Ultimate Guide to Ganyu in Genshin Impact: Mastering the Cryo Archon

Ganyu Guide: Mastering Liyue's Cryo Archer in Genshin Impact

Here's a chill guide to one of Liyue's finest, the half-human, half-adeptus secretary of the Qixing, Ganyu, from Genshin Impact! We're diving deep into her skills, gear choices, and team fits, so buckle up!

• Character Breakdown: Ganyu is your go-to for dealing massive Cryo damage with her charged shots, making her a powerhouse Cryo DPS in Genshin Impact. When she lets loose a Frostflake Arrow, it not only hits hard with initial Cryo damage but also explodes, dishing out AoE Cryo damage to anyone unlucky enough to be nearby. Her Elemental Skill can keep enemies busy by taunting them, drawing their attention away from your squad, while her Elemental Burst rains down continuous Cryo damage on foes within its range. Ganyu's skillset allows her to be versatile - rocking the main DPS role or supporting as a sub-DPS with her Elemental Burst.

Talent Analysis

Talent Priority: Normal/Charged Attacks > Elemental Burst > Elemental Skill

For a DPS Ganyu, you'll want to focus on leveling up her Normal/Charged Attacks first. This boosts the damage of her Frostflake Arrows and their Bloom, making her charged shots your go-to for dishing out serious ice damage. Next up, enhance her Elemental Burst and Elemental Skill, aiming for levels 8/6/8 or higher. If Ganyu's playing a support role in your squad, prioritize her Elemental Burst to maximize her off-field damage potential, followed by her Normal/Charged Attacks and Elemental Skill to round off her team's finishing power.

• Normal Attack (A/Z): The bread and butter for DPS Ganyu. By charging her aim, you can significantly increase the damage of her heavy hits. The second charge level is where it's at, sending out Frostflake Arrows that explode on impact, dealing AoE Cryo damage. This makes her exceptionally good at handling groups of enemies.
• Her six-stage normal bow attack deals damage six times, but it's not Ganyu's main source of damage, so it's typically not used.
• Her Charged Shot arrows apply a weak Cryo element on hit (1 Elemental Energy, 9.5 seconds), with both the first and second charge levels capable of applying elemental status, independently of each other.
• Since her main offensive strategy revolves around her second level Charged Shots, Ganyu offers an excellent exploration experience in the vast world of Genshin Impact. She can unleash charged shots anytime without needing to use other abilities, perfect for sniping or tackling high-danger climbs.

Elemental Skill (E): Ganyu's Elemental Skill is all about that Ice Lotus life. It's great for drawing enemy fire away from your team, reducing the likelihood of your characters getting hit and upping your margin for error when you're going all out on the attack.

• When the Ice Lotus hits an enemy, you snag 2 Cryo elemental particles, and you'll get another 2 when it explodes and hits enemies again.
• Both on creation and explosion, the Ice Lotus applies a weak Cryo effect to enemies.
• Unlike Mona's Elemental Skill, the Ice Lotus can shatter early if it takes enough hits, reducing its inherited HP.
• You can have multiple Ice Lotuses out at the same time, thanks to cooldown resets from weapons like the Sacrificial Bow or Ganyu's second Ascension Passive.

Elemental Burst (Q)

Ganyu's Elemental Burst will slap a weak Cryo effect on enemies it hits, following the rule of applying the effect every other attack within 2.5 seconds on the same target. This Burst takes a snapshot of Ganyu's stats at the time of casting to calculate damage.

Targeting Mechanics of the Ice Lances

• The Ice Lances don't hit random targets. Over 15 seconds, they drop one lance every 0.3 seconds for a total of 51 lances.
• In the initial lock-on phase, if there are multiple enemies, it locks onto one and drops a lance, with the next five lances unable to hit the same target (consider it a "lock-on cooldown").
• If all enemies in the area have been hit and are on "lock-on cooldown," the lances enter a random hit phase until a target comes off cooldown.
• An enemy's size and the number of enemies affect the lances' hit chances. Larger enemies and those in groups of more than six skip the random phase, with all lances locking on.
• Combining this with characters who can group enemies together (like Venti) maximizes the area damage potential of the Ice Lances.

Inherent Talents

• Talent 1: This talent boosts crit rate but doesn't show up directly on Ganyu's character panel, similar to the "Frostbearer" set bonus or the Cryo resonance effect.
• Talent 2: This bonus is displayed in the character's stat panel, showing as an elemental damage bonus.
• Talent 3: Only Ganyu has this unique talent effect.

Weapon Choices

Weapon Selection Explained

For a DPS Ganyu focusing on melt or freeze strategies, the Amos' Bow is your top pick. This weapon amps up Ganyu's charged shot damage to the max.

Apart from the Amos' Bow, for a melt-focused Ganyu, consider weapons that boost Crit Rate and Crit Damage, like the Rust, Prototype Crescent, The Viridescent Hunt, Skyward Harp, or Stringless. These can ease the burden of stacking double Crit stats on artifacts, as the difference between a crit and a non-crit charged shot is night and day.

When playing a freeze strategy with the "Blizzard Strayer" set (4-piece), prioritize weapons with Attack or Crit Damage sub-stats, such as Amos' Bow, Rust, Prototype Crescent, or Hamayumi.

With the "The Viridescent Hunt," land a basic attack before going all out to trigger its special effect.

For a main DPS Ganyu without access to 5-star weapons, your options are limited. Consider the Prototype Crescent (requires hitting weak spots), Hamayumi, Mouun's Moon (for melt), or the Blackcliff Warbow.

The Prototype Crescent needs you to hit enemy weak points to trigger its effect; Hamayumi remains a solid choice for unleashing your Burst, as its overall damage output with the Burst is significantly higher than without.

For a support DPS Ganyu focusing on her Burst, look into weapons that boost energy recharge or Elemental Burst damage, like the Favonius Warbow, Sacrificial Bow, Mitternachts Waltz, The Stringless, or Alley Hunter.

Artifact Pairings

Effective Sub-Stats

• For Melt Ganyu: Crit Rate is greater than or equal to Crit Damage, which is greater than ATK percent, which is greater than or equal to Elemental Mastery, which is greater than Others.
• For Freeze Comp: Crit Damage is greater than ATK percent is greater than Crit Rate is greater than Others.

Artifact and Sub-Stat Selection Explained

The Wanderer's Troupe set is perfect for a Melt Ganyu, boosting her charged shot damage significantly. The 4-piece set bonus increases damage, calculated together with any Cryo DMG Bonus. In the current version, prioritize the Wanderer's Troupe set for Melt Ganyu.

The Blizzard Strayer set is typically used for a Freeze comp Ganyu, but in the current meta, there are fewer scenarios where a Freeze comp Ganyu is viable.

The Reminiscence of Shime set can enhance Ganyu's charged shots by using up Elemental Energy, but Ganyu's Elemental Burst damage is too good to ignore. Using up energy means you can't cast your Elemental Burst as frequently, missing out on the crucial Cryo DMG Bonus from her second inherent talent, which is not worth it.

For a Melt Ganyu, having a high Crit Rate is crucial, recommended to be between 60%-80%, with Crit Damage recommended above 160%, and Elemental Mastery between 150-350.

For a Freeze comp Ganyu, a Crit Rate of about 25%-40% is recommended, with a bit more focus on Crit Rate to mitigate the difficulty of freezing certain enemies, and Crit Damage recommended above 210%.

For early game transitioning, consider mixing 2-piece Berserker with 2-piece Gladiator's Finale to boost Ganyu's charged shot damage.

Constellation Analysis

After unlocking her first constellation (C1), Ganyu's first and second Frostflake Arrow attacks reduce the enemy's Cryo RES by 15%. This reduction is less impactful on enemies with already low resistance, but with enemies getting increasingly higher resistances (moving from a common 10% to much higher values like 20%, 55%, etc.), this constellation's value has increased. The higher the enemy's resistance, the more valuable this RES reduction becomes.

Her second constellation (C2) allows for an additional use of her Elemental Skill, which is particularly synergistic with her sixth constellation. The fourth constellation (C4) provides a damage boost that is added to Elemental/Physical DMG bonuses, similar to Mona's Elemental Burst (Stellaris Phantasm). This boost falls within the damage increase category.

At her sixth constellation (C6), Ganyu's burst damage significantly increases, enhancing her single-target capabilities and offering a substantial boost across various playstyles.

• Overall, Ganyu is a well-rounded character even without any constellations, capable of playing a leading DPS role with her charged shots or serving as a support with her Elemental Burst from the backline. Her constellations primarily enhance her damage output, with the first five offering incremental improvements. C1 might hold strategic value against high-resistance enemies, but it's generally not recommended to go all out just for this. Die-hard fans might aim for C6 as their ultimate goal.

Team Compositions

Ganyu's skill mechanics open up a variety of playstyles. She can dominate the battlefield with her charged attacks in melt and freeze comps or serve as a powerful sub-DPS with her elemental skill's off-field damage capabilities.

• Melt Comp Ganyu: Ganyu + Zhongli + Xiangling + Bennett
• Recommended Attack Sequence: Start with Ganyu's E, followed by Zhongli's E, Bennett's Q+E, Ganyu's Q+E, Xiangling's Q+E, and then Ganyu's charged shots (about 3-5 arrows).
• When Xiangling's Burst (Q) is ready, Ganyu can unleash her Burst (Q), allowing her charged shots to melt consistently (this is part of the big rotation). If Xiangling's Burst isn't ready or is cooling down, rely on Xiangling's Gouba (E) paired with Ganyu's charged shots to trigger melt reactions (part of the small rotation).
• Boosting team damage can be achieved through various artifact sets on teammates, like Xiangling with a 4-piece Noblesse Oblige, Bennett with a 4-piece Instructor, and Zhongli with a 4-piece Archaic Petra to maximize Ganyu's charged shot damage.
• Xiangling's energy recharge should be high to ensure Burst rotation, recommended to be over 240%; Bennett's energy recharge should be over 260% (since most of the time, energy orbs are collected by Xiangling, not Bennett).
• Ensure Ganyu's Crit Rate is above 60% to land more critical hits with her charged shots.
• For players seeking even higher damage, consider swapping Zhongli with Kazuha for an advanced strategy. Start with Kazuha to spread Cryo, followed by Bennett's Burst to apply Pyro, enhancing Ganyu's melt damage. This setup requires higher player skill to dodge attacks without shields.
• Additionally, there's the highly specialized single-target "Ganyu-Crane-Bennett" strategy (Shenhe recommended at C1), utilizing Kazuha's Burst to spread Cryo and apply Pyro continuously, maximizing Ganyu's melt reactions by timing the application of Pyro with Kazuha's Burst.

Pyro Ganyu Comps

Ganyu + Nahida + Diona + Bennett

• Recommended Attack Sequence: Start with Nahida's E+Q, followed by Bennett's Q+E, Diona's E, and then Ganyu's E leading into charged shots (about 4-6 arrows).

Differences from Standard Melt Comps

Compared to the standard Melt comp (Ganyu/Xiangling/Zhongli/Bennett), using Diona for her Elemental Skill initiates synergy with Nahida's grass element for wider Pyro application, making it simpler to apply Pyro. However, replacing Zhongli means that during the period from Diona's "9-second invincibility" until her next Elemental Skill activation, Ganyu's margin for error when shooting arrows again is significantly reduced. It's recommended to use skills to cover this period.

Variations of Pyro Ganyu Comps

• Ganyu + Nahida + Kazuha + Bennett (Ganyu-Nahida-Kazuha-Bennett)
• Ganyu + Nahida + Venti + Bennett (Cryo-Wind Pyro Ganyu)

These variations aim to maximize output and require precise gameplay, especially in close quarters.

(1) Ganyu-Nahida-Kazuha-Bennett

• Cryo and Dendro elements coexist without reacting.
• Kazuha spreads Cryo among enemies while under Bennett's Burst, applying Pyro to himself and transforming it into Pyro upon casting his Burst (thus "infusing Pyro into Cryo"), continuously applying Pyro in combination with Ganyu's Melt, while Nahida's Elemental Skill replenishes Dendro, extending the burning duration.
• Recommended Attack Sequence: Ganyu's Q, Bennett's Q, Kazuha's Q, Nahida's E+Q, Ganyu's E (optional) into charged shots.

(2) Cryo-Wind Pyro Ganyu

• Cryo and Dendro elements coexist without reacting.
• Venti's Burst can easily convert to Cryo, while Bennett's skill applies strong Pyro (mostly through Burst), triggering Melt to replenish Dendro and continue the burning reaction (Venti can still spread Pyro, thus "infusing Cryo into Pyro"), essentially "nurturing the flames".
• Since Venti's Burst applies weak Cryo with a frequency limit, Ganyu's charged shots can still trigger Melt.
• Unlike the Ganyu-Nahida-Kazuha-Bennett comp, this setup is more suited for dealing with high-HP enemies that can be grouped, using Venti's Burst to gather enemies and continuously deal damage.
• Recommended Attack Sequence: Ganyu's Q, Nahida's E+Q, Venti's E+Q, Bennett's Q, Ganyu's E (optional) into charged shots.

Morgana Freeze Comp

Mona + Ganyu + Diona + Venti

Recommended Attack Sequence: Start with Diona's E/Ganyu's E, followed by Venti's Q+E, Mona's E+Q, and finish with Ganyu's Q into charged shots (about 3 arrows).

This team excels against groups, relying on AoE skills for continuous damage, which actually reduces the time Ganyu spends on charged shots. Pay attention to the ultimate rotation, especially ensuring Mona's energy recharge is efficient enough for her ultimate to cycle (recommended to be 240% or higher).

For enemies that are hard to group, consider swapping Venti for Kazuha. First apply Cryo or freeze the enemies, then unleash Mona's Elemental Burst to maximize the damage increase duration from her burst (up to 13 seconds).

Ganyu-Crane-Kazuha-Cocogoat Freeze Comp

Ganyu + Shenhe + Kazuha + Kokomi

To maximize Ganyu's damage, consider Shenhe with a 4-piece Noblesse Oblige and Kokomi with The Catch or a 4-piece Tenacity of the Millelith. Shenhe should focus on stacking energy recharge to ensure her Elemental Burst cycles efficiently.

Recommended Attack Sequence: Tap Shenhe's E, Kazuha's Q+E, Kokomi's E, and then Ganyu's E+Q into charged shots.

Direct Cryo DMG Comp

Ganyu + Shenhe + Kazuha + Zhongli

This strategy, with its multiple resistance-reducing methods, is ideal against current high-resistance enemies, making it suitable for breaking through tough opponents.

Recommended Attack Sequence: Ganyu's E, hold Zhongli's E, Kazuha's Q+E, Shenhe's Q+E, and Ganyu's Q into charged shots.

Sub-DPS Ganyu Comp

Ayaka + Ganyu + Kazuha + Kokomi

Recommended Attack Sequence: Ganyu's E, Kazuha's Q+E, Ganyu's Q, Kokomi's E, followed by Ayaka's dash E+A+Q for DPS output.

Note: Ayaka's "E then A" is mainly for stacking buffs from her weapon effect, such as Mistsplitter's Refraction. If you're not using Mistsplitter, you might skip this normal attack.

And that wraps up our Ganyu guide for this issue-see you next time!