Childe is back again on the Genshin Impact banner, but has he withstood the test of time?

Childe, also known as Tartaglia the Eleventh of the Fatui Harbingers, is back for his third rerun in the second half of Genshin Impact version 3.2.

This 5-star Hydro Bow user is running on a dual banner alongside the Guuji of the Grand Narukami Shrine and 5-star Electro Catalyst user Yae Miko.

Childe is one of the most technical characters in the game as he can shift between ranged and melee stances with his skill.

As such, Childe can also flex between Main and Burst DPS roles depending on your needs, making him a good fit into a bunch of different compositions.

But does he synergise well with the new Dendro element and its myriad reactions?

To find out the answer to that question, as well as what you need to know about Childe, read on.

A Foul Legacy

As mentioned earlier, Childe is one of the most technical characters in Genshin Impact, as you need to manage his cooldowns and rotations well in order for him to be effective.

He shifts between ranged and melee stances with his Elemental Skill, which also changes how his Burst works.

In his skill's melee stance, Childe has one of the fastest Hydro applications in the game.

Combined with his high burst damage, this makes him one of the best DPS characters in Reverse Vaporize compositions. With that said, he can also shine in Electro-Charged, Freeze, and mono Hydro lineups.

One thing to note about Childe is that he has a lower damage output by himself compared to other Main DPS characters.

But he makes up for this by being a strong enabler for his supports.

As stated earlier, Childe's skill, Foul Legacy: Raging Tide, lets him switch into a melee stance where he can dish out very fast attack strings that deal Hydro DMG.

The stance ends after 30 seconds or when the skill button is pressed again, returning Childe to his ranged stance and putting the skill on cooldown.

You should be mindful when using this skill, as it can have a very long cooldown depending on how long Childe was in the melee stance.

Preemptively ending the skill gives it a max cooldown of 36 seconds, but letting it run through its full 30-second duration puts it on a 45-second cooldown.

Childe's burst, Havoc: Obliteration, performs different attacks depending on what stance Childe is in when casting.

If he's in his ranged stance, Childe unleashes Flash of Havoc, which fires a Hydro-imbued arrow that deals Hydro DMG in an area while returning a portion of its energy cost.

Using Childe's burst in his melee stance unleashes Light of Obliteration, which lets him perform a slash that deals massive Hydro DMG to all neaby opponents.

Another big part of Childe's kit is Riptide, a status effect that is applied to enemies when attacked by Childe in various ways. These include his burst and Charged Attacks while in his ranged stance, as well as Crit hits while in his melee stance (thanks to his Sword of Torrents passive).

Hitting an opponent affected by Riptide in Childe's melee stance inflicts additional area-of-effect Hydro DMG to the target every 1.5 seconds, which is considered Normal Attack DMG. Defeating an opponent affected by Riptide will then unleash a Riptide Burst, which inflicts the Riptide status on other nearby opponents.

When the slash from Light of Obliteration hits opponents affected by Riptide, it clears the status effect and triggers Riptide Blast, which deals Hydro DMG in an area that is considered burst DMG.

Lastly, Childe's utility passive, Master of Weaponry, increases the level of the Normal Attack talent of all party members by 1. This is the only utility passive to increase the talent levels of party members in the game so far.

You should level up all of Childe's talents equally, though your top priority should be your skill since most of your damage will come from attacks in your melee stance.

When using Childe in combat, make sure you begin your rotation by using your support's skills and bursts since he loses his melee stance when switching to other characters.

Once it's Childe's time to enter combat, either use a Charged Attack or his burst in his ranged stance first in order to apply the Riptide status to enemies before switching to his melee stance and going to town.

You should know that Childe has the highest amount of Hydro application of any existing Hydro characters, making it nearly impossible to overtake his Hydro application with off-field Pyro damage.

That then makes it impractical to Vaporize Childe's melee hits. Therefore, either go for a Reverse Vaporize composition or build around what Childe's Hydro application can do for other characters in Electro-Charged or Freeze teams.

For example, in a team with Bennett, Xiangling, and Zhongli, your rotation will look like this: Zhongli shields up first, Bennett then uses his burst followed by Xiangling, whose burst will be buffed by Bennett throughout its entire duration.

After that, Childe switches in and uses his combo to Reverse Vaporize all the Pyro hits from Xiangling.

Should you get Childe's constellations?

Childe's constellations are not as directly impactful to his damage output as other characters.

So you should only go for his constellations if you really like his character and don't mind seeing only small increases in your damage. With that said, his C1 and C3 are the most worthwhile.

C1 decreases the cooldown of his skill by 20%, making his cooldown management much easier, while C3 increases the level of his skill by 3, which in turn means more damage.

If you really hate managing cooldowns, go for Childe's C6, which resets the cooldown of his skill when you use his burst in melee stance (just make sure you're enough of a whale as the whale he summons in Boss mode).

Farewell of Snezhnaya (Childe's best teams)

Due to Childe's Hydro application, he can't practically fit in a Vaporize lineup, which leaves Reverse Vaporize, Electro-Charged, Freeze, and mono Hydro as your other options.

• Childe, Bennett, Xiangling, Kazuha/Sucrose for Reverse Vaporize

• Childe, Beidou, Fischl/Yae Miko, Bennett/Kazuha/Sucrose for Electro-Charged

• Childe, Ganyu/Ayaka, Shenhe/Rosaria/Layla, Kazuha/Sucrose for Freeze

• Childe, Yelan/Xingqiu/Ayato, Kokomi, Mona/Candace/Kazuha for mono Hydro

What about Dendro? Since he's a Hydro character, Childe can work in Bloom, Hyperbloom, and Burgeon compositions.

However, he will have to be the on-field character to apply Hydro, which limits your team's flexibility and effectiveness.

If you're looking for a Hydro character to fit into a Dendro team, you're better off going for other characters like Nilou (for Bloom only), Kokomi, Yelan, or Xingqiu, as they provide either buffs or healing on top of Hydro application from off-field.

But if you really wanna make Childe work in a Dendro team, here's some compositions you can try:

• Childe, Nahida/Dendro MC, Nilou, Kokomi for Bountiful Bloom

• Childe, Nahida/Dendro MC, Kokomi/Yelan/Xingqiu, Fischl/Yae Miko//Kuki Shinobu/Dori for Hyperbloom

• Childe, Nahida/Dendro MC, Kokomi/Yelan/Xingqiu, Thoma/Xiangling for Burgeon

A Harbinger's instruments

For artifacts, Childe's best-in-slot is the 4-piece Heart of Depth, which gives him Hydro DMG Bonus while also increasing his Normal and Charged Attack DMG after using his skill.

This set is also relatively easy to get since it's now on the Artifact Strongbox.

If you don't have a 4-piece Heart of Depth set yet, alternatives you can go for include:

• 2-piece Heart of Depth + 2-piece Gladiator's Finale/Shimenawa's Reminiscence - Gives Childe Hydro DMG Bonus and ATK

• 2-piece Heart of Depth + 2-piece Noblesse Oblige - Gives Childe Hydro DMG Bonus while also buffing his burst damage

• 4-piece Shimenawa's Reminiscence - Gives Childe ATK while also buffing his Normal/Charged/Plunging Attack DMG after using his skill

Get ATK% on your sands, Hydro DMG Bonus on your goblet and Crit Rate/DMG, depending on your needs, for your circlet. The substats you should prioritize in order are Crit Rate/Crit DMG, Energy Recharge, Elemental Mastery, and ATK%.

For weapons, Childe will work the best with the 5-star catalyst Polar Star, as it is tailor made for his kit.

But if you’re not too keen on pulling on the weapon banner but have other 5-star Bows on hand, Thundering Pulse, Aqua Simulacra, and Skyward Harp are good alternatives.

For 4-star weapons, you can go for:

• Viridescent Hunt (BP)

• Blackcliff Warbow (Starglitter Shop)

• Rust (Gacha)

• Mouun's Moon (Gacha)

• The Stringless (Gacha)

• Prototype Crescent (Craftable)

Childe is featured in a double banner alongside Yae Miko in the second half of Genshin Impact version 3.2. The current version will run until 6 December.

Genshin Impact versions 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2 will have shortened run times of five weeks instead of the usual six weeks, likely to catch up to the game's original release schedule after the release of version 2.7 was delayed back in April.

Yan Ku is a full-time dog parent, part-time (gacha) gamer, and part-time writer.

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