In this Genshin Impact Guide we will be featuring an Overload Build for Zhongli. It’s suited for both Abyss, and exploring Inazuma. This is a flexible build, that can be done in several ways, and it utilizes Zhongli as a driver for several off-field characters. We will build two Electro characters for DPS, and one pyro character for Overload reaction. Then we aim to optimize the character picks, to have them buff Zhongli damage in return.

In this Guide I’ll explain just how to build the Overload Zhongli to face a wide variety of content, deal potent damage, and counter all situations that Genshin Impact has to throw at you. On top of that, it makes a perfect team to finish the Spiral Abyss with. So it’s one all-rounder build if you’ve been looking for a Free to Play Zhongli build. With only one small obstacle that is needed, high Constellations support characters such as Fischl, Beidou, and Xinyan. This is more achievable for veteran players who have played Genshin Impact from the start, but it is harder for new players. I’ll go through what Weapons to use, what Artifacts to upgrade and which companions to pick up, so check this one out!

Zhongli Overload Build Guide | Genshin Impact | Abyss Ready

Zhongli is a five-star character, that I highly recommend pulling in any account, regardless of the main team you run. There are a lot of teams that can take a flex slot, and usually, Zhongli is one of the top picks to fill it. In addition to that, there are several other combos achievable only with Zhongli. So having him is a very nice addition to your power. Most people use Zhongli in the support role or shield bot role because they’re very cheap to build and easy to execute. However, to take your Zhongli to the next level, you can build him as the main carry and as a DPS role.

If you pull another Geo five-star with Zhongli, such as Albedo, you can go for the Geo resonance. It’s a nice addition to any team, and buffs damage of every team member, regardless of element. However, pulling two five-star from the same element is a harder decision for free-to-play players. So I’ve built this team with more free-to-play-friendly units in mind. You will need other off-field DPS characters that scale well with the fast normal attack speed of Zhongli.

In our combo, Beidou provides AOE damage, Electro resistance shred, and resistance to interrupt. Since the release of the Inazuma update, Beidou has been getting a small buff each patch; with either the new artifact set, or a new weapon. She has become a stable DPS in so many new comps. On the other hand, Fischl provides good single target DPS, and good energy generation for Beidou. She works where the Raiden Shogun doesn’t work, and she deals more damage without taking any notable field time.

This many Electro applications beg for an Overload reaction to exploit. But there are not many Pyro characters that can apply Pyro from off-field. So the last component for this team is Xinyan, or perhaps Thoma if he ever proves to fit the role upon his release. There’s also amazing synergy between Xinyan and Zhongli, where Xinyan provides a physical damage buff, and shred enemy physical resistance at the same time. On top of that, she provides a shield, and can reapply Tenacity of the Millelith buff from off-field.

Overload Zhongli Attributes

We build Zhongli as typical physical carry here, with % Attack, Physical Damage Bonus, and Crit main stats. Zhongli also scales a portion of his damage based on HP, so if we get % HP on sub stats, it’s a bonus, not a drawback. Critical Rate and Critical Damage is highly desirable as well on sub stats, followed by % Attack.

% HP also affects Zhongli‘s shield strength, but we will not emphasize on HP much, unless we have the Staff of Homa. Zhongli attacks pretty fast, so increasing his damage numbers even by a small margin will highly impact your team’s DPS. This means building him for full damage is the better option.

Overload Zhongli Weapons

Zhongli is a spear user or a Polearm as the game calls it. This weapon hones a rapid attack speed style, and deals multi-hit combos that can be exploited to maximize certain skills. It has some AOE use, but it’s mainly a single target weapon. It has a longer range than swords though, and Zhongli‘s combos make him move forward while attacking, so he has a very decent reach with it.

Craftable Four Star Weapons (The Ultimate weapon)

Crescent Pike has been the standard best in slot physical damage polearm in Genshin Impact. When I say ‘best in slot’ I mean literally being the best weapon in-game for physical DPS, in normal circumstances. It’s very easy to get a weapon, as you can just go to the blacksmith and craft several copies of it, to reach high refinement. In the beta version of Genshin Impact, it was even better, and many players consider it the best weapon in the game. Then it got a small nerf, and since then there were not many polearms users specializing in physical damage. That all changed when Zhongli was released.

What Crescent Pike gives over other choices, is a whole additional joint attack with every hit your character does. To realize how much of that damage increases, look at Zhongli‘s fifth combo. It’s a single attack that hits four times with a small multiplier. Now with the Crescent Pike, Zhongli will do an additional attack with each of the four multi-hits, each attack having a full multiplier. So with Crescent Pike at refinement 5, you can do damage with a total 320% multiplier over your first four attacks ((4*1 + 1*4) *40%). While your own four Normal Attack damage at skill level 6 has an almost 270% multiplier. So the total damage increases from the Crescent Pike weapon alone is over 120% unconditional multiplier.

That damage scales with all Attack, Physical damage, and Crit modifiers. Pretty insane indeed, and almost beats every other spear in the game at R1, with a few exceptions I’ll go through below. But on R5, it’s even better than the Staff of Homa for Physical DPS for Zhongli.

Battle Pass Four Star Weapons

Deathmatch typically falls behind the Crescent Pike in terms of damage. However, in some rare cases where you have got bad luck with Crit Rate stat on artifacts for Zhongli, this could be an option. In reality, sometimes you only get a good Crit Damage sub-stats and almost none Crit Rate at all. In that case, you can end up with a very unbalanced Crit rate: Crit Damage ratio. Such as 40% Crit Rate and 120% Crit Damage, even while you use Crit Rate Circlet.

In such a case, you might find Deathmatch more desirable, due to the massive Crit Rate it gives (37%). That can tip the scales towards balance, or allow you to switch to the Crit Damage Circlet. It’s a temporary solution however, and not worth paying 10$ of real money to get one copy of Deathmatch in my opinion. You only get to use it if you already have it and no better character to use it with.

Note that’s only valid if you have R1 Crescent Pike, because at a higher refinement level, Crescent Pike will be better no matter how unbalanced your stats are.

Gasha 5 Star Weapons

Staff of Homa is the signature weapon of Hu Tao, featured only in one limited weapon banner that was released alongside her banner. It’s the best Polearm in the game, and the best in slot for many other Polearm users. It’s also considered better than most other weapon categories, and just an overpowered weapon in all regards.

That’s true for all Zhongli builds except pure physical builds. Not because Staff of Homa is weak in this build, but because Crescent Pike at higher refinement beat it by a mile.

The only reason you would use Staff of Homa over Crescent Pike here is the case where you care about Zhongli shield, as well as his burst and skill Geo damage. Homa bumps the HP stat, and adds another scaling based on how low Zhongli HP is. But again, spending Primogems on weapon banners is not advised for free to play players, especially for a weapon that will not give a real upgrade. And even if you pull Staff of Homa, you better use it with another Polearm user in your second team. Such as  Xiangling, Hu Tao, Rosaria, or Xiao.

Overload Zhongli Artifacts

Figuring out how to customize your Artifacts is one of, if not the hardest part of making a Build in Genshin Impact, as there are a lot of components involved, and generally takes a try or two before getting it right. With the continuous release of new artifacts every couple of patches, things do get a bit complicated. In this section, I will save you some time as I’ve set this up for maximum performance for this Zhongli build.

Pale Flame

Pale Flame is the strongest physical artifact set in the game, with up to 50% Physical DamageBonus, and 18% attack. However, it doesn’t work with every physical character. Initially, it gives only 25% Physical, and 9% Attack, which is lower than other sets. However, if a character elemental skill hits twice within 7 seconds, it doubles the effect, giving a full bonus.

Fortunately, Zhongli‘s elemental skill is a turret, or a pillar that stays on the field and keeps hitting enemies in continuous intervals. So if positioned right, Zhongli gets a full bonus of Pale Flame within two seconds of the start of his combo. He can keep refreshing the 7 second duration of the buff as long as his pillar is hitting enemies. So Pale Flame is overall the best in slot.

2x Pale Flame + 2x Bloodstained Chivalry

The best unconditional hybrid set for physical DPS is two pieces of  Pale Flame and two pieces of Bloodstained Chivalry. It has a slightly lower bonus than a full Pale Flame set, as it lacks the attack bonus, but it gives a solid 50% Physical Damage stat. It also makes up for it with having no conditions to trigger, so it can work against these giant enemies who destroy Zhongli‘s pillar at cast. Or against single enemies who move a lot, and you can’t hit them with the pillar twice.

On top of more practicality, it’s easier to farm two good pieces of each set, rather than getting whole four good pieces from the same set.

2x (Pale Flame/Bloodstained Chivalry) + 2x (Shimenawa’s Reminiscence/Gladiator’s Finale)

These are the lesser option among set options, so resort to it only if these sets have far superior sub-stats. For example, if the two pieces Gladiator’s Finale could give you extra 15% Crit Rate from sub stats. Because 15% Crit Rate from sub stats, on top of 18% attack from the set bonus is usually more beneficial than 25% Physical Damage Bonus.

There’s also the fact that Shimenawa’s Reminiscence drop from the same domain as Emblem set, which you will need to farm for Beidou. So it’s more resin efficient, and quicker to acquire. But at endgame, you have to keep farming and get better sets.

Archaic Petra

This set is a secret gem that doesn’t have enough exposure among the community, even though it’s a very strong buffer set. The four pieces bonus has a unique mechanic that buffs the entire party damage for one element by a 35% damage multiplier. The condition that it needs for that multiplier is picking up crystals, formed by reaction between the Geo element and the desired element.

In this party setup, we have two electro characters that always apply Electro Aura from off-field. That makes the formation of Electro crystals so easy, when Zhongli skill or burst hit enemies. Now all you need is to pick the Crystal, and you buff each of your electro characters by 35% multiplier. It requires the character to use Archaic Petra to pick the crystal by himself. But that’s not hard to do since Zhongli will be the one with most field time anyway. But to fully utilize this bonus, you need to proc it before Beidou casts her Burst. As Beidou‘s burst snapshots the stats she has at the moment she casts it, and it can’t be buffed afterward. So this playstyle needs some practice.

But overall, you throw 50% physical damage for Zhongli away and get 35% damage for both Beidou and Fischl. If they are well invested and have strong weapons, they would do much more DPS than what Zhongli loses. So it’s overall better team DPS for maximum optimization, but whether you take it or not, it’s up to your preference.

Not recommended options

There are some artifact options that seem to be good on paper, but are very bad in practice. They all have to do with the fact that Zhongli‘s best in slot weapon is the Crescent Pike, and this weapon has one stat that it doesn’t scale with. This stat is “Normal Attack Damage”.

The reason for this is, the weapon attack comes with normal attacks, but is not considered a normal attack. So it doesn’t get any benefit from 4 pieces bonus of neither Gladiator’s Finale, Retracing Bolide, nor Shimenawa’s Reminiscence. They all explicitly state they increase Normal Attack, and Crescent Pike extra attacks are not Normal Attacks. That’s why it’s best to ignore these sets, and not consider them at all. They also give less damage than Pale Flame with other weapons as well!

The same goes for Thundersoother, which works fine, but has way less modifiers than Pale flame or Pale Flame+Bloodstained Chivalry hybrid.

Overload Zhongli Talent Skills

Rain of Stone

Performs rapid 6 attacks, with 5th attack hitting four times. For best physical damage with Crescent Pike, we need to cancel the combo after the fifth hit to rapidly start a new one. You can do this by either following with a charged attack, or quickly dash canceling. You don’t need to count Zhongli hits to recognize the fifth hit to start dashing or charging, it’s easily spotted by Zhongli kicking the spear.

Zhongli normal attacks move him closer to enemies, so he usually doesn’t need to break combo to chase after enemies. They are rapid enough to maximize the electro procs from Fischl C6, and Beidou burst. That’s why he’s a good driver for them both. And as a melee fighter, he’s always in range to proc overload from Xinyan shield.

Charged attacks on the other hand play as a movement talent, with Zhongli charging forward and dealing damage in a straight line. It’s more efficient to move between enemies with a charged attack than a normal dash, as you keep dealing damage.

With Dominance of Earth passive talent, Normal Attack, and Charged Attack DMG is increased by 1.39% of Max HP. That scaling is not higher than scaling from %Attack, but it counts on top of it. So having some HP on sub-stats is always a nice addition to damage.

Dominus Lapidis

Zhongli source of pillar and shield. the Elemental Skill can be used by holding or pressing the button. Press quickly summon the pillar, with less cast speed, less cooldown, and grants no shield. While holding takes longer to cast, but also grants a very tough shield to the entire party for 20 seconds. While having this shield active, Characters will decrease the Elemental resistance and Physical resistance of opponents by 20%. That’s the best aspect of Zhongli’s kit, and what makes him a valid option in so many teams.

The shield shred all types of resistances at once. So in our party, it buffs physical damage of Zhongli, Electro damage of Beidou and Fischl, and Overload damage of Xinyan. It’s actually one of the very few ways to increase Overload damage. The shield also has increased effectiveness against all types of damage and usually scales to be the best shield in-game. With the Resonant Waves passive, it fortifies even further when it takes damage, for higher shield effectiveness.

The other aspect of the skill is the pillar, which resonates with itself and other Geo structures nearby every 2 seconds. It deals damage at steady intervals, and this is how we get either full buff from Pale Flame set, or get geo reaction for Archaic Petra buff. There are some builds that solely rely on Pillar resonance with geo constructs, but it’s very different from this build, as both initial damage and resonance damage are Geo type, and doesn’t scale with our build.

Please note that Pillar stays for 30 seconds, and you can’t re-position it before it expires. So if you have both the shield and pillar active, don’t feel obliged to react to Elemental Skill.

Planet Befall

This Elemental Burst has the longest casting animation in the game, which takes up to a whole two seconds. So without Geo damage scaling, it’s usually a DPS loss to use it. In other words, you shouldn’t be using it at all while focusing on damage. However, it petrifies enemies which is one of the better crowd control skills that disables enemies altogether. Since we’ve chosen a team without a healer role, it has some value in tight situations if used defensively.

The Burst summons a huge meteor that impacts big AOE, and during its cast time, the character is invulnerable. It’s good to use it to avoid huge damage spikes from enemies, and could be nice to use prematurely before enemies spawn, to CC them immediately.

Petrification duration scales with talent level, so you might want to level this talent even if you don’t use it often. The additional seconds might make a huge difference when you actually need them.

Overload Zhongli Party Composition

Genshin Impact has a unique playstyle that relies on switching characters and chaining combos across these characters. So a solid part of Zhongli’s build is knowing which characters will accompany him, and what roles they will play.

In this section, I’ll fill you in on some of the best characters that synergize well with this build. Even though in the current game version, it’s universally recommended for you to use a five-star support character such as Venti, Kazuha, Raiden, or even Jean. Our Build to Overload Zhongli requires none of the other five-stars to perform at 100% efficacy. This is because both Beidou and Fischl are better off-field damage dealers than most five-star characters. Xinyan has off-field Pyro application for Overload, and shreds physical resistance at the same time.

Fischl

Fischl was a cheap, and stable Electro support and sub DPS since the game’s release, back in September 2020. She has only received buffs since then and has become a better overall support role. Being available since release, Fischl has seen many appearances in time-limited banners, so most players will have her, and probably most of her Constellations by now. If you are a newer player and don’t have Fischl, try to get her as soon as possible, from banners or from Paimon’s shop when available.

Fischl relies on Oz, her night raven to stay on the field, to deal damage, and to apply an Electro element, long after she switches out. This goes well with Zhongli, who would take most of the field time for himself. We use Fischl to put her Elemental skill and summon Oz, and switch, then when her Elemental Burst is ready, we cast it and switch again. Depending on her Constellation count, Oz adds additional features on your field carry. C6 being the ultimate buff, adding additional Electro hit alongside every normal attack hit your carry does. Which scales very well with a fast attacking carry like Zhongli.

Unlike in our Yoimiya build though, our Fischl in this Zhongli setup doesn’t require C6 to be functional. The reason for that is that our Pyro unit, Xinyan, applies pyro much slower than Yoimiya. On top of that, we have a second electro source from Beidou. These factors allow the team to apply enough Electro between Pyro ticks of Xinyan‘s shield. So the Constellations requirement is way less strict.

Stats

For the best results, we build Fischl as a typical damage dealer. It means we prioritize Electro Damage Bonus, % Attack, Critical Rate, and Critical Damage. Since we build Electro to be an Aura rather than use proc reaction with Fischl herself, she doesn’t need any EM. And we usually don’t need Energy Recharge since the team has another other sources of electro particles.

Your main stat should be % Attack on Timepiece, Electro Damage Bonus on Goblet, and Crit Rate or Crit Damage on Headpiece.

Weapon

Fischl is the only bow user in our team, so she will compete with over weapons. So just give her the best bow you could get your hands on, such as Skyward Harp, or Polar Star, Alley Hunter, or The Stringless.

The latter is amazing four-star weapon that increases both Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst damage, especially at a high refinement level. So it competes with the best weapons.

Artifacts

Since the team establishes Electro aura, and Fischl not proc reactions herself, the four pieces Thundering Fury Artifact set might not be an ideal choice. It’s better to go with the hybrid build of 2x Thundering Fury and 2x Gladiator’s Finale or 2x Shimenawa’s Reminiscence.

Beidou

As Zhongli doesn’t have the best AOE, we need Beidou in this team, to deal damage in great AOE. She’s especially effective at C2, as it increased her AOE potential. Beidou could be built around her perfect counter. But with Zhongli taking up most field time, you might not use Beidou Elemental Skill on cooldown. So we instead focus on an Energy Recharge build for her and get the most out of the Elemental Burst.

The Elemental Burst of Beidou allows her to attack with Electro with each Normal Attack, and this persists after switching. The Additional attack jumps between two enemies, and with her Second Constellation, it jumps up to 4 enemies. This creates an effective AOE at a range with just Normal Attacks for Zhongli. In two targets situations, the four jumps occur back and forth between these two enemies and don’t go to waste. That means with a single normal attack, Beidou will hit each target several times, effectively increasing DPS by a lot.

The AOE nature of Beidou helps us establish Electro aura on several enemies at once. So when Xinyan applies her Pyro element, she can proc several Overloads at the same time. If enemies are close together at the time of the reaction, there would be several Overload reactions occurring simultaneously. This allows Overload to shotgun, at least the first hit. However, shotgunning with Overload is not reliable on smaller enemies who have no resistance to stagger, because they will be sent flying pretty quickly. It’s more effective against Samurai and Nobushi type enemies, who get to stand their ground in face of Overload.

Stats

If going with an Attack weapon, we need Electro Damage on Goblet, Energy recharge on Sands, and Crit Rate or Damage on Headpiece. However, if we pick up a weapon with good Energy Recharge, we can go all out for % Attack Sands. The reason is that we have another Electro unit that helps generate Electro particles, Making the Energy Recharge requirements less strict. So in the total sum, Beidou does more damage in this build than other ones.

On sub stats, we aim for more Energy Recharge and offensive stats, such as % Attack, Crit Rate, or Crit Damage.

Weapon

Over the course of Genshin Impact’s lifespan, Beidou has seen so many buffs directly or indirectly with each patch. There were buffs to Electro Reactions, in version 1.5. But since then, there are a constant stream of new weapons that improve Beidou’s performance by quite a lot.

First we got Katsuragikiri Nagamasa as a craftable Claymore from Inazuma. Which could help regain more Energy, on top of having Energy Recharge sub stat. It would smooth the transition from Energy Recharge Sands to a % Attack one.

At the base refinement level, it consumes 3 energy on Elemental skill use but generates 9 energy in the next 6 seconds. It also has a higher Energy Recharge than Sacrificial Greatsword, but has a lower base attack. Though it gives a straight damage multiplier to elemental Skill, so it’s not a bad trade-off.

However, the best free-to-play Claymore for Beidou is not a craftable one, but an event reward from version 2.1. Namely, Luxurious Sea-Lord that was obtained from the Moonchase Festival. This weapon has an Energy Recharge sub-stat, and a passive that adds up to a 24% Elemental Burst Damage multiplier. With Emblem Artifact set, this weapon gives insane damage, it comes close to five-star weapons.

The weapon came with a free refinement, so everyone who played before version 2.1 should have it at max refinement, and it’s a free upgrade over any craftable weapon.

Four-star upgrades don’t end with the Luxurious Sea-Lord, as the next upgrade would be the limited-time gacha weapon, Akuoumaru. This weapon is featured in the version 2.2 weapon banner, so it’s only obtainable by using your Primogems. It has an Attack sub-stat, so you will have to switch back to Energy Recharge Sands. However, the passive Akuoumaru gives is a massive Elemental Burst damage multiplier, based on the total Energy cost of all party’s Elemental Burst.

To calculate how much damage this gives to Beidou in our Zhongli Overload team, count total cost of all Beidou + Zhongli + Fischl + Xinyan. That would give you a 240% energy cost. Then multiply that by 0.12% at refinement level 1, and 0.24% at refinement level 5.

So you end up with 28% Elemental Burst damage at refinement 1, which is slightly better than Luxurious Sea-Lord. However, it ends up with 57% Elemental Burst damage at refinement 5, which is a massive difference. It beats most five-star weapons and comes only behind Wolf’s Gravestone, which is the best five-star weapon for Beidou.

Artifacts

Beidou can make perfect use of the new Emblem of Severed Fate artifact set, because of the Energy Recharge bonus. The domain where Emblem of Severed Fate drops is one of the most efficient domains to farm in-game, and you need its artifacts for several characters. So in all cases, make sure to farm it thoroughly when you have resin.

The Emblem of Severed Fate set synergies well with high Energy Recharge value we week for Beidou. It adds to it, and gives a bonus to Elemental Burst based on it. So you double dip in better modifiers with this build.

Xinyan

It has been a long time since I included Xinyan in a build guide. The reason for this is that the Xinyan kit is very complicated, it needs special synergy that’s rare to achieve in one team. Aside from her main physical DPS carry role, Xinyan is a physical support who has a Pyro element. That automatically makes her even worse of a choice compared to a physical support from Cryo or the Electro element. Cryo and Electro gives a Superconduct reaction, that shreds enemy physical resistance by a lot. So why would we take Pyro Element that’s likely to mess reactions over Cryo or Electro?

The reason Xinyan fits in this party is: Zhongli doesn’t need a Superconduct reaction simply. Zhongli himself shreds all enemy resistances by 20%, and Xinyan shreds physical resistance by another 15% on C4. At the same time, she can proc an Overload reaction, which is the highest damage among transformative reactions. So it’s way better than Superconduct in terms of damage. On top of that, she can fully utilize the Tenacity of the Millelith artifact set, to buff the entire team from off-field. She also gives a third shield to the team.

This makes her a natural fit in Zhongli‘s physical team, with added Overload damage. At the same time, Zhongli is one of the best buffers to Overload damage, since she shreds enemy Pyro resistance. This makes Xinyan buff Zhongli, and Zhongli buff Xinyan at the same time, with one playing on field, and the other attacking from off-field. So overall, Xinyan adds much more than any other character to this team, with the only exception being Albedo, who can buff all teams with Geo resonance with Tenacity of the Millelith, and deal AoE DPS from off-field. But since Albedo is a limited five-star character, not many people will have him and Zhongli on the same account. Xinyan works as a fine replacement.

Special mechanics of Xinyan shield

At C2, Xinyan can summon her shield with both elemental Skill and Elemental Burst. You need to keep that in mind to properly use them in rotation. The shield summoned from Elemental Burst is already at the highest strength and tier. This allows it to proc Pyro attacks every two seconds for the duration, and that’s the main source of Overload in the ream.

To have the shield summoned by Elemental Skill be of the same tier, you have to hit two enemies with Elemental Skill. You also need to be careful to not overwrite the higher shield from Elemental Burst by the lower shield from Elemental Skill. You always need the highest tier shield otherwise, Xinyan will not attack from off-field.

The shield strength scales with the Defense stat, so we need some Def in our build to make sure the shield doesn’t break on the first enemy hit. The damage it deals directly scales with Attack, so will we ignore it, as it’s low anyway. What we will pay attention to, is the Overload damage which scales with character level and EM. So we need Xinyan‘s level to be as high as possible, up to level 90.

Stats

We focus on EM, Energy Recharge, and Def. As EM scales with damage, Def scales with shield strength, and Energy Recharge being necessary to Burst on cooldown. It helps Xinyan‘s Energy problems as being the sole Pyro in the team. It’s a complex combination of stats, and that’s the issue with Xinyan, making her a rare pick in the current Meta.

Def and EM can roll as a main stat on any of the three artifacts, Sands, Goblet, and Headpiece. So that gives you good flexibility to pick whatever piece that has the best sub-stats. Usually, we can go with two EM pieces, and one Def piece. And get Energy Recharge from weapons. For sub stats, we get more of the same, EM, Energy Recharge, and Def. As every other stat is irrelevant.

Weapon

Picking a weapon for Xinyan in the Overload team is a hard call because every Claymore only provides one stat or the other. We get to choose, either an Energy Recharge weapon, or one with EM, or one with Def. 

But usually, the Sacrificial Greatsword is the most beneficial weapon. It has Energy Recharge to help with burst uptime, as well a double cast of Elemental Skill to generate more particles. On top of that, it solves Xinyan‘s long cooldowns and increases the uptime of her shield. Since you can simply save the second cast for when her shield goes down. Overall, it’s a nice weapon to have but needs a higher refinement.

The alternatives are Bloodtainted Greatsword for maximum EM, or Whiteblind for maximum Def. But with either of these, you need to switch artifacts accordingly.

Artifacts

The choice of artifacts for Overload Xinyan is flexible, and you can go down different paths. I recommend using Tenacity of the Millelith four pieces set for party buff, as Xinyan can reliably proc it off-field with her shield.

However, if you are so intent on Xinyan personal damage, you can use sets that maximize Overload Damage, at cost of losing team DPS. Use 4 pieces Thundering Fury, or a mix of 2x Wanderer’s Troupe, and 2x Instructor. But you have to note that Instructor is a four-star set, so only use it on Flower and Plume pieces, to not lose huge EM on main stats.

The extra 160 EM given by 2x Wanderer’s Troupe, and 2x Instructor will result in like 1000 Overload damage increase, which is not huge without shotgun several enemies. So use this combination only if you are in the early game, before farming a proper Tenacity of the Millelith set. Though Thundering Fury appears to be a little more appealing, due to the cooldown reduction on the elemental skill, and the slightly higher damage than 2x Wanderer’s Troupe, and 2x Instructor at endgame. I’d still not pick Overload damage over a team-wide buff, as the damage increase of Zhongli, Fischl, and Beidou combined will outshine anything Xinyan can do.

We hope you found this build useful, and hopefully, it gives you a good idea of how to maximize Zhongli‘s potential.

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Genshin Impact 2.2 update is now available to play on PC, iOS, Android and PS4 and PS5. If you enjoyed this Genshin Impact Guide be sure to check out even more info on our Genshin Impact Wiki. You can also keep an eye out for more guides for such as our Over-Vaporize Yoimiya build as well as, our Which Build Is Right For You guide.