Genshin Impact 4.2 second half banner evaluation: Should you pull for Cyno, Ayato, and their signature weapons?

The second half of Genshin Impact version 4.2 is upon us, featuring a double rerun banner for the 5-star Electro Polearm user Cyno and the 5-star Hydro Sword user Kamisato Ayato as well as their signature weapons.

While Cyno and Ayato are both DPS characters, both have widely differing design philosophies. Cyno is designed to clear endgame-level content like the Spiral Abyss while Ayato is a more versatile character that can shine in any combat situation.

So, which of these two characters are worth your Primogems? What about their signature weapons? Read on and we'll help you decide.

Need a dedicated Abyss clearer? Get Cyno

Genshin Impact DPS characters are often designed to excel in multiple situations, be it against single-target bosses or mobs of enemies. However, Cyno is built different. The General Mahamatra is built for clearing the Spiral Abyss as a Electro hypercarry that demands a lot of field time.

Cyno's kit is centered around his burst, which makes his Normal, Charged, and Plunging Attacks deal Electro DMG while increasing his Elemental Mastery and resistance to interruption. His burst state has a base duration of 10 seconds, which he can extend to a whopping 18 seconds by using his skill at certain intervals.

Because of the very long duration of Cyno's burst, he must be the one taking up all of the field time for your team during a rotation in order to maximize his damage. Working around this caveat is well worth it though, as Cyno can clear anything the Spiral Abyss throws at him (as long as it isn't immune to Electro).

Cyno's best team is a 'Quickbloom' lineup, which uses the Quicken, Aggravate, and Hyperbloom reactions to boost his personal damage while also letting other party members deal considerable damage from off-field. With the Electro infusion from his burst state, the General Mahamatra can work alongside Dendro and Hydro characters to trigger those powerful reactions.

When building Cyno, you'd want to go for a good mix of Crit stats, ATK, and Elemental Mastery. Because of this, his go-to artifact sets are either the 4-piece Thundering Fury or 4-piece Gilded Dreams.

Thundering Fury lets him use his skill more often, which increases his DPS ceiling, while Gilded Dreams gives him both ATK and Elemental Mastery. Both sets are close enough in performance that the defining factor will be which ones have the better substats.

Cyno's best teammates are those with strong off-field abilities that can support him while he's taking field time. These include Nahida, Yaoyao, Dendro Traveler, Yelan, Xingqiu, Yae Miko, Kuki Shinobu, and Fischl, among others.

If you already have these characters, then you should have a strong Cyno team ready in no time.

Of course, Cyno's high field time requirements doesn't leave much room for versatility. In the Overworld, where enemies rarely last long enough for Cyno to make much use of his burst, you can have issues having it ready for multiple consecutive encounters.

But if you're one of those players who continually like to test themselves every two weeks in the Spiral Abyss, then Cyno will carry you to victory.

Need a more versatile DPS? Get Ayato

If Cyno is built solely for the Spiral Abyss, then Kamisato Ayato is the opposite.

The head of the Yashiro Commission is a versatile character that can shine in almost every combat situation, whether it's in the Overworld or the Spiral Abyss, as your party's Main DPS. Not only that, he can also be geared towards being a support too.

Ayato's bread-and-butter is his skill, which lets him enter an enhanced state where he can quickly unleash a flurry of Hydro-infused Normal Attacks for 6 seconds. Meanwhile, he can use his burst to buff himself or his allies, as it gives a Normal ATK bonus to the entire party while also unleashing waves of Hydro attacks in a wide area.

Ayato's burst also lasts a whopping 18 seconds, which is more than enough time to trigger a flurry of Hydro-related reactions like Vaporize, Electro-Charged, Frozen, Bloom, Hyperbloom, or Burgeon. But since this is tied into his burst, you will need to build up a lot of Energy Recharge if you're going for a support Ayato.

But more often than not, Ayato will fill in the Main or Sub-DPS role in your team compositions. He can work with a variety of artifacts sets, but his best is the 4-piece Echoes of An Offering, which gives him a ton of Normal Attack DMG buffs. If you're going for a support build, you can consider more generalist sets like the 4-piece Noblesse Oblige or 4-piece Emblem of Severing Fate.

Ayato focuses more on dealing quick, consistent instances of DMG as opposed to one big nuke number. So if you’re into spamming buttons and seeing tons of damage numbers stacked on top of the other, Ayato’s the pick for you!

Should you pull for Cyno and Ayato's signature weapons?

Cyno's signature weapon, the Staff of the Scarlet Sands, lets the General Mahamatra unleash his full power. At max level, it has a 541 base ATK and a 44% Crit Rate substat and has a passive that increases its wielder's ATK based on their Elemental Mastery.

The Staff of the Scarlet Sands is a good weapon for Cyno and other Polearm characters just because of the 44% Crit Rate it gives. The Elemental Mastery buffs from its passive also makes it great for characters that rely on elemental reactions to deal damage, such as Hu Tao and Xiangling.

Other polearm DPS characters like Xiao or the Raiden Shogun can still find it a worthy 5-star alternative just because of its massive Crit Rate substat and reliable ATK buffs.

Ayato's signature, the Haran Geppaku Futsu, also ascends with Crit Rate which already makes it a desirable weapon for any sword DPS characters. The passive gives you an elemental DMG increase and can give you a maximum of 20% Normal DMG bonus. If you didn’t pull for Ayato, then the likes of Kamisato Ayaka, Keqing, and Bennett can use this sword.

But the question is, are Cyno and Ayato's signature weapons really must-haves?

While Cyno is considered one of the more high-investment DPS characters in the game, this doesn't mean he can't shine in low-investment or even free-to-play accounts.

If you don't want to pull for his signature weapon, then Cyno's 5-star alternatives include the Primordial Jade Winged-Spear and the Staff of Homa. His best 4-star weapon will be the Deathmatch from the Battle Pass while the event-exclusive Missive Windspear, craftable Kitain Cross Spear, and even the 3-star White Tassel are very good free-to-play weapons.

In Ayato's case, his 5-star alternatives include the Mistsplitter Reforged and the Primordial Jade Cutter. His best 4-star weapons are the Black Sword from the Battle Pass or Lion's Roar from gacha while Amenoma Kageuchi will be his go-to free-to-play option.

Cyno and Ayato are the featured 5-star characters in the second half of Genshin Impact version 4.2. After version 4.2 comes version 4.3, which features the debuts of Navia and Chevreuse.

Yan Ku is a full-time dog parent, part-time (gacha) gamer, and part-time writer.

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