Genshin Impact Cyno Guide: Kit, Best Weapons, And Artifacts

Welcome back everyone to another week of our Genshin Impact Guides. This week we will be talking about the brand new character Cyno. Cyno’s banner just released yesterday along with the 3.2 Genshin Update and people are stoked to finally be able to play this character who was teased even before the game officially released. Cyno is an electro 5-Star with a very selfish playstyle as he will want to be on the field as often as possible. Thanks to how strong his hits are and the ability to keep him in his bursts constantly, this isn't too hard to do. So, without further adieu, let’s talk about his skill set.

Cyno’s Normal Attack, Invoker’s Spear, performs up to 4 consecutive spear strikes while his charged attack consumes a certain amount of Stamina to lunge forward, dealing damage to opponents along the way. Then, his plunging attacks will have him plunge from mid-air to strike the ground below, damaging opponents along the path and dealing AoE DMG upon impact.

Next is Cyno’s Elemental Skill, Secret Rite: Chasmic Soulfarer, this attack will perform a swift thrust, dealing Electro DMG to opponents along the path. When Cyno is under the Pactsword Pathclearer state triggered by Sacred Rite: Wolf’s Swiftness (his Elemental Burst), he will instead unleash a Mortuary Rite that deals thunderous AoE Electro DMG and extends the duration of Pactsworn Pathclearer.

Lastly, let's talk about Cyno’s Elemental Burst, Sacred Rite: Wolf’s Swiftness. This attack has Cyno calling upon a divine spirit to indwell him, morphing into the Pactsworn Pathclearer. Cyno’s Normal, Charged, and plunging Attacks will be converted to Electro DMG that cannot be overridden. Cyno’s Elemental Mastery and resistance to interruption will also increase as he gains immunity to Electro-Charged DMG. This effect will be canceled when Cyno leaves the field and lasts a maximum of 18s.

Players should prioritize Cyno’s Elemental Burst and Elemental Skill. Once Cyno is able to activate his Burst, players should be able to hold onto his burst while throwing down his Elemental Skill from time to time. Before Cyno’s Elemental Burst comes to an end, his burst should be charged and ready to go, allowing Cyno to be on the field indefinitely using his burst if a player would like.

Best Weapons

• Best 5-Star: Staff of the Scarlet Sands

With this weapon, Cyno will gain 52% of his EM as bonus ATK. When an Elemental Skill hits opponents, the Dream of the Scarlet Sands effect will be gained for 10s: Cyno will gain 28% of their EM as bonus Atk Max 3 stacks.

• Best Craftable 4-Star: Kitain Cross Spear

Once players are able to craft the weapon, Kitain Cross Spear is great for Cyno as it not only looks great, but it fits his kit well with its base of Elemental Mastery. Its ability, Samurai Conduct, will also increase Elemental Skill DMG by 6-12%. After Elemental skill hits an opponent the character loses 3 energy but regenerates 3-5 Energy every 2s for the next 6s.

• Best 4-Star: Deathmatch

If available, Deathmatch is a great choice for Cyno with its CRIT rate and its Gladiator skill. If there are at least 2 opponents nearby, ATK is increased by 16-32% and DEF is increased by 16-32% If there are fewer than 2 opponents nearby, ATK is increased by 24%-48%

• Best 3-Star: White Tassel

The White Tassel is an easy weapon to farm early on as it can be found in chests all throughout the game. In addition, the weapon has great CRIT Rate.

Digging Into Artifacts

Players should go for an Electro Goblet, EM or ATK Sands, and a Crit rate/DMG circlet. Cyno needs as much EM as possible, so having EM sands would be ideal, but as always pay attention to substats and change out artifacts when the perfect one comes around. For substats ER is recommended followed by EM, Crit, and ATK%.

• Berserker/ Martial Artist :

As mentioned last week, Berserker is one of my all-time favorite 3-star artifacts due to the 2-Piece CRIT rate bonus of 12%. This set also works the best for Cyno as well. If new players want to go with a four-piece, they would want to keep Cyno’s health below 70%, therefore he would get an increase of CRIT Rate by 24%. Players who are looking to do two 2-piece sets can couple Berserker with Martial Artist which can increase Normal Attack and Charged Attack DMG by 15%.

• Gilded Dreams:

2-Piece Set gives Elemental Master +80, while the 4-Piece within 8s of triggering an Elemental Reaction, the character equipping this will obtain buffs based on the Elemental Type of the other party members. ATK is increased by 14% for each party member whose Elemental Type is the same as the equipping character, and EM is increased by 50 for every party member with a different Elemental Type. Pairing Gilded Dreams with Thundering Fury (mentioned below) is the best artifact set for his basic top-performance abilities.

• Thundering Fury:

The 2-Piece set will give an Electro DMG bonus of 18% while the 4-Piece will increase DMG caused by overloaded, Electro-Charged, Superconduct, and Hyperbloom by 40%, and the DMG Bonus conferred by Aggravate is increased by 20%. Going for a full 4-Piece set of Thundering Fury is great, but again doing a 2-Piece of Gilded Dreams and 2-Piece of Thundering Fury will also prove to be beneficial, and can be easier to achieve than a full 4-Set.

And that is all we have for the newest 5-Star, Cyno. If players want an easy fast-paced character that will basically be on-field for the majority of the time, well, Cyno is the character for you.

We hope you continue to enjoy Sumeru and we will see you next week for another Genshin Guide.