Qiqi Build Guide

Sandrone Stellar Conduct

Sandrone - Yae Miko - Qiqi - Odette

• Yae Miko: By far the best Electro slot, with a massive difference between having her (particularly at C1) and not having her in this team of around 40%. C6 Beidou and C6 Alyosha are the best alternatives available, although they're not particularly good.
  
• Odette is a similarly massive increase to every other possible option, although Qiqi benefits her a little less than she benefits Sandrone and Yae Miko. Alternatives include Escoffier, Sucrose, Xilonen, Nicole, and other such support options.

Example Rotation:

1. Yae Miko Skill Yakan Evocation: Sesshou Sakura x3
   →
2. Odette Skill + Enhanced Skill
   →
3. Qiqi Skill
   →
4. Sandrone on-field combo:
5. 1. [hold Charged Attack + use Elemental Skill] x3 + Elemental Burst

Other Stellar-Conduct carries:

Traveler (Cryo) or Cyno - Yae Miko - Odette - Qiqi

Qiqi is a competent support and sustain option for both of the above, although typically not as good as for Sandrone. Sandrone makes full use of Qiqi's strong Energy generation, unlike these two. Qiqi is not a good option for Wriothesley teams, as he hates healing.

Example Rotation:

1. Yae Miko Skill x3
   →
2. Odette Skill + Enhanced Skill
   →
3. Qiqi Skill
   →
4. Cyno on-field combo

Stellar Swirl Teams

Sandrone - Qiqi - Odette - Sucrose

By far the best support option for the team, competing with Traveler (Cryo) for the slot. Although the Cryo Traveler version has slightly more damage without vertical investment on Sandrone or Odette, Qiqi will typically scale a little better with it. She also makes Sandrone far smoother to play, and can even enable 2 CA + Burst Sandrone rotations, which are a decent DPS increase for this team. It's also worth noting that when done well, Qiqi has the ability to buff the entirety of Odette's damage on top of buffing all of Sandrone's, making her unusually valuable.

Example Rotation:

( Open first rotation with Sandrone Skill + placing Sucrose right after )

1. Odette Skill or Burst + Enhanced Skill
   →
2. Sucrose N1 + Skill or Burst
   →
3. Qiqi Skill
   →
4. Sandrone CA + Skill + Burst
   →
5. Sucrose N1 + Skill
   →
6. Sandrone CA + Skill

Yumemizuki Mizuki - Qiqi - Odette - Sucrose or Traveler (Cryo)

The only other currently available Stellar Swirl archetype, Qiqi is a solid sustain and buffing option but not as good as for Sandrone. Mizuki can also sustain the team and has copious amounts of Stellar DMG Bonus through her Elemental Mastery.

Example Rotation:

( open first rotation with Odette Skill into Sucrose before using Odette's Enhanced Skill)

1. Qiqi Skill
   →
2. Odette Skill + Enhanced Skill
   →
3. Sucrose N1 + Skill or Burst
   →
4. Yumemizuki Mizuki Skill
   →
5. Sucrose N1 + Skill or Burst

Generaily Best Option: Favonius Sword

The best option for Qiqi to use in any Sandrone team and most other teams. Qiqi's stats prior to unlocking her C6 are unimportant, so the Energy this weapon provides tends to be by far the most impactful weapon option for Qiqi.

Options for C6 Qiqi:

Aquila Favonia or other very high Base ATK Swords: Meant to maximize Qiqi's C6 Quill buffs, as they scale on her own ATK. This can also be accomplished through 4 star weapons with ATK% secondary stats,

Niche option:Key of Khaj-Nisut

Nilou's signature Weapon can provide a decent teamwide EM Buff if the wielder hits an opponent with an Elemental Skill 3 times. If Qiqi uses her Skill before her Burst at C6, she will accomplish this comfortably. However, Qiqi does not want to build HP over ATK and this weapon does not have a particularly high Base ATK. Before Qiqi is C6, she will have to stay on-field for longer than unusual to trigger the passive. This weapon can often not be worth using over Favonius Sword for Sandrone teams.

BiS Option: Tenacity of the Millelith

Almost always will be Qiqi's best set option in Stellar-Conduct teams. She is able to maintain this at very high or full uptime without much thought spared.

Alternative option at C6: Noblesse Oblige

This set is typically not worth using if Qiqi is not C6, as her Burst is generally going to be a damage loss. At C6 Qiqi, it might be possible to use this set on her and Tenacity of the Milelith on a different unit such as Escoffier,

Other sets are generally useless. Make sure to farm a Tenacity set for her, as it is available through Strongbox and her stats are not whatsoever strict.

1. Elemental Skill (for healing)
2. Elemental Burst (for damage, mostly at C6)
   >>>>>
3. Normal Attack (entirely useless)

Overview

Qiqi is a fairly simple character, and her kit is only worth anything if the team can use the Stellar-Conduct reaction, which presently is only Sandrone teams.

Qiqi is a Stellar support and healer, both of which she accesses through her Elemental Skill. She applies a decent amount of Cryo, useful for Stellar-Conduct, but deals negligible damage. At C6, she typically will also want to use her Elemental Burst for additional buffs to the team.

Elemental Skill & Energy Generation

Qiqi’s Elemental Skill will provide periodic healing to your currently active character. This effect lasts for roughly 16 seconds and has a cooldown of 15 seconds. Qiqi’s healing is fairly decent, so this isn’t a bad sustain option

Additionally, while this effect is active, Qiqi will perform Coordinated Attacks with your character, on a cooldown of 2.2 seconds. You can expect the Herald of Frost to perform about 7 of these attacks. This gives Qiqi permanent uptime on Tenacity of the Milelith.

When the Herald of Frost attacks, Qiqi will generate 2 Cryo Particles. This effect has a 6 second cooldown. Because of the 16 econd duration of this effect, Qiqi will generally generate 6 Cryo Particles. If you go Qiqi immediately before Sandrone, Sandrone will be able to catch both of Qiqi’s Favonius Sword proc and all 6 of Qiqi’s Cryo Particles, making her a fantastic battery.

While Qiqi is in the Radiance: Stellar-Conduct state, she will further provide a teamwide DMG% buff to Superconduct and Stellar-Conduct damage. It is possible that this buff is expanded as more Stellar reactions are introduced.

Elemental Burst

Qiqi’s Elemental Burst has a cost of 80 on a 20 second cooldown. This is a steep cost, but if Qiqi is using Favonius Sword and has her C1 providing her with significant Energy, it’s not very costly to use.

On cast, Qiqi will heal the party as well as perform one Cryo hit, and if she’s under the effects of a Stellar Radiance, an additional Cryo hit dealing the corresponding Stellar Glimmer damage.

This damage is generally unimpressive, but if Qiqi has unlocked her C6, this becomes a decent Elemental Burst to use thanks to the added Stellar Quill buff.

Stellar-Conduct details, Polestar Field explained briefly

Stellar-Conduct is the Stellar version of the Superconduct Reaction. Stellar Reactions are going to be a core part of Snezhnaya moving forward, and it is possible Qiqi’s gets further updated with more Stellar Reactions.

Superconduct and Stellar-Conduct are triggered when Cryo is applied on an Electro Aura and vice versa. Superconduct normally deals a little bit of EM scaling damage and reduces the enemy’s Physical RES. Stellar-Conduct will instead spawn what’s known as a ‘Polestar Field’

The Polestar Field has a duration of 6 seconds, which refreshes if Stellar-Conduct is triggered again on an enemy within the Field’s AoE during its duration. All enemies with a Polestar Field have their Physical RES reduced by 40%, but Stellar-Conduct teams presently do not care about this facet of it. Additionally, several characters (primarily the ones focused around Stellar-Conduct) will enter the Radiance: Stellar-Conduct state while within it, including Qiqi herself.

The Polestar Field will ‘record’ all Cryo and Electro applications within it in intervals of 4 seconds, and provide a stacking buff accordingly with the amount of Cryo and Electro application at the end of each recording phase. When a recording phase ends, the Polestar Field will immediately begin the next one. The buff has a duration of 5 seconds if left alone, but will refresh alongside the recording periods – realistically, this means the buff will change value every 4 seconds. Note that Stellar-Conduct damage is currently unable to apply either Cryo or Electro, so Stellar-Conduct hits will not count towards this.

This stacking buff will provide Cryo and Electro DMG%, as well as provide a direct multiplicative increase to all Stellar-Conduct damage within it. For a deeper dive into the Reaction, visit the Sandrone Guide

Qiqi was officially released as a playable 5-star Cryo character in Genshin Impact on September 28, 2020, during the Version 1.0 update.