And when compared, Beidou easily outperforms Keqing. She’s among the strongest DPS units and can clear most battle content in-game. Although her kit can be harder to understand, she’s very easy to play. As a Burst DPS, she simply casts her burst and then goes off-field. Similarly, Keqing is also easy to play. In most teams, you simply perform charged attacks and cast her abilities – no special attack combos needed. However, they do differ in DPS output. Beidou just deals significantly more damage than Keqing. To further explain & contrast these two, let’s compare their character values and performance in the two game modes of Genshin Impact: Overworld (Exploration & Co-op) and Spiral Abyss (Meta). Note: All comparisons made are between a C0 Keqing and C6 Beidou. Let’s first start by comparing their kits.
Character Kits Breakdowns
Normal Attack
A part of Keqing’s kit infuses her attacks with Electro. Because of this, it’s beneficial to level her normal attack talents. This deals a sizable portion of Keqing’s damage. Additionally, Keqing has the option for a Physical DPS build. Most of her damage would come from her normal and charged attacks. Physical Keqing is viable, but it’s generally not recommended – Electro Keqing is still significantly better. As for Beidou, Electro DPS is her best build by far. So it’s simply not optimal to use or level her normal attack talents.
Elemental Skill
Keqing throws a Lightning Stiletto that deals AOE Electro damage and leaves a Stiletto Mark. If it hits an opponent, it leaves a Mark on the spot hit. Recasting this skill blinks Keqing to the Stiletto Mark’s location. Doing so deals AOE Electro damage. Holding this skill lets you adjust the direction where the Stiletto is thrown. Stilettos thrown this way can be suspended mid-air. This lets Keqing jump to its location when recasting the skill. If Keqing performs a charged attack with a Stiletto Mark present, the Mark explodes. This deals AOE Electro damage. Beidou counterattacks opponents’ hits. Pressing this skill causes Beidou to swing her blade forward. This deals AOE Electro damage. Holding this skill creates a shield that scales off Beidou’s max HP. This shield has a 250% Electro damage absorption efficiency. Additionally, it applies Electro to Beidou upon activation. Once this hold skill ends, it deals AOE Electro damage. The damage dealt scales with the number of times Beidou is attacked during the hold skill. If Beidou takes a hit within the skill’s duration, she gains a damage bonus – a maximum of 2 can be gained. After taking 2 hits, its duration automatically ends and deals damage. Alternatively, the hold skill also ends after 3.5s regardless if Beidou takes a hit or not.
Elemental Burst
Keqing deals multiple slashes followed by a stronger final slash. All these deal AOE Electro damage. Her burst costs 40 energy. Beidou creates a Thunderbeast’s Targe that surrounds your active character. Upon cast, this deals AOE Electro damage.The Thunderbeast’s Targe has the following properties:
When normal and charged attacks hit an opponent, they create a lightning discharge. This can jump between opponents while dealing Electro damage. It increases your active character’s resistance to interruption and decreases damage taken.
Only 1 lightning discharge can be triggered per second. Her burst costs 80 energy and lasts for 15s.
Passive Talents (Keqing)
After recasting her skill while a Stiletto is present, Keqing’s weapon gains an Electro infusion. This lasts for 5s. When casting Keqing’s burst, her CRIT rate and Energy Recharge are increased by 15%. This lasts for 8s. When dispatched on a Liyue expedition, the time consumed is reduced by 25%.
Passive Talents (Beidou)
Counterattacking with Beidou’s skill at the precise moment when she’s hit grants the maximum damage bonus. For 10s after casting her skill with its maximum damage bonus, Beidou gains the following effects: Normal and charged attack damage is increased by 15%. Their attack speed is also increased by 15%. Greatly reduces the delay before unleashing charged attacks. Decreases swimming stamina consumption by 20%. This only works for your own party members.
Notable Constellations
Keqing’s most notable constellations are her C2, C3, and C4.
When Keqing’s normal and charged attacks hit opponents affected by Electro, C2 has a 50% chance of generating an elemental particle. This can only occur once every 5s. This is a nice quality-of-life buff that can help charge teammates’ bursts. C3 increases her elemental burst talent level by 3. This is a sizable damage buff. With C4, Keqing gains 25% ATK after triggering an Electro-related elemental reaction. This provides a great damage buff, and it’s Keqing’s strongest constellation.
Beidou’s most notable constellations are her C2, C5, and C6.
With C2, Beidou’s burst arc lightning can jump to 2 additional targets. This significantly buffs Beidou’s damage. C5 increases her elemental burst talent level by 3. This directly buffs her main source of damage. During Beidou’s burst, C6 decreases the Electro resistance of surrounding opponents by 15%. This basically lets Beidou and all Electro teammates deal more damage.
In The Overworld
Exploration (Single-Player)
Keqing outperforms Beidou in exploration. This is mainly because of Beidou’s expensive burst – she needs a battery or high Energy Recharge to consistently use her burst. In contrast, Keqing’s damage is spread around her kit. She can deal Electro damage through her normal and charged attacks. Plus she generates a lot of energy particles. You can easily spam her low-energy cost burst – not needing to manage energy simply makes her feel more comfortable to play. Her skill’s teleportation mechanic is also great for exploration. It can help you reach higher and farther places.
Co-op (Multiplayer)
Keqing and Beidou perform equally in Co-op. Keqing can still feel better to play, but Beidou just deals more damage. Co-op solves most of Beidou’s energy needs. Since all teammates are constantly generating energy particles, she can easily charge her burst. This essentially lets Beidou use her burst off-cooldown.
Spiral Abyss (Meta)
Snapshot
Some abilities in-game can snapshot the stats active when they were cast. Snapshotting applies to Beidou’s burst. This is better demonstrated by the photos above. In the first photo, Beidou casts her burst inside Bennett’s burst (the red circle). This field gives an ATK buff to the active character inside. In the second photo, Bennett’s burst expires and Beidou loses the ATK buff. But since her burst snapshots, it deals the same damage.
Perfect Counter
Beidou’s first passive lets her perform a perfect counter. This refers to precisely casting her skill when hit by an opponent. It grants Beidou’s skill the maximum damage bonus possible. A perfect counter can work with both a press and hold skill. Performing at least 1-2 perfect counters every rotation can significantly reduce Beidou’s energy requirements. They generate a lot of energy particles, so it’s highly recommended to learn the timing of perfect counters. Additionally, standing on burning grass automatically triggers a perfect counter. This guarantees perfect counters in the overworld.
Team Compositions
Keqing and Beidou have relatively similar meta teams. However, their playstyles are very different. Keqing’s playstyle can either be as a Sustained DPS or Burst DPS. As a Sustained DPS, she uses her entire kit to deal damage – her normal and charged attacks are weaved into her skill and burst. As a Burst DPS, she just casts her skill and burst off cooldown. Afterward, you switch to another character and wait until her cooldowns end. Beidou’s main playstyle is as a Burst DPS. You simply cast her burst and then switch to another character. But she also occasionally goes on-field to cast her skill off-cooldown – this helps charge her burst. A Beidou team’s on-field character serves as her driver. Beidou’s driver performs normal and charged attacks to proc her burst’s lightning discharges. To better compare, here’s a tl;dr of whose team variation is stronger and why. Taser teams are composed of:
2 Electro units 1 Hydro unit 1 Anemo unit
Beidou Taser is easily Beidou’s strongest team. She acts as the main carry that deals a good portion of the team’s DPS. Plus, she provides additional survivability. This is especially important in a team with no healers. Her burst gives resistance to interruption and decreases damage taken by your character. And, with C1, her burst also creates a shield. Beidou Taser strictly outperforms Keqing’s Taser teams. However, Keqing can also be paired with Beidou as a teammate – doing so directly buffs her team’s overall DPS. A Mono Electro team is composed of:
3 Electro units 1 Anemo unit
This team has no strict rotations – so it’s very easy to play. Still, Beidou outdamages Keqing. Even in a Mono Electro team with both of them, Beidou simply deals more damage and provides additional survivability. Double Geo Electro is composed of:
2 Electro units 2 Geo units
This team takes advantage of Geo Resonance to further buff their damage. Geo Resonance is activated when there are at least 2 Geo units in the team. It increases the team’s shield strength by 15%. Additionally, characters with a shield gain the following effects:
Increases damage dealt by 15%. Dealing damage to enemies will decrease their Geo resistance by 20%. This lasts for 15s.
In this team, Beidou still outdamages Keqing. An overload team is generally composed of:
1 Electro unit 2 Pyro units 1 Anemo or Electro unit
Overload is an explosive elemental reaction between Pyro and Electro. It also knocks back lighter opponents backward and away from your character. Beidou’s overload team variants are far more comfortable to play than Keqing’s. This is because she’s off-field while the on-field Pyro unit is usually a ranged character. So, much less stamina is spent chasing after opponents. In contrast, Keqing is the on-field DPS for her overload teams. Chasing after opponents and performing charged attacks quickly depletes her stamina. This makes her feel very clunky to play.
Who Should You Build?
Beidou is easily the better character. She’s one of the strongest DPS units in Genshin – and she’s miles ahead of Keqing. Beidou’s damage output is even competitive with the strongest 5-star characters. Additionally, Beidou can help you clear Spiral Abyss and most battle content much faster, and at a lower investment. Her Taser team is basically good in every Spiral Abyss phase.
