The best Genshin Impact Lisa build

Want to learn how to create the best build for Lisa in Genshin Impact? Lisa is one of the four playable characters you unlock during Genshin Impact’s Prologue questline. She is both the first Electro element user and the first Catalyst weapon wielder you’ll get a chance to play as in the game, so even if you choose not to keep her in your party for long, she’s a very useful tutorial character to play around with.

Lisa is a powerful mage turned librarian who, for reasons best known to herself, is always dressed in a sexy Halloween witch costume. Combined with her charismatic and flirtatious personality she is, unsurprisingly, quite fun to have around. But it can be a bit tricky getting to grips with her combat style after you’ve spent a few hours in the shoes of the more traditional fantasy RPG sword-and-bow users Kaeya, Amber, and the Traveler. Read on below for everything you need to know about making the most out of Lisa’s unusual combination of abilities.

Best Lisa build: Weapons

As a Catalyst user in Genshin Impact, Lisa’s weaponry works slightly differently from most other characters. Rather than wielding a traditional weapon (the game’s other categories are sword, bow, claymore, and polearm), Lisa carries a Catalyst — a book that increases her elemental abilities when equipped. This can leave Lisa somewhat vulnerable in close-combat situations, since she has no handheld weapon with which to push enemies back out of melee range; but can also make her scarily powerful given the right build.

There are several strong candidates for Lisa’s best Catalyst, but ultimately Skyward Atlas emerges as the top option thanks to it dealing a mix of immediate elemental damage and damage over time. With the Skyward Atlas equipped, Lisa will permanently benefit from a damage bonus to all of her Electro attacks; plus her Normal Attack has a 50% chance of generating a cloud of aggressive Electro energy, which will seek out nearby enemies and deal them a minimum of 160% damage with every attack it manages to land in its 15-second duration.

Best Lisa build: Artifacts

Like most early-game characters, Lisa benefits best from Artifact sets that target her particular elemental relation. Therefore, while Lisa’s exclusive reliance on Electro attacks means that any Artifacts that boost elemental skills are good for her, the best option is to equip all the Thundering Fury pieces you can. With two pieces equipped, Lisa will gain a 15% Electro DMG bonus on all her attacks. With four pieces equipped, her Overloaded, Electro Charged, and Superconduct elemental reactions (generated from attacks in tandem with her Pyro, Hydro, and Cryo teammates, respectively) will each gain an additional 40% DMG; Elemental Cooldown after these attacks will be decreased by 1 second; and the effect can be repeated after a mere 0.8 seconds.

Best Lisa build: Ascension Materials

To fully ascend Lisa you’ll need the following materials: 168 Valberries; 46 Lightning Prisms; 36 Slime Concentrates; 30 Slime Secretions; 18 Slime Condensates; 9 Vajrada Amethyst Chunks; 9 Vajrada Amethyst Fragments; 6 Vajrada Amethyst Gemstones; and 1 Vajrada Amethyst Sliver.

Of these, the only materials that pose any real difficulty to get hold of are the Lightning Prisms. They can only be gained from Electro Hypostasis mini-bosses at Level 30 or above, which means you might find yourself grinding a few fights against that enemy type — especially since Lightning Prisms are a staple material for ascending any Electro character, not just Lisa.

Best Lisa build: Talents

Elsewhere in this guide we’ve demonstrated some impressive buffs you can apply to Lisa’s various powers with the right equipment. When it comes to raw talent, however, Lisa’s outstanding feature definitely lies in her Elemental Skill, Violet Arc. Not only does building up this skill increase the strength of Lisa’s Electro power to a high degree, but it goes a long way towards providing her with the self-defense abilities she sorely needs against enemies who manage to get close to her.

Here’s the full list of Lisa’s Talents:

• Normal Attack: Lightning Touch
• Normal Attack – Performs up to 4 Electro attacks, dealing Electro DMG.
• Charged Attack – Consumes a certain amount of Stamina to deal Electro DMG after a short casting time.
• Plunging Attack – Gathering the might of Electro, Lisa plunges towards the ground from mid-air, damaging all opponents in her path. Deals AoE Electro DMG upon impact with the ground.
• Elemental Skill: Violet Arc – Press to release a homing lightning orb that deals Electro DMG upon contact, and applies a stack (up to 3) of the Conductive status to opponents in a small AoE. Hold to call down lightning from the heavens, dealing massive Electro DMG to all nearby opponents, and dealing great amounts of extra damage to opponents based on the number of Conductive stacks applied to them (after which it clears their Conductive status).
• Elemental Burst: Lightning Rose – Summons a Lightning Rose that unleashes powerful lightning bolts, launching surrounding opponents and dealing Electro DMG. The Lightning Rose will continuously emit lightning to knock back opponents and deal Electro DMG for so long as it persists.
• 1st Ascension Passive: Induced Aftershock – Hits by Charged Attacks apply Violet Arc’s Conductive status to opponents.
• 4th Ascension Passive: Static Electricity Field – Opponents hit by Lightning Rose have their Defense decreased by 15% for 10s.
• Utility Passive: General Pharmaceutics – When Lisa crafts a potion, she has a 20% chance to refund one count of one material out of all the crafting materials used.

Best Lisa build: Constellations

To be blunt, it may not be worth your while spending too many Wishes on Lisa’s Constellations. She’s not even the only free-to-play Electro character any more since the Traveler gained the ability to switch to that elemental relation, and there are many more powerful Electro users you could be spending real money on Wishing for instead. However, if you’re sticking with free-to-play characters, Lisa can be a useful Electro main if you’re focusing on the Traveler’s more exclusive Anemo and Geo powers; and, in fairness to Lisa and her potential for appeal, she is currently the only Electro Catalyst character in the game, meaning she’s still your best and only choice if you really like that combat style.

Below is a full list of Lisa’s Constellations:

• Infinite Circuit (Lvl 1): Lisa regenerates 2 Energy for every opponent hit while holding Violet Arc. A maximum of 10 Energy can be regenerated in this manner at any one time.
• Electromagnetic Field (Lvl 2): Holding Violet Arc increases both Defense (by 25%) and resistance to interruption.
• Resonant Thunder (Lvl 3): Increases the Level of Lightning Rose by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15.
• Plasma Eruption (Lvl 4): Increases the number of lightning bolts released by Lightning Rose by 1-3.
• Electrocute (Lvl 5): Increases the Level of Violet Arc by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15.
• Pulsating Witch (Lvl 6): When Lisa takes the field, she applies 3 stacks of Violet Arc’s Conductive status onto nearby opponents. This effect can occur once every 5s.

How to get Lisa in Genshin Impact

Lisa is the librarian for the Knights of Favonius in Mondstadt. You’ll meet her as an NPC when you first enter the order’s headquarters during the Prologue questline. A little while later you’ll gain her as a Trial character for the Sparks Among the Pages quest, where she serves as your Electro elemental tutorial while you clear the Temple of the Lion domain together. Completing this quest adds Lisa to your party as a full member.

It’s also possible to re-roll Lisa as part of the standard Wanderlust Invocation wish pool.

That’s everything you need to know about making the most out of Lisa, Genshin Impact’s regrettably low-powered but undeniably unique Electro Catalyst character. To see where she stands with regards to the other potential party members in the game, check out our Genshin Impact character tier list. And since Electro characters are relatively uncommon in Genshin Impact, why not check out our guide to the best Fischl character build to see how to the two sparky individuals compare?