Genshin Impact 3.5: Shenhe Complete Build Guide

Shenhe is a 5-star Cryo Polearm Character in Genshin Impact. She is the best Cryo support in the game so far, with the ability to buff Cryo DMG and RES shred. With Ganyu and Ayaka being top tier, people have been using Shenhe in many team comps. With her Phys Shred, she can also support physical builds with Eula as well.

In this article, Gurugamer.com is going to showcase a complete Genshin Impact 3.5 Shenhe build guide.

1. Shenhe Talent Priority & Constellations

Talent Priority

E>Q, AA can remain unleveled

Shenhe’s Skill contributes the most damage for whatever team she is in, so this takes top priority. Her Burst is a good source of personal damage and is worth levelling next for more RES shred. Her auto-attacks, as previously stated, have unimpressive multipliers; you’re better off not using them at all.

Genshin Impact Shenhe Guide Best Weapons Artifacts — Shenhe's powerful burst.

Her Burst is the main source of Shenhe's personal damage and the best way to trigger her own Icy Quills. The buffs it confers from her A1 talent and RES Shred add significant damage to her team compositions.

Constellations

Shenhe is a character that generally does not need Constellations to contribute significantly to her team’s damage. If you are able and willing to invest more primogems into Shenhe, C2 is her best overall.

With C1, you can open with a press Skill, use the 5 quills, and swap to Shenhe to use hold E for 7 quills and hold E A4 buff without being limited by hold E’s longer cooldown.
C2 is Shenhe’s most impactful Constellation for increasing damage, and the extended duration of her burst extends her uptime on Cryo resistance shred and her A1 talent. The longer duration Elemental Burst will tick 6 more times.

2. Shenhe best Artifacts and Main/Substats

Artifact

Noblesse Oblige or Blizzard Strayer are good for her, depending on the build

4-Piece Noblesse: Allows Shenhe to further boost her team’s overall damage and is often BiS for her team performance.
4-Piece Blizzard Strayer: Increases Shenhe’s personal damage by a good amount (especially in high target count situations) while also making Favonius procs more consistent. Recommended to use in freeze/Mono Cryo teams if the team already has a 4 pc Noblesse holder (such as Mona or Diona).
2-Piece Mix of Emblem of Severed Fate/Blizzard Strayer/Gladiator/Shimenawa: An option that is easier to farm for if the sets above are not available. 2 Glad/2 Shimenawa can be the best for raw Icy Quill damage but will lose to Noblesse in most teams that don’t already have another Noblesse user.

Mainstats

Sands: ATK%/ER%
Goblet: ATK%/Cryo%
Circlet: ATK%/CRIT Rate/CRIT Damage

Substats

Substats priority is the following : ER% (until ER requirements are satisfied) > ATK% > CRIT Rate/CRIT Damage

ER% requirements vary from team to team on Shenhe, but generally around 180-190 ER% is recommended on Shenhe for teams with 1 other Cryo unit. Favonius Lance generally lowers Shenhe’s ER% requirements to around 165-175 ER%. With 2 other Cryo units (or 1 Cryo unit and Venti) her ER% requirements drop to 130-145 ER%.

3. Shenhe best weapons

Calamity Queller - Signature weapon

Shenhe’s BiS. Keep in mind that using an ATK% weapon will usually require an ER% sands and/or ER% substat investment, though some teams may have enough Cryo Energy generation to bypass ER% sands. The passive ATK% doubles when Shenhe is off-field, but will not reach its maximum until 6 seconds after Shenhe uses her Skill.

Genshin Calamity Queller — Calamity Queller is the best weapon to use on Shenhe

Favonius Lance

One of, if not her best weapon. Significantly decreases team ER requisites, which allow your team to increase their damage if they can reinvest some ER substats into damage substats. Best choice if you want more team-wide Energy generation from Shenhe (particularly with Ayaka or Eula).

5 Star Alternatives: Engulfing Lightning, Skyward Spine

4 Star Alternatives: Wavebreaker’s Fin R1, The Catch R5

4. Shenhe best team comps in Genshin Impact 3.5

787a4afee3c74cfcb4bdbe21a321adfe — Shenhe is perfect in Cryo teams.

Freeze

Shenhe + Cryo + Hydro + Cryo/Anemo

Shenhe is an excellent unit in a freeze composition with a well-invested Cryo character. Unlike other units who can take her slot who provide personal offensive value or defensive utility while also providing Energy, Shenhe, while still offering good amounts of Energy, provides more buffs for the Main Carry – moreover, her own damage from Icy Quills also scales well with investment into the Main Carry.

Recommended Variants:

Ayaka/Kokomi/Kazuha (On-Field Ayaka)
Ayaka/Ganyu/Kokomi (Quick Swap)
Kaeya/Chongyun/Xingqiu (On-Field Kaeya)
Kaeya/Rosaria/Any Hydro (Quick Swap)

Mono Cryo

Shenhe + Cryo + Cryo + Anemo

Shenhe opens up this new team archetype thanks to her high synergy with stacking Cryo units on your team, which is usually not an option. This is made uniquely possible due to the extensive benefits Shenhe provides to specifically Cryo units – thus making stacking them potentially worthwhile, while providing ease of play due to the abundance of Cryo Particles and easy VV setups. As such, for players that are interested in running primarily Cryo units, Shenhe is a great pick. These types of teams can be more effective against enemies that cannot be frozen compared to traditional freeze teams.

Eula Team

Eula + Shenhe + 2 flex

Shenhe functions in a similar role as a C6 Rosaria by providing Eula Cryo Particles, while also offering DMG% buffs and RES Shred. Shenhe’s quills also function well with the many Cryo units that Eula can choose for her team, such as Diona and Rosaria, even if Eula herself will not build a Cryo DMG goblet.