This post is up to date with Version 3.4 Phase 1
Chongyun is a 4-Star Cryo Claymore character from Liyue. Primarily, he serves as a support.
Base Kit
When Chongyun casts his Elemental Skill, Spirit Blade; Chonghua’s Layered Frost, he strikes the ground and places down a Chonghua Frost Field. If a Sword, Claymore, or Polearm user is within this field, they gain a Cryo Infusion. This infusion lasts for as long as the field is active or for a brief time if your active character moves out of the field. Some additional effects are gained via Chongyun’s Ascension passives. His A1 passive adds a 8% Normal Attack SPD to any Sword, Claymore, or Polearm character within the Frost Field. Meanwhile, his A4 passive gives the Skill the ability to perform an AoE attack when it expires, inflicting an 8 second 10% Cryo RES debuff in the process.
As useful as the Chonghua Frost Field sounds, you’ll be hard pressed to find a character who actually wants its Cryo Infusion. Almost every, if not all, 5-Star On Field DPS who uses one of the applicable weapons has an Elemental Infusion of their own, some of which can’t be overridden, and they’re better off using theirs over Chongyun’s. Some 4-Star characters can make use of the field but even that list is pretty small. Chongyun himself can make use of the Cryo Infusion. However, his Normal Attack are sluggish and possess some of the lowest seen among basic attacks performed by Claymore users.
For his Elemental Burst, Spirit Blade: Cloud-Parting Star, Chongyun summons 3 giant spirit blades into the ground. Each blade will explode on impact, dealing AoE Cryo DMG and launching any opponent that gets hit. This is Chongyun’s best source of DMG. The Burst has a low cost of 40 Energy so Chongyun’s Energy needs are accordingly very low. He might have trouble synching his particle generation with his Burst cooldown as his Burst takes 12 seconds to cool down and his Elemental Skill takes 15. However, this should only be an issue if your rotation involves ults that all have 12 second cooldowns (which is generally unlikely). If you have a second Cryo unit on the team, Chongyun’s Energy needs can be borderline non-existent.
Constellations
- C1 – Gives Chongyun the ability to release 3 ice blades after he performs his full Normal Attack combo. Each blade will deal Cryo DMG equivalent to 50% of Chongyun’s ATK. If for whatever reason you want to use Chongyun as an On Field DPS, this Constellation is worth having unlocked. Otherwise, it’s pretty worthless.
- C2 – Reduces Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst cooldowns by 15% when they are casted within the radius of the Frost Field. This is easily Chongyun’s best Constellation. Cooldown reduction, especially teamwide, is extremely rare in general and it can make a huge difference for your rotation. That said, you shouldn’t necessarily use Chongyun solely for this perk.
- C3 – Adds three Levels to Chongyun’s Elemental Burst.
- C4 – Generates 1 Energy for Chongyun every time he hits an enemy affected by Cryo or Frozen. That effect can occur every 2 seconds. While free Energy is always nice, this Constellation does not make or break Chongyun considering his already low Energy needs. Another issue with this Constellation is that it requires an enemy to already be affected by Cryo or Frozen or have Chongyun stay on the field.
- C5 – Adds three Levels to Chongyun’s Elemental Skill.
- C6 – Buffs Chongyun’s Elemental Burst DMG by 15% when it hits an enemy and their HP is at a lower percentage of their Max HP than it is for Chongyun. The Constellation also increases the number of spirit blades summoned to 4. Chongyun’s C6 further cements his Burst as his hardest hitting Talent, provided that the enemy HP condition is met.
As always, 4-Star Constellations are a complete gamble so pull at your own discretion. Besides C0 and C6, a solid stopping point for Chongyun is C2.
Weapons
The following list of weapons is organized by descending rarity and alphabetical order. Stats provided in the parentheses are assuming the respective weapon is at Lv. 90.
- Skyward Pride (5-Star | 674 ATK | 36.8% Energy Recharge) – One of Genshin Impact’s standard 5-Star weapons. The Skyward Pride is a solid stat stick for Chongyun, providing him high base ATK, the right amount of Energy Recharge, and a universal DMG Bonus. Chongyun can’t make practical use of the weapon’s vacuum blade but that won’t matter much considering it deals Physical DMG.
- Wolf’s Gravestone (5-Star | 608 ATK | 49.6% ATK) – Genshin’s other standard 5-Star Claymore. In addition to having ATK% as the second stat, the stat is provided via the weapon’s passive. If the wielder lands a hit on an enemy with less than 30% HP, the entire team’s Base ATK will be buffed for 12 seconds. Note that the buff itself has a 30 second cooldown. The Wolf’s Gravestone is a solid stat stick for Chongyun. However, the same can be said for several other Claymore users.
- Akuoumaru (4-Star | 510 ATK | 41.3% Energy Recharge) – Limited 4-Star weapon. This can equipped to augment Chongyun’s Elemental Burst DMG but the DMG Bonus is dependent on the combined Energy costs of your team. Chongyun contributes squat in this regard so he’d need teammates with high Energy costs to compensate.
- Lithic Blade (4-Star | 510 ATK | 41.3% ATK) – Limited 4-Star weapon. This increases Chongyun’s ATK and CRIT Rate but only for every character that you have on the team and are from Liyue. It can be strong but obviously, it also limits your team comp options.
- Luxurious Sea-Lord (4-Star | 454 ATK | 55.1% ATK) – Version 2.1’s Event Weapon. The passive increases Elemental Burst DMG. If the wielder’s Burst lands a hit, the Luxurious Sea-Lord will deal a tuna-themed shockwave. Simply put, this weapon suits Chongyun’s general playstyle. It also looks really funny on him (and every other Claymore user, really).
- Prototype Archaic (4-Star | 565 ATK | 27.6% ATK) – Craftable. In Chongyun’s case, this is exclusively a stat stick. The passive is irrelevant for him and is better used by other Claymore users so only give this weapon to him if you have nothing else.
- Sacrificial Greatsword (4-Star | 565 ATK | 30.6% Energy Recharge) – The most appealing part of the Sacrificial Greatsword is that it gives Chongyun’s Elemental Skill a percent chance to reset its cooldown when it hits an enemy. The passive can get asynchronous as, even at R5, the cooldown still outpaces the Frost Field’s. Even so, the reset can come in handy for the purpose of repositioning.
- Serpent Spine (4-Star | 510 ATK | 27.6% CRIT Rate) – Requires the purchase of the Battle Pass. The passive increases DMG up to 5 times over a period of time. One stack is lost when the wielder takes a hit; otherwise, the stacks last indefinitely. Due to how strong the passive gets at higher refinements, Serpent Spine is a popular option for a lot of Claymore users, including Chongyun. Provided that Chongyun has enough field time, keeping the stacks at max shouldn’t be too difficult with him staying off field. That said, there is an opportunity cost in giving the weapon to Chongyun over other characters.
Artifacts
Set(s):
- Noblesse Oblige (4) – Elemental Burst DMG set; provides a teamwide 20% ATK buff for 12 seconds when the wielder casts their Burst. Equipping this will both augment Chongyun’s ult and his role as a support. Since his Burst has a 12 second cooldown, he has 100% uptime with this set.
Stats:
- Sands: ATK%
- Goblet: Cryo DMG Bonus
- Circlet: CRIT Rate or CRIT DMG
- Sub-Stats: ATK%, CRIT Rate, CRIT DMG, Elemental Mastery, Energy Recharge
As mentioned earlier, Chongyun’s Energy needs are generally low so sub-stats are usually enough for him and he almost always prefers an ATK% Sands. Only go with an Energy Recharge Sands if he is somehow struggling to get his Elemental Burst off cooldown. You can probably run Chongyun with his base 100% Energy Recharge if he is teamed alongside a second Cryo unit.
Chongyun lacks any innate CRIT stats so he usually wants CRIT Rate as his Circlet’s main stat. If he has the Serpent Spine and 32.4-42.4% CRIT Rate from sub stats, opt for CRIT DMG.
If using Chongyun in a Frozen comp, avoid giving him Elemental Mastery. The stat is useless for the Elemental Reaction.
Synergy
Generally speaking, Chongyun’s Elemental Skill suits Frozen and Melt comps. Superconduct is for Physical DMG so you do not need the Frost Field for your comp, save for maybe using Shatter (which barely anyone in the game uses).
Elemental Resonances that benefit Chongyun are Cryo (15% CRIT Rate against enemies affected by Cryo/Frozen), Geo (15% Shield Strength and 15% more DMG while protected by a shield), and Pyro (25% ATK).
As a disclaimer, the following lists of recommended teammates and example teams is not necessarily a comprehensive one. Also, the example teams may include characters that are not included in the recommendations as they arguably synergize more with someone else on the team and less so with Chongyun.
Recommended Teammates:
- Kaeya (4-Star | Cryo) – Chongyun’s Frost Field enables Kaeya to be played as an On Field DPS in a Frozen comp.
- Rosaria (4-Star | Cryo) – Essentially the same situation as with Kaeya.
- Xiangling (4-Star | Pyro) – With Cryo infused Normal Attacks, Xiangling can enable Melt procs for her Elemental Burst. That said, an On Field Xiangling prefers C6 Bennett’s Pyro infusion.
Obviously, I’m grasping at straws here. As mentioned earlier, the list of characters who actually want to team up with Chongyun is very small.
Example Teams:
| Xiangling | Chongyun | Xingqiu | Bennett |
| Kaeya | Chongyun | Xingqiu | Sayu |
| Rosaria | Chongyun | Xingqiu | Sayu |
Closing Words
Chongyun is one of the most forgotten characters in Genshin Impact’s meta. In a vacuum, his kit is perfectly fine. The problem is that it is simply better for an On Field DPS to have an infusion of their own and miHoYo seems to have realized it as nearly all of them have one in some way. This was even the case back in Version 1.0 with Diluc and Keqing. As a result, the game quickly moved away from what Chongyun could bring to the table. Apart from curiosity and experimentation, there is very little reason to build him these days.
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