Genshin Impact: Thundering Pulse Guide – Best characters to use

The second Weapon banner for Genshin Impact 2.0 is here, bringing a brand new five-star Bow: Thundering Pulse. This is a great DPS weapon, so if you need to get your archers a new toy this is it. Let’s take a look at Thundering Pulse and see who are the best characters to give it to.

Thundering Pulse: Stats

According to miHoYO, Thundering Pulse has the following stats at Lv. 90 and Refinement 1.

• Base ATK 608
• CRIT DMG 66.2%

Thundering Pulse also gives a flat 20% ATK boost. Like the Mistsplitter Reforged before it, it has an Emblem mechanic. You’ll get a Normal Attack DMG boost based on the number of Emblem stacks you have, with one stack giving 12%, two stacks giving 24% and a full three stacks giving 40%. Fulfilling the following criteria will give a Thunder Emblem, each with its own duration.

• Normal attack deals damage- 5 seconds
• Casting Elemental Skill- 10 seconds
• Energy is less than 100%

This Bow has a key difference to the Mistsplitter Reforged: it doesn’t need that Normal Attack to deal Elemental Damage to trigger its first emblem. That means that Thundering Pulse is way more versatile, and fits on more characters.

Thundering Pulse: Characters

Characters who rely on spamming their Normal Attacks will take full advantage of the Thundering Pulse. Fast hitters like Yoimiya, Tartaglia, the upcoming Aloy and certain builds of Fischl or Amber can reliably hit all three Emblems quickly.

Yoimiya relies on the Pyro infusion given by her Elemental Skill to deal tons of damage by attacking quickly. Tartaglia does something similar, as his melee stance attacks actually still count as his Normal Attack. You’ll always have Thundering Pulse’s first two Emblems up when they’re out doing their thing.

Aloy isn’t out yet, but her abilities make her seem very similar to Yoimiya. She can get a Cryo infusion to Normal Attacks by using her Elemental Skill effectively. Thundering Pulse would be a great upgrade to her included Predator Bow, even more so if you’re not on PlayStation and can’t even use the Predator.

Physical DMG builds, also known as “Machine Gun” builds, of Fischl and Amber can also reliably have all three Emblems up. Just be sure to have them pop their Skills as soon as you’re ready to do your attack rotation. The second Emblem triggers on cast, so Oz or Baron Bunny’s delayed attacks won’t give an Emblem. Both skills have cooldowns longer than the duration of the second Emblem.

These fast attackers with moderate to high CRIT Rate take Thundering Pulse to the next level, using the CRIT DMG bonus from the sub stat to quickly hit big numbers. Aloy is a standout for this with a four-piece Blizzard Strayer set, with a 20% CRIT Rate boost against Cryo affected enemies and 40% against Frozen ones.

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Support characters and builds won’t be able to use this bow well, as you typically don’t Normal Attack with them. In most cases, you just drop their Skills or Bursts and swap off. Venti, Diona, the upcoming Kujou Sara and battery builds of Fischl have better options that prioritize Energy Recharge or Skill Damage.

Ganyu is a unique archer, since her massive damage only comes from her Aimed Shot. Because of the extra charge time needed to hit her full attack, the tempo to keep all three Emblems up can be very awkward.

Thundering Pulse is also a great investment weapon for future archers too, as we’ll only get more DPS archers. It’s so easy to hit the maximum buff this Bow gives, and with so many good character choices to give this to, Thundering Pulse is one of the better Weapon banner exclusives.