll almost always need a shield for her. This limits the teams you can put her on, but it’s honestly worth it once you see her in action.
4 Lyney
Introduced in Fontaine, Lyney is another great Pyro archer who uses his magic props to empower his charged attacks. His Grin-Malkin Hats can taunt enemies and explode to do massive damage, and as far as damage scaling goes, his charged attacks are comparable to Ganyu’s.
His play style doesn’t require perfect aim. As long as you hit near the enemy the Grin-Malkin Hats will do the rest of the work. Just make sure you have shield while you charge your shots.
3 Hu Tao
Pyro is the element commonly associated with the Attack stat. Hu Tao breaks the mold by being health-focused. By sacrificing her own HP, she can get an attack boost based on her maximum health pool, reaching values that would be impossible otherwise.
This also makes her much easier to build than other characters since artifacts are more likely to roll in favor of HP. She can easily do big damage with less investment than other DPS characters. However, without her first Constellation, she can be a little difficult to use.
2 Xiangling
By completing Floor 3 of Spiral Abyss you get a free Xiangling, which is great since she’s the best off-field damage character in the game. She can put Guoba on the field for quick Pyro application, and her Pyronado is active even if she’s not on the field. Creating reactions is easy with Xiangling, and more reactions equals more damage.
She’s an easy character to build, and even at a low investment, you’ll see a huge spike in damage. She’s definitely someone you’ll want on your team.
1 Bennett
When it comes to character you need to use, Bennett as number one. The reason is his ultimate ability. For a short period of time, Bennett creates a field that will heal your active character and give them an attack boost while they stand in it. That boost can add hundreds of points to your character’s attack stat.
Bennett provides more value than any other support character in the game, and adding him to any team will double the damage you do. He’s essentially the complete package, and you should definitely use him.