Learn how to put together the best possible Noelle build in Genshin Impact.
Want to learn how to create the best build for Noelle in Genshin Impact?Geo Claymore wielder Noelle is a character you’re likely to pull from the gacha early on inGenshin Impact, and generally speaking she’s a solid recruit for your adventuring party. She’s also likely to be the first Claymore character you get in the game, so playing as her presents a good opportunity to get to grips with this weapon type.
While Noelle isn’t technically free to play, most players will likely obtain her early on thanks to her being a guaranteed drop on the Beginner’s Wish banner, which you can easily claim your 20 pulls on using the freecurrenciesyou earn in-game. As one of the stronger characters you’ll likely get in the early game, Noelle will probably form a key part of your starting party, with her Elemental Skill and 1st Ascension Passive making her a perfect candidate for a Shield Support role.
How to build Noelle as your Shield Support in Genshin Impact
Alternative:Skyward Pride
There are a couple of candidates for Noelle’s best weapon, depending on whether you want to up her attack or defense capabilities. For a Shield Support build, you’ll want to make defense her primary concern, in which caseThe Unforgedis definitely the weapon of choice. While wielding this claymore, Noelle’s shield is increased by 20%, and for every hit she scores on an opponent her attack increases by 4% (stacking up to five times and increasing by 100% again if her shield is in place when she strikes).
However, if you want to prioritise putting Noelle on the offensive as an alternative DPS build, choose theSkyward Pride, which provides a comfortable damage boost of around 10%; and creates a vacuum blade follow-up attack that deals a minimum of 80% additional damage every time a normal, charged, or Elemental Burst attack is used.
Set bonuses:
When choosing Artifacts for Noelle, one clear candidate emerges: theRetracting Bolideset. Whether or not you chose to focus Noelle’s weapon choice around her defensive capabilities, equipping as many Retracting Bolide pieces as possible will ensure that Noelle can enter the fray with comparatively little concern for her safety. With two pieces from this set equipped, her shield strength is increased by 35%. Equip four pieces and she’ll further benefit from an additional 40% damage on her normal and charged attacks.
In terms of stat priority, your selections for Noelle’s artifacts should be as follows:
The Weapons and Artifacts we’ve recommended for Noelle have focused almost exclusively on her capacity for normal attacks; so to truly round out this build, focus on building up her Geo Elemental Talents. When building Noelle as a Shield Support party member herBreastplateElemental Skill comes in particularly handy. Your secondary priority, however, should beSweeping Time(Elemental Burst), which comes in very handy when she’s equipped her shields to wade into a crowd of hostiles.
Here’s a full list of Noelle’s Talents and what they do:
5* alternative:Albedo replacing the Traveler as sub-DPS
It’s possible to put together a heavily defended party composed of mostly free characters if you use Noelle as your linchpin. Pair her up with a DPS whose element is Pyro, Hydro, Electro, or Cryo. I’ve gone withKaeyabecause he’s the strongest free DPS main I’ve encountered, but really you can substitute your best fighter with any of these elements for your main DPS. Crucially, combining their elemental powers with Noelle’s will result in theCrystallise Elemental Reaction, which will raise an elemental shield.
The sub-DPS for Noelle’s party should be a fellow Geo character; unfortunately the only free option here is the Geo-enabledTraveler, who isn’t particularly strong, so this is a good opportunity to substitute in a more powerful premium Geo character like 5*Albedoif you have them. Putting two Geo characters together in a party gets you access to the Enduring Rock resonance, which feeds off your shield to increase resistance to interruption.
Finally,Barbarais free to obtain (with a little effort) and makes for one of the best healers in the game. With the exception of Kaeya (who has the unusual ability to heal himself while attacking), this party risks seeing its effectiveness in battle plummet if Noelle’s shield is breached. Thanks to her numerous opportunities to raise the team’s defenses this is unlikely to happen too often, but it’s useful to have Barbara around to provide healing for Noelle and the sub-DPS to ensure that the shields can come back up.
To fully ascend Noelle you’ll need the following materials:
Fortunately, none of these materials are punishingly hard to get hold of. Appropriately enough, considering Noelle’s strengths as an early-game damage dealer, your main concern will be making sure you fight plenty of Geo Hypostasis normal bosses and Hilichurls, since they’re the best sources of Basalt Pillars and Masks, respectively.
To fully level up Noelle’s talents, you’ll need the following materials:
If you choose to triple crown Noelle’s talents, you’ll need to collect all these materials three times over.You can pick up the books required for Noelle’s talents at the Forsaken Rift domain (Wednesday/Saturday/Sunday only), while Masks are dropped by defeated Hilichurls. The thorny issue here is getting Dvalin’s Claws, which can only be picked up as rewards from completing the Stormterror Challenge at Level 70+. If you’re looking to crown Noelle’s talents, you can do so with Crowns of Insight, obtained through limited-time events or by making offerings to the Frostbearing Tree and the Sacred Sakura.
If you’re looking to conserve yourWishes, Noelle is a great character to place front-and-centre in your party. Nearly all of her Constellations convey significant benefits on her two Geo Talents, which as we discussed above are among her most useful features; so if you’re thinking of levelling anyone all the way up, Noelle is a good candidate.
Here’s a full list of Noelle’s Constellations:
While Noelle is not part of the player’s starting party, she is highly likely to be one of the first characters you acquire when using the game’s gacha system.
The easiest way to obtain Noelle is by Wishing on theBeginners' Wishbanner. This banner is available to new players only, and expires permanently after 20 Wishes have been made on it. Noelle is guaranteed on or before the eighth Wish on the Beginner’s Wish banner, and cannot be obtained more than once on it. Luckily, since the game isn’t completely stingy with its freebie wishes, even completely F2P players should have no trouble adding Noelle to their archive.
You also have the chance to roll Noelle at any time by Wishing on the Wanderlust Invocation (standard wish) banner; and through allCharacter Event Wishesand Weapon Event Wishes. She also occasionally features on the former with an increased drop rate.
That’s everything you need to know to put together a tough and durable Noelle build in Genshin Impact! If you’re wondering how Noelle stacks up against the many other playable characters in the game (nearly forty at time of writing!), take a look at ourGenshin Impact character tier list. Then, if you decide you want to expand your party with some new characters, check out our guide togetting more characters in Genshin Impact.
