How to find and defeat Ruin Drake: Skywatch in Genshin Impact

Large automata from a bygone civilization, the Ruin Drakes are a dangerous mini-boss enemy in Genshin Impact. Players will need to employ strategy and cunning, as well as well-prepared rosters to have a chance of defeating them and getting some of their coveted loot. They come in two types, winged Skywatch and terrestrial Earthguard. In this guide, we will explain where to find Ruin Drake: Skywatch and how to defeat them.

Related: How to find and defeat Ruin Drake: Earthguard in Genshin Impact

Where to find Ruin Drake: Skywatch in Genshin Impact

Both kinds of Ruin Drakes share spawning locations, and you can’t be certain which type has spawned until you visit them. These locations are generally large fields and ruins of Sumeru, providing ample room for combat. The default spawn locations for Ruin Drakes are shown on the map below:

How to defeat Ruin Drake: Skywatch in Genshin Impact

Ruin Drake: Skywatch is a winged automaton that fights like a mini-boss despite being classified as an Elite Enemy type. They are able to deal damage of all types, which makes them particularly dangerous foes. Meanwhile, they have 50% physical damage resistance and 10% damage resistance to all other damage types. Their stats scale with their level, and they grow progressively stronger. It’s also notable that their HP and ATK stats are very high.

The main strength of Ruin Drake: Skywatch is in its ability to fly, which makes hitting its weak spots particularly difficult for parties composed of melee fighters. To make it easier to defeat them, we advise that you bring a Bow or Catalyst user or two. There are two weak spots that you can hit located by their wings. If a ranged character scores a hit, they will fall down and get hit with a 15-second stun, giving you ample time to deal a lot of damage. There is also another weak spot located at the very center of its body — the big glowing circle.

Ruin Drake: Skywatch abilities and attacks

• Machine Gun Volley: Fires off a volley in front of it, dealing 60% ATK with each shot as Physical DMG.
  • To avoid it, simply run to one side continuously or keep dodging to escape it.
• Missile Barrage: Locks onto the player and fires a barrage of missiles, each dealing 60% ATK as Physical DMG.
  • To avoid this AoE attack it is important to move away and out of the area of effect. If, for any reason, you can’t avoid it, it is possible to tank the hit with a character’s shield.
• Tail Slice: If the player stays too close, performs a vertical spin and slices the ground below with its tail, dealing 80% ATK as Physical DMG.
  • This is an attack that you can bait for a combo. If you only want to avoid it, simply watch for the animation and get far away from it. It’s slow and easy to avoid.
• Confetti: Charges before scattering a great number of bombs into the air, dealing 100% ATK when they land as AoE Physical DMG or AoE Elemental DMG matching the Ruin Drake’s currently absorbed element. Hitting the Ruin Drake’s head while this attack is charging will paralyze it.
  After this attack, the Ruin Drake will absorb the element that it has received the most amount of DMG from since the beginning of the battle or the last time it performed this attack. The absorbed element will be used the next time it performs this attack. It also gains 40% Resistance to the absorbed element.
  If the Ruin Drake has not received any Elemental DMG at the beginning of the battle or the last time it performed this attack, it will stay in or return to its Physical state.
  • This is the Ruin Drake’s strongest signature ability. The best bet is to watch for the color of the attack so that you know which element it’s using (and prepare your defenses accordingly) and to save some stamina to sprint away from it.

Ruin Drake: Skywatch item drops

Both types of Ruin Drakes share the same loot table, which means that you can farm them for the same loot. By default, they will drop a variable amount of Mora and Character XP, but they also have a chance to drop:

• Chaos Storage (Ruin Drake level 1+)
• Chaos Module (Ruin Drake level 40+)
• Chaos Bolt (Ruin Drake level 60+)