The gentleman and consultant for the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, and an enigma to all who meet him. Zhongli enjoys sitting to listen to the storytellers and having a pot of tea. Knowledgeable in many fields due to his long-lived life, the former Geo Archon, the God of Contracts, is a fantastic story character as well as in combat.
Table of Contents
Zhongli – Details
- Region: Liyue
- Birthday: 12/31
- Constellation: Lapis Dei
- Ascension Bonus: Geo Damage
- Affiliation: Liyue Harbor/Wansheng Funeral Parlor/The Seven Archon/Adepti
Is Zhongli a Good Character in Genshin Impact?
Zhongli is heralded as one of the best characters in the game, and I couldn’t agree more. He has the most powerful Shields in the game, the potential to become a Healer if you whale enough for C6, and can do a nice chunk of Burst DPS if need be. Versatile enough to be a part of any team combination.
Zhongli – Talents
Each Genshin Impact Character’s usability is based on their Talents. These talents mostly all revolve around how the character is used in combat. See the Genshin Impact Character Guide to learn more.
Rain of Stone – Normal Attack
Probably the weakest part of Zhongli’s kit, but nonetheless useable. Zhongli’s normal attack has a 6 part combo, a unique charge attack, but with just a small amount of damage per hit.
Dominus Lapidis – Elemental Skill
This is the bread and butter of what makes Zhongli so good, and where his Shields are produced from. If one only taps on the Skill, Zhongli produces a Stone Stele Pillar that generates Geo Dmg AoE. Holding the Skill gives you the Jade Shield, which will absorb a huge amount of damage.
As an added bonus, when Zhongli uses his Hold around Ore’s, any Geo Shielded enemy, or Geo Construct, is destroyed. The Cooldown for the Skill is also a great deal shorter than the natural Duration of the Shield, making the Shield have one of the best up times.
Planet Befall – Elemental Burst
The God of Geo of course has an impressive animation for a very unique Burst. Summoning a Meteorite from the heavens, Zhongli hits with a massive AoE, dealing a decent chunk of damage as well as petrifying enemies for a few seconds. This damage is no joke and can be scaled up fairly easily.
Resonant Waves – 1st Ascension Passive
Upon Ascending past Lv20, Zhongli’s Shield becomes even stronger. Whenever the Jade Shield provided by his Elemental Burst is dealt damage, it will Fortify itself giving a further 5% bonus Shield Strength. This will trigger and stack up to 5 times giving a max of 25% Shield Strength up until the Shield Expires.
Dominance of Earth – 4th Ascension Passive
Upon Ascending past Lv60, anything that Zhongli does gains bonus damage based on his HP. This includes all his Normal/Plunging/Charged Attacks gaining 1.39% of his HP, his Skill’s AoE Dmg gaining 1.9%, and his Burst gaining 33%. For those that need the math, Zhongli at Lv90 without any other factors has 14,695 HP. That’s +204 Dmg on Normal Attacks, +280 Dmg on his Skill’s Aoe, and +4,849 bonus Burst Dmg.
Arcanum of Crystal – Utility Passive
As the God of Contracts, creator of Mora, and Master of the Polearm, of course, his Utility would involve most of these. Whenever you Forge any of the Polearm Weapons, and you use Zhongli to Forge them, he’ll refund you 15% of the Ore that was used in production.
Lapis Dei – Constellations
Constellation abilities improve a character’s performance in combat, either through upgrading a talent or by providing special buffs. A total of 6 constellations can be unlocked. Read our Genshin Impact Character Guide for more details on how to unlock a Character’s Constellation abilities. I’ll also be marking which Constellation, if you do decide to go for them, is recommended for the character.
C1 – Rock, the Backbone of Earth
This very simply allows there to be two Stone Steles at the same time. While the AoE of the Stele is not the most important part of Zhongli’s kit, it can come in clutch during certain battles.
C2 – Stone, the Cradle of Jade [Recommended]
Another simple application of constellation, but this provides the Jade Shield after using Zhongli’s Elemental Burst. Not only is this good in solo play for an additional method of application, but this is also the only way to give Shields to other players in co-op, making it a powerful option if you are going against bosses with others.
C3 – Jade, Shimmering through the Darkness
+3 Levels to the Elemental Skill, Dominus Lapidis. This increases the AoE Dmg, and the Shield Absorption. All good things.
C4 – Topaz, Unbreakable and Fearless
Increases the AoE of the Elemental Burst by 20%, and increases the Petrification’s Duration by 2s. Hit more things, damage more things, petrify more things for longer, all good.
C5 – Lazuli, Hearld of the Order
+3 Levels to the Elemental Burst, Planet Befall. This only increases the Damage of the Burst, but it is quite an increase no matter what Level the Talent is at.
C6 – Chrysos, Bounty of Dominator
Whenever Jade Shield takes damage, 40% of that damage is converted to Healing. This is a huge shift in playstyle that is a hit or miss for people. Overall, this is an absolute win for many teams. It is seldom that a team won’t want some form of off-field healing.
Zhongli – Weapons
With the wide array of Polearms that exist in the game, quite a number of them work dependent on what Build you are striving for with Zhongli.
9 times out of 10, you should build Zhongli to be utilizing his Shields, and it can be quite easy to hyperfocus on making him a max Shielder. This requires giving him as much HP as possible, and the weapon of choice here is actually the 3 Star Black Tassel. A Black Tassel at Max Lv90 will give more HP% than even the Staff of Homa.
However, if you do want to build Zhongli to also deal a good amount of Burst Dmg or even with a bit of Sub-DPS potential, then Staff of Homa is the premium choice. It gives enough HP to still boost the Shield and uses that HP to further increase Damage. The free-to-play friendly weapon for this would be The Catch, giving increased Elemental Burst Damage and Crit Rate.
Zhongli – Artifacts
Similar to the Weapon discussion, depending on how you build Zhongli, there are two ways to outfit your Zhongli’s artifacts. If you are solely focusing on Shields, HP is your friend, so farm your Tenacity of the Millelth for its ability to increase Shield Strength and Attack, and have your Sand, Goblet, and Circlet all be HP% for getting maximum HP.
If you want to focus on Burst DPS however, I’d still recommend at least getting Artifacts that have an HP% Sub-Stat, since it does increase Zhongli’s damage output. Noblesse Oblige is the de-facto Elemental Burst artifact set, increasing the attack of party members after a Burst has been used.
You can either go full 4-piece for the aforementioned boost or just keep the 2-piece for the Elemental Burst Dmg buff and pair it with the 2-piece Archaic Petra for Geo Dmg. For Sands, Atk%, ER%, or HP% all work, for Goblet grab Geo Dmg, and for Circlet grab whichever Crit piece you need most.
Zhongli – Best Teams
Instead of full teams, since Zhongli can literally fit on any team, I’ll recommend some DPS Characters to pair Zhongli with. Hypercarry units like Xiao, Cyno, and especially Arataki Itto, will greatly appreciate the long duration of the Shield that pretty much lasts through all of their respective on-field damage bursts. Squishier Long-Range DPS Characters like Yoimiya, Ganyu, or Klee are also great to pair with Zhongli.
Author Bio
HattyDrago is an avid gamer with years of experience, and a masters in game design to back it up. You can catch HattyDrago streaming as a Vtuber on their Twitch HattyDrago Channel playing Genshin Impact, Final Fantasy 14, and more.
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