Chongyun is one of the 4-star characters that you can get in Genshin Impact. He was born in a family of exorcists and trained hard to be a good one. This young exorcist hails from Liyue, and his visual design incorporates traditional Chinese clothes with a modern twist.
Chongyun wields a claymore and owns a Cryo vision. As with all claymore characters, except Eula, Chongyun’s normal attacks are pretty slow.
This post will help you understand his skill, what he can offer to the party, and how to build Chongyun.
Combat Talents
- With his elemental skill Spirit Blade: Chonghua’s Layered Frost, Chongyun performs a somersault to slam his weapon to the ground causing Cryo damage. This will then create a Cryo field that infuses the element to all melee weapons.
While inside the field, normal and charged attacks using a sword, polearm, or claymore are converted to Cryo attacks. The field lasts up to 10 seconds, and the skill’s cooldown time is 15 seconds.
- Chongyun’s elemental burst Spirit Blade: Cloud-Parting Star allows him to summon spirit blades to strike the target. This is a quick casting skill that has a short cool down time and only needs 40 energy.
Passive Talents
Chongyun’s first passive talent, Steady Breathing, increases the normal attack speed of melee characters while they are within the cryo field created by Spirit Blade: Chonghua’s Layered Frost.
Rimechaser Blade, his second passive talent, will summon another spirit blade when the Cryo field created by Chongyun’s elemental skill disappears. Enemies hit by this blade will have their Cryo resistance decreased by 10% for 8 seconds.
His third and last passive talent is called Gallant Journey. It reduces the time consumed if Chongyun is dispatched on an expedition.
Constellations
Level 1: Ice Unleashed
Chongyun’s first constellation level will have his last attack of normal attack combo to release three ice blades. Each blade deals 50% of Chongyun’s attack as Cryo damage.
Level 2: Atmospheric Revolution
With this constellation level, all elemental skills and elemental burst cast within the Frost Field created by the Spirit Blade: Chonghua’s Layered Frost will reduce their cooldown time by 15 percent.
Level 3: Cloudburst
This third constellation level increases the level of Chongyun’s elemental skill by three and upgrades its maximum level from 10 to 15.
Level 4: Frozen Skies
His constellation level 4 lets Chongyun regenerate one energy every time he hits an enemy affected by Cryo. However, this effect can only happen once every 2 seconds.
Level 5: The True Path
Constellation level 5 increases Chongyun’s elemental burst level by three and upgrades its maximum level from 10 to 15.
Level 6: Rally of Four Blades
Chongyun’s sixth constellation level increases the damage of his elemental burst by 15% against enemies with a lower HP remaining than him. The skill will also summon an additional spirit blade.
Weapons
Wolf’s Gravestone
If you are lucky enough to get this 5-star weapon from the weapon or standard banner, then you have the best weapon for Chongyun. Its base attack is lower than that of Skyward Pride’s, but its secondary stat is also ATK, so this will make up for it.
This weapon’s passive effect increases the wielder’s ATK by 20%. It will also boost the party’s ATK by 40% for 12 seconds if this weapon wielder’s attack hits an opponent with less than 30%. However, this second effect can only occur once every 30 seconds.
With Chongyun’s constellation level 6 and Wolf’s Gravestone’s second effect, it will be a significant boost to his attacks.
Skyward Pride
This 5-star claymore has a base ATK higher than that of Wolf’s Gravestone. But its secondary stat is increased energy recharge rate.
This weapon is a good choice if you are building a burst-type Chongyun. This means you mostly have him summoned to cast his burst skill and then switch to other characters.
With the energy recharge rate bonus of the Skyward Pride plus the 40 energy requirement of Chongyun’s elemental burst, the skill will most likely be ready in no time.
Lithic Blade
This is probably the best 4-star weapon for Chongyun, but you can only get this as a limited rate-up weapon banner.
This claymore’s secondary stat is attack (ATK), and the passive gives an additional ATK and critical rate (CRIT Rate) increase. It can also stack up to 4 times. However, this effect will only activate if at least one of the party members hails from Liyue.
Since Chongyun is from Liyue, a single stack of the passive effect will be active.
Serpent Spine
This is a 4-star weapon that you can only get as a reward when you purchase the game’s battle pass. Its secondary stat is critical rate, and the passive gives 10% additional damage for every 4 seconds that the weapon’s wielder is on the field. But the wielder will also take increased damage of 2% for each stack.
Prototype Archaic
This is most likely the number one F2P (Free-2-Play) claymore for Chongyun. It is a 4-star weapon that you can craft with the blacksmiths. It is easily one of the most common choices of Chongyun. Its secondary stat is ATK which makes it a safe weapon to consider.
Sacrificial Greatsword
This claymore is like the 4-star version Skyward Pride with energy recharge rate as its secondary stat. The passive effect of this weapon is when the elemental skill hits an enemy, there will be a chance to reset the cooldown of that skill. This will help bypass the 5 seconds waiting time to recast the Spirit Blade: Chonghua’s Layered Frost.
Katsuragikiri Nagamasa
This is also a weapon that you can craft but not until you have unlocked Inazuma. The blueprint for this 4-star claymore can be obtained by getting into Tatarasuna and unlocking a certain chamber.
Like Skyward Pride and Sacrificial Greatsword, this weapon is good for a burst-type Chongyun. Its passive effect will regenerate energy every 2 seconds for three times when an elemental skill hits an opponent. This effect can only occur every 10 seconds and can be triggered even if the weapon wielder is not on the field.
Since the frost field created by the Spirit Blade: Chonghua’s Layered Frost lasts 10 seconds and Rimechaser Blade summons an additional blade when the field disappears, the weapon’s passive effect can be triggered twice.
Please note that Snow-Tombed Starsilver is NOT A GOOD WEAPON for Chongyun because of his elemental skill’s Cryo infusion to his weapon. This will render the Physical DMG bonus of the weapon useless.
Artifacts
Blizzard Strayer, Noblesse Oblige, and Gladiator’s Finale are the top three artifacts for Chongyun.
Blizzard Strayer
2-Piece Blizzard Strayer gives a Cryo damage bonus of 15%, while the 4-piece increases the critical rate of 20% against opponents affected by Cryo. If the target is frozen, the critical rate will have another 20 percent boost.
With Chongyun’s elemental skill infusing hit attacks with Cryo, having a 4-piece set of this artifact is a good choice.
Noblesse Oblige
2-piece Noblesse Oblige increases elemental burst damage by 20 percent, and the 4-piece set also increases all party members’ attacks by 20 percent after using the elemental burst talent.
Both the 2-piece and 4-piece sets are good choices for a burst-built Chongyun. The latter also makes him a damage support as this set boosts the party’s attack.
Gladiator’s Finale
The 2-piece set of Gladiator’s Finale gives a bonus of 18 percent attack boost, while the 4-piece set gives a 35 percent damage boost if the one equipping this artifact is a sword, claymore, or polearm user.
Having the 2-piece set for Chongyun is enough for the added attack, but he can maximize the 4-piece set if he is active on the field most of the time.
Build, Playstyles, Roles, and Team Compositions
Overall Stats
The stats you should focus on for Chongyun are Cryo DMG and ATK. However, it is always best to have a decent amount of critical rate and critical damage (CRIT DMG) for higher damage output.
The ideal CRIT Rate for all damage dealers is 80 to 100 percent. Then build at least 2,000 ATK and as much CRIT DMG. Also, make sure to get a Cryo DMG Bonus sands because with his elemental skill, most of the time, Chongyun will deal Cryo elemental attacks.
Ascension Stat
Every time you ascend Chongyun, you will get an additional increase to his ATK. So it could be a safe route to build him with a lot of ATK. This can increase both his normal, charged, and elemental attacks.
Party Role or Team Composition
Main DPS Chongyun
If Chongyun is your primary damage dealer or DPS (damage per second), then Wolf’s Gravestone, Lithic Blade, and Serpent Spine are the best weapons for him.
Being your main DPS means he is actively doing both skills and normal attacks than all other characters in your party.
The 4-piece set Blizzard Strayer is the best artifact set for this build.
With his Frost Field active and a Hydro character like Xingqiu and Barbara, the effects of the 4-piece set Blizzard Strayer will be maximized.
Another option would be the 4-piece Gladiator’s Finale set but make sure to have a Cryo DMG bonus goblet. This is because you will be casting a Frost Filed most of the time, which converts Chongyun’s normal attacks to Cryo attacks.
You can also have a combination of 2-Piece Blizzard Strayer and 2-Piece Gladiator’s Finale set. This gives Chongyun 18 percent ATK and 15 percent Cryo DMG bonus.
- As mentioned above, Hydro characters especially Xingqiu, Barbara, and Mona are a good pair for a DPS Chongyun.
Cryo and Hydro will trigger a “frozen” elemental reaction, and this is best to utilize the 4-piece Blizzard Strayer set’s maximum effect.
- Rosaria can also be a good pair for Chongyun. Two Cryo characters will activate the Shattering Ice elemental resonance which increases the party’s CRIT Rate by 15 percent against opponents that are frozen or affected by Cryo.
Rosaria’s passive talent also increases her party members’ CRIT Rate by 15 percent every time she casts her elemental burst.
Burst Type and Damage Support Chongyun
This build is for when you prefer to only summon Chongyun to cast his skills and then switch back to your main DPS character.
With the energy recharge rate bonus of Skyward Pride and Sacrificial Greatsword, Chongyun’s elemental burst is almost always up and ready.
For the artifacts, a combination of 2-Piece Blizzard Strayer and 2-piece Noblesse Oblige. The Cryo DMG bonus of the Blizzard Strayer and the elemental burst DMG bonus of Noblesse Oblige will greatly boost the damage output of Spirit Blade: Cloud-Parting Star.
A set of 4-piece Noblesse Oblige will also make Chongyun a good support for the party. Aside from the increased DMG to his elemental burst, this set also gives a bonus of 20 percent ATK to all party members.
Chongyun shines as a damage support for Diluc.
The Frost Field will infuse Cryo onto Diluc’s weapon, converting his normal attacks to Cryo. Properly alternating this with his elemental skill will trigger the “melt” elemental reaction up to three times.
Since Ayaka deals a lot of Cryo DMG, she can use Chongyun’s Frost Field to infuse Cryo into her weapon. Having Chongyun with her in a party will also activate the Shattering Ice elemental resonance and get a CRIT Rate bonus of 15 percent against opponents that are frozen or affected by Cryo.
Please note that Chongyun is not best to be in a party with Physical DMG characters like Eula, Razor, and Xinyan. The Cryo infused into their weapon from the Frost field will make their Physical DMG bonus useless.
