BUDGET ZHONGLI GUIDE
SUMMARY
Zhongli is a 5-Star Polearm character and the Geo Archon. He is commonly used for his strong Shield, RES Shred, and Geo Resonance
TALENT & ASCENSION MATERIALS
Zhongli's primary utility is his Skill, which scales off of Max HP. If you are only using him for his shield, it is best to level him to 90 and upgrade his Skill alone.
If you like his Burst and plan on using it, you can upgrade it if you wish but many consider his Burst a "DPS Loss"
TALENT EXPLANATIONS
CONSTELLATIONS
ARTIFACTS
Artifact Sets
- For a Shield Zhongli, you can realistically use nearly any Artifact pieces you have with a lot of HP % on them. Zhongli is not too picky and does not necessarily need any specific 2pc or 4pc Set Effects!
- +20% HP Sets (Tenacity and Vourukasha's Glow) for a thicker Shield
- 4pc General Support Sets can be used depending on what buffs you're looking for (if no one else on the team will be holding it):
- 4pc Tenacity of the Millelith can provide a short ATK Buff to the team - viable IF your Stone Stele (Pillars) can consistently hit enemies, which is more difficult with newer enemies that can easily destroy his Pillars and constantly move around.
- 4pc Deepwood Memories to provide Dendro RES Shred for Dendro teams
- 4pc Instructor's or 4pc Silken Moon's Serenade to provide EM Buff
- 4pc Archaic Petra (dependent on Crystallize Shard) or 4pc Scroll of Cinder City for DMG Bonus
Main Stat & Substats
- Focus on building HP % to maximize Zhongli's Shield
- CRIT Rate can also be appreciated if you choose to use Favonius Lance
WEAPON OPTIONS
- Black Tassel - 3-Star Weapon that is easily accessible and provides 46.9% HP, the most in the entire game. Great option for Shield-Focused builds
- Rightful Reward and Dialogues of the Desert Sages are alternative HP Weapons, but they have worse Passives and lower HP stats, making them suboptimal for Zhongli's Shield Build in comparison to Black Tassel
- Favonius Lance - Great 4-Star Support option, Passive helps with team's Energy needs, if necessary
TEAM COMPS
- Zhongli is generally a great Flex slot and can fit into nearly any team that appreciates his Shield (and does not have strict teammate element restrictions i.e. Nilou or Chevreuse teams)
- DPS Characters that may benefit from his Shield: Xiao, Wanderer, Chasca, Ganyu, Eula, Wriothesley, Alhaitham, Tighnari, Kinich, Nefer, Hu Tao, Yoimiya, Klee, Lyney, Arlecchino, Mavuika, GaMing, Ayato, Neuvillette, Mualani, Keqing, Cyno, Raiden, Varesa, Flins, Razor, Sethos, Ningguang, Itto, Navia, etc.
- Zhongli + Another Geo character for Geo Resonance - "Increases shield strength by 15%. Additionally, characters protected by a shield will have the following special characteristics: DMG dealt increased by 15%, dealing DMG to enemies will decrease their Geo RES by 20% for 15s."
- Geo Support or off-field characters: Xilonen, Chiori, Albedo, Gorou, Kachina, Yun Jin, Ningguang
- Can be paired easily with Double Hydro, Double Pyro, or Vaporize teams
Notes:
- Weapon options in my budget guides exclude weapons that are only obtainable from the limited (weapon) banner.
- With the addition of Chronicled Wish, this means some Weapon Banner exclusive weapons were added to Chronicle Wish as well, but these weapons are still considered "limited" for the purposes of these guides
- The rationale behind this is that the Chronicled Wish banner has the same duration as a normal banner and uses precious Intertwined Fates.
- This makes the Budget Guide friendlier to newer players, F2Ps, and low spenders.
- Materials for ascending the character to level 90/90 (for Max HP) & talent levels 1 / 8 / 1
- Potentially frees up resin that may be spent on talent domains to farm artifacts instead
These are the concepts behind the Budget Guides and I hope it can help some of you!
Follow for more or check out my Budget Guides Masterlist here! <3
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Thanks for reading!
