Genshin Impact: Best Weapons To Forge First (2024)

In Genshin Impact, you can have all the desired five-star characters you want but without the proper weapons, they're just there for bragging rights about how lucky you are at digital gambling. The real pride comes in working hard for the weapons you put into their hands. Sadly, five-star weapons can be as fickle as their character counterparts and so often, players will have to make do with what the game lets them have through perseverance.

Those would be the craftable weapons in the game. They're only four-star items but they ought to make do and are certainly easier to get hold of than those featured five stars in the weapon banners. As with all weapons in Genshin Impact, only a few are worth your time and if you want to have something that isn't too far from five-star weapons which represent the best potential, then these forged ones shouldn't disappoint.

Updated November 30, 2023, by Sanyam Jain: With the release of Fontaine in the Version 4.0 update, five new forgeable were introduced to the game. However, not all of them are great, and the list has been updated with the best ones you can find.

20 Prototype Starglitter

• Max Base ATK: 510
• Secondary Stat: Energy Recharge 45.9 percent
• Passive Ability Focus: Normal and Charged Attack damage increase

The Prototype Starglitter is a four-star Polearm that you can forge for your character in ten seconds with a few simple ingredients and 500 Mora. Once equipped, your character will see their Normal and Charged Attack damage increased by eight percent for up to 12 seconds after they've used their Elemental Skill.

When maxed out, the secondary stat of Energy Recharge will be extremely helpful for your Polearm user, especially if you're giving it to someone like Yun Jin or Hu Tao.

19 Tidal Shadow

• Max Base ATK: 510
• Secondary Stat: ATK 41.3 percent
• Passive Ability Focus: ATK increase

As you can see, you'll already get a lot of ATK just by putting Tidal Shadow on your character and increasing its level. However, if you have a healer on your team, you can use them to heal this character and get another 24 percent ATK boost at Refinement One, which is phenomenal.

All of this extra ATK is great for various characters that have split-scaling in their kit so you can focus on the other stat when it comes to artifacts. This weapon is the best if you're using characters like Furina in the team who drains the entire party's HP, which also requires a healer.

18 Kitain Cross Spear

• Max Base ATK: 565
• Secondary Stat: Elemental Mastery 110
• Passive Ability Focus: Elemental Skill increase

Another four-star Polearm, the Kitain Cross Spear is a strong weapon to make for any of your characters who need Elemental Mastery, as well as a boost to their Energy. Though Energy Recharge isn't the main focus of this weapon, you will get three Energy regenerated for your hero every two seconds for the six seconds following a successful Elemental Skill hit on an opponent.

On top of this, their Elemental Skill damage will increase by six percent when using it, making the character a powerful adversary. You might find the Kitain Cross Spear is especially useful on Thoma or Raiden.

17 Katsuragikiri Nagamasa

• Max Base ATK: 510
• Secondary Stat: Energy Recharge 45.9 percent
• Passive Ability Focus: Elemental Skill damage increase

A four-star Claymore, the Katsuragikiri Nagamasa is similar to the Kitain Cross Spear in that it will boost the Elemental Skill damage of your character by six percent. It will also give three Energy regeneration for two seconds for the six seconds following a successful hit on an opponent with Elemental Skill.

The biggest difference between the Katsuragikiri and the Kitain, other than weapon type, is that the Katsuragikiri Nagamasa doesn't affect the user's Elemental Mastery. Still, the boost to their Energy and their Attack damage is well worth it, especially on Beidou or Sayu.

16 Song Of Stillness

• Max Base ATK: 510
• Secondary Stat: ATK 41.3 percent
• Passive Ability Focus: DMG increase

If you want to get a Fontaine forgeable weapon, you'll first have to talk to the Blacksmith in the Court of Fontaine and then gather a bunch of materials to buy the blueprints from her. However, Song of Stillness should be one of your first choices if you're planning to get some.

Apart from all the ATK, this weapon also gives you a DMG boost whenever your character is healed. This is a phenomenal choice for characters like Lyney since he can heal himself and you won't even need to waste a slot on your team for a healer.

15 Amenoma Kageuchi

• Max Base ATK: 454
• Secondary Stat: ATK 55.1 percent
• Passive Ability focus: Energy generation

Ever wished your Japanese RPG character in Genshin Impact could have a katana? Well your wish is granted, almost. The Amenoma Kageuchi is one of the first of many katana-looking weapons and thankfully, it's a forge-able four-star. It's easy enough to craft, just follow some side quests.

The secondary stat is much desired in a game community that prizes damage above everything else. The passive ability is wasted a bit, however, as it's more focused on giving the wielder excessive amounts of energy. For characters like Ayaka though, it's a good weapon.

14 Hamayumi

• Max Base ATK: 454
• Secondary Stat: ATK 55.1 percent
• Passive Ability focus: Normal & Charged Attack damage increase

Hamayumi is a beautiful bow that's perfect for DPS carry bow users, such as the currently available Yoimiya or even Fischl and Ganyu. It gives out hefty amounts of ATK and then some in its secondary stat, making it already superior compared to other options in the four-star category.

If those numbers are not enough, then allow us to introduce the weapon's passive ability: a bonus that gives out a flat, unconditional percentage increase to Normal and Charged attacks. That becomes double if the character's energy is full. Quite a handful for DPS bow users.

13 Hakushin Ring

• Max Base ATK: 565
• Secondary Stat: Energy Recharge 30.6 percent
• Passive Ability focus: Elemental DMG Bonus

The Hakushin Ring looks a little modest in a sea of catalysts that give out ATK or Crit stats, but it's still a decent weapon. This Inazuma-themed ring has a high enough base ATK to be competitive compared to other options. The Energy Recharge secondary stat also isn't that bad.

Triggering the passive ability can become problematic quickly, however, as it necessitates an Electro status effect, but that's still a manageable requirement. After fulfilling that requisite, your party can get a considerable buff to Elemental damage.

12 Frostbearer

• Max Base ATK: 510
• Secondary Stat: ATK 41.3 percent
• Passive Ability focus: Bonus AoE attack

The Frostbearer is one of the options that is actually more appealing than Inazuma's Hakushin Ring. This cold Mondstadtian catalyst sports incredible ATK numbers for its secondary stat with a high enough base ATK to be competent.

Like Hakushin Ring though, making good use of its passive ability can be fiddly. The Frostbearer has a chance to do a bonus area attack upon Normal and Charged attacks except you can only maximize the damage if the enemy is affected by Cryo. Without that, it's still serviceable enough.

11 Whiteblind

• Max Base ATK: 510
• Secondary Stat: DEF 51.7 percent
• Passive Ability focus: ATK and DEF buff

This claymore right here proves that sometimes defense is the best offense. The base ATK is good enough, but the secondary stat gives out a whopping increase to the wielder's defense. If that wielder is a C6 Noelle, this weapon might as well be a five-star.

As for the weapon's passive ability, it's a lovely further increase to ATK and DEF (as much as 24 percent at R1). Both are good buffs, but you'll need a Claymore user with fast attacks to build up that buff pretty quickly. Otherwise, just go with Prototype Archaic.

10 Prototype Rancour

• Max Base ATK: 565
• Secondary Stat: Physical DMG Bonus 34.5 percent
• Passive Ability focus: ATK and DEF buff

The recipe for the Prototype Rancour is given to players for free via quest, but it soon becomes apparent that you might need more than one of these lethal toothpicks. The Prototype Rancour is good for any build since you can't go wrong with the ATK stat.

The only catch is that it has a Physical DMG Bonus as its secondary stat, but that shouldn't matter much, since most sword users either rely on physical damage for DPS or aren't suitable for DPS at all. Crafting at least another one of these should do your party well.

9 Iron Sting

• Max Base ATK: 510
• Secondary Stat: Elemental Mastery 165
• Passive Ability focus: Elemental DMG increase

For sword-users that rely largely on their Elemental Skill/Burst or have a clear advantage when using elemental reactions, then the Iron Sting would be better than Prototype Rancour.

One character that comes to mind concerning this weapon's maximization would be the Traveler. It's also a good choice for Xingqiu or Keqing and works well with Albedo or even Bennett. Iron Sting gives tons of Elemental Mastery and further bolsters elemental damage for those sweet reactions.

8 Prototype Archaic

• Max Base ATK: 565
• Secondary Stat: ATK 27.6 percent
• Passive Ability focus: Bonus AoE attack

For most players who don't have Wolf's Gravestone, they'll have to be content with the catharsis of having an R5 (refinement five) Prototype Archaic. It's probably the most refined out of all the craftable weapons because it's such a good budget alternative to Wolf's Gravestone.

Many Diluc players love this claymore. Not only is it a percentage ATK increase thanks to the secondary stat but it also adds in some randomly occurring damage with each attack. It's a purely offensive weapon with no complexities and should appeal well to our caveman tendencies.

7 Snow-Tombed Starsilver

• Max Base ATK: 565
• Secondary Stat: Physical DMG Bonus 34.5 percent
• Passive Ability focus: Bonus AoE attack

The Snow-Tombed Starsliver is actually good competition for Prototype Archaic, especially for characters that mostly deal physical damage. Two that come to mind in that category are namely Razor and Eula, who are at their best version when dealing physical damage.

It's even better for the latter, since Eula deals cryo damage and the Snow-Tombed Starsilver adds in an icicle damage bonus against enemies affected by cryo. Meanwhile, the stats are not too far off from the best. The Physical DMG Bonus is quite meaty.

6 Crescent Pike

• Max Base ATK: 565
• Secondary Stat: Physical DMG Bonus 34.5 percent
• Passive Ability focus: Damage increase

Speaking of physical damage, the Crescent Pike is like a polearm version of the Snow-Tombed Starsilver. Its secondary stat is physical damage, and it's actually pretty good for a physical DPS Zhongli whose banner is just around the corner.

That's why forging a Crescent Pike in advance might be a good idea. It's also perfect for Zhongli as he generates a lot of Elemental Orbs/Particles to activate the polearm's situational quirk which increases ATK.

5 Dragonspine Spear

• Max Base ATK: 454
• Secondary Stat: Physical DMG Bonus 69.0 percent
• Passive Ability focus: Bonus AoE attack

For the other polearm to craft, look no further than Dragonspine Spear. It's obtainable in the same place as Snow-Tombed Starsilver and is pretty much the polearm equivalent of that weapon. For that matter, it's a lovely weapon for Rosaria.

She can easily apply cryo on her targets, therefore activating the weapon's ability with bonus damage. Other than that, not many other characters will benefit from this weapon as Xiao and Hu Tao prefer Deathmatch (for four-star budget weapons) instead and Xiangling needs to specialize in pyro.

4 Prototype Crescent

• Max Base ATK: 510
• Secondary Stat: ATK 41.3 percent
• Passive Ability focus: Charged attack and Movement increase

Prototype Crescent, much like Prototype Archaic, is a good all-rounder bow that will work on any character if you can't decide what build to pursue. Prototype Crescent mostly stacks a lot of ATK damage; its secondary stat adds chunks of those.

For any bow-user who relies on charged attacks, the Prototype Crescent might just ascend them into godhood as hitting a weak spot with this bow increases movement speed and ATK further. For someone like Ganyu, it can easily become monstrous.

3 Compound Bow

• Max Base ATK: 454
• Secondary Stat: Physical DMG Bonus 69.0 percent
• Passive Ability focus: ATK and ATK SPD increase

Then again, not all bow-users have a predisposition for attacking in charged shots. Some, like Fischl, prefer to turn bows into machine guns (possibly because she thinks she's in Honkai Impact instead of Genshin). For such characters, then the Compound Bow would help immensely.

That would be assuming that your Fischl is C6 which isn't hard to achieve these days. Other characters such as a DPS Venti will benefit well from the Compound Bow's attack speed increase ability.

2 Prototype Amber

• Max Base ATK: 510
• Secondary Stat: HP 41.3 percent
• Passive Ability focus: Energy and HP regeneration

Now onto the Catalysts. The Prototype Amber is decent in this regard, despite the HP secondary stat which appears to have been made with Barbara in mind. The item's ability activates with the Elemental Burst and can turn Barbara into an energy battery for the party.

Beyond her, not many other catalyst users would benefit from the Prototype Amber, so feel free to put it on a low priority until perhaps another HP-scaling catalyst user comes onto the scene.

1 Mappa Mare

• Max Base ATK: 565
• Secondary Stat: Elemental Mastery 110
• Passive Ability focus: Elemental DMG increase

Mappa Mare is actually a better option compared to Prototype Amber due to the Elemental Mastery secondary stat. It's tailor-made for catalyst users who love to utilize elemental reactions such as Klee, Mona, or Barbara.

When put in the right hands, it can turn Melt or Vaporize setups into one-shot-one-kill parties that can deal upwards of six-digit damage numbers. Of course, that is assuming you don't have better 4-star or even 5-star weapons.