Hu Tao Guide: Eulogy of the Departed - KQM (2024)

Written by jstern25#1399

Updated for Version 2.4

artwork by hurybone

Welcome to the new and improved Hu Tao Guide.

Since her release in version 1.3, Hu Tao has consistently been considered one of the so-called premier “meta” units, netting positive results in Abyss and events. Despite having such a successful reputation, she comes with a set of caveats, making her a unit with high variance in power. To be precise, her power directly correlates to how much effort you, the player, invest into her.

There is a lot of ground to cover regarding this mechanically challenging character.

“Yet the Butterfly Flutters Away”
Papilio Charontis Chapter, Hu Tao’s Story Quest

artwork by Zapik

Why should you play Hu Tao

Hu Tao is a potent Pyro DPS relying on strong synergy with Xingqiu to deliver continuous blazing impacts. She is highly recommended for players looking to push the single target damage ceiling. Hu Tao’s output directly scales up with the effort and skill a player can put into her. Incredibly powerful single target oriented output

PROS & CONS

Common Misconceptions

Hu Tao is not competitive without C1 or Homa

This is not true at all. Hu Tao is incredibly potent and the best at what she does even without her signature 5 star weapon and 1st constellation.

Hu Tao is Single Target

Hu Tao is single target oriented, not single target locked, this means she has the capability to hit multiple targets at once especially with grouping. One good rule of thumb is that her charged attack will hit any targets Xingqiu’s Rainswords will hit.

Hu Tao’s HP drain is a detriment

Hu Tao wants to be below 50% HP, but this is more than manageable thanks to her tanky base stats, desire to build HP and self healing Burst.

Hu Tao Guide TL;DR

Courtesy of jstern25#1399

“The Mysterious Wangsheng Parlor”

artwork by newflame

Talents Breakdown

Normal Attack

Elemental Skill

Elemental Burst

Ascension Passive 1

Ascension Passive 4

Normal Attack

Normal Attack: Secret Spear of Wangsheng

Hu Tao has a lovingly crafted set of attack animations complete with animated expressions; however, you will almost never see them past the first ⅓ of the animation set.

Hu Tao’s Charged Attacks come out extremely fast and can be cancelled extremely early. Charged Attacks and their various cancels will be explored in the cancels and mechanics section later.

Boop Tao

Elemental Skill

Elemental Skill: Guide to Afterlife

Hu Tao’s primary source of ATK and Pyro Infusion.

Casting Hu Tao’s Elemental Skill will cause her to enter the Paramita Papilio (PP) state, providing her with ATK derived from her total HP value and infusing her Normal, Charged, and Plunging Attacks with Pyro damage.

There are no downsides to this skill, it should always be used before attempting to do damage as Hu Tao.

While Blood Blossom isn’t insignificant, it is largely irrelevant to Hu Tao’s overall rotation.

Extension Mechanics

Hu Tao’s PP can get longer, extend, under a broad set of circ*mstances.

PP Extend by Seseren

Any hitlag Hu Tao generates during PP will increase the duration of PP by the amount of frames spent in hitlag.

Hu Tao’s Charged Attack can start up during hitlag frames, effectively causing the Charged Attack to eat into the frames of the Normal Attack preceding it and shortening the frames required to pull off the string. However, these hitlag frames are still added to the duration of PP.

PP also cannot expire during Hu Tao’s Charged Attack, enabling a mechanic referred to as PP Slide.

PP Slide occurs when you activate Hu Tao’s Burst, Spirit Soother, during the frames on the tail end of her final Charged Attack without cancelling it, as this will cause her Burst to maintain PP as long as it was present on the final Charged Attack. This technique can be used to end a chain of Charged Attack combos to deliver a final punch and maximize rotation damage.

PP Slide Example Video

9N2CJ+Burst clip by ItzSomebody#0029

Elemental Burst

Elemental Burst: Spirit Soother

Spirit Soother—SS, is Hu Tao’s Elemental Burst. Her Burst is very straightforward—Hu Tao swings her ghost, dealing AoE Pyro damage 360° around her with a higher multiplier while below 50% HP and healing per target hit.

This is her greatest source of AoE damage. But contrary to popular belief, SS is only 10-20% of Hu Tao’s overall single target damage, being worth a bit more damage than 2 Charged Attacks.

Bursting at start of PP uptime vs. end of PP uptime

Using SS immediately is a good way to utilize buffs but can be a DPS loss over bursting later, at the end of your uptime utilizing a PP Slide for PP Extension.

SS’s fast animation and reliable setups make it a favorite choice for Speedrunners or players who are grinding for Damage Per Screenshot.

Hitting over 1M damage in overworld with my C0R1 Hu Tao:

Clearing Floor 12-3-1 patch 2.1 in 5 seconds

See Also

Genshin: Is Tartaglia Worth Pulling? (Pros & Cons) – FandomSpotTartaglia (Childe) Guide - Best Builds and Tips - Genshin Impact Wiki Guide - IGNGenshin Impact fan reveals the most regretted characters in the gameChilde(Tartaglia) Build | Build and Team | Genshin Impact | GenshinLab

Ascension Passive 1

1st Ascension Passive: Flutter By

Talent Description

When PP ends, the entire party besides Hu Tao will have their CRIT Rate increased by 12% for 8s.

Fairly self explanatory Passive Talent. It’s not overly useful, but it is nice for Xingqiu and other units to get 12% CRIT Rate for some of your 2nd rotation, both for their damage and for the increased chance to trigger Favonius Weapons if used. (increased chance to trigger Favonius Weapons)

Ascension Passive 4

4th Ascension Passive: Sanguine Rouge

Talent Description

When Hu Tao’s HP is equal to or less than 50%, her Pyro DMG Bonus is increased by 33%.

This is one of Hu Tao’s central mechanics. She wants to always be below 50% HP to take advantage of this skill. Luckily, this is not difficult to maintain through normal gameplay thanks to Hu Tao’s liberal use of i-frames and self-heal on Burst.

artwork by MinhND

Talent Priority

Normal Attack = Elemental Skill >= Elemental Burst

Hu Tao is one of few units that uses all of her skills with equal importance.

While NA>E>Q is correct on a spreadsheet. Hu Tao’s Burst contributes massive QoL for Hu Tao, allowing her to self-sustain any chip damage she may endure, as well as an emergency panic button, or frontloading her damage output.

Animation Cancels & Combos

artwork by メリーさん

Hu Tao’s infused Charged Attack can be cancelled extremely quickly. There are two major ways to cancel Hu Tao’s Charged Attack: Dash cancels and Jump cancels.

Dash cancels consume stamina for the Charged Attack and dash (at C0) while jump cancels only consume stamina for the Charged Attack.

Combo Notation used in this guide will be a combo count followed by the number of Normal Attacks used, then a Charged Attack, ending with the termination of combo.

For example, 9N2CJ refers to 9 strings of Normal 1, Normal 2, Charged Attack and Jump.

The major Charged Attack cancels this guide will focus on are N1CJ, N2CJ, N1CD, and N2CD. Other combos do exist, but they are never optimal to do.

N1C vs N2C

There are different advantages and disadvantages to N1C vs N2C at C0 or C1+.

N1C variations are considered easier at both C0 and C1. However, the better you get at dash cancels, the more likely you are to hit the dash cooldown and to begin to miss Rainsword procs from Xingqiu’s Elemental Burst.

N1C variations apply less Pyro from Normal Attacks making it easier to maintain Hydro on enemies with a second source of Pyro application.

N2C variations will lead to higher damage ceiling combo chains.

Jump Cancels

Jump cancels will be frame neutral to frame negative for a majority of players; their main advantage is positioning as flying across the map can be very inconvenient. Another major result of optimizing jump cancels is to perform higher ceiling combos like N2CJ.

There is no shame in doing uncancelled N1C’s if you are uncomfortable with Hu Tao’s cancels. With a bit of effort, you can do 9N1C uncancelled consistently.

Dash Cancels

Hu Tao’s dash cancels firmly define her C1 as one of the most powerful constellations for a character, period. If a player is able to master her mechanics, Hu Tao’s damage can increase by up to 30%. Even without a damage increase, the quality of life features alone would propel the viability of dash cancelling at C1.

• Spend a significant portion of your field time in iframes removing any need for defenses
• Better frames for driving sub DPS units
• Freedom to burn stamina

Dash Cooldown:

One of the lesser known and understood mechanics, dubbed the dash cooldown. After doing 2 dashes in quick succession, the player will be unable to enter another dash action for a limited time.

The core appeal of N2CD as opposed to N1CD is the ability to avoid this dash cooldown state. It is still possible to hit with N2CD’s but only at the highest levels of execution.

A significant part of planning around Hu Tao C1 combos is to avoid dash cooldown. As a general rule of thumb, any dash cancelled combo followed by an N1CD will trigger the dash cooldown, affecting your next combo. When chaining N1CDs, every third N1C should either be jump cancelled or left uncancelled if it is the final attack of PP uptime as part of PP slide.

If you are looking to push the limit, there are mixed combo variants.

The currently recommended ones are:

• C1: N1CD+9N2CD+N1CD (1+9+1 combo)
• C0: 8N2CJ+N1C (8+1 combo)

Our current ceiling combos are

• C1:12N2CD (Bowtae combo)
• C0: 9N2CJ (ITZ combo)

Feel free to get creative and let us know if you find anything

The “Combowtae” by BowTae#0141

Constellations

artwork by STrash

artwork by 富士やま

Weapons Ranking

8N2CJ+Burst+2BB, Vaped with no buffs, KQMC standards with 20 distributed substats, and optimally distributed main stats

Detailed Weapon Breakdown

Staff of Homa	This is THE Staff of Homa, personally tailored for Hu Tao Commonly recognized as the Best-in-Slot Polearm for almost every character. But Hu Tao is the only unit that fully utilizes its passive The HP bonus and ATK conversion feedback loop into Hu Tao since she will feasibly always be below 50% HP Greatly increasing her damage and survivability This is Hu Tao’s only worthy 5* weapon.
Dragon’s Bane	Dragon’s Bane is a great gacha weapon for Hu Tao as long as you play Vaporize compositions Significantly better than Deathmatch when Overloading Likely to be refined naturally
Deathmatch	Guaranteed from paid Battle Pass Deathmatch is easy to build, equal to Dragon’s Bane Significantly better than Dragon’s Bane when Melting or utilizing DMG% or EM buffs
Primordial Jade Winged-Spear	NOT a substitute for the Staff of Homa Passive stacks slowly (will be stacked up after 4th N2CJ) Competitive with R1-3 Deathmatch and Dragon’s Bane
Lithic Spear	Incredibly good at R5 with 4 Stacks, Viable teams to reach this condition are slim This weapon is only available from the weapon banner. It is not recommended to intentionally roll this weapon for Hu Tao
White Tassel	Free to play option Obtainable from overworld chests N2C’s will close gap on Blackcliff, potentially being 1.5% better than 0 stack Blackcliff
Blackcliff	Arguably a waste of Starglitter that could have been a Bennett or a Xingqiu Not recommended

C1 vs. Homa

Hu Tao searching for her Staff of Homa in 1.3

“In Pursuit of a Phantom”

artwork by taroco

Artifacts Ranking

For early game 4pc Berserker’s Set is highly recommended

Main Stats

HP/EM Sands

Hu Tao will want an HP or EM sands depending on your team comp and your substats

An HP sands is more likely to have better substats and will be more receptive to EM buffs such as Sucrose or 4pc Instructor’s.

Assuming comparable substats to an HP sands, an EM sands will be a better choice for any buffless reaction driven comp, but comes with a decrease in survivability for the extra damage.

Pyro DMG% Goblet

Hu Tao is a Pyro DPS, there is no option other than a Pyro Goblet.

Crit Rate/Crit DMG Hat

Hu Tao is a character who is not short on Crit DMG, having a Crit DMG weapon and ascension together will make it exceptionally difficult to get Crit Rate onto her.

Crit Rate is important and should not be neglected

Sub-Stats

100 EM > Crit > 100+ EM > HP% > ATK% > Flat HP > Flat ATK

Hu Tao is able to vape 90% of her damage, the value of EM cannot be undersold.

Below 100 EM, an EM sub can be worth more than a Crit substat.

Crit Rate subs will typically be of increased value for a Homa Tao due to the difficulty of building Crit Rate on her.

Hu Tao scales with HP% much more than ATK%.

ER is not worth building on Hu Tao, she is not bound by energy constraints, targeting ER over more useful subs is not recommended.

Hu Tao does not want to build the ER required to Burst every rotation, bursting every other will yield greater damage.

4CW vs. 4SR

Shimenawa’s Reminiscence has the potential to be more powerful than Crimson Witch but comes with significant gameplay drawbacks.

Choosing to use Shimenawa’s means:

• Sacrificing the ease of access to your emergency heal and iframe button
• Decrease in AoE potential, having buff uptime on Burst becomes more difficult
• Potential for higher rotational damage overall
• Increased resin efficiency: Able to farm for Xingqiu and Hu Tao in the same Domain

“Friendships, Wishes, and Regrets”

artwork by 清心寡欲

Xingqiu

The true 5* Hydro Unit, Xingqiu, is currently the only viable option to enable Hu Tao to consistently vaporize her Charged Attack.

One of the premier off field DPS units, Xingqiu is Hu Tao’s number 1 partner in crime.

Xingqiu’s values are more than well-known but a run down would be:

• Fast off-field Hydro application
• High damage
• Microhealing
• Damage Reduction (generally ~40%)
• Fast off-field Hydro application

official artwork by miHoYo

Xingqiu Weapons Pre-C6

Favonius Sword	Generally a fantastic weapon option for Xingqiu as he is incredibly dependent on Energy Less refine-gated than other options
Sacrificial Sword	Cuts ER cost by providing a second use of his Elemental Skill Many other Xingqiu teams will attempt to vape his Elemental Skill and provide it with a flat ATK buff making Sacrificial Sword more favorable than other options. WILL STILL BE THE MOST COMFORTABLE OPTION However that will generally not be the case in Hu Tao teams, as the extra field time on Xingqiu will become a DPS loss
Amenoma Kageuchi	One of the Inazuma craftables, Amenoma Kageuchi is a fantastic weapon not just by being an F2P standards, especially with high refines (acting as a second C6) This weapon is a transition between the higher ER and more damage oriented weapons Still wants an ER sands

(click to reveal)

Xingqiu Weapons C6

Jade Cutter	“It’s not about the Jade, it’s about the donuts we ate along the way” – Aluminum#5462 If you managed to avoid Kokomi’s Purple Donut or used to play Keqing The Primordial Jade Cutter is a fantastic weapon for Xingqiu, currently in contention as his BIS with the Mistsplitter Reforged Provides HP%, making his microhealing marginally more effective
Mistsplitter	Ayaka’s signature weapon, the Mistsplitter Reforged is the other 5* weapon contender for Xingqiu Provides DMG%, making his Damage Reduction slightly more effective
Skyward Blade	The other 5* weapon Not a bad pick if you happen to have one Most of what makes Skyward Blade good is just 5* stat privilege Not substantially better than 4* options
Amenoma Kageuchi	One of the Inazuma craftables, Amenoma Kageuchi is a fantastic weapon not just by Free to Play standards especially with high refines (acting as a second C6) This weapon is a incredible transition between the higher ER and more damage oriented weapons
Favonius Sword	Generally a fantastic weapon option for Xingqiu. He is incredibly dependant on Energy Recharge making Favonius an optimal choice especially as it is less refine-gated than some other options Run with ATK% Sands
Sacrificial Sword	Cuts ER cost by providing a second use of his Elemental Skill, most traditional Xingqiu teams will attempt to vape his Elemental Skill and provide it with a flat ATK buff making it much more favorable than other options WILL STILL BE THE MOST COMFORTABLE OPTION However that will generally not be the case in Hu Tao teams as the extra second of field time Xingqiu takes becomes a DPS loss Run with ATK% Sands

Xingqiu Artifacts

4ESF	One of our latest additions to the daily artifact grind. The Emblem of Severed Fate is by far and away the Best in Slot artifact set for Xingqiu due to Hu Tao putting even less emphasis on his Elemental Skill than normal rotations would
Mixed options	2PC 2PC options including but not limited to 2Glad, 2NO, 2ESF, 2HOD, and 2SR are still more than viable especially with more useful subs (check out Genshin Optimizer for more info)

Character Synergies

Pyro Units

Character	Synergy	Notes
Amber	A	Elegy Holder Free 40 Cost Burst Favonius Warbow is free Fast Pyro applicator Useless Tech: C6 provides movement speed, this cuts frames on Hu Tao’s dashes, making more difficult combo strings much easier than normal
Bennett	B	Technically one of the strongest options, Bennett offers healing and an attack boost However Bennett’s usefulness as a buffer is greatly diminished in the context of Hu Tao without the presence of his C6 Jails Hu Tao in a circle Probably more useful on your other team
Xinyan	A	Free in version 2.2 Weaker shield Comparable Pyro application to Amber 60 cost Burst Holder for the that many Hu Tao players own
Klee	B-	Support Oriented Constellations (C2, C4, C6) Situational Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers (TTDS)holder (can TTDS onto Xingqiu) Not energy reliant
Xiangling	B	Niche Guoba is 15% Pyro RES shred with C1 Pyronado is 15% Pyro DMG bonus with C6 ER Requirement makes this pairing highly questionable Hu Tao is not Bennett Will need over 200% ER Won’t have the ATK buff from bennett that she normally would Not recommended for vape teams unless you know exactly how to play synergistically It is easy to overwhelm Xingqiu’s Hydro application when adding any other continuous source of Pyro Gooba Swirl + Sucrose is an option, read Xiangling guide for more information Useless Tech: Hu Tao’s Charged Attack can cause Pyronado to reverse directions https://streamable.com/t3me5j
Yanfei	B+	Requires C4 to work as a shielder Nice Hat Strong shield Needs 200+% ER Prototype Amber is the only viable weapon option Unable to use 4pc Instructor’s due to high ER requirement
Thoma	A	Strongest shield of any non Zhongli unit High ER Req (200+% ER) Viable weapon choices are Favonius Lance, Kitain Cross Spear, Engulfing Lightning Vapes can be inconsistent in multi target scenarios CONSISTENCY GREATLY INCREASED BY PERFORMING N1C VARIATIONS

Hydro Units

Character	Synergy	Notes
Xingqiu’s Left Rainsword	∞	I already told you Go read it again
Tartaglia	F	STOP DOING THIS Read the Tartaglia guide
Barbara	D	Does not apply enough Hydro to meet Hu Tao’s demands Can hold TTDS Energy deficit If you need a healer, not the worst choice as long as you don’t try to replace Xingqiu Has stamina conserving constellation unlike the other Barbaras
Kokomi (The Other Barbara)	D-eeznuts	The 5* Barbara Jellyfish doesn’t move with you Everything above applies besides the stamina conservation This one can use 4pc TOM for 20% more ATK
Mona (The Good Barbara)	B	Niche Mona is here for nukes, that is her sole purpose Just so happens that Hu Tao is great at nuking C1 and C4 further boost Hu Tao’s damage

Cryo Units

Character	Synergy	Notes
Ayaka	A	Ayaka has a very powerful Burst and requires little field time to deal her damage Kamisato Art: Soumetsu applies Cryo at a fast enough rate to fully enable forward Melt reactions for its entire duration This synergy is boosted by Ayakas C2 and C4 Could carry a team on her own
Ganyu	A	15s Uptime Burst Burst Cryo application is RNG dependant Will scale up with number of grouped targets or size of targets Could carry a team on her own
Rosaria	A	12s Burst uptime (with C2) Will proc Cryo every other second Provides bonus Crit Rate Hu Tao’s A1 passive can feedback loop into Rosaria’s Crit share
Diona	C	Contributes no damage Strong shield Movement speed buff Stamina conservation passive Healer C6 Does not benefit Hu Tao since you will be below 50% HP.
Qiqi	F	Qiqi is everything that made Diona lackluster, while bringing none of the benefits
Kaeya	A	Stamina conserving passive Free Great energy generation Low uptime C6 has very fast Cryo application
Chongyun	C	Does nothing but offer cooldown reduction at C2 Holder for the that many Hu Tao players own
Aloy	D	Like Ayaka but without any of the benefits But hey, you snagged a PS5. Congrats! 🥳

VV Holders

Character	Synergy	Notes
Kazuha	S	Strong grouping Capable of boosting DMG% for entire party Additional Hydro application with Hydro absorption Difficult to learn consistent setups C2 and Freedom-Sworn are significant personal DPS gains for Hu Tao
Sucrose	S	Grouping TTDS Holder Provides EM buffs 4pc Instructor’s is an option in teams which cannot consistently Swirl Pyro
Venti	A	The strongest grouping potential if content allows it Elegy Holder Useless Tech: Wavedashing, using an updraft to open and release glider in single frame, jump cancel + rinse and repeat Extremely difficult https://youtu.be/PNdM3d2V2No
Jean	C	Healer Typically picked for her utility options (fall dmg abuse, cleanse) Useless Tech: C2 provides 15% Attack Speed (Aspd) and 15% movement speed (Mspd) Aspd and Mspd both work together to assist Hu Tao’s PP state extension mechanics, making perfect combos much easier to execute

Geo Units

Character	Synergy	Notes
Zhongli	A	Energy deficit Strong shield Universal shred Shred is not dependent on any difficult setup Useless Tech: Zhongli’s Geo Construct cannot be placed on top of another Geo Construct, this can be used to prevent the Pillar from spawning Other Useless Tech: Can work as a substitute for an Anemo unit in the VV team with 4pc Archaic Petra
Albedo	A	Takes little to no field time Off-field damage Best other half of Geo Resonance 125 EM after Burst Geo Construct does not interfere with reactions
Yunjin	A	Waifu Albedo Worse Albedo, but she’s cute Viable weapon choices are Favonius Lance, Kitain Cross Spear, Engulfing Lightning PERFORM N2C VARIATIONS Hu Tao will perform 16-20 Normal Attacks with N2C

Electro Units

Character	Synergy	Notes
Amy’s Parrot (Fischl)	A	Takes little to no field time A4 and C6 will proc consistently Great Electro enabler for EC + OL allows Hu Tao to trigger Vaporize and Overload Entirely single target
Raiden Ei	B	Universal battery Takes field time Reduce Xingqiu and Beidou energy requirements Extends rotation length
Beidou	B+	Incredibly powerful off-field DPS unit Expensive Burst Wants to nail perfect parries Additional Damage Reduction Holder for the that many Hu Tao players own
Electro Traveler	B+	Universal battery Reduce Xingqiu and Beidou ER requirements Does very little damage themselves
Sara	B	To be used specifically with another Electro unit, namely Beidou Sara + Beidou synergy applies even in the context of Hu Tao Difficult to play

Team Comps Breakdown

VV Vape

Hu Tao

Xingqiu

Anemo

Pyro

Unorthodox, VV-based Vaporize teams will result in the highest possible personal damage and team damage for Hu Tao, by taking advantage of the immense buffing capabilities of Anemo supports.

However the setups can be incredibly specific and difficult to perform.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU SWIRL PYRO FOR THIS TEAM TO FUNCTION

This team excels in single target scenarios where you can take full advantage of Swirl mechanics to perform a double VV setup to buff both Hu Tao and Xingqiu

There are a few different variations of the VV setup.

The following are listed in order of difficulty to perform, the more difficult setups will yield greater VV uptime and allow your Pyro unit of choice to use the 4PC Instructors set for bonus damage on Hu Tao

Swirling before Xingqiu Burst

Rotation

• Pyro Talent
• Anemo Talent
• Xingqiu Talents
• Hu Time

Swirling after Xingqiu Burst

Rotation

• Xingqiu Talents
• Pyro Talent
• Anemo Talent
• Hu Time

Swirling after Kazuha Burst

Rotation

• Xingqiu Talents
• Kazuha Burst
• Pyro Talent
• Kazuha Elemental Skill + Plunge
• Hu Time

Where is Thoma?

Hu Tao wielding the Staff of Thoma

Thoma is an upcoming unit on Hu Tao’s Rerun Banner. He is potentially very well suited as a core member for the VV team with a strong shield and minimal Pyro application.

I was fortunate enough to be able to “kidnap” him from the story quest before it was patched, here is a sample of a consistent rotation in single target.

Thoma could be a staple character in this team composition, however I am choosing to reserve judgement until more people have had the opportunity to perform practical gameplay tests on him.

C6 Xingqiu heavily recommended with Thoma

Flex Vape

Hu Tao

Xingqiu

Zhongli/Flex

Fischl/Flex

This team composition could be better known as double flex slots, Fischl and Zhongli just happen to be very good ones. Another option is Kaeya in place of Fischl.

Geo Bros Vape

Hu Tao

Xingqiu

Albedo

Zhongli

One of the more popular teams given you have the units to run it.

Geo Bros is the comfiest team you could possibly run. Within Zhongli’s rocky embrace nothing will harm you. What this team lacks in damage is made up for by comfort.

Albedo provides 125 Elemental Mastery after casting his Elemental Burst in addition to his sizable personal damage.

Very straightforward, put up your shields and go to town, reap the benefits.

PP

Xiangling

Hu Tao

Kazuha

Bennett

Pure Pyro (PP) is an easy to play comfort team

Hu Tao is replaceable in this team with another Anemo unit or Klee/Yoimiya

Consistent in AOE focused content

VapeMelt

Hu Tao

Xingqiu

Cryo

Cryo/Flex

VapeMelt, FreezeMelt, however you want to refer to this used to be a popular option but many theorycrafters have drifted away from this team due to the lackluster Melt reaction rate of Charged Attacks as well as the mediocre damage gain from Melts over Vapes even if you had 100% consistency.

The damage difference between a Vape and a Melt will always be 33% without any buffs; however, Vaporize reaction based teams are typically able to run further damage enhancing supports. As an example, VV shred increases all of your damage by 25%. This is further increased when factoring in additional buffing from popular Anemo supports.

One major note here is you will want to perform N1C variations over any other combo to apply less Pyro and hopefully secure more Melts. With N1C variations, you can expect to Melt around 60% of your Charged Attacks during Cryo unit Burst uptime.

EC + OL Vape

Hu Tao

Xingqiu

Beidou

Electro

Focusing on maximizing off field damage, this team features Beidou as a staple unit.

Beidou excels in content with two or three targets, but will fall behind with more targets or in single-target fights.

The second Electro unit acts as a battery for Beidou, generating energy for her Burst.

Speedrun

Hu Tao

Ayaka

Kazuha

Bennett

The Hu Tao Ayaka synergy is on full display here. Speedruns favor doing all of your damage in a small window.

Ayaka acts as an enabler, able to apply Cryo extremely fast, Kazuha shred resistance for potentially both Cryo and Pyro, Bennett provides his flat ATK buff for both characters.

This strategy is bolstered with constellations and 5* weapon refines, however none of these things are necessary.

To save time an entire character or even two can be excluded from the rotation.

THIS TEAM WILL FALL APART AFTER AYAKA’S BURST UPTIME

Here are some speedrunning examples from me:

2.0 12-3-1 11s C0 R1 hutao

5s | C0 R1 | Hutao Ayaka Strikes Again

“Perfect Send-Off”

artwork by damarinasa_i

Thank you to my fellow theorycrafters:

ItzSomebody#0029

Aluminum#5462

BowTae#0141

NZPIEFACE#8439

Poseidon17#1064

Isu#6867

eru°#6867

jamberry#7142

Greyhound#7836

Adra | Beats by Ei#0024

Story#8961

Amadurium#8925

Zajef77

Tenten

The KQM‘s #tc-general and Theorytesting Voice Chat

as well as xf3#3123

Written by jstern25#1399

Edited & Transcribed by itskhoi#0013

All artwork credits reserved to their respective creators.