Columbina is coming in the first half of version 6.3 (or Luna IV). Although she's a highly anticipated character, when looking at a meta perspective, there are some confusions that leave some people wondering if she's worth pulling (at least from my view, i believe so). So, as someone who've consumed a little unhealthy amount of Columbina content, i hope i can provide some insights into her kit and provide a clear view of whether or not you should get her.

Note: This post focuses more on pulling advice rather than build guide so you may refer to other sources if you're looking for the latter. Also im too lazy to search for pictures so prepare to read a long ahh essay with no illustration whatsoever

Should you get Columbina?

The short answer is:

-If you have Lunar reaction dps, yes

-If you dont have Lunar reaction dps, generally no

For more in depth analysis:

Currently, there are 3 lunar dps in the game: Flins, Nefer and Zibai

Columbina would make all of these dps among the strongest in the game in their best team. However, if you are tight on primogem and cannot afford the best teammates for these characters immediately, it is more recommended to prioritize their tailored supports first (Ineffa,Lauma,C6 Illuga) before Columbina if you want the best upgrade to your Lunar team.

Columbina+Ineffa

If you have been following guide (perhaps even leaks), you should already know that Columbina and Ineffa would make a very strong pair and is able to help many dps in the game to reach over 100k dps and able to clear contents shilled toward lunar reactions, like Arlechinno, Hu Tao, Navia,....

This duo is looking to last a long time in the meta and i would recommend going for them if:

-You want your older dps to shine again

-You want something that is long-lasting on your account

-You like both Ineffa and Columbina

Flins

Due to how strong the Columbina+Ineffa duo is, Flins would undoubtedly benefit the most from this, with his best team (Flins/Columbina/Ineffa/Sucrose) being the highest dmg-dealing team in the game. Therefore, if you already have/planning to get Flins, it is ideal to get Columbina and Ineffa for him.

However, if you can only choose one of them, Ineffa should take the priority, as she can do more lunar charge dmg than Columbina while also help with sustaining the team.

Nefer

Columbina would definitely improve Nefer's performance by a lot while also making her more comfortable to play with the extra 3 Verdant Dews that get provided to the team.

Additionally, Columbina also has a special charge attack that do lunar bloom dmg that can benefit from Lauma's quill buff, making her synergizes extremely well with Nefer's best team.

But, same thing as Flins, you would 100% want to get Lauma first before going for Columbina, and i personally believe this is more important than getting Ineffa for Flins

Zibai

Note that i can only provide basic info for Zibai since i dont plan on pulling her and not interested in her gameplay, so i did not dive too deep into her kit

From what i have heard, rather than Columbina, Illuga seems to impact Zibai's performace more, as her dps difference between c0 and c6 Illuga is quite....something. So the general advice is that:

Illuga cons (C2 and C6 are the cores) and then Columbina

...........tbh, that's all i know, if you wanna know more, you should probably refer to other creators

Dps Columbina

Columbina has a special charge attack that do lunar bloom dmg, which give her potential to be a viable dps.

However, Lauma is mandatory if you want to use dps Columbina. This is because Columbina lunar bloom dmg do multiple instances of dmg, thus if you have Lauma, every instances of Columbina's lunar bloom would be buffed, massively increasing the dmg. This resulting in a pretty strange situation, where the majority of Columbina's dmg actually comes from Lauma's quills, not from Columbina herself. This also lead to some exceptions when building Columbina for this role but more on that later.

Overall, i think Dps Columbina (with Lauma) is a very viable option to comfortably clear endgame content, especially shilled contents toward lunar reactions (Abyss and Menacing Stygian, Fearless/Dire would probably be a bit of a struggle without high investment)

Columbina With Non-Lunar Dps

Outside of her synergies with lunar dps, she still have some value in non-lunar teams. Specifically, with the new lunar crystallized reaction, she can bring back many geo dps, such as Itto and Navia, both of which can have teams that reach up to 100k dps.

And Columbina paired with Ineffa is also very powerful as mentioned above.

She can also find some uses in some other teams such as Skirk as the TTDS holder while also have some personal dmg, although this should not be the sole reason you want to get her for.

Conclusion

You should get Columbina if:

-You like her and want to get her, even knowing that she wont shine on your account

-You like her playstyle

-You have/planning to get Ineffa or Lauma

-You have/planning to get a lunar dps (Flins, Nefer, Zibai)

-You want your geo dps to be viable again

-You dont like her but wanna get her anyways because she is the archon-equivalent of Nod Krai ._.

How To Build Columbina

Kit Overview

-Normal Attack: unremarkable, just….dont use it

-Charge Attack: consume 1 Verdant Dew to deal Lunar bloom dmg in multiple instances

-Skill: do damage, summon a bar on her back. This bar will do continuous hydro dmg for surrounding enemies.

When you do lunar reaction damage, Columbina will slowly fill up the bar (the resource to fill it up is named Gravity). The the bar get maxed out at 60 points, and she can get a maximum of 20 points every 2 seconds. When maxed out, the bar reset, doing lunar reaction dmg based on the lunar reaction that filled up the bar the most.

-Burst: do a domain expansion named “Lunar Domain”, deal aoe hydro dmg. Within the domain, the whole team get all lunar reaction dmg bonus (40% at level 10)

-Passive:

1.When she do lunar reaction dmg from her skill, she get 5% crit rate, stacking up to 3 times

2.Within her burst’s domain, lunar reaction get special characteristics:

-The cloud summoned by lunar charge has 33% to hit the enemies twice

-When triggering Lunar Bloom, you can accumulate 3 additional Dews that functions exactly like Verdant Dews

-When you do Lunar Crystallized dmg, every Moondrift (aka the thing that do the lunar crystallized dmg for you) has 33% chance to do 2 hits

3.She can convert normal reactions into their lunar counterparts, increasing the base dmg of these reactions by 0.2% for every 1000 HP she has, up to 7% (achieved at 35k HP).

Increase the team’s moonsign level by 1

4.If your character die in Nod Krai, Columbina will revive the character and heal them based on her friendship level, has a 100s cooldown.

-Constellations:

C1: when using skill, immediately do dmg equal to the dmg dealt when filling up the bar.

When she do lunar reaction dmg with her skill, the reaction get special traits:

-Lunar charge: the active character get 6 energy

-Lunar bloom: characters’ resistance to interruption is increased

-Lunar Crystallized: gain a hydro shield based on 12% of Columbina Hp

All lunar reactions get elevated by 1.5%

C2:

Increase the speed at which her skill’s bar fill up

When Columbina do lunar reaction dmg with her skill, her max hp is increases my 40% for 8s.

During this 8s, the active character get buffs depending on the type of lunar reaction dmg dealt:

-Lunar charge: gain Atk based on 1% of Columbina max hp

-Lunar bloom: gain EM based on 0.35% of Columbina max hp

-Lunar crystallized: gain Def based on 1% of Columbina max hp

All lunar reactions get elevated by 7%

C3+C5:

Increase Skill and Burst level

All lunar reactions get elevated by 1.5% for each cons

C4:

When Columbina do lunar reaction dmg with her skill, if the dmg dealt is Lunar Charge/Lunar Bloom/Lunar Crystallized, increase the dmg for this instance by 12.5%/2.5%/12.5% of Columbina’s max hp. Occur once every 15s

All lunar reaction get elevated by 1.5%

C6:

For 8s after a character trigger a lunar reaction inside of Columbina’s domain expansion, get 80% crit dmg for the elemental dmg of the elements involved in the reaction.

All lunar reactions get elevated by 7%

Note: elevation is a separated multiplier, differing from lunar dmg or normal dmg increase effects.

Build Priorities

-Level her up to 90 so she can reach her hp requirement easier

-Talents: Skill and Burst are the cores, dont level normal attack if you unless if you intent to play Columbina with Lauma

-Ensure to have enough ER on Columbina as her burst can be very important in some of her teams. More on that later

Weapons

For support build:

-Favonius Codex is highly recommended as it provide ER and energy, lowering her ER need in her artifacts.

-Prototype Amber is also viable. Giving hp% and energy while also healing the team make it a great option for lunar teams, where sustainless used to be the norm

-Thrilling Tales Of The Dragon Slayer is a great weapon. Columbina can make use of the hp% that it gives on top of providing 48% atk for your dps if you can manage your rotation. This is usually not as recommended as the other 2 weapons, since Columbina is preferably used at the start of the rotation, making it hard to give the atk buff to your dps, but can be nice in some teams.

-Nocturne’s Curtain Call, aka Columbina’s signature, is her best in slot weapon, providing crit dmg, dmg bonus for lunar reaction and also some energy make it a good option for both support and dps Columbina. However, Favonius is not that far behind, generally 6-10% worse for support Columbina, so i would not recommend going for Columbina's signature unless you want it for aesthetic and/or dps Columbina.

For dps build:

-Nocturne’s Curtain Call is her best in slot, as mentioned above

-Sacrifical Jade is her second best option, giving a good amount of Hp and Em, both of which Columbina can make use of, and it’s get much better with refinements. However, it’s a paid weapon so it’s not accessible for everyone. Additionally, Columbina WILL overcap on crit rate with this weapon as she get so much crit rate since you get so much crit rate from other sources (19.2% ascension stat, 15% from her passive, 30% from Sky’s Unveiling set (nod krai dps set))

-Aside from the aforementioned 2 weapons, anything with offensive stats (crit, preferably crit dmg or hp%). So Neuvi’s sig, Mualani’s Sig, Nefer’s Sig, Nodkrai craftable catalyst, Dawning’s Frost can all be viable option for dps Columbina

Invesment Priorities

I generally don’t recommend getting her weapon. But if you want to maximize her dmg, the priorities for early investment is: C1

Artifacts

What Set Should You Use?

What you should use on Columbina would depend on your teams, but generally, she would use one of the 3 sets:

-Night Of The Sky’s Unveiling (30% crit rate, 80 em, 10% reaction dmg bonus), i will mention this set as “Sky”

-Silken Moon’s Serenade (20% er, 120 em, 10% reaction dmg bonus), i will mention this set as “Serenade”

-Aubade of Morningstar and Moon (60% off field lunar reaction dmg bonus and 80 em), i will mention this set as “Aubade”

For dps Columbina, you will always use Sky set, you dont want to use any other set on her apart from this set.

For support Columbina, things get a little more complicated:

-In Flins team, if you have Ineffa, you would want to use Aubade on Ineffa and Serenade on Columbina, since Ineffa just do more dmg with this set. If you dont have Ineffa, you would still want to use Serenade on Columbina as the EM buff and dmg bonus it give is still valuable. If you still want to use Aubade on Columbina, you can put the other electro character on Serenade, ideally Fischl or Ororon, but if that character is non-offield dmg dealer, like Iansan or Sara, then it’s Serenade on Columbina, no debates.

-In Nefer team, you can use Aubade on Columbina and Deepwood on Lauma and the last slot would use Serenade, so you can bring someone who do off field dmg like Kuki. You can also switch around with Lauma on Serenade and the last slot using Deepwood. For Lauma-less teams, the first priority is Deepwood and Serenade, the former would ideally be on your dendro support, and Serenade should be used on Columbina if the last slot cannot use it, otherwise you can use Aubade on Columbina.

-In Zibai team, it’s more dependent on Illuga’s cons. If he’s C2, he can use Serenade, and Columbina can be on Aubade. Otherwise, it’s Serenade on Columbina, or Serenade on the last slot and Aubade on Columbina.

-In non Lunar teams, she can use Tenacity of The Millelith to buff atk% from off-field. Serenade can still work but at half efficiency since you dont have Ascendant Gleam.

Stats To Look For (Dps and Support)

*For Dps Columbina:

-Main stats:

• Hp% Sands
• Hp% Goblet
• Crit Circlet

-Sub stats:

• Hp%
• Crit
• Em

-Aim for 35k Hp but chances are with double hp% she already close to that without any substats so this shouldnt be a problem.

-Prioritize Crit over Em

-ER is not needed at all since the majority of Columbina's dmg comes from Lauma's quills, and those doesnt get buffed by Columbina's domain expansion so it's better to build her with more offensive stats instead trying to get her to burst every rotation

*For Support Columbina:

-Main stats: depend A LOT on team and weapon but i will try to simplify it

• Sands: Hp% if using ER weapon

ER if using Hp% weapon

• Goblet: Hp%
• Circlet: Crit

-Sub stats:

• Hp%
• ER
• Crit
• EM

-Aim for 35k hp, but you can get away with 32k-33k

-Try to reach the ER requirement. Different teams, different weapons can all change Columbina's ER requirement so i will leave this chart here for you to follow (Credits go to........whoever posted this on reddit?https://www.reddit.com/r/Columbina_Mains/comments/1pt9rhg/columbina_v4_er_requirements/)

The finalized kit doesnt change a lot compared to V4 so this is still accurate

-ONLY build crit after you've reach the ER requirement and have a good amount of HP on her

Teams

I already talked about Columbina’s roles in teams from above, so i will just mention viable teams here.

Flins-Columbina-Ineffa-Sucrose

Flins-Columbina-Fischl/Ororon/Iansan/Sara-Sucrose/Durin (if use Durin, make sure to have Fischl in the team)

Nefer-Columbina-Lauma-Flexible slot

Nefer-Columbina-Nahida/Off-field dendro dmg dealer-Flexible slot

Zibai-Illuga-Columbina-Gorou/Xilonen/Zhongli/…

(Again, I did not look too deep into Zibai’s gameplay so i may be wrong, i’d recommend checking out other creators’ suggestions)

Arlechinno/Hutao-Columbina-Ineffa-Citlali/Sucrose/…

Navia/Itto/Chiori-Columbina-Ineffa/Furina-Xilonen/Zhongli/Gorou

Skirk-Escoffier-Furina-Columbina

And that seems to wrap it up. I did this out of boredom of waiting for Columbina’s banner so…forgive me for any mistakes i may have made in the guide. Good luck on your pulls guys!!!