Updated for Version 2.8

Preface

Overlooked due to low modifiers and an unpopular Element, Electro Traveler is a strong unit living in the shadow of Raiden Shogun and Fischl. However, unlike these characters, Electro Traveler has the unique attribute of generating Flat Energy and providing ER increase, which makes them shine in team comps that have selfish and Energy-hungry DPS characters of any Element.

Art credit: prinzcake on Twitter [original post]

Character Breakdown

Every Element of the Traveler is like a different character, with Talents that are leveled up separately using different materials, as well as Constellations that are obtained in different ways.

Important Terms

Amulets: These will appear as the Elemental Skill hits an enemy. The amount of Amulets generated depends on the number of enemies AND the number of hits. i.e. 3 hits hitting 1 enemy results in 3 Amulets, 2 hits hitting 2 enemies (1 each) results in 2 Amulets.

Falling Thunders: Electro damage from the Elemental Burst is triggered by Normal or Charged Attack hits. It triggers on-hit like Beidou’s Burst, not on-attack like Xingqiu’s Burst, meaning the active character must actually hit an enemy to trigger it.

Talents

Talent Priority

Elemental Skill > Elemental Burst > Normal Attack

The best way to level up Electro Traveler’s Talents is to raise the Skill and Burst to Lv. 7, leaving the Normal Attack at 1. The reason for Level 7 Talents is so that Electro Traveler can generate the highest amount of Energy possible, going past that will only increase the little bit of damage they can deal. 

Constellations

Art credit: NaitoMizuki4 on HoYoLAB [original post]

Energy Explained

Basic Concepts

Before getting into playstyles and builds, it’s important to understand how Energy works with Electro Traveler as it can get slightly complicated. The Energy from both the Amulets and Falling Thunders are considered Flat Energy, meaning it’s not affected by ER, while the Energy from Elemental Particles and Orbs is affected by ER. However, since the Traveler only generates 1 Electro Particle with each Skill use, the Energy from the Particle is lackluster to say the least, and isn’t nearly as important as the Flat Energy from Amulets or Falling Thunders. 

Electro Resonance

Electro Resonance, High Voltage, activates when there are 4 characters on the team and at least 2 of them are Electro. This benefits Electro Traveler as it generates 1 Electro Particle every time an Electro Reaction occurs, with a CD of 5 seconds. When a character receives an Elemental Particle of the same Element as theirs, it turns into more Energy than a Clear or different-Element Particle. Elemental Orbs behave the same way, except each type of Elemental Orb is the equivalent of 3 Elemental Particles. Learn more about Particles and Orbs here.

ER Requirement

With Electro Resonance:
If the Traveler picks up 3 Amulets, they only need 100%~130% ER.
If the Traveler doesn’t pick up any Amulets, they need 170%~200% ER.

Without Electro Resonance:
If the Traveler picks up 3 Amulets, they need at least 170%~300% ER.
If the Traveler doesn’t pick up any Amulets, the team is simply not realistically functional.

As with all things in Genshin, it depends™, Electro Traveler’s ER requirement can vary a lot. Having an expensive Burst makes it a lot harder to figure out team comps and plan out rotations, since not only are they usually generating Flat Energy for another character, but they also need to provide themselves with enough Energy. Note that a lower ER requirement for Electro Traveler doesn’t necessarily mean a lower ER requirement for the rest of the team. The numbers mentioned above are just general guidelines, to find out how much ER every character on a specific team needs, the Energy Recharge calculator is a very useful tool.

Art credit: 霧せれあ on pixiv [original post]

Playstyles

Battery

This is what Electro Traveler’s whole kit is all about, and what is recommended. Almost every Talent and Constellation is about generating Flat Energy, meaning the damage multipliers are relatively low compared to the other Travelers. With Electro being the Element that represents Energy, it is no surprise that Electro Resonance benefits Electro Traveler a lot. Using them as a battery at maximum potential requires very little investment. The artifacts are quite easy to farm, since an ER% main stat on the Sands is the focus, and substats don’t matter much.

Utilizing the Amulets can be tricky at first, but with practice Electro Traveler is very good at generating Energy. When you are letting another character pick up the Amulets, you need to use Traveler’s Burst followed by their Skill, then switch to the other character to cast their Burst while picking up the Amulets so the Energy will be gained right after casting the Burst. This isn’t as hard as it might sound, from the moment Traveler’s Skill is casted, there is about 1.8s of time before the Amulets can be picked up, which is enough for the other character to receive 24 Energy from the Amulets right after casting their Burst. However, in some rotations the Traveler needs to pick up their own Amulets, in which case it will be more efficient to use their Skill before Burst as they would be able to pick up Amulets right after their own Burst is casted. 

Note that when the Favonius Sword passive triggers, you would ideally pick up the 3 Clear Particles with a character whose Burst isn’t full. In other words, if you use the Burst before the Skill and it triggers on the Burst, you would need to time the Skill to catch the Clear Particles with Electro Traveler before switching to another character. However, if the passive triggers on the Skill after the Burst has already been casted, you can simply switch to the other character right away to use their Burst and pick up the Amulets and the Clear Particles at the same time.

Off-Field DPS

An alternative way to play Electro Traveler is by stacking a lot of EM, this focuses on Elemental Burst and Overloaded damage when the on-field character hits enemies with Normal and/or Charged attacks. With another Electro character on the team, Electro Traveler doesn’t need as much ER and can have more Elemental Mastery instead. It’s not recommended to build ATK or CRIT for raw Electro damage due to the low Talent multipliers, the Traveler would need an unrealistic amount of offensive stats to be viable. When paired with a Pyro DPS character such as Klee, Yanfei, Hu Tao, or Yoimiya, Electro Traveler can trigger Overloaded up to 4-6 times during each Burst. However, consistently triggering Overloaded with the Traveler requires a proper rotation, meaning the Pyro character needs to apply enough Pyro to keep the aura on the enemies. It’s the easiest with Yoimiya, since as long as she starts attacking while the enemy doesn’t have an aura, Electro Traveler will trigger all the Overloaded Reactions. A high CRIT Rate Yanfei and a Klee with her whole kit are both also very good at applying a lot of Pyro.

On-Field DPS

Building Electro Traveler as an on-field DPS—whether it’s Physical or Electro—is not the best option for the overall team damage output in challenging content such as the hardest floors of the Spiral Abyss. Their kit mainly revolves around generating Energy for themselves and other party members, and they do this very well. While it is possible to build the Electro Traveler with more offensive stats as an on-field DPS, it is generally less effective than running them as a battery. Extra damage is welcome, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of generating Energy for both the Traveler and their party.

With that said, Electro Traveler as a Physical DPS is more than capable of defeating everything in the overworld, including domains and quests. Unlike their Anemo, Geo, or Dendro counterparts, Electro Traveler only needs a Cryo character on the team to enable Superconduct. This leaves the other 2 slots flexible, potentially being characters that deal large amounts of off-field damage to supplement Electro Traveler. One major drawback of using the Traveler as a Physical DPS is that they have low multipliers on their Normal and Charged Attacks. 

While it’s also not recommended, it is possible to build Electro Traveler as an Electro DPS. Since their Elemental Skill is on a long CD and can only hit once, the majority of the damage is going to be from their Elemental Burst, which has relatively low multipliers and with only a 60% uptime. You can take advantage of using all the other characters’ Skills and Bursts during the downtime, and use the remaining time to generate Energy again for another rotation. This is the least recommended way to build Traveler simply because it does not utilize their kit to its full potential.

Generally, you should play Electro Traveler however you want, this is a video game after all. This guide focuses on optimizing Electro Traveler’s whole kit in order to help players beat the hardest content in the game. There are 4 characters on a team, each bringing something to form a cohesive team. When looking at the whole team’s damage output, leaning more towards the battery potential of Electro Traveler will usually be more beneficial than using them as a damage dealer.

Art credit: its_cl0udy on Twitter [original post]

Weapons

Due to Electro Traveler’s kit revolving around building ER and their inherent problem of Energy generation for themselves, the options are limited. However, their best in slot weapons are easily obtainable.

	Favonius Sword (R3+ and 50%+ CRIT Rate recommended) The best in slot weapon for the Traveler as a battery. Provides ER as a substat and Clear Particles which can be funneled to another character along with the Amulets.  The problem is the fact that its base attack is very low, and thus the general damage that the Traveler does will take a considerable decrease. Another point to mention is that the Traveler needs to score a crit hit on-field to actually trigger the passive, either with the 3 hits from the Skill, or from the initial Burst hit. This means that if you’re willing to reset an Abyss Chamber whenever it doesn’t get triggered, having less than 50% CRIT Rate will still be viable. Note that the passive has a CD that decreases with each refinement, at R1 it’s 12s, which means that the rotation would have to be at least 24s; at R3 it’s 9s, which matches up with the CD of Electro Traveler’s Skill when another character picks up the Amulets.
	Amenoma Kageuchi (R3+ recommended) This is a craftable weapon that provides more ATK% (and thus, damage). This sword will always generate Flat Energy for the wielder, although it does require careful rotation planning beforehand. In order to make use of the passive properly, at least two Succession Seeds must be gained before you use the Burst. Rotation example (must be under 30s): Traveler Skill → Pick up the Amulets with another character while casting their Burst → The rest of the rotation → Traveler Skill and pick up the Amulets while casting the Burst
	Sacrificial Sword (R3+ recommended) It has the same Base ATK and ER substat as Favonius Sword. Keep in mind that any new Amulets will cause the existing ones to disappear if they’re not picked up, and the ER increase does not stack with each one. However, it does allow Electro Traveler to use their Skill once, pick up the Amulets, use their Burst, then their Skill again to let another character pick up the new Amulets. This is a good option when a total of 3 characters need Amulets. However, the Passive on this weapon also has a CD, which at R3 is 22s, enough for most rotations.
	Everything else Skyward Blade: Purely used for the high base ATK and ER, as a battery or even off-field DPS, it’s recommended to only use the Skill and Burst off CD, meaning the passive doesn’t have any use. Festering Desire: A limited event weapon, meaning it’s not obtainable anymore. The passive adds some damage to the Skill, but since Electro Traveler’s damage is negligible in most team compositions, it’s mostly just used for the substat (45.9% ER at level 90). Skyrider Sword: The copium option if you don’t have any of the weapons mentioned above, the passive is pretty much useless since the Elemental Burst snapshots and you want to switch out after using it.

Art credit: aeyvindr on Twitter [original post]

Artifacts

Important note: The ER increase (in %) from Amulets does not affect the 4-Piece bonus from Emblem of Severed Fate, meaning the ER buff from the Amulets will not increase the damage of the character’s Burst.

Main Stat Priority

	Energy Recharge This is undoubtedly the best option for Electro Traveler, it simply adds a lot of value. Remember that while they are a very good battery, they also need energy themselves and ER increases the amount of Energy gained from Particles and Orbs.
	Electro DMG Bonus or Elemental Mastery When using Electro Traveler as a battery, the focus isn’t on damage. However since there are no ER Goblets, the goal is to look for ER in the substats. In Overloaded teams where they are triggering the Reactions, EM is better, if not Electro DMG Bonus is better; but when there is the option, opt for whichever one has more ER (and CRIT Rate if using Favonius Sword).
	CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG or Elemental Mastery CRIT Rate if using the Favonius Sword, try to balance out the Crit Ratio otherwise. Again in Overloaded teams if you’re not using the Favonius Sword, EM is better than CRIT.

Substat Priority

ER% >>> CRIT Rate ≥ CRIT DMG > EM > ATK%

Recommended Sets

	4-Piece Emblem of Severed Fate (EoSF): The overall best in slot set. The 2-Piece bonus gives some much needed ER and the 4-Piece bonus takes advantage of the total ER built and converts it to Burst DMG, which is where the majority of Electro Traveler’s damage comes from.
	2-Piece EoSF + 2-Piece Noblesse/Thundering Fury/Wanderer’s Troupe: This mix should be viewed as an interim build if you already have the artifacts lying around. It is a stepping stone towards 4-Piece EoSF. The second 2-Piece can also be 18% ATK, depending on your substats. For early game players (that haven’t reached AR 45) it is recommended to run 4-Piece Exile or 4-Piece Scholar. Exile is more flexible and you can always use the 2-Piece of both. The general rule of thumb is to get as much ER as possible, so even for end-game players, if using Exile or Scholar pieces for the Flower and Feather results in more ER, it’s better than 5-Star artifacts with less ER.
	4-Piece Noblesse Oblige: Augments your team’s overall damage and is a good support set. With Electro Traveler’s high Burst cost it is recommended to put this on another support character such as Bennett or Diona, but if you do not have a better character then this is a fine choice. Keep in mind you’ll most likely need more ER substats.
	4-Piece Thundering Fury: Only works in specific teams where Electro Traveler has enough ER and is the one triggering Overloaded, in other words when there is a Pyro DPS character that applies a lot of Pyro. In order for this set to be better than the other options, the initial hit of Electro Traveler’s Burst can’t leave an Electro aura on the enemies, it requires some practice and understanding of how reactions work. And without the 2-Piece bonus of EoSF you can’t reach the full battery potential.

Art credit: amapola.mystery on Instagram

Teams and Synergies

Synergies

Beidou:
She is Electro Traveler’s best friend. With the Traveler’s excellent battery capabilities to keep Beidou’s Burst up and running coupled with their C2 providing extra damage, they provide excellent support for her. They also let Beidou run an ATK% Sands instead of the conventional ER% Sands. This “Beiduo” can form the core of many teams. 

Fischl:
Often known as an off-field DPS and a battery, she allows Electro Traveler to not pick up any of their own Amulets, which in turn means that they are able to better battery the other 2 characters. She only needs to cast her Skill—which does single-target damage—and use her Burst to refresh Oz’s duration when needed.

Yoimiya:
Overload: She allows Electro Traveler to trigger a lot of Overloaded Reactions just by using her Normal Attacks, meaning 4-Piece Thundering Fury with EM stats is the best artifact option in this case (read above in the artifacts section for more information). After testing and comparing different combos, it turns out that the full 5 regular Normal Attacks during her Skill without animation canceling is the optimal combo. 
Overvape: Together with Xingqiu or Yelan, Electro Traveler can allow her to Overvape and provide her with Energy. Although Traveler doesn’t have as much Electro application or damage as someone like Fischl or Beidou, they can battery Yoimiya by providing Flat Energy, meaning with the correct rotation she doesn’t need any ER. In this case Electro Traveler would run 4-Piece EoSF as usual.

Other characters:
Whilst being a good universal battery for any Energy-hungry character, Electro Traveler shouldn’t be seen as the best battery for any character, i.e. Sucrose for Xiao, Diona for Eula, etc. They are simply a good alternative that is available to everyone and doesn’t need much investment, if you do not have your DPS’ favorite battery or if your team struggles with Burst uptime.

Team Examples

All images are generated with Genshin Portraits by muakasan#2792 and edited with permission to include Electro Aether and Lumine.

Childe, Beidou, Traveler, Bennett: 

In this team, the Electro Traveler takes Fischl’s slot. They minimize the ER requirement for the other party members but provide lower damage themselves. The main battery target is Beidou, while Childe will benefit from the frequent Energy gains that Falling Thunders provide when he hits an enemy with a Normal or Charged Attack. Since Electro Traveler is in a prime position to trigger double Overloaded on the enemies after Bennett’s Burst, the off-field DPS alternative for building them is also viable.

Eula, Traveler, Flex, Flex: 

Strongest position in which the Electro Traveler takes an important slot. Raiden and Fischl are often used as Superconduct supports while Diona is commonly used as a battery and a healer, Electro Traveler can fill the roles of a battery and a Superconduct support, while dealing less damage and obviously can’t heal. Through this, Eula gets more field time, and the two other slots in the team become flexible slots, potentially being more offensive characters. This doesn’t mean that these supports can’t be on the same team, in fact Eula with Electro Traveler and Fischl can form a very good team, while still leaving one flexible slot.

Flex, Beidou, Traveler, Xingqiu:

In this team, Beidou and the Traveler are the core with Xingqiu or Yelan providing off-field Hydro application. The flexible slot is reserved for a driver character, the one who stays on-field doing fast Normal Attacks. It can be a variety of characters such as Xiao, Kaeya, Ayaka (Freeze, Electro-Charged, and Superconduct can all be triggered frequently), Kazuha etc. Electro Traveler in this comp is providing Energy to Beidou and the driver. 

Some drawbacks are the high investment and the need to have two well-built DPS characters (Beidou and the driver). Then there is the glass cannon nature of the comp, while Xingqiu can heal to an extent, you are mostly reliant on the DMG reduction from Beidou and Xingqiu’s Bursts to survive, as well a relatively weak shield from Beidou’s C1. It is very hard to make this team work when there is Corrosion, unless the driver is someone like Jean or Kokomi.

Yoimiya, Beidou, Traveler, Xingqiu:

Beidou and Xingqiu (or Yelan) will keep the enemies Electro-Charged, while Electro Traveler can generate Energy for both Beidou and Yoimiya. The idea is to activate all 3 of these characters’ Bursts to apply Electro and Hydro, then use the infused Normal Attacks on Yoimiya. Other Pyro characters can’t Overvape nearly as consistently as Yoimiya can, because characters like Hu Tao, Yanfei, or Klee would ideally only Overvape on their Charged Attacks. This team has no Energy problems as Traveler can give Beidou Amulets while Yoimiya gets Energy from triggering Falling Thunders. Of course, this team has no healer so it’s hard to make it viable when there is Corrosion.

Closing thoughts

Thank you for making this far.  This guide has been long in the making and we are happy to share our findings with all you travelers. We hope you have found this guide helpful. And most importantly, don’t forget to enjoy your journey throughout Teyvat!

Emoji credit: @nightsmar on Twitter

Resources

ER requirements
Overload and Overvape counts
Artifact calcs
Talent and Constellation images
Basic Mechanics

Credits

In nothing other than alphabetical order:

amapola mystery#7171
CellistiaCat#1700
Coke-Zer0#4391
Cuzimori#1535
Fluffy#5580
Gonk#3590
kxmndz#4700
Longing#8998
Mathew#1486
naivety | pkach#6934
Pablos#1142
pai#3602
Prévisible#7440
Rathalos#2875
Tithus#9995

Changelog

Oct. 2nd, 2021: Preliminary findings and first draft by Tithus#9995.
Oct. 21st, 2021: Document of the second draft created by Gonk#3590.
Nov. 16th, 2021: Third and final draft by pai#3602.
Jan. 20th, 2022: Published on the KQM website.
Mar. 4th, 2022: Added the Main DPS section and rephrased some other sections to better reflect why it’s highly not recommended to build Electro Traveler for damage.
Mar. 21st, 2022: Removed the Level-Up Materials section.
Aug. 25th, 2022: Removed the step-by-step guide for the Energy Recharge Calculator; added Yelan as an alternative to Xingqiu.
Aug. 27th, 2022: Added the glossary.