Cissia Best Builds, Teams, Guide & Review

Cissia is an Electric Attacker, but one that does a lot more than just damage. She's a jack-of-all-trades type Agent, who has not only a significant personal damage contribution, but also:

• Has significant Daze application, competitive with even some Stunners
• 40% teamwide CRIT DMG Bonus
• Ether Veil: Cold-Blooded (5% CRIT DMG)
• Up to 25% Electric DMG Res Shred
• Frequent Quick Assists

All the while needing little field-time and consuming a lot of Energy in the process, which is especially good for characters that rely on it, like Seed.

Venom & Corrode Bone, Core Passive & Additional Ability

Venom & Corrode Bone

Cissia's primary resource is "Venom" tracked via 6 pips underneath her health bar in Combat. She gets 3 upon entering the battlefield, as well as from using certain skills:

1 stack of Venom is consumed every 5s to trigger "Corrode Bone", which deals Electric DMG. If any Venom is generated while Cissia is capped, then that stack is immediately converted into Corrode Bone - working as a sort of instant consumption - meaning that there's no risk of overcapping.

Corrode Bone is a Basic Attack, with multipliers that scale with it, but Cissia's Core Passive also provides an additional Electric DMG value when it's triggered, going up to 335% of ATK when at max. Every Corrode Bone trigger will also increase Cissia's CRIT Rate by 6%, stacking 3 times for up to an 18% bonus.

A sizable portion if her damage comes from Corrode Bone, but it is also one of her greatest sources of Daze. While Corrode Bone generates no Energy, Decibels nor any Anomaly, it has an unusually high Daze multiplier, and this is further boosted by an additional 40%/60% when there are 1/2 Electric Agents on the team.

Core Passive

It's in Cissia's Core Passive that most of the Venom and Corrode Bone mechanics are outlined, but it also has extra effects: while Venom is stocked, Cissia provides an Electric DMG DEF Shred/Ignore buff to the entire team. This is only 6% at baseline, but every 0.12 points of initial Energy Regen above 1.4 increases this by 1%, capping at at 25%.

This means that Cissia needs 3.68 Energy Regen on her out-of-combat stat screen to get full value from this effect.

The buff itself lasts 30s after Venom is depleted, so there is no need to manage it as Cissia is almost certain to generate at least one stack before it's due to expire.

Additional Ability

As for her Additional Ability, it activates when Stun or same attribute Agents are on the team and provides:

• 40% teamwide CRIT DMG
• An additional 10% CRIT DMG for Cissia on top

This functions similar to the Core Passive buff, being applied when there is Venom in stock and lasting for 30s after it depletes.

Basic Attacks & Serpentine Shadow

Building Venom and consuming it to trigger Corrode Bone is the crux of Cissia's gameplay.

Most of Cissia's Venom is likely to come from her EX Specials, but a fair amount can be built by using Basic Attack: Tongue Flick. This is her regular string, and while it isn't often worth going through it all from start to finish, the 4th hit builds Venom stacks: 2 by default, and 3 if it lands on Stunned enemies.

Simply relying on the automatic 5s use or overcapping for Corrode Bone triggers however, is rather slow.

This is where the enhanced Basic Attack: Serpent's Kiss comes in. Every 6 Venom generated will generate 1 stack of "Serpentine Shadow" tracked as a regular buff icon and with a cap of 3.

Holding Basic will use up a stack and have Cissa jump and deliver a diving strike, having decent multipliers and consuming all currently stocked Venom, triggering a Corrode Bone for each point consumed. It will also trigger a Quick Assist prompt on hit.

It's through it that Cissia can unload all of her Venom in a short period of time, being the ideal way to quickly apply Daze and burst enemies down in Stun.

Chain, Ultimate & Ether Veil: Cold-Blooded

Chain Attack: Gang Operation and Ultimate: Ophidiophobia are both similar in functionality:

• Both deal good damage for how fast they are to cast.
• Both trigger a Quick Assist.
• Both generate 3 Venom stacks.

It's often worth trying to fit in at least 1 (or at times even 2) Chain Attacks, as it's a good source of Decibels and damage, with the Venom generation it gives both leading to more Corrode Bones and potentially an additional enhanced Basic Attack: Serpent's Kiss.

As for her Ultimate, it has an extra effect, that being the activation of Ether Veil: Cold-Blooded. It lasts 30s and gives a 5% teamwide CRIT DMG bonus.

Special & EX Special

Special Attack: Bared Fangs is Cissia's regular Special and it rarely sees use, but it has a fast activation, so it can be situationally useful for Chain Attack triggers.

EX Special Attack: Venomous Bite is her only EX Special, which costs 60 Energy by default but refunds 5 Energy on cast, giving it an effective base cost of 55 Energy.

By default, it generates 3 Venom, but it can be extended by keeping the Special button held down on cast, consuming 20 Energy up to 3 times for Additional Strikes. Every 20 Energy consumed will generate 1 extra Venom.

Given Cissia's high Energy Regen, this skill tends to get used often, being the primary source of Venom generation over the course of a fight. It also both triggers a Quick Assist and can shortcut into her regular Basic 4, making for a seamless string of EX Special, Basic 4, Quick Assist when out-of-stun.

Note that while it can be extended, it's often best to avoid doing so. The shortcut to Basic 4 means that having more uses of EX Special leads to more Venom stacks. It is also slightly more economical to split uses, owing to both the 5 Energy refund, and the fact that the Additional Strikes have slightly less DMG and Daze per point of Energy spent than the initial cast.

Other Skills

Cissia's remaining skills aren't all that noteworthy.

Her Dodges do not see much use, as she tends to be inactive for much of the fight, coming in only to expend Energy on EX Specials or use up Venom. As she's invulnerable for these, Dodges tend to only have value on Cissia carry teams.

Assists can be used for Decibel management, but have unremarkable multipliers and aren't all that fast either. Outside of resource management needs or enemy mechanics, there isn't much of a need for them.

1. Core Passive
2. Basic Attack
3. EX Special
4. Ultimate
5. Assist | Dodge

Cissia's Core Passive is by far the most important: it determines the scaling of her DEF Shred and increases Corrode Bone DMG, on top of the passive bonuses that it provides via its Base ATK and Energy Regen stats.

Basic Attack follows as the vast majority of Cissia's damage is classified as such. Corrode Bone and enhanced Basic Attack: Serpent's Kiss fall in this category, so it's the next priority.

Both EX Special and Ultimate come after, but with an edge to EX Specials. Since Cissia has so much Energy Regen, it sees frequent use when out-of-stun, so levelling it offers not just an increase to damage, but a much appreciated Daze boost that gives it an edge over Ultimate & Chains.

Assist and Dodge can be left for last, with neither being particularly important. If Cissia is being played as a secondary damage dealer, then Assist is likely to be better as she gets more opportunities to Defensive Assist, but if as a primary on-fielder, then Dodge Counters will see frequent use so it can be worth levelling in such circumstances.

Cissia has both a very good Signature W-Engine and very good alternatives. As far as personal damage output goes, her Signature can be almost a 40% increase in damage over others, making for one of the biggest gaps of any character to date.

On the other hand, much of Cissia's benefit to a team comes from her buffs and Daze application. While the former does need Energy Regen to max out, this can be satisfied with alternatives, and the latter isn't impacted by her Signature bonuses, so she can still perform without it.

Serpentine Seeker

Serpentine Seeker (P1) provides:

• 60% Energy Regen
• 25% CRIT Rate
• 28% DEF Ignore for up to 30s after consuming Energy

Cissia's Signature W-Engine is a significant stat boost for her: it has an Energy Regen mainstat - needed to max out the DEF Shred on her Core Passive - has some of the highest unconditional CRIT Rate bonuses to date (higher than even S-Rank W-Engine mainstats) and provides a lot of DEF Ignore, which falls in the same bucket as DEF Shred and therefore scales especially well.

At first the buff maintenance can seem difficult, as it the buff itself lasts only 3s, but that's per 20 Energy consumed. Every Cissia EX Special then is building at least 9s, but potentially up to 18s of this buff, and it does not tick down when she's no longer active.

Note that it is not if she's not on-field, but active, which means that simply swapping out of her will pause the buff decay. In practice this is very easy to upkeep, although it may need a bit of active management if treating Cissia as a primary damage dealer who's constantly the active pick.

Other Options

Outside of her Signature W-Engine, Cissia has a lot of options that all score relatively close to one another.

Cordis Germina is arguably one of the best personal damage options. Even if it has no Energy Regen, Cissia benefits in full from its Electric DMG up effect. She sees especially good benefits from this W-Engine's DEF Shred effect (which partially makes up for the loss in DEF Shred from Cissia's Core Passive), but is unlikely to see use outside of carry Cissia teams, as Seed is better placed to use the W-Engine.

Bellicose Blaze is a premium alternative, being little more than a stat stick with an S-Rank W-Engine's level of Energy Regen on its mainstat and an unconditional 20% CRIT Rate bonus to support.

Drill Rig - Red Axis is the A-Rank pick, having both an Energy Regen mainstat and providing a pretty consistent increase to Cissia's Basic Attack DMG. As she has no personal sources of DMG Bonus, this ends up being a very competitive weapon with other, premium non-signature alternatives.

Stats

D4 - CRIT DMG | CRIT Rate

Although Cissia can get 18% CRIT Rate from her Corrode Bone, she gets no bonuses from her Core Passive.

As Energy Regen is needed to max out her DEF Shred, this means that without Serpentine Seeker or Bellicose Blaze, she has to either sacrifice her Core Passive scaling (which would be the case with Cordis Germina) or the ability to run a CRIT DMG D4 (with Drill Rig - Red Axis).

So while CRIT DMG is the better option, that is only the case if lacking in substats/W-Engine options to make up for her low CRIT Rate, with both being valid depending on rolls and gear.

D5 - Electric DMG | ATK %

Cissia has no DMG Bonuses in her kit, which means that outside of teammate or stage buffs, she is very unsaturated on the stat, making it generally be the better choice.

ATK % is still a solid option however, especially with Drive Discs like Dawn's Bloom contributing to saturation somewhat, so when buffs provide ample DMG Bonuses it can come out ahead.

D6 - Energy Regen

This is mandatory to cap out on Cissia's Core Passive DEF Shred, and since her EX Special: Venomous Bite serves as her primary source of Venom generation - be it from its own cast or from its shortcut to Basic 4 - more uses of it directly translates to more damage.

Only when running M1+ as well as a P5 Serpentine Seeker and/or Spectral Gaze does ATK % become a consideration, as Energy Regen would lead to DEF Shred overcapping.

Drive Discs

Cissia's 4-piece choices are likely to be one of:

• Dawn's Bloom
• Astral Voice

The default pick is Dawn's Bloom. With most of Cissia's damage coming from Basic Attacks and her using EX Specials often, it has permanent uptime and is the primary pick for her personal damage.

As she can provide frequent Quick Assists however, Astral Voice can be an option, although ideally only when running a Support - ideally Astra Yao - as without a way to Quick Assist into Cissia, she would not benefit from its DMG bonuses.

There are alternatives, like Hormone Punk, but it can be especially hard to manage its uptime to get value out of it, so while it can work, Dawn's Bloom is likely to be better.

For 2-piece, Swing Jazz or Moonlight Lullaby is needed to max out Cissia's DEF Shred, and since Energy Regen translates well into personal damage through more EX Special uses, it's the recommended pick.

With how little extra DEF Shred it provides though, Branch & Blade Song or Woodpecker Electro can also be good options if they have superior substats.

Cissia's best team is:

Seed | Supportive Agent | Cissia

Seed and Cissia feel tailor made for each other:

• Both have matching elements, which means issues Seed previously had with her Vanguard being off-element is no longer an issue.
• Despite being an Attacker and not making use of Aftershocks, Cissia has very limited field-time needs, which affords Seed the time to build her resources and deal damage.
• Cissia builds Energy Regen and is constantly spending it, fueiling Seed's Charge. Unlike Orphie, it is only ever spent while Cissia is active.
• All of Cissia's buffs apply to Seed in full, with little to no attention needed for uptime management, and with Cordis Germina having DEF Ignore, it sees great scaling benefits with Cissia's DEF Shred.

Unfortunately, outside of Seed, there is no Agent in which Cissia is a best pick for. This lack of team variety is one of her main downsides.

She is a very strong character, but her buffs are limited to Electric Agents who benefit from DEF Shred, which means even future Rupture Agents won't benefit from her much.

Soldier 0 - Anby could make use of her, but Orphie & Magus will perform better. Even Support options, like Sunna, are competitive.

Harumasa has very tight combos, affording little time for Cissia to burst during stuns, working best with a Stun | Support shell.

Yanagi and Grace are Anomaly characters, so running multiple Electric Agents means more dilution and no Disorders. Not to mention that Cissia is not built for Anomaly at all.

It is possible to run Cissia as a main damage dealer, with a shell of:

Cissia | Stunner | Support

Using Trigger or Dialyn alongside Astra Yao, Sunna or Nicole can work. Given Cissia's Daze build, it's possible to even run a double Support comp and do fine, but keep in mind this would underperform compared to other Electric Attackers, like Soldier 0 - Anby or Harumasa.

WIth Mindscapes this changes, as they are especially strong enablers for Cissia carry teams, but before M2+, she is only really best placed with Seed.

Mindscape 1

Traveler and Prey provides:

• Increase from 3 → 6 in Venom when entering the Battlefield
• x1.4 DEF Ignore value from Core Passive
• 5% teamwide Electric RES Ignore
• 10% Electric RES Ignore on Corrode Bone

Cissia's M1 is a decently strong Mindscape, being on par with her Signature W-Engine in terms of overall team damage increase.

The increase in Venom is a nice QoL that can help speed up Daze build somewhat, and the increase in DEF Ignore is especially strong - albeit does demand a W-Engine with Energy Regen mainstat to get the most value from.

The Electric RES Ignore is a decent personal damage boost, with the 5% for the team being small but still noteworthy a damage increase (although given Seed's 25% RES Ignore from her Additional Ability, does see some saturation).

Mindscape 2

Hunger and Hard Truths provides:

• 3 additional Venom generation when hitting Stunned enemies with:
• • Chain Attack: Gang Operation
  • Ultimate: Ophidiophobia
• 35% DMG Bonus to Enhanced Basic Attack: Serpent’s Kiss

It's at M2 that Cissia can be played as a competitive carry, with a Stunner | Support or even double Support comp. While the DMG Bonus to her dive is appreciated, the additional Venom generation is especially good.

When paired with the Electric RES Ignore from M1, Cissia's Corrode Bone is doing an impressive amount of damage, getting up to 9 extra triggers every stun (from 6 from x2 Chains and 3 from the Ultimate) makes a big difference.

This greatly increases the value of Cissia's Chain Attack, so using it twice per Stun is a priority, and in doing so she can be competitive with other Electric teams at equivalent investment levels, especially if she otherwise wouldn't have had the time or opportunity to double Chain Attack.

Mindscape 4

A Rogue's Resolve provides:

• 1 "Decidedness" stack, capping at 3, when Cissia uses:
• • EX Special
  • Chain Attack
  • Ultimate
• Decidedness stacks are consumed upon using Basic Attack: Serpent’s Kiss to trigger an additional Corrode Bone that does not cause Daze.

As far as M4s go, this is a good improvement to Cissia's damage, albeit behind the others. While these Corrode Bone stacks do not build any Daze, they still benefit from all other Corrode Bone benefits, like M1's RES Shred.

Since Decidedness stacks are only consumed on Basic Attack: Serpent’s Kiss, it's possible to stack them up and unload at the start of Stun, giving her even more burst value.

Mindscape 6

Home and Sixth Street provides:

• 1 stack of "Bone-Deep Corrosion" when Corrode Bone is triggered (no cap).
• Bone-Deep Corrosion is consumed every 3s when attacks from any squad member hit enemies to trigger an additional Corrode Bone that does not cause Daze.

Cissia's M6 leads to a near endless supply of constantly triggering Corrode Bones. Like M4, this does not build Daze, but the Bone-Deep Corrosion stacks are being generated with every regular Corrode Bone trigger.

6 Venom consumed means 6 additional Corrode Bones, effectively doubling the total damage output that Cissia can get from Corrode Bone.

It isn't quite that straightforward, as the 3s cooldown means that there's a limit to how many can fit in stun, and buffs won't be aligned for every trigger, but it results in a near constant stream of Corrode Bone ticks, greatly increasing Cissia's damage over the course of a fight.

Combos

Cissia's Combos are going to be dependent on who she's running with, given her secondary damage dealer position in a team.

As Seed is almost certain to be said partner though, trying to fit in 2x Seed Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall and 2x Cissia enhanced Basic Attack Serpent's Kiss (consuming Venom) is a good standard to shoot for:

• Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter
• Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall
• Swap to Cissia
• EX Special: Venomous Bite
• Ultimate: Ophidiophobia
• Cancel Chain
• Enhanced Basic Attack: Serpent’s Kiss
• Quick Assist to Seed
• Ultimate: Clockwork Garden - Bloom!
• Cissia Chain Attack: Gang Operation
• Seed Chain Attack: Tempest of Frosty Petals
• Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Slaughter
• Basic Attack: Falling Petals - Downfall
• Swap to Cissia
• EX Special: Venomous Bite
• Enhanced Basic Attack: Serpent’s Kiss

Gameplay Flowchart

The general gist of Cissia's gameplay is relatively straightforward:

• Keep Cissia inactive when possible to preserve her Serpentine Seeker buff.
• When there's enough Energy for EX Special: Venomous Bite, swap her in to use it.
• • Follow-up with a shortcut to Basic 4 for extra Venom generation.
  • Ideally, do not hold for an extended cast, as it's better to get more EX Special uses owing to the Basic 4 shortcut and slightly higher damage & daze values.
• Use Basic Attack: Serpent’s Kiss to expend Venom and build-up Daze quickly through Corrode Bone triggers.
• Repeat the above until Stun, conserving Energy for an EX Special: Venomous Bite opener and making use of occasional Defensive Assists for Decibels if needed.