Genshin Impact Alhaitham Best Build Guide

Alhaitham is a character who has been at the forefront of the Sumeru storyline since his introduction into Genshin Impact. Despite being a scholar of the esteemed (and dogmatic) Akademiya, Alhaitham carries himself with a much different energy than his peers. Rebellious, aloof and happy to work outside of the law to get what he needs, he is the newest 5-Star that can join your party in Version 3.4 of Genshin Impact.

Trained with a Sword and a Dendro Vision, Alhaitham shares a lot with the Liyue 5-Star Keqing. With a clean set of attack animations, the ability to trigger Dendro Reactions at a blinding quick pace and serve as your team’s primary DPS, he has the ability to fit nicely into almost any team. Dendro is an extremely powerful element, one that Alhaitham is able to use to his advantage.

Here is everything you need to make the best Alhaitham builds in Genshin Impact. This includes knowing what his best teams, weapons and artifacts are, what order you should prioritise levelling his Talents, a general overview of his abilities and more.

Want more Genshin Impact builds and articles? You can find more here on KeenGamer:

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2. Genshin Impact: Collei Quicken Genius Invokation TCG Deck Guide
3. Genshin Impact: Freeze Shutdown Genius Invokation TCG Deck Guide
4. Genshin Impact: How to Easily Get Dynamic Skins for Genius Invokation TCG
5. Genshin Impact Wanderer (Scaramouche) Best Build Guide

Who is Alhaitham in Genshin Impact?

Alhaitham is a Sumeru scholar of the infamous Akademiya. He is a secretive type who enjoys staying away from the limelight, preferring to stay out of sight of ordinary folk. It is also said that he has extraordinary talent and intellect, one befitting of the role he will soon come into as part of the Sumeru Archon Quest. 

“On his self-coined term of “feeble,” Alhaitham thought it was just an off-the-cuff remark, and never expected it to become a point of controversy.

However, this is ultimately irrelevant. He is not concerned regarding other people squabbling over such frivolous matters, as it’s not his time that is wasted.”

Character Demo – Alhaitham: Think Before You Act

How Do You Get Alhaitham?

As a non-mainstay 5-Star Unit, Alhaitham is only available as part of the Unique Character Wish Banner. This Banner requires Intertwined Fates (the purple ones) or an appropriate amount of Primogems to pull on, with a hard pity of 90 pulls. Alhaitham isn’t always a part of this banner, though, and if you do not pull him during his initial run you will have to wait for him to return.

So far, Alhaitham has appeared on the following banners:

• Caution in Confidence (Alhaitham’s First Banner): January 18th 2023 – February 7th 2023

Caution in Confidence

Alhaitham Ascension Materials

In order to raise Genshin Impact’s Alhaitham from Ascension level 1 to level 90, he requires the following resources:

• Sand Grease Pupa (Sumeru Speciality)
• Vayuda Emerald Gemstones (Dendro Elemental Gemstones)
• Faded Red Satin (Enemy Drop)
• Pseudo-Stamens (World Boss Drop)

The Sand Grease Pupa is a new kind of speciality introduced to Sumeru in Version 3.4. These small husks can be found in the deserts of Sumeru, primarily deep within where creatures known as Quicksand Eels breed. They are found all over, but a large concentration of them can be found in the Wenut Tunnels. Alhaitham will need a total of 168 Sand Grease Pupa to take him from 1 to 90. Tighnari will make this task a bit easier (if you’re lucky enough to have him) as his Passive Talent Encyclopedic Knowledge allows you to spot Sumeru Specialities on the mini-map. In case you don’t have Tighnari or just want a bit more guidance, you can find the exact locations of the Pupa on the Teyvat Interactive Map when the 3.4 update goes live.

A Scholar’s Duty

Next up are the Faded Red Satins. These are the lowest rarity item that drops from the mercenary set of enemies known as the Eremites. Any and all forms of the Eremites drop the Satin, and they can be found all over Sumeru either patrolling the roads or stalking the desert sands. You can easily track them down using the Adventure’s Handbook. In total, you will need 18 Faded Red Satin, 30 Trimmed Red Silk and 36 Rich Red Brocades. 

Psuedo-Stamens are a World Boss material obtained from the new Setekh Wenut boss. This towering sandworm is like something from Shadow of the Colossus, ducking and diving beneath the sands as you fight it. You’ll need to fight the Wenu enough times to get 46 Pseudo-Stamens, so between 15 and 26 runs depending on your luck. 

The last materials you need are the Nagadus Emerald Gemstones. Like all other Genshin Impact characters, Alhaitham requires a certain number of Elemental Gemstones to fully Ascend. As the holder of a Dendro Vision, he needs the Vayuda Emerald line of Gems. These can be confidently acquired from Dendro-aligned World Bosses like the Dendro Hypostasis, or through getting lucky in Daily Commissions. You can also use Dust of Azoth and the Alchemy Table to transmute Vayuda Emerald Gemstones should you need it. In total, you’ll need 1 Nagadus Emerald Sliver, 9 Emerald Fragments, 9 Emerald Chunks and 6 Emerald Gemstones.

To bring it all together, Alhaitham kindly asks for 420k Mora and 416 Hero’s Wit EXP Books (or their equivalent). 

Admonishing Instructor

Alhaitham Ability Overview

The easiest way to describe how Alhaitham fights is that he acts like a Dendro version of Keqing, right down to the ability to teleport and summon a barrage of attacks as his Burst. This isn’t strictly a bad thing, though, as Alhaitham has the ability to be extremely useful as a main DPS unit, especially one that can take advantage of Dendro Reactions.

Alhaitham’s Normal Attack is titled Abductive Reasoning. This is a standard 5-hit combo where Alhaitham attacks with two different blades to wipe out enemies. His Charged Attack, meanwhile, is the 2-hit heavy slash seen on other Sword characters. While there isn’t anything especially unique about his Normal Attack (aside from the incredible animations), they are a very important part of his gameplay loop, especially when linked to his Elemental Skill.

Normal Attack

Speaking of, Universality: An Elaboration of Form is Alhaitham’s Elemental Skill. When pressed, Alhaitham will dash forward and deal Dendro DMG to any target he hits along the way (you can hold the button to enter aiming mode to pick which direction Alhaitham will charge). After impact, he will summon a Chisel-Light Mirror which will follow him around the battlefield. While in possession of the Mirror, all of Alhaitham’s Normal, Charged and Plunging Attacks become infused with Dendro: when any of the aforementioned attacks hit an enemy, the Mirrors will also cause a Dendro explosion with damage equivalent to how many Mirrors are present. Up to 3 Chisel-Light Mirrors can exist at one time.

Finally, a Particular Field: Fetters of Phenomena is Alhaitham’s Burst. After activation, this will spawn a Particular Binding Field in front of Alhaitham dealing several instances of Dendro DMG (think Keqing’s Burst for how the attack looks). Depending on how many Chisel-Light Mirrors you have active, the Burst will last for longer and deal more DMG instances. 

• No Chisel-Light Mirrors: 4 Hits
• 1 Chisel-Light Mirror: 6 Hits
• 2 Chisel-Light Mirrors: 8 Hits
• 3 Chisel-Light Mirrors: 10 Hits

After this ability is used, Alhaitham will generate a number of Chisel-Light Mirrors depending on how many were used up in the attack. If you triggered the attack with 3/2/1/0 Mirrors, you will generate 0/1/2/3 Mirrors in return. 

Elemental Burst

Alhaitham’s Passives

Alhaitham has 3 main Passive Abilities. The first is active as soon as you summon Alhaitham, whereas the second and third only become available once you hit a certain Ascension Level. Passive 2 needs you to hit Ascension Rank 2, while Passive 4 needs you to hit Ascension Rank 4 instead. 

His first Passive is the Law of Reductive Overdetermination. When Alhaitham crafts Weapon Ascension Materials, he has a 10% chance to receive double the product.

The second Passive ability is Four-Causal Correction. After you hit an enemy with your Charged or Plunging Attack, Alhaitham will generate 1 Chisel-Light Mirror. You will trigger this effect every 12 seconds. This is a great way of continuing Alhaitham’s gameplay loop, letting you either buff his Normal Attack damage consistently or set up for a strong Burst.

Mysteries Laid Bare is the final Passive. For every point of Elemental Mastery Alhaitham has, the damage of the Chisel-Light Mirror projection attacks and his Elemental Burst will increase by 0.1%. This goes to a maximum of 100% (which would be 1000 Elemental Mastery). Considering that Reactions are a large part of the Dendro identity, levelling up Elemental Mastery was already a sure-fire pick and this Passive just makes Alhaitham a better main DPS because of it.

Stylish Execution

Talent Priority Order

The following section is the recommended priority order for Alhaitham’s Talents. Specifically, this is the order you should level his Normal Attack, Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst Talents. No matter what team or what build you run on your Alhaitham, these recommendations carry across them all. 

Before any of that, though, this is what you need to level up Alhaitham’s Talents:

• Teachings/Guides/Philosophies of Ingenuity (Sumeru Talent Books, available on Tuesday/Friday/Sunday)
• Faded Red Satin (Enemy Drop)
• Mirror of Mushin Weekly Boss Drops from the Scaramouche Puppet Boss Fight.

Now, here is the order you should level Alhaitham’s Talents:

1. Universality: An Elaborate Form (Elemental Skill)

Despite only dealing with a single instance of damage, Alhaitham’s Elemental Skill is immensely useful. The rush attack itself does some pretty nice damage (up to 459% ATK + 367.84 Elemental Mastery at Talent Level 10) while imbuing Alhaitham with the ability to trigger Dendro Reactions with his Normal Attacks. That alone is worth investing in to make this Skill even better, but that isn’t the primary reason to level the Talent.

Levelling up Alhaitham’s Elemental Skill also increases the damage and capabilities of his Chisel-Light Mirrors. No matter the source, whether it is the Skill, his Burst or even those generated by his A2 Passive, their damage scales off of the Elemental Skill level. The Mirrors are an integral part of Alhaitham’s loop and role as a main DPS as they boost his overall damage capabilities while also improving his Burst significantly. Having the Mirrors do as much damage as possible as consistently as possible is what will let your Alhaitham rise above your other DPS units.

Universality: An Elaborate Form should be your priority here because of how it boosts the damage of the Chisel-Light Mirrors while also turning the initial cast of the Skill into a massive source of Dendro DMG. Focus on the Skill before anything else.

Decisions, Decisions

2. Normal Attack: Abductive Reasoning (Normal Attack)

Next, you should definitely focus on the Normal Attack. In fact, this is where most of your damage with Alhaitham will come from, as his Skill and Burst are on a considerable cooldown. The multipliers of his attacks are pretty low at level 1 (generally around 50%) so they need the additional boost from the Chisel-Light Mirrors to make them work. This is why the Elemental Skill is considered more important to level up.

However, this doesn’t mean that the Normal Attack is bad or weak. By investing in his Normal Attacks, you can get his multipliers as high as 224% on a standard hit with no Crit. This is a crazy high amount of damage, especially when paired with the bonus Chisel-Light Mirror damage and the potential to trigger Reactions when imbued with Dendro.

There isn’t much else to say, really. Normal Attacks are Alhaitham’s main way of dealing damage and the main recipient of his buffs and bonuses, so levelling up Normal Attack is a no-brainer.

What’s Next?

3. Particular Field: Fetters of Phenomena (Elemental Burst)

In last place, we have his Elemental Burst. This isn’t because the Burst is bad, though – it is simply because investing in the other Talents is more worthwhile. They both have more utility and will be used more often than your Burst. It doesn’t really synergize that well aside from giving you Chisel-Light Mirrors after activation (whose damage is covered by levelling the Elemental Skill, anyway). 

What levelling up the Elemental Burst does offer is a substantial increase to your damage potential. Each instance of damage starts at 121% ATK + 97% Elemental Mastery but can go as high as 288% ATK + 231% Elemental Mastery at level 10. If you are able to combo this while having 3 Chisel-Light Mirrors active at the same time, you will be dealing that damage a total of 10 times. This makes the Burst extremely powerful and capable of absolutely melting most enemies and bosses (especially when paired with Reactions like Aggravate).

Fractured Future

Best Weapons for Alhaitham

Ideal Choice

There is only one clear choice for Alhaitham’s best-in-slot weapon choice. This is, of course, his signature weapon Light of Foliar Incision. 

Introduced in Version 3.4 alongside Alhaitham, Light of Foliar Incision is a 5-Star Sword. It will run on the Unique Weapon Wish Banner during the first half of 3.4. It has a Crit DMG substat (going up to 88% at level 90) with a base ATK stat of 542 and the weapon skill Whitemoon Bristle. This raises Crit Rate by an additional 4% as well as grants the Foliar Incision effect after you deal Elemental Damage with your Normal Attack. While you have Foliar Incision, your Normal Attacks and Elemental Skill will have their damage increased by 120% of the equipped characters’ Elemental Mastery. 

This is the perfect weapon for Alhaitham. On top of boosting both Crit stats (a must for any competent main DPS) the Whitemoon Bristle skill works in harmony with his gameplay loop: cast your Skill to gain Dendro infusion and get bonus damage on all of your attacks thanks to the buff while also benefitting from the Chisel-Light Mirrors. You’re already going to be stacking up on Elemental Mastery as one of Alhaitham’s main stats thanks to his A4 Passive, making this a pure net gain in terms of potential. 

Alhaitham will happily take this Sword off your hands if you are lucky enough to have it.

Light of Foliar Incision

Replacement Options

What if you don’t have the Light of Infoliar Incision? Luckily, there are still plenty of other options to run on your Alhaitham. 

Do note that the following recommendations are all 4-Star weapons. Any 5-Star Sword is likely to outperform a 4-Star one due to their overall higher base stats and more unique weapon skills. If you happen to have any 5-Star Sword like the Primordial Jade Cutter or the Mistsplitter Reforged consider giving them a go before committing to a lower rarity option. 

With that kind mind, here are the replacement recommendations for Alhaitham: Xiphos’ Moonlight, Iron Sting and the Black Sword.

Iron Sting

The Xiphos’ Moonlight is a 4-Star Sword that you can acquire from Wishing. It was introduced to the game in the Sumeru patches with a focus on Elemental Mastery. This Sword has a base ATK of 510 and an Elemental Mastery substat of 165 with the weapon skill Jinni’s Whisper. Every 10s, the equipped character will gain 0.036% Energy Recharge per point of Elemental Mastery that they possess, with party members gaining 30% of this buff instead. As previously discussed, EM is a very important stat on Alhaitham for multiple reasons and the Xiphos’ Moonlight not only gives him more EM, but it also provides a way to use that stat to recharge his Burst. While this isn’t a powerhouse weapon in terms of damage, it improves Alhaitham’s viability significantly.

Next up is the Iron Sting. This Sword can be crafted at the blacksmith using Northlander Billets and it also has a focus on Elemental Mastery. It has a base ATK stat of {-} and an Elemental Mastery substat of {-}. Infusion Stinger is the weapon skill and it increases all DMG by 6% after dealing Elemental DMG. Alhaitham will not only benefit from the added EM, but thanks to the nature of his kit he will constantly be triggering this weapon skill. Whether it is from his Burst, his Skill or the Dendro infusion he has plenty of ways to deal Elemental damage. This translates to the Iron Sting being essentially a permanent 6% DMG bonus.

The Black Sword is up last and it can be obtained from the level 30 weapon cache on the Battle Pass. Unlike the previous two weapons, the Black Sword prioritises Crit and Normal Attack damage as opposed to Elemental Mastery, with a base ATK of 510 and a Crit Rate substat at 27%. The weapon skill is called Justice and it raises Normal and Charged Attack damage by 20% at base, while also regenerating 60% of HP whenever you score a CRIT with said attacks. While this weapon doesn’t feed into Alhaitham’s kit as neatly as the other two, it does a great job of emphasising his role as a main DPS by granting him more damage and a way to keep himself alive. 

The Black Sword

Best Artifact Set for Alhaitham

Two 4-Piece Artifact sets are fighting for your attention when it comes to Alhaitham. The best options for him are either the Gilded Dreams set or the Deepwood Memories set.

Out of the two, Gilded Dreams is more likely to be useful thanks to it playing into the strengths and benefits of Alhaitham’s kit. The 2-Piece bonus simply gives the equipped character +80 Elemental Mastery. Meanwhile, 4-Piece Gilded Dreams grants the equipped character a buff after triggering an Elemental Reaction, with this buff changing depending on your party composition: for each character you share an Element with you gain +14% ATK, whereas for each character with a different Elemental type you instead gain 50 Elemental Mastery. In the case of Alhaitham, having extra Elemental Mastery is never going to hurt and with the kind of teams you want to run him in (Dendro Reaction-focused compositions) he will be getting a lot of use out of the 4-Piece bonus.

If you want to go a bit more damage heavy, though, you can run 4-Piece Deepwood Memories. The 2-Piece effect gives a Dendro DMG Bonus of +15%, while the 4-Piece decreases the targets’ Dendro RES by 30% for 8s after you hit them with an Elemental Burst or Skill. Considering that Alhaitham will likely be your main DPS, giving him more damage on top of the ability to debuff the enemy for himself or other Dendro characters is a massive boon. You will likely see a massive increase in his damage potential outside of the Elemental Mastery-enhanced attacks from the Chisel-Light Mirrors and A4 Passive.

Out of the two sets, Gilded Dreams is the better overall set so long as you are running Alhaitham in a Dendro-focused team. The bonus Elemental Mastery will boost nearly every single part of his kit, enhancing his Burst, his Skill and his Chisel-Light Mirror enhancements, while also buffing his Reaction damage. If you want to play him as more aggressive, though, Deepwood Memories may be more useful as it simply provides you with a flat boost to Alhaitham’s damage potential without having to worry about team composition.

Shards of Potential

Stats You Want

The stats you want on your Artifacts are: 

1. ATK
2. Elemental Mastery
3. CRIT DMG and CRIT Rate

As a main DPS, Alhaitham needs a lot of ATK to perform at his best. Even though Reactions are a big part of his kit, so are his Normal Attacks which mainly scale off of ATK. There honestly isn’t much of interest to discuss here: Alhaitham is a main attacking unit, and he needs a lot of ATK. Simple as.

We have gushed about how good Alhaitham’s Elemental Mastery stat is for this entire guide, and that gushing will continue here. Pumping Alhaitham’s EM stat as high as you possibly can boost his Normal Attack damage (when buffed by Dendro infusion), his Skill damage, the Chisel-Light Mirror damage, his Burst damage and his Reaction damage. Aside from maybe Nahida and Nilou, Alhaitham is the Genshin Impact character most in need of high Elemental Mastery: you’re simply blocking his potential too much by not focusing on it.

Lastly, we have the CRIT stats. Like with ATK, there is very little to discuss here outside of the fact that Alhaitham will be dealing a lot of instances of damage as opposed to a single massive chunk. As such, gearing more towards Crit DMG may be beneficial as the sheer number of attacks that Alhaitham will produce increase the likelihood of a CRIT occurring even without a high CRIT Rate. That isn’t to say that you should neglect CRIT Rate, but simply lean more towards CRIT DMG. 

One final tip is that you may want to consider giving Alhaitham a Dendro DMG Bonus Goblet. All of his main attacking options are Dendro based (including his Normal Attacks when infused) so it’s a no-brainer to try and increase that damage potential. Managing to get your hands on one of these Goblets has the potential to massively increase your damage across the board with very few drawbacks.

The Scholar Alhaitham

Best Alhaitham Teams

Spread Team

This team consists of Alhaitham, Yae Miko, Fischl (or Kuki Shinobu) and Nahida.

Thanks to his high reliance on Elemental Mastery and his ability to continually trigger Dendro Reactions with his kit, Alhaitham is a perfect fit for any team based around the Reaction Spread. This is the combination of Electro and Dendro and it simply increases the damage of both Elements. Spread is what is going to allow this team to rise the ranks in terms of potential DPS, especially when most of the damage, aside from Alhaitham, will be coming from off-field.

Nahida serves multiple important purposes in this composition. The first is that she is the best applicator of Dendro in the entire game thanks to her Elemental Skill, All Schemes to Know. This makes securing Spread and Aggravate Reactions much simpler with her AoE Dendro DMG. Another great reason to pick Nahida is that she will work with Alhaitham to give the entire team the Dendro Resonance buff, increasing Elemental Mastery at the base and after you cause a Dendro Reaction – a perfect fit for both Alhaitham and Nahida, whose kits both revolve around EM for maximum damage potential. 

Next up is Yae Miko. Arguably the queen of off-field Electro DPS, Yae’s role in this team is to simply sit back and let her Electro destroy those around her. By using her Elemental Skill, Yakan Evocation: Sesshou Sakura, Yae will create a constant downpour of Electro. This can deal great damage on its own, but its true potential arises when it interacts with the Dendro produced by Alhaitham and Nahida to create Spread Reactions all over the field. 

Lastly, you have a choice between either Fischl or Shinobu. You should choose Fischl if you are confident in your ability to stay alive (or you’re running a weapon like The Black Sword on Alhaitham for healing) as her Elemental Skill Nightrider will massively increase your damage potential alongside Yae’s Sakura. Once again, this can be done when Fischl is off-field. If you want a bit more security, choose Shinobu as she can heal your entire team while still triggering a good amount of Electro Reactions. No matter who you choose, these characters work together with Yae to give the team the Electro Resonance bonus alongside the Dendro Resonance bonus, improving Burst regeneration rates across the board.

Spread Team

Hyperbloom Team

This team consists of Alhaitham, Yelan, Shinobu and Nahida. 

Just like with our Spread team, Alhaitham’s kit puts him in a great position to champion a Hyperbloom team. These teams rely on two different sets of Reactions: Bloom, which is triggered when Hydro and Dendro meet, and Hyperbloom, which occurs when Electro DMG hit the Dendro Core produced by the Bloom Reaction. When played correctly, a Hyperbloom team can constantly produce high damage at an insane pace. 

Alhaitham and Nahida serve the exact same roles as they did in the Spread team. Nahida gives easier access to Dendro Reactions with her skill while also boosting Elemental Mastery and team damage across the board. Alhaitham serves as the main DPS and the character you will be using the most on-field. 

Yelan is who makes this team function as a Hyperbloom team. Her Elemental Skill allows her to quickly dash around any opponent affected by Dendro to efficiently produce a great number of Dendro Cores. Nahida and Alhaitham will constantly be causing Dendro damage, giving Yelan ample opportunities to trigger Bloom. Her Burst is also a great damage option that works off-field. 

Finally, Shinobu also makes a return. With her Elemental Skill, Sanctifying Ring, she can heal the team at the cost of her own HP. What this ring also does, though, is give the on-field character a way to trigger Electro Reactions. By following up Yelan’s Bloom with Shinobu’s Skill and then switching to Alhaitham, your main DPS is now capable of triggering Hyperbloom by simply walking next to the Dendro Cores. As a result, Shinobu works as both a support and a vital part of allowing Hyperbloom to occur in this setup. 

Hyperbloom Team

F2P Budget Team

This team consist of Alhaitham, Barbara, Fischl and Collei. Excluding Alhaitham, every character in this team can be earned for free in one way or another. 

This Budget team takes the Hyperbloom Team template and changes a few characters up so that F2P players can enjoy the chaos of Alhaitham. Most of the key points and building blocks are the same as they were before: your goal is to trigger constant Bloom Reactions with your Dendro and Hydro characters so that your Electro characters can swoop in with that sweet Hyperbloom. 

Instead of Nahida, this team will be using Collei. While she isn’t as great at producing Dendro Reactions as the Lesser Lord, her presence still grants the Dendro Resonance buff. Also, Collei is pretty good in her own right, with her Burst, in particular, allowing for a huge amount of Dendro Reactions to trigger if cast at the right time. 

Barbara steals the roles of healer and Bloom applicator. She is one of the most effective healers in the entire game so you won’t have to worry about anyone dropping dead anytime soon. Additionally, with her skill, The Show Must Go On she creates a constant ring of Hydro that can quickly and efficiently create Dendro Cores. Barbara can also just hit a Dendro-afflicted enemy with her Normal Attack to trigger Bloom thanks to her nature as a Catalyst user. Xingqiu is another good pick here for his versatility in both healing and support.

Last but not least is Fischl. By using Nightrider, Fischl gives the team a way to trigger both Hyperbloom and Spread. She can do this off-field and without taking up time that could be used on dealing damage with Alhaitham.

Budget Team

That is everything you need to best build the Alhaitham in Genshin Impact.