Are Lunar Teams Still Worth Building in Snezhnaya?

With the release of Snezhnaya, Genshin Impact's meta has been shaken up once again. The introduction of the new Stellar team archetype and Stellar reactions has brought some extremely powerful teams into the game, with some Stellar teams reaching damage numbers that surpass anything we've seen before.

But that doesn't mean that older teams are no longer meta!

The Lunar teams introduced during Nod-Krai are still strong, with several Lunar characters returning during the Snezhnaya patches (i.e., Flins and Ineffa rerun for the second half of Version 7.0). And this begs the question:

Are Lunar teams still worth investing in from a meta perspective in Genshin Impact's Snezhnaya era?

The real answer is: it depends.

To cover all the nuances, let's take a closer look at the three major Lunar team archetypes, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they compare with the new Stellar teams.

There are currently three primary Lunar team archetypes:

• Lunar-Charged — Flins + Ineffa
• Lunar-Bloom — Nefer + Lauma
• Lunar-Crystallize — Zibai + Linnea

All three teams can be extremely powerful, but they each have their unique strengths & weaknesses.

For Lunar-Charged, Flins serves as the primary DPS while Ineffa acts as the main support.

Flins is commonly underestimated because his theoretical team DPS (i.e., in calcs using KQM standard) is lower than the other Lunar carries. His personal damage share is also lower, which means that he doesn't benefit as strongly from vertical investment into his own constellations and signature weapon.

However, theoretical DPS calcs aren't the sole indication of a character's actual strength in the meta.

Flins' Practical Strengths

One of Flins' biggest advantages is his performance in Stygian Onslaught, which is currently one of Genshin Impact's most difficult forms of endgame content. A number of Stygian bosses have favored Lunar-Charged teams, giving Flins opportunities to demonstrate his practical strength. In addition, since Flins is Electro, which is a flexible element, he is able to function against a wide variety of enemy mechanics.

Flins is also pretty easy to play. Once he enters his enhanced state, his gameplay is largely straightforward: use his Special Skills, Normal Attacks, and Special Bursts when available. Little mechanical optimization is required, as most of his damage just comes from his Special Bursts. His team also benefits from excellent survivability because Ineffa, one of his key supports, provides a strong shield.

Flins is actually the Lunar carry who is least dependent on his dedicated Lunar support, as he can also be played in a strong Hexerei Overload team without Ineffa.

However, the standard Lunar-Charged composition generally consists of:

Flins + Ineffa + Columbina + Sucrose

Ineffa and the "Bineffa" Duo

Ineffa is arguably the most versatile Lunar support of the three.

When paired with Columbina, the two characters can contribute significant off-field damage while supporting a wide variety of teams. As a result, the Ineffa + Columbina duo has become one of the strongest "wheelchairs" in the game: a powerful support core that can carry a less-invested DPS.

This duo can often get you through Lunar-shill content even without Flins. However, there is a limit to how far a "wheelchair comp" can carry you.

For harder difficulties such as Dire Stygian Onslaught, or when attempting to brute-force difficult Fearless bosses, having Flins as the actual DPS to elevate the Bineffa core is considerably better.

The second major Lunar archetype is Lunar-Bloom, where Nefer serves as the primary DPS and Lauma acts as the main support.

Of the three Lunar carries, Nefer is the hardest to play. She isn't necessarily difficult compared to playing highly optimized combos of characters such as Mavuika or Skirk, but Nefer's teams do allow room for player skill expression, which affects her teams' DPS.

Nefer's High DPS Comes With Skill Expression

Proper dash cancels and tight rotation timings are important for maximizing Nefer's damage.

This gives Nefer a relatively higher skill ceiling, but it also means that she has less room for mistakes. Playing her poorly can result in significantly lower damage.

One example of this is her team using Instructor's Sucrose:

Nefer + Lauma + Columbina + Sucrose

This can be her highest-damaging team at baseline investment, but it requires proper execution of the rotation. You need to correctly proc the 4-piece Instructor's EM buff on Sucrose and then dish out Nefer's damage within an overall short rotation time.

Nefer also has another major drawback for most players: her best baseline teams generally don't have a true sustain character.

Nefer teams want Lauma and Columbina, but neither provides real sustain unless you have constellations such as C1 Lauma or C1 Columbina, which provide healing and extra interruption resistance, respectively.

You can technically add characters such as Ineffa, Linnea, Jahoda, or Kuki for survivability, but the strongest damage-oriented options include characters such as:

• Nahida
• Sucrose
• C2 Nilou

This creates a trade-off between optimal damage and comfort.

Nefer's Weaknesses

Nefer has also historically had fewer difficult bosses specifically designed to favor her.

Compared with bosses such as Knuckle Duckle and Moongecko, which are made for Flins and Zibai, Nefer's primary favorable matchup has been Herra, which is considerably easier.

Her being Dendro also makes flexible team building more difficult, as adding a flex character to deal with a particular boss mechanic can interfere with the Lunar-Bloom reaction.

Lastly, Nefer is highly dependent on Lauma. Lauma provides extremely powerful buffs for Nefer and is a large source of her damage, making the two characters effectively inseparable in most situations. One notable exception is a heavily invested C2R1 Nefer, where Lauma can potentially be replaced by a flex character.

Lauma as a Dendro Support

Lauma is an extremely strong support for Nefer and also works well in conventional Dendro teams such as Hyperbloom and Nilou Bloom.

In these teams, she effectively fills the role previously occupied by Nahida, being an overall upgrade over her. However, these conventional Dendro teams aren't currently among the most meta-relevant options for the hardest endgame content.

As a result, if you're specifically interested in the current endgame meta, most of Lauma's value comes from her synergy with Nefer.

The third Lunar archetype is Lunar-Crystallize, where Zibai serves as the primary DPS and Linnea acts as the main support.

Zibai is commonly regarded as the strongest Lunar carry for multiple reasons.

Why Zibai is Considered the "Best"

If you're looking purely at theoretical DPS calculations, Zibai's premium team has the highest damage output among the three Lunar carries based on most team DPS calcs using KQM standard.

She also shares one of Flins' biggest advantages: she is relatively easy to play. Her gameplay simply involves entering her enhanced state, using her Normal Attacks (ideally completing an N4), and using her Special Skills and Burst whenever it's available.

Zibai is also a Defense-scaling character, which gives her additional durability. Combined with Linnea's healing, this makes her one of the more comfortable Lunar carries to play.

Zibai's Weaknesses

However, Zibai still has her flaws.

First, her strongest team with Linnea and Columbina ideally uses Illuga as the final support.

Zibai + Linnea + Columbina + Illuga

However, Illuga is a 4-star character that ideally wants to reach C6. And getting C6 on a specific 4-star character can be extremely difficult without making a substantial number of pulls. He was on Zibai's & Linnea's banners, but there are still no guarantees.

Second, Zibai's Geo element creates team-building restrictions.

Her optimal teams generally want to stick to Geo and Hydro characters, since her kit relies on triggering the Lunar-Crystallize reaction. This makes it awkward to add flex characters when a particular boss mechanic demands them, and overall limits Zibai's enemy-matchup flexibility.

Finally, while Zibai's theoretical DPS is extremely high, actually reaching those theoretical numbers in practice can be difficult. Experiences from theorycrafters who have played Zibai suggest that herin-game performance doesn't always perfectly match the highest theoretical DPS calcs.

Linnea as a Geo Support

Linnea is an excellent support for Zibai, but her usefulness isn't limited exclusively to Zibai teams.

She can also support other Geo DPS characters, particularly when paired with Columbina as an off-field Lunar-Crystallize support duo.

This combination can effectively function as another "wheelchair" for Geo teams.

But while Linnea can technically work outside of Geo teams, her primary value is still found in Geo-focused compositions.

In all three Lunar team archetypes, there is one character who fits into each of the teams and completes them:

Columbina

Why Columbina "Completes" All Lunar Teams

Columbina can technically function as a main DPS herself, particularly alongside Lauma, where she can play as a Lunar-Bloom DPS like Nefer.

However, in most meta-oriented situations, her more important role is as the premier Hydro off-field support for Lunar teams.

She provides:

• Off-field damage
• Lunar-related buffs
• Hydro application required by Lunar teams
• Excellent quality-of-life improvements to Lunar teams

Aino is an alternative Hydro support for Lunar teams, but Columbina's overall utility makes her much more preferable.

Since there's only ONE Columbina, you generally want to focus your investment on ONE primary Lunar team rather than trying to build all three archetypes.

You can technically play a Lunar DPS without Columbina, particularly if that character has vertical investment like their signature weapon and constellations. But the resulting team is generally less comfortable and less optimal.

If we look at the Lunar characters from different perspectives, the rankings aren't the same, since each of their own unique pros and cons.

Lunar Support Flexibility

For overall flexibility as a Lunar support:

Ineffa > Linnea / Lauma

Ineffa stands out because of her powerful synergy with Columbina and the flexibility of the Bineffa duo.

Linnea is primarily valuable for Geo teams, while Lauma is primarily valuable for Dendro teams. Outside of that, they are usable but not as outstanding.

Lunar Support Importance For the Lunar Carry

The importance of each Lunar support to their respective DPS is somewhat different:

Lauma → Nefer: Extremely important
Linnea → Zibai: Pretty important
Ineffa → Flins: Good, but less essential

Flins can function effectively without Ineffa, particularly because of his strong Hexerei Overload options.

Columbina is arguably a higher priority for Flins than Ineffa if you're focused on damage (though Ineffa's shield for comfort is a huge plus for her).

Lunar DPS: Sheet DPS

Looking purely at sheet DPS/teams calcs (using KQM standard):

Zibai > Nefer > Flins

But remember, team DPS calcs are not the sole indicator of a character's meta performance.

Lunar DPS: Practical Endgame Performance

If we instead consider enemy matchups and performance in Stygian Onslaught, the ranking changes:

Flins > Zibai > Nefer

As of now, Flins has had a ton of bosses that he works well against (+ Knuckle Duckle). Zibai is excellent against her main shill boss (Radiant Moongecko), which is generally difficult. Nefer has had the least difficult boss shill. But this can change with future Stygian line-ups.

Lunar DPS: Vertical Investment

Vertical investment (constellations and signature weapons) is another important factor.

Zibai and Nefer both have powerful options for vertical investment. Their signature weapons provide significant increases in damage, while constellations such as:

• Nefer C1
• Nefer C2
• Lauma C2
• Zibai C1
• Zibai C2
• Linnea C2

also provide big improvements.

Flins has decent vertical investment potential, but because his personal damage represents a smaller portion of his team's total damage, investing heavily in him doesn't improve the overall team as dramatically.

With the Lunar teams covered, let's address them in comparison with the new Stellar teams.

Shared Design of Stellar & Lunar Teams

Stellar teams are a different archetype, but they share some important similarities with Lunar teams.

Both share similar damage formulas & both rely on specialized reactions that require specific characters on the team in order to actually access those reactions.

However, Stellar reactions improve upon Lunar reactions when considering their implementation.

One of the biggest advantages is accessibility. With Lunar reactions, you needed to pull a specific 5-star character to actually use the reaction on a team. With Stellar reactions, Cryo Traveler is available for free, meaning all players can access the Stellar reactions on their team without necessarily having to pull a specific limited 5-star character.

In addition, several older characters have received buffs designed to make them synergize with Stellar teams. As a result:

1. More available characters can participate in Stellar teams.
2. Previously non-meta characters are now meta-relevant.

And because Stellar is the newest major archetype in Genshin Impact, it naturally benefits from the game's power-creep cycle.

The current base power level of Stellar teams is already very high. Stellar teams are generally already on par with the strongest Lunar teams in terms of theoretical DPS, with some already surpassing them. And Snezhnaya still has many patches left to go, so Stellar teams will only get stronger.

Should You Prioritize Stellar or Lunar Teams?

From a purely meta perspective, the direction of the game currently favors Stellar teams.

More Stellar-related characters are expected to release throughout Snezhnaya, further increasing the power of Stellar teams.

Endgame content is also going to continue favoring Stellar teams/

That means Stellar teams currently have three major advantages:

• Higher baseline power
• Greater future growth potential
• More favorable endgame content

Because of this, I would generally recommend investing your resources into Stellar teams rather than Lunar teams.

This is especially true if your account has no significant Lunar investment, such as no Lunar 5-star characters, or even just having 1 Lunar 5-star character. The best Lunar teams generally want multiple 5-star characters, so completing a full Lunar team when you don't have many of the pieces will require a significant amount of Primogem investment, making it likely more worth investing those Primogems in Stellar teams instead.

Despite Stellar teams being generally the better team archetype to prioritize, Lunar teams are still strong and meta-relevant. There are several situations where investing in Lunar teams makes sense.

If You Already Have Ineffa or Columbina

If you only have Ineffa or Columbina, while you could just ignore Lunar teams and focus on Stellar teams, you can consider completing the Ineffa + Columbina duo.

The Bineffa combination generally isn't enough to clear the hardest endgame content like Dire Stygian Onslaught, but if you're not interested in pushing that difficulty, the duo can be a potent support core that works with many teams and can allow you to perform well against Lunar-shill enemies.

If You Already Have Two Lunar 5-Stars

If you already have two limited 5-star characters belonging to a specific Lunar archetype, for example:

Nefer + Lauma

or

Zibai + Columbina

then completing the team can be a solid investment.

A complete Lunar team is extremely powerful and doesn't necessarily compete for limited 5-star supports with your other teams. Since Genshin Impact's hardest endgame content requires multiple teams, having a strong dedicated Lunar team gives your account greater flexibility in tackling endgame content.

If You Already Have a Complete Lunar Team (Vertical Investment)

For those who already have a complete Lunar team, if you really like a Lunar character or want to push difficult content such as Dire Stygian Onslaught (or just easily brute-force Fearless bosses), vertical investment can be a good option.

For example, Lunar DPSes such as Nefer and Zibai have signature weapons that provide significant increases in damage.

Reliquary of Truth & Lightbearing Moonshard

Their constellations can also be extremely powerful, including:

• Nefer C1/C2
• Lauma C2
• Zibai C1/C2
• Linnea C2

With sufficient vertical investment, these teams can deal enough damage to brute-force Dire difficulty bosses, even when those bosses aren't specifically designed to favor the team.

Even Flins, despite having weaker vertical investment potential than Nefer and Zibai, has also demonstrated the ability to clear difficult Dire bosses that aren't specifically designed for him with minimal or moderate vertical investment.

So, are Lunar teams still meta-relevant and worth building in Snezhnaya?

They are still meta-relevant, but whether you should invest in Lunar teams depends on your account.

Since Stellar teams are newer, have a higher baseline power level, will benefit more from Stellar-shill that will be common in Snezhnaya, and are likely to receive newer characters that make Stellar teams stronger, generally, you should prioritize investing in Stellar teams from a meta-perspective.

But Lunar teams are still powerful. They can be excellent investments if you already own some of their key characters or want to vertically invest in a Lunar team to further extend their meta longevity.

Ultimately, what is the best investment for your account depends on you and your goals.

And as Snezhnaya continues to unfold, we'll have to see just how good the Stellar archetype eventually ends up.