The dedicated Electro General Mahamatra Cyno is about to make his return to Genshin Impact with the second run of his “Twilight Arbiter” banner. Cyno is a five-star Electro Polearm character that can be a powerful damage-dealing force but only when players equip him with the best artifacts for his skillset.
The Electro character was first teased by miHoYo in Sept. 2020 right before the game itself launched. He appeared as the official teaser character for the then-far-off Dendro region of Sumeru in the “Teyvat Chapter Storyline Preview: Travail” and finally made his way into Teyvat as a recruitable character in September 2022.
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Because of how long ago Cyno was teased, his arrival was highly anticipated and many players were extremely excited when he finally launched. Other players may have missed out on his debut banner run and are getting ready to obtain him now that he is returning as a recruitable character once more.
Some characters in Genshin have immense versatility while others are built to shine in just one role. Cyno is a character of the latter type, which is why carefully choosing his artifacts is immensely important for ensuring his success.
What are the best artifacts for Cyno in Genshin Impact?
The best artifacts for Cyno will always depend on the combination of many factors like the composition of the team that he is on, which aspects of his skillset you rely on most during battle and what polearm he wields.
Generally, players will want to seek artifacts that have statistics that will help bolster Cyno’s primary damage-dealing skillset. The statistics that players should primarily be seeking for Cyno’s artifacts are:
- Critical rate
- Critical damage
- Electro damage bonus
- Energy Recharge
- Attack percentage
- Elemental mastery
With all of this and Cyno’s unique skillset in mind, there are a few solid artifact sets for players to choose from for the Electro character.
Gilded Dreams
This artifact set pairs extremely well with Cyno’s signature weapon, the Staff of the Scarlet Sands polearm. The two-piece set increases Elemental Mastery by 80 which means that Cyno will help produce more powerful elemental reactions.
The elemental mastery increase that the two-piece set grants works extremely well with the Staff of Scarlet Sands because the “Heat Haze at Horizon’s End” ability of this polearm grants an attack increase based on a percentage of the wielder’s elemental mastery. Thus, this duo can work to increase Cyno’s attack as well as the effectiveness of elemental reactions that involve his Electro element.
While the two-piece alone is a powerful option with the Staff of Scarlet Sands, the full four-piece set can be even more impressive with the right team lineup for Cyno. Equipping the four-piece set grants unique buffs depending on the elemental type of the other party members.
These unique buffs will be activated within eight seconds of an elemental reaction being triggered.
- For every character that is the same elemental type as the equipping character, attack is increased by 14 percent.
- For every character that is a different elemental type from the equipping character, elemental mastery is raised by 50.
The buffs granted by this set will be counted on up to three characters that include the entire party outside of the equipping character. Players can activate these effects once every eight seconds regardless of whether the equipping character is on the battlefield.
To truly maximize the potential of this set combined with the Staff of the Scarlet Sands, players will want to have Cyno on a team with at least two characters of a different element type. Players can also craft a composition that has four unique elements on it, but they might instead want to double up on one element, perhaps Electro for Cyno, for other benefits that are granted through elemental resonance.
The Gilded Dreams artifact set is easily the best option for Cyno when players also have his signature weapon. With this set, it is also immensely important that players consider the buffs that it grants and craft the best team possible for Cyno based on them.
Players can obtain Gilded Dreams from the Spire of Solitary Enlightenment Domain in Gandha Hill, Sumeru.
Thundering Fury
If you’re looking to build Cyno’s Electro damage output, the Thundering Fury set is another powerful choice. The two-piece set grants an Electro damage bonus of 15 percent and is a great option to pair with another two-piece artifact set.
The four-piece Thundering Fury set is also a great option for players that are crafting Cyno’s team around elemental reactions. Equipping the four-piece set increases the damage caused by Hyperbloom, Overloaded, Electro-Charged, and Superconduct by 40 percent. Additionally, it also raises the damage bonus from Aggravate by 20 percent.
When any of the previously mentioned elemental reactions or Quicken are activated, the elemental skill cooldown is then decreased by one second. These effects can occur once every 0.8 seconds.
The Thundering Fury artifact set can be obtained by tackling the challenges that are present at the Midsummer Courtyard Domain in Starfell Valley, Mondstadt.
Gladiator’s Finale
Because Cyno is a primary damage dealer, players will want to focus on how much damage he can dish out through his attacks. The Gladiator’s Finale artifact set is a strong choice for the Electro character and one of the most versatile sets in all of Genshin.
The two-piece set grants the equipping character a general attack increase of 18 percent. The four-piece set grants a normal attack increase of 35 percent when the equipping character wields a sword, claymore, or polearm.
Cyno can experience the benefits of the four-piece set since he wields a polearm, but it is generally a better idea to only equip the two-piece version of this set alongside another two-piece set.
This artifact set is unique because it does not have a specific Domain that players can visit to obtain it. Instead, players can only obtain the Gladiator’s Finale set from vanquishing weekly bosses, taking on normal bosses, or obtaining the Domain Reliquary: Tier II box from the Spiral Abyss.
Shimenawa’s Reminiscence
The Shimenawa’s Reminiscence set is somewhat similar to Gladiator’s Finale and also offers players an 18 percent attack increase with the two-piece set. When the equipping character has the four-piece set equipped and utilizes their elemental skill, their normal, charged, and plunging attack damage is then increased by 50 percent for 10 seconds.
The four-piece sets effect will only occur when the equipping character has 15 or more energy and it will consume 15 energy in the process. This effect also cannot be activated again once it has already been triggered and is still in effect.
Just like the Gladiator’s Finale artifact, so too is it a better idea for players to only equip the two-piece version of the Shimenawa’s Reminiscence set. Cyno will experience greater benefits when players choose only the two-piece version of this set because there are stronger artifact combinations that can be made than what the four-piece version of this set offers.
Players can obtain this artifact set from the Momiji-Dyed Court Domain in Yashiori Island, Inazuma.
Thundersoother
While this set is not among the top choices for Cyno, many players have reported strong results from equipping the Thudersoother artifact set to him. If you are interested in utilizing this set, you should only do so if you are going to use the full four-piece set because the two-piece set is not worth equipping on its own.
The two-piece set increases Electro resistance by 40 percent which reduces the amount of Electro damage that the equipping character will take. Cyno is a primary damage dealer and focusing on other aspects is far more important than building his resistance which is why the two-piece set on its own is not worth it.
However, the four-piece set can be a powerful option for players. The full Thundersoother set increases the damage dealt against enemies that are affected by Electro by 35 percent.
This artifact set can be obtained from the Midsummer Courtyard Domain in Starfell Valley, Mondstadt.
Choosing to mix and match between two unique artifact sets can be powerful when certain sets are combined. For Cyno, there are a few excellent combinations that players can make.
The best artifact combinations for Cyno are:
- Two-piece Gilded Dreams and two-piece Thundering Fury
- Two-piece Gilded Dreams and two-piece Gladiator’s Finale
- Two-piece Gladiator’s Finale and two-piece Thundering Fury
- Two-piece Shimenawa’s Reminiscence and two-piece Gladiator’s Finale
- Two-piece Shimenawa’s Reminiscence and two-piece Thundering Fury
- Two-piece Shimenawa’s Reminiscence and two-piece Gilded Dreams
The Electro Polearm character is returning for the second-ever run of his “Twilight Arbiter” banner in the Version 3.5 update. Cyno’s banner begins on March 1 and he will be live for three weeks alongside the debut banner of the five-star Pyro Claymore character Dehya before they are then both replaced by the five-star Cryo Sword character Kamisato Ayaka and the five-star Cryo Polearm character Shenhe for the second half of the update.
