Please refer to the Mona Quick Guide for updated build advice!

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Updated for v2.4

General Terminology

Note the following terminologies used in this guide:

A1, A2, A3, etc.	Character Ascension Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, etc.
C1, C2, C3, etc.	Constellation 1, 2, 3, etc.
R1, R2, R3, etc.	Weapon Refinement Level 1, 2, 3, etc.
AoE	Area of Effect – common game terminology referring to abilities which occurs in an area around a targeted location (in contrast with single target damage)
CC	Crowd Control – common game terminology referring to when abilities disable enemies preventing them from engaging in certain actions
DoT	Damage over Time – common game terminology referring to abilities which apply damage in ‘ticks’ or, as the name suggests, over a period of time (instead of instantly)
ICD	Internal Cooldowns
Quickswap	Refers to team comps where multiple characters with powerful Elemental Bursts and Elemental Skills constantly switch to maximize damage output
Sustained Damage	Damage that can be dealt consistently, often without much variation

Preface

Credits to all Helpers, Mods and Theorycrafter Astrologists. List here

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Should you use Mona?

“Always” – Albert Einstein

Talents

Constellations

Mona Playstyle

Mona can be run as a Damage Dealer (DPS) or as a Support who provides utility through Hydro application, grouping, and a DMG% buff on Omen-afflicted enemies.

DPS

Mona as a main on-field DPS can be used in both Vaporize and Electro-Charged comps.

Vaporize Comp

The Vaporize comp has two distinct playstyles: a sustained damage playstyle and a burst damage, or nuke, playstyle. 

Sustained damage Vaporize

The sustained damage Vaporize team usually consists of Mona, Bennett, Xiangling, and an Anemo character of your choice. This team bears some similarity to the burst damage/nuke playstyle since it often incorporates the ‘Perfect Combo,’ especially in its first rotation. However, the Burst/Nuke team puts more emphasis on Vaporizing Mona’s Burst. While her Burst may still be Vaporized in the sustained damage Vaporize team, it primarily focuses on her Hydro application, and she may also occasionally trigger Reactions with her Elemental Skill, Normal Attacks, and Charged Attacks.

This team is essentially the ‘Childe Vaporize’ team but with Childe replaced by Mona. Both teams have a high skill ceiling as strong knowledge of Elemental auras, Internal Cooldowns, and Omen Extension mechanic will allow the team to reach its highest potential. Mona does have the benefit of being a ranged Catalyst user, and if you are uncomfortable with Childe’s Stance change mechanic, this iteration of a Vaporize team can be easier to play. 

Mona can either act as a Hydro enabler by applying enough Hydro aura to enemies to allow Xiangling to Vaporize her Pyronado hits, or alternatively Mona can also utilize the various sources of Pyro application to focus on Vaporizing her Charged Attacks. Many players also opt for a more ‘unga bunga’ casual approach that enables Mona to be the trigger for Vaporize Reactions, though the damage output is reduced a bit because not every hit will always be Vaporized, but it can still perform quite well. Regardless of how you choose to play, with enough investment into the team members, you will be able to clear the most difficult  content that Genshin Impact has to offer.

See LACola’s video to see a detailed breakdown of the sustained damage Vaporize team. 

Burst damage/Nuke

This team focuses on maximizing Mona’s damage capabilities from the ‘Perfect Combo‘. This team usually consists of Mona, Bennett, Sucrose and a flex option which depends on the particular combo you are choosing to execute. This team can be somewhat impractical in certain types of content, and has fallen out of favor in Spiral Abyss because characters with powerful Elemental Bursts such as Hu Tao and Eula have been released. However, it can be useful for farming overworld bosses, as it allows you to deal enough damage at once to avoid annoying boss mechanics. It is somewhat of a rite of passage for Mona mains to use some version of this team to ‘one shot’ the Pyro Regisvine.

As of Patch 2.3, the Mona world record nuke damage is 3.02 million, which was achieved in co-op in the Patch 2.3 Energy Amplifier event domain.

Electro-Charged (EC) Comp

The EC comp works by having an Electro support consistently apply Electro while off field. In this team, Mona acts as an enabler through her Hydro application, which allows for high-uptime on Electro-Charged Reactions. The core of this team usually consists of Mona plus the Fischl and Beidou Electro duo. They synergize well because Fischl provides single-target damage and helps to battery Beidou, who in turn excels in multi-target scenarios. If running this team, it is advised to invest in the Electro units first because they will be dealing a majority of the damage. If you are comfortable dodging with Mona, you can forgo a healer since Electro-Charged stun-locks enemies, and since Mona is a ranged unit she can often avoid taking damage.

Check out Curiously#2324’s video to see how DPS Mona in an EC comp would work.

Support

Mona’s strong support abilities have allowed her to age gracefully compared to the other standard 5★ characters, who have mostly fallen out of favor as new characters, weapons, artifact sets and content have been released. Support Mona works by boosting your main DPS’s damage with her Omen DMG% buff on Omen-afflicted enemies. In this role, Mona’s ER requirements can be quite high because she will primarily be off-field, and Xingqiu, the only Hydro character who can generate a large amount of Hydro Particles, is better utilized on a separate team. . Support Mona is a strong teammate in Freeze comps because they can extend the duration of Omen using Freeze, thereby fully utilizing her Omen DMG% buff. 

Although Mona excels in teams with amplifying Reactions, she also works well even in teams that do not have access to them, especially if they can deal a large portion of their damage in a short period of time. Some of these examples are Freeze teams and Raiden hypercarry teams. 

In Quickswap teams, you can use Mona’s Elemental Skill before her Elemental Burst since it allows you to animation-cancel part of her Elemental Skill. Alternatively, you can use her Elemental Burst before Elemental Skill in order to maximize the buff’s duration for your team. However, in Freeze teams, it is recommended to cast Mona’s Elemental Burst first and then her Elemental Skill, as this will lead to more Hydro application while the rest of the team is on-field, since Mona’s long Burst animation would otherwise take up time when Hydro is being applied. 

As of patch 2.4, Freeze comps are the most popular Mona teams, so extra focus is given to describing Mona’s role in Freeze comps. See variations of Mona in Freeze comps.

Freeze Comp

This team primarily focuses on freezing enemies with Mona’s Hydro and a Cryo DPS (usually Ganyu or Ayaka) to render enemies immobile and permanently frozen. This playstyle focuses on extending the duration of Mona’s Omen DMG% buff by keeping enemies frozen in the bubbled state. This prevents Mona’s Illusory Bubble from bursting, allowing damage during this period to gain the benefit of Mona’s Omen DMG% buff without starting the Omen DMG% buff timer.

NOTE: You MUST apply Cryo prior to casting Mona’s Elemental Burst to freeze them in a bubble. You cannot apply Mona’s Elemental Burst first and then apply Cryo as it will pop the bubble. 

We are taking advantage of the fact that you can artificially prolong the duration of Mona’s Omen DMG% Buff by preventing the bubble from being bursted by damage. When frozen, the Illusory Bubble lasts ~6s before the frozen status wears off and pops the bubble. However, with good Element management (by reapplying Cryo and Hydro consistently), one can extend the Omen DMG% Buff can be extended for the whole duration of the bubble (8s). This means that Mona can apply the Omen DMG% Buff for a total of ~11 to 13s out of 15s (CD of her Elemental Burst). In other words, with good ER% and Energy Particle production, Mona can provide up to 60% DMG at a ~73.3 to 86.6% uptime. 

The priority for Mona’s build in Freeze comps is to have enough ER% to reliably use her Elemental Burst off-cooldown. For example, in the Ganyu Freeze team (typically Ganyu, Mona, Venti, and Diona), the ER% requirements for Mona can be very high since Mona primarily collects Energy Particles while off-field. With 1 use of Elemental Skill by each team member every rotation and 3 clear Particles from enemies, Mona still requires 303 ER% with 1 additional Favonius weapon trigger, (256 ER% with 2 Favonius triggers, 222 ER% with 3 Favonius triggers). You can also calculate how much ER% your team requires through the KQM Energy recharge Calculator.

Freeze comps tend to excel in mob scenarios where there are a lot more Particles from enemies, which will lower ER% requirements. It is best to test your rotations in either domains or the Spiral Abyss to see what level of ER% works best for your particular playstyle. Depending on your team composition, rotation, investment level, Energy generation and the particular content you are facing, Mona’s ER% can vary quite drastically (between 200-300 ER%).

If Mona is able to meet the Energy requirements in your rotation, you can use TTDS instead of Favonius Codex. 

See also LACola’s video explaining this concept and evidence for Extending Omen DMG% Buff duration.

Depending on which playstyle you are running, this can change what team comp, artifacts or weapons you ideally want. Below are sections about each of those in order to help you figure out what you may need.

Team Composition (Mona and Friends)

Now that you have determined what kind of playstyle you want to run on Mona, it’s time to consider what friends you want to bring along to Mona’s adventure.

Artifacts

DPS

Mona will usually run ATK% Sands/Hydro DMG Goblet/Crit Rate or Crit DMG Circlet when used as a DPS. An EM Sands can be considered if Mona is able to reliably and consistently trigger Vaporize Reactions. In particular, an EM Sands can lead to higher damage when Mona is used for her burst damage/nuke abilities. There is no general rule on whether ATK% Sands or EM Sands is better for nuking. The optimal choice will depend on the quality of your substats, as well as how well-geared your other buffers (Bennett/Sucrose or Kazuha) are. It is best to consult a damage calculator when deciding which piece to use.

2pc of HoD/Gladiator’s Finale/Shimenawa’s Reminiscence/WT/NO

You can opt to run two different 2-piece bonuses of any of the following combinations of artifact sets listed above. Each combination might have a slightly different emphasis in terms of playstyle, but they are all roughly comparable in terms of damage. The priority should be on choosing artifact pieces with the highest quality substats. This is the most flexible option and can even overtake the various 4 piece options listed below. The following handy tool can help you choose the best pieces to equip given your artifact inventory. Unless you already have existing pieces, the most resin efficient option is to farm for 2 Depth/2 Shim since the alternative domain sets, Blizzard Strayer and ESF, can be used on other characters.

4 Heart of Depth (HoD)

4 Emblem of Severed Fate (ESF)

4 Wanderer’s Troupe (WT)

Support 

Mona will want to run an ER% Sands/Hydro DMG Goblet/Crit Rate Circlet in this role. It is best to prioritize ER% for the substats, until you have enough ER% to use Burst off-cooldown which is roughly around the 200-300% range. Note that if you are running 4ESF (Emblem of Severed Fate) on Mona in a Freeze comp (or team without any ATK buffers), an ATK% goblet can be a competitive option. This is because Mona already possesses a lot of DMG Bonus for her Elemental Burst due to her passive talent, the 4ESF effect, and the Omen DMG% Buff. 

4 Noblesse Oblige (NO)

4 Tenacity of the Millelith (TotM)

4 Emblem of Severed Fate (ESF)

4 Instructor

Weapons

What weapon should I use on Mona?

This will vary on whether you’re using Support or DPS Mona.

Discussion of 5★ Weapons

Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds 

Skyward Atlas

Memory of Dust

Discussion of 4★ Weapons

The Widsith

Mappa Mare

Favonius Codex

Solar Pearl

Prototype Amber

Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers (3★ Weapon)

Alternative 4★ Weapons

Blackcliff Agate

Wine and Song

Dodoco Tales 

Hakushin Ring 

Detailed Explanation of Mona’s Elemental Burst, Stellaris Phantasm

The best way to understand Mona’s Elemental Burst is to view it in THREE separate parts. 

1. Hydro application 
2. Illusory Bubble application
3. Omen application (breaking the bubble, triggering the timer, and applying Omen)

When Mona casts her Elemental Burst, it applies Hydro to all enemies, but without dealing damage (1). Simultaneously with that, both the Illusory Bubble status (2) and Omen status (3).

• All Elemental Reactions that work with Hydro will trigger as normal.

The significance of this is that, because Mona’s Burst applies Hydro without dealing damage, it can trigger Reactions  (such as Vaporize, Pyro + Hydro) without any damage actually occurring. This is important for ‘Perfect’ Mona combos and will be explained in more detail later, but for now, just know that this means that applying Hydro via Mona’s Burst functions as a damageless Reaction, which is to say, it is a damage multiplier that does not inherently deal damage.

• However, in the case of Electro-Charged, despite the Illusory Bubble application not doing any damage, Mona’s initial Bubble’s Hydro application onto an existing Electro aura will cause Electro-Charged damage to occur, which ticks twice. This is bad because the second tick will prematurely break the bubble.

Once the Illusory Bubble is applied, smaller mob enemies will be trapped in the bubble and be disabled for several seconds, while large mob enemies will only have the Bubble effect applied (as indicated by the constellation ‘weird patterns’ on their bodies). 

Any subsequent damage will burst the bubble. That source of damage will gain a DMG% bonus (based on Mona’s Burst talent level).

• To put it simply, this means that whatever you use to burst Mona’s Illusory Bubble will also gain the Omen DMG% buff.
• Ideally, Pyro damage is used to burst the bubble to benefit from the effects of Vaporize, because it has a high damage multiplier.
• This is why we say that the Omen status is applied upon casting Mona’s Elemental Burst, instead of saying that Mona’s Omen status is applied when or after the bubble is broken (more on this later), because it also boosts damage that occurs prior to the bubble bursting.

What happens is that the damage which was used to burst the bubble will be inflicted on the enemy while the bubble is still active, and then subsequently CAUSES the bubble to burst after the damage was already applied.

• This order of damage is important to understand in order to ensure that Mona’s Elemental Burst is able to Vaporize Pyro and the ‘Perfect Combo’ is able to work.

When the bubble bursts, it will deal massive Hydro damage and the TIMER of the Omen status will begin (up to 5s). That is to say, the Omen status DMG% buff had already been applied since the time Mona’s Burst was cast, but now a timer countdown is added for when it will expire. In other words, the Omen status itself is unchanged before and after the bubble bursting, other than that it gains a timer.

• This is why despite the timer for the Omen status beginning after the bubble bursts, Mona’s Elemental Burst damage also gains the benefit of the Omen DMG% buff.
• Again, this is because, as noted earlier, the Omen status is applied at the time of cast, rather than at the time the bubble bursts.
• Note that it is the BUBBLE (HYDRO) that is doing the huge damage, NOT YOUR PYRO CHARACTER. 

How does the Omen DMG% buff work?

The Omen DMG% buff has TWO mechanisms to it:

1. It buffs attacks made prior to the bubble bursting, most notably the one that triggers the bubble to burst.
2. It continues to buff attacks after the bubble bursts for the duration stated in the talent description.

This line of thinking may help understand how the Omen DMG% buff works, from a technical perspective:

If Omen were to start only when the bubble bursts, you’d need retrospective coding that applies Omen only to that specific damage instance which broke the bubble.

That’s very difficult to do from a coding perspective, and we know that damage that does not burst the bubble still gains the benefit of Mona’s Omen DMG% buff, prior to the bubble even bursting. So in other words, with regard to the above, any damage that triggers the bubble burst will also receive the Omen DMG% buff, just by virtue of the buff having been active since Mona cast her Burst in the first place.

Stated simply, this means that miHoYo has coded the Omen DMG% buff to apply the Omen status as soon as you cast Mona’s Elemental Burst, and if damage pops the bubble, then the second mechanism, the Omen DMG% buff timer, begins.

Clip from LACola video between 2:55 – 3:20.

How to maximize Mona’s Burst. The “Perfect Combo” 

With the previous explanation in mind, we can now look at the mechanics of the ‘Perfect Vaporize Combo’ and how it maximizes Mona’s Elemental Burst damage. 

This method utilises the fact that we can preemptively apply Pyro so that when the Hydro from the initial Illusory Bubble status is applied, it is immediately Vaporized, clearing all Elements from the affected enemies. 

This allows us to apply Pyro FIRST, before the second instance of Hydro is applied (by the bubble bursting), to abuse the high Elemental Reaction damage multiplier of Vaporize (2x).

STEP 0: Swirl Hydro Element using an Anemo support with 4-set Viridescent Venerer

This shreds Hydro Elemental Resistance + applies any other boosts (Sucrose/Kazuha). This step is not mandatory but does boost potential max damage and should be done when possible.

STEP 1: Apply Pyro to the enemy

Make sure that before you cast Mona’s Elemental Burst, there aren’t any Elements other than Pyro on the enemy.  

You don’t want to trigger Electro-Charged (Electro then Hydro) or Frozen (Cryo then Hydro), becauses Hydro will not clear either of these Elements, which means they persist even after Hydro application.

Tip: If you want to maximize your damage, consider using Bennett’s Elemental Burst for this initial Pyro application (as it will boost your Mona’s ATK by a % of Bennett’s base ATK).

Note: If using Klee, this first step of applying Pyro to the enemy can be skipped: casting Klee’s Elemental Burst AFTER Mona’s which will clear the Hydro Element and reapply Pyro before the bubble bursts.

A similar interaction, known as the ‘Stagger Resistant Vaporize Combo,’ occurs with Zhongli’s pillar resonance, which will clear out the Hydro aura but will not pop the bubble. Although similar mechanically to how Klee can remove Hydro, the ‘Stagger Resistant Vaporize Combo’ is a separate concept.

STEP 2: Cast Mona’s Elemental Burst

This will cause a zero-damage Vaporize Reaction that will clear the Pyro Element from the enemy.

STEP 3: Wait 2 seconds for the internal cooldown (ICD) of Mona’s Burst to expire

To sum up briefly what an ICD is, it is the concept that a given skill cannot apply multiple instances of Elemental application to the same enemy within a 2.5s period. For Mona, what this means is that because Mona applied Hydro through the initial bubble from her Burst cast, triggering a Vaporize Reaction in the process, she must wait out the ICD of her own initial Elemental Burst before the 2nd part of the Burst can apply Hydro again and trigger another Vaporize.

Clip displayed above of Mona waiting 2 seconds for the internal cooldown.

Important Tip: When using Bennett’s Elemental Burst, you want to STAY on Mona until the last second before carrying out Step 4.

• This is because Mona’s Elemental Burst damage does not snapshot Mona’s stats at the time of applying the Illusory Bubble, but instead uses her stats at the time of the bubble bursting to determine its damage.
• Therefore, if you switch out too early to wait out the ICD, Mona loses the Bennett Elemental Burst ATK buff, and your damage will be considerably lower.

Video explanation from LACola of whether Mona can benefit from Bennett’s buff.

STEP 4: Apply Pyro damage to the enemy, causing the Illusory Bubble to burst, dealing huge Vaporize damage. 

As you know by now, although it seems like the bubble is bursting first, it is not. What is happening is that the Pyro damage is inflicted on the enemy which then CAUSES the bubble to burst. The damage is registered sequentially as Pyro then Hydro, rather than simultaneously (it does look like both happen at the same time, but that is merely visual).

For a more in-depth explanation that involves the concept of ICDs and Elemental gauge theory, we recommend checking out this video from LACola.

There are 2 ways the ‘Perfect Combo’ can go wrong

Scenario 1 | You don’t apply Pyro before casting Mona’s Elemental Burst

Failure to apply Pyro means that the initial bubble application applies Hydro to the enemy.  Then, when you break the bubble after a short wait, the Pyro damage used to break the bubble will react with the Hydro status to Vaporize, which means the Pyro damage gains the benefit of Vaporize, rather than Mona’s bubble burst Hydro damage.

Scenario 2 | You didn’t do ‘Step 3’ properly and didn’t wait out the ICD

As stated earlier, Mona’s Elemental Burst has an ICD for its Hydro application. 

If you try to burst the bubble too soon after Steps 1 & 2, you will find that the Pyro damage causes the bubble to burst, but no Hydro Element will be applied, so no Vaporize Reaction occurs. This means Mona will deal her unmultiplied base Elemental Burst damage instead of a much larger amount, and Pyro will remain on the enemy after the bubble bursts.

Note: The ‘Stagger Resistant Vaporize Combo’ somewhat ignores these two scenarios. However, it requires an advanced understanding of Mona’s Elemental Burst because it combines multiple ICD mechanics, Elemental gauges and certain enemy states into one combo. The following Omen extension section below covers this combo.

Omen Extension

There is an Omen Extension mechanic that allows Mona’s Omen DMG% bonus to last for longer than its usual duration when encountering certain enemy states. These can be broken into 3 categories: Stagger/poise resistance, Elemental shields, and Elemental armor. The first category is what causes Omen Extension in Freeze comps, but a solid understanding of these above scenarios will allow you to apply the Omen Extension mechanic more generally even when not using Cryo.

Stagger/poise resistance

During certain animations, an enemy can enter a state where they are completely immune to stagger/poise damage. This means that, while in that stagger-resistant state, attacks to this enemy cannot pop Mona’s Illusory Bubble.

For example, a Geovishap becomes stagger/poise resistant during its jumping animation.
Frozen enemies also become stagger/poise resistant. It is precisely this interaction which makes Mona so potent in Freeze teams. A full list of such enemy states can be found in a spreadsheet maintained by Myuwi#0001 from Mona mains. 

The clip above is an example of the two Geovishaps performing their stagger/poise resistant  jump attack animation. 

Note: Petrify cannot extend the duration of Omen; however, it can extend the enemy’s state. See KQM Theorycrafting Library for more details.

Mona can take advantage of these states by simplifying her nuke combo into one known as the ‘Stagger Resistant Vaporize Combo’: 

• Once an enemy has entered such a state, apply Hydro to the enemy with Mona’s Elemental Burst. 
• Then, swirl off the Hydro aura with an Anemo character to apply the 4pc Viridescent Venerer effect. 
• Finally, apply Pyro to the enemy and either wait for the enemy to exit its stagger/poise resistant state, or for the Omen bubble to time out. At that point, the bubble will burst and the affected enemies will take Hydro damage as in the normal Vaporize combo.

For more details, check out some videos from LACola:
1 Mona’s In-depth Vaporize Guide
2 Understanding Omen Extension 

Note: For Mona Vaporize DPS users, performing the ‘Stagger Resistant Vaporize Combo’ can become overwhelmingly complex in multi-target scenarios. This is due to the Hydro Swirl mechanic, where Hydro can be indefinitely swirled onto multiple targets, making it difficult to remove without enough Pyro application. This can mess up the ‘Stagger Resistant Vaporize Combo.’

Elemental shields

Mona’s Illusory Bubble will not pop against enemies that have an Elemental shield, such as Abyss mages. However, Mona’s Omen DMG% bonus still applies, which makes the shield easier to break.

Elemental armor

Some enemies, such as Lawachurls and Abyss Heralds/Lectors, are capable of infusing themselves with Elemental armor. This will prevent Mona’s Illusory Bubble from popping from a subsequent attack. The Bubble will eventually pop on its own after timing out, however, so they will still take damage. 

Mastery of the Omen Extension mechanic is a great way to level up your Mona gameplay. Around 30% of enemies as of patch 2.4 are susceptible to this technique. Furthermore, this technique can make it easier to pull off the Mona nuke combo in Spiral Abyss and against more difficult enemies.

Hitlag

Mona’s Elemental Burst is affected by hitlag in the same way Elemental auras and enemy debuffs are: the higher the hitlag amount, the longer the duration. Hitlag affects precise frame counts, and should be accounted for. It is possible to abuse hitlag in co-op to prolong Mona’s Omen without any setup. This may be useful against future co-op content. See more details in the KQM Theorycrafting library.

Credits

Atr

Baezal

Boesik

Cerberus

Chidoge

Chibi

Curiously

Dreeman

Genesis

HiImHello

Hydrosam

KG44

LACola

LastFireFox

Mcpie

Myuwi

And to all our Helpers, Mods, Theorycrafter Astrologists and KQM

Join us at Mona Mains

We are always looking for more theorycrafters to test theories, do maths and figure out bugs and Elemental Reactions. Testers for different weapons and Constellations are always important, so don’t be afraid by thinking we’re doing just maths! A lot of it is hypothesizing and testing in-game.

Check out the Mona Mains Theorycrafting Library and come visit your fellow astrologers at the Mona Mains Discord.