Preview
Sara is an Electro 4-star bow character that was released concurrently with Raiden Shogun. Following the trend of Gorou/Itto and Thoma/Hu Tao, she is an amazing support for Raiden. She has a Support role and her power scales greatly with her number of constellations. The materials she requires are below:
The Ashen Heart is earned through defeating the weekly boss Azhdaha, giving 1 or 2 each time at higher levels, while the Storm Beads required for levelling are obtained from the Thunder Manifestation (Electro Oceanid). The Ominous Mask is used to level Sara and her talents and is dropped by Hilichurls which can be found throughout Teyvat. Her talent books required are Philosophies of Elegance, which can be obtained in the Violet Court Domain. She uses Dendrobium as her levelling material.
This article will introduce you to the weapons and artifacts to use on Sara and the party setup you can use with her. I will include options for free-to-play players, as well as beginners.
Sara Weapons
Sara works best with Energy Recharge sub-stat weapons. If possible, I would recommend using a 5-star weapon (Elegy for the End or Skyward Harp for the passive). Otherwise, you can also use the F2P weapons Favonius Warbow and Prototype Crescent. You can use the weapons below:
The Elegy for the End bow is the best option for Sara, but might not be very attainable for F2P players, despite the current weapon banner wishing system. It increases Elemental Mastery by 60. When her Elemental Skills or Elemental Bursts hit opponents, she gains a Sigil of Remembrance. This effect can be triggered once every 0.2s and can be triggered even if said character is not on the field. When you possess 4 Sigils of Remembrance, all will be consumed and all nearby party members will obtain increased EM by 100 and increased ATK by 20% effect for 12s. Once this effect is triggered, you will not gain Sigils of Remembrance for 20s.
Alternatively, you can use the Skyward Harp which has a CRIT Rate sub-stat. It increases CRIT DMG by 20% and hits have a 60% chance to inflict a small AoE attack, dealing 125% Physical ATK DMG, which can only occur once every 4s. This is incredibly helpful with Sara as Burst support as she can deal more damage with her Ultimate before swapping her out of the field.
The 5-star weapons are rather unattainable but since Sara's buffs scale off her base ATK, the high base ATK of these weapons would increase her buffs as well.
For Energy Recharge sub-stats, you can use the Sacrificial Bow. After dealing damage to an opponent with an Elemental Skill, the skill has a 40% chance to end its CD, which can only occur once every 30s. This bow works well due to the high base ATK for Sara's buffs.
Alternatively, you can use the 4-star Favonius Warbow. CRIT hits have a 60% chance to generate a small number of Elemental Particles, which will regenerate 6 Energy for the character, which can only occur once every 12s. This is great to continuously generate Sara's ultimate due to its high cost of 80. This weapon is F2P friendly as you can obtain it by completing the Mondstadt archon quest.
Another F2P friendly weapon would be the Prototype Crescent due to the ATK sub-stat. Additionally, Charged Attack hits on weak points increase Movement SPD by 10% and ATK by 36% for 10s. This works well for characters that snapshot such as Xiangling and Beidou.
If you have yet to obtain these weapons, you can also try the Stringless, though I would recommend swapping over once obtaining other options. The passive increases Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst DMG by 24%.
Though Sara's buffs scale off her base ATK, I would recommend focusing on Energy Recharge for the weapon since her ultimate has a high energy cost.
Sara Artifacts
Sara should use a 4-set of Noblesse Oblige. The Noblesse Oblige set increases Elemental Burst DMG by 20% and increases all party members' ATK by 20% for 12s after performing an Elemental Burst. The Noblesse Oblige set can be obtained from the Clear Pool and Mountain Cavern Domain. For a guide on completing the domain, you can click here.
Some might prefer a 4-set of Emblem of Severed Fate to increase Energy Recharge and to give additional buffs to party members based on Sara's ER%. This works well if you already have another character in your team that has the 4 Noblesse Oblige set since the buff cannot stack. The Emblem of Severed Fate set can be obtained from the Momiji Dyed Court Domain, do look out for a guide on how to complete the domain!
The stats and sub-stats that you should prioritise are as below:
- Flower sub-stats: ER%, CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG
- Feather sub-stats: ER%, CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG
- Watch stat: ER% (or ATK% if you already have a weapon with ER% stat)
- Goblet stat: Electro DMG Bonus
- Mask stat: CRIT Rate/CRIT Damage (try to have 40:80 at least for more burst damage)
If you are using the 4 Noblesse set, try to have at least 180% ER. If you are using the 4 Emblem set, try to have at least 200% ER.
Sara Talents
The best order to upgrade your talents is below.
Tengu Stormcall > Subjugation: Koukou Sendou > Tengu Bowmanship
There is no point upgrading her normal attack unless you would like to build her as a Main DPS (which I would not recommend as there are other better Electro DPS in-game).
Party Setup
With Sara as the Burst Support, you should use Electro characters that can benefit from her particle generation and characters with skills that snapshot. I would recommend Xiangling for her Pyronado ability and Beidou as she can also snapshot and has great synergy with Sara. Alternatively, Fischl's Oz can also snapshot and makes for a great and continuous off-field DPS. As support, Sara with C6 makes the ideal Electro team composition with Raiden Shogun due to her buffs to Electro DMG. However, this might be difficult to obtain. I use Fischl for Off-field DPS, Xiangling for Overloaded, Beidou for Electro synergy/burst and Sara for buffs. I will likely use Raiden Shogun, Fischl, Bennett and Sara once I obtain C6 of Kujou Sara.
Conclusion
Overall, Sara seems to be a rather targeted Burst DPS, though she has lots of potential. Once you obtain C6 Sara, she and Raiden Shogun in a team will be unstoppable.
We hope that you have found this article helpful! To learn how to build Raiden Shogun, you can refer to my article here or this article on her constellations and team compositions. For more information on Ayaka, and the permafreeze comp, you can take a look at this article. Do look out for more Genshin guides from me and let us know if there are other articles you would like to read!