Updated for Version 3.4
Alhaitham is a 5-star Dendro Sword character with flexible field time and strong on-field Dendro application granted through a stacking mechanic.
Note that the information given is subject to change if and when new discoveries are made. More extensive testing is in progress.
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Table of Contents
Playstyles
Alhaitham’s kit revolves around his Chisel-Light Mirrors, which convert his basic attacks to Dendro and provide additional damage and Dendro application based on the number of his active Mirrors.
Spread DPS
Alhaitham’s high rate of Dendro application and the extensive EM scaling in his kit make him a powerful on-field Spread DPS.
On-Field Enabler
Alhaitham can also be played as an on-field Dendro enabler in Bloom, Burgeon and Hyperbloom teams. Although he doesn’t bring additional utility or off-field Dendro application, he does have strong, sustained on-field Dendro application.
Character Overview
Level and Talent Priority
Skill > Normal Attacks ≥ Burst
Players should prioritize character levels over Talent levels. In Quicken and Quickbloom teams, roughly half of Alhaitham’s damage comes from the Spread reaction, which scales independent of Talent levels but dependent on character levels. This means leveling his Talents doesn’t yield as much of a DPS gain as it would on most characters.
Out of Alhaitham’s three Talents, his Elemental Skill takes priority; it represents the biggest portion of his non-Spread damage. If Bursting every other rotation, prioritize his Normal Attacks over his Elemental Burst. If Bursting every rotation, level them equally.
Talents
Normal Attack | Abductive Reasoning
Talent Description
Normal Attack
Performs up to 5 rapid strikes.
Charged Attack
Consumes a certain amount of Stamina to unleash 2 rapid sword strikes.
Plunging Attack
Plunges from mid-air to strike the ground below, damaging opponents along the path and dealing AoE DMG upon impact.
Alhaitham’s Normal Attacks, Charged Attacks and Plunge Attacks are converted to Dendro when he has at least one Mirror. His converted attacks use the same scaling as his Normal Attack Talent, so leveling this Talent does marginally increase his damage.
However, the most important use of his basic attacks is to apply Dendro and trigger Projection Attacks. The non-reaction damage of his basic attacks comprises a relatively small portion of his overall damage.
Elemental Skill | Universality: An Elaboration on Form
Talent Description
Rushes forward, dealing Dendro DMG to nearby opponents when the rush ends, causing a Chisel-Light Mirror to form.
Holding this skill will cause it to behave differently.
Hold
Enters Aiming Mode to adjust the direction of Alhaitham’s rush attack.
Chisel-Light Mirror
When this skill is unleashed, Alhaitham will generate 1 Chisel-Light Mirror. If there are no Mirrors at this time, he will generate 1 additional Mirror. Chisel-Light Mirrors will have the following properties:
- When he possesses Chisel-Light Mirrors, Alhaitham’s Normal, Charged, and Plunging Attacks will be converted to Dendro DMG. This cannot be overridden.
- When attacks of the aforementioned kind hit opponents, the Chisel-Light Mirrors will unleash a Projection Attack that deals AoE Dendro DMG based on the number of Mirrors on the field.
- A total of 3 Chisel-Light Mirrors can exist at once.
- The Chisel-Light Mirrors will disappear one after the other over time, and will all disappear when Alhaitham leaves the field.
Alhaitham’s Skill can quickly close the gap to targets, though its more important feature is its Mirror generation. When used, it generates two Mirrors if he has none, and one Mirror otherwise.
Mirror Mechanics
When Alhaitham has at least one Mirror, his basic attacks are converted to Dendro. Mirrors can be generated via his A1, Skill, and Burst. He can have a maximum of 3 Mirrors at a time and they disappear if he goes off-field. One Mirror will expire every 4s. Gaining a new Mirror while 3 Mirrors are already active will refresh the current Mirror’s duration. This duration refresh does not occur if he only has 1-2 Mirrors.
Upon hitting opponents with his Dendro-converted attacks, Alhaitham can trigger a Projection Attack every 1.6s. The practical interval between Projection Attacks may be longer than 1.6s because they are triggered on hit. Each Projection Attack inflicts a separate hit of AoE Dendro DMG for each active Mirror, which means that having more Mirrors increases the damage and Dendro application of his Projection Attacks. Due to their 2-hit ICD, every other wave of 3-Mirror Projection Attacks will apply Dendro twice. As a result, having 3 Mirrors active markedly increases Alhaitham’s rate of Dendro application.
Note that Alhaitham’s Projection Attacks are tied to his Mirrors, which can also be gained through his A1 and Burst. This means that he can gain Mirrors and trigger Projection Attacks without ever using his Skill.
Elemental Burst | Particular Field: Fetters of Phenomena
Talent Description
Creates a Particular Binding Field and deals multiple instances of AoE Dendro DMG.
If Chisel-Light Mirrors exist when this ability is unleashed, all such Mirrors will be consumed and increase the number of DMG instances dealt.
2s after this ability is unleashed, if 0/1/2/3 Mirrors were consumed, Alhaitham will generate 3/2/1/0 new Mirrors in turn.
Alhaitham’s Burst can be used as either a utility tool to generate Mirrors or as a nuke. His Burst deals additional hits based on how many Mirrors it consumes, and refunds Mirrors equal to 3 minus the number of Mirrors consumed (e.g. consuming 1 Mirror generates 2 Mirrors). Note that the Mirrors generated from Alhaitham’s Burst are only granted 2 seconds after his Burst animation finishes.
It is generally better to use his Burst with zero Mirrors to generate 3 Mirrors, as using his Burst as a nuke will prematurely terminate his Mirror uptime pre-C6. This can be useful for frontloading damage or quickly clearing a wave of mobs, but is otherwise generally suboptimal.
Ascension 1 Passive | Four-Causal Correction
Talent Description
When Alhaitham’s Charged or Plunging Attacks hit opponents, they will generate 1 Chisel-Light Mirror. This effect can be triggered once every 12s.
Alhaitham’s A1 provides an additional source of Mirror generation. Players should be mindful when they use Charged Attacks in his rotations, as triggering A1 prematurely may reduce their total 3-Mirror uptime.
Ascension 4 Passive | Mysteries Laid Bare
Talent Description
Each point of Alhaitham’s Elemental Mastery will increase the DMG dealt by Projection Attacks and Particular Field: Fetters of Phenomena by 0.1%.
The DMG of both aforementioned abilities can be increased by a maximum of 100% this way.
His A4 provides additional EM scaling to his kit. There is no need to reach 1000 EM to maximize his A4.
Constellations
Alhaitham is a complete unit at C0 and has relatively underwhelming Constellations for a recent 5-star character. It is recommended to either go for C0 or C6. No intermediate Constellations are really worth their cost.
Constellation 1 | Intuition
Constellation Description
When a Projection Attack hits an opponent, Universality: An Elaboration on Form‘s CD is decreased by 1.2s. This effect can be triggered once every 1s.
C1 has practically no effect on gameplay, because Alhaitham’s long Skill cooldown doesn’t allow him to comfortably use his Skill twice in most rotations even with this Constellation. Using a second Skill during Alhaitham’s field time also prevents his Skill from being available in time for the next rotation, as the cooldown on the second Skill will not be sufficiently reduced by his C1.
The best use for this Constellation may be enabling rotations shorter than 18s when using one Skill per rotation. However, it currently seems that this Constellation is only useful for overworld and co-op; it is otherwise merely a stepping-stone to other Constellations.
Constellation 2 | Debate
Constellation Description
When Alhaitham generates a Chisel-Light Mirror, his Elemental Mastery will be increased by 50 for 8 seconds, max 4 stacks. Each stack’s duration is counted independently. This effect can be triggered even when the maximum number of Chisel-Light Mirrors has been reached.
C2 is arguably Alhaitham’s second-best Constellation after his C6; it provides a significant 200 EM boost at maximum stacks. However, if you run Nahida with Alhaitham, it is better to get her C2 instead. Even ignoring its other applications, Nahida’s C2 actually increases Alhaitham’s damage more than his own C2 does.
Constellation 3 | Negation
Constellation Description
Increases the Level of Universality: An Elaboration on Form by 3.
Maximum upgrade level is 15.
Given that most of Alhaitham’s damage comes from Spread, which scales independent of Talent levels, C3 provides only a modest boost to his damage.
Constellation 4 | Elucidation
Constellation Description
When Particular Field: Fetters of Phenomena is unleashed, the following effects will become active based on the number of Chisel-Light Mirrors consumed and created this time around:
- Each Mirror consumed will increase the Elemental Mastery of all other nearby party members by 30 for 15s.
- Each Mirror generated will grant Alhaitham a 10% Dendro DMG Bonus for 15s.
The pre-existing duration of the aforementioned effects will be cleared if you use Particular Field: Fetters of Phenomena again while they are in effect.
C4 provides Alhaitham’s teammates with an EM buff when he consumes Mirrors with Burst, and gives him a Dendro DMG Bonus for each Mirror the Burst generated. Since Alhaitham prefers opening his rotations with zero-Mirror Bursts, he usually only triggers the personal Dendro DMG Bonus. C4 becomes more valuable when C6 is activated, because the latter allows you to consume Mirrors for the team buff while always receiving max Dendro DMG Bonus on Alhaitham. A decent Constellation that improves with C6.
Note that Alhaitham himself does not benefit from the C4 EM buff.
Constellation 5 | Sagacity
Constellation Description
Increases the Level of Particular Field: Fetters of Phenomena by 3.
Maximum upgrade level is 15.
C5 provides a negligible damage increase in standard rotations where his Burst is used with zero Mirrors, though it has slightly more value in Burst nuke setups. As previously mentioned, most of Alhaitham’s damage comes from Spread, which is unaffected by Talent levels. This Constellation is only worth getting if you are going for C6 anyway.
Constellation 6 | Structuration
Constellation Description
Alhaitham gains the following effects:
- 2 seconds after Particular Field: Fetters of Phenomena is unleashed, he will generate 3 Chisel-Light Mirrors regardless of the number of mirrors consumed.
- If Alhaitham generates Chisel-Light Mirrors when their numbers have already maxed out, his CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG will increase by 10% and 70% respectively for 6s. If this effect is triggered again during its initial duration, the duration remaining will be increased by 6s.
Like many characters, Alhaitham’s best Constellation is C6. It ensures that his Burst always grants the maximum number of Mirrors, and provides a potential CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG buff. However, it comes with its own caveats—if you try to get some stacks on Alhaitham’s Burst to capitalize on the guaranteed 3-Mirror refund, you need to save either his Skill or his A1 to activate the C6 buff by overcapping with the Burst-generated Mirrors. This not only limits the damage potential of his pre-Burst field time but also shortens the maximum 3-Mirror uptime he can get after Burst.
Players willing to unlock Alhaitham’s sixth Constellation are advised to open with Burst followed by his Skill, which should provide a 12s C6 buff from the start as the second Mirror overcap also triggers the duration extension.
Combos
Alhaitham generally wants to maintain 3-Mirror uptime while he is on field, as 3-Mirror Projection Attacks yield the greatest damage and Dendro application.
See the Skill description tab above for an in-depth explanation of his Mirrors and Projection Attacks.
More testing is needed to determine specific optimal combos for Alhaitham. Combo optimization primarily aims to: (a) maintain Mirror uptime, (b) line up basic attack hitmarks to lower the interval at which Projection Attacks get triggered, and (c) maximize the rate of Dendro application from his basic attacks.
Below are some general principles for playing Alhaitham.
Combo Summary
N# = Corresponding number of consecutive Normal Attacks
CA = Charged Attack
E = Elemental Skill
Q = Elemental Burst
D = Dash
| Combo | Duration | Notes |
| Q > attack/wait/swap for 2s > NAs for ~4s > E > attacks for ~4s > CA > attacks for ~4s | 15.5s | Longer continuous combo to get the longest 3-Mirror uptime pre-C6. |
| Q > E > NAs for ~5s > CA > attack for ~4s | 11.5s | Shorter continuous combo. Using Skill right after Burst lets you get the Dendro conversion slightly earlier, though your maximum potential field time with 3 Mirrors will be reduced. |
| Hold E Plunge or Tap E N1C/N2C > attack for desired amount of time | 2s – 12s | Burstless combo if Bursting every other rotation. |
| Hold E Plunge or Tap E N1C/N2C > attack for 4-11s > use other teammates’ abilities > Alhaitham Q > (optionally swap for <2s to use ability on other teammate) > Alhaitham NAs for 4-12s | Flexible duration | Split fieldtime combo; fits into 25s+ rotations. |
| Hold E Plunge or Tap E N1C/N2C > (optional extra attacks until Mirror about to fall off) > Q | 3.5s – 6s | Quickswap combo to get 3 stacks on Burst. |
General Combo Information
Longer Continuous Combo
To maximize the length of 3-Mirror uptime, open with Burst, attack/wait/swap for 2s until you get the Mirrors from Burst, and then use NAs for ~4s. Use either CA or E to refresh 3 Mirrors, attack for ~4s more, then use E or CA (whichever one you didn’t already use) to refresh 3 Mirrors again. You should avoid using CAs in your attack string until you actually want to trigger A1 to top up your Mirrors. After you trigger A1, you can mix CAs into your attack string.
Shorter Continuous Combo
If you want less than 12s total field time, you can use Q and then E immediately, since doing so allows you to get the Dendro conversion and start triggering Projection Attacks slightly earlier than waiting 2s for Burst Mirrors. 12s field time on Alhaitham is usually optimal in 18s rotations as you need time for supports to use abilities.
Burstless Combo
If you choose to Burst every other rotation, you should open the Burstless rotation with either Hold E Plunge Attack or Tap E N1C/N2C to get 3 Mirrors and then attack for your desired amount of field time as the Mirrors fall off one by one. Note that a short Hold E Plunge is more optimal than E N1C; see discussion of Hold E Plunge below.
Split Fieldtime Combos
In longer team rotations, you can split Alhaitham’s fieldtime so that he gets two windows of on-field time. For one of the fieldtime windows, he can open with Hold E Plunge (or less optimally, E N1C/N2C) and then attack for ~4-11s. You can then switch to other units to refresh off-field abilities. For the second fieldtime window, you can cast Burst on Alhaitham, either wait 2s or swap to use another unit’s ability, then attack with Alhaitham for up to 12s. These fieldtime windows can be used in whatever order you prefer in the rotation.
Split fieldtime combos fit well into 25s+ rotations, especially in segmented rotations with units that like refreshing their abilities part way, such as Fischl or Yae Miko. Split fieldtime rotations also have lower ER requirements for Alhaitham due to the length of the rotation between his Bursts.
Attack Strings and Mechanics
More testing is needed to determine optimal attack strings to maximize Dendro application and align basic attack hitmarks with the 1.6s cooldown for Projection Attack procs.
N1C is the fastest way to trigger A1 when you need to top up your Mirrors. If you use it when you have no Mirrors, the CA will both trigger A1 and trigger the first Projection Attack.
It’s better to use NA-only strings if using Alhaitham with Xingqiu, Yelan, and/or C6 Fischl.
Hold E Plunge
A Plunge Attack can trigger both A1 and Projection Attack from the same hit, prioritizing Mirror creation first and then triggering the Projection Attack. This means that you can use Hold E and Plunge to get 3 Mirrors and immediately trigger a 3-stack Projection Attack. Doing a short Hold E Plunge is also the fastest way to get 3 Mirrors when starting from zero mirrors (make sure to release Hold E quickly, and aim low!). By contrast, doing E N1C/N2C will only trigger one 3-Mirror Projection Attack.
Swap after Burst
You can use Burst, swap to use a quick ability on another character (such as Dendro Traveler’s Skill to funnel particles to Alhaitham, Kuki or Fischl’s Skill, etc), and swap back within 2s to catch the Mirrors generated from Burst. However, you will lose the Mirrors from Burst if you swap back late, so use this at your own risk. This technique is less viable at high ping.
Burst Quickswap
As his Burst multipliers are somewhat underwhelming and he has long 18s cooldowns on Skill and Burst, using him as a quickswap unit is generally not recommended. However, if you do choose to use him this way, you can do Hold E Plunge or Tap E N1C/N2C to quickly gain 3 Mirrors and then Burst with 3 stacks. Note that pre-C6, this means you won’t have any Mirrors available after Burst, and will need to swap to other units.
C6 Combos
The guaranteed 3-Mirror generation from Alhaitham’s Burst at C6 allows for more flexibility in using his Burst with some stacks part-way through his field time, and additional Mirror uptime after his Burst. However, the C6 CRIT buff will not proc if you do not save an E or CA for after Burst to overcap the Mirrors. As such, it is possible that even at C6, his optimal combo remains opening his rotation with QE. QE also gives you 12s of C6 buff uptime from the get go, as the C6 duration extension is triggered by immediately overcapping by 2 Mirrors.
Artifacts
ER Requirements
These numbers are approximate; ER requirements will vary depending on team and context. For a more accurate estimate of your ER requirements, use the Energy Recharge Calculator.
Bursting Every Rotation
| Situation | ER Requirement |
| Triple Dendro (With Nahida) ¹ | 100 -130% |
| Triple Dendro (Without Nahida) ¹ | 130 -160% |
| Double Dendro (With Nahida) | 140 -160% |
| Double Dendro + Double Electro (Nahida) | 100 -130% |
| Double Dendro + Double Electro (Without Nahida) | 130 -180% |
| Double Dendro (Yaoyao) | 150 -160% |
| Double Dendro (non-Nahida/Yaoyao) ¹ | 180 -210% |
| Solo Dendro | 150 – 200%+ |
| On-field Raiden & Nahida ² | 100 – 130% |
Bursting Every Other Rotation
| Situation | ER Requirement |
| Triple or Double Dendro with Nahida/Yaoyao | 100% |
| Double Dendro with non-Nahida/Yaoyao | 100 -120% |
| Solo Dendro | 120 -150% |
| ¹ Energy particles from Collei/DMC/Tighnari are not funneled to Alhaitham. ² In on-field Raiden teams, Alhaitham is not on-field for long and thus generates very few particles. |
Favonius weapons reduce his ER needs by approximately 10-20% per proc.
Alhaitham requires field time to generate energy. He generates one Dendro particle per Projection Attack, which can occur once every 1.6s (though this interval is longer in practice). He will generate 5-6 particles in a typical rotation. If using longer rotations (25s+), especially with split fieldtime on Alhaitham, your ER requirements will tend to run much lower.
Bursting every rotation with Alhaitham can be challenging given his 70-cost Burst. Players can opt to Burst every other rotation to lower his ER needs. See the discussion of his ER requirements below.
Artifact Stats
 Sands |  Goblet |  Circlet |
| EM > ATK% | Dendro DMG% | CRIT Rate or CRIT DMG |
Stat Priority:
ER to requirement > EM (~200-300) > CRIT > EM > ATK% > Flat ATK
In Quicken/Quickbloom builds, it is optimal to hit the 200-300 EM threshold before building CRIT substats. The EM threshold is around 300 EM for Foliar, and closer to 200 EM with other weapons. However, since this EM threshold takes into account total EM, it should be very easy to reach this range with EM Sands, external EM buffs, EM artifact sets, etc.
His signature weapon heavily favors EM and benefits from higher EM amounts than other weapons.
In teams where Alhaitham does not trigger many reactions (such as when he is being played as a pure Enabler in Burgeon or Double Hydro Hyperbloom teams), ATK Sands will be slightly preferred over EM Sands with weapons other than Foliar. With Foliar, EM Sands and ATK Sands are interchangeable for reactionless Alhaitham.
For Spread DPS Alhaitham, building ER to Burst every rotation at higher ER requirements can be a DPS loss. Bursting every rotation at 130-140% ER requirements seems to be roughly equivalent to Bursting every other rotation at 100% ER.
In teams where Alhaitham is simply serving as an on-field Dendro enabler, it may be more important to Burst every rotation for maximum 3-Mirror uptime to optimize Dendro application. In such cases, it may be optimal to build high ER (even using ER Sands) and use an ER weapon like Favonius Sword.
We recommend using Genshin Optimizer to compare your actual artifacts.
Artifact Sets
See here for artifact comparison calcs.
| Artifact Set | Description |
| 4pc Gilded Dreams (GD) | A very strong set on Alhaitham, provided that another character can hold 4pc Deepwood Memories. Although 4pc GD has a bit of downtime on its passive, its effect is relatively easy to trigger. |
| 2pc EM and 2pc EM / 2pc Deepwood | Only slightly weaker than 4pc GD. If players have high substat quality on their 2pc sets (which they likely do), it is possible that this combination of artifacts overtakes 4pc GD. |
| 4pc Deepwood Memories | This is technically Alhaitham’s BiS set if no other character can hold it to proc the 4pc effect. However, Spread DPS Alhaitham typically deals the majority of his team’s damage, so it is usually better to have a support unit hold 4pc Deepwood for him. |
| 2pc Emblem of Severed Fate and 2pc EM / 2pc Deepwood | When Bursting every rotation, 2pc Emblem is a very competitive option. It allows players to build offensive substats instead of ER. Of course, it is relatively less powerful at lower ER requirements. |
Weapons
See here for weapon comparison calcs.
| Weapon | Description |
| Light of Foliar Incision | Alhaitham’s signature weapon is his Best-in-Slot. It is a hefty CRIT stat stick that provides bonus EM-scaling Flat DMG to his Normal Attacks and Projection Attacks (similar to Shenhe’s Quills). Foliar’s passive synergizes well with EM buffs and makes him strongly favor EM in his build. Note that due to his lack of CRIT Rate ascension, it can be difficult to get a 1:2 CRIT ratio with Foliar. |
| Primordial Jade Cutter | Alhaitham’s second-best weapon, thanks to its CRIT Rate stat and unconditional ATK bonus passive. |
| Mistsplitter Reforged / Haran Geppaku Futsu | Tied for 3rd place. Alhaitham can fairly reliably maintain 3 stacks of Mistsplitter in most rotations. With Haran, he prefers combos with more Normal Attacks. |
| Freedom Sworn | Slightly better than his 4-star options. The 20% ATK buff is particularly beneficial for ATK-scaling Electro teammates in Quicken teams. Note that the buff can have desync issues in rotations shorter than 20s. |
| The Black Sword | Good 4-star option that also provides additional healing through its passive. |
| Toukabou Shigure / Iron Sting | Toukabou Shigure and Iron Sting perform similarly. Toukabou Shigure performs better in single-target scenarios, while R5 Iron Sting pulls ahead in AoE situations. Alhaitham appreciates refines on Iron Sting. |
| Xiphos’ Moonlight / Festering Desire | Help satisfy Alhaitham’s ER requirements and perform on par with one another. Xiphos has the additional benefit of providing team Energy. |
| Harbinger of Dawn | With its passive up, Harbinger of Dawn competes with Mistsplitter and Haran thanks to its CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG stats. However, given that Alhaitham is an on-field character, a shielder is mandatory to realistically capitalize on this weapon. |
| Favonius Sword | A strong option when Alhaitham is serving as a Dendro enabler and wants to Burst every rotation for higher 3-Mirror uptime and Dendro application. Passive procs also reduce team ER needs. |
| R4+ Sacrificial Sword | Alhaitham’s Projection Attacks reliably trigger Sacrificial Sword’s passive. This weapon can allow Alhaitham to get a two-Mirror Burst and still have 3-Mirror uptime afterwards. However, it extends his rotations by the amount of time between Skill uses, which makes his DPS with this weapon not worth using it over alternatives. |
Teams
Team-Building
- To maximize Alhaitham’s personal damage, he should be paired with an Electro unit to trigger Quicken.
- Alhaitham can be used as an on-field driver and Dendro enabler for Bloom-based teams.
- In Quickbloom teams and Hyperbloom teams with less Hydro application, Alhaitham can still get a decent amount of Spreads because his high Dendro application leads to good Quicken uptime.
- Alhaitham doesn’t need to be paired with a second Dendro character, but he can appreciate it.
Notable Teammates
Electro Units
| Character | Notes |
| Fischl, Beidou, Yae Miko, Lisa | Off-field Aggravate damage-dealers. Fischl applies Electro off-field, acts as a battery, and deals good personal damage. However, her A4 will generally not have significant uptime with Alhaitham on-field, since Spreads don’t trigger her A4. Yae Miko provides off-field Electro damage and a powerful AoE nuke on Burst. She can also alternate Burst usage with Alhaitham every other rotation, equalizing rotation times while lowering both of their ER requirements. Beidou provides off-field damage for multi-target scenarios and some Interruption Resistance. |
| Raiden | Raiden can be played in Quicken or Quickbloom teams. In the former, Alhaitham typically acts as a quickswap Burst DPS with Raiden as an on-field Aggravate DPS and battery. In the latter, she acts as a Hyperbloom trigger and Electro applier for an on-field Alhaitham. |
| Kuki Shinobu | Kuki’s AoE Electro application and additional EM scaling allow her to enable Spread while contributing healing and decent reaction damage through Aggravate. She is also an excellent Hyperbloom/Quickbloom trigger, as she provides good healing even when built entirely to maximize EM. |
Dendro Units
| Character | Notes |
| Nahida | Nahida is an excellent battery and brings good off-field damage, permanent 4DM uptime and strong EM buff through her A1. |
| Yaoyao | Yaoyao can condense healing and batterying for Alhaitham, though she struggles to proc Favonius as her Skill doesn’t do an initial hit of damage. She provides good 4DM uptime, especially in single-target. However, preliminary investigation indicates that she may not be sufficient as solo healer in Bloom-based teams where Alhaitham takes Bloom self-damage. |
| Dendro Traveler, Collei | Dendro Traveler provides an EM buff and Dendro DMG Bonus at C6. However, they are harder to use as a battery than Nahida or Yaoyao, since fitting two Skills per rotation can be challenging. Collei is similar to Dendro Traveler, but has less utility. |
Hydro Units
| Character | Notes |
| Xingqiu | Xingqiu’s off-field single-target damage, Hydro application, and defensive utility from his damage reduction and valuable Interruption Resistance make him a good option for Bloom-based teams. |
| Yelan | Yelan is similar to Xingqiu but trades his appreciable defensive utility for a strong ramping DMG% buff. |
| Kokomi | Kokomi provides off-field Hydro and healing. |
| Nilou | Nilou’s Bloom teams are restricted to only Dendro and Hydro teammates. Alhaitham can act as a driver on these teams by applying Dendro and dealing damage. |
Pyro Units
| Character | Notes |
| Thoma | Thoma is an effective Burgeon trigger due to his slow but consistent Pyro application. He also provides a stacking shield which gives Interruption Resistance and significant defensive utility. He can build HP% and EM as needed to balance survivability with his personal damage. |
Flex Units
| Character | Notes |
| Zhongli | Zhongli provides a strong shield, shreds all Elemental RES, and can carry support artifact sets like Tenacity of the Millelith or Deepwood Memories. |
| Kazuha, Sucrose | Anemo units can provide grouping and VV support for Alhaitham’s Hydro and Electro teammates. In addition, Sucrose offers a team-wide EM buff, and Kazuha offers strong personal damage and a DMG% buff for Swirled elements. |
| Diona | Provides healing and a shield, and a 200 EM buff at C6. |
| Albedo | Albedo can be slotted in as a flex off-field damage dealer. He also shares EM with his teammates. |
| Jean, Sayu | Provide healing and 4VV for Electro or Hydro teammates. |
Quicken
Alhaitham excels as a Spread DPS due to his high Dendro application and extensive EM scaling. He can run with multiple Electro units that can contribute substantial off-field damage via Aggravate. A secondary Dendro unit can also be slotted in for extra Spread procs and Dendro Resonance.
Example Teams
This is not a comprehensive list of teams, and the inclusion or exclusion of any given team does not necessarily reflect its power level. This list is not ranked.
Hyperbloom/Quickbloom
Quickbloom teams use a lower amount of Hydro application compared to Dendro application in order to maintain full Quicken uptime while triggering occasional Hyperblooms. Quickbloom teams focus more on Alhaitham’s Spreads and the Electro character’s Aggravates, though units with EM-scaling such as Kuki can also build full EM to maximize Hyperbloom damage. Alhaitham should stick with his normal EM/DMG/CRIT build.
Hyperbloom teams feature more abundant Hydro application, resulting in notably lower Quicken uptime and a much greater portion of team damage coming from Hyperblooms. Alhaitham serves more of an on-field driver role in such teams. It may be beneficial to run two Hydro units to keep up with Alhaitham’s on-field Dendro application to maximize Bloom count.
Example Teams
This is not a comprehensive list of teams, and the inclusion or exclusion of any given team does not necessarily reflect its power level. This list is not ranked.
Burgeon
With his high, consistent Dendro application, Alhaitham can be used as an on-field unit to enable Burgeon teams. However, such teams have delicate setups, as triggering Burning can easily lose Blooms. Running a defensive unit like a healer or shielder is also necessary due to Burgeon self-damage.
Example Teams
This is not a comprehensive list of teams, and the inclusion or exclusion of a given team does not necessarily reflect its power level.
Bloom
Alhaitham can also be used as an on-field Dendro enabler in Nilou teams. You must bring a strong healer, or Alhaitham will not survive the Bountiful Bloom self-damage.
Example Teams
This is not a comprehensive list of teams, and the inclusion or exclusion of a given team does not necessarily reflect its power level.
Credits
mian#8650, ඞඞ#1984, LoftyGinger#0369, Latiwings#3308, juko#9385, snowy#4028, jrm.spirit#2671, fourmana#0477, Cuzimori#1535, idkanonymized#4166, Cyn#0962