Xiao C6 Guide

Xiao’s C6 Constellation “Conqueror of Evil: Guardian Yaksha” is one of the most unique Constellations in the game. Not only does it completely change Xiao’s primary playstyle from plunge spam to dash spam, but it also dramatically increases his DPS output, almost doubling it in perfect scenarios.

However, Xiao’s C6 is also one of the most mechanically intensive Constellations and gameplay styles to master. As such, this guide aims to provide gameplay techniques and tips to help any Xiao C6 owner master their own Guardian Yaksha.

Basic Information

C6: Conqueror of Evil: Guardian Yaksha

While under the effects of Bane of All Evil, hitting at least 2 opponents with Xiao's Plunging Attack will immediately grant him 1 charge of Lemniscatic Wind Cycling, and for the next 1s, he may use Lemniscatic Wind Cycling while ignoring its CD.

In practice, what this translates to is that after plunging, Xiao can use three dashes without using a charge, or four dashes while expending the extra charge gained.

When gaining a charge back, the current cooldown on his Skill (if not at 3 charges) will reset. Thus, even if you were 0.1 seconds away from gaining back a charge of Lemniscatic Wind Cycling (LWC) passively, activating his C6 will reset the cooldown back to 10s. Please keep this in mind so that you avoid inadvertently wasting his Skill charges near the end of his Burst.

Builds

Xiao's C6 doesn't impact his weapons nor artifact choices. The only exception is that your goblet should always be Anemo DMG.

Teams

For the most part Xiao's team options are the same as his pre-C6 counterpart. The only major exceptions are certain characters that require utilizing Normals for their abilities to proc, such as Yelan and XQ, will be less relevant in AoE scenarios where you are primarily spamming Skills.

4pc Golden Troupe (NOT Recommended)

Conditional set that provides Skill DMG.

Overall, we do not recommend farming 4pc GT for C6 Xiao. While the set provides a valuable 45% Skill DMG bonus, the set does not buff Xiao’s Plunge Attacks and proves essentially useless for solo opponent scenarios where C6 is not active. Thus, its conditionality renders it impractical.

Game Settings

C6 Xiao is very intensive in terms of camera movement due to how much Xiao moves around, for these reasons we suggest adjusting these in-game settings.

Graphics > Motion Blur (Off)
Controls > Camera Y-Axis Resets Automatically (Off)

Basic Gameplay

Combo

Within the 1s of ignoring LWC’s CD, Xiao is able to spam 3 dashes. Thus, if there are at least two opponents, Xiao’s optimal combo is a Plunge followed by 3 or 4 LWC dashes.

At the beginning of his Burst, you can opt to use up to 4 dashes per plunge and expend his gained charge. However, near the end of his Burst, it’s advised to save the extra charge gained so that Xiao can end his Burst with all three of his Skill charges to allow for easier batterying.

Auto Targeting

When fighting enemies, Xiao’s Skill relies on auto targeting to hit them. Unfortunately, Genshin’s auto targeting system still leaves a lot to be desired.

For example, when the game thinks there isn't an enemy “close enough” or there aren’t any enemies nearby, using Xiao’s Skill will just aim towards what the game considers “forward.” This can often result in non-optimal or completely missed dashes. The majority of such mistakes stem from relying on the game alone to choose Xiao’s dashing direction.

HP>EEE relying solely on auto-targeting. Relying purely on the game for auto targeting makes Xiao prone to mistakes such as these.

In comparison, when guiding Xiao’s dashes properly, you can go from dashing away from your enemies at a massive DPS loss to rarely missing your targets while staying in the best position to continue zooming.

To do so, C6 Xiao players must learn how to manipulate what the game considers “forward” with either their camera positioning or directional inputs.

Camera Angles

The biggest reason for the dashing away from the enemies is LWC not prioritizing any enemies to go towards, causing the skill to automatically go towards where the camera is because that’s what the game considers as Xiao going “forward.”

To manipulate Xiao’s dash aim with camera angles, a few things need to happen:

Turn off “Camera Y-Axis Resets Automatically” so you have entire control over the camera view, even if you’re mostly moving horizontally.
Second, after dashing, adjust the camera in the opposite direction while holding the forward directional input then use LWC simultaneously. By doing this, when auto targeting fails, the game will prioritize your forward input more than the Skill input; if done properly, this will keep you aimed at the enemy’s position.

HP>EEE using camera angles to help facilitate auto targeting. Notice how all three dashes now hit.

Advanced Gameplay

Enemy Interaction

Larger Enemies

On enemies such as Ruin Guards and Ruin Graders, Xiao’s dashes cannot go through them, causing him to be stuck at their feet in place. Not only does this prevent Xiao from being able to hit more than one enemy, but it also makes Xiao vulnerable to being hit, which can disrupt Xiao or cause unnecessary damage to your shield.

To rectify being stuck, jumping immediately after hitting two enemies and dashing can allow Xiao’s dashes to pass through and deal damage to more than one large enemy at a time.

However, since these dashes will be performed in mid-air against more finicky hitboxes, these dashes must be done using the forced camera trick.

Furthermore, if there is only one enemy whose hitbox intersects with the height you jumped to, only that one enemy will receive damage, so it’s up to the player to prioritize which enemy to hit.

Do note that jumping does not decrease the number of dashes that can be used if done properly. Ruin Graders, however, have a very tight timing if you want to get all 3 dashes in the 1s without CD, occasionally only allowing for 2 dashes.

Target Priority

Lemniscatic Wind Cycling has inherent priorities as to which enemy Xiao will dash towards. Not knowing these priorities can hurt your DPS if you unexpectedly target an enemy you didn’t mean to, but understanding these priorities well can enable you to take full advantage of them for strategizing your clears.

Multiple Enemies: Different HP

Xiao will prioritize the enemy closest to where his plunge landed. This means that in a group setting, the very first enemy you should target is the one with the largest amount of health. By doing this, you can avoid killing the low health enemies too quickly, leaving them alive to ensure consistent procs of the C6 effect.

However, you are still whittling their HP down with Xiao’s plunges and collateral dash damage, so Xiao’s strengths in AOE fights is still maintained.

Multiple Enemies: Same HP

In the event where there are 2 or more enemies that have similarly high HP, then you have two options:

Keep them grouped up as much as possible so that they can receive damage equally from LWC.
Dynamically switch between the targets. In other words, for your first plunge-dash combo, you can prioritize hitting Target 1, and on your next plunge-dash combo, you can prioritize hitting Target 2 instead. This is done to minimize health disparities so that you aren’t accidentally left with only one enemy.

Ultimately, the only goal is to get as much DPS as possible, and the more targets hit the better, while maintaining a minimum of 2 enemies.

Dash Technique

Lemniscatic Wind Cycling’s mobility can be taken advantage of so there is little downtime on dealing damage to the correct target and to continuous targets as well. You can vary the number of dashes you do to make sure the enemy that is in front of you is dealt more damage.

For example when there are only 2 enemies, dashing 1 or 3 times ensures you’re going to dash into the secondary enemy primarily on your next plunge, and dashing 2 or 4 ensures that you go back to your original position, attacking the first target once more.

This technique also applies in situations where you defeat all enemies before your dashes are on CD again; you can use those dashes to get closer to the nearest enemy/next wave.

"Free" Energy Trick

Xiao cannot generate energy from his Elemental Skill during his Burst. Or can he?

Due to him being able to use LWC at no CD for 1 second, there is a small, but achievable, time window where ignoring CD extends outside of the burst timer, allowing you to gain energy for all of Xiao’s dashes during that period.

Thus, instead of ending with just 3 Skill uses generating energy, Xiao can actually end with up to 6 Skill uses generating energy, creating a whopping total of 54 energy (at 100 ER) for funding Xiao’s next Burst.

C6 Xiao Energy trick done perfectly.

This technique can be quite difficult to execute as it requires exact timing. One way to perform it consistently is to figure out when exactly you have to plunge. For most players, plunging when Xiao's Burst Cooldown indicator displays 3.5~2.5 seconds should permit a successful execution of the trick.

Afterword

“The limit to one’s power is self-destruction. Answer me. Why do you persist?”

— Xiao, Feelings About Ascension: Climax

We hope that the information provided in this guide has improved your experience with C6 Xiao. It is by no means an easy Constellation to utilize; knowledge and practice is required to perform it properly.

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