Childe Build Guide (Patch 4.0)
Childe’s Role and Skills
Although Childe is regarded as a DPS character its important to note that his role isn’t a hypercarry or traditional DPS character. Childe’s role specifically is a technical enabler meaning that he relies on team synergy to output the highest DPS potential. This means that Childe’s build guide is mainly focused on his team composition that would usually utilize Genshin’s strongest off-field DPS characters such as Xiangling and Beidou. His playstyle is highly technical in terms of rotations, combos and executions making him one of the hardest character to play optimally.
Reverse-Vape Childe
Because Childe cannot consistently vaporize all of his all melee attacks, it is better to allow others to reverse-vape instead. Reverse-Vape is a Pyro on Hydro reaction applying a x1.5 damage multiplier for the Pyro hit. Xiangling’s absurd burst damage multipliers and AOE when combo-ed with Bennet’s damage buff, VV shred and utilizing Childe to reverse-vape each Pyro hit will produce the highest damage ceiling of all Childe’s comp. The main weakness is balancing Xianling’s energy regeneration the rotation setup. The fourth slot is interchangeable with any Anemo character with 4 piece Viridescent Venerer (VV) set.
Electro-Charged Childe
Despite the name, Electro-Charged is not a significant percentage of the total damage. It merely refers to the primary reaction that is triggered. Generally the Electro-Charged reaction consists of about 5% of the total damage. Most of the damage comes from the team synergy between Childe and the raw damage from the Electro characters. Built around Beidou’s high burst multiplier and AOE, Bennet’s damage buff and Childe’s AOE hydro attacks makes this the second most recommend comp. Similar to reverse-vape comp, the main weakness is regenerating Beidou’s burst. Hence the fourth slot can be any electro character capable of generating electro particles.
Artifact set
Nymph’s Dream (4)
As of patch 3.6, this set is Childe’s BiS set by ~10% compared to HoD. The main reason is because Childe can fully utilize its passive and build stacks making him one of the most ideal characters to use it.
Heart of Depth (4)
A set created specifically for Childe during his release. The faster you can kill, the less powerful this set becomes but for any content that requires the entirety of the melee duration or multiple rotations, HoD will be one of Childe’s strongest set.
18% ATK set (2)
+15% Hydro DMG (2)
This set is only about 1-2 substats behind 4 piece HoD, you can opt out for this set instead if you already have decent pieces.
Noblesse Oblige (2)
+
15% Hydro DMG set
18% ATK set (2)
A burst focus set. This set emphasizes a front-loaded damage and is only recommended for players with high-invest Childes who can clear content early in their melee duration. In context of the Abyss, this is Childe’s strongest high-investment set due to how strong a vaporized burst can be.
Shimenawa’s Reminiscence (4)
Due to this set requiring Childe to have around 150% Energy Recharge to reliably burst every rotation, it falls behind other options. However, it outperforms 4 piece HoD if used in a single rotation. This means SR will only be practical for content that can be cleared within one rotation.
Weapon
Polar Star (5✩)
Polar is one of Childe’s strongest bows that is conditionally better than both Thundering Pulse and Skyward Harp at 3 stacks before burst. At 2 stacks before burst, Polar will be comparable to Pulse. The more enemies there are, the more Polar pulls ahead of the other 5* bows due to Polar’s passive affecting Riptide Slash’s quadratic scaling.
Thundering Pulse (5✩)
Hunter’s Path (5✩)
Aqua Simulacra (5✩)
No surprise that a DPS focus bow is strong for Childe. They pull ahead due to their passive that can be easily proc and utilize by Childe.
The Viridescent Hunt (4✩)
Offers a valuable passive that helps a lot in grouping enemies, which can offer a ton of damage from Riptide.
Blackcliff Warbow (4✩)
Due to inconsistency of gaining stacks, falls off compared to other weapons at higher refinements.
Mouun’s Moon (4✩)
One of the best 4* weapons for Childe. Mouun’s Moon buffs burst damage by a portion of the team’s total energy cost, and Childe teams generally have high energy requirements.
Talent
Melee Focus
Skill (E) > Burst (Q) > Normal Attack (NA)
Burst Focus
Burst (Q) > Skill (E) > Normal Attack (NA)
Generally melee focus Childe is what everyone will start with at least during early build. As you start to hyper-invest in him, most likely you’ll want to focus on Burst as the front load damage is high enough that it can kill most enemies.
Main stat and substat
Sand: ATK%
Goblet: Hydro DMG
Circlet: Crit Rate / DMG
- Crit Rate / DMG
- ATK%
- Elemental Mastery
- Energy Recharge
As Childe will mostly likely run in either Reverse Vape or Electro-Charged team composition, Elemental Mastery is a useful substat to have.
Constellation
C1 > C3 > C5
Compared to other 5* characters, it is not recommended to go for Childe’s constellations as most of them are merely quality of life improvements with caveats. More in-depth explanations of his constellations and effects can be found in Keqingmains constellation guide.
C1
It can increase Childe’s damage through utility. Depending on the melee string used, it can allow an additional melee string before rotating with your team’s skills and bursts. This can increase Childe’s total damage by up to 9% in a 24s rotation.
C3
It gives a 25% increase to his melee’s damage. Over a 24s rotation, it increases his total damage by up to 18%.
C5
It increases Burst damage by 21%. For Main DPS Childe, this constellation increases his total damage by ~5%. For Burst DPS Childe, it increases total damage by ~17%.