Best Citlali build in Genshin Impact: artifacts, weapons, and teams

Nina Forneloza Published 04/01/2025

Citlali enters the Genshin Impact roster as one of the most adorable shielders in the game, leaving many players wondering what the best build for her is.

In version 5.3, cryo finally gets some well-deserved love with the introduction of Citlali, a five-star cryo nightsoul-aligned support character and the third catalyst user of the element. Hailing from Natlan, she is a shaman and high priestess of the Mictlan tribe who made her first appearance in-game during the 5.1 Archon Quest.

As a support with both offensive and defensive abilities, Citlali brings a lot to the table, especially with the right build. Here’s a breakdown of her kit, along with the best Citlali build including artifacts, weapons, and team recommendations.

How to play Citlali in Genshin Impact

Citlali is a five-star Nightsoul-aligned Cryo shielder and debuffer, which means she’s perfect for playing with melt and freeze-based teams in Genshin Impact, especially those featuring Mavuika. As for the new Natlan support, optimizing her kit comes down to how players manage her Nightsoul Points.

Casting her elemental burst, followed by a shield from her elemental skill is essentially the bread-and-butter of her kit. Doing so allows Citlali to deliver huge burst damage, shield, and off-field AoE cryo application through Ice Storm.

citlali best artifacts and weapons genshin

The Shaman’s off-field cryo application comes from her elemental skill, Ice Storm, which only triggers if she has over 50 Nightsoul points. But since her Elemental Skill only provides 24, she’ll need help from other sources.

Citlali’s elemental burst adds 24 more Nightsoul points upon cast, plus 3-9 additional points depending on how many enemies it hits. This means she can easily rack up at least 51 points, and that’s enough to trigger Ice Storm. Once it’s activated, Ice Storm will begin consuming Nightsoul points until they’re all used up. Since it uses eight points per second, Ice Storm can apply Cryo for six seconds. This duration can be extended thanks to her ascension passives, which grant her more points every time Nightsoul bursts or when Melt and Freeze are triggered.

Citlali adds even more value by lowering hydro and pyro resistance of affected enemies, similar to the effect Chevreuse has with Overload teams.

Besides Citlali’s utilities, the best part about her kit is that her shield, skill, and burst damage all scale with Elemental Mastery. By stacking Elemental Mastery, she can boost her personal damage by triggering Reverse Melt with another Pyro character. But while players can stack as much Elemental Mastery as possible on Citlali, meeting the required energy regeneration on her is crucial. If her Burst isn’t reliably cast off cooldown, players can miss out on a lot of damage.

Best artifact sets for Citlali build

4-piece Scroll of the Hero of Cinder City and 4-piece Tenacity of the Millelith are the best artifact sets for a Citlali build in Genshin Impact. Since Citlali scales heavily with elemental mastery, running a triple EM set is the best move for her.

Here are the best main stats for each piece:

Flower: HP
Feather: ATK
Sands: Elemental Mastery or Energy Regen
Goblet: Elemental Mastery
Circlet: Elemental Mastery

Substats: Elemental Mastery > Energy Regen (minimum 170%)

4-piece Scroll of the Hero of Cinder City

The Scroll of the Hero of Cinder City is Citlali’s best-in-slot and feels like it was made just for her. Equipping this set gives her faster access to her Burst, and each time she triggers a reaction the team receives a 40% elemental damage boost. Since she’s a Nightsoul-aligned unit, these buffs can be activated pretty quickly.

4-piece Tenacity of Millelith

Tenacity of Millelith is often a good pick for any shielder who wants to buff their teammates, which makes it perfect for Citlali. Hitting enemies with her Elemental Skill allows Citlali to buff the team’s ATK, and the shield she provides becomes harder to destroy. These effects do not disappear when she’s not on the field. It’s worth noting that this set is only viable if she’s supporting an ATK-scaling unit like Arlecchino.

Genshin Impact Citlali build – best weapons to use

Citlali’s best weapons to use are Starscaller’s Witch, A Thousand Floating Dreams, Wandering Evenstar and Thrilling Tales of the Dragon Slayer.

best citlali build

Starscaller’s Witch (5-star)

Citlali has a signature weapon called Starscaller’s Watch, which automatically makes it her best-in-slot. It provides a generous amount of Elemental Mastery, and after casting her shield, the active party member gets increased damage against nearby enemies.

A Thousand Floating Dream (5-star)

For the best Citlali build, A Thousand Floating Dream is another strong five-star catalyst. It gives the same Elemental Mastery as Starscaller’s Watch, and based on the team composition, Citlali will either gain Elemental Mastery or an Elemental Damage bonus. Either way, it’s a great fit for her. Additionally, the rest of the team gets a slight elemental mastery boost, perfect for elemental reaction-based teams.

Wandering Evenstar (4-star)

Wandering Evenstar is an excellent four-star catalyst for Citlali, further boosting her Elemental Mastery. It also provides an ATK bonus to Citlali and her team depending on how much Elemental Mastery she has stacked. Among all four-star weapons in the game, Wandering Evenstar is the best one to equip for the character, especially if it’s R5.

Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayer (3-star)

Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayer is the go-to weapon for catalyst supports, especially for free-to-play players. When equipped, it gives the next character you swap into a huge ATK boost for 10 seconds. Being a three-star catalyst, it’s easy to get and refining it to max doesn’t cost too much. The only downside is that it doesn’t provide any Elemental Mastery stats.

Best Citlali teams in Genshin Impact

Citlali is a Cryo support and debuffer that shines best on Melt and Freeze teams for best results in Genshin Impact. These are some of the best teams for her benefit.

best citlali mavuika team

Mavuika Melt Hypercarry – Mavuika, Citlali, Bennett and Xilonen

Citlali happens to be one of the Pyro Archon’s prime supports. As Mavuika takes the field, landing Pyro attacks one after another, Citlali, Bennett, and Xilonen can provide buffs and sustain. With her Elemental Skill and Cryo resistance shred, Mavuika can double her damage through the Melt reaction. Double down by adding Xilonen for more damage boosts and debuffs. By having two of these Natlan supports, Mavuika gets two batteries for her Elemental Burst. Lastly, slot in Bennett, who functions as an ATK buffer and another key piece to activate the Pyro resonance.

Neuvillette Freeze – Neuvillette, Citlali, Furina and Kazuha

Citlali essentially takes Zhongli’s place in one of Neuvillette’s premium teams and incorporates freeze reaction into it. By freezing enemies, Citlali’s passive can shred the hydro resistance of her enemies, further increasing Neuvillette’s damage output. If that’s not enough, Kazuha’s grouping ability gathers enemies in one place, allowing Neuvillette to take them down with ease. Furina contributes damage through her elemental skill, as well as damage buffs through Fanfare.

While this is a viable team, players must ensure that Citlali has at least 180% energy regeneration to make it work best. As a solo Cryo unit with no other Nightsoul-aligned unit, she must rely on ER to consistently unleash her Burst.

F2P Melt Team – Gaming, Citlali, Sucrose and Bennett

The Pyro element has no shortage of great 4-star DPS, and one of them is Gaming, a plunge Pyro DPS who thrives in either Vaporize or Melt reactions to boost his damage output. That’s exactly what Citlali can provide for him.

On top of that, her shield prevents Gaming’s plunge attacks from losing DPS due to interruptions. Add to this Sucrose, the Anemo 4-star unit who can group up enemies and debuff them, and Bennett, who becomes the main healer and ATK buffer of the team.

Nina Forneloza

About Nina Forneloza

Nina Forneloza is a huge fan of gaming, but her favorite genres of games above all other are gacha games, first-person shooting games, and role-playing games. When she isn’t looking for a lucky pull in the latest gacha, you’re likely to find her in a competitive Valorant lobby or playing the latest big single-player RPG. Either way, you can be assured that she’ll be into it and ready to write about the experience.

View full profile