Nangong Yu Best Builds, Teams, Guide & Review

Nangong Yu is an Ether Stunner, but one who functions like an Anomaly Agent, having Ablooms, Polarity Disorders and strong enough damage that she can fill the slot of a sub-DPS.

She offers:

• 25% teamwide DMG Bonus
• 30% Stun DMG Multiplier
• 30% Anomaly Build-up Rate on Stunned enemies (60% on Chain Attacks)
• 3s Stun duration extension
• Ether Veil: Delusion Reprise (50 ATK)
• x2 Polarity Disorders per stun (useful for certain teams' resources)
• High personal damage contribution
• Fast stuns

Whereas Anomaly teams historically relied on having 2 Anomaly Agents, Nangong comes to break that mold, having enough Anomaly build-up that she can help sustain Disorder cycling, all the while packing some of the highest Daze application in the entire game and a competitive spread of buffs on top.

Her actual gameplay is rather straightforward, but it rides on multiple different unique resources and systems.

Core Passive & Vibrato Stacks

Core Passive

Core Passive: Prodigious Idol is in large part why Nangong is able to function as a sub-DPS and influences the way she's built. It provides an unconditional 120 Anomaly Proficiency and 1 Impact for every point of initial Anomaly Mastery over 110.

As Nangong's Anomaly Mastery is 126 at base on maxed levels/passives, this means any source of Anomaly Mastery will give her Impact, influencing her Drive Disc and W-Engine options.

Note that as this is strictly an Impact bonus, Daze % (such as those from King of the Summit or Roaring Fur-nace) scale particularly well.

When landing:

• Charged Basic Attack: Adorable Explosive Impact
• EX Special Attack: The Unbearable Weight of Love

Nangong gets a 35% increase to Anomaly Buildup Rate and 20% Daze dealt, while also giving the entire team a 25% DMG Bonus for 30 seconds.

This does not need much active thought and is relatively easy to maintain, as both skills are used frequently, but still worth being mindful of when dealing with long boss intermissions.

Vibrato Stacks

When enemies are Stunned, Nangong is able to build "Vibrato" stacks, the first of her unique resources. 1 stack is applied to an enemy whenever an Abloom, Disorder or Attribute Anomaly is triggered, being capped at 4.

When 4 stacks are reached or enemies exit the stunned state (whichever comes first), an Abloom will strike the enemy that scales with the number of Vibrato stacks, consuming them for a 25% increase per stack. This can happen once per stunned state.

Note that this is an increase to the Abloom multiplier: it is not saturated by stats or buffs and can result an Abloom that hits twice as hard as normal.

Getting 4 stacks is not particularly difficult, as Nangong is best run in Anomaly teams and she herself has high Anomaly Mastery and Buildup Rates, making it easy to cycle Disorders. Even in single-element teams, this isn't muhc of an issue, as Nangong can trigger 2 Polarity Disorders every stun.

Additional Ability & Dance Prowess

Additional Ability

Nangong's Additional Ability requires either Anomaly or same Faction Agents to activate, and firmly roots her as a Stunner for Anomaly teams.

It's through this that she provides the aforementioned 30% increased Anomaly Buildup Rate on Stunned enemies to all squad members and their attacks. Chain Attacks specifically get an extra 30% Buildup Rate on top.

If the 3rd hit of her Charged Basic Attack: Adorable Explosive Impact or Ultimate: Meteor Shower hit enemies, then it will apply "Misstep", which inflicts a 30% Stun DMG Multiplier increase and extend affected targets' Stun durations by 3s.

When enemies are Stunned, Nangong will also get a free use of her EX Special for the next 15s (with a 15s cooldown before the effect can be triggered again) and - like with her Core Passive - unlocks one of her unique resources.

Dance Prowess

Dance Prowess is tracked via 2 pips underneath Nangong's portrait in combat, and 2 are filled the moment an enemy is Stunned, both lasting 15s.

Landing a Charged Basic Attack, EX Special or Quick Assist consumes a stack to trigger a Polarity Disorder with 25% damage scaling and a reverse Quick Assist.

This is especially easy to trigger, and not just because of the EX Special cast that she gets. While there are active Dance Prowess stacks, swapping to Nangong will lead to an automatic, instant cast of her Charged  Basic Attack 1. Do be mindful as it's very fast, so it can initiate Chain Attacks if one isn't ready for it.

If Aria specifically is on the team, then her Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch will automatically trigger Dance Prowess' Polarity Disorder, so no swaps are needed for it.

Downbeats & Basic Attacks

The last of Nangong's unique resources are "Downbeats", tracked via a gauge underneath her portrait in combat. It has a cap of 100 and generates passively at a rate of 3.8 p/s, but it can be sped up through applying Attribute Anomalies, which give a bonus of 12 Downbeats, with a 6s cooldown.

 Basic Attack: Shooting Star Step is her standard Basic and although it has somewhat decent multipliers, isn't all that remarkable.

Holding down the Basic button however, leads to a charged variant, being  Basic Attack: Adorable Explosive Impact. It has a long charging time, but one shouldn't commit to it fully: instead, releasing the button when Nangong's weapons flash early on will trigger "Precise Charging", increasing the Daze it deals by 20%.

It also has guard-point properties, so if Nangong is attacked when releasing it, the Precise Charging bonus is triggered regardless of timing.

The 1st Charged Basic hit is middling, but if there are 50 Downbeats available, it can be consumed to lead to a 2nd, and then 3rd hit. Both of these also have Precise Charging timings and build significantly more Anomaly and Daze than the 1st.

Alternatively, the 2nd and 3rd hit can be shortcut to after Chain Attacks, Ultimates and EX Specials, and doing so always guarantees a Precise Charging bonus.

These skills have the added benefit of not interrupting the attack sequence: one could EX Special, Charged Basic 2, then EX Special, Charged Basic 3.

A significant portion of Nangong's Daze comes from landing her 2nd and 3rd Charged Basics, and considering that it both activates her buffs and applies Misstep, makes it a key skill to manage in her gameplay loop.

Other Skills

The rest of Nangong's kit is straightforward in functionality.

Dodges

Her Dash Attack: Spinning Meteor isn't worth using.

 Dodge Counter: Asteroid Waltz though, has especially high Daze multipliers. Considering that most sources of Daze demand some kind of resource (Downbeats for Charged Basics, energy for EX Special, Decibels for Ultimate), it's one of the more accessible ways to speed through to stun.

Assists

As Nangong is run in Anomaly teams however, she isn't likely to be on-fielding all that much. This is no issue as her  Assist Follow-Up: Improvised Performance builds far more Daze than her Dodge Counter.

Unlike most Agents, Nangong's Defensive Assist only consumes 1 Assist Point, no matter the attack, which means that it can often be better to keep her off-field and swap through Assists to conserve points. Proper management of this in certain fights can be important to Decibel and Daze build.

Specials

 Special Attack: The Weight of Love has no general use, but it is fast in activation. Although it can serve as a way to trigger Chain Attacks quickly, so too can Nangong's Charged Basic 1, so it rarely sees use.

 EX Special Attack: The Unbearable Weight of Love has no unique properties. Like with much of Nangong's kit however, it has good Daze multipliers, and it distinguishes itself by having especially high Anomaly application and being relatively cheap, at 40 Energy.

So despite it being simple, it's especially useful: it's used to build Daze quickly and shortcut to later Charged Basics when out-of-stun, and then used at least once every Stun (given that it's free to cast) for Anomaly and damage.

Chain & Ultimate

Chain Attack: Comet Gravity is a slow and not particularly strong skill, but it can be leveraged as a means to build Anomaly with Nangong when lacking in resources, so there are some combos or niche situations where it sees use.

Her Ultimate: Meteor Shower is also slow, yet to make up for it, has ridiculously high Daze multipliers. As of Nangong's release, it is the highest single source of Daze in the game.

It can shortcut to Charged Basics, but sometimes there may not even be room to do so, as enemies may be Stunned too quickly for there to be an opportunity to do so. Thankfully, it is also a way to apply Misstep, so one can go through a Stun cycle without needing Charged Basics if Ultimate is available.

Ether Veil: Delusion Reprise - giving the entire team 50 ATK - is also triggered on the final hit of the skill, making it handy to activate certain endgame buff effects and sustain other Agents' mechanics.

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

Being a Stunner, every skill is useful to level if only for the extra Daze that they provide. Nangong's Core Passive is the most important, being a large contributor to her Anomaly Proficiency stat as well as determining the scaling of her personal and team-wide buffs.

Given that she needs to land either Basic Attacks or EX Specials for said buffs - the former of which is also used for the Misstep Stun DMG Multiplier and duration increases - investing in them after is a safe bet. Ultimate follows, as it isn't used as frequently, but still very important owing to how obscenely high its Daze multipliers are, meaning that it gets particularly large increases per level in comparison to other skills.

Assist then Dodge are left for last, with Assist likely to see more use owing to its reduced Assist Point cost and how most Anomaly Agents demand some field time.

Nangong is in a difficult situation when it comes to her W-Engine choices. It's not as if alternatives are bad, but as her Impact scales with Anomaly Mastery and she tends to take the place of an Anomaly Agent in team composions, it's important for her to have high Anomaly Proficiency to make up for the loss in damage from a sub-DPS, putting her Signature a step above the rest.

Neon Fantasies

Neon Fantasies (P1) provides:

• 30% Anomaly Mastery
• Up to 150 Anomaly Proficiency
• Up to 30% teamwide DMG Bonus

It's not possible to understate how significant this is for Nangong. 30% Anomaly Mastery is going to equate to 30 Impact, a fair bit more than the 18% Impact from alternatives (her base Impact is 120). This also makes her much more comfortable to play as it allows for easier Disorder dancing with Anomaly Agents, having the potential to change combos and routes owing to the extra build-up.

The difference in personal damage is massive too. S-Rank Anomaly W-Engines have a 90 Proficiency mainstat, but Neon Fantasies offers a 66.6^ increase over that on its bonus effect alone. While Nangong is very strong in her own right, a fair bit of her power budget has been put on her Signature, being a priority over almost any other Agent's weapon to date.

Other Options

If Neon Fantasies isn't available, then which alternative to pick can change depending on the team and encounter:

Hellfire Gears is a great universal choice, as Nangong's low-cost EX Special and free-cast once per stun makes it easy to maintain its stacks, but it does suffer when running with Aria, as the Coordinated Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch has Nangong show up "on-field" and so not benefit from its effect.

Steam Oven works well here too for many of the same reasons, with it being easy to sustain high enough Energy to keep its effect maxed out. As Nangong's EX Special is a large part of her Anomaly Build-up however, Disorder-focused comps that demand multiple casts in stun may struggle with Energy economy.

Precious Fossilized Core is, as always, an effective option owing to its absurdly high Daze bonuses. As it falls off the higher enemy HP gets though, it can struggle in high-scoring clears, so it may over or underperform depending on target scores.

The Simmering Pot is a balanced option: it doesn't offer more resources, and its Daze increase is not particularly competitive, but it's very easy to trigger (especially given Nangong's 1 Assist Point cost) and is the only free option that provides consistent personal damage increases, which is especially helpful for Nangong given her role.

Roaring Fur-nace is a premium balanced option, doing well in both Daze and damage, as it scales well with Nangong's high Impact and has an ATK % mainstat to help increase damage. While its Daze bonus won't apply to her Basic Attacks, it's still competitive enough to hold its own against generalist alternatives.

Stats

D4 - Anomaly Proficiency

As Nangong is played in Anomaly teams, the less she dilutes Anomaly build-up, the better. She can build Ether surprisingly fast too, especially if using Neon Fantasies, allowing her to double-up as a sub-DPS.

With her damage being a non-negligible part of a team's output, having her hit hard has an outsized impact on scores, and Anomaly Proficiency is by far the best pick for this.

D5 - Ether DMG % | ATK % | PEN Ratio

All damaging mainstats are viable here. Ether DMG % is the best generalist option, but PEN Ratio is competitive if Puffer Electro is used.

ATK % would be the weakest of the lot, but it all rides on saturation, as endgame buffs in modes like Deadly Assault and Shiyu Defence as well as lower DEF bosses can lessen the value of other stats.

D6 - Anomaly Mastery

Nangong needs as much Anomaly Mastery as possible to fuel her Core Passive's Impact conversion, not to mention it's important to build her with as much of it as possible to keep her from lagging behind Anomaly Agents' build-up, making it the only viable choice for this slot.

Drive Discs

Nangong has 2 main 4-piece set options:

• Phaethon's Melody
• Freedom Blues

Phaethon's Melody is the best pick for damage overall. In an Aria | Nangong Yu | Sunna team, it's the go-to option - despite Nangong's high Anomaly scaling, it's better to have Aria build the majority and prioritise having the most damage possible to reduce any dilution.

For Disorder based teams, like those with Miyabi, having high Anomaly build-up can be more important than Nangong's personal damage, so Freedom Blues takes priority.

Whether to use one or another can depend on the fight weakness spread and the team more generally, such as if Yuzuha or Signature W-Engines are available (Neon Fantasies is especially important if wanting to use Phaethon's in Disorder teams).

Shockstar Disco is an option if struggling to make it to 4 stuns against some Deadly Assault bosses, but the loss of Phaethon's damage and Freedom Blue's build-up is often going to be a bigger loss.

Astral Voice technically is usable owing to Nangong's reverse Quick Assist, but due to Anomaly snapshotting, isn't often worthwhile.

For 2-piece, Phaethon's Melody is the priority (if using Freedom Blues or another 4-piece), otherwise any damaging piece is fine. DMG % and Anomaly Proficiency are likely to do best generally, but Puffer Electro is strong if using a PEN Ratio D5 and ATK % Discs can work well depending on saturation.

King of the Summit is an option if additional Daze is needed, but it's only worth using if a threshold/breakpoint needs to be met.

Nangong's teams are best formed with a shell of:

Anomaly | Nangong Yu | Supportive Agent

While it is possible to run an Anomaly | Nangong Yu | Anomaly comp, this is likely to underperform compared to using a Support, as Nangong's Anomaly Build-up and damage is competitive with that of other Anomaly Agents.

The Support slot is almost always going to be filled by Yuzuha if available, but Sunna is also a decent contender, and would in fact be best for the Idols team. Agents like Nicole, Rina, Trigger or Zhao can also fit, albeit with noticeably worse results.

As for the Anomaly slot, Aria and Miyabi are Nangong's best partners, making great use of her high Stun DMG Multiplier and duration extensions (in Miyabi's case, Polarity Disorders too for Fallen Frost).

Despite this, almost all Anomaly Agents work well too. Alice and Piper are great picks as their Additional Abilities can be fulfilled without much trouble, but even those that lose out on it, like Yanagi, Grace, Jane and Burnice can pull off good scores regardless.

Vivian is not a good match without another Anomaly Agent, as the lack of Disorders means damage would come exclusively from Corruption, Ablooms and Polarity Disorders, but the rest can run with Nangong and a Supportive Agent and outperform traditional double Anomaly comps.

Nangong teams generally are much easier to route because they can be played like a traditional CRIT damage dealer with a Stunner, focusing only on generating resources to sustain a heavy in-stun burst.

Prioritising effective combos becomes more important than bouncing back and forth between Anomalies out-of-stun, leading to more forgiving and universal rotations.

Mindscape 1

Lazy Spotlight provides:

• 18% All-Attribute RES Shred on landing EX Special: The Unbearable Weight of Love or Charged Basic Attack: Adorable Explosive Impact 
• Start combat with maxed out Downbeats gauge

A very strong, but standard Mindscape. It's in line with many other Support M1s, like 12-Tone Equal Temperament and Secret Friend.

Starting combat with Downbeats can lead to some minor routing optimisations in Deadly Assault, making it easier to sustain mid-combo Charged Basic Attack: Adorable Explosive Impact if the gauge is expended early, or outright stunning faster, but it's little more than a quality-of-life bonus when compared to the RES Shred.

Mindscape 2

Painless Tears provides:

• Up to 40% additional Abloom DMG Ratio from Vibrato stacks (10% per stack)
• 30% extra Stun DMG Multiplier on Misstep
• Polarity Disorder with 25% scaling on any Chain Attack against Stunned enemies

Another strong Mindscape, with competitive numbers that work to both increase Nangong's own damage contribution through harder hitting Ablooms and an additional Polarity Disorder, as well as the team's total output through a higher Stun DMG Multiplier.

This further funnels teams into in-stun burst and is particularly strong against enemies with lower base Stun DMG Multipliers (like Miasmic Fiend). It is strictly tied to stun damage though, so it can have worse performance on bosses with fewer stun opportunities.

Mindscape 4

Accomplice's Dance Step provides:

• 40 Anomaly Proficiency
• 35% more Anomaly build-up on Basic Attack: Adorable Explosive Impact 

A stepping-stone Mindscape on the road to M6. The extra Anomaly Proficiency is welcome (almost half of what an S-Rank W-Engine's mainstat would provide) and gives Nangong even more personal damage. In Ether teams, like with Aria, it also lessens any negative effects from diluting Anomaly build-up.

The Anomaly build-up gain on Charged Basics can be situationally useful, making it easier to Disorder dance out-of-stun and - depending on Enemy Weaknesses and Anomaly threhsolds - allow for certain combos to be used across a wider range of enemies (e.g. with Miyabi, who is reliant on Nangong's Charged Basic 2 for Disorders in stun).

How useful the build-up is varies greatly though, being rather niche and more of a bonus rather than the motive for pushing to this Mindscape.

Mindscape 6

An Angel's Delusion provides:

• 50% more Daze dealt to all of Nangong's attacks
• A new stack, "Vibrato: Modified" can build out of stun, triggering an Abloom when targets are stunned

This is arguably one of the strongest M6s in the game. The "Vibrato: Modified" stacks work similar to the standard Vibrato: it has a cap of 4, builds on Ablooms, Disorders and Anomalies, and triggers an Abloom that scales with the number of stacks. Instead of the trigger happening when it hits cap or when enemies exit stun though, it triggers only when enemies enter stun.

It has slightly higher scaling than the regular Vibrato Ablooms, and does help with Nangong's damage, but this is minor in comparison to the 50% Daze dealt increase. This can allow for 5-stun Deadly Assault routes - massively increasing a team's total damage output - and leads to ridiculously fast stun-times, enabling Shiyu speedruns that would otherwise not be possible.

Working around it can be tricky, as Nangong stuns so fast that team resources may not align, but simply having the ability to speed through to stun at will gives players far more control over a fight, leading to higher scores, faster clears and more consistent runs.

Combos

Nangong's Stun duration extension coupled with her absurdly high Anomaly build-up rate can allow for high damaging combos that fit in more Disorders than previously possible. As with Anomaly Agents though, these combos are dependent on a multitude of factors.

Enemies' Anomaly thresholds and weakness spreads matter a lot, as a boss that is Ice and Ether weak might demand different skill use than one that is Ether and Physical weak for Piper, Alice or Miyabi. Having Neon Fantasies available, or even other Anomaly Mastery boosting W-Engines on other Agents (e.g. Practiced Perfection or Metanukimorphosis) can alter combos too, not to mention Anomaly Build-up buffs that may be active for a given season.

This means that there's no precise combo formula that can be followed for every player, and working around one's context is important.

Miyabi

With all that in mind, here is a sample Miyabi | Nangong Yu | Yuzuha combo:

Enemy must be under an Attribute Anomaly before beginning.

• EX Special Attack: Hisetsu (Freeze, Disorder)
• Basic Attack: Shimotsuki Level 3
• Swap to Nangong Yu, auto-cast Charged Basic Attack: Adorable Explosive Impact 1
• EX Special: The Unbearable Weight of Love
• Charged Basic Attack: Adorable Explosive Impact 2 (Corruption, Disorder)
• Reverse Quick Assist to Miyabi
• Basic Attack: Shimotsuki Level 3
• Swap to Yuzuha
• EX Special Attack: Cavity Alert
• Swap to Nangong Yu
• EX Special: The Unbearable Weight of Love
• Yuzuha Chain Attack: Prank Assault (Assault, Disorder - may not always align)
• Cancel Chain
• Reverse Quick Assist to Miyabi
• Ultimate: Lingering Snow (Freeze, Disorder)
• Cancel Chain
• Basic Attack: Shimotsuki Level 3
• Swap to Nangong Yu
• EX Special: The Unbearable Weight of Love
• Charged Basic Attack: Adorable Explosive Impact 2 (Corruption, Disorder - may not be worth using for in-stun burst, where conserving Downbeats to re-apply Misstep after would be better)

Ideally Yuzuha's Chain Attack would trigger an Assault Disorder, but if Miyabi's Ultimate: Lingering Snow is available it's not needed. Technically this does depend on the +1 from Frost, which may be on cooldown, but if so that can be made-up with a EX Special Attack: Hisetsu cast.

If, however, Miyabi does not have her Ultimate, then aligning Anomalies for the Assault Disorder is required. The combo would then follow a shell of:

• Yuzuha Chain Attack: Prank Assault (Assault, Disorder)
• Miyabi Chain Attack: Spring's Call
• EX Special Attack: Hisetsu (Freeze, Disorder)
• Basic Attack: Shimotsuki Level 3
• Swap to Nangong Yu
• EX Special: The Unbearable Weight of Love
• Charged Basic Attack: Adorable Explosive Impact 2 (Corruption, Disorder)

Be mindful of Disorder ICD, as it means that even if Miyabi's Chain has enough build-up for an Anomaly, it won't be enough. This is no issue as the Assault Disorder provides 2 Fallen Frost, with EX Special Attack: Hisetsu triggering the Anomaly for a Disorder and giving the remaining 4 needed (2+2).

Aria

Aria | Nangong Yu | Sunna is far more consistent than other combos, as it does not demand Disorder dancing or specific Anomaly thresholds to be worked around:

12s Base Stun Duration:

• EX Special Attack: Bubblegum Barrage
• Quick Assist to Aria
• Ultimate: 100% Energy
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch (Stun Triggers)
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Swap to Sunna (do so as soon as the previous attack's animation begins. Refer to Additional Tips: Coordinated Attack Desyncing on Aria's Build Page for more)
• EX Special Attack: Special Photography Technique
• Swap Sunna for  Special: Star Shooter (fast Chain Trigger)
• Aria Chain Attack: Dream Collab
• Cancel Chain
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Cancel Chain
• EX Special: Fall Into Delusion
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch

15s Base Stun Duration:

• EX Special Attack: Bubblegum Barrage
• Quick Assist to Aria
• EX Special: Fall Into Delusion
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch (Stun Triggers)
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Swap to Sunna (do so as soon as the previous attack's animation begins. Refer to Additional Tips: Coordinated Attack Desyncing on Aria's Build Page for more)
• EX Special Attack: Special Photography Technique
• Swap Sunna for  Special: Star Shooter (fast Chain Trigger)
• Aria Chain Attack: Dream Collab
• Cancel Chain
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• EX Special: Fall Into Delusion
• Ultimate: 100% Energy
• Cancel Chain
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch
• Basic Attack: Perfect Pitch

Gameplay Flowchart

For all of her different resources and the complexity behind optimising Anomaly team combos, Nangong herself is quite simple to play:

• Apply frequent Attribute Anomalies to build Downbeats
• Use Charged Basic Attack: Adorable Explosive Impact to activate her buffs and apply Misstep
• • Shortcutting to it after EX Special: The Unbearable Weight of Love is often best, making it easy to cast with no Precise Charging timing requirements and building up Ether for Disorder cycling.
• When in Stun, swap to Nangong for her auto-casted Charged Basic Attack and use up her free EX Special.
• • Make use of her Charged Basic's fast Heavy Attack to trigger Chain Attacks, or Manual Chain and go into her EX Special to use up both Dance Prowess stacks at once.

Then once stun recovers, repeat the above, with the occasional Ultimate as required.