[Guide] Genshin Impact – Layla Kit and Build Overview

Layla, the Fantastical Evening Star, is a 4-star Cryo Sword Character featured in the second half of the 3.2 Update in Genshin Impact.

She is what one could consider the budget Zhongli since her kit mainly plays around the shield she brings and boy can it take a lot of hits.

Layla Kit

Her Elemental Skill is “Nights of Formal Focus” and it creates a shield called the Curtain of Slumber scaling with her Max HP that lasts for 12 seconds.

The shield also comes with stacks called the Night Star. The stacks can be obtained in a number of ways: it’ll produce one automatically every 1.5 seconds or when the active character uses an Elemental Skill.

The Night Stars can be stacked up to 4 times and when reaching max stacks, it’ll turn into Shooting Stars and shoot itself into enemies dealing Cryo Damage.

Layla’s Elemental Burst is “Dream of the Star-Stream Shaker ” and she summons a globe that shoots down Cryo arrows within its AoE while also creating 1 stack of Night Stars if her Curtain of Slumber is active.

Layla Passive

Her first passive is “Like Nascent Light” and it activates when her shield is up and 1 Night Star stack is gained. The passive will then increase the strength of her shield and much like the Night Star, can have up to 4 stacks, lasting until her shield expires.

Her second passive is “Sweet Slumber Undisturbed” increases the damage dealt by Shooting Stars scaled by her Max HP.

Her Adventure Skill is the same as Eula which gives her a 10% chance to receive double the product when crafting Character Talent Materials.

Artifact

Artifact	Set Bonuses
Tenacity of Millelith	2-Piece: HP +20%
	4-Piece: When an Elemental Skill hits an opponent, the ATK of all nearby party members is increased by 20% and their Shield Strength is increased by 30% for 3s. This effect can be triggered once every 0.5s. This effect can still be triggered even when the character who is using this artifact set is not on the field.

Full piece Tenacity of Millelith is your go to if you are using Layla for her Shield and with how much the shield scales, the bonus from the 4-piece of the set is sure to let you tank even the most powerful of damage, minus the instakills like Raiden and Scaramouche.

Artifact	Set Bonuses
Noblesse Oblige	2-piece: Elemental Burst DMG +20%
	4-piece: Using an Elemental Burst increases all party members' ATK by 20% for 12s. This effect cannot stack.

Noblesse Oblige is the option for if you want her to buff the team through her burst since not only is her burst a 40-energy cost which is quite low, it also has a low cooldown of 12 seconds.

Artifacts	Set Bonuses
Blizzard Slayer	2-Piece: Cryo DMG Bonus +15%
	4-Piece: When a character attacks an opponent affected by Cryo, their CRIT Rate is increased by 20%. If the opponent is Frozen, CRIT Rate is increased by an additional 20%.

Blizzard Slayer is for those that want Layla as the prime DPS as ALL of her kit deals Cryo Damage with good damaging multipliers. With how the Shooting Stars scales of HP, she can become a very tanky DPS.

Weapon

Weapon	Rarity	Substat	Passive	Comment
Key of Khaj-Nisut	5★	HP%	HP increased by 20%. When an Elemental Skill hits opponents, you gain the Grand Hymn effect for 20s. This effect increases the equipping character's Elemental Mastery by 0.12% of their Max HP. This effect can trigger once every 0.3s. Max 3 stacks. When this effect gains 3 stacks, or when the third stack's duration is refreshed, the Elemental Mastery of all nearby party members will be increased by 0.2% of the equipping character's max HP for 20s.	Your premium choice for Layla as the HP buffs you get from the weapon’s passive and substats alone is amazing. The Elemental Mastery side of the weapon is also solid since her Shooting Star applies Cryo to the enemy to whip up some nasty Melt or Frozen reactions.
Primordial Jade-Cutter	5★	Crit Rate	HP increased by 20%. Additionally, provides an ATK Bonus based on 1.2% of the wielder's Max HP.	The best choice for you if you are going for DPS Layla. Having increased ATK bonus and a Crit rate substat gives Layla more leeway in building for her artifacts.
Favonius Sword	4★	Energy Recharge%	CRIT Hits have a 60% chance to generate a small amount of Elemental Particles, which will regenerate 6 Energy for the character. Can only occur once every 12s.	A nice pick since you can generate particles for her while she is off-field through her Shooting Stars, making it faster to have her Burst ready
Sacrificial Sword	4★	Energy Recharge%	After damaging an opponent with an Elemental Skill, the skill has a 40% chance to end its own CD. Can only occur once every 30s.	Your next best friend for on-field Layla since her Shooting Stars can proc the passive of the Sacrificial Sword to reset her Elemental Skill but it requires her to be on-field for the sword’s passive to activat

Team

Character	Rarity	Element	Comment
Xingqiu	4★	Hydro	Xingqiu will be your friend in a Freeze team since both her Shooting Star and Xingqiu’s Sword Rain can both be triggered when the two are off-field for your main DPS to just hammer on frozen enemies.
Hu Tao	5★	Pyro	Together with Hu Tao’s Pyro Infusion and Layla’s Shooting Star, you will get yourself a very nasty Melt Team and Layla’s shield gives Hu Tao the much-needed survivability.
Eula	5★	Cryo	Pair up with another Electro like Fisch and you would have the perfect team that can constantly proc Superconduct for Eula to wreak havoc as the Physical Queen
Shenhe	5★	Cryo	Shenhe pairs well with a DPS Layla since Shenhe is all about supporting Cryo characters and giving them superb damage boosts.

Strength

Layla’s strength is her own Shield that could be on par with Zhongli. What she lacks in the shreds that Zhongli has, she brings with a constant Cryo application through her shooting stars.

Her Burst is also a mini Ganyu Burst and the damage scales with her Max HP. Pretty much all her kit scales with HP and that gives you much less pressure to farm for the perfect substats with how abundant HP substats are.

Weakness

Her weakness more so has to do with the time of her release than her kit. Right now, it is all about Dendro reactions and Nahida’s entrance just brings that to the roof. Layla being Cryo means she would not be able to keep up with the trend since Cryo has no reactions with Dendro.

There is also the matter of her HP scaling kit. She does pack a punch with her Shooting Star and Burst, but outside of that? Her normal attacks would deal miniscule damage if you are going for full HP Layla.

Should you Pull?

She and Yae Miko carried the Fungus Event so if that is enough to make you pull for her, go for it. As for those that are still on the fence, she would be one of your best picks for a shielder if you do not have Zhongli.

Spiral Abyss wise, she works well in a team that focuses on Freeze and Melt and is basically a better Diona. However, with how the current rotation favours Dendro, you would not be getting much of the buffs they give.

Layla is also not a high investment character since she scales with HP so you do not need to farm endlessly in the domains for the perfect artifact. All in all, if you are saving for the fandago coming next patch, then go ahead but if not, then I would recommend you pulling for Layla.