Intro

𝙺𝚊𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚊𝚝𝚘 𝙰𝚢𝚊𝚔𝚊

After what feels like an eternity, Ayaka is finally playable in Genshin Impact 2.0. This Ice Princess is the daughter of the Kamisato Clan, the younger sister to the current head of the clan, Kamisato Ayato.

Although there are some changes from the CBT version, the overall performance of the Shirasagi Himegemi is tuned to the better side. The live version Ayaka also maintains some of the "fun" aspects, such as the "Ice Skate" alternative sprint.

Sorry, Kaeya. Ayaka is the Ice bridge champion now.

Conclusion (TL;DR)

𝙰𝚢𝚊𝚔𝚊 𝚒𝚗𝚏𝚘𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚙𝚑𝚒𝚌

Best Artifacts for Ayaka:

1. 4 - Blizzard Strayer

2. 4 - Gladiator's Finale

3. 2 - Blizzard + 2 - Glad/Shimenawa

4. 4 - Retracting Bolide (100% shield uptime)

5. 2 - Shimenawa + 2 - Glad

6. 2 - Blizzard + 2 - Noblesse

Not recommended:

4 - Shimenawa's Reminiscence is not recommended. The performance drop for every extra hit the Elemental burst made (Refer to "Result Explanation.")

Best Weapons for Ayaka:

1. Mitsplitter Reforged

2. Summit's Shaper (Full-stack) (100% shield uptime)

3. Primordial Jadecutter

4. Blackcliff (Full-stack)

5. Black Sword

6. Amenoma Kageuchi / Freedom Sworn

7. Skyward Blade / Blackcliff (Zero stack)

8. Alley Flash / The Flute

9. Festering Desire

Note: Elemental reactions aren't calculated in this analysis, so EM has a slight disadvantage.

Not recommended:

10. Iron Sting

11. Favonius Sword

Choosing the Weapon

1. Mitsplitter Reforged

• Will be simulated with 2 stacks (+16% Cryo DMG).

2. Summit's Shaper

• Will be simulated with and without stacks.

3. Primordial Jadecutter

• Excess Crit Rate will be converted to Crit Damage.

4. Freedom Sworn

• Will be simulated with and without the buff.

5. Skyward Blade

• Passive proc 20 times after casting burst.

6. Blackcliff

• Will be simulated with and without stacks.

7. Black Sword

8. Amenoma Kageuchi

• Will regen 18 energy after every burst.

9. Alley Flash

• Will be simulated with passive active (albeit unrealistic.)

10. R5 Festering Desire

11. Favonius Sword

• Passive will be considered.

12. Iron Sting

• Will be simulated with full stacks.

13. The Flute

• Passive proc every 4 seconds.

Choosing the Artifacts

1. 4 - Blizzard Strayer

• Simulated in Freeze comp (+40% Crit.)

2. 4 - Gladiator's Finale

3. 2 - Blizzard + 2 - Glad/Shimenawa

4. 4 - Retracting Bolide

5. 2 - Shimenawa + 2 - Glad

6. 2 - Blizzard + 2 - Noblesse

7. 4 - Shimenawa's Reminiscence

Tested main stat: Atk/Cryo/Crit.

Final Stat

Simulation and Assumptions

Disclaimer: I am not a frame expert so the numbers in this section are an approximate amount.

1. To finish her normal attack sequence, she needs 3 seconds. Charged attack will not be considered.

𝙰𝚢𝚊𝚔𝚊'𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚕 𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝚜𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎

𝙰𝚢𝚊𝚔𝚊'𝚜 𝙲𝚛𝚢𝚘-𝚒𝚗𝚏𝚞𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚊𝚌𝚔

2. Ayaka will be simulated to regenerate 1.8 energy every second. The Ice Princess has a decent energy production, generating 4-5 particles on her skill.

𝙰𝚢𝚊𝚔𝚊'𝚜 𝙴𝚕𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚕 𝚜𝚔𝚒𝚕𝚕

3. Ayaka's Elemental burst appears to damage 15 times over 5 seconds. However, because this skill often misses the enemies, it will only be simulated to hit 8 times.

𝙰𝚢𝚊𝚔𝚊'𝚜 𝙴𝚕𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚕 𝚋𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝟶.𝟸𝚡 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚎𝚍

4. Ayaka is lv90.

5. The enemy is one lv80 Hilichurl.

6. Talent lv8, C0.

7. All hits crit.

8. Crit Rate is targeted to be 60%. Any excess will be converted into Critical Damage.

Energy Regeneration

P.S. The last 100% is for Amenoma.

4-Shimenawa has a special mechanic that takes energy to proc its 4-set effects. Therefore, the amount of time needed to regain Ayaka's burst will be longer as well.

In the table above, I calculated Ayaka to regenerate 1.8 energy/s.

80/(1.8 * 100%) = 44.44 seconds (on 100% ER)

As for 4-Shimenawa, the math goes like this:

80/((1.8 * 100%)-(15/10)) = 266.6 second (on 100% ER)

The numbers are rounded up afterward.

Damage Overview

Simulation Result

Note: Burst = (Cut Burst x 8 + Bloom Burst)/(Burst cooldown, based on ER)

P.S. The tables on the side are sorted values for ease of reading.

Result Explanation

In the table above, I sorted the artifacts based on the highest value on each of them. You can see that 4-Blizzard takes the top spot, despite all the Burst cases. This is obvious because 40% Crit Rate is a massive addition. With Ayaka, permafreeze is Trivial to handle.

The reason I tested different amount of burst is that Shimenawa's performance goes down the better the burst perform. You can see that:

In 15 x burst, Shimenawa places #7

In 8 x burst, Shimenawa places #4

In 5 x burst, Shimenawa places #3

In 2 x burst, Shimenawa places #2

This is because using Shimenawa means it'll be very hard to obtain Ayaka's burst back. So the less the burst hit the enemies, the worse the other artifacts will be compared to Shimenawa.

This is why I said that 4-Shimenawa is not recommended for Ayaka. The Ice Princess' Energy requirement is very demanding (80 energy), so using this set basically means giving up on her Elemental burst.

Other than that, even when I try to "nerf" the other artifacts by lowering the burst count, Shimenawa's performance doesn't rise that much. In fact, Gladiator's Finale does 4-Shimenawa's job without any cost.

So, if you're unwilling to do freeze comp or uses Blizzard, then I'd recommend Gladiator over 4-Shimenawa.

Personal Opinion

I have seen some guides that recommended Shimenawa for Ayaka, and I've never understood it. But as usual, I try to keep an open mind and test it anyway. After all, I love being wrong just as much as I love being right

The reason why I recommended the 2/2 set but not 4-Shimenawa (despite this set performing mostly better than 2/2 set) is because getting a good 4-set is much harder than a 2-set + 2-set. So please, spare yourself the problem and don't go for 4-Shimenawa

Of course, my personal favorite would be 4-Blizzard Strayer. It's pretty much the obvious choice. My Ayaka is currently sitting at 56/191 with 4-Blizzard. Extremely tempted to get her weapon

As for the weapons, I think it's pretty straightforward! No surprises there

Penny for Your Thoughts

What do you think about Ayaka? Do you think she's fun, or too basic?

What about her damage? Decent or underwhelming?

And lastly, what artifact set do you use/would you use on your Ayaka?

As usual, if you have any questions, corrections, or feedback, feel free to throw them in the comment!