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Yelan Quick Guide

Updated for Version 3.4
Yelan

Yelan is a 5★ Hydro Bow character specializing in off-field single-target damage and Elemental application.

The full-length guide is currently in the process of being written. Join our Discord to check on and participate in the theorycrafting process.

Infographic

Yelan Infographic


Design: euphorysm
Content: snowwwwww.

New Content

HyperbloomYelan functions as a source of rapid off-field Hydro application in Hyperbloom teams. She synergizes well with on-field Nahida for increased Dendro Core production while providing significant personal single-target damage.
BurgeonWhile her single-target application is occasionally awkward in AoE-focused Burgeon teams, her significant off-field Hydro application and excellent personal damage make her a good pick.
BloomYelan struggles to slot into Double Dendro Nilou team compositions, but she is an excellent fourth slot for Triple Hydro setups that use Nahida as the driver.
Hydro ResonanceHydro Resonance was changed from offering Healing Effectiveness to HP%; this gives Yelan a significant boost in her Double Hydro teams, serving as a buff to her already strong synergies with Hydro units like Xingqiu and Kokomi.

Character Overview

Playstyle

Off-Field DPS

Yelan can be played as an off-field Hydro DPS and enabler, providing consistent damage and Hydro application in single-target scenarios.

Level and Talent Priority

Elemental Burst >> Elemental Skill

Essentially all of Yelan’s damage scales from her HP. As such, she benefits significantly from being leveled to 90/90, which provides a sizable boost to her Base HP.

Unless Yelan is C6, it is not advised to level up her Normal Attack Talent. In all other cases, Yelan can only realistically use a Breakthrough Barb once per combat; thus leveling this Talent has negligible impact on her performance.

Talents

Normal Attack

Normal Attack | Stealthy Bowshot

Normal Attack
Performs up to 4 consecutive shots with a bow.

Charged Attack
Performs a more precise Aimed Shot with increased DMG.
While aiming, flowing water will accumulate on the arrowhead. A fully charged torrential arrow will deal Hydro DMG.

Breakthrough
Yelan will enter a “Breakthrough” state after spending 5s out of combat, which will cause her next Charged Aimed Shot to have 80% decreased charge time, and once charged, she can fire a “Breakthrough Barb” that will deal AoE Hydro DMG based on Yelan’s Max HP.

Plunging Attack
Fires off a shower of arrows in mid-air before falling and striking the ground, dealing AoE DMG upon impact.

At C0, Yelan’s Normal Attack Talent is easily the least notable aspect of her kit. Most parts of it scale off of ATK, which is a stat Yelan tends not to build as the rest of her kit scales off of HP. Her Breakthrough Barb mechanic can occasionally be useful for establishing a Hydro aura on the enemy at the beginning of a fight, but it is mostly inconsequential since it requires Yelan to be out of combat to reenter the Breakthrough state and fire a Barb. However, it is worth noting that this Talent gains greater importance at C6.

Elemental Skill

Elemental Skill | Lingering Lifeline

Fires off a Lifeline that allows her to move rapidly, entangling and marking opponents along its path.
When this rapid movement ends, the Lifeline will explode, dealing Hydro DMG to the marked opponents based on Yelan’s Max HP.

Tap
Moves a certain distance forward swiftly.

Hold
Engages in continuous, swift movement, during which Yelan’s resistance to interruption is increased.
During this time, Yelan can control this rapid movement and end it by using this Skill again.

Additionally, each opponent marked by the Lifeline when it explodes grants Yelan a 34% chance to reset her Breakthrough state.

Yelan’s Skill is a relatively high damage ability which generates 4 particles upon damaging an entangled enemy. Holding her Skill also gives Yelan significant maneuverability in and out of combat. Her swift movement helps her move between different waves on an Abyss floor, get close to highly mobile enemies, and explore the overworld. When possible, Yelan should try to cast this Skill twice per rotation to reduce her Energy requirements.

Elemental Burst

Elemental Burst | Depth-Clarion Dice

Deals AoE Hydro DMG and creates an “Exquisite Throw,” which aids her in battle.

Exquisite Throw
Follows the character around and will initiate a coordinated attack under the following circumstances, dealing Hydro DMG based on Yelan’s Max HP:

  • Can occur once every second when your active character uses a Normal Attack.
  • Will occur each time Yelan’s Lifeline explodes and hits opponents.

Yelan’s Burst is the focus of her kit. It consolidates a large share of her notable personal damage, offers consistent off-field Hydro application, and activates her Ascension 4 Passive. Her Burst is the main reason she is compared so often to Xingqiu. Yelan offers higher damage potential and a ramping buff in exchange for lacking Xingqiu’s defensive utility, additional Hydro application with his orbital Rainswords, longer Burst duration at C2, and higher Hydro application on his Burst at C6. This makes the choice between them fairly nuanced when not exploiting their significant synergy together.

Ascension 1 Passive

Ascension 1 Passive | Turn Control

When the party has 1/2/3/4 Elemental Types, Yelan’s Max HP is increased by 6%/12%/18%/30%.

Yelan’s A1 provides her a helpful boost to Max HP, which all her damage scales off of. That said, it is not worth sacrificing team synergy by trying to maximize it.

Ascension 4 Passive

Ascension 4 Passive | Adapt With Ease

So long as an Exquisite Throw is in play, your own active character deals 1% more DMG. This increases by a further 3.5% DMG every second. The maximum increase to DMG dealt is 50%.

The pre-existing effect will be dispelled if Depth-Clarion Dice is recast during its duration.

Yelan’s A4 serves as a powerful contribution to team DPS in most cases, providing a powerful ramping buff for the on-field unit. While its value is sometimes not fully utilized in quickswap teams and teams with mostly frontloaded damage, the buff can be extremely potent when used by certain units.

Constellations

Constellation 1

Constellation 1 | Enter the Plotters

Lingering Lifeline gains 1 additional charge.

The value of her C1 can vary; it can be extremely useful by allowing Yelan to get another Skill use every rotation, thereby lowering her ER requirements significantly. On the flipside, it can find itself wasted in either shorter rotations (<22s) which do not allow her to regain both charges or rotations where she was already given enough leeway to cast two Skills without it. Even then, the extra flexibility and mobility it provides is still appreciable.

In the overworld, this Constellation makes her a top-tier character for exploration, as the cooldown for the first Skill usage continues to go down even during its second use.

Constellation 2

Constellation 2 | Taking All Comers

When Exquisite Throw conducts a coordinated attack, it will fire an additional water arrow that will deal 14% of Yelan’s Max HP as Hydro DMG.

This effect can trigger once every 1.8s.

This Constellation adds an additional projectile to every other wave of her Burst. While this is a significant damage increase on its own, the extra Hydro application it provides expands the number of teams she can fit in and improves many of her existing ones. In particular, this Constellation allows Yelan to reliably serve as the sole Hydro applicator in a Hu Tao Vape team.

Constellation 3

Constellation 3 | Beware the Trickster’s Dice

Increases the Level of Depth-Clarion Dice by 3.
Maximum upgrade level is 15.

An appreciable increase to her largest source of damage. While this Constellation does not affect her C2 projectile, it is still a notable damage boost.

Constellation 4

Constellation 4 | Bait-and-Switch

Increases all party members’ Max HP by 10% for 25s for every opponent marked by Lifeline when the Lifeline explodes. A maximum increase of 40% Max HP can be attained in this manner.

Yelan’s C4 improves her own damage as well as that of any HP-scaling teammates such as Hu Tao and Kokomi. While occasionally underwhelming in low mob counts or in teams without characters that can take advantage of the buff, its value can increase dramatically in the right situations.

Constellation 5

Constellation 5 | Dealer’s Sleight

Increases the Level of Lingering Lifeline by 3.
Maximum upgrade level is 15.

Levels on her Skill tend to not significantly improve Yelan’s overall damage. Still a DPS increase, however minor.

Constellation 6

Constellation 6 | Winner Takes All

After using Depth-Clarion Dice, Yelan will enter the Mastermind state.

In this state, all of Yelan’s Normal Attacks will be special Breakthrough Barbs. These Breakthrough Barbs will have similar abilities to normal ones and the DMG dealt will be considered Charged Attack DMG, dealing 156% of a normal Breakthrough Barb’s DMG.

The Mastermind state lasts 20s and will be cleared after Yelan fires 5 arrows.

This is the Constellation that allows Yelan to spend more time on-field and to be effective at it, though her field time is still rather limited. At minimum, it provides a good boost by expending special Breakthrough Barbs with one or two Normal Attacks when Yelan swaps on-field. When given enough time in the rotation to fully utilize it, it provides a huge DPS boost with the advantage of being heavily frontloaded and capable of hitting multiple targets. It is worth noting that this Constellation makes it important to level Yelan’s Normal Attack Talent.

Combos

N# = Corresponding number of consecutive Normal Attacks
E = Elemental Skill
Q = Elemental Burst

ComboUsage
Q N1 E N1This combo allows Yelan to weave in 2 additional Exquisite Throw attacks before swapping off-field.

Artifacts

ER Requirements

The left column represents Yelan’s number of Skill uses in the rotation and the top row represents weapons or teammates that reduce Yelan’s Energy requirements. The following values are from the calculated averages of several team compositions.

No Favonius Teammate

OtherFavSacRaiden2nd Hydro2nd Hydro + Fav2nd Hydro + Sac
1 Skill324%253%208%190%229%191%164%
2 Skills208%176%153%178%173%150%133%

1 Favonius Teammate

OtherFavSacRaiden2nd Hydro2nd Hydro + Fav2nd Hydro + Sac
1 Skill277%224%188%167%205%174%151%
2 Skills188%162%142%157%159%139%124%

Artifact Stats


Sands

Goblet

Circlet
HP% or ER%Hydro DMG BonusCRIT

Substats:
ER% (until requirement) > HP% (until 30k HP) > CRIT Rate / CRIT DMG > HP%

HP% has considerable value on Yelan. While 30k is a good value to strive for, it can still benefit her significantly beyond that, sometimes even overtaking CRIT (particularly when Yelan does not benefit from HP% buffs). Players who struggle to reach a good HP threshold can opt for an HP% Goblet or Circlet (but not both) — the latter option is a worthy consideration as the difference between an HP% and CRIT Circlet is generally only 5% with equivalent substats.

Artifact Sets


4pc Emblem of Severed Fate (4EoSF)
Hands-down her best set, providing her with much-needed ER as well as allowing her to capitalize on the significant ER that she builds. While its value decreases at lower ER requirements, it is rarely ever low enough to knock its value down.

2pc + 2pc mix of EoSF / Heart of Depth / Tenacity of the Millelith / Noblesse Oblige
2pc combinations of the listed sets can be used, with the difference between them generally coming down to substats.

Weapons


Aqua Simulacra
Yelan’s strongest option for personal damage. However, it relies on her artifacts having sufficient ER% substats for her Burst.

The disparity in personal damage compared to other options increases as ER requirements fall.

Elegy for the End
One of Yelan’s best weapons, especially in reaction-based teams such as Vape or Soup.

Favonius Warbow
Yelan’s best 4★ and F2P option, providing Energy for both her and her teammates. However, its effectiveness drops in teams with low ER requirements (like Double Hydro).

Slingshot
A good F2P option for Yelan if her ER requirement is extremely low.

Sacrificial Bow
An effective option when Yelan has high ER requirements but ultimately less consistent in meeting them at low (< R3) Refinements compared to Favonius Warbow.

Teams

Teambuilding

Yelan can either be used in place of Xingqiu or in tandem with Xingqiu, with the two of them compensating for each other’s weaknesses.

Double Hydro

Yelan Double Hydro Team

Together, Yelan and Xingqiu are able to supply themselves with Energy, deal damage, and apply immense amounts of Hydro all while taking little field time. As a result, they can be slotted into a multitude of teams. 

Listed below are a few examples of strong duos that can utilize this Double Hydro core especially well.


Hu Tao + Kazuha / ZhongliLayla
Two Hydro units can guarantee a large quantity of Vapes for a well-played Hu Tao without regard for Constellations. Kazuha and Zhongli provide RES Shred as well as enemy grouping and safety, respectively.

Layla can serve as a 4-star option for shielding if Zhongli is not available.

Raiden Shogun + Jean
Raiden can trivialize the ER requirements of this team and provide Electro for Jean to Double Swirl. Jean provides healing and RES Shred to both Elements at once with Viridescent Venerer (VV).

Bennett + Xiangling
Yelan provides this core with a larger focus on single-target damage and speedier recovery from overlapping Pyro applications overtaking Hydro.

Fischl + Beidou
Yelan applies enough Hydro to trigger Fischl’s A4 at a pace comparable to Anemo alternatives, and the team can excel in content with low enemy counts.


Nahida + Kuki / Raiden / Thoma
Yelan and Xingqiu, paired alongside on-field Nahida, offer significant Dendro Core production, which allows Kuki and Raiden to trigger Hyperbloom and Thoma to trigger Burgeon.

Pyro DPS Enabler

Yelan Pyro DPS Enabler Team

Pyro DPS Units


Hu Tao
Together, Hu Tao and Yelan can produce some of the most competitive single-target damage in the game. However, without her C2, Yelan struggles to reasonably enable Hu Tao on her own — at C0, she will require additional support such as C6 Fischl or Kazuha’s Hydro-absorbed Burst.

Bennett + Xiangling
Yelan can fill Xingqiu’s role in the National team smoothly. The team is notable for being very simple and flexible to play for how effective it is.

Yoimiya + Yun Jin / Bennett + Zhongli
Yelan can also fill Xinqiu’s role as a Vape enabler for Yoimiya. Zhongli and either Yun Jin or Bennett together provide her the suite of buffs and safety ideal for keeping Yoimiya’s ICD aligned with her N3 and N5.

Flex Slots


Zhongli / Diona / Layla
These characters provide survivability and stagger resistance.

Kazuha / Sucrose
Both units can provide consistent grouping and a suite of buffs, including VV, DMG% and/or ATK% with Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers.

Bennett
Bennett can also slot into many teams to provide his large ATK buff and healing to teams that don’t already have abundant ATK.

Fischl
Fischl can allow the Pyro DPS to trigger Overload in tandem with Vaporize. She also contributes significant personal damage, particularly if snapshotting buffs from Bennett.

Jean / Sayu
Jean or Sayu can provide healing in addition to VV if you do not otherwise have either Kazuha or Sucrose.

Anemo Overvape Enabler

Yelan Soup Team

Fischl / Raiden / Beidou
An Electro character is essential for enabling the quantity of reactions necessary to make this strategy competitive. Electro-Charged allows for stable Electro and Hydro auras to continuously react with.

Kazuha / Venti / Jean + Bennett
Bennett enables Kazuha or Venti to absorb Pyro consistently into their Elemental Bursts.

Jean can use the Sunfire tech (Jean Burst + Bennett Burst) to continuously apply Pyro through Pyro Swirls. 

This allows them to trigger powerful chain reactions while also offering significant buffs for the on-field Electro unit.

Sucrose
Sucrose can share EM across the entire team while grouping enemies and simultaneously providing VV buffs. 

Xiangling
Xiangling applies Pyro to all nearby enemies and triggers Vaporize and Overload simultaneously. Kitain Cross Spear is highly recommended when using her as the only Pyro character on the team.

Taser Enabler

Yelan Taser Team

Electro Options


Fischl + Beidou
This combination of units provides a large amount of single-target damage with Fischl’s A4 and AoE damage with Beidou’s Burst.

Yae Miko
Yae Miko benefits greatly from Yelan’s A4 buff since Yae wants to Burst towards the end of her turret duration. She is able to get a full set of turrets buffed along with her Elemental Burst. As a ranged unit, she can allow Yelan’s Exquisite Throws to have effective tracking as well.

Kuki Shinobu
Kuki Shinobu is an Electro unit that is capable of healing if the additional needed safety is not otherwise provided by an Anemo unit.

Flex Slots


Sucrose
Sucrose is a reasonable Anemo unit to utilize if your team allows for a character to be on-field for long periods of time.

Venti / Kazuha
These are alternative choices for teams that do not allow an Anemo unit to stay on-field.

Hyperbloom & Burgeon

Yelan Hyperbloom & Burgeon Team

Dendro Enablers


Nahida
Nahida is the ideal unit to drive both versions of Bloom-derivative reactions. Her Dendro application’s reliability and speed is unmatched by any other Dendro unit, and it is still great even when she is not on-field.

Dendro Traveler / Collei
These are F2P alternatives to use if Nahida is unavailable.

In teams with Dendro Traveler, Hydro must be applied to their Elemental Burst before Pyro, or else it will explode and no longer provide off-field Dendro application.

Hyperbloom / Burgeon Triggers


Kuki / Raiden
Kuki and Raiden apply Electro in an area to reliably trigger Hyperbloom. Kuki’s Skill provides healing, while Raiden’s Burst reduces ER requirements.

Thoma
Thoma provides a stable Pyro shield to block the self-damage from Burgeon. His Burst can provide Pyro in a large area at a slow enough pace to not trigger Burning.

Flex Slots


Fischl
Fischl serves as a powerful flex option in both Burgeon and Hyperbloom teams. She can also enable Anemo units to act as a Hyperbloom trigger due to her rapid Electro application.

Venti / Kazuha / Sucrose
Anemo characters provide grouping and a variety of other character-specific benefits. All three can serve as powerful AoE Hyperbloom triggers thanks to an EM-focused build & Electro Absorption/Swirls.


Rosaria / Kaeya / Layla / Diona
As Hydro application on an enemy with coexisting Cryo and Dendro auras triggers Freeze before Bloom, Cryo units can be used to enable additional Dendro Core production by “protecting” the Dendro aura. Kaeya and Rosaria are excellent offensive options, while Layla and Diona provide defensive utility.

Xingqiu
Yelan and Xingqiu offer significant Dendro Core production and single-target damage.

Example Teams

This is not a comprehensive list of teams, and the inclusion of a certain team or lack thereof does not necessarily indicate the power level of the team in question. This list is not ranked.

Yelan — Xingqiu — Kokomi — Kazuha
Yelan — Yoimiya — Yun Jin — Zhongli
Yelan — Xingqiu — Xiangling — Bennett
Yelan — Bennett — Kazuha — Raiden
Yelan — Beidou — Fischl — Heizou
Yelan — Nahida — Kuki Shinobu — Sucrose
Yelan — Nahida — Thoma — Fischl

Credits

Contributors: Reens#9389, kol#1593, Vladone ツ#9281, Cuzimori#1535, Davjac123#0413, Monochrom9#8058, xf3#3123, Emiliabyss#1641, KB#1111

ER Infographic: DumbCatGF (She/Her)#1054

Team images courtesy of the KQM portrait generator.

References

Yelan Mastersheet

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