How to play Mualani in Genshin Impact

Mualani is the new featured exclusive 5-star character in Genshin Impact 5.0. She is the first 5-star character you will get to play as in the highly anticipated region of Natlan. She will be featured in the first phase of the 5.0 banners, alongside Kazuha and a new 4-star character named Kachina.

Mualani is a Hydro Catalyst user, who fits well in the role of a Main DPS. She rides around on a shark, biting enemies and dealing massive amounts of AoE Hydro damage. Mualani belongs to the People of the Springs tribe and owns a watersports shop in Natlan.

With players excited to add the newest 5-star Hydro DPS to their roster, they may want to learn how to play her optimally and maximize her damage potential. To that end, this article will be a guide on how to play Mualani in Genshin Impact.

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How to play Mualani in Genshin Impact

Mualani's Kit Overview

Mualani as seen in her character teaser (Image via HoYoverse)

As mentioned above, Mualani is a 5-star Hydro main DPS unit that makes use of the new gameplay mechanics introduced in Natlan: Phlogiston and Nightsoul's Blessing. When her Elemental Skill is cast, she summons her surfboard to move swiftly while consuming Nightsoul points.

When her Nightsoul points are completely depleted, she will start consuming Phlogiston to maintain this state. Moreover, being in this state will significantly increase Mualani's movement speed and her resistance to interruption, which can be useful when exploring the overworld.

Mualani also marks enemies as she surfs around the battlefield on her shark-like surfboard. This mark can be applied up to three times, following which her normal attack will be converted into a "Shark Bite" attack. This will deal significantly high Hydro damage to the enemy you previously hit with your normal attack.

Following this attack, she will launch missiles at the marked enemies, which do a respectable amount of AoE Hydro damage. Her Elemental Burst fires even more of these missiles that can track enemies and deal AoE Hydro damage.

Also read: Genshin Impact Mualani gameplay leak: Skill, burst, idle animations, and more

Stats and talents to build for Mualani

Mualani in her Elemental Burst (Image via HoYoverse)

When it comes to building Mualani, she deals most of the damage from her Elemental Skill and her Elemental Burst. So, it is recommended to prioritize leveling up her Elemental Skill and her Elemental Burst over her Normal Attacks, as she will not be using that in an ideal rotation.

Mualani's skills, and her damage potential scale off of her Max HP. Hence, it would be best for you to try and build her with as much HP as possible. Apart from that, the rest of her stat requirements will be similar to any other main DPS unit. With her best-in-slot artifact set: the Obsidian Codex, you can prioritize building Mualani with the following main stats:

Sands: HP%
Goblet: Hydro Damage Bonus
Circlet: Crit Rate/ Crit DMG

HP% is generally recommended for her Sands, but you can also opt for an Elemental Mastery Sands if you are trying to build her in a pure vaporize team. A Hydro Damage Goblet would be best for her as she would be dealing Hydro damage only. As for the Circlet, depending on what you are lacking, a Crit Rate or a Crit DMG artifact would be the best choice.

For the substats of her artifacts, it is recommended that you try and get as many crit stats, HP%, and Elemental Masteries for her as possible.

Also read: Best Genshin Impact Mualani build guide: Artifacts, weapons, team comps, and more

Mualani's Playstyle and best rotations

Mualani is a unique character that can deal a massive amount of damage if used correctly. Although she hits slowly, the damage she does with each strike is very substantial. Her ability to consistently vaporize her hits as a slower attacker further raises her damage potential. She is a strong Hydro DPS that can fully utilize any off-field Pyro support character to deal massive amounts of vaporized damage.

In an ideal rotation, once you have used your supports to buff and aid Mualani, you can switch to her to use her Elemental Skill and surf around the battlefield, marking enemies. Once three enemies are marked, or a single enemy has been marked up to three times, you can do a normal attack to deal significantly higher damage and launch shark missiles on the rest of the marked enemies. You can also use her Elemental Burst, preferably towards the end of her rotation when all the buffs are still active, to deal another instance of massive AoE Hydro damage.

When paired up with characters like Nahida and Xiangling, Mualani will be able to easily vaporize all of her attacks, as both these characters combined will provide consistent Pyro application for all of Mualani's Hydro attacks.