Best Mualani build in Genshin Impact

Surf and destroy.

An image of Mualani in her character trailer, where she is introduced as a guide from Natlan. Shas has blue hair and is surfing on her trusty shark.
Image via HoYoVerse.

Mualani was the first five-star character released alongside the new region, Natlan, in Genshin Impact‘s 5.0 update. As a member of the People of the Springs, Mualani has a deep connection with the ocean and loves to surf around on her companion Sharky.

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If you rolled for this five-star character and are wondering how you should go about upgrading her, here’s everything you need to know about building Mualani in Genshin.

Genshin Impact: Best Mualani build

An image of Mualani dancing next to two capybaras in Genshin Impact.
There is always time for a dance break. Image via HoYoVerse.

Mualani is a Hydro five-star DPS who uses her shark companion to surf around the overworld and launch incredibly powerful nukes of damage in combat. While she wields a Catalyst, the majority of her damage comes from building stacks and unleashing Sharky Surging Bites and Super Shark Missiles with her Elemental Skill and Burst.

Mualani can also use her skill in the overworld to surf just like a Koholasaur, which can be used to complete challenges and find hidden treasure. To unleash Mualani’s full potential, you can upgrade her Weapons, Artifacts, Talents, and Constellations.

Best Mualani Weapons

An image from Genshin Impact of the Surf's Up Weapon, which is used by Mualani.
Which weapon are you using? Screenshot by Dot Esports.

Since Mualani’s damage scales with her max HP, several weapons can increase her damage. You’ll want to focus on options that provide both HP percent and either CRIT Rate or Damage. Here are the best weapons available for Mualani:

  • Surf’s Up (five-star)
  • Tome of Eternal Flow (five-star)
  • A Thousand Floating Dreams (five-star)
  • Sacrificial Jade (four-star)
  • Ring of Yaxche (four-star)

Surf’s Up is Mualani’s best-in-slot option and signature weapon, meaning it’s custom-made to increase Mualani’s damage. Surf’s Up increases your max HP by 20 percent, offers a hefty 88.2 percent CRIT Damage, and increases the damage of Sharky’s attacks by 12 percent.

Tome of Eternal Flow and A Thousand Floating Dreams are two different five-star catalysts made for Neuvillite and Nahida respectively, but they can still perform well on Mualani. Tome of Eternal Flow will increase Mualani’s CRIT damage and HP, while A Thousand Floating Dreams can increase Mualani’s Vaproize damage.

If you would rather save your Primogems and use four-star weapons, then the craftable Ring of Yaxche was just added with the Natlan update. This weapon increases Mualani’s attack damage by 0.6 percent for every 1,000 HP points she has. Finally, Sacrificial Jade‘s a battle pass weapon that increases max HP and Elemental Mastery, but costs $10.

Best Mualani Artifacts

An image of the Obsidian Codex Artifact Set from Genshin Impact. This increases elemental damage and crit rate.
The Obsidian Codex can only be used by characters from Natlan. Screenshot by Dot Esports.

Mualani’s best Artifact Set is by far Obsidian Codex, which can be found in Natlan. This set increases Mualani’s damage by 15 percent when she’s in the Nightsoul’s Blessing state, or surfing on her shark. If you have four pieces of this Artifact Set and are consuming Nightsoul Points by surfing, you’ll also gain a massive 40 percent CRIT Rate increase.

If you have not farmed for Obsidian Codex yet, you can always use either the Heart of Depth or Unfinished Reverie Artifact Sets. These two sets increase your Hydro Damage and Burning Damage, but they do not increase Mualani’s damage as much as Obsidian Codex.

Best Mualani Artifact Substats

Since Mualani scales with HP, prioritize this stat above ATK. This makes Mualani slightly easier to build than other DPS characters, because HP percent Artifacts have a higher drop rate. Here are the Artifact stats you should focus on:

  • Sands: HP percent
  • Goblet: Hydro DMG bonus
  • Circlet: CRIT Rate or CRIT Damage

The HP percent Sands and the Hydro Goblet will greatly increase Mualani’s damage, while building the correct Circlet can max her Crit stats. If you are unable to consistently reach 60 to 80 percent CRIT Rate, prioritize a CRIT Rate Circlet over CRIT Damage. Remember to include the 40 percent CRIT Rate increase from Obsidian Codex when calculating your CRIT ratios.

Best Mualani Talents

An image of Mualani surfing on a shark in Genshin Impact
Mualani loves to surf on land and sea. Image via HoYoVerse.

Since Mualani scales with HP, you’ll want to fully upgrade her to level 90 and increase her talents. Here is the best order to upgrade Mualani’s talents:

  • Character Level 90 = Elemental Skill
  • Elemental Burst
  • Normal Attacks

Mualani’s Sharky bite doesn’t scale with normal attack modifiers, so ignore your Normal Attack talent to save resources. If you can only upgrade one talent, we recommend her Elemental Skill.

Best Mualani Constellations

An image of Mualani using her ultimate explosion in Genshin Impact, knocking around cute penguins.
Mualani always deals explosive damage. Image via HoYoVerse.

Mualani can already dish out massive explosions of damage, but you can increase her potential by unlocking her Constellations. If you have extra Primogems, roll for her first and second Constellations.

Mualani’s first Constellation increases her first Sharky Surging Bite by 66 percent of her max HP and decreases the amount of Nightsoul points she consumes while surfing by 30 percent. Mualani’s second increases her stacks when you collect the puffer fish generated from Sharky’s Surging Bite, essentially allowing her to use an extra Surging Bite every rotation.

If you want to spend everything you have on Mualani, her sixth Constellation’s her strongest power increase, making the buff from her first Constellation apply to all her attacks.

Author
Image of John Wildermuth
John Wildermuth
John is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles and wields a degree in English. He is constantly staying up to date on the latest and greatest games, and has been writing about gaming for over a year now. When he is not playing games, he can be found reading sci-fi and fantasy books or working on ceramics.