In this Genshin Impact Guide I’ll be explaining how to play the five star, Geo support, Albedo. This is not a specific team build guide, but rather an in-depth analysis of the character, and his various roles. There are several amazing support characters in-game, and they really do deserve the spotlight. So I intend on continuing to release a series of support characters guides, going in detail on how to use them. Check out previous entries in the series, Shenhe In-Depth Cryo Support Guide and Sangonomiya Kokomi In-Depth Hydro Support Guide.

Albedo In-Depth Geo Support Guide | Genshin Impact

Albedo is another five-star character that can only be obtained through a limited banner. So the decision to use your wishes on this character requires some consideration. Hopefully through this guide, you will work out whether it’s worth it for you when he gets a rerun banner. Contrary to most recent characters from Inazuma, who are very specialized units; Albedo is more general in approach, having not very much tied to his Geo element. So you could use him in and out of Geo teams, and he will do a consistent job. If you are building a team, and you fill main roles with characters you have, and you don’t have a proper character in the fourth slot; chances are high, that Albedo is a good fit for that missing slot.

As a Sword user, Albedo actually has his best two-weapon picks available as free weapons, meaning you won’t have to spend precious Primogems on a weapon banner. When it comes to Artifact Sets, he can easily adapt one full set, or run on a hybrid one. For stats, Albedo’s leans on the easier side of builds; as he uses the Def stat, which is not contested by other DPS builds and support characters. Though he still requires some farming to get the optimum Crit sub stats. But overall, he’s easy to build and he’s faster to kick start early on in the game, making this character a good choice. Let’s get into what roles he can fulfil!

Albedo Support Roles

In Genshin Impact, there are five main roles, for support characters to fulfil: Damage Mitigation, either by shielding, healing, or damage reduction buffs. Damage Buffer, through various stats boosts to team members. Energy Battery, where support characters are able to generate a lot of energy, to fulfil Burst requirements for high energy cost damage dealers. Enabler, which either applies certain elements to start a reaction or performs certain actions required for the main DPS to function (this includes on-field Drivers, who use normal attacks to proc attacks from off-field DPS). Finally, the most basic form of support is the Sub-DPS, where support characters just provide some extra damage.

Typically, a good support can fulfil two or more roles, while a great support can fulfil either most of them, or one of them to a great extent. So let’s go through all roles, and explore how Albedo performs in each.

Damage Buffer (6/10)

Albedo‘s kit has one buff to his team, and it’s an Elemental Mastery increase by 120, after casting his Burst. The buff has a 10 seconds duration, and his burst has low ER requirement, fast cast animation, and mere 12 seconds cooldown. So it’s a buff that has a very high uptime during most rotations, whether characters snapshot the buff, or use it dynamically.

Unfortunately, EM buff is not as universal as Attack or Crit buffs. So its usefulness is a bit limited to teams who have main DPS relying on reactions to deal damage. In teams with Amplifying Reactions such as Melt or Vaporize, Albedo can replace the Anemo unit. Albedo‘s EM buff is similar to Sucrose, but unlike her and all Anemo characters, he can’t shred enemy elemental resistance. So using him will result in a smaller damage buff to the main damage dealer, but will be compensated by Albedo‘s personal damage added to the team.

With a rather low investment, Albedo is a solid replacement, if not better. However, at the very endgame, with high investment, the damage increase on the main damage dealer becomes more relevant than Albedo‘s personal damage. That’s especially true for teams with very high DPS characters such as Ayaka or Ganyu Melt teams. The exact breaking point where Albedo becomes a worse damage buffer is up for debate.

Another benefit of using Albedo comes with Geo resonance, which gives the team a straight-up 15% damage increase while protected by a shield. So for most teams that use Zhongli as a support, Albedo can have a place as a second Geo character.

Energy Battery (7/10)

Albedo regenerates decent Geo particles while off field, which is fine for Geo teams. Some Geo main DPS characters such as Arataki Itto, or Noelle require a lot of energy to keep their burst up. Albedo helps ease this burden on them, by merely casting his skill and switching out. His skill has a very short cooldown, and very long uptime so you surely have it up 100% of the time. It’s also easy to reposition it if enemies spawn or move to a different spot.

But unlike top battery characters, Albedo doesn’t use any of the energy-generating weapons, such as the Favonius or Sacrificial series. So his energy generation is limited to his own skill, but no extra particles from weapon passives. That prevents him from being a true battery for none Geo characters, even though he still helps them a little.

By comparison, Albedo is slightly better than Zhongli at energy generation, assuming both hit with every tick of their skill. However, Zhongli‘s skill is even harder to keep hitting enemies, while Albedo is much more consistent. So overall, Albedo wins overall when compared to Zhongli. On the other hand, Ningguang at C2, with team switching to her every 6 seconds to cast her skill could generate more energy for a team. However, it’s a very clunky playstyle, and only justified if you use Ningguang as a main DPS, and not as a support. So again, Albedo is a more stable and easy to use battery.

One last thing to consider about Albedo, is that his energy generation is RNG based. So in some rotations, you end up getting a team burst up earlier, while some might miss a tick or two to randomness. So you are advised to build ER slightly higher than recommended levels.

Sub-Dps (10/10)

The main role of Albedo is a sub-DPS, and that’s why we prioritize building him with all of the offensive stats, artifact set, and weapon. Building Albedo as a sub DPS is the most efficient tactic, and should always be a priority. That’s especially true with the way he scales DPS with Def stat, rather than Attack. Def has more efficient scaling, and yields a better outcome.

What truly makes Albedo shine as a sub DPS is the Geo resonance, which buffs Albedo twice: First by giving a generic damage multiplier, and second by shredding Geo resistances of enemies. With this, Albedo doesn’t need any external buff to do his job. So you can throw him in any team that already has one Geo character, and he will fit nicely.

The other component of Albedo damage is the uptime of his damage-dealing ability. Albedo Elemental skill leaves a Geo construct that lasts for 30 seconds and has a 4 seconds cooldown. So no matter how long your team rotation is, you have 100% uptime with Albedo damage. So even though he doesn’t deal big, flashy numbers the fact that he persists with a longer time period dealing damage, results in higher average damage. His damage is also an AOE, and if you can really gather enemies very close to each other, he shotguns all enemies several times per hit.

Finally, the best weapons for Albedo are entirely free weapons, so he’s a very cheap unit to kick off. If you intend to maximize his damage, you can farm his best artifact set faster than other DPS characters. The reason is, that the Def stat is easier to roll than the attack stat.

Damage Calculations

I’ve done some calculations for Albedo‘s damage in a high DPS team such as Ningguang, Albedo, Yae Miko, and Bennett. Albedo deals over 30% ofthe team’s total DPS, even though teams have three DPS characters, and Albedo doesn’t benefit from the buffs of the fourth character. This shows how reliable he’s in a sub-DPS role.

Enabler (5/10)

Albedo doesn’t enable any team by himself, since he’s mostly a DPS, and doesn’t offer much to other team mates. However, if you have any team with one geo character already (such as Zhongli), then Albedo is the best Geo character to pair with that team. Having two characters of Geo element gives generic damage buff to the entire team, and higher shield strength. So Albedo technically enables Geo resonance, but he’s not the only character that can accomplish that.

In some cases, if you use Zhongli as a shielded source, you don’t need a second Geo, to begin with. 15% damage for the entire team is really a strong buff, but there are other sources for similar buffs. In several scenarios, you will need certain elements in team to setup reactions, so Geo will not be your best pick. So in reality, it could go either way.

One team that can put Albedo to good use is Hu Tao, Xingqiu, Zhongli, and Albedo. The only reaction in play is Vaporize, which needs a sole Hydro enabler such as Xingqiu. So the reaction part is fulfilled, and Hu Tao can’t use strong buffers like Bennett. That’s why having Albedo enabling Geo resonance is much more effective.

Another team setup such as Zhongli, Fischl and Beidou can’t really afford to use Albedo. This team uses Zhongli as an on-field carry, and uses the Electro couple to deal damage. However, it lacks a buffer, and lack reactions. So we have to prioritize using either a Pyro or Hydro character to get reactions or use a strong buffer to capitalize on the damage of the three characters we already have. So we choose a shield bot such as Xinyan who can provide both: consistent Pyro application, and team buff with Tenacity of the Millelith.

Damage Mitigation (5/10)

The Geo Element naturally generates small Crystalized shields, that are weak, but can mitigate one hit or two. Albedo applies Geo every 2 seconds in AOE, and generates one or more Crystalized shield. If your active character picks them frequently, they would have acceptable damage mitigation. That’s more noticeable with Geo resonance which grants shield strength, and after using Albedo burst, which grants 120 EM, that also increases shield strength for crystalized shields.

However, if you are using Albedo with Zhongli, who have the strongest shields in game, then you don’t really care about Crystalize shields. If you don’t use Zhongli, then you have to worry about interruption resistance more than damage. The reason being is that enemies have grown to be very aggressive in Genshin, and they perform attacks with strong impact, that tends to knock down, knock back, and chain stun players. So you really need a decent resistance to interruption in most teams to get through.

Albedo lacks resistance to interruption, and weak Crystalized shields doesn’t help a lot. So you run a risk there, especially if you have no healer on the team. The redeeming qualities for Albedo though are the high invulnerability frames while casting his skill and burst. By invulnerability frames, I mean the special animation of his burst and skill, where no enemy attack affects him at all. Paired with the short cooldown, and small energy cost of Albedo‘s burst, you can get decent invulnerability frames in every rotation, to get through the most aggressive moves of enemies.

It’s an effective way to play, especially in quick swap teams, but hard to master a playstyle. So it’s your choice if you want to play without any damage mitigation in such a team.

Best Team Archetypes for Albedo

Every support character you get from limited banners should fit in more than one team comp. That way, you get more value out of your resin and build a flexible roster. Albedo is a semi-flexible support, since he can slot into virtually any team. However to be really efficient at it, he needs Geo resonance. In this section, I’ll go through the basic concept of every team Albedo can build.

Amplifying Reaction Teams

Namely Melt and Vaporize, and their Reverse counterparts. Albedo is surprisingly a good fit in some of these teams, since his EM buff contributes very good damage to the Amplifying reactions. Basically, EM is a flat number, that converts to a multiplier when used in damage formula. Main damage dealer characters always face the hard choice of using EM or Attack as the main stat on Timepiece, as they are mutually exclusive stats. And the general advice is to use EM stats, is if the team has an Attack buffer, and uses Attack stats otherwise.

Albedo take care of the EM buff, even if the team doesn’t have an Attack buffer, while adding a generic damage multiplier to the entire team. This allows him to fill several roles, since he still has his personal damage to contribute to the team.

However, this role is valid only if team the team can fill the reaction requirement with two (or a maximum of three) characters. That means, you need to have a very strong aura source (such as Xingqiu for Hydro). Strong element application on main DPS is required to cause frequent Amplifying reactions (such as Hu Tao for Pyro). This team consisting of Hu Tao and Xingqiu is self-sufficient, in terms of not needing more characters contributing to the reaction. So it has room for two flexible characters, and allows not only Albedo, but also Zhongli for shielding and Geo resonance.

Teams with Venti

I have mentioned the term “quadratic scaling” before, which means the damage keeps multiplying as the enemy number gets higher. So if your Albedo deals X damage per hit on a single target, he will deal 4X against two targets. The way this scaling work is as follows:

• Single target gets hit by one of Albedo’s “Transient Blossoms”. It deals a small AOE damage that hits nothing else.
• Two targets gets hit by one of Albedo’s “Transient Blossoms” each, they deal AOE damage. That in return hit the other close enemy. The result is (2*2 = 4) hits.
• Three targets get by one of Albedo’s “Transient Blossoms” each, they deal AOE damage. That in return hits all three enemies. Result is (3*3 = 9) hits.
• Four targets gets (4*4 = 16) hits.
• Five targets gets (5*5 = 25) hits.

All of this craze scaling occurs only in the small AOE radius of the Transient Blossoms, so they really require enemies to be very close. The only effective way to get enemies that close in range, is by using a strong Anemo gathering talent such as Venti‘s burst. For Venti‘s talent to work effectively, enemies have to be lightweight, so they can be pulled very tight. But assuming you meet these conditions, Albedo‘s damage becomes one of the strongest in the game.

If Albedo deals 20k per hit on a single target, with a mere three enemies gathered this allows Albedo to deal 60k damage on each. That’s 180k damage in two seconds flat, or 780k damage on Venti’s 8 seconds Burst duration, from Albedo alone. Now pair them with other quadratic scaling characters such as Ganyu and Ayato, and you delete entire floors in mere seconds.

Even paired with linear scaling characters, such as Ayato, Yae, or Lisa, it allow very strong AOE against small enemies.

Geo Teams

The natural fit for Albedo is in Geo teams, with one Geo main DPS, and one or more Geo supports. Albedo can fulfil all his roles in a Geo team, as he generates Geo particles to recharge Geo characters burst, he deals more damage with Geo resonance, and much more damage if paired with a Def buffer such as Gorou.

Albedo fits with all Geo main DPS, be it Ningguang, Arataki Itto, or Noelle. His ER generation is not enough to battery Noelle as sole Geo support, but if you extend Noelle’s rotation, it’s easy to solve this problem. With Ningguang, Albedo offers the least buffs, but his consistent AOE DPS makes up for Ningguang focusing on a single target. As for Arataki Itto, he benefits a lot from using Gorou as a support, because he buffs both Itto and Albedo at the same time.

Some Geo teams have space to run other reactions, such as Noelle, Albedo, Fischl, and Xingqiu. This allows the team to be flexible against Abyss shields since Geo is bad at breaking enemy shields. On the other hand, some teams prefer going mostly mono Geo, such as Itto, Albedo, Gorou, Zhongli or healer. Albedo fits all of these options and works perfectly fine.

Xiao Team

Another good support role for Albedo is paired with Xiao. It again has something to do with Geo resonance and being paired with Zhongli. Xiao is the only Anemo main DPS in the game as of version 2.6, and he’s unique in that regard. Zhongli is actually the only accessible support that can shred Anemo resistance, and using Zhongli in this case, automatically grants the use of Albedo.

The main method Xiao deals damage is a plunging attack, so he can’t use other sub-dps supports such as Xingqiu, or Beidou, since they trigger their damage only on normal attacks. So that leaves very little choice for a Xiao team, in terms of sub-dps slot. That proves how Albedo is a solid choice, fitting in most teams, even the ones where all normal supports don’t fit.

So an ideal Xiao team consists of himself, paired with Albedo, Zhongli, and Jean. There are other versions, that have a lower DPS ceiling, but the version with Albedo is stronger.

Transformative Reaction Teams

This archetype of the team is less popular for Albedo, especially with the fact that Geo offers little to nothing to transformative reactions. Though there are some versions that could use the gathering of Sucrose, alongside the quadratic scaling of Albedo. Doubling down on an EM buff from both Albedo and Sucrose, to maximize the Transformative Reaction damage numbers.

An example team of Albedo, Sucrose, Fischl, and Xingqiu could easily run with Sucrose on field carry. Sucrose can gather enemies with her burst, shred enemies’ Electro and Hydro resistance, and deals very good Swirl damage. Meanwhile, Albedo deals more AOE dps, and buff EM for Sucrose and the team. The EM buff from Albedo double dips on this team. Since it increases Sucrose base EM, it allows her to give an even stronger EM buff to the team. Which is additive with the extra EM team gets directly from Albedo.

So if a full DPS Fischl has a marginal base of 80 EM, and she gets 180 EM from a fully buffed Sucrose, it sums up to 260 EM. Now with Albedo, Fischl gets an extra 120 from Albedo’s buff, and Sucrose gives 200 EM instead of 180. The extra 20 EM is converted from Albedo buff. So it sums up to 400 EM without investing in EM on Fischl herself. It’s a marginal increase but adds up with Albedo’s personal damage, and an increase in Sucrose‘s DPS as well. It’s a good solution if you don’t have other buffers available for this half of the abyss.

Albedo Talent Skills

  Favonius Bladework – Weiss

Perform up to 5 rapid strikes with the sword. It’s mostly useless talent, as it deals physical damage, and Albedo is way better scaling Geo damage with his skill.

Abiogenesis: Solar Insotoma

Elemental Skill is a major part of Albedo’s kit and is used to deal damage, generate energy, and everything else. It leaves geo construct that doubles as an elevator, and has a very long duration of 30 seconds, and mere 4 seconds cooldown. The skill snapshot stats at the time of casting, so it can benefit from the bonus of 4 pieces Husk of Opulent Dreams. It also deals more damage to opponents under 50% HP.

The skill scales purely with Def stat, and Geo damage, so it allows an easy build for Albedo. It’s so straightforward to use. Just cast it, and switch out. You only have to recast if you want to reposition the skill or to snapshot the buffs again.

It deals AOE damage every 2 seconds, and has quadratic scaling, based on a number of enemies. It applies Geo in every hit, so it can constantly generate Crystalized shields. Crystalized shields offer small temporary protection, nut also very useful to trigger the Archaic Petra buff bonus, if you use that set in your team.

Rite of Progeniture: Tectonic

AOE Elemental Burst of Albedo is another straightforward aspect of his kit. It can hit up to 7 enemies, and against a small number of enemies, it has a chance to hit some enemies more than once. The damage of Burst scales with “Attack” stat though, so it’s not a major aspect of your rotation.

Burst triggers the passive Homuncular Nature, which gives 120 EM buff for 10 seconds to the entire team. If you need this buff for your team, you need to build some ER into Albedo to burst on cooldown. And if you don’t need EM buff, you can skip casting Albedo burst entirely. It has some long animation, and deals little damage if you don’t build an attack (which you shouldn’t).

The long animation of burst is good for invulnerability frames though, so use it as a defensive mechanic if needed. It has only 12 seconds cooldown and 40 energy cost.

Albedo Stats

The best way is to build Albedo as a typical damage dealer, but using Def stat instead of Attack. When used with another Geo character, Albedo will rarely need any ER stat. So we focus on using Def stat on Timepiece, Geo damage on Goblet, and Crit stat on Headpiece.

For sub stats, always go for more % Def, and Crit. As always, maintain a ratio of 1:2 Crit Rate: Crit Damage ratio for maximum damage, or something very close to it.

Albedo Weapon

There are exactly two weapons for Def scaling Albedo, and both are free swords.

The three-star weapon Harbinger of Dawn, is the perfect choice for Albedo. It provides a massive Critical Rate and Critical Damage bonus while HP is over 90%. The thing is, Albedo will not be losing HP if he’s off the field, and for the time he’s in play, he has some good invulnerability frames. The only exception is when you deal with enemies who cause the Corrosion, such as wolves. Since they make the entire party suffer damage even those who are off-field.

The sheer amount of Crit Rate and Crit Damage eclipses any other bonus from any four or even five-star weapon. This includes both free or limited weapons from gacha. There’s only one exception though:

If you;ve been played Genshin during the 2.3 version event, you must have Albedo’s signature weapon, Cinnabar Spindle. This weapon is a four-star sword, with a massive Def sub stat, and a passive that adds additional scaling to elemental skill, based on Def. Being an event reward, the weapon also comes with materials enough for max refinement, so it’s a huge upgrade in Albedo damage.

Cinnabar Spindle alone gives Albedo an over 80% damage modifier, which is higher than the damage you get from Harbinger of Dawn. The only downside being that it’s not accessible anymore.

Albedo Artifacts

The way we build Albedo depends on the role he fulfills. Though in reality, we use Albedo as a sub-DPS, so we will stick to the highest damage options.

2x Husk of Opulent Dreams 2x Archaic Petra

The hybrid set offers decent damage for little farming, with 2x Archaic Petra giving 15% Geo damage, and 2x Husk of Opulent Dreams 30% Def. It’s not ideal for maximum damage, but a cheap option for early game. You could also use it if your main DPS is Geo, to reduce the contest over pieces of Husk of Opulent Dreams. Or you use it if it has far superior sub-stats.

4x Husk of Opulent Dreams

This is the absolute highest DPS set for Def scaling Geo characters, Husk of Opulent Dreams. It has a buff that accumulates over time, whether on-field dealing Geo damage or off-field. At maximum values, the Husk of Opulent Dreams grants Albedo 24% Geo damage, and 54% Def. These buffs are the strongest bonuses you can get from any artifact set, so consider farming for it for a few weeks to get good pieces.

You have reached the end of this Albedo Support Guide. We hope you found this build useful, and it gives you a good idea of how to run Albedo can run as a Geo Support Build with varying options.

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Genshin Impact is now available to play on PC, iOS, Android, PS4 and PS5. If you enjoyed this Genshin Impact Guide be sure to check out more even more info on our Genshin Impact Wiki. You can also keep an eye out for more guides and be sure to not miss our Hu Tao and Yoimiya dual DPS guide as well as, our strategy guide on How to Build A New Account in 2022.