Cyno Build Guide

Stellar-Conduct:

Cyno - Yae Miko - Qiqi / other flex slot - ( Sandrone ):

• Yae Miko is by far the best second slot for the team. The team DPS difference without Yae Miko vs C1 Yae Miko is massive. Beidou would be the best alternative, but not particularly close. However, Cyno's C2 can be competitive with Yae Miko.
  
• Qiqi: A strong sustain option with a high uptime Stellar DMG% buff. This slot is presently required to be Cryo in order to maintain Stellar-Conduct uptime. Diona is an okay replacement thanks to her Shield and slightly stronger Buffs, but she can be much more unwieldy, as Cyno will need to stand in her Burst circle to gain her buffs.
  
• Currently, Sandrone is the only unit able to activate Stellar-Conduct, meaning she has to be in the team for the time-being. Expect this to change in short order.

Cyno ER Requirement: 100 - 130%

Example Rotation:

1. Yae Miko Skill Yakan Evocation: Sesshou Sakura x3
   →
2. Qiqi Skill Adeptus Art: Herald of Frost
   →
3. Cyno on-field combo

Other teams:

Cyno is not a very strong character outside of Stellar-Conduct teams. Some of his buffs are usable outside of Stellar-Conduct, such as entering Burst State through his non-Burst Elemental Skill, but they're not enough to make him a notable DPS.

Overload:

Cyno - Chevreuse - Fischl - Durin

Cyno can be usable here, albeit not very good. Nicole can absolutely be used here over Chevreuse or Fischl, depending on their Constellations.

Hyperbloom:

Cyno - Lauma - Ineffa - Columbina

He’s mostly along for the ride here, but this is his best Hyperbloom team.

There are a few other archetypes Cyno used to be decent in, such as Quicken / Aggravate teams. Such teams are presently not particularly strong, and Cyno is much stronger elsewhere.

BiS Option: Staff of the Scarlet Sands

Cyno’s Signature Weapon is massively better than every other option for him. Cyno has plenty of direct EM scaling, making its low Base ATK and high Crit desirable, whilst also doubling down by letting him convert EM to ATK. The passive is one Cyno can very easily stack, and makes EM even more valuable than it already is between his EM scaling and Stellar DMG. Can be up to 40% more personal damage than 4 star options.

5 star alternatives:

Primordial Jade Winged-Spear

Albeit the statline isn’t quite ideal, the ATK% passive is something Cyno takes easy advantage of and thus this is usually his 2nd best option, even in Stellar-Conduct teams. It's typically better than most other limited 5 stars.

Other 5* stat sticks ( Staff of Homa etc )

They’re all varyingly a little worse than PJWS but a little better than most 4* options.

Best 4 star: Deathmatch

High Crit is appreciated, and at a high refinement level it can be as good as most 5 stars on Cyno. The other Battle Pass Polearm option, Ballad of the Fjords, can also be strong on Cyno if its condition can be fulfilled.

Best free option:Missive Windspear

An older event weapon, this is generally Cyno’s best entirely free option. Triggering a Reaction isn't guaranteed in Stellar-Conduct teams, so the uptime can be wonky. Still generally the best option.

Best non-event free option: Kitain Cross Spear

Decent at R5 if Energy is needed. It is possible Snezhnaya has a craftable that's stronger than this weapon, so keep an eye out for 7.0. Not necessary to craft this whatsoever if any of the above options are available.

BiS Option: Disenchantment in Deep Shadow

The first strong set Cyno can fully make use of, and should always be chased after should one want to play Stellar-Conduct Cyno. It’s as good as most modern on-field sets and will be a significant boost over other options. Other units in the team like Yae Miko will also want to use this set, making it an even higher priority.

Alternative: Gilded Dreams

Essentially a better version of 2p2p combinations. It’s pretty decent, especially if you have good subs on it, but not nearly as good as Disenchantment. Whether you're using this or a 2p2p combo, you should consider them placeholders until you acquire a good Disenchantment set.

1. Elemental Burst
2. Elemental Skill
   >>>>>>>>>>>>>>
3. Normal Attack

Cyno's Talent values are found in his Elemental Burst and Elemental Skill, with his Normal Attack talent exclusively governing the non-enhanced Normal Attacks. A lot of Cyno's damage further comes from various of his passives, which aren't affected by Talent levels.

Overview

Cyno is able to be used outside of Stellar-Conduct teams at significantly higher strength than before thanks to his buffs, and his place in the meta is entirely reliant on being a strong Stellar-Conduct carry. He is still not very good outside of them.

Cyno is an Electro on-field DPS with very long rotations and field time. He wants to enter his Enhanced Burst State and perform his Enhanced Elemental Skills 3-4 times. Cyno's field time is variable, but thanks to his buffs and the very long duration of Yae Miko's turrets, it is usually beneficial to err on the longer end of it.

Stellar-Conduct & The Polestar Field

Stellar-Conduct is a modified version of the Superconduct reaction, which requires Cryo to be applied on an Electro Aura or vice versa. Because of this, Cyno’s teams will now typically consist of Cryo and Electro characters.

• Normally, Superconduct deals a little bit of EM scaling damage and reduces the Physical RES of enemies struck by it. Stellar-Conduct itself deals no damage, and instead spawns a zone around the enemy called a ‘Polestar Field’
  
• The Polestar Field has a duration of 6 seconds, which refreshes when Stellar-Conduct is triggered again within its duration. Enemies within it have their Physical RES reduced by 40%, which isn’t particularly relevant for current Stellar-Conduct teams.
  
• In intervals of 4 seconds, The Polestar Field will ‘record’ the amount of Cryo and Electro Elemental Applications on each enemy and provide a stacking buff based on that number. This buff consists of Electro and Cryo DMG% and a direct multiplier to Stellar-Conduct damage within it. For more details, refer to the Sandrone guide.

Pactsworn Pathclearer

Cyno’s on-field capabilities revolve around his Burst and the special state it confers, called Pactsworn Pathclearer.

When in Pactsworn Pathclearer, Cyno gains a non-overrideable infusion on his Normal and Charged Attacks on top of changing their animations, as well as 100 Elemental Mastery and increased Interruption Resistance. In order to enter Pactsworn Pathstrider, Cyno can either use his Elemental Burst or use his Elemental Skill outside of Pactsworn Pathstrider after his Witch’s Revelation buffs.

Elemental Burst & Buffed Elemental Skill

Cyno’s Elemental Burst has a 20s cooldown and an 80 Energy cost. It has a baseline duration of 10 seconds, which can be further extended by using his Elemental Skill within this Burst-activated state by 4 seconds per such instance. This effect can be triggered, for a maximum of 18 seconds. You might not want to stay in the field and in Cyno’s Burst state for the maximum duration, but it is possible in some teams.

If Cyno enters Pactsworn Pathstrider through Secret Rite: Chasmic Soulfarer, it will only last for 6 seconds. Because his Skill has a 7.5 second cooldown, he’s unable to maintain the Pactsworn state indefinitely. Cyno will gain the same bonuses in this more temporary Pactsworn state as he would by entering it through his Burst, making his field time and Energy requirements far easier to manage.

Additionally, through his Ascension 1 Passive talent, while within the Pactsworn state Cyno will gain an instance of ‘Endseer’ roughly every 4 seconds, though the first one takes a bit longer to happen. Endseer is a time-limited state during which his Elemental Skill is significantly enhanced, increasing its damage and giving an additional damaging effect called Duskstalker Bolts. When Cyno is in Radiance: Stellar-Conduct, these Duskstalker Bolts will turn into instances of Stellar-Conduct damage. This is his only form of Stellar-Conduct damage. Cyno can only get 1 of these if entering Pactsworn Pathclearer through his Skill, but usually 3-4 in his Elemental Burst. What’s optimal will depend on the rest of Cyno’s team, whether he stayed in Pactsworn Pathstrider through his Elemental Skill cast or not, etc.

Elemental Skill Details

His Elemental Skill itself is on a 7.5 second cooldown outside of Pactsworn Pathclearer, but a 3 second cooldown within it. It also has a different animation in those stances, and deals slightly more damage at a baseline in case of the latter.

His out of Burst state Elemental Skill will generate 3 Electro Particles, whereas his in-Burst state Skill will generate 1, with a chance for 2.

Ascension 4 Added Damage & Gameplay Loop

Cyno’s Ascension 4 Passive talent gives him Normal Attacks a hefty 150% EM multiplier and his Duskstalker Bolts a 250% EM multiplier. If Cyno is in the Radiance: Stellar-Conduct state, each of his Duskstalker Bolts will instead gain a 600% EM Stellar Quill. Stellar Quills, like Lunar Quills, are only affected by the unit’s Critical Rate and Critical Damage and the enemy’s RES to the Element of the damage. Stellar DMG%, the Polestar Field’s multiplier, etc, do not apply to this damage. Despite that, it provides a decent amount of additional Stellar-Conduct damage.

With all of the above info in mind, Cyno’s buffed state field-time will generally look something like this:

1. Elemental Skill
   →
2. (if Burst isn’t quite up, perform the same combo as in Burst)
   →
3. Elemental Burst
   →
4. Elemental Skill immediately after
   →
5. spam Normal Attacks until the Endseer indicator appears (usually 2 N4 until the first Endseer)
   →
6. Elemental Skill for the Endseer Proc
   →
7. spam NAs
   →
8. Elemental Skill when Endseer becomes available
   →
9. repeat

While Cyno can function fine with 0 Energy Recharge currently, it is still recommended to build some so you don’t run into downtime in-between Pactsworn Pathstrider states.

Cyno’s Charged Attacks can be implemented into his combos in Stellar-Conduct teams in order to apply some more Electro and thus generate more Polestar Field stacks, though this can be clunky and not necessarily optimal damage wise. Combos like N4 + Charged Attack + Dash + N2 + Charged Attack instead of 2N4d can be worth performing optimally.

Cyno was officially released as a playable 5-star Electro character in Genshin Impact on September 28, 2022, during the Version 3.1 update.