Yidhari Best Builds, Teams, Guide & Review

Yidhari is an Ice Rupture Agent who specialises in consuming her own HP to charge up skills. The more HP she loses, the more resources and the more damage she deals, continuously restoring her own HP only to drain it shortly afterwards for powerful attacks.

Her unique properties can be summarised as:

• Consuming HP to charge her Basic Attack
• Gaining Decibels proportionate to the HP lost
• Converting Decibels into buffs, which can then be consumed to cast her Ultimate
• Having steep self-buffs that demand being under 50% HP

Core Passive & Additional Ability

Core Passive: Dreamscape Collection

As with all Rupture Agents, Yidhari's matching elemental attacks (Ice) will ignore all enemy DEF and scale with Sheer Force instead of Attack, which itself is converted off Max HP at a rate of 1:10.

In addition, she begins combat with 60 Adrenaline built (180s cooldown in Investigation Zone Mode).

The rest of Core Passive: Dreamscape Collection revolves around 2 major effects:

1. Up to 100% in DMG Bonus to all of Yidhari's skills, capping out when HP is at or below 50% HP.
2. Yidhari gains fewer Decibels from skills and instead gains 10 Decibels for every 1% HP lost.

As the buff is stronger the lower Yidhari's HP is, it's a priority to stay under the 50% threshold for as long as possible. The Core Passive itself isn't too strict, as the maximum bonus will linger for 5 seconds even if Yidhari's HP climbs above 50%, but many of her other bonuses do not, so don't be fooled into a false sense of security.

Although Yidhari "gains fewer Decibels from skills", this does not apply to general gains. Perfect Dodges, Defensive Assists, Attribute Anomalies, etc. all are unaffected, as are shared gains from other Agents' skill usage.

In the aggregate, however, her skills tend to generate half as many Decibels as other Agents.

Note that the Decibel gain is on HP loss, not necessarily HP consumption via skills. Getting hit by enemies and losing HP through their attacks still confers Decibels.

Yet Decibels generated via this effect are not shared with other squad members! This can significantly influence rotations; refer to "Decibel Management" in the Additional Tips section for more.

Additional Ability: Narrative Completion

Yidhari's Additional Ability is active when another character in the squad is a Stun or Support character and also provides stat bonuses when Yidhari is under 50% HP, manifesting as a personal buff of:

• 30% CRIT DMG
• 25% reduction to all DMG taken

Unlike the Core Passive bonuses, this does not linger for any amount of time. The exact moment that Yidhari's HP goes above 50%, it's gone, so be mindful of healing too much in critical burst periods.

Additional Ability: Narrative Completion provides another effect, being that when Ether Veil: Wellspring (buff) is active, certain moves, namely the last hits of:

• Level 3 charged Basic Attack: Frostbite Embrace
• Enhanced EX Special Attack: Glacial Crush

Summon icy tentacles to attack enemies, with a 12s cooldown. These tentacles are considered EX Specials, scaling with the skill level and triggering related effects.

Prior to going over its specifics, one should understand how Yidhari activtes Ether Veil: Wellspring (buff).

Ultimate

Yidhari's Ultimate activation criteria is different from other characters. When at or above 3,000 Decibels and landing the final hit of:

• Charged Basic Attack: Frostbite Embrace
• Enhanced EX Special Attack: Glacial Crush
• Chain Attack: Frostbound Oath

She will activate Ether Veil: Wellspring (skill) and apply the Ether Veil: Wellspring (buff) for 30 seconds, all the while converting her Decibels into an additional buff, Crossing The Riven of Regret (buff), lasting 30 seconds that allows for use of Ultimate: Final Act - Crossing the River of Regret (skill).

Note that Ether Veil: Wellspring is a skill, separate from the buff effect "Ether Veil: Wellspring". The latter is a buff that is applied by the skill for 30 seconds, but can also be supplied by other characters, like Lucia. For more information on how the buff applies to Yidhari specifically, refer to "Ether Veil: Wellspring" in Additional Tips.

So in summary, once using certain attacks, Ether Veil: Wellspring (skill) activates, applying 2 buffs:

• Ether Veil: Wellspring (buff), which lasts for 30 seconds but can be extended for up to 300 seconds.
• Crossing The Reiver of Regret (buff), which lasts for 30 seconds, and while it is up, Ultimate: Final Act - Crossing the River of Regret (skill) can be used.

This means that Yidhari can have her Ultimate available for use without overcapping on Decibels, as its usage isn't tied to how many Decibels she has, but to whether or not its related buff is up.

On the other hand, as this Ultimate stock is tracked via a 30 scond buff, when it expires, so too does her Ultimate. Be sure to not take too long to use it.

Keep in mind that without Decibel build buffs or other characters able to extend Ether Veil: Wellspring (buff), it is not possible for Yidhari to sustain full uptime of it.

In the case that Yidhari is able to build up to 3,000 Decibels again within 30 seconds, consuming them before the currently stocked Ultimate is used does not give a second Ultimate, it overwrites the first, causing it to be lost entirely.

Tentacles

With an understanding of how all these buffs line up, it's worth covering the mechanics surrounding the icy tentacles from Additional Ability: Narrative Completion, which While Ether Veil: Wellspring (buff) is active.

These tentacles are:

1. A separate instance of damage from their triggers.
2. "Finshers", which mean they can kill enemies.
3. Considered as projectile hits, with a detached hitbox.

The first point is particularly useful for applying effects. Landing a charged EX Special and the icy tentacle triggered by it would build 2 stacks of Yunkui Tales for example.

They also are not just considered EX Special hits, but as "launching" EX Specials, so it meets the criteria for W-Engines, like Puzzle Sphere.

The second and third points work well together in certain niche scenarios. Refer to "Issues & Bugs/Aftershock Triggers" in Additional Tips for more.

Basic Attacks

The Ether Veil: Wellspring (buff) also enhances Yidhari's Basic Attack charge speed and how fast HP is consumed during it.

Basic Attacks will be the most used skill in her arsenal, and is split into 3 parts:

1. Basic Attack: Crushing Strike, a regular Basic Attack string.
2. Basic Attack: Frostbite Embrace, a charged Basic Attack.
3. Frost's Crushing Weight, an auto-counter.

Crushing Strike

The regular string is comprised of 3 hits. The first 2 have rather low modifiers and aren't worth using, however the third hit is very strong.

It deals good damage and is the only way for Yidhari to heal without expending her resources, restoring 10% of her Max HP on hit. Many of her skills shortcut to this, making it useful to weave in for damage and healing.

Frostbite Embrace

All of Yidhari's personal HP consumption comes from her charged Basic Attack.

By holding down the Basic Attack button, Yidhari will consume HP and fill the gauge under her portrait, charging the attack. It has 3 charge levels in total:

• Level 1, when the bar is under half.
• Level 2, when it's over half, but not full.
• Level 3, when it's full.

The longer Basic Attack is held for, the more HP is consumed, and the more the gauge fills, but these properties are independent of one another.

Yidhari cannot go below 25% HP through charging, but even if no HP is consumed, the gauge will still build. On the flipside, Yidhari consumes HP and builds Decibels faster the higher her current HP is, but the charge level will always go up at a steady pace, regardless of how fast HP is consumed. Only the presence of Ether Veil: Wellspring (buff) influences the charge speed.

After its final hit, when at level 2 or above, Yidhari can shortcut to the the 3rd hit of her regular Basic with a scaling DMG Bonus, maxing out at 30% when at level 3.

At level 3, the skill becomes a 2-part attack, with a long, spin attack that ends in a Charged Smash.

Pressing Basic Attack mid-spin will immediately transition into the Charged Smash, which then shortcuts to the 3rd hit of her regular Basic.

The spin has vacuum properties, which can be useful to gather up mobs in Shiyu Defence, but aside from that, it isn't worth committing to due to its long animation and lacklustre damage values.

Looping level 3 Charged Smash into Basic 3 over and over is the most effective string of attacks while on Yidhari, ensuring she's dealing damage, healing, then consuming HP for Decibels.

Note that the final hit of all charged Basic Attacks can trigger Ether Veil: Wellspring.

Frost's Crushing Weight

The last "Basic Attack" that Yidhari has, is her auto-counter.

When charging up, Yidhari takes 25% less damage from all attacks, which scales additively with her Additional Ability, for a total of 50% damage reduction.

If she does take damage while charging, she will auto-counter, dealing a small amount of damage to enemies and gaining 1 charge level. This has no cooldown, with multi-hit attacks building multiple charge levels.

Be mindful that it provides charge levels, not gauge build. If hit at 49% gauge, that is "level 1", and therefore only 1% is given, taking Yidhari to 50% gauge, "level 2". If hit at 50% gauge, that is "level 2", and therefore a full 100% is given, maxing out her gauge for "level 3".

If the auto-counter triggers, Yidhari can also transition into the "Surging Cold" variant of her alternate Special Attack: Surging Cold, Crushing Pursuit.

Specials & EX Specials

Yidhari has 2 Specials:

Her regular Special Attack: Cease Thoughts can only be used when under 60 Adrenaline. It has terrible damage and range, making it rarely worth using.

Her alternate Special Attack: Surging Cold, Crushing Pursuit can be used by pressing Special while charging or spinning as part of her charged Basic Attack, regardless of the current Adrenaline level. She can also access the skill by pressing Dodge while holding down Basic Attack.

There are 3 branching paths to this:

1. "Surging Cold, Crushing Pursuit", the full name, being the default version of the alternate Special.
2. "Surging Cold", the first name only, being triggered after an auto-counter or when manually parrying with the altenate Special.
3. "Crushing Pursuit", the second name only, being triggered when using the alternate Special with over 60 Adrenaline on a stunned enemy.

All versions have the same multipliers, none of which are particularly good, but each path has unique properties.

"Surging Cold" can be used as part of Frost's Crushing Weight - so if it's used after the auto-counter damages enemies - or as a manual parry, by timing the skill to land as enemies attack.

It will instantly max out Yidhari's gauge and immediately shortcut to the Charged Smash. If Yidhari has more than 60 Adrenaline, it won't lead to a Charged Smash, but to her enhanced EX Special instead.

"Crushing Pursuit" is similar, also instantly maxing out Yidhari's gauge, but it's only doable on stunned enemies and always shortcuts to the enhanced EX Special, as it can only ever be done when at over 60 Adrenaline.

Like with Specials, Yidhari also has 2 EX Specials, both of which heal for 33% of her missing HP.

Her regular EX Special Attack: Frost Coil is best avoided. It costs 60 Adrenaline and has decent multipliers, but it pales in comparison to her enhanced EX Special Attack: Glacial Crush.

It also costs 60 Adrenaline and can only be accessed after "Surging Cold" or "Crushing Pursuit" variants of the alternate Special, but it has over 2,000% in DMG Multiplier and 1,000% in daze.

When it's used after "Surging Cold" - the parry variant - it refunds 15 Adrenaline - so out of stun it has an effective cost of 45 Adrenaline, not 60! It will also both trigger Ether Veil: Wellspring and the Additional Ability tentacles.

Even though most of the time you spend on Yidhari will be looping level 3 Charged Smashes into Basic 3s, the bulk of Yidhari's damage in a fight comes from her enhanced EX Specials.

Keep in mind that the branching paths - or variants - of her alternate Special do matter here. The enhanced EX Special will not refund Adrenaline when used after "Crushing Pursuit", the stun hit variant.

Getting the standard version of the alternate Special does not lead into the enhanced EX Special, even if at a level 3 charge. It doesn't even shortcut into the Charged Smash if at lower charge levels, as it won't max out the gauge like its variants are capable of.

Although, if Yidhari is already at a level 3 Charge, it will still shortcut, so it's not too punishing if you tried going for an enhanced EX Special but messed up.

Remaining Skills

Dodges

Yidhari's Dodge skills are actively detrimental to use most of the time.

Dash Attack: Frostbloom Impact has horrendous scaling and is never worth using.

Dodge Counter: Icehaul Reverb's multipliers are not bad and it shortcuts to a regular Basic 3, but given that getting hit while charging deals damage via the auto-counter while simultaneously giving instant charge levels, wasting time on Dodge Counters is never worth it.

Even when using the Basic 3 shortcut, it'd lack the DMG Bonus that comes from linking to it after charged Basic Attacks, so it's little more than a consolation prize.

Assists

Assists are not much better.

Quick Assist: Frostshock Reinforcement has similar issues as Dodge Counters, albeit with worse multipliers.

Assist Follow-Up: Glacial Onslaught has good multipliers and also shortcuts to Basic 3, but there shouldn't be many moments where Yidhari isn't the active character and has the opportunity to use this.

As with other Assist Follow-Ups, it generates no Adrenaline, and given that Yidhari does not share Decibels from HP loss with others, Assist Points are much better spent in Defensive Assists for her squad members instead.

It's far more performative to continuously loop Basics over spending time in an Assist Follow-Up.

Chain Attack

Chain Attack: Frostbound Oath has its multipliers be enhanced while under Ether Veil: Wellspring (buff), as tentacles join in for an attack at the end. It's damage is strong enough to warrant double Chains in a stun combo.

Keep in mind that the tentacles from this are not the same tentacles as the ones from the Additional Ability! They do not count as launching or landing hits with an EX Special.

It is also one of the skills that can trigger Ether Veil: Wellspring, so it makes for a smooth transition into Ultimate if it just about builds enough Decibels during its use.

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

Core Passive: Dreamscape Collection is the number 1 priority. The A to F progression increases Yidhari's Base ATK, which isn't all that significant, but it also increases her CRIT RATE, which does matter a fair bit. The higher her Core Passive is, the higher her HP scaling DMG Bonus buff gets, which makes up a sizeable portion of her power budget.

Basic Attack and EX Special follow in equal measure. Although for her current encounters, EX Special is Yidhari's biggest source of damage, it's only slightly ahead of her Basic Attacks, and the better one is at looping Charged Smashes into Basic 3s, the narrower the gap becomes.

More important than just damage though, is daze build. Making it to a full 4 stuns is critical to get the most damage out, and no small part of daze is coming from Yihdari's attacks as she on-fields, so it needs to be levelled just to meet stun breakpoints.

Ultimate and Chain Attack are a close third. They're on par with Basic Attacks in terms of total damage contribution, but as they aren't helping with daze, do end up being a little less important.

Assists are not particularly good and most of them should be going to Yidhari's teammates rather than herself, but many fights have back-to-back attacks that will lead to her inevitably parrying something, so worth sparing a few levels to it.

Dodge has very little use and can be safely left at 1. It's better to get hit than to Dodge Counter on Yidhari, so unless it's being used for specific boss mechanics, it isn't worth using.

Yidhari has a wide selection of W-Engines, as most have good synergy with her kit, but they can sometimes demand gameplay adjustments to get their full value.

Kraken's Cradle

Kraken's Cradle (P1) provides:

• 30% HP
• Up to 18% Ice Sheer DMG Bonus for 25s after losing HP
• 20% CRIT RATE when below 50% HP

Yidhari's best W-Engine is her Signature. It's got an HP % mainstat, gives Ice Sheer DMG on HP loss - so it's effectively always up - and a 20% CRIT RATE when Yidhari's HP is below 50%.

That last requirement can be quite strict, as like her Additional Ability: Narrative Completion, this 50% HP threshold is absolute. As soon as Yidhari goes above it, the CRIT RATE bonus is gone, making it exceedingly important to avoid going above it in combos.

As this is something that should be done regardless (to accomodate her Additional Ability bonuses), there it doesn't demand a specific gameplay adjustment, but it does reinforce the importance of minding HP thresholds.

Qingming Birdcage

Qingming Birdcage (P1) provides:

• 30% HP
• 20% CRIT RATE

Tied for second best W-Engine is Qingming Birdcage. There's nothing special about it: it's an S-Rank W-Engine with an HP % mainstat and an unconditional 20% CRIT RATE boost, making it the only weapon choice that doesn't need any gameplay adjustments.

It's raw stats alone are enough to make it competitive, all the while being the easiest to use.

Grill O'Wisp

Grill O'Wisp (P5) provides:

• 25% HP
• 25% CRIT Rate for 5s after losing HP

At P5, Grill O'Wisp can be marginally better than Qingming Birdcage, as it synergises particularly well Yidhari. It has a HP % mainstat - albeit lower than the previous 2, due to it being an A-Rank weapon - and it provides 24% CRIT RATE for 5 seconds after losing HP.

As Yidhari is constantly regenerating and losing HP, the uptime for this is close to 100%. The problem is that it isn't always up, as Yidhari's stun combos may need slight adjustments to make sure that the buff isn't falling off after certain attacks, so it does need some active management.

Puzzle Sphere

Puzzle Sphere (P5) provides:

• 25% ATK
• 25.6% CRIT DMG on launching an EX Special
• 32% EX Special DMG Bonus when target is at under 50% HP

Puzzle Sphere is tied for third with Radiowave Journey, but is most likely the better option.

It has ATK as a mainstat, which is bad, but Yidhari has constant uptime of its main effect. The CRIT DMG bonus that it provides is constantly being triggered by her Additional Ability's tentacles.

With a 12 second cooldown on both the effect and her tentacles, they match up exactly. Realistically it won't have 100% uptime, as the tentacles aren't being used the instant the cooldown comes up, but it's close enough.

The increase to EX Special damage based on enemy HP plays ball with Yidhari, given most of her damage comes from EXs, but do be aware this is 50% of the *enemy's* HP. Not Yidhari's.

Radiowave Journey

Radiowave Journey (P5) provides:

• 25% HP
• 128 Sheer Force for 12s (3 stacks, up to 384 total) when using Chain Attacks or Ultimates

Radiowave Journey is carried by its HP % mainstat and the fact that Yidhari - who likes to use double Chain Attacks in her combos - will have full stacks of its buff for half of the stun.

As it's a 12 second duration, it won't last for a full combo, given that stacks are tracked separately, and it won't be maxed her first and second Chains, and first enhanced EX Special.

It is not possible to have this W-Engine at P5 by Yidhari's release, as there have not been enough Battle Passes since its release to give enough copies. Even then, it'sd only be as strong as Puzzle Sphere, so it's not worth using over the other options.

Stats

D4 - CRIT DMG | CRIT RATE

D5 - Ice DMG Bonus | HP %

D6 - HP %

D6 is HP %. Even if Sheer Damage does scale off ATK, HP % will always be the better choice, with no other option here coming close.

D5, surprisingly, would ideally be Ice DMG Bonus. With the 100% DMG Bonus that Yidhari gets from , one may think that it'd be far too diluted, especially when teammate contributions are factored in, like the 20% from Lucia Dreamer's Nursery Rhyme and 18% from Moonlight Lullaby.

It is, however, marginally better than HP % if no further DMG Bonus buffs are included, being at best around 1 substat worth of rolls. So in practice, both Ice DMG Bonus and HP % are fine to use, and picking the one that has the better substats will work out best.

D4 can be either CRIT RATE or CRIT DMG. This is going to ride on substats and what W-Engines are available, so play it by ear with what works best.

Drive Discs

Drive Disc options are straightforward:

4-piece Yunkui Tales is a perfect fit. Yidhari's tentacles have a 12 second cooldown and Yunkui Tales' buff lasts for 15 seconds, so there's plenty of leeway.

That's not including the enhanced EX Specials, Chain Attacks and Ultimates that further refresh it, ensuring a near 100% uptime on teams with Lucia.

Without her, Yidhari isn't able to sustain Ether Veil: Wellspring to maintain the buff fully, but as it should always be up for critical stun periods. As tentacles are separate attacks from its trigger, a single Chain Attack: Frostbound Oath into EX Special Attack: Glacial Crush with a tentacle hit is enough to max it out.

It's safe to assume a high uptime of its 4-piece effect regardless of team, and given the value of CRIT RATE and Sheer DMG, makes it be far and away the best pick.

As for 2-piece, either Woodpecker Electro for CRIT RATE or Branch & Blade Song for CRIT DMG - as with D4, whichever works best given substat spreads.

Technically Polar Metal and, if pushing it, Dawn's Bloom could be used, but Yidhari already has plenty of DMG % saturation, specially if using Ice DMG Bonus on D5, so they should only be used as a last resort.

Yidhari's teams are going to be a shell of:

Yidhari | Stunner | Support

Supports

Lucia

Lucia is by far the best Support Agent to use, as the raw buff value she provides to Rupture Agents makes her undisputably the greatest single increase in damage output for Yidhari teams. The two also synergise particularly well, as Yidhari cannot maintain full uptime of Ether Veil: Wellspring by herself.

This means losing out on tentacles from Additional Ability: Narrative Completion (and therefore an inability to have 100% Yunkui Tales 4-piece uptime), lower charge speed on Basic Attack: Frostbite Embrace and a weaker Chain Attack: Frostbound Oath.

The total damage loss from missing each of these isn't too significant in isolation, but when combined with Lucia's buffs, it does add up.

Pan

Pan Yinhu seems like he'd do great at first glance, and on the surface he's stronger for Yidhari than for other Rupture Agents. Since Yidhari is able to deploy Ether Veil: Wellspring herself, she isn't reliant on Lucia for its 5% Combat HP bonus and activating conditional buff criteria, like Pinnacle.

The loss of all the aforementioned bonuses though is felt, and Pan's status as a Defender means absence of Moonlight Lullaby set effects. Astral Voice is an option, but Yidhari combos do not provide opportunities for mid-stun Quick Assists, so Proto Punk ends up being a better choice.

Despite this, he is still the second best support for Yidhari if at M6. The healing on Ultimate: A Feast Fit for an Emperor! means faster Decibel build (and therefore more frequent Ether Veil: Wellspring) and, if Tusks of Fury is available, a very comfortable pick for current endgame fights.

Astra

Astra Yao is the last viable pick for a Support slot. Her buffs are comparable to Pan's, even without relying on Unfettered Game Ball, but in practice it's very difficult to play her effectively.

• The extra Chain Attacks she provides as part of Ultimate: "Fantasian Sonata" don't fit in Yidhari's stun rotations.
• She demands Manual Chain, as Quick Assists trigger pre-emptive Chain Attacks when swapping out of Yidhari in combos.
• Management of her buff can be quite difficult as Yidhari is the primary on-field character, so her Precise Assists go to the remaining teammate instead.
• Her lacklustre daze build makes it difficult to meet stun breakpoint requirements.

There are many other problems unique to endgame encounters that Yidhari is best run in (namely Wandering Hunter), so while she is in theory tied with Pan in terms of numbers, in practice she is behind him in terms of team utility and ease of use.

Double Supports

Running double supports is possible, and Yidhari's penchant for on-fielding does lend itself well to it, but the encounters she performs best in tend to have strict stun breakpoints that cannot be met with such comps, so it isn't currently recommended.

Stunners

Lycaon

Lycaon is the best Stunner for Yidhari, even when using A-Rank W-Engines, like Steam Oven. They have plenty of key synergies that lead to both high damage output and fluid play:

• His low cost EX Special allows for frequent King of the Summit refreshes in stun.
• His Ultimate is tied with Qingyi's for the highest daze, being critical to push tight stun breakpoints.
• His buffs do not conflict/are saturated by Yidhari's own personal gains (and even those of other characters', like Lucia), giving some of the most consistent damage increases in the cast.
• His ability to both on-field and be played as a quick-swap Stunner leads to significant daze (and energy/Decibel build) all the while giving Yidhari the field time she needs to perform.

When paired with S-Rank W-Engines, like Blazing Laurel, he goes from just being a secure best option to massively outperforming all other Stunners. This gap increases further in Yidhari's ideal fights, like Wandering Hunter, which demand fast Assist Follow-Ups and Dodge Counters.

Just be sure to open stuns with Lycaon's skills so as to not lose out on his Stun DMG Multiplier bonus.

Trigger

Trigger is tied for second place Stunner in Yidhari teams if Blazing Laurel is available, even if missing her Additional Ability.

By making use of her Assist Follow-Up, her daze contribution is high enough that it allows for key stun breakpoints to be met, and this is easy enough to sustain as Yidhari is often on-field and Trigger remains inactive. Being able to boost damage out-of-stun is a significant boost, given that Yidhari's damage is well-balanced across states, so they synergise well even at times when buffs favour in-stun damage.

She can be tricky to play in certain fights, as her Assist Follow-Up takes very long to cast, and against certain bosses (namely Wandering Hunter) her personal damage contribution takes a hit, but Trigger remains one of the better options regardless of W-Engine availability.

Ju Fufu

Ju Fufu is the next second place tie for Stunner in Yidhari teams. Her buffs are decent and when paired with Yidhari's personal daze build, the two combined can easily meet key stun breakpoints.

As Ju Fufu's Aftershock Chain Attacks restore Assist Points, this can help with other characters' Decibel management by providing more opportunities to Defensive Assist and Assist Follow-Up out of Yidhari.

Being a primarily inactive stunner also makes it easy for Yidhari to on-field, dealing damage and building resources. Unfortunately, they do have some level of anti-synergy, namely that:

• Ju Fufu's increased Decibel cap does little for Yidhari, who stocks her Decibels.
• The Decibel refund causes rotations to off-set, with Yidhari building Ultimate too early and having the buff expire before being able to stun, ruining combos.

Although it is possible to get double Ultimate combos with Ju Fufu, this is impractical to pull off due to tight Decibel windows, so her benefit is limited primarily to buffs and inactive presence in a fight.

Koleda

Koleda is arguably the third best stunner for Yidhari, but a long-shot away from her betters. Somewhat of a dark horse pick, her buffs are not particularly strong, especially as Yidhari's DMG Bonus saturation further dilutes the little benefits she provides.

On the flipside, Koleda is an effective quick-swap Stunner who offers a lot of daze, making it guaranteed for her to hit stun breakpoints. At M2 and above, she can sustain 5-stun routing in Deadly Assault, and although even then she isn't keeping up with the rest, she can fill in if no better option is available.

Others

The only other picks considering are Pulchra, Qingyi and Lighter with Orphie & Magus.

Pulchra could have been a good match for Yidhari, but as Special Attack: Surging Cold, Crushing Pursuit is not a Heavy Attack, Pulchra rarely - if ever - activates her Aftershocks without secondary character assistance. Even with it, her daze build is also insufficient for Yidhari's encounters, leading to subpar performance.

Qingyi does offer good buffs, but her on-field requirements direclty conflict with Yidhari's. It's often not possible to fit in 2 of Qingyi's enhanced Basic Attacks and build all of the Adrenaline needed for Yidhari's stun combo in time. Despite Qingyi's high daze build, this flip-flopping of active characters means she falls behind even then, being a particularly difficult character to work with.

Lighter and Orphie & Magus do offer strong buffs and surprisingly good daze build, but integrating Orphie's Zeroed In buff is difficult, leading to awkward team formations where she Quick Assists to Lighter instead of Yidhari. Lighter's buffs are also strong, but severely saturated by Yidhari's own. Although they can perform well in most encounters, they would still fall behind a simple Lycaon | Pan Yinhu team, so despite being an option, it's comparatively an expensive one for little benefit.

Mindscape 1

The Past Lost Beneath the Abyss provides:

• 20% Ice RES Ignore on Basic Attacks and EX Specials
• Lowered Adrenaline cost of EX Specials by 10 Adrenaline
• After using any EX Special, the ability to forgo healing and immediately chain into an enhanced EX Special Attack: Glacial Crush that restores 66% of missing HP instead.

M1 is strong in many different ways, able to fundamentally change how Yidhari approaches routing and combos.

The Ice RES Ignore is strong, applying to the vast majority of her outgoing damage, so even if Ultimates and Chain Attacks aren't included, the total damage gain is sizeable.

More importantly is the reduction in Adrenaline cost for EX Specials. Whereas before, Yidhari may only be able to fit 1 enhanced EX Special Attack: Glacial Crush in the out-of-stun period, the reduced cost makes it possible for her to get 2 casts in and still have time to build enough Adrenaling in time for stun.

This can also help at making stun combos even stronger. For example:

• Ideally have Yidhari at 25% HP or below
• Stun Begins
• Alternate Special Attack: Surging Cold, Crushing Pursuit
• Enhanced EX Special Attack: Glacial Crush
• Swap to another character, preferably a Support and use their EX Special for Moonlight Lullaby
• Another character's Chain Attack before Yidhari's enhanced EX Special lands, ideally a Stunner's for King of the Summit
• Chain Attack: Frostbound Oath
• Cancel
• Ultimate: Final Act - Crossing the River of Regret
• If Yidhari is not at 25% HP or below, charge until she is
• Alternate Special Attack: Surging Cold, Crushing Pursuit
• Enhanced EX Special Attack: Glacial Crush
• Enhanced EX Special Attack: Glacial Crush
• Basic Attack: Frostbite Embrace Charged Smash
• Basic Attack: Crushing Strike 3

Although this sacrifices a Chain Attack, it allows for 3 uses of enhanced EX Special Attack: Glacial Crush in a stun combo - a near 1,000% DMG Multiplier damage increase - and allows for King of the Summit upkeep without needing to expend energy on a Stunner EX Special, resulting in better daze management.

Between raw stats, out-of-stun and in-stun combo enhancements, this is a particularly high value Mindscape.

Mindscape 2

Who Lingers Here, Lost in Thought? provides:

• 40% CRIT DMG
• 0.5/s Adrenaline regen for 30s after triggering "Surging Cold" or "Crushing Pursuit" variants of the alternate Special Attack: Surging Cold, Crushing Pursuit.

Yidhari's M2 is a remarkably strong Mindscape. The 40% CRIT DMG is a decent stat boost, but the extra 0.5/s Adrenaline regen is a massive boost to her total damage and rotations.

Given how easy it is to get, it should have 100% uptime outside of the first few seconds of a fight.

Normally, it can be difficult to afford Yidhari enough field time to build enough Adrenaline between stuns, especially in fights with tight stun breakpoints that demand fast daze application. A 25% increase to her passive Adrenaline gain makes it much easier to focus on building daze instead of juggling characters for resources.

For the fights (or parts of fights) that are more lenient, when combined with M1 this extra gain can enable both multiple out-of-stun uses of Yidhari's enhanced EX Special and potentially recover enough Adrenaline to support a triple enhanced EX Special combo in time for stun.

It's hard to go wrong with an upgrade that provides both significantly more damage and more comfortable routes in fights.

Mindscape 4

Blooming in Silence provides:

• 10% more Decibels generated via HP loss
• Ether Veil: Wellspring's (buff) Max HP bonus is further increase by 5% (10% total)

M4 can be a very strong, or an actively harmful Mindscape. More Decibels mean Yidhari gets faster and more frequent uses of Ether Veil: Wellspring (skill). This can lead to more Ultimates in long fights, like Deadly Assault, and more uptime of Ether Veil: Wellspring (buff).

Unfortunately, this can also result in Yidhari building Decibels too early, making issues seen with Ju Fufu teams become endemic to natural play.

10% Decibel gain is great, but it's limited only to generation from HP loss, meaning regular attacks, generic bonuses (like Attribute Anomalies) and squad members' shared Decibels see no increase. In practice, this is closer to 5% than a 10% gain, and is not sufficient to allow for 3,000 Decibels to be built every 30 seconds without outside assistance.

So in some situations, like with Ju Fufu on the team, or with Lucia's M1 and/or M4, it might just about be enough to enable more effective double Ultimate combos, but in general play it's likely that faster build will offset Ultimates and cause them to fall off at inopportune times.

Mindscape 6

At Last, a Peaceful Dream provides:

• 25% Sheer DMG for 30s after activating Ether Veil: Wellspring (skill)
• When taking fatal DMG once per encounter, prevent HP from dropping below 1 and recover 25% of Max HP over 5s

At first glance this M6 looks strong: compared to other Mindscapes, like Yixuan's M6 Swift Yet Still, having 25% Sheer DMG Bonus for 30 seconds seems a fair bit better than 20% Sheer for only 15 seconds,

In practice, it isn't anywhere near as good, as Yidhari needs to build to Ultimate manually first, and while her M4 does help in this regard, it's not fast enough for speedrunning content like Shiyu Defence.

For Deadly Assault, since the buff has a 30s timer, that means Yidhari must be building 3,000 Decibels every 30 seconds, else lose the buff. The same issues with uptime that M4 faces can be applied to M6.

Even then it can mess up Ultimates, as the faster generation offsets rotations and can risk overlapping them, leading to sub-optimal use to avoid overstacking. The raw value it provides in damage increase is helpful, but it can feel awkward to use at times.

The fatal DMG effect will rarely, if ever, see use, as Yidhari is almost immortal as a consequence of her high base HP and stacking damage reduction effects.

Combo Routing

Yidhari's standard stun combo is:

• Ideally have Yidhari at 25% HP or below
• Begin stun by triggering Chain Attack: Frostbound Oath
• If Yidhari is not at 25% HP or below, charge until she is
• Alternate Special Attack: Surging Cold, Crushing Pursuit
• Enhanced EX Special Attack: Glacial Crush
• Swap to another character, preferrably a Stunner and use their EX Special for King of the Summit
• Swap to another character, preferably a Support and use their EX Special for Moonlight Lullaby
• Trigger Chain Attack: Frostbound Oath
• Ultimate: Final Act - Crossing the River of Regret
• Alternate Special Attack: Surging Cold, Crushing Pursuit
• Enhanced EX Special Attack: Glacial Crush
• Level 3 Basic Attack: Frostbite Embrace Charged Smash
• Basic Attack: Crushing Strike 3

It's important to have Yidhari as low in HP as possible, as the heal on enhanced EX Special Attack: Glacial Crush can sometimes take Yidhari over 50% HP, meaning a loss of Additional Ability: Narrative Completion and Kraken's Cradle bonuses.

If at 25% current HP, the 33% missing HP recovery will restore 24.75% of Yidhari's maximum HP, leaving her at 49.75% HP - just a sliver under the required threshold.

Take the opportunity after the first Chain Attack to drain HP if at the risk of being over 50%. When using Grill O'Wisp, its 5 second CRIT RATE buff will expire midway through the Ultimate cast, so charge briefly after the second Chain Attack as well for some HP consumption.

Decibel Management

The combination of being able to stock Ultimates - and therefore rarely overcap on Decibels - alongside the high Decibel generation from HP consumption mean that Yidhari can reliably go into every stun with enough resources for an Ultimate, even without relying on buffs, character mechanics or Mindscapes, like Ju Fufu or Lucia's M1 and M4.

Unfortunately, the Decibel generation from her HP consumption is not shared with squad members. As Yidhari likes being on-field, that affords fewer opportunities to other characters to build their own Decibels.

With most other teams this isn't too bad an issue, as inactive characters tend to get around 50% of the Decibels generated by the active character. Yidhari though, has much lower Decibel generation on her skills.

Which means that all of her teammates are getting fewer Decibels too. As not a single point of Decibel from HP loss is shared, making use of Defensive Assists and Assist Follow-Ups on other characters is key to good resource management.

Failing to do so means that it's likely they won't get as many uses of Ultimate in a fight as in other teams, so swapping out of Yidhari for Assists rather than in and giving Defensive Assists to characters in most need of Decibels, is of utmost importance.

Ether Veil: Wellspring

Ether Veil: Wellspring is a sort of "map-wide" buff that affects all characters in a team.

By default, all this does is provide a 5% Combat Max HP increase, which is pretty handy as it also leads to an increase in Sheer Force. This also appears to come with a matching heal when first applied.

This heal does not happen when refreshing it, but this is because it's proportionate to the character's current HP. Characters get a much lower heal at low HP than at high HP.

Since it's proportionate, this means the heal doesn't actually do anything for Yidhari.

If she's at 25% HP before the 5% Combat Max HP increase is applied, then she'll be at 25% HP after it too - that "heal" does not translate to more HP to drain for Decibels, especially as Yidhari's resource generation is tied to the percentage of her HP that is drained rather than absolute values.

Likewise, when Ether Veil: Wellspring expires, that "heal" bestowed on activation comes to collect its debt, and current HP lowers as a result.

Because the HP from Ether Veil: Wellspring maintains her current HP % level, its expiry does not translate into more Decibels for her.

All this is to say, there is absolutely no benefit to dropping and re-applying Ether Veil. Refreshing it and preventing downtime is always going to be the ideal approach.

Issues & Bugs

There are a few intricacies with Yidhari's skills that one should be aware of.

Ultimate Lock-Out

Depending on how fast the enemy is stunned and how often Yidhari gets to on-field, it's not entirely uncommon to be in a situation where Yidhari builds to 3,000 Decibels mid-combo but can't use an Ultimate, as it hasn't yet been stocked.

Not being able to use her Ultimate unless its buff is active is a feature, not a bug, but one that can end runs if not worked around. Remember that Basic Attack: Frostbite Embrace, Chain Attack: Frostbound Oath and enhanced EX Special Attack: Glacial Crush all stock Decibels, so shifting an Ultimate to the end of a stun instead of after the second Chain Attack if just about missing out is fair game.

High Special Interrupt Level

Alternate Special Attack: Surging Cold, Crushing Pursuit's "Surging Cold" - its counter variant - has varying interrupt levels depending on Adrenaline level.

At under 60 Adrenaline, it won't usually interrupt enemy attacks, but over 60 has its interrupt level skyrocket. If looking to swap to another character via a Defensive Assist or Dodge Counter, avoid using the alternate Special at over 60 Adrenaline, as this can stagger enemies and get in the way of Assists.

Tentacle Staggers

Many attacks in the game will cause enemies to "flinch", but not stagger backwards. The last hit of all Yidhari skills - including tentacles from her Additional Ability, Chain Attack and Ultimate - cause staggers.

This can often push enemies back so far in stun that it's not possible to go from Chain Attack to Ultimate and then enhanced EX Special, as enemies are too far away to be hit by her alternate Special.

Such a scenario can be avoided by keeping enemies near walls, so that they have nowhere to stagger back to. Thankfully this tends to not need much active management, as bosses frequently end up near walls for stuns anyways, but worth keeping in mind just in case.

Aftershock Triggers

Although Lucia is a great partner for Yidhari, they still do have some issues.

The lack of a finisher property on the alternate Special means that Dreamer's Nursery Rhyme can fall off at critical periods, as Lucia's Aftershocks are dependent on active characters' finisher hits to trigger.

So keep a watchful eye on buffs and make sure to refresh Aftershocks before going into extended periods without active finishers, like in a stun combo's enhanced EX Special, swap out, then Yidhari Chain Attack.

Thankfully, the Additional Ability's tentacles' properties of being both finishers and projectiles works partituclarly well here.This means that it's possible to land attacks on Yidhari while she is inactive - such as an enhanced EX Special in a stun combo - then swap back to her just as the tentacles are triggered via a Chain Attack prompt.

Despite the Chain Attack interrupting her previous animation, as the tentacles are both projectile hits, they will still execute in full. When this is coupled with their "finisher" property, it means that other characters' Aftershocks can be triggered halfway during a Chain Attack, ensuring full buff upkeep.

Unfortunately, tentacles are not considered Heavy Attacks, so Pulchra Aftershocks cannot be triggered by them, despite having the EX Special property.

Spin to Charged Smash Teleport Glitch

When Yidhari transitions from her level 3 charged Basic Attack spin into the Charged Smash, she will lock-on and teleport to the nearest enemy.

This is an effective gap closer which can be helpful if trying to get close to enemies fast, like after wiping mobs in Shiyu Defence. The problem is that there's a "sweet spot" of proximity that causes the location logic to completely glitch out and teleport Yidhari backwards instead, leading to some hits missing the enemy.

It's surprisingly common at the start of fights, as many enemies appear to spawn precisely in that sweet spot, so it's often better to not be too hasty and just let the spin approach enemies instead, even if it does take a little longer.