Genshin Impact 3.1: Cyno finally arrives, and here's how to build him

Yan Ku
·Contributor
Updated ·6 min read
Cyno is finally making his debut in the first half of Genshin Impact version 3.1! The General Mahamatra is a fierce hypercarry that deals a ton of Electro DMG while in his very long burst duration. Read on for his best teams, artifacts, weapons, and more. (Photos: HoYoverse)
Cyno is finally making his debut in the first half of Genshin Impact version 3.1! The General Mahamatra is a fierce hypercarry that deals a ton of Electro DMG while in his very long burst duration. Read on for his best teams, artifacts, weapons, and more. (Photos: HoYoverse)

Cyno wanters, after two long years, he's finally here!

The General Mahamatra of the Sumeru Akademiya is making his debut as the banner character for the first half of Genshin Impact version 3.1.

Cyno is a 5-star Electro Polearm user who is built to be your team's main DPS. He's a hypercarry that wants to stay on the field for as long as possible, with his skill increasing the length of his burst to dish out high damage with each attack he makes.

Cyno's Elemental Skill, Secret Rite: Chasmic Soulfarer allows him to deal a swift thrust, dealing Electro DMG to enemies along the path of his attack.

Cyno's Elemental Burst, Sacred Rite: Pactsworn Pathclearer, calls upon the power of a Divine Spirit that makes his Normal, Charged, and Plunging Attacks deal Electro DMG. His Elemental Mastery and resistance to interruption will also be increased.

While in the Pactsworn Pathclearer state, using Cyno's skill will instead unleash a Mortuary Rite that deals area-of-effect Electro DMG that also extends the duration of his burst.

Pactsworn Pathclearer's basic duration is 10 seconds, but can be extended to a whopping 18 seconds with enough uses of his skill, giving Cyno the longest on-field burst duration of any character in the game so far.

However, Cyno’s burst will once when he leaves the field, so you need to get all your buffs ready before popping his burst for 18 seconds of non-stop action.

Cyno's first ascension talent, Featherfall Judgment, further increases the damage of his skill while in his burst state. At certain intervals indicated by an 'eye' visual while Pactsworn Pathclearer is active, using Cyno's skill makes it deal more damage and unleash three Duststalker Bolts that deal 100% of his ATK as Electro DMG.

Cyno's second ascension talent, Authority Over the Nine Bows, makes Elemental Mastery his main damage scaling attribute. The talent increases the damage dealt by Pactsworn Pathclearer’s Normal Attacks and Duststalker Bolts by 150% and 250%, respectively, of Cyno's Elemental Mastery.

Cyno's burst duration leaves him wanting for supports that provide buffs with the same duration as his burst.

For example, two of the most common ways to increase your DPS' damage in Genshin Impact, the enemy elemental resistance reduction from the Viridescent Venerer 4-piece effect and Bennett's burst, lasts for just 10 and 12 seconds, respectively.

A Cyno's best friends?

But while we will have to wait for future versions for a dedicated support for Cyno to be released (Nahida in version 3.2, perhaps?), he already has some good teams that you can run.

Since Cyno’s kit is geared towards dealing pure Electro DMG, his team should be built around the Aggravate reaction, one of the many elemental reactions created by Dendro released in version 3.0.

Aggravate increases the Electro DMG dealt when an Electro attack hits an enemy afflicted by Quicken, the main reaction that can lead to Aggravate that is triggered by inflicting Electro on a Dendro-afflicted enemy.

As such, Cyno’s team should always have at least one Dendro character to help him trigger Aggravate, with the two remaining slots being flexible and to be filled by a character that fills your specific needs.

The third slot can be filled by a second Electro character to act as Cyno's battery or by a second Dendro character to trigger the Dendro Resonance and give Cyno more Elemental Mastery, and thus more damage.

As for the fourth slot on the team, it can be filled by an Anemo support to further increase Cyno's damage through the 4-piece effect of the Viridescent Venerer artifact set.

But if you already have a second Dendro character taking up the third slot, you can also run an Electro healer like Kuki Shinobu or Dori to provide Cyno with both healing and some much-needed energy.

Here are some teams you can try:

  • Cyno, Collei, Dendro Traveler, Kazuha/Sucrose

  • Cyno, Collei, Dendro Traveler, Kuki Shinobu/Dori

  • Cyno, Collei, Dendro Traveler, Fischl/Lisa

However, if you haven't built up your Dendro Traveler or Collei yet, you can opt for teams that focus on other elemental reactions instead of Aggravate:

  • Cyno, Dendro support, Kokomi, Kazuha/Sucrose (Electro-Charged/Hyperbloom)

  • Cyno, Yelan/Xingqiu, Kokomi, Kazuha/Sucrose (Electro-Charged)

  • Cyno, Dori/Kuki Shinobu, Lisa, Kazuha/Sucrose (Pure Electro but no Aggravate)

Artifacts fit for a general

As for Cyno's artifacts, your two best options are either 4-piece Thundering Fury or 4-piece Gilded Dreams. Both have pretty much similar effects to Cyno's damage output, so go for the set with the best substats.

The 4-piece Thundering Fury set synergises very well with Cyno's kit, as it increases his Electro DMG bonus as well as the damage from Electro-related reactions, most notably Aggravate.

On top of that, triggering an Electro reaction decreases the cooldown of your elemental skill, letting you use it more during your burst.

The 4-piece Gilded Dreams set is also great since it increases both ATK and Elemental Mastery, with the latter being Cyno's main damage scaling attribute.

The main stats you should be looking for on your sands, goblet, and circlet are Elemental Mastery, Electro DMG bonus (though you can run Elemental Mastery if you don't have an Electro goblet yet), and Crit Rate/Crit DMG.

Your sub stat priority should be Crit Rate/Crit DMG, Elemental Mastery, Energy Recharge, and ATK%.

To arms!

For weapons, you can’t go wrong with the new 5-star polearm Staff of the Scarlet Sands, as it is tailor-made for Cyno’s kit. It allows you to gain 52% of your EM as ATK, as well as a further 28% of your EM as ATK when casting your skill. The polearm also ascends with Crit Rate, which is a welcome addition.

But if you're avoiding the weapon banner but have a spare Primordial Jade Winged-Spear lying around (or are willing to dethrone Xiao from your account, sad), it's a good alternative due to the ATK increase from its passive and Crit Rate substat.

If you don’t have 5-star weapons waiting to be used, 4-star options you can go for include:

  • Deathmatch (BP Weapon)

  • Missive Windspear (Free, event-only weapon coming with 3.1)

  • Moonpiercer (Sumeru craftable)

  • Kitain Cross Spear (Inazuma craftable)

Cyno is featured in a double banner alongside the Anemo Archon Venti in the first half of Genshin Impact version 3.1. The current version which also sees the debuts of Nilou and Candace will run from 28 September to 2 November.

Genshin Impact versions 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2 will have shortened run times of five weeks instead of the usual six weeks, likely to catch up to the game's original release schedule after the release of version 2.7 was delayed back in April.

Yan Ku is a full-time dog parent, part-time (gacha) gamer, and part-time writer.

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