Zhongli Genshin Impact Guide

Since its launch, Genshin Impact has come quite a way to introduce new characters, and with every character comes a unique set of abilities. Players can benefit from these abilities to optimize their gameplay and clear the game’s content. With every character associated with a backstory, players are attracted to certain characters. Being a fan of some characters, I find myself emotionally connected to their story and never miss any updated story.

Here, I’m going to cover a Genshin Impact character that was my first promoted character and was on cloud nine when I saw him on the wish screen. As an adventure rank 59 player and holder of this character since his launch, I’m sure you will learn something fresh from this Zhongli Genshin Impact guide.

This character holds a particular significance in the game’s intricate lore and has a backstory where he rivalled gods before the formation of the current Genshin Impact world. Having single-handedly defeated old gods in the game’s lore without having the current status and powers granted to him, Zhongli is one of the favourite characters among the player base.

I will be covering an in-depth guide about the Geo archon of Liyue, also known as Morax, one of the seven archons in the World of Teyvat.

Character Details

Zhongli is a 5-star geo polearm character in Genshin Impact, also known as The Geo archon. Zhongli is among the three archons that have been released so far in the game, the other two being Venti and Raiden Shogun. I’ve covered an in-depth guide about Venti, and if you have him, you may want to read about him in detail.

Coming to Zhongli, he’s a tall, handsome guy who’s quite knowledgable in different affairs and works as a consultant in Wangsheng funeral parlour. Throughout your interactions with him in the game, you will notice he knows many things that happened in the past and believe in fulfilling the contracts that he has made.

Anyone who disobeys a contract faces Zhongli’s wrath, which becomes clear from his story quest. Zhongli’s story quests were among the most enjoyable quests I have played, and I still cherish moments to this day.

Whether it’s lore or meta, Zhongli shines in both and brings insane utility. It’s an archon’s signature to have abilities that can be termed game-changing and elemental bursts that can obliterate enemies in a blink of an eye. Covering a large area and providing incredible utility to the team, Zhongli is an indispensable character.

Character Availability

As of Genshin Impact version 2.6, Zhongli has had three event banners in the past. His banner, Gentry of Hermitage, was featured in December (2020), April (2021), and January (2022) with other 4-star characters. Characters like Xinyan, Yanfei, and others were featured alongside him, with Zhongli being the promoted character.

Zhongli was my first 5-star promoted character, and I got him on my 85th wish. I got him before he was buffed and was sad to see YouTubers speaking badly about him. Luckily, Hoyoverse added significant changes to his kit, and now he is one of the best supports in Genshin Impact.

I don’t run any healer with him in the team in the spiral abyss, and he can obliterate enemies with his elemental burst. I may be biased, but in reality, anyone who has Zhongli will say he’s a badass character on their team.

I’ll say Zhongli is quite a good character and essential to the lore. If you can complete the archon collection, that’ll be awesome. I’m lucky enough to get all three archons: Venti, Zhongli, and the Raiden Shogun.

You expect from archons that they are great support units, and they can deal massive damage with their abilities—especially Zhongli and Raiden Shogun, who can wreak havoc on enemies in a blink of an eye. Having any of the archons in your team is an insane addition to your character roster!

Attack Talents

Let’s go over the different talents that Zhongli has in for us, and I’ll give my short remarks on how useful they are to you.

Normal Attack: Rain of Stone

• Normal Attack: Zhongli performs up to 6 consecutive spear hits
• Charged Attack: Zhongli consumes a certain amount of stamina to lunge forward, causing stone spears to fall along his path
• Plunging Attack: Zhongli descends from mid-air to strike the ground below, damaging opponents along the path and dealing AoE  DMG upon impact

Unless you want to build a physical DPS Zhongli, there is no benefit in investing in this talent. You can leave this talent without any upgrade and still cover any content the game offers.

Dominus Lapidis

Press

Commands the power of the earth to create a stone stele

Hold

It causes nearby geo-energy to explode, causing the following effects:

If their maximum number hasn’t been reached, create a stone stele.

Creates a shield of jade. The shield’s damage absorption scales based on Zhongli’s maximum HP

Deals AoE Geo DMG

If nearby targets with the geo element are nearby, it will drain a vast amount of Geo element energy from a maximum of two such opponents. This effect does not cause damage.

Stone Stele

When created, it deals AoE Geo DMG.

Additionally, it will intermittently resonate with other nearby Geo constructs, dealing Geo DMG to nearby enemies.

The Stone stele is considered a single Geo construct that can be climbed and used to block attacks. Only one stele created by Zhongli himself may initially exist at any one time.

Jade Shield

Possesses 150 % damage absorption against all elemental and physical damage. Team characters protected by the Jade shield will decrease opponents’ elemental and physical resistance in small AoE by 20 %. Other characters cannot stack this effect.

I would suggest you level up this talent because if you are not facing enemies who can apply corrosion, you can put Zhongli in your team as a support and remove the healer. This will allow you to go for aggressive team composition and churn out quite an amount of damage to the enemies. With extra constellations, this skill will become necessary for the Geo-construct team and allows you to approach a strategic team composition.

Planet Befall

It brings a falling meteor down to earth, dealing massive Geo DMG to enemies caught in its area of effect and applying a petrification status to them.

Petrification

Enemies affected by the petrification status cannot move.

Planet Befall is one of the most valuable talents because it will petrify the enemies and give you invulnerability frames that will help you avoid critical damage hits from the enemies. Sometimes enemies like ruin guards missiles can deplete a chunk from your HP bar, and to avoid that; you can use a character’s elemental burst animation.

In the case of Zhongli, he has some duration in his I-frame, which has both a pro and cons. Pro is you can avoid any severe hit from an enemy, and con is a DPS loss that you’ll incur in its duration. The pro outweighs the con because you want to save your character from dying in the long term.

Also, after you petrify the enemies, Planet befall will immobilize them for a short time, giving you breathing time to complete your team rotation.

Passive Talents

Arcanum of Crystal

Refunds 15 % of the ore used when crafting Polearm-type weapons.

There are some craftable polearms that you can create from prototype billets. Using Zhongli will benefit you to get a refund for the resources you’ll invest, particularly ores.

Resonant Waves

When the Jade shield takes damage, it will take a fortified state:

Fortified characters have a 5 % increased shield strength.

It can stack up to five times and lasts until the Jade shield disappears.

Passive that will help to increase your shield strength, allowing the characters to gain a massive shield to absorb incoming damage. This is a significant upgrade to his shield potential and makes you feel safer.

Dominance of Earth

Zhongli deals bonus attack DMG based on his Maximum HP:

Normal attack charged attack and plunging attack DMG are increased by 1.39 % of Max HP.

Dominus Lapidis’ Stone stele, resonance, and hold DMG are increased by 1.9 % of Max HP.

Planet Befall’s damage is increased by 33 % of Max HP.

Overall, this passive covers all playstyles that Zhongli can be put in. Whether he’s a support, damage-dealer, or used as a utility provider, this passive will help to boost all of his playstyles. Planet Befall’s damage boost is quite substantial here because Zhongli will be able to pump in some extra damage that will scale his maximum HP.

Constellations

Rock, the Backbone of Earth

Increases the maximum number of stone steles geo constructs created by Dominus Lapidis that max exists simultaneously to two.

This constellation is beneficial because it will help you place two Stone stele, and energy particle generation would be better. You can defend yourself from incoming attacks like ruin guards’ missiles and position yourself better in a defensive mode to counter the enemies. Overall, I’d say this is quite a good constellation level for a Zhongli build.

Stone, the Cradle of Jade

Planet befall grants a nearby character a Jade shield when it descends on the field.

Zhongli’s shield is pretty solid; however, it’s not available in co-op mode to other players. Having this constellation will help you utilize the maximum potential of a support Zhongli and your teammates will be relieved to have you on their team.

Jade, Shimmering through Darkness

Increases the level of Dominus Lapidis’s talent by three. The maximum upgrade level is 15.

At this point, Zhongli’s shield is nearly unbreakable. Even if you build him as burst support, his shield is pretty solid. Having this constellation on a shield-based Zhongli will almost make him and your team members invulnerable. Remember that corrosion avoids shields, so you have to have a healer in your team to prevent HP loss over time.

Topaz, Unbreakable and Fearless

Increases Planet Befall’s area of effect by 20 % and increases the duration of Planet Befall’s certification effect by 2 seconds

A substantial increase in Planet befalls potential allows a burst support Zhongli to cover a large area and gives more breathing time to perform the rotation smoothly.

Lazuli, Herald of the Order

Increases the level of Planet Befall talent by three. The maximum upgrade level is 15

Zhongli’s Planet Befall can obliterate some enemies at level 10. Now, after having this talent levelled up to the maximum level, you can get just one shot at any enemy in your party. Ultimately, it depends on your team comp, but if you have reached this constellation, you sure will have an easy time clearing any content the game has to offer.

Chrysos, Bounty of Dominator

When the Jade shield takes damage, 40 % of that incoming damage is converted to HP for the current character. A single instance of regeneration cannot exceed 8% of that character’s Max HP.

This constellation is like Bennett’s C6, where it’s a matter of choice whether you want to unlock it or not. Team compositions with Hu tao require Zhongli to be a non-healer to take the most benefit from her pyro damage boost, and with this constellation, your Zhongli build will become a partial healer.

Ascension Material

Players need to farm extensively for their related ascension materials when it comes to ascending characters. Some of them are monster drops, boss materials, or local specialities. After ascending a character, players need to farm EXP books to take them to level 90, weapon EXP ores to maximize their weapon, and farm talent books with their specific ascension material.

Investing in a character in Genshin Impact is a long-term process, and players need to consistently invest in them to keep up with the game content until they max out their character. Here I’ll list the items you need to ascend Zhongli to the maximum level and boost his talent.

On top of these items, you need to have around 415+ Hero’s wits to be used as character EXP and 1.6+ million Mora to utilize on them.

I recommend you start pre-farming for upcoming characters or have this many resources as a backup if Hoyoverse makes an announcement.

This way, you will be able to utilize your daily resin optimally and instantly level up the character you plan to wish on.

Playstyle

Before diving into different playstyles, let’s go over elemental resonance. you will get geo resonance when you use two geo characters simultaneously.

Enduring Rock: Increases shield strength by 15%. Additionally, characters protected by a shield will have unique characteristics: DMG dealt increased by 15%, and dealing DMG to enemies will decrease their Geo RES by 20% for 15s.

Having two geo element characters in your party will boost your damage-dealing capabilities, decrease enemies’ geo resistance and increase your shield strength. This means that you will have more potent damage if you can use two geo characters.

Whenever I’m building teams, I always watch the elemental resonance bonus. I’ll get to put certain characters in the group; this will help you to take the most benefit from game mechanics and outperform formidable enemies in the spiral abyss. 

Physical Damage

In the physical damage playstyle, you want to maximize Zhongli deals’ amount of physical damage. You need to focus on artifacts like Pale flame and weapons like Crescent pike to utilize their effects to pump out physical damage to the enemies.

Zhongli’s attack patterns are fast indeed; however, when it comes to late-game content like the spiral abyss, Physical damage starts to fall off because some spiral abyss enemies like Ruin guards have relatively high physical resistance. You won’t be able to clear those chambers on time.

Pale Flame

• 2-piece bonus: Physical DMG +25%
• 4-piece bonus: When an Elemental Skill hits an opponent, the attack increases by 9% for 7s. This bonus stacks up to 2 times and can be triggered once every 0.3s. Once two stacks are reached, the 2-set effect is increased by 100%

2 Bloodstained Chivalry + 2 Pale Flame

• 2-piece bonus: Physical DMG +25%
• 2-piece bonus: Physical DMG +25%

Both of these artifact sets can help you opt for a Physical damage playstyle and churn out physical damage to the enemies. You can opt for ATK % on sands, physical damage bonus on Goblet, and CRIT rate/DMG on Circlet, depending on your substats.

Shield Support

There are some team compositions where you can build Zhongli to prioritize his shield strength and pair up with characters like Hu Tao to mitigate incoming damage.

Because your Zhongli isn’t C6, you can benefit from Zhongli’s shield build-in team compositions where you require his Global resistance shred and solid shield.

Tenacity of the Millileth

• 2-piece bonus: Increases HP by 20 %
• 4-piece bonus: When an Elemental Skill hits an opponent, the ATK of all nearby party members increases by 20%, and their Shield Strength is increased by 30% for 3s. The character can trigger this effect once every 0.5s. This ATK bonus can still be triggered even when the character using this artifact set is not on the field.

You can opt for HP main stat on all artifact pieces if you go with purely shield Zhongli. However, I’ll recommend you manage your CRIT ratios and geo DMG bonus to go with a general shield build. It will be better if you can put up artifact sets that have HP % as their substat to help you build a solid shield.

Burst Support

Burst support is one of the best builds that I love to play the most because of how potent it is when dealing damage to multiple enemies or solo enemies. In this playstyle, your main focus is to deal with as much Geo damage to enemies and enhance Zhongli’s elemental burst DMG.

With optimal team composition, you can expect a C0 Zhongli to hit 6-figure damage. I still remember I was able to hit 180K+ damage with my C0 Zhongli equipped with Skyward spine in an event where I had Bennett and Mona to support the burst damage. So, if you have team members that can synergize well with Zhongli’s elemental burst, this playstyle will be the best build to use.

On top of insane burst damage and certification to the enemies, you will also get a solid shield that will help you counter the incoming damage from the enemies.

2 Archaic Petra + 2 Noblesse Oblige

• 2-piece set bonus: Elemental Burst DMG +20%
• 2-piece set bonus: Gain a 15% Geo DMG Bonus.

Noblesse Oblige

• 2-piece bonus: Elemental Burst DMG +20%
• 4-piece bonus: Using an Elemental Burst, increase all party members’ ATK by 20% for 12s. This effect cannot stack.

You can go with HP% on Sands, Geo DMG bonus on Goblet, and CRIT rate/DMG on the Circlet. It depends on your artifact substats, and you want to have better energy recharge on Zhongli if you wish to use him as burst support.

Though my Zhongli can hit 6-figure damage, I have to cope with less CRIT rate for additional CRIT  DMG on him. I use Skyward spine with refinement rank 1, HP % on Sands, Geo DMG bonus on Goblet, and CRIT DMG on the Circlet. Below are the overall stats I run my Zhongli with.

Geo-Construct

Geo-construct playstyle focuses on deploying constructs like Stone stele, Albedo’s skill, or Geo Traveler’s skill construct. Zhongli’s stone stele resonates in a small area, and if it comes in contact with other Geo construct, the resonance will spread to them as well. You can only have up to three constructs at one time, except for Geo Traveler’s constructs that you get from Wake of earth.

They can resonate with Zhongli’s Stone stele and damage enemies in your melee range. However, I don’t recommend this team composition if you are on an intense battlefield where you don’t have time to place the constructs strategically.

Summary:

There can be different variations of weapons and artifacts depending on the characters you have in your roster. On top of that, you have different artifact sets that provide unique bonuses to the team.

If you want to check what’s the best artifact set or stat on your character is, then I’ll recommend you to go through Genshin Optimizer. Genshin Optimizer is an open-source tool that can help players identify and compare their existing artifact sets and make an informed decision to equip their characters with the best available choice from their inventory.

Weapons

With an armada of weapons in Genshin Impact, players may be confused about what type of weapon they should equip their character with. Here I’m sharing my recommendation and giving short remarks on how you can use these weapons. A quick disclaimer that there can be other best-in-slot weapons depending on the team composition you plan to run.

5-Star weapons

Staff of Homa

The staff of Homa features CRIT DMG as its secondary stat that scales up to 66 % at level 90. On top of that, you get an additional 20 % HP boost with plenty of base attacks to boost your character’s damage.

The staff of Homa gives you an ATK bonus that is based on 0.8 % of max HP. Even if you are on low HP (less than 50 %), you get an increase in ATK%, which scales with 1 % of max HP. This makes Staff of Homa a solid choice for Zhongli because you can utilize him to his maximum potential in whichever team composition you are using him.

Vortex Vanquisher

Vortex Vanquisher provides a similar base attack of 608 as that of Staff of Homa but features ATK% as its secondary stat. Its passive increases shield strength by 20 %, and with each hit, your atk % increases by 4 %, stacking up to 5 stacks.

The cooldown is 0.3 s, and when you have shielded, your atk effect rises by 100 %. This is also a possible choice if you want to go aggressive with Zhongli and opt for physical damage dealing role.

Skyward Spine

Skyward spine has been quite beneficial to me because it features Energy recharge as its secondary stat with a slight increase in CRIT rate from its passive.

I’ve gotten optimal CRIT ratios and used HP, Geo DMG bonus, and CRIT DMG on the artifact set, allowing me to hit 6-figure damage.

Unless you want to focus on building physical damage to Zhongli, I suggest you build a burst support Zhongli for massive damage potential and crowd control utility.

4-star weapons

DeathMatch

Deathmatch features CRIT rate as its secondary stat and is a solid choice if you want a weapon that allows you to equip CRIT DMG on the Circlet.

The passive will help increase your attack and defense by 16 % if there are two opponents near you; otherwise, if there are fewer than two opponents, you increase 24 % in the attack.

Favonius Lance

Favonius Lance is yet another solid choice if you want to use burst Zhongli with your teammates. The passive will help you generate energy particles, and the energy recharge secondary stat will make sure you get your elemental burst back before the cooldown.

This is important when facing multiple enemies and wanting to go with a team that depends on dealing massive damage with elemental bursts.

Crescent Pike

Crescent pike is a craftable polearm that you can refine to the maximum level if you have prototype billets. The passive helps you deal additional normal and charged attack damage with the initial value of 20 % of attack as damage for 5 s.

The secondary stat, the physical damage bonus, is optimal if you want to play a physical damage dealer Zhongli. With extra refinements, this weapon can outshine 5-star weapons as well.

Weapons Summary

I’ve listed a few weapons that can perform exceptionally well on Zhongli, depending on the situation and type of enemies you are facing. However, there’s also one case that not all players will have so many weapons, especially free-to-play players who have limited resources at their disposal.

I’m myself a free-to-player on my main account, and I recommend you equip your Zhongli with whatever good polearm weapon you have. If you have none, then Prototype star glitter would be your last resort because it’s craftable and provides you with an energy recharge second stat to compensate for energy recharge requirements on Zhongli.

This will help you clear content and quickly progress through the game, and if down the line you get a good weapon, you can switch to that weapon. I luckily got the skyward spine from the standard banner and equipped it on my Zhongli. Fun fact, it also came when I crossed 80+ wishes. It seems like RNG god wasn’t in a good mood.

Specific Food

Slow-Cooked Bamboo Shoot soup

Zhongli’s specialty. The ham is a butt end selected according to Yuehai Pavilion’s gourmet standards. The fresh meat is pork belly, freshly hunted in Springvale, while the bamboo shoots are the densest you’ll find in Qingce Village.

It is then heated slowly, gently, and with the utmost care and technique; I may only share such a “particular” taste with those who know how to appreciate it.

• Rarity: 3- star
• Effect: Restores 34 % of Max HP to the selected character and regenerates 980 HP every 5 s for 30 s.
• Recipe: Raw Meat x 2, Ham x 2, Bamboo Shoot x 1

After selecting Zhongli on the cooking menu, you can obtain this dish to cook Bamboo Shoot soup. This dish will help you restore plenty of lost HP, and HP regeneration over time can help you counter situations where you are facing enemies that can apply corrosion to your character.

The ingredients are also easy to obtain, except for Bamboo shoots because they are rare to find. They can be generally located near mountainous areas and near water sources. So, if you can get a good amount of Bamboo shoots, this dish will certainly help you in the overworld recover the lost HP.

Team Composition

I would say that Zhongli is quite a versatile character in gameplay because of how unique his abilities are. Still, some team compositions are more used in the gameplay, and players like to take their benefit.

I would go over the team compositions I like to use and highly suggest you experiment yourself. The more you experiment in Genshin Impact, the more you will learn about characters.

However, don’t try to waste time while experimenting because you can also spend some time on character guides to know about discoveries made by other people about characters.Let’s go over different team compositions that you can use Zhongli in.

Physical – Zhongli Electro Cryo Flex

Superconduct helps lower enemies’ physical resistance and allows the player to deal more physical damage. If you are using Zhongli as the primary damage dealer, you need to have characters that can be used as off-field damage dealers.

You can choose characters like Fischl to act as off-field damage dealers, and depending on the situation, you can select a cryo battery or healer. Having these slots filled, you are still left with one place to put some extra character to either benefit from elemental resonance or have an additional element to break a shield.

Burst-Support – Zhongli Ninguang Flex 

Burst support focuses on dealing as much geo DMG as possible to the enemies. Ningguang is an optimal choice in this team comp because of her low elemental burst cost and ability to deal with a vast amount of damage on a higher constellation.

With two slots remaining in this team, you can either choose characters that can help you take benefit from double elemental resonance team composition or situational use to break shields.

Geo-construct – Zhongli GeoMC Flex Flex

The Geo construct team doesn’t consider Geo Traveler’s elemental burst, Wake of the earth when you deploy the construct. C1 Zhongli is a massive addition to this team because you can only have three geo constructs deployed at one time.

If you deploy a new construct, it will make the oldest construct disappear. If you want to go with this team composition, then Geo Traveller is highly recommended because of their elemental skill.

The only con about this team composition is that you have to focus on characters that can deploy geo construct and help you to achieve resonance among them.

Team-composition Summary

I’ve listed the team compositions that have more general use, but there can be various variations depending on the characters you have at your disposal. Zhongli is quite a versatile support unit that can fit any team composition.

Whenever I face a spiral abyss floor that doesn’t have corrosion enemies or only a few, I switch to a burst comp with Ninggaung, Zhongli, Gorou and Geo main traveller. Both Ningguang and Zhongli are burst-focused, and the other two characters as batteries.

Eventually, it all depends on how you approach character building and what kind of playstyle you want to opt for. Some people prefer to play aggressive, while others use a strategic approach. I like to face tank enemies and go head-on-head with them.

I love to make fast combos in team rotations, and this allows me to push my limits, though I’ll admit that some floors make me sweat and barely able to complete with a few seconds on the clock.

FAQs

Question: Do I need constellations on Zhongli to use him in the spiral abyss?

Closing Remarks

Zhongli is a top-tier support character who can provide both shield and crowd control against the enemies. His elemental burst, Planet befall, allows players to take benefit of the invulnerability frame and avoid hits from enemies that can prove fatal to the character.

After using his burst, enemies are petrified and vulnerable to damage; this helps players destroy enemies without worrying about incoming damage for a short time.

In my experience, Zhongli has helped me clear the most challenging spiral abyss floors and will always remain in my primary team while clearing future abyss floors.

I highly recommend you experiment with your characters and weapons to see which team compositions suit your playstyle and opt for the one that makes your gameplay experience easier.

That way, you will be able to know more about your favourite character and even recommend the best tips to your friends.

I’ll also recommend you to go through character and weapon guides to learn more about them and decide whether you are using a good weapon on your favourite character or not.

That was all from my end about the Geo archon of Liyue, and I hope you got to learn a bit more about Zhongli from this guide. I wish you luck for future characters and hope you can quickly clear any content the game offers in the future.

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Himanshu Verkiya

Himanshu is a passionate writer who loves to write about open-world games featuring anime style characters. He admits that his love for interesting anime stories and characters were a major reason he started playing Open world role playing games.Having played different Open world games in the past, now he prefers to play casual role playing games which feature beautiful sceneries and vast worlds to roam in.
Besides writing about his favourite games, Himanshu prefers to keep himself up-to-date with the latest happenings in the financial world, watching anime, cooking and listening to music from all around the world.

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