Genshin Impact 3.2 Tartaglia Build Guide: Talents, Gears, And Team Comps

Tartaglia a.k.a Childe is a Hydro Bow character in Genshin Impact. He is the first Hydro DPS character released in the game, with a special kit that allows the character to fight in melee range with water weapons. With the release of the Dendro element, Tartaglia has gained a few more team comp and become even more versatile.

In this article, Gurugamer.com is going to showcase a complete Genshin Impact Tartaglia build guide.

1. Tartaglia Genshin Impact Overview

Pros:

Childe is a unique DPS who is arguably the most flexible DPS in the game. The ability to attack from range as well as melee means that he can attack weak points and do damage from a distance, but isn’t afraid to get up close and personal. Childe also fits easily into big-number flex comps as well as ‘death by a thousand cuts’ comps.
Childe has a very fast Attack Speed and scales exponentially with characters who ‘attack with’ your main unit (such as C6 Fischl’s elemental skill or Xingqiu’s elemental burst). This offers him decent future-proofing, as he will synergize well with whatever off-field support Miyoho releases.
Most of Childe’s best teammates are four stars, making him cheap to utilize for primogem-savers.
Big numbers go brrr. Hundreds of smaller numbers also go brrrrrrr. Get you a Fatui Harbinger who can do both.
Childe’s hydro application is unparalleled, making him a fantastic enabler for several different kinds of team comps. Childe's hydro application via his skill damage and Riptide have overlapping ICDs, meaning that he can trigger hydro on an opponent far faster than any other character in the game. This makes him the heart of hydro-based reaction comps where he outdamages characters like Xingqiu, Kokomi, and Mona in AoE, while also giving his off-field support (such as Xiangling, Beidou, or Thoma) more hydro application to react with - all of which equals more damage, faster.

Cons:

Childe compositions are expensive to build for resin-savers. He heavily enables the DPS of his supporters, but that also means that you can’t skimp out on them - Childe has a very demanding team composition requirement.
Childe’s melee stance cooldown is long compared to characters like Hu Tao and it gets longer the more you are in it, which can feel punishing. He relies on rotating through his supports during his downtime, but if you lose track of time or need to stay in his melee stance for longer than normal, you can find yourself frustrated by the cooldown.
Childe single hit values are generally lower than other main DPS characters, though his attack speed is faster and he deals additional damage via Riptide to compensate. If you like seeing consistent big numbers, a main DPS Childe may disappoint you.
Childe has no plunge attack in melee stance
Childe is expensive to build as the main carry due to his Hydro Damage% ascension stat. This does not mean that Hydro Damage% is bad - his ascension stat results in higher damage potential than a Crit% ascension stat - but it does make his crit ratios difficult to build. Since crit stats are hard to find on bows, his artifact needs are demanding unless you’re lucky enough to have a five-star bow or you purchase the battle pass for Viridescent Hunt.

2. Tartaglia Constellations and Talent Priority

Constellations

Similar to other 5 star characters, Childe's constellations are extremely powerful. However, with the low pull rate, it is highly unlikely that players would ever get more than C1 or C2. Childe's best constellation is C1, which decreases his Elemental Skill cooldown by 20%.

2264480 9c239f2f1f7f41dd5d167274a860731e — Childe Constellations 1 is needed in Genshin Impact Childe Build

This can be very helpful if you've used his Elemental Skill for a long time.

Talent Priority

What is Childe’s talent leveling priority?

For main DPS/Enabler: E > Q > AA
For burst dps: Q > AA > E

While Childe doesn’t use the damage scaling of his AA in melee form, it’s still useful to invest in it until talent level 6 or so, since it still buffs his Riptide Burst damage.

When using Childe in a burst only composition, his Auto Attack scaling has more of an impact on potential damage than elemental skill scaling. If you plan on keeping him on the field for longer than it takes to push Q, you might prefer to go Q > E > AA.

3. How to use Tartaglia effectively?

Makes use of the Riptide debuff

The key to maximizing Childe's damage is to apply and trigger his unique debuff, Riptide. Childe's Charged Shots (Bow Stance), Elemental Burst (Bow Stance), and Critical Hits from Normal and Charged Attacks (Melee Stance) will mark opponents with the debuff.

Afterward, players can trigger various special effects by interacting with marked opponents:

1. Riptide Flash: Charged Shots on an opponent marked with Riptide will trigger three minor Hydro explosions.
2. Riptide Blast: Marked opponents when hit by Tartaglia's Elemental Burst while on Melee Stance triggers an AoE Hydro explosion, but clears the Riptide mark.
3. Riptide Burst: Defeating opponents marked with Riptide will unleash an AoE Hydro explosion, which spreads Riptide marks to nearby enemies.
4. Riptide Slash: AoE Hydro explosion by hitting an opponent marked with Riptide while on Melee Stance.

Group Enemies up to trigger Riptide Slashes

Riptide Slashes damage stacks. By grouping multiple enemies together, players can mark them with Riptide and trigger it immediately. The independent slashes stack on top of each other, dealing massive AoE damage. If one of them happens to die, a Riptide Burst would be triggered as well.

Players can use Anemo characters with CC like Venti or Kazuha to make this happen.

Control Childe's elemental skill cooldown

The longer Childe remains in melee stance the longer its cooldown becomes. Therefore, it is important that players swap their stances frequently to keep the cooldown manageable. The advised duration to stay in melee stance is around 10-15 seconds (so that his cooldown would not go beyond 20+ seconds).

This also synergizes well with the Heart of Depth artifact buff duration and effects of bows like Thundering Pulse.

4. What weapon should I use on Tartaglia?

Polar Star/Thundering Pulse > Skyward Harp > Amos Bow > Viridescent Hunt > Rust > Prototype Crescent/Windblume Ode/Alley Hunter > Hamayumi

Polar Star

Firstly, we have Childe's signature weapon! This is generally going to be Childe's Best In Slot weapon, though it does come with a few caveats. First, the mainstat: Polar Star has 10% higher Crit Rate than Skyward Harp at max level, but with 66 less base Attack. From these values alone, it's clear that Polar Star offers more benefit to a Childe with higher Crit Damage from substats, since you also lose Skyward Harp's Crit Damage sub for elemental skill damage (not a bad trade, considering you can't get elemental skill damage on substats!). If making the swap to Polar Star, you almost certainly will be wanting to use a Crit Damage helm.

The second caveat is that Polar Star is stack dependent and only significantly outperforms its direct competition - Thundering Pulse - at 3 stacks. At 2 or fewer, it is on par. Given that stacks are very easy to accumulate via using attacks and charged attacks, this shouldn't be too difficult, but even when looking at both bows in both of their ideal conditions, Polar Star ultimately only adds a ~6% damage increase.

Additionally, Polar Star directly increases Riptide damage via its substat of elemental skill damage, which drastically increases its potential in AoEs situations.

Thundering Pulse

Thundering Pulse is a fantastic weapon, but it only has a 3-5% damage increase over the Skyward Harp. Thundering Pulse's damage increases the longer you're using it, meaning that you'd only be getting the damage increase at the end of a 8-10 second Childe rotation. Skyward Harp can still outperform it if you're killing things quickly within your rotations.

Skyward Harp

Likely the best weapon you can pull off of the standard banner. It has extremely high base attack and offers crit rate and crit damage alongside having a 5 star statline, which greatly amplifies Childe’s damage output. It doesn't really do anything shiny or cool, but it's a statstick in three crucial stats: Attack, Crit Rate, and Crit Damage.

5. What artifacts should I use on Tartaglia?

Here are the best substats for Childe

Atk% timepiece
Hydro Damage goblet
Crit Rate or Crit Damage helm depending on your existing crit rate and damage, maintaining a 1:2 ratio with Crit Rate above 50%.

Heart of the Depths

This is a main DPS Childe’s best artifact set. The 4 piece set gives him unparalleled boosts to his damage when using him in a normal DPS rotation. However, there are times when you can consider using other sets or using 2 piece sets when your Childe usage is a bit more niche.

Shimenawa's Reminiscence

Shimenawa is the closest set to HoD in terms of pure performance, but it is slightly worse than HoD due to the energy drain mechanic. This means that Childe will need additional Energy Recharge stats in order to make up for the drain, which takes away from potential crit rolls. Still, if your Shimenawa rolls very well and your HoD rolls pretty poorly, you can run Shimenawa instead.

Thundersoother

A 4 piece Thundersoother is competitive with Heart of the Depths for Childe’s artifact damage when running him in an electro-charged composition without Bennett buffs on the team. In any other circumstance, Heart of the Depths wins out.

2 Heart of the Depths | 2 Gladiator or 2 Shimenawa

This is also competitive with 4 pc Heart of the Depths and can be used while you’re trying to farm better rolls for a 4 piece Heart of the Depths set. Due to Childe's ascension stat being Hydro, Atk% scales pretty well on him, which means that he doesn't suffer for equipping a mismatched set as much as another character might.

6. What are the best teams for Tartaglia?

Reverse Vape

Childe / Xiangling / Bennett / Anemo flex (Kazuha/Sucrose)

This team is currently the 'meta' Childe comp and one of the best speed clearing teams in the game. It relies heavily on Xiangling's elemental burst, and so Xiangling must be well-built, with 4 pc Crimson Witch or 4 piece Emblem of Severed Fate, as well as a good crit ratio, pyro goblet, and Attack.

This comp is also simple to play: use Bennett Q > use Anemo to swirl pyro > use Xiangling Q inside of Bennett Burst > swap to Childe and use E/Q as necessary until Xiangling burst is over, then swap back to Bennett to recharge energy for Xiangling's next Q.

The reason Kazuha is so good with this comp is because he can simultaneously swirl Hydro and Pyro, as well as boost Xiangling's snapshot damage vs all foes rather than just vs the foes he can swirl. Sucrose is fine as a replacement, but her ceiling in this particular comp is not as high.

Taser

Childe / Beidou / Bennett / Electro battery (Fischl / Raiden)

This is another of Childe's meta compositions and can clear floor 12 of Abyss, though clear times are slightly longer than the Reverse Vape comp. Be sure to use Bennett Q before Beidou burst.

This team plays slightly differently depending on which electro battery you use. If using Fischl, you can snapshot Oz by casting him from within Bennett's Q. If using Raiden, you want to use her E as the first thing you do, before swapping to Bennett and casting Q - then, use Beidou burst within Bennett Q, swap to Childe and use E/Q. After Beidou burst is over, swap to Raiden and use her Q to recharge energy for the team.

Overvape

Childe / Xiangling / Bennett / Raiden

This is a newer comp that has a lot of promise vs enemies who cannot be knocked back. By applying Pyro to an Electro-charged reaction, you can react with both elements, causing - well, a lot of damage. Similar to the Reverse Vaporize composition, Xiangling needs heavy investment, and 4 pc Crimson Witch is her best artifact set here. Similar to Taser, your rotation should be Raiden E > Bennett Q > Xiangling E > Xiangling Q > Childe E/Q > Raiden Q to earn back energy. With Overvape, you can completely neglect Xiangling's ER requirements, allowing you to build her for more EM and Crit.

A variation of this comp exists with Kazuha or Beidou instead of Bennett, but due to the lack of healing it's much more difficult to play.

Permafrost

Childe / Cryo Application (Kaeya/Rosaria) / Diona / Anemo CC (Kazuha / Venti / Sucrose)

While this team has a dramatically lower damage potential than most of Childe's other comps, it is the epitome of 'safe'. With grouping, then Cryo Application, then Childe's melee stance, you can force your foes to be grouped up and then freeze them in place for consistent Riptide procs. Fun, but not exactly meta.