Cryo has been a strong and reliable element in Genshin Impact since the games release thanks to Freeze to immobilize your opponents while also having the potential to increase your Crit Rate by a huge amount through Cryo Resonance which increases Crit Rate against opponents affected by Cryo or Freeze by 15% along with the Blizzard Strayer artifact set which increases Crit Rate against opponents affected by Cryo by 20% and an additional 20% if they’re affected by Freeze, resulting in a total of 55% free Crit Rate which makes building Cryo characters extremely easy.
But with so many Cryo characters in the game and the roster continuing to grow who stands as the ice queen of Genshin Impact? While all the Cryo characters are strong in their own ways, some of them can be much more impressive than others.
Cryo has a lot of very strong units making it a very competitive element. Characters listed low on this list are by no means considered weak. Furthermore, it’s always suggested to prioritize playing characters you like and enjoy playing other characters that are Meta.
12 Aloy
The guest star visiting Genshin Impact from the Horizon franchise of course has the hearts of any fans of the Horizon games. Unfortunately she isn’t very strong as a Genshin unit. Aloy uses her Elemental Skill to drop a series of Cryo mines that will build stacks of “Coil” for her to buff and at 4 stacks will infuse her normal attacks with Cryo, while her Elemental Burst deals AoE Cryo damage.
Unfortunately, it can be difficult to consistently obtain the maximum amount of stacks from her Elemental Skill and with a 20-second cooldown, failure to do so will render Aloy useless to the team until it is back up. Her ascension 4 passive increases her Cryo damage by 3.5% for every second she spends on the field to a maximum of 35% after 10 seconds which even for a main DPS is quite a long time for her to be spending on the field. Meanwhile, her single instance Elemental burst doesn’t have the damage or utility to compare to the other units in Cryo.
11 Qiqi
A standard 5-star that many have a sour opinion of due to losing 50/50’s. The little zombie Qiqi can be an amazing healer, but that’s about it. Her Elemental Skill functions very similarly to Barbara’s, periodically healing the active character’s HP and healing even more if Qiqi hits her Normal or Charged attacks, it will also apply Cryo to nearby enemies, although its application is rather slow.
Her Elemental Burst deals AoE Cryo damage and applies a Talisman that will heal characters who deal damage to the opponent affected by it. Qiqi’s elemental skill has a 30-second cooldown and with its low energy generation and slow Cryo application, it doesn’t provide much other than healing. And with other healers like Kokomi or Bennett who can offer healing and even more to their teams, Qiqi falls far behind.
10 Kaeya
Kaeya is perhaps the strongest of the free starter characters Genshin gives you. His Elemental skill deals with a cone blast of Cryo Damage that with his Ascension 4 passive and an Energy recharge weapon could make him a great Cryo battery character. Meanwhile, his low-cost Elemental Burst will create icicles that deal Cryo damage to opponents that come into contact.
This effect is much faster than Qiqi’s skill and makes him a good choice for an off-field Cryo applicator in Melt or Swirl teams assuming the main DPS will be in melee range to trigger the effects. His Elemental Burst will also become much stronger at Constellation 2 where it will have its duration extended by 2.5 seconds for every opponent defeated during its duration, which caps at a 15-second increase. However, obtaining Kaeya constellations can be somewhat difficult as starter characters are never used as rate-ups in banners.
9 Mika
The Front-Line Surveyor Mika has good utility but only for the very niche play style of Physical DPS teams. His Elemental skill can be tapped to deal an instance of Cryo damage however you will mostly use its hold version which will deal Cryo damage and then split into 3 flares that will deal Cryo damage to 3 other opponents both of these effects will increase character ATK Speed. At Ascension 1 However, Mika will build up to 3 “Detector” stacks for each enemy his Elemental Skill hits which will increase characters’ Physical damage by 10% (up to 30%).
His Elemental Burst will allow characters to heal when they land a Normal attack which scales off of his HP, At Ascension 4 being affected by both his Elemental Burst and his Elemental Skill will increase the maximum number of Detector stacks by 1 (To a maximum of 4) and characters will gain a stack by landing a Crit hit. At Constellation level 6 Mikas’ maximum number of Detector stacks is increased by 1 meaning a maximum of 5 during both his Burst and Skill. Furthermore, characters affected by his skill will deal 60% Crit DMG on Physical attacks. All of these buffs make Mika a great Unit to play in Physical DPS teams. However, Physical DPS isn’t often played making Mika an extremely niche character.
8 Chongyun
The young exorcist Chongyun can be a very strong character but doesn’t provide much to most teams other than Elemental Burst damage. His Elemental Skill deals AoE Cryo DMG and places down a circular field that will infuse Sword, Claymore, or Polearm characters with Cryo while they are in its area, it will also increase their Normal Attack speed by 8% at Ascension 1 and at Ascension 4 it will deal another instance of AoE Cryo DMG at the end of its duration and decrease the opponent’s Cryo Resistance by 10%. This effect can be useful to allow characters like Diluc or Xiangling to independently trigger melt.
But most characters that would require a Cryo infusion can do so by themselves, meanwhile its much more effective to use characters like Xingqiu for reactions and any Anemo unit will be able to shred opponents’ Cryo resistance far better than Chongyun can through the use of Viridescent Veneerer. His Elemental Burst simply deals with 3 instances of AoE Cryo DMG and can be quite heavy hitting if Chongyun is built correctly. Unfortunately, his skill doesn’t bring much to a team, so his Burst damage usually doesn’t justify adding him.
7 Layla
A sleepy astrology student that many might find rather relatable due to her studying troubles. Layla can provide teams with great survivability thanks to her strong shields while also offering a degree of Cryo application. Layla’s Elemental Skill will form a shield that scales off of her max HP. Additionally, every 1.5 seconds or when a character uses an Elemental Skill it will generate a Night Star, once 4 Night Stars have been created they will fire off and seek out opponents to deal low Cryo DMG.
Her Elemental Burst has the second largest AoE in the game (Seconding to Nahida’s) and functions very similarly to Lisa’s, firing out Starlight Slugs that deal Cryo damage to opponents in its AoE and generating a Night Star for Layla’s skill when it hits. Layla is a great option for shielding and applying Cryo but even with her constellations, she doesn’t provide much else to the team which puts her behind other Cryo support units.
6 Eula
Despite being placed at the halfway point of this list Eula is a very strong character but caters towards Physical DPS teams which as mentioned before in the Mika ranking is a very niche play style.
Eula is a somewhat more complicated character to play. Players must alternate between the tap-and-hold versions of her Elemental Skill to build Grimheart stacks and spend them on her Ascension 1 passive Roiling Rime to deal damage while they charge her Elemental Burst. Her Elemental Burst will deal Cryo damage and put her in a 7-second state where players must use her Normal attacks and her Elemental skill to charge her Lightfall sword which at the end of the duration will deal AoE physical damage scaling on the amount of energy Eula got through the duration. The Lightfall sword can deal huge amounts of damage with the right set-up. However, Physical DPS teams are often neglected by the game and will be outperformed by reaction-based teams.
5 Diona
Diona is a great Cryo support character that provides a lot of survivability to teams. Her Elemental Skill can be tapped or held to fire Icy Paws that deal Cryo DMG and grant a shield that scales off of Diona’s HP and how many of the icy paws hit opponents, it’s usually more effective to just use her held version for this as it will gain the best results for shield strength. Her Elemental Burst creates an AoE that deals Cryo DMG over time and heals allies within its radius.
However, Diona becomes even more impressive at Constellation level 6 gaining a healing increase when characters fall below 50% HP and providing a 200 Elemental Mastery bonus when characters are above 50% HP which will allow her to buff the damage to any Elemental Reaction. Diona provides a lot to her teams making her a go-to for free-to-play characters that need a Cryo support, although her shields are quite weak and the targeting of her icy paws can be inconsistent at times.
4 Rosaria
If Diona isn’t needed, Rosaria is a great option for a second Cryo character in any Cryo team. Her Elemental Skill will have her dash behind opponents (unless they’re too large) and deal Cryo damage, which at Ascension 1, hitting opponents from behind with this skill will increase Rosaria’s Crit Rate by 12%. The Elemental Burst will deal AoE Cryo DMG and remain on the field to deal even more Cryo DMG at set intervals to opponents in the area, at Ascension passive 4 using her Elemental Burst will increase the parties Crit Rate (excluding Rosaria herself) by 15% of Rosaria’s Crit rate (To a maximum of 15%) which is great when paired with the Cryo Crit Rate increases mentioned in the intro of this list.
Her Elemental Burst has great damage and being consistently on the field makes it perfect for enabling any Cryo reaction. Furthermore, at Constellation level 6 Rosaria’s Elemental Burst will shred opponents Physical Resistance by 20% making her an extremely versatile Cryo sub-DPS who can efficiently contribute to both Cryo Reaction teams and Physical DPS teams.
3 Shenhe
Shenhe is an amazing Cryo support that will see the numbers of your Cryo DPS characters skyrocket. Her Elemental Skill can be tapped or held to deal Cryo damage and gain Icy Quills which will increase the Cryo DMG of any attacks by an amount based on Shenhe’s ATK and can be triggered a number of times before being removed (hold will allow more uses of Icy Quills). At Ascension level 4, using the press version of her skill will increase the damage of Elemental Skills and Elemental Bursts by an additional 15% while using the hold version will increase the damage of Normal, Charged, and Plunging attacks by 15%.
Shenhe’s Elemental Burst will AoE Cryo damage and remain on the field to shred Cryo and the Physical resistance of opponents in the area while also dealing periodic AoE Cryo Damage. At Ascension 1, Characters within the field of her burst gain a 15% Cryo DMG bonus. Shenhe’s kit allows her to at least double the amount of damage Cryo characters can deal. However, this means she is effectively useless in any team outside Cryo.
2 Ganyu
The flower-eating Adeptus Ganyu is an extremely powerful and very versatile character. As a bow character, Ganyu gains a second level to her aimed shot which will deal Cryo DMG and then create a large splash of AoE Cryo DMG which has huge scaling, the blooming animation of this attack is also considered as travel time by the game meaning Ganyu will always gain the maximum effect from her signature Amos Bow weapon. Her Elemental skill is similar to that of Amber’s, dashing back to deploy an Ice Lotus that will deal AoE Cryo damage and for its duration, will taunt enemies until its duration ends or until it is destroyed where it will then explode dealing another instance of AoE Cryo DMG.
Her burst, once again like Amber’s, summons a large AoE in which shards of ice will rain down and consistently deal Cryo DMG. This off-field Cryo application makes Ganyu a nice choice as a Cryo Sub-Dps, but she particularly shines as a Main DPS due to the huge amounts of damage her aimed shot can do.
1 Kamisato Ayaka
Kamisato Ayaka only beats out Ganyu in damage, while Ganyu can be much more versatile since Ayaka doesn’t operate too well in Melt teams. So the position of best Cryo character is really up to preference. Kamisato Ayaka easily infuses herself with Cryo by dashing and at Ascension 1 she can increase her Normal and Charged attack damage by 30% for 6 seconds by using her Elemental Skill which will also deal a large amount of AoE Cryo Damage. Ayaka’s best piece of kit though is her Elemental Burst which will summon an Icy storm that travels forward until contacting an enemy.
While it is touching an enemy it will deal repeated instances of Cryo DMG until it explodes and deals AoE Cryo DMG this ability is capable of dealing huge damage especially when paired with Shenhe. Ayaka performs amazingly in Freeze teams thanks to the massive Crit Rate increase and Freeze’s ability to keep enemies in range of her burst. One of the strongest and most popular teams in Genshin is an Ayaka “Perma-Freeze” team consisting of Ayaka, Kazuha, Kokomi and Shenhe. As mentioned before, Ayaka doesn’t function very well in Melt teams since the enemies will often just move out of range of her burst.
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