Genshin Impact, one of the most popular and hottest releases of 2020 is still one of the highest performing and highest-grossing games of all time. The MMO-Esque ARPG is stomping all the charts with it ranking 1st on Play Store of China, Japan, USA, and Korea for October 2021 recently. With these achievements in being, a very loved and favorite character of Genshin Impact is getting a re-run for her summoning banner. That special character is none other than – Hu Tao, the 77th Director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor.

Hu Tao is a 5-star Pyro Polearm elemental character that specializes in sustaining herself while dishing out consistent DPS including AOE DPS. She is also a bruiser-ish character with her Elemental skill that states she gets bonus attack according to her MAX HP. Hu Tao is a unique character in the way she can be played. She can excel in any way she is built which makes her very versatile. She can be a bruiser, a glass cannon burst mage, or a sustained DPS character. In this Hu Tao Guide, we will enlist the various skills, passives, and ascension traits Hu Tao has while explaining each of them in real-time combat. We will also give some tips and tricks on how to play Hu Tao by shedding some light on some of her builds as well as some combos available using her.

Hu Tao Active Attacks

Hu Tao’s basic attacks like all other Genshin Impact characters are divided into 4 types of attacks – Normal/ Basic Attack, Elemental Skill, Elemental Burst, and Sprint/Right Click skill. All of these attacks and spells are further divided into different attacks depending on the way you try to use them. They can also be combined for some chain combos. 

Hu Tao’s Basic Attack is called “Secret Spear of Wangsheng” and this attack can be further divided into 3-sub categories – Normal Attack/Auto Attack, Charged Attack, and Plunging Attack.

Normal/Auto Attack – Performs up to 6 consecutive spear strikes.

Charged Attack – Consumes a certain amount of Stamina to lunge forward, dealing damage to enemies along the way.

Plunging Attack – Plunges from mid-air to strike the ground, damaging enemies along the path and dealing AoE DMG upon impact.

Her basic attack can perform up to 6 different strikes using her spear. As usual, the damage percentage numbers on his attacks go higher with each strike with the highest being at the 6th strike. The numbers are – 46.90%, 48.30%, 61.10%, 65.60%, (33.3+35.2) %, and 86.0%. Her charged basic attack is a lunge forward type of attack that deals damage to all the enemies that come in her path, dishing out damage of 136% Attack and costs 25 stamina.  Her plunge attack is an AOE damaging skill that deals more damage according to the charging time of the jump or the height of the jump made. The base plunge damage is around 65% and the variable damage that depends on the height of the jump is around 131%-163%. 

ELEMENTAL SKILLS

Elemental Skills are skills that are on a certain amount of cooldown and deal more substantial damage. They are unique to every hero. Hu Tao’s elemental skill is called “Guide to Afterlife”. This elemental skill is further divided into her new state called Paramito Papilio and a new effect that she brings with it called Blood Blossom. Let’s see what his elemental skills can do: –

Release Elemental Skill: Hu Tao consumes a portion of her HP to knock the surrounding enemies back and enter the Paramita Papilio state.

Paramita Papilio

• Increases Hu Tao’s ATK based on her Max HP at the time of entering this state. ATK Bonus gained this way cannot exceed 400% of Hu Tao’s Base ATK.
• Converts attack DMG to Pyro DMG, which cannot be overridden by any other elemental infusion.
• Charged attacks apply the Blood Blossom effect to the enemies hit.
• Increases Hu Tao’s resistance to interruption.
• Paramita Papilio ends when its duration is over, or Hu Tao has left the battlefield or fallen.

Blood Blossom

• Enemies affected by Blood Blossom will take Pyro DMG every 4 seconds. This DMG is considered an Elemental Skill DMG.
• Each enemy can be affected by only one Blood Blossom effect at a time, and its duration may only be refreshed by Hu Tao herself.

As we can read from above, Hu Tao can be considered a blood mage from this skill. She sacrifices 30% of her current HP to enter this state of Paramita Papilio. During this state, she will get more bonus Attacks according to her MAX HP. This increase multiplier is 3.84% of her MAX HP. Hu Tao will also be more resistant to interruptions and CC which will make her mobility more enhanced. Hu Tao also converts all damage to Pyro elemental damage which cannot be infused with other elemental abilities. She can also apply a new effect called Blood Blossom when she uses a Charged attack that dashes and hits enemies in her path. This Blood Blossom is like a Continuous Damage over time effect that deals 64% of her attack damage for every 4th second to enemies inflicted with this effect. This skill cannot be stacked and can only be applied once per enemy. This ability makes her viable as a bruiser as well due to an increase in the attack according to MAX HP.

ELEMENTAL BURST SKILLS

Elemental Burst skills can be considered like the ultimate ability used by any hero. Hu Tao’s elemental burst skill “Spirit Soother” is a great elemental burst skill that deals massive Pyro damage and heals according to the damage dealt. This skill can be triggered up to a maximum of 5 times depending on the number of enemies hit. This skill also gets stronger if Hu Tao has HP below 50% which makes her quite strong as her health gets lower. Let’s understand his burst skill in detail:

“Commands a blazing spirit to attack, dealing Pyro DMG in a large AoE. Upon hitting the enemy, regenerates a percentage of Hu Tao’s Max HP. This effect could be triggered up to 5 times, based on the number of enemies hit. If Hu Tao’s HP is below or equal to 50% when the enemy is hit, both the DMG and HP Regeneration are increased.”

Hu Tao’s elemental burst skill Spirit Soother is a burst skill that exclusively benefits only Hu Tao but can be combined with other DPS heroes to maximize damage. Hu Tao should be used carefully as she can get low on Health quite quickly due to her demanding to sacrifice 30% of her HP during her elemental skill activation. It’s also recommended to pair her up with heroes that can provide shields or heals to keep her alive till she gets her Elemental Burst skill so she can self-sustain.

Hu Tao’s Passive Talents

Passive talents are those talents that do not need to be activated manually and just require some conditions to be met to be activated automatically. These talents are unique to all heroes and can be unlocked at some levels of ascension. There are three types of passive talents for Hu Tao’s: –

• Flutter By (Unlocks at 1stAscension) – When a Paramita Papilio state activated by Guide to Afterlife ends, all allies in the party (excluding Hu Tao herself) will have their CRIT Rate increased by 12% for 8s.
• Sanguine Rouge (Unlocks at 4th Ascension) – When Hu Tao’s HP is equal to or less than 50%, her Pyro DMG Bonus is increased by 33%.
• The More the Merrier (Unlocks Automatically) – When Hu Tao cooks a dish perfectly, she has an 18% chance to receive an additional “Suspicious” dish of the same type.

Hu Tao’s first ascension passive Flutter By empowers all of her allies by granting them a bonus 12% critical hit rate for 8 seconds whenever Hu Tao goes into the Paramita Papilio state. This effect does not go to Hu Tao, but only to the allies in your party. Her 4th ascension passive Sanguine Rouge states that when her current HP is equal to or less than 50% of her MAX HP, then she deals a bonus of 33% Pyro Damage. This just adds more cause to her just as a hero that deals more damage the lower her health goes. Her normal passive that is activated the moment you summon and start using her is called The More the Merrier. This passive gives players an 18% chance to receive an additional dish while cooking perfectly. It might be useful during your adventures.

Hu Tao’s Constellations

Constellations in Genshin Impact are an essential way to power up your heroes. They not only boost stats but also provide new unique abilities or constellation bonuses that can empower the hero greatly. However, they can only be upgraded by using a duplicate of the same hero multiple times. Hu Tao’s constellations are as follows: –

1st Constellation (C1) – Crimson Bouquet

While in a Paramita Bouquet state activated by Guide to Afterlife, Hu Tao’s Charge Attacks do not consume Stamina.

2nd Constellation (C2) – Ominous Rainfall

Increases the Blood Blossom DMG by an amount equal to 10% of Hu Tao’s Max HP at the time the effect is applied.

Additionally, Spirit Soother will also apply the Blood Blossom effect.

3rd Constellation (C3) – Lingering Carmine

Increases the level of Guide to Afterlife by 3.

The maximum upgrade level is 15.

4th Constellation (C4) – Garden of Eternal Rest

Upon defeating an enemy affected by a Blood Blossom that Hu Tao applied herself, all nearby allies in the party (excluding Hu Tao herself) will have their CRIT rate increased by 12% for 15s.

5th Constellation (C5) – Floral Incense

Increases the level of Spirit Soother by 3.

The maximum upgrade level is 15.

6th Constellation (C6) – Butterfly’s Embrace

Triggers when Hu Tao’s HP drops below 25%, or when she suffers a lethal strike:

• Hu Tao will not fall as a result of the DMG sustained.
• Additionally, for the next 10s, all of her Elemental and Physical RES is increased by 200%, her CRIT Rate is increased by 100%, and her resistance to the interruption is greatly increased.
• This effect triggers automatically when Hu Tao has 1 HP left. Can only occur once every 60s.

Hu Tao’s Build, Artifact, and Party Recommendations

Hu Tao, as a hero is primarily designed to deal massive damage during her Paramito Papilio state while it’s active. It’s always recommended to pair her up with heroes that can either Shield or Heal her because of her massive HP loss while no way to regenerate it except when her Burst skill is available. This makes fun to use but hard to play around with as well. She can deal massive amounts of damage to enemies with burst skill and pure Pyro damage. We recommend building her as purely a main DPS damage dealer in your team.

Let’s check out the weapons and artifacts used for Hu Tao: –

The Staff of Homa (Weapon) – The staff of Homa is considered the best weapon of choice for Hu Tao, for her role as a Pyro DPS hero. Players should focus on getting the talent priority as Guide to Afterlife that knocks back enemies and let Hu Tao enter the Paramito Papilio state. The staff of Homa provides 46 Base attacks and 14.4% Critical hit damage. It’s also useful because of the skill effect that states the user gets a bonus of 20% HP while also getting a bonus attack of 0.8% according to the user’s MAX HP. But when the user’s MAX HP is lower than 50% (which is seen often with Hu Tao), the bonus attack is increased to 1%. This weapon synergizes well with Hu Tao.

Crimson Witch of Flames (Artifact) – 

• Pyro DMG Bonus +15%.

• Increases Overloaded and Burning DMG by 40%. Increases Vaporize and Melt DMG by 15%. Using an Elemental Skill increases 2-Piece Set effects by 50% for 10s. Max 3 stacks.

As we can see, this artifact set provides extra burning damage by 40% which synergizes well with Hu Tao’s Blood Blossom effect during Paramito Papilio State. It also increases vaporize and melt damage by 15%, and hence we will see how to pair her up with other Cryo/Hydro users so they can vaporize/melt when Hu Tao deals Pyro damage. 

Party Member’s Recommendation

• Ganyu – Ganyu is a Cryo user that can be in party primarily as another DPS while Hu Tao’s skills are on cooldown. He can also do some elemental reactions when swapping out with Hu Tao due to her long-lasting Pyro effects like Blood Blossom.

• Tartaglia (Childe) – Tartaglia is here for more or less the same reasons. He can be used to swap with Hu Tao during her skill cooldowns while dealing massive damage by utilizing her Pyro effects combined with his Hydro elemental damage.

That is everything regarding Hu Tao, the current banner hero available in Genshin Impact from 2nd November 2021 till 21st November 2021. To read more such guides, check out our Blog section where we cover the latest happenings at Genshin Impact for our lovely community.

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