Citlali
Obsidian Opalstar

“Suffer the wrath of Itztli!”

Character Description:

Citlali is a 5-Star Cryo Catalyst-user who specializes in supporting her team with Off-Field Cryo application and Shields. As a member of the Masters of the Night-Wind tribe, Citlali shares Ororon’s special sight abilities and high jump, although she can glide somewhat longer than he can. She is also one of the two best supports for Mavuika at the moment.

Character Materials:

Talent Books: Kindling (9/63/114)(Tue/Fri/Sun)
Local Specialty: Quenepa Berry (168)
Monster Drops: Saurian Fangs (36/96/129)
Regular Boss Drop: Talisman of the Enigmatic Land (46)(Wayward Hermetic Spiritspeaker)
Weekly Boss Drop: Denial and Judgment (18)(Arlecchino Boss)

Character Abilities:

Normal Attack: Shadow-Stealing Spirit Vessel

3 strike Normal Attack and generic Plunging Attack. As for her Charged Attack, as the medium for her Spiritspeaker state (special sight ability to see Nightspirit Graffiti and Sigils), when holding the Charged Attack button instead of releasing a normal Charged Attack, Citlali instead enters an Aimed Mode.

You can still release the button to fire off a Charged Attack, but you effectively have more control of what direction it fires. Also, a note on character animation, Citlali’s Plunging Attack doesn’t turn her into a ball of energy like other catalyst-users. Instead, she pulls out a body pillow and rides it down. Doesn’t really affect the damage, but it’s kinda cute.

Elemental Skill: Dawnfrost Darkstar

After using this Skill, Citlali creates a shield, summons a plushy, gains 24 Nightsoul Points, and enters the Nightsoul’s Blessing state. This skill has a CD of 16 seconds.

• Opal Shield: The shield absorbs damage based on Citlali’s Elemental Mastery and absorbs Cryo DMG with 250% efficiency. When it is deployed, Citlali will briefly be affected by Cryo. Shield duration is 20 seconds.
• Itzpapa: The plushy is a little Saurian-looking thing that will follow the active character around. Upon being summoned, it will deal some damage (honestly, it’s not a lot) and generate 5 Cryo Particles. The real power of Itzpapa is that, once Citlali reaches 50 Nightsoul Points, it will enter the Opal Fire state and summon a Frostfall Storm, which drains Nightsoul Points while continuously dealing Cryo DMG. The Nightsoul Point drain is 8 points per second. When Citlali reaches 0 Nightsoul Points, the Opal Fire state and Frostfall Storm will end. Itzpapa has a duration of 20 seconds. Once Itzpapa’s duration ends, Citlali will exit the Nightsoul’s Blessing state. The range of the Frostfall Storm is 6m (Bennett’s Burst). The initial damage from summoning Itzpapa will apply Cryo and the Cryo application of the Frostfall Storm is every 2 seconds (though it does damage every 1 second).

Elemental Burst: Edict of Entwined Splendor

Citlali throws 2 plushies forward (Itzpapa and her body pillow Citlalin) dealing an amount of Cryo DMG (the base multiplier is high but because of how you build Citlali it won’t necessarily do much damage unless you trigger a Reverse Melt), restoring a set amount of Nightsoul Points (24), and summoning up to 3 Spiritvessel Skulls near 3 enemies (1 Skull per enemy so if you are fighting one person it will only be 1 Skull).

The Skulls will explode after some time, dealing Cryo DMG and restoring a set amount of Nightsoul Points to Citlali (3/Skull). This Burst costs 60 Energy, has a CD of 15 seconds, and a radius of 6.5m (Eula’s Burst).

Ascension Passive 1: Mamaloaco’s Frigid Rain

While Itzpapa is on the field, after a nearby party member triggers either Frozen or Melt, the Pyro and Hydro RES of the opponents affected by the reaction will decrease by 20% for 12 seconds. Note: BOTH Pyro and Hydro RES will be decreased irregardless of what reaction occurred. So, if you Freeze someone, their Hydro AND Pyro RES will go down.

Additionally, Citlali will regain 16 Nightsoul Points (8 second CD).

Ascension Passive 2: Itzpapalotl’s Star Garments

Itzpapa’s Frostfall Storm deals increased damage based on 90% of Citlali’s Elemental Mastery and the initial damage from Citlali’s Burst deals increased damage based on 1200% of Citlali’s Elemental Mastery.

Additionally, when nearby party members trigger Nightsoul Bursts, Citlalil regains 4 Nightsoul Points. The CDs for Nightsoul Bursts, 18/12/9 seconds for 1/2/3 Natlan characters respectively.

Night Realm’s Gift: Smoke, Mirrors, and the Flowing Winds

Nightsoul Transmission talent. Also allows Citlali to interact with Nightspirit Graffiti and Nightspirit Sigils. Citlali can also high jump and float on her body pillow. She can also, like Ororon, enter Aimed Mode while floating in the air.

Utility Passive: Songs of Profound Mystery

While in areas with Phlogiston mechanics (Natlan, just say Natlan), anyone triggering a Nightsoul Burst restores 20 Phlogiston to the party. This cannot take effect in Domains, Trounce Domains, or the Spiral Abyss.

Constellations:

1: Radiant Blades of Centzon Mimixcoah

When Citlali uses her Elemental Skill, she gains the “Opalstar Vestmetns” effect until Itzpapa leaves the field. During this time, Citlali will summon 10 Stellar Blades. When a nearby active character other than Citlali deals DMG using Normal Attacks, Charged Attacks, Plunging Attacks, Elemental Skills, or Elemental Bursts, 1 Stellar Blade is consumed to increase the DMG dealt by 200% of Citlali’s Elemental Mastery.

Triggering either Melt or Frozen reactions restores 3 Stellar Blades (8 second CD). Using Citlali’s Elemental Skill will reset the Stellar Blade stacks. – Damn, that’s gonna make characters hit like an f’ing truck.

Additionally, when Citlali uses her high jump or is Aiming/using her Charged Attack in mid-air, her Phlogiston consumption is decreased by 45%. – So, this kinda thing is just baked into every Natlan character now?

2: Heart Devourer’s Travail

Citlali gains 125 Elemental Mastery and allies who are either protected by her Opal Shield or who have Itzpapa following them gain 250 Elemental Mastery. Additionally, when Citlali’s Elemental Skill is used, nearby active characters will also be granted an Opal Sield – This last part is for Co-Op.

Finally, when Itzpapa is on the field, when nearby party members trigger Frozen or Melt, the enemies affected with have their Pyro and Hydro RES decrease by an additional 20% for 12 seconds. – For those keeping score at home, that’s 40% in total.

3: Cloud Serpent’s Feathered Crown

Elemental Skill level increased by 3.

4: Death Defier’s Spirit Skull

While Citlali’s Elemental Skill is active, When Frostfall Storm hits an enemy, an Obsidian Spiritvessel Skill is summoned. When this “special” Skull explodes, it deals 1800% of Citlali’s Elemental Mastery as AoE Nightsoul-aligned Cryo DMG, while restoring 16 Nightsoul Points and 8 Energy to Citlali.

This “special” Skull can only be summoned once every 8 seconds and the damage is not considered Elemental Burst DMG. – This is very nice. Wish it was part of the base kit but then, how would Mihoyo make money?

5: Nemontemi’s Hex

Elemental Burst level increased by 3.

6: Teoiztac’s Secret Pact

Oh boy, here’s the big one. After being summoned, Itzpapa will always be in the Opal Fire state and, even if all of Citlali’s Nightsoul Points are exhausted, the state will never end. Meaning that Frostfall Storm will always be active. – There goes the challenge of managing her points.

Additionally, when Citlali’s Elemental Skill is used, Itzpapa will consume all Nightsoul Points, and while it is on the field, it will continuously consume Nightsoul Points. So, that’s all the Points Citlali had at the time of activation and all the points she will regain until she either recasts the Skill or lets the duration run out.

Each Nightsoul Point consumed in this way will grant Citlali 1 point of “Cifra of the Secret Law”. A maximum of 40 such points can be gained. Each point of “Cifra of the Secret Law” that Citlali possesses will grant all nearby party members a 1.5% Pyro and Hydro DMG Bonus, as well as increasing the DMG Citlali deals by 2.5% (that’s a max of 60% Bonus DMG for Pyro and Hydro, and 100% DMG increase for Citlali).

When Itzpapa leaves the field or upon using Citlali’s Elemental Skill again, all “Cifra of the Secret Law” points she has will be removed. – Jeez . . . another fundamental gameplay altering C6. What a shocker.

Gameplay Overview:

Citlali kit is a bit of a word salad, and her various abilities are scattered rather unhelpfully around. In essence, her gameplay revolved around gaining and losing Nightsoul Points. The idea is to get to 50 Points as quickly as possible.

Her Skill gives her 24, her Burst gives her 24, the Skulls from her Burst give her 3 each (up to 9), triggering a Nightsoul Burst gives her 4, and triggering Frozen or Melt gives her 16 on an 8 second CD. Just throw out your Burst and Skill and then switch out to your DPS (preferably a Pyro or Hydro one).

The exact math is dependent on how well you play but assuming you can manage things properly, you are looking at an uptime of about 13 seconds on the Frostfall Storm. That’s 13 procs of damage and 6 applications of Cryo.

Artifacts:

Best: Scroll of the Hero of Cinder City

The go-to artifact for Natlan characters. Provides Energy Recharge, which she needs, and 40% Bonus DMG to characters who she Elemental Reacts with. Since she already wants someone to trigger Melt or Frozen, it works out well.

Decent: Noblesse Oblige

Noblesse can provide some good support for most team comps. The only ones it won’t really affect are Hydro teams with an HP scaling Main DPS (see: Neuvilette). Still, it’s an option if you don’t have anything better.

Niche: Instructor

I normally wouldn’t recommend a 4-Star artifact but, in this case, it’s not only viable but actually fairly good. In situations where you end up with 2 Natlan supports and you are at risk of doubling up on the Cinder City set, you can use this for Citlali.

Not only does it give her a good chuck of Elemental Mastery, but it also gives her teammates a decent amount, with 100% uptime. The only 2 downsides are that A. she won’t get the Energy Recharge from Cinder City and B. her stats won’t be quite as high as they could be if she was using a 5-Star set. Still, it’s a completely acceptable set and a better option than Noblesse. I’m just too much of a snob to list it above a 5-Star set.

Stats:

1. Elemental Mastery: This is her best stat. It powers her shield, increases her damage, and, at C1, can be used to buff her allies. You should have Elemental Mastery as the main stat on your clock, cup, and hat.
2. Energy Recharge: Unless you intend to spend money and get Citlali to C4, you need this stat. Honestly, you probably will still need this stat even with C4. Having her Burst up as often as possible is pivotal.
3. ATK: Honestly, there isn’t much else she needs besides EM and ER. Getting some ATK will ultimately increase her damage, even if by just a little. That said, since she’s a Shielder and an Off-Field support, getting HP or DEF is even more pointless so just go for ATK.

Weapons:

5-Star:           

Best: Starcaller’s Watch

Her personal weapon is her best. Period, end of statement.

Decent: A Thousand Floating Dreams

In terms of 5-Star weapons, there actually aren’t a lot of options for Citlali. A Thousand Floating Dreams is honestly the other one that works for her. The damage and shield power of this weapon are slightly lower than Starcaller but not by much so, if you have one then it won’t hurt to use it.

4-Star:

Best: Sacrificial Fragments

Of all the 4-Star weapons, this provides the strongest shield. Furthermore, as a Sacrificial weapon, it can reset the CD of Citlali’s Elemental Skill, allow her to use it more often, and potentially keep up the Frostfall Storm longer (the Skill description doesn’t mention anything about how using the Skill again ends Frostfall Storm).

Good: Fruit of Fulfillment

Provides Energy Recharge and gives her Elemental Mastery at the cost of ATK after an Elemental Reaction, so that stats are good. As for the shield, it’s 2^nd best out of all the 4-Star weapons. And it’s a craftable weapon so it’s highly accessible.

Decent: Mappa Mare

Another craftable weapon. This once provides one of the lower shield values of the 4-Star weapons but also provides the best damage of the lot. The shield it provides is still pretty strong so if you want to try to squeeze a little more damage out of Citlali, this would be your best option.

Viable: Wandering Evenstar

This one gives you bonus ATK based on your Elemental Mastery. The shield is good (better than Mappa Mare) and the ATK increase will depend greatly on how much Elemental Mastery you have. It’s sort of a middle ground between the first 2 options and Mappa Mare. The only issue is that it is a Banner weapon, so you’d have to be lucky enough to have it.

Teams:

Melt

Since the wording of the Cinder City set indicates that Citlali needs to be the one to trigger the Elemental Reaction, you will need to do at least one Reverse Melt for her to buff someone.

After that, your Pyro DPS can Forward Melt all they want until it’s time to reapply the buffs. Mavuika is an obvious choice for characters to pair with Citlali, but Arlecchino and Diluc are both also good candidates. As for the other 2 slots, you have a wild variety of supports to choose from so go with whoever makes sense.

Freeze

Citlali, Furina, Nuevilette, Shenhe. Probably the best freeze team you can come up with. Other options include Kokomi, Mona, and Ayato. Honestly, the success of this team will be all about making sure that your Main DPS has enough power to kill everything without extra damage from Elemental Reactions so anyone will work so long as they have enough juice.

Anemo Carry

A potential team idea is having both Citlali and Mavuika as Off-Field Support/Sub DPS and using either Chasca or Wanderer as the On-Field DPS. With Chasca, you could go Furina, Chasca, Mavuika, and Citlali for a massive amount of Reactions.

For Wanderer, it would be Citlali, Wanderer, Mavuika, and Faruzan. Both Anemo carries can help facilitate more Reactions, while the Off-Field characters provide continuous amounts of elemental application.

Final Thoughts:

In terms of gameplay, Citlali is a perfectly fine, slightly technical character. The only issue I have with her kit is that she scales based on Elemental Mastery. Now, to clarify, her scaling off ATK or HP or DEF wouldn’t really have made her any better.

The issue I have with EM on her is that, as a Cryo unit, it’s not exactly a stat that she can benefit from as much as other elements. Only Geo characters need EM less than Cryo characters.

Of the 6 Elemental Reactions that Cryo is a part of, they only need EM for 1. Swirl and Crystallize are based on the Anemo and Geo characters EM, Freeze does no damage, so it doesn’t need EM, Superconduct, even after the buffs, doesn’t do enough damage for it to make so it doesn’t really need EM either, and Forward Melt is based on the Pyro character’s EM.

Only Reverse Melt takes the Cryo character’s Elemental Mastery into account. Now, don’t get me wrong, Citlali’s damage from a Reverse Melt is nothing to sneeze at. That said, as a support, she’s primarily supposed to help facilitate the damage of other characters so, at C0, outside of her Shield, Citlali having large amounts of EM won’t provide any benefits to the team.

Especially if she’s part of a Freeze team. Overall, she’s an excellent support who can provide a great shield and exceptional Cryo application. If you get her, you’ll probably find a use for her. I just wish that her main stat was more useful for her.