Their kits are very similar – enough so that they share the same team comps. However, Jean is still the better unit. This is mainly because she has more versatility than Sayu. Jean can basically be slotted into any team that needs an Anemo unit. She also works well as both an on-field and off-field support. While Sayu excels mostly in teams where she can swirl Pyro/Hydro/Electro/Cryo. In these teams, she outdamages Jean – as long as she’s on-field using her elemental skill. Because of this, she performs worse in teams where she’s mostly off-field. To further explain, let’s compare their character values and how they perform in the two game modes of Genshin Impact: Overworld (Exploration & Co-op) and Spiral Abyss (Meta). All comparisons made are between a C0 Jean and C6 Sayu.
Character Kit Breakdowns
Normal Attack
It’s not recommended to level Sayu’s normal attack talent. In most teams, none of her damage and utility come from this talent. Instead, they’re all from her skill, burst, and passives. In contrast, Jean can be a Physical DPS – but this does waste most of her kit’s potential. This is because her damage and utility come from her skill and burst. Still, her charged attack is one of the few abilities in-game that can launch opponents. This lets her toss enemies into the air and then deal fall damage. Fall damage scales off the opponents’ max HP. It can basically deal a lot of damage even at low investment. In some teams, her charged attacks can be weaved into her attack combos – thus taking advantage of fall damage.
Elemental Skill
Sayu curls up into a rolling Fuufuu Windwheel. While in this state, she smashes into opponents at high speed while dealing AOE Anemo damage. Pressing this skill causes Sayu to enter this state only briefly. She rolls forward a short distance and then performs a Fuufuu Whirlwind Kick. This kick deals AOE Anemo damage. Holding this skill causes her to stay in this state longer. She continuously rolls as a Fuufuu Windwheel and gains increased resistance to interruption. The direction of her roll can be controlled. This hold state lasts for 10s, and it starts its cooldown once the skill ends. The longer she stays in this state, the longer the cooldown. Recasting this skill will end her Windwheel state early. This also unleashes a stronger Fuufuu Whirlwind Kick. Additionally, Sayu can absorb Hydro/Pyro/Cryo/Electro while in her Windwheel state. This lets her deal additional elemental damage of that type. Note: Elemental absorption can only happen once per skill use. Jean launches opponents in the direction she aims at. This deals AOE Anemo damage. Holding this skill summons a whirlwind that pulls surrounding objects and opponents towards her front. This continuously consumes stamina. The direction of the whirlwind can be adjusted, and Jean is immobile during this hold skill. Like her charged attacks, her hold skill can toss opponents into the air. This is another way of proccing fall damage.
Elemental Burst
Sayu summons a Muji-Muji Daruma. Upon summoning, this heals all nearby teammates. The amount of healing is based on Sayu’s ATK. While on-field, Muji-Muji Daruma periodically does the following:
If the HP of nearby teammates is above 70%, it will attack nearby opponents. This deals AOE Anemo damage. If the HP of nearby active characters is 70% or below, it heals the one with the lowest percentage of HP left. If there are no nearby opponents, it heals nearby active characters even if their HP is 70% or more.
Her burst costs 80 energy and lasts for 12s. Jean creates a Dandelion Field. Upon cast, this launches surrounding opponents and deals AOE Anemo damage. Additionally, she regenerates a large amount of HP for all teammates. The amount of HP regenerated scales off Jean’s ATK. The Dandelion Field continuously heals active characters within its AOE and infuses them with Anemo. It also deals Anemo damage to opponents entering or exiting its field. Her burst costs 80 energy and lasts for 10s.
Passive Talents (Sayu)
When triggering a swirl reaction on-field, Sayu heals all nearby teammates for 300 HP. She also heals an additional 1.2 HP for every point of EM she has. This can only be triggered once every 2s. Sayu’s burst or Muji-Muji Daruma gains the following effects: When healing a character, it also heals the characters nearby that healed character for 20% of the amount of HP. Increases the AOE of its attack against enemies. When Sayu is in the party, your characters won’t startle nearby Crystalflies and certain other animals.
Passive Talents (Jean)
Jean’s normal attacks have a 50% chance to heal all party members. The healed HP is equal to 15% of her ATK. This is triggered on hit and not upon dealing damage. Casting her burst regenerates 20% of its energy. This effectively cuts its energy cost to 64 energy. When cooking a perfect dish with restorative effects, Jean has a 12% chance of obtaining double the product.
Notable Constellations
Sayu’s most notable constellations are her C1, C4, and C6.
With C1, Sayu’s burst will now ignore HP limits. It will simultaneously attack nearby opponents while healing characters. With C4, Sayu recovers 1.2 energy whenever she triggers a Swirl reaction. This can occur once every 2s. This is a nice quality-of-life constellation that greatly reduces Sayu’s energy requirements. With C6, the Muji-Muji Daruma of Sayu’s burst now benefits from her Elemental Mastery. For each point of EM Sayu has, her burst gains the following effects: Increases Muji-Muji Daruma’s damage by 0.2% of her ATK. A maximum of 400% ATK can be gained this way. Increases the HP healed by Sayu’s burst by 3. A maximum of 6,000 additional HP can be healed this way.
Jean’s best constellations are her C2, C3, C4, and C5.
When Jean obtains an elemental orb/particle, C2 increases all teammates’ movement speed and attack speed by 15%. This lasts for 15s. C3 increases Jean’s elemental burst level by 3. This directly buffs her burst’s damage and healing. With C4, Jean’s burst shreds the Anemo resistance of opponents within its field by 40%. There are very few sources of Anemo resistance shred in-game, so this is especially valuable for Anemo DPS units – like Xiao. C5 increases her elemental skill talent by 3. This directly buffs her skill damage.
Kit Comparison: Summary
You’ve probably noticed that their kits are pretty similar. To sum it all up, here’s a TL;DR on their main differences in strength.
In The Overworld (Exploration & Multiplayer)
Sayu and Jean are equally great in the overworld. Sayu best excels in exploration and farming. Her skill lets you travel faster than sprinting – and at no stamina cost. This is great for farming materials that are spread across a large area. Sayu’s passive also makes it much easier to catch crystalflies and certain animals. While Jean is great for farming mob drops. Because she can easily proc fall damage, it lets you deal massive damage with very low investment. Her skill’s whirlwind also lets you gather the mob drops – making it much easier to collect them. Additionally, they’re amazing characters in Co-op. Both Sayu and Jean provide strong healing and high personal damage. They can effectively support their teammates while being very self-sufficient themselves. Their short cooldowns and long uptimes are also especially good when you can only use one character in Co-op.
Spiral Abyss (Meta)
Sunfire Jean
Sunfire is a gameplay tech unique to Jean only. Her burst infuses the active character with Anemo. Similarly, Bennett’s burst infuses the active character with Pyro. When both bursts are active, Jean’s burst can trigger Pyro-infused swirl reactions on the active character. Swirl is an AOE elemental reaction, so proccing swirl on your character also affects nearby opponents. The swirl reactions of Sunfire scale off Jean’s Elemental Mastery. So, by stacking EM, she can deal significant damage. Sunfire Jean is especially great in teams where you want a constant and strong Pyro aura on the opponents.
Best Team Compositions
Sayu and Jean are interchangeable in most of their teams. Here’s a summary of who performs better in their best teams and why. Xiao teams always have at least one Anemo battery. Their main role is to generate energy particles for Xiao’s burst – both Sayu and Jean are good units for this slot. They both generate 2-3 energy particles per press skill. However, Jean does outperform Sayu. This is because a lot of Sayu’s damage is wasted without element-infused swirls. Most Xiao teams have minimal to no elemental reactions. Because of this, Jean will deal more damage than Sayu. Taser teams are composed of:
2 Electro units 1 Hydro unit 1 Anemo unit
Both Sayu and Jean are viable Anemo options, but they excel in different variations of Taser. Sayu is better in teams where she can spend a lot of field time – or when she can cast her entire hold skill. This lets her deal significantly more damage than Jean. A notable exception is Beidou Taser. The active character must perform normal and charged attacks to proc Beidou’s off-field burst – Sayu’s hold skill can’t do this. In contrast, Jean can weave normal attacks with her skill. This easily makes her the better and stronger option. Soup teams are composed of:
1 Pyro unit 1 Hydro unit 1 Electro unit 1 Anemo unit
Sayu and Jean are both viable options for Soup teams. However, Jean fits in a lot more Soup variations than Sayu. The most notable example of this is Sunfire Raiden. This team uses Jean and Bennett’s Sunfire tech. Its members are Jean, Raiden, Xingqiu, and Bennett. Through Sunfire, Jean can maintain a strong Pyro aura on the enemies. This lets Raiden and Xingqiu chain elemental reactions with Pyro. This is a Soup team where Sayu can’t replace Jean at all. Mono Pyro teams are generally composed of:
3 Pyro units 1 Anemo unit
The Anemo unit’s main role is to use the 4-piece Viridescent Venerer or 4VV set. Upon triggering an element-infused swirl, its passive decreases opponents’ resistance to that element. This elemental resistance shred is equal to 40% and lasts for 10s. Both Sayu and Jean can easily use this artifact. However, Sayu does deal significantly more damage than Jean in this team.
Who Should You Build?
Jean is definitely the better unit to build. She’s a strong meta character that can fit into a lot of teams. Additionally, she’s a standard 5-star character. This means that you can get her by pulling on any character banner. Otherwise, Sayu is a good alternative. She’s essentially a 4-star version of Jean with minimal differences.
