The new version of Genshin Impact has been delayed, so we’re currently experiencing a bit of a dry spell in terms of new characters. We won’t get to see any more of Kuki Shinobu or Yelan until the Genshin Impact 2.7 livestream airs, so until then, we’ve got to make do with what we’ve got. But Genshin still has lots of great five-star characters who are currently available.

The Wanderlust Invocation banner features boosted rates for Mona, Keqing, and Qiqi. Out of those three, Mona is probably the character who can offer your party the most versatility. She can boost damage output with her burst, use her skill to create a turret that distracts enemies, and use freeze combos as a Hydro character

If you want her to perform best, you’re going to need a good setup. In this Genshin Impact Mona build guide, we’ll run through her top-tier weapons and artifacts, and a no-spend alternative. There aren’t any especially great three-star catalysts for Mona, but there are still a few options you can try out.

The best Genshin Impact Mona build

As with Ayaka‘s Senho ability, Mona has an alternate sprint that lets her turn into water. It makes her a fun character to explore the world with, as she can sprint across the surface of lakes, and when she exits that state, she applies the Wet status to nearby opponents, making her good in a Freeze combo. Mona’s real potential comes from her Stellaris Phantasm burst that creates an Illusory Bubble, causing enemies inside to take greatly increased damage for a short period.

With that in mind, the best Mona build should ideally increase her elemental damage potential as a catalyst-user, and her crits, but also give her some energy recharge so she can use her burst as much as possible. This build does both:

• Weapon: Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds
• Artifact: (4) Emblem of Severed Fate

The five-star Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds catalyst is always available on both the standard and weapon banner, but it’s best to wait for boosted rates. It’s one of the best damage-dealing options for catalyst users due to the fact it buffs elemental damage by eight percent every four seconds when you’re in battle. This can stack up to four times, giving Mona a hefty increase in her Hydro damage. It also boosts critical rate and movement speed by 10 percent, which works well with Mona’s already evasive alternate sprint.

A slightly less rare alternative is the four-star Solar Pearl you can get through the battle pass. This weapon also buffs critical rate, and when Mona hits enemies with normal attacks, increases the damage of her elemental skill and burst by 20 percent for six seconds. When her skill or burst hits, it does the same for normal attacks, which synergizes extremely well with the increased damage that Mona’s burst already applies.

Four pieces of Emblem of Severed Fate work super well as artifacts for Mona. A two-piece offers 20 percent increased energy recharge, while a four-piece buffs elemental burst damage by 25 percent of her overall energy recharge, with a maximum bonus of 75 percent damage. Mona’s Waterborne Destiny passive already increases her Hydro damage by 20 percent of her energy recharge, so this lets building Mona’s energy recharge offer two separate damage bonuses instead of just one. For stats, you’ll want energy recharge, attack, critical rate, and critical damage, as well as a Hydro damage bonus substat if you can get one. Overall this should let Mona use her burst frequently, but also gain a decent level of damage through her crits and energy recharge-based buffs.

Genshin Impact Mona F2P build

Good no-spend catalysts are a little more scarce than other weapon types, but there are some options for Mona.

• Weapon: Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers or the Widsmith
• Artifact: (2) Heart of Depth (2) Noblesse Oblige

Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers is one of the best three-star catalysts around since when you switch characters, it applies a 24 percent attack boost for ten seconds. This makes it a decent weapon choice if you want to use Mona to facilitate other damage-dealing characters. The four-star Widsmith is much better, buffing critical damage as a substat. It also randomly grants one of three theme songs for ten seconds when a character takes the field, increasing either: attack by 60 percent, elemental damage by 48 percent, or elemental mastery by 240. All of these are pretty good for Mona, especially if you’re also using her for Freeze reactions.

For artifacts, four pieces of Emblem of Severed Fate are still good, but if you want an alternative, two pieces of Heart of Depth and two pieces of Noblesse Oblige can add a lot of value. Heart of Depth boosts Hydro damage by 15 percent, which is of course good for Mona, and Noblesse Oblige buffs burst damage by 20 percent. If you’re using Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers and want to use Mona’s burst to boost another character’s damage, then four pieces of Noblesse Oblige would also work, since it grants a party-wide attack boost when you use a burst.

For stats, you’ll want the same as above, though energy recharge will matter less if you’re not using Emblem of Severed Fate. As long as you build her crits and make sure she can get her burst fairly often, Mona should deal enough damage.

And that’s our Genshin Impact Mona build. You can always grab her with boosted rates on the Wanderlust Invocation banner.