How to Defeat a Ruin Hunter in Genshin Impact

Avoiding Damage

Keep a distance. Ruin hunters can deal serious damage if you are too close. It is best to keep at least 50 to 100 meters from a ruin hunter to avoid losing a lot of health. Also, it is the only way to be able to disable a ruin hunter. Note that if you go too far, the ruin hunter's HP bar will reset.

Avoid the bullets and missiles. A ruin hunter fires more than just missiles, it can launch charged attacks and attacks into the air. If you are far away, the ruin hunter will start by sending bullets towards you. Then it will send a few missiles. Then it will launch a charged attack, which will deal a lot more damage than the bullets and missiles combined. After, it will launch more missiles and bullets into the air. The orange circles that appear on the ground indicate where these missiles will land.

Keep clear when the ruin hunter dashes. This dashing can drain your HP bar fast. You will want to stay away from the direction the hunter's arm is pointing in. If the ruin hunter is dashing towards you, you are too close. Move further away and take down the ruin hunter.

Revive/heal your archer. If they die, you will need to revive them. It is always a good idea to keep food in your inventory in case any of your characters die during combat. Alternatively, you can also add a healer to your party (such as Barbara, Bennett, or Qiqi).

Dealing Damage

Fire arrows at the ruin hunter's eye. Unlike a ruin guard, where you can easily deal damage to it without disabling it, the only way to deal significant damage to a ruin hunter without risking being hit is to disable it first. To disable it, wait until the ruin hunter is flying high above and firing missiles and bullets. Aim at the ruin hunter's eye. If you hit it, the ruin hunter will immediately fall to the ground.

Use elemental attacks (your elemental skill and burst). These can deal a lot of damage, especially when combined with other attacks. One easy way to do so is by combining Pyro with Electro, resulting in Overloaded. You may want to use certain elemental burst attacks after the ruin hunter is disabled. For example, Amber's Fiery Rain attack and Lisa's Lightning Rose attack are not super effective if the ruin hunter is not disabled, as they have a small range and if a ruin hunter is not disabled it may move out of the attack's range.

Use melee weapons only after the ruin hunter is disabled. After the ruin hunter is disabled, you will want to use melee weapons to deal more damage. The ruin hunter will remain disabled for 15-30 seconds and then reactivate. Use this window to deal additional damage. Run away when you see the ruin hunter reactivating. The hunter can deal massive physical damage if you are in close range. Ruin enemies have high physical resistance, therefore bringing a physical damage character (such as Razor or physical Keqing) when fighting one isn't a good idea. Alternatively, choose melee characters who can infuse their normal attacks with their element (such as Noelle or Xiao).

Repeat to defeat the ruin hunter. If done correctly, the ruin hunter will effectively be defeated. The hunter, like the ruin guard, drops a chaos device. You may also get a chest unlocked that can result in you leveling up.