Qiqi Build Guide

Sandrone Stellar Conduct

Sandrone - Yae Miko - Qiqi - Flex slot

• 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%. Beidouis the best alternative available, although she's not particularly good.
  
• Flex slot: The best choices include Escoffier, Xilonen, Sucrose and Nicole. Beidou and Dionaare also generally competitive. Having 3 Cryo units in the team helps Sandrone’s ER requirements quite a bit, alongside making sure Cryo Resonance uptime stays as high as possible.

Example Rotation:

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

Other Stellar-Conduct carries:

• Cyno - Yae Miko - Qiqi - ( Sandrone )

Qiqi is a competent support slot for Cyno, though her lack of shielding is unfortunate for him. Sandrone has to slot in these until there’s another character that can activate Stellar-Conduct, which we are likely to get in the near future.

Example Rotation:

1. Yae Miko Skill x3
   →
2. Qiqi Skill
   →
3. Cyno on-field combo
   

• Wriothesley (no): Qiqi’s healing makes it much harder for for Wriothesley to access his empowered Charged Attack. Not recommended to use them together unless seriously lacking in other options, or you intentionally minimize Qiqi's healing by not using ATK % artifacts on her and not leveling her Elemental Skill talent.

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.

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

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 in the Radiance: Stellar-Conduct hit, an additional Cryo hit dealing Stellar-Conduct DMG.

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.

• It is likely Qiqi’s buff is updated to include further Stellar Reactions in the future, so she might be able to be used outside of Sandrone teams.
  
• If you are close to acquiring her C6 through the “Temper Thyself and Journey Far” event or future standard 5* selectors, it’s worth considering doing so, as it makes Qiqi a far more appealing slot-in.

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