Varesa Build and Guide

Varesa is a 5-star Electro Catalyst user who is most commonly played as an on-field Main DPS. Her core gameplay loop involves her being able to plunge after a Charged Attack, building up to an enhanced state where her damage is buffed and she can use a special Elemental Burst. As a Natlan character, she has access to and utilizes Nightsoul mechanics.

Varesa’s Nightsoul mechanics revolve around her Plunge Attacks. To that end, she has a unique Charged Attack - using it allows her to launch herself into the air after it hits. While it can feel cumbersome to use, her Elemental Skill solves this: it comes with two charges, and Varesa can cast it to shortcut into a faster Charged Attack with the Normal Attack input that does not consume stamina. Their importance becomes clear when noting that landing Plunge Attacks and using an Elemental Skill through which she can access it generate 25 and 20 Nightsoul points respectively. Together, they make hitting her Nightsoul point cap of 40 a trivial matter; a good thing, considering she can spend them just as quickly!

When using a Plunging Attack when at maximum Nightsoul points Varesa gets put in the Fiery Passion state, which is also considered as her Nightsoul's Blessing. This gives her a bonus charge of her Elemental Skill and a good boost to her multipliers, but its 15 second duration is deceptive; more often that not, it is ended almost immediately as she also consumes her Nightsoul points and leaves the Fiery Passion state after launching her Plunge Attack. The reward for doing this is worthwhile - on its way out, the state leaves Varesa with Apex Overdrive. This can be consumed during a brief window after landing a Plunging Attack, and doing so allows Varesa to cast a special variant of her Elemental Burst that is also considered a Plunging Attack for only 30 Energy. Considering her Burst normally costs 80 Energy and the special Burst’s multiplier is only slightly lower than even her Fiery Passion-buffed Burst, this is a more than worthwhile tradeoff.

With that, the core of Varesa’s gameplay loop takes shape: she uses her Skill to swiftly connect into a Charged Attack and Plunging Attack following it, putting her in the Fiery Passion State. She can then use the bonus Elemental Skill charge it grants to do this again with access to her improved multipliers, rounding it off with her special Burst as soon as she lands. 

Her Passives thankfully don’t add any further complexity, and are just simple bonuses. The first Ascension Passive increases her Plunging Attack DMG by a portion of her ATK after using Skill, which is further powered up if she is in the Fiery Passion state. Her second Ascension Passive provides her a 35% ATK buff when a Nightsoul Burst is triggered which can stack up to two times and lasting 12s; Varesa will generally be able to maintain one stack of this when it matters even as the sole Natlan unit on a team, though uptime on both stacks can prove difficult even with 3 Natlan characters. While Xilonen makes it a cinch, the buff isn’t major enough that Varesa has to go out of her way to partner up with her.

Finally, note that while her standard Elemental Burst is almost never used, her standard Charge Attack does occasionally see play if looking to extend Varesa’s field time. She also has a Hold Skill, though this is primarily for overworld exploration; its only usage in combat is its ability to consume Nightsoul points when briefly Held to trigger related effects, such as Obsidian Codex.