Aside from breaking all Genshin Impact sales quotas, Cyno was the first Sumeru character to take the limited-time banner. Can confirm that Tighnari can, and will, destroy your 50/50.
As a Polearm character, Cyno specializes in fast Normal Attacks. He has a long Elemental Burst, making it easy to constantly inflict Electro on enemies. His Elemental Skill can extend his Burst’s duration as well, which is great for continually applying Electro for reactions.
Genshin Impact: Cyno Talent Guide | Genshin Impact: Cyno Constellation Guide | Genshin Impact: Cyno Ascension Guide
Best Position – Main DPS
Cyno becomes an absolute Electro powerhouse during his Elemental Burst. Using his Burst triggers the Pactsworn Pathclearer state, which essentially makes all of Cyno’s Normal Attacks inflict Electro DMG. Keep in mind that the Normal Attacks made during Cyno’s Burst do not scale off of the Normal Attack Talent. Instead, their power comes from the Elemental Burst Talent, so focus on upgrading that Talent first.
Because of Cyno’s reliance on his Burst, you want to boost his Elemental Mastery, especially if you don’t have his signature weapon – Staff of the Scarlet Sands. Some of Cyno’s Talents provide buffs that scale off of his Elemental Mastery, which take effect after activating his Burst. So you also want to build him in a way that keeps his Burst charged, or add him to a team with a battery. The general Cyno strategy is very similar to the Ganyu strategy: Elemental Burst, Elemental Skill, and then spam the Normal Attack.
Best Weapons
5-Star Staff of the Scarlet Sands
Currently, Cyno’s signature weapon is his best weapon. The Staff of the Scarlet Sands increases the wielder’s CRIT Rate by a percentage. Its skill boosts the wielder’s ATK by a percentage of their Elemental Mastery. When an Elemental Skill hits enemies, the Dream of the Scarlet Sands effect will be triggered. The effect lasts for 10 seconds and provides an additional ATK bonus calculated off of Elemental Mastery.
This interplays well with an Elemental Mastery-focused Cyno build because of the constant EM scaling. Again, you’re going to do the most amount of damage during Cyno’s Elemental Burst, which constantly inflicts Electro DMG. EM directly affects the damage done through Elemental Reactions, so having Cyno’s EM boosted will allow him to do more damage when he triggers reactions like Electro-Charged and Aggravate.
Honorable mentions include Primordial Jade Winged-Spear and Staff of Homa.
4-Star – Kitain Cross Spear
The Kitain Cross Spear is a forged 4-Star Polearm. You can get the Crafting Blueprints by completing the Orobashi’s Legacy quest in Inazuma. It boosts the wielder’s Elemental Mastery, and the bonus increases with the weapon’s ascension. Its skill increases Elemental Skill DMG by 6%. After an Elemental Skill hits an opponent, the wielder loses 3 Energy. But instead, the wielder then regenerates 3 Energy every 2 seconds for the next 6 seconds, allowing for the wielder to regenerate 9 Energy. This effect can occur once every 10 seconds and can be triggered when the wielder is not on the field.
Essentially, Kitain acts as a pseudo-battery for the wielder. At the cost of 3 Energy, it will regenerate 9 Energy, yielding a total gain of 6 Energy. Since Cyno relies on his Burst, the Kitain Cross Spear is a good way to keep it charged if you don’t have a battery character on your team.
Honorable mentions include Deathmatch and The Catch.
3-Star – White Tassel
If you’re in a pinch, the White Tassel can hold you over. It increases the wielder’s CRIT Rate and Normal Attack DMG by a percentage. The CRIT Rate buff increases with Weapon Ascension, while the Normal Attack DMG increases with refinement. As usual, 3-Star weapons are much easier to refine since many of them appear in Chests.
If you have a higher refinement or ascension on the Halberd, use that instead. Do not use the Black Tassel, it’s useless on almost all of the Polearm characters.
Best Artifact Sets
For any Cyno build, you want Elemental Mastery, ATK%, Electro DMG Bonus, CRIT Rate, and CRIT DMG for Artifact main stats and sub stats. Only go for the Energy Recharge substat if you don’t have a good battery or you find it difficult to keep Cyno’s Burst charged up. Do not use Energy Recharge as a main stat!
If you have the Staff of the Scarlet Sands, then Gilded Dreams will be a better set. Otherwise, Gladiator’s Finale works really well.
4PC Gladiator’s Finale
At 2 pieces, Gladiator’s grants a 18% ATK increase. At 4 pieces, if the equipped character uses a Sword, Claymore, or Polearm, they receive a 35% Normal Attack DMG increase. It’s a simple set, but a classic. Because it’s commonly dropped by both Trounce Domains and common bosses, the Gladiator’s set is less frustrating to farm. At least, I find it less frustrating because you’re usually going for some other materials too.
4PC Gilded Dreams
At 2 pieces, Gilded boosts Elemental Mastery by 80 points. At 4 pieces, Gilded provides buffs based on a character’s Elemental Type. Within 8 seconds for triggering an Elemental Reaction, the wielder gains buffs based on the Elemental Type of other party members. If any party member has the same Element as the equipped character, then the equipped character receives a 14% ATK increase for each same-element character. For any party member with a different Element, the equipped character receives a 50 Elemental Mastery buff instead. Every member of your party will be considered. This effect can occur once every 8 seconds and does not require the equipped character to be on the field.
In summary, let’s say that Cyno has 4 pieces of Gilded. Whenever any party member, including Cyno, triggers an Elemental Reaction, Cyno receives a buff. If your entire team is Electro (a very chaotic option) and somehow triggers an Elemental Reaction, then Cyno would receive a 42% ATK increase. But if your team has two Electro characters – Cyno and someone else – a Hydro character, and a Dendro character, then Cyno would receive a 14% ATK increase because of the Electro character, and a 100 point Elemental Mastery buff because of the Hydro and Dendro characters.
4PC Thundering Fury
At 2 pieces, Thundering grants a 15% Electro DMG Bonus. At 4 pieces, Thundering increases damage caused by Electro reactions by 40%. It also boosts the DMG Bonus from Aggravate by 20%. When the Quicken or Aggravate reactions are triggered, the wielder’s Elemental Skill cooldown decreases by 1 seconds. This CD effect can only occur once every 0.8 seconds.
To take full advantage of this set, Cyno should be paired with a Dendro character. Quicken and Aggravate derive from Electro and Dendro reacting. With the reduced Elemental Skill CD, Cyno can use his Skill more frequently to deal maximum damage during Cyno’s Burst duration.
This set can be rerolled using the Alchemy Crafting Bench. While this doesn’t completely eliminate domain farming, it does give you the chance to maybe turn a trash Artifact into gold.
Best Teams
Overall, you want to put Cyno on a team with characters who will contribute to Electro reactions. Your Support can be an Anemo character – they can help spread the Elements you put on the field – or a Geo character – to protect Cyno with Shields. However, Cyno’s Elemental Burst has a high cost, so you want to consider a double Electro team just to keep him charged up.
Because of his Talents, Cyno works best with an Aggravate team. However, since Cyno is such a good Electro DPS, feel free to play around with different characters and reactions.
Aggravate
The Aggravate team should have another Electro character and a Dendro character. The Electro character will serve as a battery for Cyno – meaning that they generate Energy for Cyno’s Burst. Because of the long Elemental Burst duration and large AoE, the Traveler is the best Dendro character to add to the team. Also, it’s a really fun mushroom!
Your Support slot is very flexible. If you like Shields, you can keep Zhongli around. Need crowd control? Venti or Kazuha could work as well. If you want healing and Hydro application, go for Barbara (this opens the door to Hyperbloom reactions too).
Electro-Charged
Instead of double Electro, this team requires double Hydro characters. Cyno acts as the sole Electro character and should be used after your Hydro characters do their thing. Candace is fantastic in this team because she will increase his Elemental Normal Attacks without overriding his Burst’s Electro Infused attacks. Your other Hydro character should be a Sub-DPS, so Xingqiu, Yelan, and Tartaglia will work here.
Like the Aggravate team, your Support slot is very flexible and does not rely on contributing to the Electro-Charged reaction. Go for a Shield or Healer Support if you hate taking damage.
