Genshin Impact’s new Cryo Shielder and Support powerhouse, Citlali, is finally here! In this guide, I’ll show you everything from her surprisingly low Base Attack to her unique Night Soul mechanics. Whether you’re looking to optimize her for Melt or Freeze teams, or just want to know how to make the most of her abilities, talent priorities, and synergies, I’ve got you covered. Trust me, Citlali is a game-changer when you understand how to unleash her full potential!
Citlali Pre-Release Guide & Analysis
Citlali is a Cryo Shielder and Support character designed to boost Pyro and Hydro damage in Melt or Freeze teams. Before we dive into her abilities, let’s talk about something important: her Base Attack. It’s one of the lowest in the game, falling between Hu Tao and Barbara. This is crucial because it means that attack percentage buffs don’t have as big an impact on her performance as they would on most other units.
Now, let’s talk about her Elemental Skill. It may seem complicated, but it’s simple in practice:
- When Citlali uses her Elemental Skill, she deals damage and gains 24 Night Soul points, entering the Night Soul Blessing state and summons a shield based on her Elemental Mastery that lasts for 20 seconds.
- If Citlali has 50 or more Night Soul points during this time, she triggers a Frostfall Storm. This AOE Cryo damage effect hits once per second around the active character and consumes 8 Night Soul points per second.
- Once her Night Soul points run out (after 7.5 or 11.5 seconds), the Frostfall Storm ends.
But if her Elemental Skill generates just 24 Night Soul points, how does she get to 50? This is where her Elemental Burst comes in.
- Her Elemental Burst deals AOE Cryo damage and applies two units of Cryo (unlike other Cryo sources that only apply one). After the initial burst, Citlali deals up to three additional instances of AOE Cryo damage to affected enemies.
- The first additional instance grants 24 Night Soul points, while each subsequent one grants 3 Night Soul points.
Her passives also play a huge role:
- At Ascension 1, Citlali reduces nearby enemies’ Pyro and Hydro resistances by 20% for 12 seconds after Melt or Freeze reactions, and she gains 16 Night Soul points with each triggered reaction (up to 32 points per rotation).
- At Ascension 4, her Frostfall Storm and Burst damage are further boosted by her Elemental Mastery.
Talent Priotity
Citlali’s talent priority is straightforward, thanks to her low attack scaling and reliance on Elemental Mastery for her performance. Her talents should be leveled up primarily for shield strength and the overall effectiveness of her support capabilities.
- Start by leveling her Elemental Skill first, as it plays a vital role in her effectiveness, especially with the Frostfall Storm.
- If you want to boost her damage output slightly, you can level up her Elemental Burst.
- Normal Attacks are pretty much irrelevant and should be ignored for talent upgrades.
Citlali’s support abilities shine through her skill and burst, so don’t waste resources on talents that don’t contribute to her core role!
Best Combo
Citlali’s combos are incredibly simple, especially because the duration of her Frostfall Storm is relatively short. To maximize her potential, it’s best to use Citlali as the second or third character in your rotation, depending on the team composition.
When to use Citlali in your team depends on your setup, but generally, it’s ideal to activate her Elemental Burst to reset the enemy’s Cryo aura. Here’s how to perform the combo:
- Field the active character you want to benefit from the aura.
- Use Citlali’s Elemental Skill to generate Night Soul points and summon her shield.
- Activate her Elemental Burst to trigger AoE Cryo damage and apply the Cryo effect.
- Swap out to another unit and continue your rotations.
Constellations Overview
Citlali’s constellations are fairly simple in terms of mechanics. Overall, her constellations are pretty strong. While her level increases are fairly insignificant, her passives provide powerful buffs that make her an incredibly reliable support. Whether you’re looking for stronger shields, increased damage for your main DPS, or more consistent reactions, Citlali’s constellations offer solid upgrades that enhance her role as a support powerhouse.
C1: Stellar Blades
Citlali’s first constellation turns her into something akin to Shenhe. After using her Elemental Skill, she gains 10 Stellar Blades for 10 seconds. Whenever an on-field party member performs a normal attack, charged attack, plunging attack, Elemental Skill, or Elemental Burst, damage dealt will increase by 200% of Citlali’s Elemental Mastery. This happens once every 8 seconds. Additionally, Citlali can gain 3 more Stellar Blades whenever a Freeze or Melt reaction is triggered.
This constellation is incredibly powerful for fast-hitting units like Tartaglia or Keqing, as they can quickly consume the buff. However, it’s less effective on units like Mona with slower, high-scaling hits. Overall, it significantly boosts the damage of your main DPS, typically increasing it by around 17%.
C2: Elemental Mastery Boost
Citlali’s second constellation is one of her best. It increases her Elemental Mastery by 125 and boosts the Elemental Mastery of any ally protected by her shield by 250. Not only that, but she can now grant her shield to all active party members in Co-op play.
Additionally, her resistance reduction is increased to 40%, making her a strong competitor to other top-tier shields like Venti and Zhongli. This constellation boosts not just Citlali’s own damage but also the damage of the entire team, especially the main DPS. The massive Elemental Mastery bonus and the increased resistance shred make this one of the best boosts Citlali can provide to your team.
C3: Talent Level Increase
Citlali’s third constellation is a Talent Level Increase, which is essentially a minor upgrade with little impact on her overall performance. Since most of Citlali’s power comes from her passive abilities rather than her talent levels, this constellation is relatively insignificant.
C4: Frostfall Storm Bonus
Citlali’s fourth constellation grants her an extra instance of damage once every 8 seconds while her Frostfall Storm is active. This damage is based on 100% of her Elemental Mastery and also restores 8 energy and 16 Night Soul points. This effect significantly reduces her energy needs and increases the duration of the Frostfall Storm by an additional 4 seconds.
With this constellation, Citlali’s personal damage gets a solid boost, and the Frostfall Storm becomes an even more reliable source of AoE Cryo damage. This constellation makes her a decent sub-DPS in certain setups, especially when paired with high Elemental Mastery units.
C5: Burst Scaling Increase
Citlali’s fifth constellation increases her Elemental Burst scaling, but given that leveling her burst is secondary to other aspects of her kit, this is a rather underwhelming boost. Citlali’s Burst is better for triggering reactions and supporting her team, not for heavy scaling, so this constellation doesn’t significantly enhance her performance.
C6: Perfect Frostfall
Citlali’s sixth constellation is undoubtedly the best. It causes her Elemental Skill to immediately activate the Frostfall Storm, which now lasts the full 20 seconds. Not only that, but it consumes all Night Soul points on activation. For every Night Soul point consumed, Citlali’s team gains a 1.5% Hydro and Pyro damage bonus, up to a maximum of 60%. Additionally, Citlali herself gains a 2.5% damage bonus, up to 100%.
This constellation is a game-changer, effectively transforming Citlali into a defensive Furina, massively boosting both her own damage and the damage of any Hydro or Pyro units she’s paired with. It’s one of the best damage-boosting constellations in the game and elevates Citlali’s support potential to an entirely new level.
Vertical Investment Path
When considering Citlali’s vertical investment path, I recommend prioritizing her first two constellations over focusing on a main DPS. These constellations provide benefits that can be utilized by multiple main DPS units. After unlocking her second constellation, the recommended investment path will depend on the weapon you’re using.
If you don’t have a Refinement 5 Wandering Even Star or a Refinement 1+ Thousand Floating Dreams, aim for her signature Catalyst after unlocking her second constellation. This will mark the point where you can start focusing on your main DPS’s vertical investment.
If you already have a Wandering Even Star or Thousand Floating Dreams, proceed to unlock her signature weapon after her second constellation, then focus on her vertical artifact options.
Artifact Options
As a support unit, Citlali is an ideal candidate for the Scroll of the Hero of Cinder City set, which enhances her utility significantly. This set provides a 40% damage bonus to her team and increases her energy regeneration, allowing for more frequent bursts and consistent Cryo aura uptime. It’s generally the best option unless you plan to use her as a main DPS, which is not recommended.
Alternatively, the Instructor set is another option, which gives Citlali 200 Elemental Mastery and boosting her team’s Elemental Mastery by 120 for 8 seconds after a reaction. This set is ideal if your team requires a significant Elemental Mastery boost, such as in a team with a Vaporize-related setup. While not as potent for Citlali herself, it can be a viable option for maximizing team synergy.
Stat Prioritization
For Citlali, prioritize Elemental Mastery as your main stat. Building her full Elemental Mastery may slightly reduce her personal damage, but it significantly increases her shield strength while providing support for her team. If you already have a decent amount of Elemental Mastery on substats or her Catalyst, consider swapping her Goblet for a Cryo Damage bonus or the Circlet for Crit Rate.
You can also opt for an Energy Recharge Sands if you struggle to meet the energy recharge requirements for her burst. Aim for around 165% Energy Recharge to maintain a steady energy flow, and then focus on hitting at least 800 Elemental Mastery to ensure powerful shields and increased personal damage. Once that’s done, achieving a 1:2 Crit Ratio is a good next step.
Weapon Options
Elemental Mastery is incredibly important for Citlali, so much so that her best weapons are all focused on boosting this stat.
Her best-in-slot Catalyst is her signature weapon, Starcaller’s Watch. While it has a relatively low base attack, it offers a huge Elemental Mastery substat. Its passive increases the user’s Elemental Mastery by an additional 100 and boosts the on-field party members’ damage by 28% for 15 seconds after the user creates a shield (this effect triggers once every 14 seconds). This makes Starcaller’s Watch the best weapon for Citlali, especially if you’re not prioritizing her personal damage output. Despite that, it still provides her with the largest shield and a significant team-wide damage bonus.
A Thousand Floating Dreams is Citlali’s second-best weapon, offering a team-wide Elemental Mastery boost and a buff to the user’s Elemental Mastery or damage percent based on the team. It shines in reaction-heavy teams but may underperform in teams with few reactions.
For a 4-star option, Wandering Evenstar is her best choice. It boosts Elemental Mastery and provides a flat attack buff to the team based on the user’s Elemental Mastery. While the attack buff is modest, it benefits Citlali by increasing overall team damage.
Beyond these, utility weapons like Favonius Codex or Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers are preferred. Other options that increase Elemental Mastery or damage stats are less effective than the top choices.
Synergies
Citlali excels at buffing her team, making her a self-reliant defensive support. While she pairs well with units like Bennett, Rosaria, or Nahida for boosted damage and Cryo application, her synergies are more about complementary buffs than active team interactions.
Her strongest synergy comes from pairing with Mauvika as the main DPS. Citlali boosts Mauvika’s damage through resistance shred, damage percent, Cryo application, and Melt support, making them a powerful core duo. This pairing also allows them to use the Instructor and Scroll artifact sets for additional team-wide buffs.
Team Compositions
Citlali thrives in Melt teams, where her Cryo application boosts Pyro characters’ damage. Her buffs, including Hydro resistance shred and the Scroll Set, help melt-based teams deal higher damage than with traditional buffers like Xingqiu or Shenhe. In Freeze teams, while she offers Cryo application, the lack of Melt-related multipliers makes her less impactful.
Mauvika is often paired with Citlali in optimal team comps. Citlali excels in forward melt strategies, providing 20% Hydro, Hydro resistance shred on freeze/melt triggers, and a 40% team damage bonus from her scroll set. However, her buffs aren’t strong enough to compete with top-tier characters like Xilonen, making her a niche sidegrade to Shenhe.
Citlali’s unique off-field Cryo application allows Pyro characters to trigger Forward Melt reactions, boosting their damage beyond what Kazuha or Xilonen can offer, especially in Vape teams.
- Mauvika
- Rosaria
- Bennett
- Arlecchino/Gaming
Freeze teams benefit from her Cryo application but miss out on the damage multiplier from melts, although they still gain from her scroll set’s damage boost and resistance shred.
- Neuvillette
- Furina
- Kazuha
In Vape teams, Citlali’s resistance shred is crucial for triggering melts, boosting Hydro DPS damage. While Hydro DPS doesn’t benefit from the scroll set in these teams, the passive resistance shred compensates for lost buffs. Citlali can also use the Instructor set for added damage. Her burst guarantees a Cryo aura, enhancing Melt reactions with Pyro units and solidifying her role as the top support in forward Vape teams.
- Mauvika
- Nahida
- Mualani
Final Thoughts
Citlali is a strong hybrid support in Genshin Impact with decent sub-DPS, solid elemental application, and excellent offensive utility, offering buffs that can boost team damage by up to 45%. While her Cryo synergy limits her battery potential and her defense isn’t the best, she excels in versatility, fitting into many team comps. Overall, I’d rate her 3.5/5. She’s a powerful and flexible unit, and if you choose her, trust me, you won’t regret it.
