Genshin Impact: Cyno Build and Team Guide

Cyno is one of the new characters to be released in Genshin Impact. He is a 5-star Electro Polearm character. This guide will look at his skills, builds, and how he fares in team compositions.

Character Tier

Cyno is a relatively high-tier character in battles, ranking at high B tier (lowest) to high S tier when everything is 5-star. Take note that he is a damage-per-second (DPS) character.

Cyno’s Strengths

• High Critical Damage
• Very long Elemental Burst uptime; almost permanent.
• Applies constant pressure with Electro Auras during Elemental Bursts.
• Easy to use, especially if you know how to time his abilities 

Weaknesses

• He is prone to disruption due to his low resistance
• It needs good planning on builds since you have to balance ATK, Elemental Mastery, and Energy Recharge.
• It needs either a shield or healer in any team composition
• Team comp needs characters with abilities that last even if they are off-field. This is to complement Cyno’s on-field ability duration.
• Cyno’s Burst Form immediately ends when he is swapped out.

Cyno’s Best Builds By Tier

Here are Cyno’s best builds by tier:

DPS Build 1

Best Weapon: Staff of the Scarlet Sands – This is perfect for characters whose primary damage comes from Elemental Reactions like Cyno since its skill – Heat Haze at Horizon’s End – gives an additional 52% to the character’s Elemental Bonus as Attack. It also gives a base 9.6% crit rate bonus.

Replacement Weapons: Primordial Jade WInged-Spear, Staff of Homa, Deathmatch, White Tassel

Best Artifact: Gilded Dreams (x4): Another item that benefits characters like Cyno, Gilded Dreams (x4) gives the character buffs after triggering Elemental Reaction within 8s. This buff is determined by the Elemental Type of his party members. His Attack is increased for every party member by 14% whose Elemental Type is the same as the character equipping this Artifact, and Elemental Mastery is increased for those who are not the same type for 50.

DPS Build 2:

Best Weapon: Staff of the Scarlet Sands

Replacement Weapons: Primordial Jade Winged-Spear, Staff of Homa, Deathmatch, White Tassel.

Best Artifact: Thundering Fury (x4) – Increases damage dealt by Overloaded, Electro-Charged, Superconduct, and Hyperbloom by 40%. Damage bonus done by Aggravate is increased to 20%. A 1-second Cooldown reduction for Elemental Skill is triggered after using Elemental Reaction.

Main Stats for Both Builds:

Elemental Mastery: Sands

Electro Damage Bonus: Goblet

CRIT Rate/Damage: Circlet

Substats for Both Builds:

Energy Recharge% (Recommended: +/- 140% Recharge Rate, CRIT Rate/Damage, Elemental Mastery, Attack%

Gameplay

Being in the front as a Main DPS, Cyno relies on Elemental Reactions and a high critical hit rate and damage. This combination enables him to produce continuous damage as long as he is on the field. Despite this, he lacks the skills to support himself this is why he needs to have a team composition that makes up for what he lacks. For example, he needs a healer or a defensive shield to survive attacks. He might need another Electro character to help charge his Electro Energy. In the following section, we will look at optimum builds for Cyno.

Cyno Team Compositions

The table below shows the optimal team compositions for Cyno. Some of these compositions rely heavily on off-field damage and Elemental Reactions, and some have the Electro character to support Cyno as a “battery” to recharge Cyno’s Electro Energy.

Hyperbloom Team Compositions

The following team compositions rely on the off-field Dendro and Hydro damage and Elemental Reactions with Electro (Hyperbloom and Electro-Charged). These teams also trigger Aggravate and Spread reactions.

In one of the team compositions listed above, we have Fischl to provide off-field Electro damage while providing Electro Energy particles to charge Cyno. For the Hydro characters Yelan and Xingqiu, you can swap them for Beidou, who provides the same Electro Energy recharge to make Cyno more efficient and deal more damage.

Aggravate Team Compositions

Much like the Hyperbloom team compositions, the following team compositions rely on off-field Dendro damage and effects. The only difference is that you can be more flexible with the two other team members.

Zhongli is here because of his high uptime on his shield, which gives Cyno a defensive edge and applies consistent pressure to enemies while taking less damage + can withstand powerful attacks (rarely gets interrupted, on top of Cyno’s high interrupt resistance).

Meanwhile, the wild cards can be anyone who can synergize well with Cyno or the Dendro support.

Free to Play vs Play to Win

As Genshin Impact is a gacha game, the pulls you get per wish may not be the best. On the other hand, play-to-win (P2W) players will want to spend to get better draws, which still needs to be a guarantee for the most part. However, free-to-play (F2P) players are included. Other games with a similar structure, like the Asphalt racing game series, are forgiving with their gacha pulls. The same can be said with Genshin Impact. For instance, when I started playing Genshin Impact, I pulled a 5-star Diluc on my first try.

So why do P2W players spend for the game? It all boils down to the extra perks that F2W players do not have: extra Primogems, resources, etc., are among the perks of P2W players. Even paying for the monthly subscription, Blessing of the Welkin Moon, is enough to give a slight edge.

But, the game’s overall experience remains the same between F2P and P2W players. So, enjoy the game as you please, and if you want to gain some edge, you can always top up with Codashop.

Don’t forget to top up your Genshin Impact account through Codashop. You can choose the amount of Crystal recharge you want or buy the monthly Blessing of the Welkin Moon directly from us. We guarantee a fast, safe, and convenient way to top up. 

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