Currently working as the consultant of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor is a mysterious man described as a living history due to his extreme knowledge in all things. This man is Morax, the Geo Archon and the oldest among the Seven Archons of Teyvat. After thousands of years, he finally decided to step down as the overlord Rex Lapis, the ruling god of Liyue, to live incognito as a mortal man named Zhongli.
Being a playable Archon makes Zhongli one of the most wanted characters in Genshin Impact. He is designed to be a support character with his shield, which is second to none. Zhongli has one of the coolest move sets for his normal attack combo and an epic elemental burst where he will summon a meteor to strike the opponents.
How to Get Zhongli
Zhongli is a 5-star character that can only be obtained by making wishes on a limited-time event character banner. If you missed that banner, worry not because banner reruns happen from time to time. If you can, you can save up Primogems and wait for Zhongli’s banner to rerun.
Zhongli Build
Support Type
A support character is what Zhongli is designed as. His passive talent named Dominance of Earth increases his damage based on his max HP. For this, you will need high HP to increase your shield’s strength.
Geo DPS Type
This build is the damager type that focuses on increased damage of Stone Stele and Planet Befall.
For this build, you will want to have artifacts with Geo damage bonus and a balance of ATK and Critical stats.
Please note that this build will compromise the strength of Zhongli’s shield since you will not be building enough HP stat.
Physical Type
Some players choose to go with a non-conventional Physical build where the playstyle focuses on normal and charged attacks.
This will most likely ignore his kit’s potential and role as a supporting character. Even his elemental skill and burst will not have that much damage.
Weapons
Vortex Vanquisher
You will know that this weapon is designed for Zhongli by its looks. Its passive effect increases the shield strength of the weapon wielder and increases that character’s ATK for a certain amount whenever that character hits an opponent. This effect can be stacked up to 5 times and doubled if a shield protects that character.
Despite this, many players do not consider this as his BiS weapon because it was meant for Zhongli’s test or original kit and build. He was originally an off-field sub-DPS but was changed to HP-type shield support.
Engulfing Lightning, Skyward Spine, The Catch, Prototype Starglitter, and Favonius Lance
Although they have different passive effects, all these weapons have a secondary stat bonus of Energy Recharge Rate, which can help keep Zhongli’s elemental burst up and ready every after cool down.
Having that is good for a Shield or Elemental burst type where the playstyle only involves switching to Zhongli to either summon a shield or do the elemental burst and then switching back to your DPS character.
Primordial Jade Winged-Spear, Staff of Homa, Deathmatch, and Blackcliff Pole
These weapons have critical as their secondary stat bonus. This is important for a DPS-build Zhongli to make sure you get a more consistent high damage output.
Calamity Queller, Lithic Spear, Royal Spear, Wavebreaker’s Fin
ATK% Bonus is the secondary stat for these weapons, making them safe or decent weapons for Zhongli. If you do not have any other polearms than these, then go on and use them.
Crescent Pike
This polearm is for those who prefer to have a Physical type Zhongli. Again, this build focuses on normal and charged attacks, and elemental skill and elemental burst talents will work as only fillers to the combo.
Black Tassel
Black Tassel is a 3-star weapon that some people prefer if they want more HP for Zhongli. However, being a 3-star, this weapon falls behind with damage output it can provide when you are already on higher Adventure Ranks and World Levels.
Artifacts
Tenacity of Millelith
This artifact set is probably designed for Zhongli—focusing on his main role, a supporting character that provides shield and off-field attacks with his Stone Stele.
The 2-piece set increases HP by 20%, and the 4-piece set increases the ATK and shield strength of all party members when the artifact user hits an opponent with an elemental skill. This effect can also be triggered even if the artifact user is not on the field.
So far, there is no other character except Zhongli, who has an HP-based shield and an elemental skill that can hit opponents even when not on the field.
Archaic Petra
The 2-piece set of this artifact gives a Geo Damage bonus, while the 4-piece will give an elemental damage bonus to all party members when they pick up an Elemental Shard. However, that damage bonus will only be for the element similar to the Elemental Shard you picked up, which is tricky to trigger and set up.
Archaic Petra and Noblesse Oblige
If you aim to have a high damage elemental burst, you can combine 2-Piece Archaic Petra and 2-Piece Noblesse Oblige.
This meteor or Planet Befall build is done mainly by those who like to do damage showcase videos. But this playstyle still relies on other characters and setting up skills before casting Zhongli’s elemental burst.
Retracing Bolide
This set is not a common choice but can be good for those who like to have Zhongli on the field most of the time. Like the ones who do Co-Op or simply those who chose Zhongli as their main DPS.
The 2-Piece set of this artifact increases the shield’s strength of the artifact user, and the 4-piece set gives an additional bonus of increased damage to normal and charged attacks when the user has a shield on.
Please note the shield strength bonus of this artifact only takes effect for the character wearing this artifact. Even if the shield is handed over to that active character when you switch to another character, the shield strength bonus will not take effect.
Combination of Archaic Petra, Gladiator’s Finale, and Shimenawa’s Reminiscence
For a hybrid type or even a DPS build Zhongli, another safe artifact set is a combination of different sets. You can have a 2-piece Archaic Petra paired with another 2-Piece set of either Gladiator’s Finale or Shimenawa’s Reminiscence.
Ascension Materials
After reaching certain level caps, you need to ascend the character to higher-level caps. Doing this will need Mora and specific materials, and listed below are the ascension materials needed to ascend Zhongli.
Basalt Pillar
You will need a total of 46 Basalt Pillars that you can obtain by defeating the Geo Hypostasis.
Cor Lapis
A total of 168 Cor Lapis will be needed from the first to the sixth and last ascension. You can farm this around Liyue and visit other players’ worlds to gather more.
Slime Essences
You will also need several Slime Condensate, Slime Secretion, and Slime Concentrate. If you have killed a lot of slimes, you probably already have enough of these in your inventory.
Prithiva Topaz
Silvers, fragments, chunks, and gemstones of this version of Prithiva Topaz are also needed when ascending Zhongli. You can get these by defeating bosses, doing commissions from city jewelry shops, and crafting them.
You will need one silver, nine fragments, nine chunks, and gemstones.
Talent Level-Up Materials
You need talent books, monster drop items, and a unique material you can only get from weekly bosses to level up a talent.
For Zhongli, you will need the talent book “Gold,” slime essences, and the Tusk of Monocerus Caeli—a material you obtain from defeating Tartaglia, a.k.a Childe in the Golden House domain.
There is no one way to build the character you want, and it is all based on your preference and playstyle. We hope it will be easier for you to choose what build and equipment you will get for your Geo Archon with this guide.
