The free to play ARPG, Genshin Impact, has now been out for a while. As a gacha game, some of the frequently asked questions are about characters. Whether it’s about how to build them, how to team them up together, and more importantly, how they rank up compared to each each other. Or in other words, Character Tier lists. The importance of tier lists in gacha games come from the limited access to characters. By merely playing the game daily, you are guaranteed some premium currency called Primogems to pull or to use on Wishes on banners.

But that’s it, the Primogems are a finite amount if you are a free to play player, so its important to do some decision making and think carefully before spending them. Even for those who decide to invest a little, it’s good to know which characters to go after and have a plan. At the very least, you want to spend them on characters that matter, or ones that will be beneficial to your team. We will help you answer these questions, with our Fextralife Genshin Impact Character Tier List Reverse Melt.

Genshin Impact Character Tier List: Reverse Melt (Cryo)

Genshin Impact offers a big world to explore, with a huge roster of 31 characters at the time of the creation of this character tier list (version 1.5), the latest being Yanfei and upcoming Eula being added soon making that 32 playable characters in total (33 if you count the main character).

To properly give every Character a fair chance of representation, I’ve decided to split characters by the roles they can play in a party, the most unique aspect of every character, and the elemental reaction they are capable of causing. Since most enemies in-game are either immune, resistant, or weak against certain elemental reactions, that would be the main focal point for our version of tier lists. Tier Lists can be slightly subjective at times, due to personal preference when it comes to playstyle, but we will way up the good and the bad in our rankings so you have a better understanding of how we got there.

We will take into consideration the amount of damage a character can inflict, the frequency of applying said element, and the accessibility of the character. So for five-star characters, we judge characters based on their Zero Constellation (C Zero). Any five-star characters that require more constellations to function will be ranked lower than characters that give their whole kit from the get-go. For four-star characters however, since they frequently appear in different banners with an up-rate, and are easier to obtain so they will be judged accordingly. This is why I’m ranking four-star characters based on what they can achieve with  C1, C2, or C4. Sometimes even on C6 performance in certain cases.

So while you navigate our tier list, beware it doesn’t represent the maximum potential of each character. But rather a sum of different factors, including accessibility. With that settled, let’s get going.

What is Reverse Melt

Melt is the second and last Amplifying Reaction in Genshin Impact, and works similar to Vaporize. The main use of Melt is dealing massive damage, so it’s a reaction often sought out by damage dealers.

Melt occurs when the Cryo element meets the Pyro element. The major difference between normal “Melt” and “Reverse Melt” is the order of the elements that are applied to enemies. If Pyro is the proccing element, it’s considered a normal Melt reaction, which amplifies the proccing hit by a 2x multiplier. If Cryo is the proccing element, it’s considered a “Reverse Melt” and amplifies the proccing hit by a 1.5X multiplier. But that’s not the whole story.

Among the two elements required for the reaction, Pyro is the strongest element. Pyro DPS tends to remove the Cryo element very quickly from enemies and replace it with a longer duration of Pyro element. So you shortly start to turn Pyro into an “Aura”, and Cryo turns into the proccing element. The end result is an easier time to set up a Reverse Melt team with Cryo DPS, than to set up a normal Melt team with Pyro DPS. By easier, I mean “consistent” versus “almost impossible to maintain” kind of situation. The good news is, there are very strong Cryo DPS characters in Genshin Impact, so Reverse Melt teams are up there on the top tier lists.

Ganyu (SSS Rank)

At the game’s launch back in August, 2020, Cryo DPS teams were not very popular and didn’t take many spots in top-tier lists. The reason for this is that Ganyu was not a playable character by that time. She didn’t come up until later in January 2021, and she dominated every tier list since then.

There’s simply no denying the raw power of Ganyu, with her twice charged shot, and everlasting elemental burst. Ganyu also has very strong base stats and skill modifiers. Her Ascension stat is Critical Damage, the strongest stat in the game, and has a built-in Crit Rate. In her playstyle, she deals damage twice with a single shot. Ganyu also doesn’t suffer from the same aim problems that other Bow users have. She’s less reliant on headshots, she still deals AOE damage if she misses the target, and she naturally has a longer time frame to aim. Also, she doesn’t need to use animation canceling.

Ganyu does require a degree of skill to realize her maximum potential, but she’s nowhere near Klee or Hu Tao. But the sole problem with Ganyu‘s Reverse Melt is choosing the right supports for her. Unlike Vaporize teams, who have an off-field Hydro application for a long period of time, at a longer range, the only off-field Pyro application source is Xiangling, who has only a medium range. Getting close and personal with enemies using a bow while charging your shot can be problematic if she gets interrupted.

There are two different solutions for this problem, namely Zhongli‘s shield, or Venti‘s gathering ultimate. Both are easy solutions, but makes Ganyu Reverse melt teams expensive. Though both characters are powerhouses on their own, and the team ends up way stronger, so it’s still a good choice.

Acceptability

Ganyu is a five-star character, and has her event banner, which showed up only once since her release, but it will surely make its return in the future. She can be built in several ways, but the strongest Reverse Melt setup is the Wanderer’s Troupe Artifact set, with her signature weapon Amos’ Bow. Which – again – is a banner weapon and depending on your, might be not cheap to get. Though she still does well with a four-star weapon in hand.

Finally, Ganyu is a multi-purpose character, unlike top Pyro DPS who’s function is only seen as a hyper carry, she can fill several roles. Ganyu can be a support, burst DPS, sustained DPS, or your join permanent freeze teams for Cryo application. Her role also doesn’t conflict with other Cryo characters, as she can switch roles easily, and even support four-star characters. So she’s a really good pick, and while her Reverse Melt team is expensive, she can be built in several other ways, which can be covered in different tier lists.

Ideal Ganyu Melt Team

Xiangling goes here without saying, especially C4 Xiangling. With both her elemental skill and elemental burst being like a turret that lingers after being switched out, constantly applying Pyro while off-field. Ganyu is ideal to be paired with a second Pyro character such as Bennett to get maximum damage. Then you have to decide if you would go with Venti or Zhongli. Both can debuff enemy resistances, enabling Ganyu to deal more damage, and both provide strong burst damage on their own. So it’s their playstyle that matters here. Usually Zhongli is a much safer pick for a DPS character with a focus on charged attacks, and the added comfort he has with his shield. Though against huge packs of enemies, Venti is better, because he can gather enemies and enable Ganyu to shotgun them all with her ultimate.

Rosaria (S Rank)

Now this one is super interesting. Rosaria is one of the latest additions to Genshin Impact’s roster of characters in patch 1.4, she’s a four-star Cryo Polearm character. She has some unique mechanics such as “backstabbing”, and buffs the whole team’s Critical Rate, if she successfully goes through smaller enemies with her Elemental skill. This buff makes Rosaria work as a support, but also she’s a damage dealer, and she fulfills both roles simultaneously. The strongest way to build Rosaria is her Reverse Melt teams, especially at C2 or higher. At C2 she has two additional AOE hits with her elemental Burst, which can be Melted.

She’s also highly flexible with team building, and can be built as a sole hyper carry with Chongyun as support, or as a burst carry in a quick swap team. She can also be a secondary DPS in a Klee team, with Klee doing no-Melt DPS, and Rosaria doing all reverse Melt. Since we are ranking her in a tier list, I’m inclined to mention a unique setup with a three DPS team consisting of Rosaria, Kaeya, and  Xiangling, all built for damage dealing. So her teams can go from dirt cheap to sky-high expensive, depending on your goal, but all work well. The reason for this, is unlike Ganyu, Rosaria’s Cryo application is slower, so Xiangling‘s Pyro application is so consistent by comparison, and allows a second Cryo DPS to do Melt.

Her Elemental Burst behaves like a turret, and this allows her to Reverse Melt while off the field. It opens up field time for another DPS, or quick swap teams. So she’s really strong mechanically, and a solid choice for a long-term investment. The only thing that’s holding her back from being an SS tier in my book, is her four-star stats and skill modifiers.

Acceptability

Being a four-star character, Rosaria is easier to pull for, as four-star characters have a higher chance of dropping. If you are serious about using her as DPS, you can go for C2, or all the way to C5. Her C6 is only for a support role in Superconduct teams, so it’s not important here. She was recently introduced into the game in patch 1.4, so it might be a while before she shows up again in another up-rate banner, but she is still available at usual pull rates from both the limited and standard banner. Rosaria is a good pull, but not solely exclusive in her role, because Kaeya exists, and he’s a guaranteed character through story.

She’s also easier to build with hybrid artifact sets, meaning taking two Blizzard Strayer and two Noblesse Oblige artifact sets. Or going full Lavawalker set if you have good pieces. There are very strong polearm options as a weapon, but she’s just perfect with four-star Dragon’s Bane. So she herself is cheap to build, the extra expenses come if you build two additional DPS characters in her team.

Ideal Rosaria Melt Team

As mentioned before, Rosaria has several team options, such as a hyper carry with Chongyun, Xiangling, and Bennett. That’s the cheapest and easiest option, but there are more, another is a quick swap team with Xiangling, Bennett, and  Zhongli. A triple DPS team with Xiangling, Bennett, and Kaeya. Or a Klee team with Klee, Bennett, and Kaeya. If you are running Abyss and have Bennett busy in another team, you might replace him with Jean or Diona in some cases.

Kaeya (S Rank)

Kaeya Reverse Melt capabilities are a little worse than Rosaria’s, especially with how hard it is to get Kaeya constellations. He’s a four-star, but he has up until this point never showed up in an event banner, so players may have to wait six months for him to show up in Masterless Starglitter shop for the additional constellation. Or get a lucky pull from the standard banner. That said, he’s still in the same tier as Rosaria, and not lagging hugely behind her.

His Elemental Burst is also a turret, with the same duration as C0 (constellation zero) for Rosaria. It applies Cryo a little faster, so it misses some Melts, but the high base damage of the skill compensates some of the lost Melt effect. But I’ll not stress about the comparison between the two, because there’s room for both Kaeya and Rosaria in most teams. So they don’t clash or contradict much. But for absolute accuracy, he can give teams less Energy recharge, and no Critical Rate, so he’s slightly behind her.

Acceptability

Kaeya is a guaranteed reward from playing the story, so everyone has Kaeya from the start. But everyone doesn’t necessarily have high constellations for Kaeya. For the most part, that’s fine for Reverse Melt teams. Kaeya‘s constellations mostly focus on a permanent freeze setup.

His damage is split between his Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst, and he actually misses some Melts. So his safest gear choice might be two Gladiator’s Finale pieces and two Blizzard Strayer. The Gladiator set is only farmable from world bosses, so it takes much longer to get good pieces with good sub stats. However, Kaeya can perform well with a four-star weapon just as Rosaria, so he is not really expensive to build.

Ideal Kaeya Melt team

He goes into exactly the same setups as Rosaria which are Klee Reverse Melt teams, quick-swap with Xiangling, Zhongli, and triple DPS teams. He can also hyper-carry with Chongyun instead of Rosaria if you don’t have her.

Chongyun (B Rank)

Chongyun can never compete with the top Cryo DPS in a Reverse Melt setup. Actually, there’s only one Reverse Melt build worth building for Chongyun as a DPS, and that’s about triple melting his Ultimate.

You see, Chongyun can easily convert all his normal attacks into the Cryo element, which should be great for an Elemental reaction, right? Well actually no. In this case, the trick to elemental normal attacks is that they have long, internal cooldowns for applying said element. It’s on the complicated side of the game’s mechanics, and it doesn’t show up anywhere in the character sheet or skill description, which means it’s only learned through extensive testing.

So Chongyun will keep doing casual non-melt damage for a huge portion of his normal attacks, which already has very low modifiers. So it’s deemed not worthy to try to fully melt Chongyun‘s attacks, and only try to triple melt his ultimate to do considerable damage. This build is not bad, because it benefits from Elemental Burst damage modifiers from Noblesse Oblige, and plays Chongyun as a burst DPS, allowing other main DPSs to take the field. It’s still a niche setup that requires a lot of effort and still not great apart from having some five-digit numbers thrice over.

Chongyun‘s main value is to fill the support role, to enable other characters in dealing Cryo damage with normal and charged attacks. But this is not a support tier list, so he goes down to a B rank.

Acceptability

As most four-star characters, Chongyun has shown up in several banners, and you might have unlocked several constellations for him unintentionally. But to build him as a melt DPS, it’s not truly advisable in my opinion, as it would take too much effort in exchange for little payoff.

Diona (B Rank)

This one is somewhere between a B and C rank. Diona doesn’t do zero damage like Qiqi, but she also has a much lower ceiling than Chongyun. Her elemental burst leaves a turret, as the theme of all Cryo characters. but it takes too long to tick, doesn’t last that long, and has really low modifiers. Then there’s her Elemental skill, that shoots either two or five projectiles that auto-aim, and roll for critical independently. Such a setup should provide Energy recharge, for herself and the team, but can deal some damage occasionally.

The thing about Diona is that she tries to do so many things, at the same time. From healing, to shielding, to recharging energy, to firing a charged shot. She has to sacrifice dealing damage to provide great shielding, and decent healing. So applying Cryo is just an extra bonus but not the main purpose. Just don’t build her for DPS and you should be fine.

Qiqi (C Rank)

Qiqi is a great healer, and that’s it. She’s not there for dealing damage, and MiHoYo ensured that she’s not fit for DPS at all, by lowering her Cryo application. The ironic thing is that her healing scales with the Attack stat, but it still doesn’t help her damage to any degree. Even Barbara can do better, and get some numbers with a charged attack vaporize setup, while Qiqi is pretty hopeless by comparison.

We hope you enjoyed our Genshin Impact Character Tier Reverse Melt (Cryo) list. Did you agree with how we ranked them? Let us know your favourite setups below for Reverse Melt.

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If you’re currently exploring Teyvat be sure to check out our Genshin Impact wiki for all the latest info. If you’re looking for some Genshin Impact build guides, be sure to check out next Genshin Impact Build: Ningguang and Genshin Impact Build: Diluc.