Updated for Version 3.0
From SWKL on Pixiv and Twitter
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Table of Contents
Introduction
The General Secretary of the Liyue Qixing, Ganyu is the first 5-star Cryo Bow Unit.
Genshin Impact has many powerful units, and Ganyu’s popularity among them is well-established. Specializing in Charged Attacks, she has an on-field DPS oriented kit, while still offering off-field damage with her Elemental Burst, allowing her to be a versatile and flexible unit while she excels in many different situations.
This guide aims to inform about Ganyu, by covering her recommended builds, playstyles, rotations and teams. Additionally, the guide will mention useful resources about Ganyu from Weapon Calcs to Infographics.
Freeze on-field DPS
Melt on-field DPS
From Kizuna_0113 on Twitter
Glossary
Glossary Content
| Normal Attack (N/NA) | Normal Attack string. In this guide, N# (N1, N2. etc.) refers to the number of Normal Attacks done in a row without interruption. For example, N3 would refer to 3 normal attacks in a row. |
| Stacks | Talent, artifact or weapon effects that build up over time or under certain conditions |
| Charged Attack (CA) | Short for Charged Attack |
| ER | Energy Recharge |
| Buff | Provides noticeable (DMG) boosts to a character |
| TTDS | Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayer, a 3-Star catalyst obtainable through wishing |
| AoE | Area of Effect. Refers to abilities that can hit multiple enemies. |
| ST | Single-target. Refers to abilities that (usually) only hit a single enemy. |
| ICD | Internal Cooldown, see more explanations here |
| Snapshot and Dynamic | Properties that are assigned to Skills and Bursts that last over time. Abilities that snapshot keep buffs that were active at the time of their cast, even after the buffs run out. Not all buffs can be snapshotted and not all abilities can snapshot. See more here |
| Hitlag | Occurs whenever a character hits a target. During hitlag, time pauses to give the player a sense of “weight” behind each attack. The amount of hitlag depends on the target hit. Ranged characters and certain abilities don’t produce hitlag. See more here |
| BiS | Best in Slot, or the best option |
| Fav | Short for Favonius, referring to the Favonius weapon series which have a chance to generate Particles on CRIT hits |
| E | Elemental Skill. To refer to Tap vs Hold, a lower case t or h will be in front, respectively |
| Q | Elemental Burst |
| NO | Short for the Noblesse Oblige artifact set |
| DMG | Can be a short for “damage” |
| “-ATK” | Short for either Gladiator’s Finale, Shimenawa’s Reminiscence or other sets that have a 2-pc bonus granting 18% ATK |
| Proc | To activate an effect, like Favonius Lance’s additional Particles or Prototype Crescent’s additional ATK% |
| QoL | Quality of Life. General improvements to enjoyability of the game. |
Pros and Cons
Pros
✧ Can deal damage at range, increasing comfort and DPS by reducing time spent chasing enemies
✧ Offers many playstyles for different situations
✧ Excellent artifact access on every playstyle
✧ Reliable against the vast majority of content
✧ Scales well with high investment
✧ Strong F2P Weapons
✧ Fairly simple to play
Cons
✧ Extremely vulnerable damage and interruption in Charged Attack focused playstyles because she requires two seconds to charge up shots
✧ Often requires highly contested units such as Bennett, making it difficult to build another team for Spiral Abyss
✧ Unable to weave Normal Attacks between Charged Attacks effectively, making it suboptimal to use powerful characters like Xingqiu and Yelan
✧ Ganyu’s teams require some limited 5-Stars
✧ Though she is incredibly flexible, to take full advantage of it, Ganyu will require two separate builds. Also, many of the characters she uses cannot be transferred between the teams.
Talents and Constellations
Talents
Normal Attack: Liutian Archery
| Normal Attack: Perform up to 6 consecutive shots with a bow. Charged Attack: Perform a more precise Aimed Shot with Increased DMG. While aiming, an icy aura will accumulate on the arrowhead before the arrow is fired. Has different effects based on how long the energy has been charged: • Charge Level 1: Fires off an icy arrow that deals Cryo DMG. • Charge Level 2: Fires off a Frostflake Arrow that deals Cryo DMG. The Frostflake Arrow bloms after hitting its target, dealing AoE Cryo DMG. Plunging Attack: Fires off a shower of arrows in mid-air before falling and striking the ground, dealing AoE DMG upon impact. |
Ganyu’s Normal Attack Talent consists of a 6-hit Normal Attack string. It is very pretty, although it is also very rarely used.
This is because Ganyu’s true strength lies in her Charged Attacks, which are her bread and butter.
Like all Bow characters, Ganyu can charge her weapon to grant it additional Elemental DMG. However, she can further charge it to a second stage to deal additional damage with Frostflake Arrows. Unlike most other Bow characters with a second level to their Charged Attack, Ganyu’s Level Two Charged Attack is extremely, extremely powerful.
With its range and damage, Ganyu’s Frostflakes allow her to easily face most enemies. In addition, it has no ICD on either portion of the Charged Attack, allowing her to trigger reactions on both hits. This is very important for her Reverse Melt teams, as it allows her to Reverse Melt both parts of her Charged Attack.
Elemental Skill: Trail of the Qilin
| Leaving a single Ice Lotus Behind, Ganyu dashes backward, shunning all impurity and dealing AoE Cryo DMG. Ice Lotus • Continuously taunts surrounding opponents, attracting them to attack it. • Blooms profusely when destroyed or once its duration ends, dealing AoE Cryo DMG. |
Ganyu’s utility talent. Her Elemental Skill leaves a flower which taunts all non-boss enemies until six seconds have passed or enough damage has been dealt to it, after which it will deal another instance of damage equal to the initial hit damage. The Skill generates two Particles on each hit, for a total of four Particles per Skill cast.
The taunt allows players to group enemies to some degree. The dash also has its usefulness, as it allows you to reposition Ganyu. This allows her to dodge hits or gain distance for Amos stacks. However, the taunt is nowhere near effective enough to be Ganyu’s sole source of survivability.
The delayed hit allows for some creative Viridescent Venerer setups. For instance, if you use Trail of the Qilin before Bennett’s Burst, Bennett will clear Cryo Aura. Then, after a short delay, the Lotus will time out and explode, reapplying Cryo that you can Swirl.
Elemental Burst: Celestial Shower
| Coalesces atmospheric frost and snow to summon a Sacred Cryo Pearl that exorcises evil. During its ability duration, the Sacred Cryo Pearl will continuously rain down shards of ice, striking opponents within an AoE and dealing AoE Cryo DMG. |
Ganyu’s Burst is an extremely important part of her kit for Freeze teams, but is also very complicated. It drops 50 Ice Shards that deal Cryo damage in a small AoE over 15 seconds, but not all of them will necessarily hit an enemy.
Each Ice Shard will target a random enemy within the field that has not been targeted by one of the last four Ice Shards. If there are no enemies within the field that have not been targeted by the last four Ice Shards, the Ice Shard will be dropped randomly within the field which can hit enemies in the field.
Ganyu’s Burst follows standard ICD, meaning that it will apply Cryo to enemies every 3 hits or every 2.5 seconds, whichever threshold is reached first.
The reason why her Burst is so important is because of its ability to scale quadratically with multiple enemies if the enemies are grouped. When there is a single enemy, it will only be hit every five Ice Shards (assuming no random Ice Shard hits), meaning that Ganyu’s Burst will only deal 10 instances of Cryo damage. With two ungrouped enemies, each enemy will be targeted by an Ice Shard each 5 icicles, resulting in 20 targeted Ice Shards and 20 instances of Cryo damage (again, assuming no random Ice Shard hits). However, if the two enemies are grouped, each targeted Ice Shard will hit both enemies because of its AoE, resulting in 40 instances of damage instead of only 20.
Since Ganyu’s Burst has a 15s CD and 15s of uptime, it is possible to maintain 100% uptime on the Burst. It also snapshots stats on cast, allowing it to be buffed for the full 15s duration.
1st Ascension Passive: Undivided Heart
| After firing a Frostflake Arrow, the CRIT Rate of the subsequent Frostflake Arrows and their resulting bloom effects is increased by 20% for 5s. |
This is immensely powerful in Charged Attack heavy teams like Melt, but in Burst-heavy teams like Freeze, it doesn’t provide as much value.
The buff only applies to successive Charged Attacks after Ganyu’s first Charged Attack.
4th Ascension Passive: Harmony Between Heaven and Earth
| Celestial Shower grants a 20% Cryo Damage Bonus to active party members in the AoE. |
Adds value to Ganyu as a DPS unit (both on and off-field) and to any Cryo teammates. Ganyu can also snapshot the Cryo DMG Bonus onto her own Burst on the second rotation and onwards, assuming that the previous Burst is still active upon cast.
Passive: Preserved for the Hunt
| Refunds 15% of the ore used when crafting Bow-type weapons. |
Relatively useless; players won’t be crafting many Bows.
Constellations
Constellation 1: Dew-Drinker
| Charge Level 2 Frostflake Arrows or Frostflake Arrow Blooms decrease opponents’ Cryo RES by 15% for 6s upon hit. A hit also regenerates 2 Energy for Ganyu. This effect can only occur once per Charge Level 2 Frostflake Arrow, regardless if Frostflake Arrow itself or its Bloom hits the target. |
The Energy restoration is great QoL, lowering her already low Energy Requirements in Freeze teams and Mono-Cryo teams.
The RES Shred is also valuable, as it can boost both Ganyu’s and her teammates’ damage.
Constellation 2: The Auspicious
| Trail of the Qilin gains 1 additional charge. |
This Constellation will not grant you an extra Elemental Skill usage per rotation; rather, in rotations where you use your Elemental Skill twice, the placement of Ganyu’s Ice Lotuses becomes more flexible, allowing you to use Trail of the Qilin earlier, or ignoring times you would normally have to wait for it to come off-cooldown. A nice Quality of Life upgrade, but its true value shines with Ganyu’s sixth Constellation.
With Shimenawa’s Reminiscence, its buff can’t be refreshed when it is already active, so using the second charge early won’t do anything.
Constellation 3: Cloud-Strider
| Increases the Level of Celestial Shower by 3. |
Decent DMG increase for Ganyu in Freeze and off-field DPS teams.
Constellation 4: Westward Sojourn
| Opponents standing within the AoE of Celestial Shower take increased DMG. This effect strengthens over time. Increased DMG taken begins at 5% and increases every 3s, up to a maximum of 25%. The effect lingers for 3s after the opponent leaves the AoE. |
A decently strong Constellation. It behaves similarly to Yelan’s A4, though, with only half the value. They stack at a similar rate as well—about 6-7% of the total value per second. This Constellation does have value in Freeze and Mono-Cryo teams, but will not have value in Melt teams where Ganyu doesn’t use her Burst.
Unlike Yelan’s A4, however, this is an enemy debuff rather than a buff to the active character, allowing it to benefit the entire team.
This Constellation becomes very powerful if players can Burst off cooldown. In that case, the increased damage won’t reset, effectively being a 25% DMG Bonus for the entire team after the first rotation, until the enemy dies.
Constellation 5: The Merciful
| Increases the Level of the Trail of the Qilin by 3. |
Ganyu’s Skill is a small portion of her damage. Slightly more damage and slightly more durability on the taunt is nice but it’s rarely going to be an important difference.
Constellation 6: The Clement
| Using Trail of the Qilin causes the next Frostlake Arrow shot within 30s to not require charging. |
This Constellation grants Ganyu serious Burst potential. Combined with her second Constellation, Ganyu can fire off up to three Frostflake Arrows in a matter of seconds. In sustained rotations, this is effectively an extra “free” Charged Attack for each time you use her Skill in each rotation. This Constellation is also very good for speedrunning.
Constellation Comparison
For Ganyu-Shenhe-Zhongli-Kazuha:
| Constellation | Cumulative Increase | Increase over Previous constellation |
| C0 | 100% | |
| C1 | 106% | 6.0% |
| C3 | 121% | 14.0% |
| C4 | 142% | 17.4% |
| C5 | 144% | 1.2% |
For Ganyu-Venti-Mona-Rosaria:
| Constellation | Cumulative Increase | Increase over Previous constellation |
| C0 | 100% | |
| C1 | 110% | 10% |
| C3 | 118% | 8% |
| C4 | 126% | 7% |
| C5 | 129% | 2% |
For Ganyu-Kokomi-Shenhe-Venti:
| Constellation | Cumulative Increase | Increase over Previous constellation |
| C0 | 100.00% | |
| C1 | 105.80% | 5.80% |
| C2 | 105.80% | 0.00% |
| C3 | 115.60% | 9.20% |
| C4 | 128.10% | 10.90% |
For Ganyu-Bennett-Jean-Zhongli:
| Constellation | Cumulative Increase | Increase over Previous constellation |
| C0 | 100% | |
| C1 | 107% | 6.66% |
| C3 | 111% | 1.69% |
| C4 | 116% | 5.07% |
| C5 | 118% | 1.13% |
Due to the nature of her 2nd and 6th Constellations, they are not included in those comparisons. Both Constellations use different rotations, (notably, C2 using an additional Skill that cannot fit in some Melt teams because of the Reaction mapping) and completely modify Ganyu’s playstyle in such a way that we did not decide to show a numerical increase in damage.
C2 can be useful for more Energy that can be for Ganyu or funneled to a different Cryo character in the team. Its damage increase, otherwise, is negligible.
C6 drastically increases Ganyu’s damage because she can now increase the amount of damage she can deal in a small window, which is beneficial when fighting certain enemies. It is the biggest gameplay change out of any Constellation in the game. And also cool as hell.
Playstyles
Freeze
Freeze teams utilize a Hydro unit along with Ganyu to trigger the Freeze reaction.
Freeze functions extremely effectively in multi-target situations because of the strength of Ganyu’s Elemental Burst in these scenarios.
| Pros |
✧ Can work without high investment into other characters
✧ Freeze makes the game much easier by keeping enemies grouped and unable to attack the player
✧ 4-pc Blizzard Strayer is an excellent artifact set
✧ Uses teammates which aren’t highly contested by other teams
✧ Extremely strong in AoE scenarios
| Cons |
✧ Nearly all variants require multiple five-star units.
✧ Struggles in single-target content or against enemies that can’t be Frozen
✧ Has few effective substats (only CRIT and ATK are useful on Ganyu)
✧ Can easily hit the CRIT Rate cap
Melt
A highly demanding playstyle, Melt Ganyu takes advantage of the Reverse Melt reaction to deal enormous amounts of DMG by Melting both parts of Ganyu’s Charged Attack. However, Melt Ganyu has tremendously high Energy requirements and requires very specific teammates to function. ඞ
| Pros |
✧ Stronger single-target damage compared to Freeze
✧ Access to multiple artifact sets
✧ Can burst down enemies very quickly
| Cons |
✧ Usually does not make use of her Elemental Burst due to its tendency to steal Melts
✧ Extremely high requirements, especially for Energy
✧ Requires limited 5* or highly requested units
✧ Almost always requires a shield
Mono-Cryo
Mono-Cryo is an extremely flexible way to play Ganyu. Fundamentally, it comes down to pushing your buff buttons off cooldown, and then Charged Attacking when you have time. The team is flexible and maintains high single-target and AoE potential. However, if you can use it, Freeze will be more practical against multiple targets.
| Pros |
✧ Great against both single-target and AoE content
✧ Fairly flexible
✧ Low Energy costs
✧ Usable against content that Freeze cannot face
✧ Blizzard Strayer is incredibly strong
✧ Frees Bennett and Xiangling for another team
| Cons |
✧ Requires 5-star units (Shenhe, Kazuha)
✧ Is outclassed by Freeze in AoE and Melt in single-target
✧ Will still require a shield
✧ Lack of Element diversity, making it extremely difficult to play against content which is Cryo-resistant or Cryo-immune, including shields.
Support
Because of its long duration, Ganyu’s Burst allows her to act as an off-field support. By herself, her Cryo application isn’t good enough to keep up with most Pyro characters. However, when paired with other Cryo units like Rosaria and Kaeya, who also lower her Energy requirements, she can fulfill this role sufficiently. Similarly, Ganyu can also apply Cryo for Superconduct. However, Ganyu will require quite a bit of Energy Recharge to make this team work.
Ganyu is best used to support other Cryo characters, which reduce her Energy requirements and are buffed by her Ascension 4 Cryo DMG%. Often though, you may find that Ganyu will still be doing more damage anyway. The main exception to this is Ayaka, as her damage is high enough that she will often out-damage Ganyu.
How can I use Charged Attacks?
Charged Attacks are an extremely important part of Ganyu’s kit. There are three ways to perform them, although the “advanced” methods of performing Charged Attacks are not mandatory. At C6, an additional method becomes available, as there is no need to charge.
Note that for all methods of performing CAs, you should fire slightly before the Frostflake Arrow is fully charged to anticipate the timing of the arrow being fully charged. For players unfamiliar with cancel nomenclature, here’s a video showing the above cancels done, with keybinds being shown.
R-Aim
The easiest way to use Ganyu’s Charged Attacks, but also the least efficient by a significant margin. Press R to enter aim mode and left click once an arrow is charged, then wait for the next arrow to charge.
M1-Hold (Recommended)
Hold down the left click button, charge the arrow, then release when fully charged and repeat. This is easy and is a notable improvement over R-Aim. Extremely close to M1-R Dash.
M1-R Dash
Start of the same as M1-Hold, holding down the left click button, and releasing. However, the end lag can be cancelled by entering R-Aim. Then the end lag from R-Aim can be dash cancelled, restarting the process again with M1-Hold. This is the fastest method, but the difference between this method and M1-Hold is extremely small. Use whichever you are most comfortable with.
ARCC (C6 only)
This is not usable below C6. At C6, Frostflakes charge instantly, making ARCC very useful. However, performing ARCC shots requires almost frame perfect inputs, although it is notable that lowering FPS can make it easier. ARCC is performed by entering R-Aim, and upon firing the Charged Attack, cancelling it by exiting Aim Mode. It can then be quickly re-entered to save time. Prior to C6, if Ganyu attempts this, she will always fire a regular, Physical Arrow rather than a Frostflake. For more information on how to do it, see these videos for Keyboard and Controller. Although very hard, it can also be performed on mobile.
See an example of ARCC with Ganyu C6 here.
Gearing
Please consider using Genshin Optimizer along with its tutorial to find the optimal set to use.
Stats and Priorities
Please consider using Zakharov#5645’s Energy Recharge Calculator for precise guidance on the Energy Recharge needed.
Freeze
ATK% / Cryo DMG% / CDMG (ATK% circlets can be competitive with CRIT DMG Weapons)
Blizzard Strayer gives Ganyu a massive amount of CRIT Rate, allowing players to focus on ATK% and CRIT DMG. While most Freeze teams won’t demand a lot of Energy Recharge, some rotations and teams require some ER to function (around 110%, to 140% in worst cases).
Substat priority: ER% (if needed) > CDMG ≥ ATK% > CRIT Rate
However, despite all the CRIT Rate Blizzard Strayer provides, CRIT Rate is still important. Your desired CRIT Rate should be 35%-45%.
You should aim for around 1800-2000 Attack, 35-45% CRIT Rate and 200% CRIT DMG before extending any stat further.
If you are not using Blizzard Strayer, first use Blizzard Strayer (unless paired with a high investment Ayaka), but otherwise, aim for 70% CRIT Rate and 170% CRIT DMG, with around 1800-2000 Attack. Energy Recharge requirements may rise depending on the team to up to 140%.
Melt
Generally, Melt Ganyu wants an EM Sands, Cryo Goblet, and CRIT circlet. Using an EM Sands is significantly better than using an Attack Sands unless players are buffing their Ganyu with Elemental Mastery buffers like Sucrose or C2 Kazuha. Players should prioritize getting their Elemental Mastery to 200 before focusing on CRIT, which they should prioritize a 1:2 ratio with (accounting for Ganyu’s bonus 20% CRIT Rate on Charged Attacks).
Mono-Cryo
Mono-Cryo builds very similarly to Freeze. The primary difference is that Ganyu needs more CRIT Rate.
Use an ATK% Sands and Cryo Damage Goblet. CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG Circlets perform comparably most of the time, so choose whichever is better. High CRIT DMG weapons like Aqua Simulacra and Thundering Pulse, however, will favor CRIT Rate Circlets more.
Though not as much as Freeze, Blizzard Strayer plus Cryo Resonance means you have a massive amount of CRIT Rate.
Overall priority: Energy Recharge (as needed) > CRIT DMG > CRIT Rate ≥ ATK%
You should aim for 1800-2000 Attack with around 50%-65% CRIT Rate and 180% CRIT DMG before aiming for higher.
Substat priority : ER% (if needed) > CRIT DMG ≥ ATK% > CRIT Rate
Support
While the stat and substat priority are quite similar to the above depending on which team you’re using, when using Ganyu as a Support, Energy Recharge becomes way more important, due to Ganyu spending significantly less time on-field.
Artifact Sets
Freeze
| Artifact Set | Description |
4 Blizzard Strayer | The only set you should use for Freeze Ganyu. The free CRIT Rate you gain makes it an unavoidable option for many DPS Cryo characters. |
| 2-PC Blizzard Strayer with 2-PC Noblesse Oblige 2-PC Gladiator’s Finale / Shimenawa Reminiscence  | Can only be used as an alternative if you don’t have a 4-piece Blizzard Strayer set. |
Calculations for Morgana:
| Blizzard Strayer | 100.00% |
| 2pc BS, 2pc ATK | 84.38% |
| 2pc BS, 2pc NO | 84.01% |
| 2pc NO, 2pc ATK | 82.90% |
| 2pc ATK, 2pc ATK | 82.78% |
| Emblem of Severed Fate | 79.94% |
| Wanderer’s Troupe | 79.34% |
Melt
| Artifact Set | Description |
4 Wanderer’s Troupe | Generally the Best-In-Slot option. You can passively farm it when defeating bosses, and it’s available through the strongbox, making it incredibly efficient to farm. The 2-piece effect (80 Elemental Mastery) is very valuable, especially compared to the ATK% of Shimenawa’s Reminiscence, which is less valuable than EM in Reverse Melt teams. In addition, the passive is completely unconditional and will apply to every single Charged Attack. |
4 Shimenawa | While on paper, this set deals slightly more damage than Wanderer’s Troupe, it has several drawbacks that make it a worse option. Notably, it is more restrictive with both rotations and weapons (notably Hamayumi), and it requires you to perform 5 Charged Attacks in under 10s to outperform Wanderer’s Troupe—the window for this is impossible for most people. However, being in the same domain as Emblem of Severed Fate makes it very convenient to farm, and it performs close enough that it is still an option. |
2pc Combinations | You should use 2pc sets from Blizzard Strayer, or sets that give ATK% or EM. While worse than the other sets by a notable margin, 2-piece combinations are close enough in performance that, with good substat rolls, they could perform better than 4-piece sets. |
Should not be farmed but are viable options
| Artifact Set | Description |
4 Lavawalker | If you have no access to any of the above sets or your Lavawalker pieces are much better than your WT/SR/BS pieces, you can consider this option. |
4 Retracing Bolide | Retracing Bolide is an option with a very strong shielder, but requires farming a bad domain (Retracing Bolide/Archaic Petra are not very useful sets). |
4 Gilded Dreams | Ganyu greatly appreciates the 230 Elemental Mastery this set provides, but that just means it performs slightly better than 2-pc combinations. In addition, Gilded Dreams, much like Shimenawa’s Reminiscence, has the problem of not always being able to buff all Charged Attacks because of the timing restriction. |
Calculations for Melt (assumed Xiangling):
| Shimenawa’s Reminiscence 5CAs buffed | 101.4% |
| Wanderer’s Troupe | 100% |
| Shimenawa’s Reminiscence with 4CAs buffed | 97.7% |
| Lavawalker | 96.01% |
| Retracing Bolide | 95.54% |
| Gilded Dreams | 93.62% |
| 2pc Blizzard Strayer/2pc Wanderer’s Troupe | 92.23% |
| 2pc Wander’s Troupe/2pc Gilded Dreams | 90.80% |
| 2pc Blizzard Strayer/2pc ATK | 90.10% |
| 2pc ATK/2pc Wanderer’s Troupe | 89.61% |
| 2pc ATK/2pc ATK | 87.36% |
| 4pc Blizzard Strayer | 85.98% |
Mono-Cryo
| Artifact Set | Description |
| 4 Blizzard Strayer | While not as dominant as it is in Freeze, Blizzard Strayer remains the best set for Mono-Cryo. No other set buffs her entire kit, and 20% CRIT Rate is better than any other bonus given that the only competitors with 4BS in Mono Cryo teams are 2-piece combinations. |
| 2pc Combinations | You should use 2pc sets from Blizzard Strayer, Noblesse Oblige, or sets that give ATK%. Can only be used as an alternative if you don’t have a 4-piece Blizzard Strayer set. |
Calculations for Mono Cryo:
| Blizzard Strayer | 100.00% |
| Blizzard Strayer-ATK | 92.10% |
| Blizzard Strayer-NO | 91.50% |
| ATK-ATK | 90.70% |
| NO-ATK | 90.50% |
| Emblem of Severed Fate | 89.80% |
| Wanderer’s Troupe | 86.00% |
Support
| Artifact Set | Description |
4 Emblem | Decent set for Support Ganyu, considering it helps with Energy Recharge while increasing Burst DMG. It’s also appreciated because of the efficiency of its domain, but because of how contested 4ESF pieces are, it may be difficult to give Ganyu pieces. |
| 4 Blizzard Strayer | If your Energy requirements are low enough and you can maintain a consistent Cryo aura, Blizzard Strayer remains a good option. |
4 Noblesse Oblige | Greatly appreciated set for both Ganyu and her team. Note that Ganyu can’t reliably snapshot Noblesse onto her own Burst as the snapshotting occurs too early. |
2pc Combinations | You can pick any of the good 2-PC variations you have, as long as it helps Ganyu with Energy Recharge or her Burst DMG. |
From SWKL on Pixiv and Twitter
Weapons
Freeze
❄ 90/90 Weapons, Ganyu C0 90/90 T9/9/9, ATK% – Cryo% – CDMG%
❄ 111% ER Requirement, 20 adjustable subs KQMC Standards
❄ Lvl. 100 Enemy, 10% Base RES, Primary Target (Against 2 Enemies), 5 Rotations
❄ 4-PC NO Fav Lance Shenhe – 4-PC ToM R5 TTDS Kokomi
| Weapon | % of Crescent R1 | Additional notes |
Polar Star | 118.04% | Excellent bow for Ganyu, as she’s able to permanently maintain all 4 stacks. Unfortunately, the excessive amount of CRIT Rate can become problematic in Freeze teams with Blizzard Strayer. If players have too much CRIT Rate in substats, other weapons will outperform Polar Star. |
Aqua Simulacra | 116.54% | Ganyu’s 2nd best weapon. The high CRIT DMG allows the use of an ATK% circlet instead with little performance difference. However, with Freeze being less restricted by range, you may sometimes leave Aqua Simulacra’s range, causing Ganyu to lose the passive, but this is generally not a major concern. See Aqua Simulacra Notes for more details. |
Thundering Pulse | 112.94% | Good option for Ganyu because of the ATK and CDMG it provides, but its Normal Attack DMG% passive is useless for Freeze Ganyu. |
Amos Bow R1 | 110.60% | Amos is a good option because it provides a large amount of ATK%, and with Freeze being less restricted by range, it is easier to obtain an extra stack. However, its value is dependent on how many buffs Ganyu is receiving. When played with Shenhe and TTDS Kokomi for example, Amos becomes less valuable because its ATK% substat doesn’t scale well with the buffs that these two characters provide. |
Skyward Harp  | 110.23% | Depending on the team, Freeze Ganyu can have quite low ATK%, making it hard to take advantage of Skyward Harp’s high Base Attack. However, the CRIT that Skyward Harp is still highly appreciated but does run a small risk of overcapping. |
| Prototype Crescent R5  | 108.67% | Craftable from the beginning, it’s a decent option that, regardless of its refinement, should be a baseline. Without Bennett, ATK% is significantly more valuable, and Prototype Crescent brings an absurd amount of it. However, Prototype Crescent requires players to hit weakspots to activate its passive, and this can be impossible at times, because some enemies lack weakspots. In these situations, it can be helpful to have a backup weapon like a Hamayumi if you can afford to. |
| Mouun’s Moon R5 (270 cost)  | 107.08% | Mouun’s Moon provides Ganyu with a large amount of Burst DMG%, making it a good option in rotations where Ganyu is more reliant on her Burst and less on her Charged Attacks. However, it will widely vary depending on the team you use, as the passive is based on the Energy cost of your characters. |
Hunter’s Path R1 | 100.23% | With the high amount of CRIT Rate, low reliance on Charged Attacks, and low Base ATK, on top of passive not being particularly useful with the absence of Elemental Mastery on Ganyu, Hunter’s Path suffers a lot. |
| Prototype Crescent R1 | 100% | The best Free-to-Play option for Freeze Ganyu. It’s also possible to get refinements easily if players have a lot of bow prototypes. Without Bennett, ATK% is significantly more valuable, and Prototype Crescent brings an absurd amount of it. However, as mentioned previously, if you can’t hit weak spots, it becomes significantly weaker. In those cases, Hamayumi may be preferable. |
| Mouun’s Moon R1 (270 cost) | 99.71% | If you’re not performing Charged Attacks, this is one of the better options, especially for teams with higher Burst cost. |
Hamayumi R5  | 94.97% | Given that Ganyu is using her Elemental Burst, Hamayumi’s passive will be less effective. However, it’s a better craftable option than Prototype Crescent if enemies lack a weakspot. |
Viridescent Hunt R5 | 92.45% | Battle Pass-locked weapon. The passive provides an additional grouping that can help with increasing Icicle hits. However, the CRIT Rate given by the weapon can result in over-capping. |
| Prototype Crescent (no passive) | 91.54% | See the above notes. |
Art provided by SWKL on Twitter and Pixiv
Additional Morgana Calcs
❄ 90/90 Weapons, Ganyu C0 90/90 T9/9/9, 4BS ATK% – Cryo% – CDMG%
❄ 111% ER Requirement, 20 adjustable subs KQMC Standards
❄ Lvl 100 Enemy, 10% Base RES, Averaged damage Against 2 Enemies, 2nd Rotation onwards
❄4-pc Tenacity Diona (snapshot onto Burst) and 4-pc Noblesse Mona (not snapshot onto Burst)
Done by Rare Possum#0511
| Weapon | Percentages (vs Proto R1) |
| Polar Star R1 | 112.9% |
| Prototype Crescent R5 | 111.8% |
| Skyward Harp R1 | 110.6% |
| Aqua Simulacra R1 | 109.2% |
| Thundering Pulse R1 | 108.3% |
| Amos R1 | 105.3% |
| Mouun’s Moon R5 (260 cost) | 105.9% |
| Aqua Simulacra (passive off) | 100.4% |
| Prototype Crescent R1 | 100% |
| Hunter’s Path R1 | 99.5% |
| Mouun’s Moon R1 (260 cost) | 95.4% |
| Viridescent Hunt R5 | 93.2% |
| Hamayumi R5 | 90.3% |
| Viridescent Hunt R1 | 89.5% |
| Hamayumi R1 | 88.9% |
| Prototype Crescent (no passive) | 88.2% |
Freeze Quickswap
❄ Calcs are done for a Freeze Quickswap, meaning you’ll do fewer Charged Attacks.
❄ 90/90 Weapons, Ganyu C0 90/90 T9/9/9, ATK% – Cryo% – CDMG%
❄ 107% ER Requirement, 20 adjustable subs KQMC Standards
❄ Lvl 100 Enemy, 10% Base RES, Single-Target, 5 Rotations
❄ 4-PC ToM Prototype Amber Mona – 4NO Rosaria
❄ For additional Weapon Notes, please see the aboves
| Weapon | % of Crescent R1 | Description |
| Aqua Simulacra | 113.72% | As long as you stay in range, passive is nice and reliable. |
| Polar Star | 112.89% | Assuming you still stack it, Polar Star is an incredibly strong weapon. |
| Thundering Pulse | 112.81% | Essentially a stat stick |
| Mouun’s Moon R5 (240 cost) | 111.25% | With the heavy Burst focus of Support Ganyu, Mouun’s Moon rises significantly. |
| Prototype Crescent R5 | 108.97% | Important load of ATK% |
| Skyward Harp | 107.75% | Essentially stat stick |
| Amos Bow | 106.31% | Another stat stick, no CAs. 49.6% ATK and 608 Base |
| Mouun’s Moon R1 (240 cost) | 101.93% | With the heavy Burst focus of Support Ganyu, Mouun’s Moon rises significantly. |
| Prototype Crescent R1 | 100% | Huge load of ATK |
| Viridescent Hunt R5 | 92.92% | No Charged Attacks to reliably proc passive. CRIT is a bit wasted. |
| Hamayumi R5 | 92.02% | No Charged Attacks and Bursting render its passive useless. |
| Prototype Crescent (no passive) | 91.93% | See the precedent descriptions. |
Melt
Meltyu
❄ 90/90 Weapons, Ganyu C0 90/90 T9/9/9, EM – Cryo% – CRIT
❄ 100% ER Requirement, 20 adjustable subs KQMC Standards
❄ Lvl 100 Enemy, 10% Base RES, Single-Target, 5 Rotations
❄ Pyro Resonance – 4NO Bennett (+ 1000 ATK from Q) – Instructor Zhongli
| Hunter’s Path | 124.15% | Hunter’s Path is BiS on Melt Ganyu. Its high CRIT Rate is greatly appreciated, and the passive works well with Ganyu’s playstyle, which already wants Elemental Mastery anyway. There are some things to note. First is that Hunter’s Path does want more EM than other weapons, desiring about 400-450 EM, but even if you don’t have that much, it is still one of her best weapons. Another is that Hunter’s Path gets worse in AoE, as its passive is used up faster, but again, this isn’t a huge issue. The final issue, though again minor, is the passive only activates on the first bloom, not the first arrow. But at higher ping (>150), it won’t activate until the second arrow. But these are all quite small issues. A bigger deal breaker is that Hunter’s Path doesn’t perform well in Freeze and Mono-Cryo with their excess CRIT Rate, so if you want to play both, you may want to hold off. |
| Aqua Simulacra | 119.62% | Aqua Simulacra is one of Ganyu’s Strongest weapons. Its low Base Attack is offset by Bennett’s buff. The range of the passive is usually not a problem in Melt because Ganyu needs to stay close to enemies anyways. |
| Amos Bow | 114.08% | Amos Bow has the highest Bloom DMG but slightly falls off in overall DMG. On a side note, its passive works in a confusing manner; the amount of stacks is determined by the distance from your opponent. See more details here. |
| Hamayumi R5 | 113.71% | A craftable weapon obtainable in Inazuma. While it is the best 4-Star and F2P for Melt, it’s not much better than Prototype Crescent and players shouldn’t craft Hamayumi if they already have a Prototype Crescent. However, Shimenawa’s Reminiscence’s activation cost removes Hamayumi’s passive, which makes it less desirable with 4SR. |
| Polar Star | 112.94% | Since it’s generally not recommended to use Ganyu’s Elemental Burst with Melt, she can’t gain the fourth stack on this weapon. Additionally, the passive provides Attack, which isn’t that useful on Melt Ganyu. However, it still remains very powerful because of its high CRIT substat. |
| Thundering Pulse | 112.64% | Thundering Pulse provides some decent stats. However, the passive is useless for Ganyu. |
| Skyward Harp R1 | 109.19% | Good stat stick with high Base ATK, which can be both a drawback and both an advantage considering it may be the deciding balance between your pieces. In ATK-heavy teams (notably with Bennett, double Pyro and/or ATK boosting sets) this weapon loses value. However, when boosted by Kazuha C2 or Sucrose, it gains value since the need for EM is reduced, allowing Harp to freely stack ATK%. |
| Prototype Crescent R5 | 108.32% | Remains a good weapon, although, with the presence of Bennett in Melt variations, its passive is weaker. However, it still isn’t a terrible option. If you play Freeze a lot, or with Shimenawa (as they’re anti-synergistic), Prototype Crescent will still perform admirably. |
| Hamayumi R1 | 102.66% | See description of R5. |
| Prototype Crescent R1 | 100% | See description of R5. |
| Viridescent Hunt R5 | 92.92% | Battle Pass-locked weapon. The passive provides an additional grouping that can help with grouping, but grouping isn’t as important in Melt teams as it is in Freeze. The CRIT Rate offered by the weapon is appreciated. |
| Prototype Crescent (no passive) | 91.68% | See description of R5. |
Mono-Cryo
Mono-Cryo Calcs
❄ 90/90 Weapons, Ganyu C0 90/90 T9/9/9, ATK- Cryo% – CRIT
❄ 115% ER Requirement, 20 adjustable subs KQMC Standards
❄ Lvl 100 Enemy, 10% Base RES, 2 Target Average
❄ Cryo Resonance – R5 Favonius Lance NO Shenhe, Archaic Petra Zhongli, 4VV Iron Sting Kazuha 960EM
Done by Rare Possum#0511
| Weapon | Percentages (vs Proto R1) |
Polar Star R1 | 123.10% |
Prototype Crescent R5 | 110.90% |
Aqua Simulacra R1 | 110.80% |
Thundering Pulse R1 | 109.50% |
Skyward Harp R1 | 107.50% |
| Hunter’s Path R1 | 106.6% |
| Aqua Simulacra (passive off) | 102.70% |
| Prototype Crescent R1 | 100.00% |
Mouun’s Moon R5 | 99.60% |
Amos R1 | 99.40% |
| Viridescent Hunt R5  | 98.40% |
| Viridescent Hunt R1 | 94.60% |
| Mouun’s Moon R1 | 94.20% |
Hamayumi R5 | 90.60% |
| Prototype Crescent (no passive) | 89.10% |
| Hamayumi R1 | 88.60% |
From Ganyu’s Trailer
Additional Weapon Notes
Amos’ Bow Stacks:
According to Amos’ description, to gain an additional stack, the Charged Attack must travel for 0.1s. However, Amos’s flight time rounds to the nearest 0.1s, which means it only needs to be in flight for 0.05s. This comes out to a distance of 3.67m (just under 1.5 Abyss Tiles). In Freeze and Mono Cryo, this isn’t a concern, but in Melt, Xiangling’s Pyronado has a range of 5.4m (slightly over 2 Abyss Tiles), forcing you to near the edge of its range. But as Amos doesn’t use distance to calculate stacks, it instead uses flight time, against larger enemies like Ruin Guards, you can increase the arrow’s flight time by aiming upward to gain additional stacks. Against Maguu Kenki, this only reduces it by a mere 0.2m, but against Ruin Guards it is halved to 1.8m, or under one Abyss Tile. See more details here.
Polar Star Stacking:
Polar Star stacks last 12s with one ability per stack. In Freeze and Mono-Cryo, Ganyu trivially maintains all 4 stacks with Celestial Shower’s long duration. The Normal Attack stack requires the most consideration to maintain, as Ganyu does not normally perform Normal Attacks. Conveniently though, Ganyu’s Skill cooldown is 10s. If you Normal Attack before her Elemental Skill, it is easy to maintain the Normal Attack stack. It may take some practice and getting used to, as doing it too fast will cancel the Normal Attack entirely. Slower players, whether by skill or ping, may find that the additional Normal Attack slows their rotation down too much, to the point that they miss Melts or the Burst snapshot. In this case, forfeiting the additional stack is your best option.
Melt, unfortunately, will only maintain three stacks outside of teams with extremely high amounts of Pyro where Bursting won’t steal Melts.
You can prestack it at the beginning of rotations by firing an uncharged Charged Attack followed by a Normal Attack. That allows the first Burst to have 3 stacks.
Aqua Simulacra’s Range:
Aqua Simulacra’s Bonus DMG activates when Ganyu is within 8 meters of an enemy. This is slightly more than the range of Trail of the Qilin’s dash. In Melt, this range is more than enough as Ganyu will always be within 6 meters (which is as far as Jean can apply Pyro). However, in Freeze or Mono-Cryo, it’s possible to be out of range. Of course, you can just walk back into range, but if you prefer to play at range, this is worth considering.
Prototype Crescent and Weak Points:
While Prototype Crescent requires a Charged Attack to hit a weak point to activate its passive, this is surprisingly easy. You do not require a hit from a fully charged Aimed Shot, as a partially charged Aim Shot is enough. This means you can rapidly spam Aim Shots until you hear the sound of the headshot. This is mostly useful in setting up when you may have more time to spare. To refresh the buff, you will need to hit the weak point regularly, which may take practice.
Prototype Crescent does encounter the problem of enemies with no weak point. Of these, the most notable are the Perpetual Mechanical Array, Wolfhounds, and the Ruin Serpent. In these cases, it can be helpful to have a backup weapon like a Hamayumi just in case.
Prototype Crescent vs Hamayumi:
Prototype Crescent is preferred in Freeze and Mono-Cryo for the immense amount of Attack it provides, while Hamayumi is preferred in Melt for the Charged Attack Bonus (unless you are using Shimenawa’s Reminiscence). However, if you find yourself unable to hit weak points reliably, Hamayumi will perform better in all scenarios.
About Blackcliff Warbow:
Blackcliff Warbow is a usable and sometimes well-performing weapon on Ganyu. When stacked and refined, it is extremely powerful. However, obtaining stacks is highly content-dependent, preventing it from being recommended generally. It also requires using your Masterless Starglitter, which we currently do not advise spending on Blackcliff weapons.
F.A.Q
What is Quadratic Scaling and how does it relate to Ganyu?
Quadratic scaling is when a character deals more damage per enemy as the number of enemies increases. Most characters in Genshin have either linear scaling (damage per enemy remains the same no matter how many enemies or it deals AoE damage) or decrease as the number of enemies increases (Single-target abilities and Beidou).
Ganyu’s Burst displays pseudo-quadratic scaling because of the way her Icicles target enemies. Celestial Shower drops 50 Icicles. Each Icicle checks to see if any enemy within her Burst was not targeted by one of the previous 4 Icicles. If it finds one, it will drop on them; otherwise, it falls randomly.
Additionally, each Icicle also damages enemies in a small AoE around it. This means if there are enemies near the enemy it is targeting, they will also be hit. By grouping enemies together, this increases the number of icicles hitting each target, dealing more damage per enemy as the number of enemies increases, for a maximum of five enemies.
Should I play Melt or Freeze?
Ganyu’s two major team archetypes conveniently cover the other’s weaknesses. Melt Ganyu’s primary strength is its high single-target damage, while Freeze Ganyu excels at AoE situations. Ideally, you should play both and adapt as needed. However, if you only want to build Ganyu for one team, the Playstyles section goes into greater detail about the requirements and advantages of each team.
Alternatively, Mono-Cryo complements Freeze extremely well, sharing the same artifacts, but working better in content where the enemy can’t be Frozen.
Should I use Ganyu’s Burst in Melt?
Generally, you shouldn’t. Celestial Shower will steal Pyro, preventing you from double Melting her Charged Attacks. At higher investment levels, Xiangling can partially compensate for it by Melting the extra Cryo, but this is still subpar compared to not Bursting. Nevertheless, please note that there are two exceptions to this;
– When there are multiple Pyro appliers (such as the combination between Xiangling and Kazuha). In these cases, there is enough Pyro that Celestial Shower cannot steal all the Pyro.
– When Jean is the Pyro applicator.
– When enemies are spread apart.
Should I craft Hamayumi or Prototype Crescent?
It depends. As a general rule, Hamayumi is better in Melt if you are using Wanderer’s Troupe and not Bursting, while Prototype Crescent is better everywhere else.
However, that assumes you can proc Prototype Crescent’s passive. You may find that many enemies don’t have a weak point or that you are unable to proc it reliably when they do. In that case Hamayumi will perform better, even without its passive.
So it is up to you to make the final call. Both are good enough to get you through most content though.
Of course, you could just craft both, but that requires a lot of billets.
Character Synergies
Pyro Characters (essentially in Melt variations)
An unavoidable character in Melt playstyles, providing tremendous amounts of ATK with his Burst, on top of his healing, Energy generation, and self Pyro application, which Anemo units can use to absorb Pyro into abilities.
Xiangling has high personal damage, contributing a significant amount to the team’s damage. Her Pyro application is fast enough that Reverse Melting all Charged Attacks is possible if Ganyu doesn’t use her Elemental Burst. After C4, Xiangling provides the longest lasting Pyro out of any character. This allows Ganyu to Melt up to 6 Charged Attacks. Prior to C4, the Burst only allows up to 5.
However, as with all characters here, she has very high Energy costs and requires a battery in the form of Bennett.
Along with her acceptable Particle generation, Xinyan can offer a modest shield. By itself, her Pyro application isn’t enough for Ganyu to Reverse Melt reliably, but it can help supplement other Pyro characters.
Her second Constellation greatly increases the probability that Favonius procs on her Elemental Burst, while her full strength shield offers some defense.
Only use her if you do not own any other shield alternative.
At C4, Yanfei’s Burst creates a 15s shield. It holds up quite nicely compared to other shield characters, but it is held back by Yanfei’s 80-cost Burst. Even with Prototype Amber, Yanfei will need over 200% Energy Recharge even with Xiangling and Bennett. Yanfei is preferable to many shield units but pales in comparison to Zhongli.
When fully stacked, Thoma has one of the strongest shields in the game. However, as Ganyu does not Normal Attack, she can’t stack it reliably.
Thoma’s Burst cost is also very high, necessitating high amounts of Energy Recharge. Even with his C4, he will require over 200% Energy Recharge. He can also carry Favonius Lance, lowering team Energy costs, but this comes at the cost of shield strength.
Only use him if you do not own any other Shield alternative.
Cryo Characters
Shenhe provides a massive amount of buffs to Ganyu while dealing off-field damage. This is incredibly powerful in all playstyles, but truly shines in Freeze and Mono-Cryo or when Ganyu has all her Constellations unlocked in Melt. This is because Shenhe can be used as the fourth unit in Reverse Melt instead of a shielder like Zhongli, but using Shenhe means forgoing a shielder, requiring Ganyu to quickly burst down enemies.
Diona provides good Particle generation, and is the only Cryo character who consolidates defensive utility and Energy. The high number of hits on her Elemental Skill also allows her to utilize Favonius Warbow extremely well. This makes her a good option in Freeze if you want more survivability, but in Melt, while her C6 EM is useful, her shield is underwhelming.
Rosaria has decent damage and Particle generation with an appreciated CRIT Rate share. She also gets much better with Constellations.
Unlike the above characters, Ayaka does not support Ganyu. Instead, Ganyu/Ayaka teams operate similarly to dual-carry teams. While she does have good Particle generation, Ayaka needs slightly more Energy Recharge than other Cryo units because Ganyu generally doesn’t use Favonius weapons. If Venti is used with these two, then this isn’t an issue. Furthermore, all 3 characters like AoE fights where energy is plentiful, reducing this concern even more.
However, if players are able to satisfy Ayaka’s Energy Recharge needs, she can be a very strong pairing with Ganyu because of her extremely high-damaging Elemental Burst, which can take full advantage of Ganyu’s Ascension Four passive. This guide will not cover Ayaka Ganyu teams in depth. If you wish to know more, please refer to the KQM Ayaka Guide.
Anemo Characters
Essential for Freeze variations, Venti provides extremely strong grouping against low-to-mid staggerable opponents, along with an appreciated Energy refund, which solidifies him as the advised option for Freeze Ganyu teams. Venti does struggle more against heavier enemies and bosses though, who can simply leave his Burst. This makes his Energy refund more inconsistent as well.
In Melt Variations: Despite his reputation, Kazuha does not perform well in Melt Ganyu. He brings with him Elemental Damage Bonus and VV, two incredibly strong buffs, but his lackluster Pyro application means that even the slightest bit of interference can result in losing Melts (this includes Zhongli Pillar, Ganyu’s E, and other enemies). In addition, its short duration means that while it is possible to Melt 5 Charged Attacks, most players will only be able to Melt 4, losing a tremendous amount of damage. On top of that, his own damage is quite poor with nothing to Swirl, the rotation is hard to execute, and it overall doesn’t perform well in single-target.
But once Ganyu has her C6, most of these problems can be avoided. With her C6, a shield is no longer needed, so Kazuha’s weak Pyro Application can be supplemented with the addition of Xiangling, and her instant Charged Attacks mean Ganyu will be able to consistently get all of her Charged Attacks off and take full advantage of Kazuha’s buffs.
In Freeze Variations: In Freeze, Kazuha’s buffs are much more effective. His buffs are incredibly potent when snapshotted onto Ganyu’s Burst, and he can take full advantage of Swirl. Compared to Venti’s, Kazuha’s grouping is not as good in heavy mobbing content but still is a great option against heavier enemies and more flexible with its positioning. However, with his increased field time, and lack of Energy refund, Kazuha doesn’t always perform better than Venti.
In Mono-Cryo Variations: Kazuha is by far the best Anemo unit for Mono-Cryo. His immense buffs are greatly beneficial, and the relatively acceptable Energy Requirement greatens his value in comparison to Venti.
In Melt Variations :
When paired with Bennett, their Bursts can interact to produce a unique interaction commonly known as “Sunfire.” When a character stands within an overlapping portion of their Bursts, Jean’s Burst will Swirl the Pyro applied by Bennett’s Burst on the character, resulting in a powerful yet brief duration of off-field Pyro application as well as potential for significant damage. See xf3’s Jean guide for more details. This can also be used to enable a specific rotation (using Bennett Burst followed by Ganyu Burst) that can be effectively used by Ganyu to Melt her shots, with 2 characters able to heal. Her Elemental Burst is enough to reliably Melt about 5 Charged Attacks. In addition, this is “strong” Pyro, meaning you can Burst on Ganyu and still Melt everything.
In Melt variations, she can be used as a flex slot, assuming you do not have any other unit left, but she will not be able to swirl Cryo. Sucrose is not particularly interesting other than her EM share, because of her lackluster grouping and terrible Pyro application.
Though a significant step down from Kazuha and Venti, Sucrose is also usable in Freeze. Her grouping is worse but usable, but her EM share is completely useless in this team. However, when she has her 6th Constellation, her Burst can slightly boost Elemental DMG%. In addition, she has very high Energy costs, but with Prototype Amber, they become reasonable. Prototype Amber also allows her to consolidate the support role.
An Anemo Support, Sayu can be a choice for comfortability thanks to her heals. She is also able to Swirl off-field, and consequently deals damage without bothering the on-field character. If you have no other Anemo unit, Sayu is an option in Freeze teams.
Geo Characters
Zhongli is by far the best shielder in the game, and with Ganyu’s long Charged Attack time, this is invaluable. His shield, activated by his Skill, making it extremely reliable, lasts for the entire duration of Ganyu’s Damage window, and more, while also blocking the most damage. In addition, his Shield grants RES Shred, being especially potent in Melt where VV is hard to pull off. Zhongli can also hold a variety of Artifacts including Instructor, Tenacity of the Milleith and Archaic Petra. However, in Freeze, he will Shatter, which makes him not recommendable.
In Mono-Cryo Albedo can act as a flex slot. When paired with Zhongli, this grants Geo Resonance. In other teams he doesn’t have a place as in Melt, he will often steal Reactions, while in Freeze he will trigger Shatter.
Hydro Characters (essentially in Freeze variations)
Kokomi brings more Hydro application for longer Freeze uptime as well as healing with a very high uptime, as her jellyfish will be on-field for a long time. As a Catalyst and support, she can carry gear that can benefit Ganyu by boosting her DMG, making Kokomi an excellent choice for comfortability in Freeze teams. In addition, her low field time allows for easier rotations with more Charged Attacks, as well as faster Freeze setups. For instance, Kokomi Skill into Ganyu Skill is super fast and an instant freeze.
Unlike Mona and Kokomi, Ayato brings no buffs. Instead, he brings his own personal damage and own playstyle. When paired with Ayato, you’ll most likely use Ganyu as a Support. Ganyu will have value by providing off-field Cryo while Ayato applies Hydro and deals damage on-field.
He does have Quadratic Scaling on his Burst, but as most of Ayato’s damage is from his Skill empowered Normal Attacks, it is not as significant as Ganyu’s.
As she is on the standard banner, Mona can be considered the most common option, as many players obtain her off standard or after losing a 50/50. While her Freeze uptime is not as good and her Energy requirements are high, she provides an incredible buff with her Burst’s Omen and her lower cooldowns allow Ganyu to achieve shorter rotations.
Omen applies a debuff to all enemies at the time of its cast. Enemies take increased damage. This increased damage can be thought of as extra DMG% that can’t be snapshot. However, Omen will only last 3s after its “bubble” get popped. The bubble pops after either 5s, or if the enemy takes stagger damage. Almost everything deals stagger damage, but when the enemy is Frozen, they don’t take stagger damage, maintaining Omen.
Team Compositions
Official Christmas Art. Feel free to check out the artist on Twitter.
Freeze Teams
Classic Ganyu Team, which utilizes the Freeze reaction at its peak using an Hydro applier and a strong grouping through an Anemo Character. Specifically strong when facing a high number of opponents that can be Frozen, with a rotation made to enhance Ganyu’s DMG by providing various buffs.
As stated above, because Ganyu can snapshot her Ascension 4 Passive onto her Burst from the second rotation onwards, shorter rotations, though harder, are heavily emphasized here. However, they are harder to execute and do require more Energy Recharge, especially for Mona. However, rotations locked to 20s by units like Kokomi and Shenhe are still competitive because they bring their own buffs to make up for it.
Ganyu Mona Diona Venti “Morgana”
Rotation: Diona hE – Ganyu EQ – Venti EQ – Mona Q(N1)E – Ganyu 2CA – Venti EN1 (Drop if slow) – Ganyu CA
Notes:
It is possible to fit up to three Charged Attacks and 2 Venti Es in this rotation. However, the rotation is quite tight and you may wish to drop the second E if you can’t snapshot Ganyu’s Burst in time.
Diona does not Burst in this rotation because it takes too much time and she can’t Burst every rotation, which should be saved for emergency healing instead.
Gearing Notes:
Diona should use Favonius Warbow as Sacrifical’s Cooldown benefits Mona and Venti less while also having a CD that is too long before R5. For Artifacts, Diona should use Tenacity of the Millelith, as while she can’t keep it active for long, it will last long enough for Ganyu to snapshot it onto her Burst. Noblesse is also an option, but as she can’t Burst every rotation, its value is reduced. Her stats don’t particularly matter—using a set of 4-Stars will work identically to a set of 5-Stars with investment.
Mona’s high Energy Recharge requirements mean she will typically need either Favonius Codex or Prototype Amber. Even if you meet the requirements with TTDS, because of the rotation length, only every second rotation will be buffed. Mona can use either Noblesse or Tenacity, but as Noblesse can be strongboxed, this will make it the better option. Estimated ER: 250% with Favonius Codex. Lower with Prototype Amber.
Ganyu Mona Rosaria Venti “Quickswap Morgana”
Rotation: Ganyu E CA – Mona E – Venti EQ – Rosaria EQ – Ganyu Q – Mona Q – Venti EN1 – Rosaria E
Notes:
This rotation replaces Diona’s defensive utility with Rosaria’s damage and additional Energy in exchange for Ganyu’s Charged Attacks. Because of the lack of time available, this team plays much closer to quickswap than other Freeze teams and only has time for a single Charged Attack.
The team is incredibly smooth to play and has plenty of time to snapshot Ganyu’s A4 onto herself. However, you may find Freeze uptime a bit lacking.
Gearing Notes:
Favonius Lance’s high Base Attack synergies well with Rosaria, and she has more chances to proc it because her Skill hits twice, assisting with team Energy costs. This should be her go-to option. Rosaria can use either Blizzard Strayer or Noblesse Oblige. Either are good options as Mona can also use Noblesse, which is easier to farm than Tenacity, and you can give Rosaria Ganyu’s hand-me-downs. Blizzard Strayer is recommended. Estimated ER: 150% before C4
Refer to the Venti Diona team for gearing Mona.
Ganyu Mona Diona Kazuha
Rotation: Ganyu CA – Kazuha tEPQ – Diona hE – Ganyu EQ – Kazuha hEP – Mona QN1E – Ganyu CA
Notes:
Instead of Venti, you can also use Kazuha who brings gigantic buffs. However, Kazuha’s long field time causes the rotation to change drastically and reduces the number of Charged Attacks possible. These two factors means that despite the buffs Kazuha brings, it performs similarly to the Venti version, but with higher Energy requirements.
In the worst case scenario, Ganyu will need Energy Recharge sands unless all three other members are on Favonius weapons, where her requirement is reduced to 140%. But, in AoE, this is less of a concern with the increased Particles from enemies.
Gearing Notes:
Diona should use Favonius Warbow as Sacrifical’s Cooldown is too long before R5. For artifacts, she should use Tenacity of the Millelith, as while she can’t keep it active for long, it will last long enough for Ganyu to snapshot it onto her Burst. Noblesse is also an option, but as she can’t Burst every rotation, its value is reduced. Her stats don’t particularly matter—using a set of 4-Stars will work identically to a set of 5 stars with investment.
Mona can use either Noblesse or Tenacity, but as Noblesse can be strongboxed, it will normally be the better option. It is recommended that Mona use Favonius Codex to help reduce Ganyu’s Energy requirements. Estimated ER: 220%
Kazuha will use a normal VV triple EM build. Favonius Sword is recommended to help reduce Ganyu’s Energy requirements. Estimated ER: 160%
Ganyu Mona Rosaria Kazuha
Rotation: Ganyu CA – Kazuha tEP – Rosaria QE – Ganyu EQ – Kazuha hEP – Mona Q(N1)E – Rosaria E
Notes:
Once again trading Diona for Rosaria. However, with the increase in field time from both Rosaria and Kazuha, there is not time to fit Kazuha’s Burst in while also snapshotting. In fact, Bursting on Kazuha is detrimental to team damage. This means that he doesn’t have to worry about Energy though, and can instead build more Elemental Mastery for a greater buff. But as Venti isn’t present, Ganyu’s Energy Requirements will be quite high. In the worst case it can reach upto 140%.
Gearing Notes:
Rosaria should use Noblesse Oblige or Blizzard Strayer. Noblesse is preferable here because Freeze uptime is relatively low. Favonius Lance is recommended to help with Ganyu’s Energy Requirements. Estimated ER: Upto 200% without C4, 160% with Mona can use either Noblesse or Tenacity, but as Noblesse can be strongboxed, it will normally be the better option. Tenacity will perform better if Rosaria is already on Noblesse but as Tenacity is not easily accessible, Noblesse may still often be better. Mona should consider either Prototype Amber or Favonius Codex. Codex will help lower Ganyu’s Energy Cost while Prototype Amber will provide a little bit of healing. Estimated ER: 216% with Favonius Codex, 174% with Amber.
Kazuha should use a normal VV triple EM build. Iron Sting and Favonius Sword a both good options. Iron Sting to increase his buff, and Favonius Sword to lower team Energy Requirements. As he isn’t bursting, he will not need ER.
Ganyu Kokomi Rosaria Venti
Rotation: Kokomi E – Ganyu CA – Rosaria EQ – Ganyu QE – Venti EQ – Kokomi Q – Ganyu CA – Rosaria E – Ganyu CA E – Venti E
The window to refresh Kokomi is about half a second. This makes it very unreliable at higher ping. You can move Kokomi’s Elemental Skill to just before Ganyu’s Elemental Burst to widen the window, but this will compromise on Freeze uptime. However, if you pull it off, the team is incredibly comfy and easy to play.
Alternative Rotation: Rosaria EQ – Kokomi E – Ganyu EQ – Venti EQ – Ganyu CA – Rosaria E – Ganyu CA E CA – Venti EN1
Notes:
Alternatively, you can not Burst as well. Damage-wise, it is identical and easier to build for, but if you find yourself facing more lethal enemies, such as Abyss Lectors, the loss of Freeze uptime may hurt significantly.
Gearing Notes:
When refreshing Kokomi’s jellyfish, Venti and Rosaria will need to be on Favonius weapons to help Kokomi meet her ER costs. Venti will need some CRIT Rate to proc it reliably, but with Cryo Resonance’s 15% CRIT Rate it’s not as difficult.
But, when Kokomi is not refreshing, Venti and Rosaria are unrestricted with their gear. Rosaria can move to higher damage weapons such as “The Catch” and Deathmatch, while Venti can consider weapons like Stringless, Elegy for the End, and Windblume Ode.
Aside from Kokomi, Energy requirements are low across the board, with Ganyu and Rosaria able to run on nothing, and Venti on 150%.
Rosaria can use either Noblesse or Blizzard Strayer for less than a 1% difference in team damage.
Kokomi should run TTDS and Tenacity, though any pieces will do. If she is refreshing, she will need a smidge over 200% Energy Recharge. Other stats aren’t particularly important but HP% is good for extra healing.
Ganyu Kokomi Shenhe Venti
Rotation: Kokomi E – Ganyu CA – Shenhe QE – Ganyu EQ – Venti EQ – Kokomi Q – Ganyu CA – Shenhe EN1 – Ganyu E CA – Venti EN1
As with the Rosaria variant, this team can be played in two ways. The first is to refresh Kokomi’s Jellyfish for almost 100% uptime. The increased Freeze uptime makes Blizzard Strayer uptime more reliable and prevents dangerous enemies such as Abyss Lectors from attacking. The rotation is quite tight though, and you may find using Kokomi’s E just before using Ganyu’s Burst to be easier, though this compromises Freeze uptime.
However, when you don’t need such safety, the rotation where Kokomi does not Burst, listed below, performs slightly better while also having lower Energy Requirements. However, the difference is small enough it is primarily a matter of preference.
Alternative Rotation: Shenhe QE – Kokomi E – Ganyu EQ – Venti EQ – Ganyu 2CA – Shenhe EN1 – Venti EN1 – Ganyu E 3CA
As Kokomi already locks the team into a 20s Rotation, switching from Rosaria to Shenhe only loses Rosaria’s damage in exchange for Shenhe’s buffs. With all the ATK buffs in this team, CRIT weapons perform better here compared to in other teams.
Gearing Notes:
If Kokomi uses her Burst, Venti must use Favonius Warbow to reduce Kokomi’s Energy requirement to just over 200%.
Shenhe will require up to 180% Energy Recharge. She should always consider Favonius Lance as its high Base Attack greatly benefits her Icy Quills and the Energy Recharge and Particle generation lower her Energy Requirements. 2pc ATK% combinations and Noblesse perform similarly, but Noblesse grants a greater buff to Ganyu.
Kokomi should run TTDS and Tenacity, though any pieces will do. If she is refreshing, she will need a smidge over 200% Energy Recharge. Other stats aren’t particularly important.
Ganyu Ayato Diona Venti
Rotation: Diona (Q)hE – Ganyu EQ – Venti EQ – Ayato Q – Ganyu CA – Venti EN1 – Ayato E N15
Below and above are two sample rotations. The first grants Ayato 15 Normal Attack and Ganyu 1 Charged Attack. This is a very simple rotation, but it means that Ganyu cannot snapshot Prototype Crescent onto her Burst, as too much time passes between her Charged Attack and her Burst.
The second (below) trades 5 of Ayato’s Normal Attacks for an additional Charge Attack on Ganyu. This allows her to snapshot Prototype Crescent, but it comes at the cost of Ayato’s Energy requirements.
Overall, the first is easier to play, as the second requires you to count Normal Attacks and overshooting is quite easy to do.
Alternative Rotation: Diona (Q)hE – Ganyu EQ – Venti EQ – Ganyu 2CA – Venti EN1 – Ayato E N10
Notes:
Ayato, much like Ganyu, has quadratic scaling on his Burst. Pairing them together in this team results in a very pretty outcome. However, unlike Ganyu’s Burst, Ayato’s quadratic scaling isn’t significant because most of his damage comes from his Normal Attacks rather than his Burst. However, his long lasting Burst does apply long duration Freeze for Ganyu.
Gearing Notes:
Diona can use either Sacrificial Bow or Favonius Warbow in this team, but as Ayato’s Energy requirements can get quite high, Favonius Warbow is preferred as it benefits him more. She can use either Noblesse or Tenacity—it is a matter of preference.
Ayato’s Artifact options are quite varied. Emblem of Severed Fate helps with his Energy requirements if you need it, but otherwise, he can use either Blizzard Strayer, Heart of Depth or Gladiator’s Finale. Conveniently, Heart of Depth shares a domain with Blizzard Strayer, making it very easy to farm.
His Energy Requirements will usually force him to use an Energy Weapon though, and even then he will normally need over 200% Energy Recharge. In the N15 version, Amenoma Kageuchi is one choice, however you will need to obtain 1 stack before his Burst. This will happen naturally after the first rotation, but in the first rotation, you will need to perform a quick N1 at the start, before beginning your rotation like normal.
But in the N10 version, Anemona Kageuchi usually won’t be enough without assistance from Emblem of Severed Fate. In that case, an additional Favonius weapon, on either Ayato or Venti, may be required.
Mid-Autumn Festival 2021 Art by Hou
Melt Teams
Compositionally, Melt teams are less flexible than Freeze. The first party member must be Bennett. There’s no way around it—if you want to play Melt Ganyu, you must use Bennett. The second character must be able to apply Pyro. This limits it to three characters. The final slot is a flex slot, but unless you are speedrunning or have C6 Ganyu, it is heavily, heavily, HEAVILY, recommended that this is a shielder. Preferably Zhongli.
Ganyu Bennett Xiangling Zhongli
Rotation: Xiangling E – Zhongli hE – Bennett QE – Xiangling Q – Ganyu 5CA E CA – Bennett E
There are a couple ways to perform the rotation for this team. The first, while less intuitive, is faster and gives more way for Bennett’s buff on the 5th Charged Attack. This is the recommended rotation for players who can’t perform Charged Attacks as fast. In addition, it also allows the use of Instructor Zhongli if you have it, as well as slightly more shield uptime.
The second rotation (below) is slightly slower and harder to pull off all 5 Charged Attacks. However, if you are fast enough to pull off all 5 Charged Attacks, this rotation is more intuitive and has higher Xiangling C1 uptime. This is only recommended if you are skilled enough to do your Charged Attacks fast enough to keep Bennett’s buff despite the reduced timeframe.
Alternative Rotation: Zhongli hE – Bennett QE – Xiangling EQ – Ganyu 5CA E CA – Bennett E – Xiangling N3
Notes:
This is the most common and most accessible variant of Melt Ganyu, and overall performs the best. The Pyro application is reliable and lasts a long time, and the team has an easy setup. In addition, Xiangling’s damage is quite high and she helps reduce Energy requirements for Bennett, who in turn, reduces hers.
Remember that if you use Shimenawa’s or Polar Star, you should E before your Charged Attacks, changing Ganyu 5CA E CA to Ganyu E 6CA. It is harder to get Bennett’s Buff on the 5th Charged Attack with this change, but with Polar Star and Shimenawa’s, this is the better option.
In the event that you don’t have enough Energy Recharge, you have two options available to you. Both of them are significant damage losses, but if you didn’t build enough Energy Recharge there aren’t any other options.
The first is to battery until your Bursts are back. In this case, you would loop Bennett E – Xiangling N5 until your Bursts are back. This is best if you are close to having your Bursts and just need a little bit more.
The alternative is to Melt off Guoba. While this can be a bit inconsistent, it is an option that allows you to retain more damage than looping Bennett’s E. This has two use cases. When you need a decently large amount of Energy back, which is obvious, or when you want to save your Bursts for later, for example, against the Golden Wolflord, in order to execute it later, so until it’s fully downed, you can decide to only Melt off Guoba for 3 Melted Charged Attacks.
Gearing Notes:
Because of the high Energy requirements, using one Favonius weapon is highly recommended. While Bennett loses buff potency and Xiangling loses damage, Zhongli loses the least by moving to Favonius Lance. However, Zhongli can be unreliable when proccing it. This is fine at high refinements but not at lower refinements. At lower refinements, it should be given to Xiangling who, with her multi-hit Burst, is very reliable at proccing it. In some extremely low Energy environments, it may be better to have Bennett on Fav on top of one on Xiangling or Zhongli.
Zhongli can use either Instructor or Tenacity of the Millelith. Instructor will often perform better, but Tenacity’s increased shield strength and ability to benefit Xiangling may be preferential.
Xiangling should use the Emblem of Severed Fate set as it allows her to convert her extremely high Energy Recharge into damage. Bennett should use Noblesse Oblige. Xiangling will need 200-250% Energy Recharge while Bennett will need around 230%.
With Other Shielders:
Other shielders don’t have the same shield duration as Zhongli, so you will have to make a compromise. Either you can shield in the same place in the rotation as Zhongli, and lose some shield uptime, or you can shield later on, after Xiangling Bursts, for extra shield uptime, losing a Charged Attack. Longer duration shields like Yanfei should be used earlier, while shorter duration shields, such as Diona’s, should consider being placed later, if you think dying is a major concern.
Here is a sample rotation with Diona Bursting earlier.
Ganyu Bennett Jean Zhongli
Rotation: Ganyu E Q/CA – Zhongli hE – Bennett Q – Jean EQ – Ganyu 4CA – Bennett E – Jean E – Bennett E
The first rotation shown is extremely hard to pull off. It requires both fast Charged Attacks, and fast swaps, which is much easier on low ping. Bennett catches the last tick of his Burst, allowing him to reduce his E cooldown enough to immediately use it again after Jean uses her E. But, as this is not realistic, most people should consider the below rotation. Instead of 2 Bennett Es, it uses a Hold E to generate more Particles.
Alternative Rotation: Ganyu E Q/CA – Zhongli hE – Bennett Q – Jean EQ – Ganyu 4CA – Jean E – Bennett hE
Notes:
Using the interaction between Jean and Bennett known as Sunfire, Jean self-applies Anemo onto the Pyro self-applied by Bennett, creating a Pyro Swirl that Ganyu can Melt off. This is “strong Pyro”, which means that Ganyu can’t instantly clear it with a single Charged Attack, and combined with the rate of Jean’s Swirls, allows Ganyu to Burst on top without losing Melts, granting Ganyu her A4 Cryo DMG Bonus. On top of that, Jean also brings VV with an easy setup, leading to a decent increase in Ganyu’s own personal damage, though Jean’s damage falls significantly short of Xiangling’s. This allows up to 4 Charged Attacks in Single-target and 5 in AoE, though generally 4 Charged Attacks remains optimal.
Despite the value of Ganyu’s Burst, it is not worth it to trade offensive substats like CRIT and EM to build enough Energy Recharge to Burst every rotation. If you can meet this state without deliberately building Energy Recharge (C1 helps with this), then Burst every rotation, but if you can’t, Burst every second rotation instead.
If you don’t have enough Energy to loop perfectly, you should replace Bennett’s Hold E at the end with a tap E and enter a batterying loop. In this case you would Jean E – Bennett E repeatedly until your Bursts are full. Because of Jean’s 6s Cooldown on her Elemental Skill, this does mean you will need to fill time. One way is to perform Jean E – Bennett E – Ganyu CA which allows you to maintain some damage. Another is to use Jean and Bennett’s Normal Attacks. This has the added benefit of allowing Jean and Bennett to catch their own Particles, allowing them to recharge slightly faster.
Gearing Notes:
The use of her Burst in this team does lock Ganyu out of Shimenawa’s Reminiscence and Hamayumi does not perform as well as an activated Prototype Crescent here.
Zhongli should use Tenacity or Instructor. Tenacity is better for proccing Favonius Lance, and grants a stronger shield, while Instructor deals more damage. Favonius Lance is recommended to help with Energy requirements.
Jean’s damage scales mostly of Elemental Mastery, so EM on her pieces is desired. But, as her Energy cost is incredibly high, Favonius Sword is recommended (though Amenoma Kageuchi is a close second at the cost of Bennett’s Energy Requirements), so using a CRIT Rate Circlet is preferable to help proc Favonius. She will need upwards of 210% Energy Recharge. (160% with R5 Amenoma Kageuchi)
Bennett should use Noblesse Oblige and use either your highest available Base Attack weapon or an Energy Recharge weapon like Festering Desire. His Energy requirements will exceed 230% if he doesn’t catch his own Particles, but will lower to around 210% if he does.
Ganyu Bennett Kazuha Zhongli
There are two rotations below—the first has 5 Charged Attacks, and your goal should be to achieve this rotation. However, if you can’t, you should perform the 4CA rotation. You must break the pillar or place it away from enemies in Single-Target.
1st Rotation: Zhongli hE – Ganyu E CA – Kazuha tE – Bennett Q – Kazuha Q – Ganyu 5CA – Kazuha tE – Bennett E
2nd Rotation: Zhongli hE – Ganyu E CA – Kazuha tE – Bennett Q – Kazuha Q – Ganyu 4CA – Bennett E – Kazuha tE – Bennett E
Notes:
While this team is perceived to be one of the strongest Ganyu teams, and it does make big Bloom numbers and is enough to clear the Abyss, it is dearly overhyped and actually suffers from a lot of problems, while not having the damage to justify it, especially in single-target. There are several problems. The first is that the setup is quite hard, which can be overcome with practice. The second is that the Energy requirements are extremely high. The team makes the case for having the worst Energy economy in the game. The next problem is that while Kazuha can provide enough Pyro for 5 Charged Attacks, most players will only be able to do 4, and this is a huge damage loss. Finally, Kazuha’s Pyro in single-target is very unreliable. If he loses possession, which is incredibly easy to do with Zhongli’s Pillar or Ganyu’s E, he will not be able to maintain a Pyro aura. This last problem does get better in AoE though as the additional Pyro Swirls will keep Pyro possession.
For AoE situations, add an additional Bennett E after his Q like in this video. Alternatively, if you have C6 Bennett, an additional Normal Attack will achieve the same thing but faster. This will allow you to swirl both Pyro and Cryo.
Gearing Notes:
As stated above, both Kazuha and Bennett are extremely Energy-hungry. They will both need to use ER sands and a Energy Recharge weapon, preferably Favonius Swords to help with Energy. Their Energy requirements easily reach over 250%, even with 1 Fav proc in the 4 CA rotation and with 2 in the 5CA rotation.
In single-target, Zhongli can’t place his pillar nearby, preventing Tenacity from activating. The 2-pc can still be used for the additional HP for the shield strength, but Instructor will perform better here.
C6 Changes:
At C6, the removal of Ganyu’s Charged Attacks’ charge time means that having a shield is no longer important. Instead, it becomes more beneficial to bring more Pyro to sustain Ganyu’s Burst as well, for example, Jean, or combining Kazuha with Xiangling, or bringing another buffer, like Shenhe.
Happy New Year 2022 Celebration Art
Mono-Cryo Teams
Mono-Cryo teams, while not as reliable as Freeze teams, allow Freeze-like teams to perform well against enemies that cannot be Frozen, such as bosses. Many of the Freeze teams shown above can also be played as Mono-Cryo teams when their Hydro Unit is swapped for a shielder like Zhongli or Diona. Below are two of the better, dedicated Mono-Cryo teams. Both feature Shenhe, as her buffs are unrivalled.
Ganyu Shenhe Kazuha Zhongli
Rotation: Zhongli hE – Shenhe tEQ – Kazuha hEQ – Ganyu CA – Ganyu EQ – Shenhe tE (N1) – Ganyu CA – Kazuha tE – Ganyu 2CA – Ganyu E
This rotation maintains high and consistent uptime on all of the buffs provided to Ganyu. Do note that Zhongli shield tends to fade around the last Charged Attack so you may want to cut it off. The rotation is smooth and the cooldowns line up nicely. The second N1 on Shenhe is useful to help proc Favonius Lance.
Notes:
This team features shielding and grouping, making it extremely reliable in most situations. While this team is optimally played with a focus on Ganyu’s Burst damage, it can transition to a Charged Attack focused playstyle if the enemy demands it. One such example is the Golden Wolflord, where Charged Attacks are more reliable. The Burst heavy playstyle is the focus here.
While the team does perform better against grouped enemies, it still rivals Melt teams in single-target damage. However, Freeze teams are more practical when they work.
Gearing Notes:
For Zhongli, while Tenacity of the Millelith is an option, especially if you want a stronger shield, Archaic Petra is significantly better. The excess Cryo means that there is always a Cryo Crystallize shard for him to pick up, though actually getting it may be annoying.
Favonius Lances help greatly with Energy, not just because Energy costs are high, but also because either a highly refined Favonius Lance on Shenhe or one on both Zhongli and Shenhe means that it is reasonably possible for Kazuha to not have to invest into an Energy weapon, further increasing damage. However, this may be hard to achieve, and the loss of shield strength compared to Black Tassel may be problematic, especially as this team has no healer.
Kazuha will need about 170% Energy Recharge, which is lowered to about 155% with two Favonius Procs. Shenhe will require 170-190% Energy Recharge.
Ganyu Shenhe Zhongli Albedo “Geobros”
Rotation: Albedo E – Zhongli hE – Shenhe QE – Ganyu EQ 3CA – Shenhe E(N1) -Ganyu E 2CA
Honestly, you don’t need a rotation for this team. Just refresh everything as soon as you can. But if you prefer to follow a rotation, here is one example.
Notes:
Geobros, while not always the strongest choice of flex units, is usually very easy to pilot and provides a very strong shield and Geo Resonance while taking very little field time. All of these are things Ganyu heavily values.
This team favours Charged Attacks slightly more than Ganyu’s Burst, especially without grouping, but the difference is not huge.
Gearing Notes:
Gearing wise, the gear should be almost identical to the above team. Shenhe will need 180-200% Energy Recharge. Favonius is still recommended on her.
Rotation Bank
In teams where Venti is present, it is not mandatory to cancel his E with his Q, but it’s advised, as it reduces the rotation time, and as a result, increases the DPS.
Freeze Teams
Ganyu-Kokomi-Shenhe-Venti (No Refresh)
Rotation: Kokomi E ~ Ganyu CA ~ Shenhe QtE ~ Ganyu EQ ~ Venti EQ ~ Kokomi Q(N2) ~ Ganyu CA ~ Shenhe tE ~ Ganyu E CA ~ Venti E
C6 rotation: Ganyu E – Shenhe tEQ – Kokomi E – Ganyu Q – Venti EQ – Ganyu CA ECAs – Shenhe tE – (optional: Kokomi Q) – Venti E – Ganyu CA
Can execute an additional Charged Attack if you used Kokomi’s Burst
Rotation: Ganyu CA ~ Kazuha tE ~ Kazuha Q ~ Shenhe tE ~ Shenhe Q ~ Kokomi E ~ Ganyu EQ ~ Kazuha hE ~ Ganyu CA ~ Shenhe tE ~ Ganyu CA ~ Ganyu E
Rotation: Diona hE ~ Ganyu EQ ~ Venti EQ ~ Mona QE ~ Ganyu 3CA
Rotation: Diona Q ~ Kazuha tEQ ~ Diona hE ~ Ganyu EQ ~ Kazuha hE ~ Mona QE ~ Ganyu 2CA
Rotation: Shenhe tEQ – Ganyu EQ – Venti EQ – Mona QE – Shenhe tE – Venti E – Ganyu E – Ganyu 4CA
Rotation: Ganyu CA – Kazuha tEQ – Shenhe Q – Shenhe tE – Ganyu EQ – Kazuha hE – Mona QE – Ganyu CA – Shenhe tE
Rotation: Ganyu CA – Mona E – Rosaria EQ – Ganyu EQ – Venti EQ – Mona Q – Rosaria E
Rotation: Ganyu CA – Kazuha tE – Rosaria QE – Ganyu EQ – Kazuha hE – Mona EQ – Mona N2 – Rosaria E
Ganyu-Kokomi-Rosaria-Venti (With Refresh)
Rotation: Rosaria EQ – Kokomi E – Ganyu EQ – Venti EQ – Ganyu CA – Rosaria E – Ganyu CA – Ganyu E – Ganyu CA – Venti E
Rotation: Ganyu CA – Kazuha tEQ – Rosaria EQ – Kokomi E – Ganyu EQ – Kazuha hE – Rosaria E – Ganyu 2CA – Ganyu E
Ganyu-Ayaka-Venti-Mona
Rotation: Ayaka (D)E ~ Ganyu QE ~ Venti EQ ~ Mona EQ ~ Ayaka DEQ ~ Ganyu E ~ Venti E ~ Ganyu 2CA
Melt Teams
Ganyu-Bennett-Xiangling-Zhongli
Rotation: Zhongli hE – Bennett QE – Xiangling EQ – Ganyu 5CA – Ganyu E – Ganyu CA – Bennett E – Xiangling N2
Rotation: Ganyu E -Diona hEQ – Bennett QE – Xiangling Q – Ganyu 6CA – Bennett E
Rotation: Ganyu E Q/CA – Zhongli hE – Bennett Q – Jean EQ – Ganyu 5CA – Jean E – Bennett hE (Charge level 1)
Rotation: Ganyu E Q/CA – Zhongli hE – Bennett Q – Jean EQ – Ganyu 4CA – Bennett (N1)E – Jean E – Bennett E
Rotation: Zhongli hE – Ganyu E – Ganyu CA – Kazuha tE – Bennett Q – Kazuha Q – Ganyu 4CA – Bennett E – Kazuha tE – Bennett E
Ganyu-Xiangling-Kazuha-Bennett
Rotation: Ganyu E – Ganyu CA – Bennett Q – Kazuha Q – Kazuha N1 – Xiangling QE – Ganyu QCA – Ganyu CA – Bennett E – Kazuha E – Bennett E
Constellation 6 Ganyu:
Rotation: Ganyu EQ Shenhe tEQ Bennett Q Jean EQ Shenhe hE Ganyu CA ECAs
Shenhe tE’s only available for C1+ Shenhe users, and both it and Jean E during the setup can be skipped for quicker frontload in one rotation scenarios
Ganyu-Xiangling-Kazuha-Bennett
Rotation: Ganyu EQ Bennett Q Kazuha (tE/hE)Q Xiangling EQ Ganyu CA ECA
Make sure Kazuha swirls Cryo, Kazuha tE/hE during the setup can be skipped for quicker frontload in one rotation scenarios
Mono-Cryo Teams
Ganyu-Shenhe-Kazuha-Zhongli
Rotation: Zhongli hE – Shenhe tEQ – Kazuha hEQ – Ganyu CA – Ganyu EQ – Shenhe tE (N1) – Ganyu CA – Kazuha tE – Ganyu 2CA – Ganyu E
Shenhe can perform a Normal Attack if her Favonius Lance needs to proc.
Ganyu-Shenhe-Albedo-Zhongli
Rotation: Zhongli hE – Shenhe Q – Shenhe – tE Ganyu EQ – Ganyu 3CA – Shenhe (N2) tE – Ganyu E – Ganyu 2CA
Shenhe can perform a Normal Attack if her Favonius Lance needs to proc.
Support Teams
Support Teams
Hu Tao-Ganyu-Xingqiu-Rosaria
Rotation: Xingqiu EQ – Ganyu EQ – Rosaria EQ – Hu Tao E – Hu Tao CAs – Hu Tao Q – Rosaria E
Afterword
Feel free to look at the additional Ganyu-related resources, brought to you by KQM:
Youtube – Ganyu, Before You Wish
Compendium – Diverse Ganyu teams submitted
Calculations Repository
Ganyu Weapons Mastersheet.xlsx
Melt Ganyu with Xiangling weapons- Morgana Weapons v2
- Monocryo with Shenhe weapons
- Melt Ganyu with Xiangling Artifacts
- Morgana Artifacts
- Mono-Cryo Shenhe Artifacts
Credits
I’m thankful to anyone reading this guide, thanks for reaching this far.
This guide was proposed to you by Prévisible#7440 and Rare Possum#0511
With my special thanks for giving feedback and contributing, in no specificial order, to:
- CC#5588, specifically for rotations and weapon calcs
- leah.#2212
- jamie#9248
- Ayzel#7399
- naivety | pkach#6934
- jstern25#1399