Five characters decide whether a free-to-play account can clear endgame content: Bennett, Xingqiu, Xiangling, Fischl, and Kuki Shinobu. Every one is a 4-star. Every one of them, built properly, does its job better than most of the 5-stars sitting next to it on the character screen. If you build nothing else this year, build those five, and your Spiral Abyss runs will look nothing like your friend's account that whaled for three limited banners and skipped the enablers.
That is the whole thesis of 4-stars in Genshin. The rarity number tells you how rare the pull is, not how strong the character is in a team. A finished Xingqiu applies more consistent off-field Hydro than almost anything in the game, and he costs you nothing but time.
Why constellations change the math
Here is the part 5-star owners quietly envy. Constellations, the six upgrade tiers that make a unit dramatically stronger, are realistic to max on a 4-star and almost never on a 5-star.
Four-star constellations drop from the standard banner and from every event and limited banner as filler. Over a normal amount of pulling you will accumulate duplicates without trying. A C6 4-star is a genuine goal you will hit. A C6 5-star, by contrast, can cost thousands of dollars and is a whale flex, not a plan.
That matters because several 4-stars have build-defining constellations:
- Xingqiu C6 adds a third sword rain and a damage bonus window, turning a great sub-DPS into an S-tier one.
- Fischl C6 lets Oz attack alongside your on-field character, which is a raw damage and Electro-application upgrade.
- Chevreuse C6 and even her C1 and C6 breakpoints swing her from average to a top-end buffer, which is exactly why she is a constellation-hungry pick.
- Faruzan C6 is close to mandatory to make her Anemo damage buff feel complete.
When you read "this 4-star scales with cons," treat it as a feature, not a warning. The cons are attainable. Budget for them the way you would budget resin, not the way you would budget a credit card.
The four-stars you build no matter what
These five are the backbone. They slot into more teams than any 5-star and rarely leave the meta because their kits are structural, not numerical.
- Bennett (Pyro, sword). The best healer-buffer in the game and it is not particularly close. His burst heals the whole party and stacks a large flat ATK buff on anyone standing in the field. He enables Pyro teams, Vaporize teams, and half of the game's damage carries. Build him first, full stop.
- Xingqiu (Hydro, sword). Off-field Hydro application on a timer, plus meaningful damage reduction and a little healing. He is the second half of the legendary Xiangling-Xingqiu "national" core and the backbone of most Vaporize and Freeze comps.
- Xiangling (Pyro, polearm). Pound-for-pound one of the highest sub-DPS damage outputs in the game once her burst, Pyronado, is up. She wants energy help, but paired with Bennett and Xingqiu she carries teams into the deep Abyss floors.
- Fischl (Electro, bow). Summon Oz, walk away, keep dealing Electro damage off-field. She is a sub-DPS and a battery in one, and she powers Aggravate, Hyperbloom, and Overload cores. Recent buffs only pushed her higher.
- Kuki Shinobu (Electro, sword). The premier Hyperbloom driver and a low-maintenance healer whose healing scales with HP. Drop her into a Dendro-Hydro-Electro team, and she quietly holds the whole reaction engine together.
Learning how these units feed each other matters more than the individual builds, so pair this with our team building guide and the elemental reactions breakdown.
Best 4-stars by role
Below is the working shortlist, grouped by the job you are trying to fill. Rarity is 4-star for every unit here (Kazuha and other famous supports are 5-stars and live in our best characters overall guide instead).
| Character | Element | Role | How to get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bennett | Pyro | Healer / ATK buffer | Event and standard wishes |
| Xiangling | Pyro | Sub-DPS | Free: clear Spiral Abyss Floor 3-3 |
| Xingqiu | Hydro | Sub-DPS / off-field Hydro | Event and standard wishes |
| Fischl | Electro | Sub-DPS / battery | Event and standard wishes |
| Kuki Shinobu | Electro | Healer / Hyperbloom driver | Event and standard wishes |
| Sucrose | Anemo | Grouper / EM buffer | Event and standard wishes |
| Faruzan | Anemo | Anemo DMG buffer | Event and standard wishes |
| Kaeya | Cryo | Sub-DPS / Freeze enabler | Free: given during the prologue |
| Rosaria | Cryo | Sub-DPS / CRIT support | Event and standard wishes |
| Layla | Cryo | Shielder / off-field Cryo | Event and standard wishes |
| Chevreuse | Pyro | Overload / HP and ATK buffer | Event and standard wishes |
| Gorou | Geo | Geo DMG support | Event and standard wishes |
| Yaoyao | Dendro | Healer / Dendro applier | Event and standard wishes |
| Kachina | Geo | Geo sub-DPS / support | Free: complete Natlan's intro quest |
Supports and buffers
Beyond Bennett, the Anemo crowd-control units are the ones you reach for constantly. Sucrose groups enemies with her pulls and shares a big chunk of her Elemental Mastery with the team, which supercharges reaction damage. Faruzan is the dedicated Anemo damage buffer: if you run an Anemo on-field DPS, she is close to required, though she leans on constellations and energy to feel smooth.
Chevreuse is the specialist. In a team built around Overload (Pyro plus Electro), her buffs to ATK and HP reach numbers people compare to a 5-star aura support. Outside Pyro-Electro cores she does little, and she is heavily constellation-dependent, so build her only when you actually run that comp.
Sub-DPS
Xingqiu, Xiangling, and Fischl anchor this category, but the Cryo bench is deep too. Rosaria deals solid off-field Cryo and hands the party a CRIT rate buff from her burst, which is free crit stats for everyone. Kaeya is the cheapest Freeze enabler around and, because he is handed to you in the prologue, often the first character a new player ever builds.
Healers
Kuki Shinobu and Bennett double as damage-relevant healers, which is why they win. When you want a pure Dendro healer, Yaoyao applies Dendro on a rotation and heals off her burst, slotting neatly into Bloom and Hyperbloom teams. For a shield-plus-heal hybrid, Layla builds a Cryo shield off her HP and fires off-field Cryo, making her a low-effort survivability piece for Freeze and Bloom comps. If you are still learning who to slot for staying power, our shields and healing guide walks through the survivability layer in detail.
Shielders and Geo
Genshin's best shielders skew toward 5-stars, but Layla covers the budget slot well. For Geo, Gorou buffs Geo damage and defense for mono-Geo teams, and Kachina, the free Natlan reward, gives newer accounts an early Geo sub-DPS with a fun burrow-and-pop kit. Neither is mandatory unless you are running a Geo-focused roster, so treat them as situational rather than core.
On-field DPS
This is the one role where 4-stars mostly cannot compete with modern 5-stars. Xiangling is technically an on-field carry at high investment, and Fischl can main-DPS in Aggravate at C6, but for a true front-liner you will eventually want a 5-star. That is fine. The 4-stars exist to make whatever carry you own hit twice as hard.
Which ones are free
You do not have to wish for the most important pieces of an F2P roster. Several land in your box just for playing:
- Xiangling: clear Spiral Abyss Floor 3-3. This is the single highest-value free character in the game.
- Kaeya, Amber, Lisa: given during the early story. Kaeya in particular stays useful as a Cryo enabler.
- Barbara and Noelle: handed out early through the beginner banner and story, giving new accounts a first healer and a Geo shielder-DPS respectively.
- Fischl, Razor, or Sucrose: the "Witch's Homework" event quest lets you pick one of the three. Fischl is the standout choice for most accounts.
- Kachina: free after finishing Natlan's introductory quest.
Everyone else on the shortlist rides the standard banner and rotates through limited banner 4-star pools, so you will collect them (and their constellations) naturally over months of pulling. Keep an eye on our current codes for free Primogems to speed that along, and check the Genshin tier list for where each unit sits patch to patch.
Build these first
Resin is your real bottleneck, not wishes, so spend it in order:
- Bennett. He buffs and heals almost every team you will ever build. First priority, no exceptions.
- Xingqiu. The off-field Hydro that makes carries and Vaporize teams work.
- Xiangling. Free, and a top-tier damage dealer with the other two backing her.
- Fischl. Battery and sub-DPS for Electro, Aggravate, Hyperbloom, and Overload.
- Kuki Shinobu. The moment you touch Dendro reactions, she becomes essential.
After that, build to your teams: Sucrose or Faruzan if you run Anemo carries, Chevreuse if you commit to Overload, Yaoyao or Layla for a specific comp's survivability. Feed them the right materials using our ascension and talent material priority guide, and finish them with the artifact guide so their stats actually match the tier-list hype.
The account that clears every Abyss cycle is not the one with the most 5-stars. It is the one that recognized, early, that a fully built Bennett is worth more than a half-built legendary. Build the enablers. The carries will thank you.
