The CEO of Geo has been one of the most important characters in the Genshin Impact meta since its release. His incredible shield and ability to shred resistances have made him useful in many of the best teams in the game.

Related: Genshin Impact Current and Upcoming Banners

In this guide, we're going to tell you everything you need to know to get the best out of this 5-star character, from builds and weapons to the best teams.

Best Builds & Artifact Sets

Zhongli's undisputed best role is as a Support, as he is the best shielder in the game. His Hold Elemental Skill that summons a Geo Stele and a Jade Shield provide many benefits to the party. To make Zhongli's shield as strong as possible, you should focus on increasing Zhongli's HP, as this directly increases his shield's HP. In fact, all of Zhongli's damage and abilities scale off HP, so it is almost always worth building your artifacts and weapons for it. The other benefit of the shield is resistance shred. This reduces enemy Physical and Elemental Resistance by 20% in a small area around the shielded character. There are very few effects in the game that grant such powerful resistance shred.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that it looks extremely cool and has the ability to petrify opponents in its area, Zhongli's Elemental Burst attack takes so long to perform that it will normally give lower damage over your other characters' attacks. In fact, though Zhongli's normal attacks are also quite fast, and he can do respectable DPS when built for it, he can bring much more benefit to the party by concentrating on his Support role and letting others do the damage. So when leveling Zhongli's Talents, you can concentrate on his Elemental Skill, and there is no need to raise the others, making him even easier and cheaper to build.

Tenacity Of The Millelith

This is a perfect Artifact set for Zhongli as both the 2-piece and 4-piece bonuses complement his kit very well. The 2-piece set Bonus increases Zhongli's HP by 20%, which is a huge boost. The 4-piece bonus makes any character's Elemental skill increase shield strength by 30% when it hits an opponent. This is the perfect complement to Zhongli's skill, allowing him to set up a shield and then switch out to your main DPS, which can continue to boost its strength while attacking with its own skill. When farming for this set, remember that Sands, Goblet, and Circlet can all roll with HP% as Main Stat, so you should actively look for these and enhance any you find.

Another viable approach for Zhongli is not to worry about set bonuses and use whatever artifacts give him the highest amount of HP possible.

Related: Genshin Impact: How To Build Artifacts

Best Weapons

Because of Zhongli's Support role, his weapon choices don't necessarily include the most powerful weapons in the game, as Zhongli does not need high ATK or Crit to do his job well. That means that one of his best weapons is actually a 3-star!

4-Star Weapon

Favonius Lance

This weapon provides considerable Energy Recharge to both Zhongli and also to the rest of the team through the particles it generates. If you have very strong shields already, this can help your team more than Black Tassel.

3-Star Weapon

Black Tassel

This spear has a very simple benefit to Zhongli, which is providing lots of HP. Even though it is a 3-Star weapon, it gives Zhongli everything he wants in his support role.

Best Teams

Zhongli works very well with any character that needs a shield to avoid interruption while they are on-field. That particularly benefits powerful DPS characters like Xiao or Ganyu. As a Geo character, Zhongli also synergizes very well with any teams bringing other Geo characters, and one of Zhongli's best teams leans into this heavily.

5-Star team

This pure Geo team has many synergies. Zhongli's shields keep Itto alive while he deals out damage, providing him with a Resistance shred and a damage buff from Geo resonance. Gorou buffs Itto's Defence, driving his damage even higher (as that is his ascension stat), and he also provides greater buffs with more Geo comrades. Albedo drops his Elemental Skill to provide off-field Geo damage, which resonates with both Itto and Zhongli's Geo constructs. This is a very powerful and fun team that uses many characters who are not in demand on other teams.

For a more F2P-friendly team, you can try the below with only 4-star characters as team-mates.

4-Star Team

Ningguang can be a fantastic ranged DPS with the damage boost from Bennett, Geo Resonance damage increase, and RES shred from Zhongli's shield. Fischl contributes great off-field Electro damage. This is a very versatile and extremely resilient team, and you can also sub in other off-field DPS units for Fischl, like Xiangling, or sub-Bennett for other buffers and healers, like Sara or Kuki Shinobi.

Next: Genshin Impact:Guide to the Dendro Element