Typhoeus Best Build Guide

Typhoeus is a 6-star, Nature, Arts Unit Striker who specialises in dealing damage to 2 targets at once. She’s a strong damage dealer who will enter a “Hovering” state after using her Battle Skill or Ultimate, which can be further extended by using her Combo Skill.

It’s during this Hovering state that most of Typhoeus’ damage output happens, as through it, she can both build and expend her unique resources: “Signs” that are built on both Nature Arts Bursts and when she uses her Battle Skill to consume Inflictions, as well as “Hunting Arrows”, which are converted off Signs by use of her Combo Skill and are consumed to enhance her Battle Skill hits.

Most of Typhoeus’ damage comes in the form of these enhanced Battle Skill attacks, called “Power Shots”. If a Hunting Arrow is consumed during a Battle Skill, it leads to a forced Nature Burst, and if the Power Shot happens to also consume an Infliction, then the Arts Burst gets even stronger.

This makes for a gameplay loop that revolves around building up Signs with Nature Bursts, then building up more of them by consuming the Nature Inflictions with her Battle Skill. Once maxed out on Signs, they’re converted to Hunting Arrows via her Combo Skill, which extends her Battle Skill further and allows for even more damage to be dished out, which itself builds Signs. 

The cycle then continues, making for great sustained damage and constant opportunities to burst enemies down.

Basic Attack

“Wildland Huntress” is Typhoeus’ Basic Attack, and it’s rather unremarkable. It’s a 5-sequence string that builds 17 stagger and 21 SP on the Final Strike, having decent range and allowing for some movement while it's used. 

It has no meaningful animation cancel points besides the Final Strike and rather middling multipliers, doubly so as Typhoeus is built for Arts Intensity rather than traditional damage bonuses.

This also means that her Finisher isn't particularly strong, as her personal buffs, gear and weapons won't do much for it.

Even still, her regular Basic Attack strings and Finisher see use, as she is still likely to be the best built operator among her teammates and tends to be controlled.

Talents

“Prey Checklist” is Typhoeus’ first talent, and it’s what her character identity and resource economy revolves around.

Any Nature Burst triggered on an enemy - not just by Typhoeus, but from any operator in the party - will generate 1 Sign, with a cap of 8. As this is the resource that’s converted into the Hunting Arrows that allow her to apply forced Nature Bursts, maximising it is critical to her rotations.

Additionally, this Talent will increase the damage of attacks that use up Hunting Arrows by x1.6. This bonus does not apply to the Nature Burst, and it's strictly tied to the skill’s raw multipliers. As Typhoeus is built for Arts Intensity and doesn’t have particularly good multipliers, this bonus isn’t as strong as it first appears, but it can add up for a decent increase to her damage.

Hunting Arrows have a cap of 4, and are converted at a rate of 2 Sign:1 Hunting Arrow through Typhoeus’ Combo Skill.

She will begin battles with both 4 Sign and 4 Hunting Arrows stocked.

“Huntress’ Focus” is Typhoeus’ second talent, and gives her a Protective Barrier when in the Hovering state.

This can reduce the damage that she takes by up to 30% and increases her interrupt resistance, but it lasts for only 1 hit! After which, it breaks and will not re-activate for the next 18s.

While it is up, very few attacks can interrupt Typhoeus, but once it drops, enemies that can hit airborne targets can and will knock her out of the Hovering state, so be careful! 

Battle Skill

“Piercing Arrows of the Woods” is Typhoeus’ Battle Skill, being the core of her damage. It costs 100 SP, and on use, she will attack with a fast initial strike, then enter the Hovering state, giving her 5 “Aerial Basic Attack” uses (abbreviated to ABATK), which can hit up to 2 targets at once.

This Hovering state is literal, as Typhoeus will fly up in the air and be immune to ground-based attacks, like certain damage-over-time ground effects or enemy swings that don’t reach her.

Although the initial strike is considered Battle Skill damage, the 5 ABATKs are all Basic Attack damage. She is locked out of dodges during it, but using directional inputs allows her to move with every shot. This matters because Typhoeus will at an angle, so being too close or too far from an enemy can cause attacks to miss!

Each one of the ABATKs deals some middling Nature DMG and, if Nature Inflictions are on struck enemies, will consume 1 stack on hit to build 1 Sign, and generate an extra 12 Ultimate Energy for Typhoeus. Given her high Ultimate Energy cost, multiple consumptions are needed for her to have the resources to use it.

If Hunting Arrows are available, then each ABATK will consume 1 and be upgraded into a Power Shot, triggering a forced Nature Burst. If Typhoeus happens to consume a Nature Infliction with a Power Shot, then the Nature Burst gets a unique, wholly unsaturated x1.3 multiplier to its damage.

If Typhoeus is the controlled operator when the Battle Skill is used, then not only will she fire slightly faster than her non-controlled status, but the 5th ABATK will both count as a Final Strike and be considered as a Power Shot, even after all Hunting Arrows are consumed.

This Final Strike will build stagger and generate SP, but at a much higher rate than her regular Basic Attack’s Final Strike, at 20 stagger and 23 SP. It does take longer to go through all 5 ABATKs than her regular Basic Attack string, so this makes up for the difference, especially as she can only dodge cancel out of the Final Strike’s recovery animation once she lands.

Without the increased damage from her Talent on Power Shots, the multipliers for this skill make it not be much different from her Basic Attack string, so without Hunting Arrows stocked it has little value outside of its consumption effect and forced Power Shot on the Final Strike.

All in all, there are multiple layers to this Battle Skill: 

• It builds Signs and Ultimate Energy by consuming Inflictions.

• It builds Signs and deals most of her damage through the forced Nature Bursts on Power Shots.

• It deals the most damage when consuming Inflictions with Power Shots, so aligning this for burst windows is ideal.

Having it be used multiple times would get very costly in SP, but this is alleviated by other abilities that can extend it, namely her Combo Skill and Ultimate.

Combo Skill

“Rampant Thorns” is Typhoeus’ Combo Skill, and it's triggered when she reaches max Signs (8), with a 19s cooldown.

It will fire a barrage of arrows and create a “Barrage Array” on the target location, an area of effect that deals Nature DMG over time, slows nearby enemies and causes enemies within it to take increased Nature Burst DMG Taken, with the zone lasting 6s.

On use, it’ll convert all Signs to Hunting Arrows, with the previously mentioned 2:1 ratio. This is its primary purpose, as outside of Ultimate, there are no other ways to generate Hunting Arrows.

The skill itself has 2 forms: grounded and Hovering. If it’s used on the ground, it’ll fire as normal, but if it’s used while in the Hovering state, it will reset the ABATK count. This has to be cast before the Final Strike for it to work, so it can allow for a 4 + 5 ABATK volley to be used in quick succession.

This extension isn’t always worth it, as whether to use a grounded or Hovering Combo Skill is a situational choice, so refer to the How To Play section and rotations in the teams section for more.

Ultimate

“Call of Ice Mountain” is Typhoeus’ Ultimate, costing 200 Energy. She will fire an initial “Imbued Arrow”, immediately enter the Hovering state (or reset ABATK counts if already in it), generate 2 Hunting Arrows, and enhance the next 5 ABATK casts so that every hit will trigger a “Hail of Arrows” for more damage. The final Hail of Arrows will be empowered, dealing significantly more damage than previous hits.

These attacks are distinct from Hunting Arrows/Power Shots, being regular Nature DMG of the Ultimate DMG type.

As her Ultimate will always place Typhoeus in the Hovering state, it isn't always worth using it to reset one. It's more overall damage to land Hovering Final Strike first, then use the Ultimate immediately after.

Since the Ultimate only provides 2 Hunting Arrows, and her Combo Skill always generates them in sets of 4, it will often lead to 2 non-Power Shot ABATKs.

If it's ever used to extend a Hovering state - like topping up on 2 to 4 Hunting Arrows - that'd mean giving up on a forced Power Shot from a Final Strike, leading to less overall damage.

There are situations where it's worth doing in reverse though, like having a Combo Skill be used after 2 Power Shots on the Ultimate, as it can allow one to frontload damage for a faster kill or to get hits to fit in buff windows, like in stagger.

Although the Hovering state and Power Shots are useful, the Ultimate itself isn’t particularly strong. It has a combined multiplier of 800% at M3, being quite low compared to many other damage dealers. As Typhoeus will be built for Arts Intensity, it will be even weaker than its numbers might imply.

Given its steep Energy cost, it can often demand Ultimate Gain Efficiency pieces, but its low value means that it can often be better to build for pure damage and skip the Ultimate entirely.

Energy

Typhoeus’ Energy demands are very high. She does get 12 Energy for every Nature Infliction consumed, but doing so means giving up on those Nature Inflictions for Corrosion, which is likely to give a greater damage increase than her Ultimate.

Even having enough Nature Inflictions to sustain the Energy generation required for it can be difficult:

800 SP, 3 Combo, 8 Nature Inflictions

As Typhoeus will ideally be consuming Inflictions in-stagger as part of her rotation, this can be factored into her Ultimate Energy generation, hence the 800 SP base.

This does mean that her Ultimate comes at the tail end of her burst, often landing most of its damage out of stagger (further reducing its value), but it’s the only way that she can generate enough Energy for it.

The set-up here would allow for only an Ultimate Gain Efficiency Armor to be used, but if the rotation does not work with 3 Combo Skills, then the demands are higher.

800 SP, 2 Combo, 8 Nature Inflictions

At this point, an Ultimate Gain Efficiency Glove would be needed. This trade-off is already at a point where it may be better to not use the Ultimate at all, and instead run full damage gear.

There are rotations that can enable both full damage and Ultimate, but this would be reliant on having multiple operators that can give free Nature Inflictions or duplicate them, as otherwise the SP cost for applying them may be prohibitive:

800 SP, 2 Combo, 11 Nature Inflictions

Such rotations can still be compatible with Corrosion depending on the team (e.g. Typhoeus, Fluorite, Arcane, Xaihi), but can have tight execution timings in buff management.

The exception to all of the above is when she’s running against 2 enemies. This is where Typhoeus is best, as she is not only hitting both enemies, she’s also getting double the Energy if consuming a Nature Infliction from each:

800 SP, 2 Combo, 6 Nature Inflictions on 2 Targets

In such situations, she can comfortably use her Ultimate without ever needing an Ultimate Gain Efficiency piece. Never mind 8 Inflictions; just 6 is enough, assuming that they’re landing on both enemies (12 x 2 in Energy), increasing Typhoeus’ damage output in 2 enemy encounters beyond just her Battle Skill’s 2-target property.

How to Play

Typhoeus can be both a very easy operator or a very complex one, depending on the level of optimisation that one takes to her rotations.

On the surface, she has a very simple flowchart:

• Use her Battle Skill to unload Hunting Arrows.

• Use her Combo Skill to convert Signs to Hunting Arrows and unload them again.

• Build Nature Inflictions and use her Battle Skill, consuming them to build Signs.

• Use her Combo Skill to convert Signs to Hunting Arrows and unload them again.

• Repeat until Ultimate is ready, which can then be used to burst further in stagger periods.

Although this is enough to cover most content and is compatible with most team combinations, it can mean giving up on proper buff management and wasting Signs, leading to lower overall damage.

In theory, there aren’t too many unique buffs to keep track of:

• Hunting Arrows for Nature Bursts and to get the x1.6 increase from her Talent.

• Hunting Arrows when consuming Inflictions to get the x1.3 increase from the Battle Skill effect.

• Hunting Arrows after a Combo Skill, to benefit from the Nature Burst DMG Taken from Barrage Array.

This seems straightforward, but in practice, very rarely do all buffs align. Typhoeus begins with 4 Signs and 4 Hunting Arrows, so a single Battle Skill volley will give her enough to get a Combo Skill.

If her Combo Skill is then used to apply the Barrage Array, this sets up its buffs for the next volley.

The problem is, if Inflictions had been present on enemies on the first volley, they’ll have been consumed already, so there’s none for the second, meaning she gains the Combo Skill bonus but loses out on the x1.3 increase effect.

If that’s done, she won’t have any Hunting Arrows left for the next set. Thankfully, as the forced Power Shot builds a Sign, she needs only 3 Nature Bursts to get her Combo Skill again.

Going up to 4 Inflictions would only yield 3 Signs, as the first Infliction wouldn’t trigger a Nature Burst, but that’s still enough to get her to 8.

Except that now she’d need to use a Combo Skill before she goes into a Battle Skill, so that she can stock up on Hunting Arrows. This seems good at first, after all, this aligns all buffs in the rotation.

The problem is that doing this means not having a way to extend her Hovering state without Ultimate, making for restrictive rotations on some teams.

So in practice, it can be best to not use her Combo Skill as a means to extend her Hovering state, at least when in the pre-stagger period. Instead, having it be used after she drops to stock up on Hunting Arrows can be best.

This also has the added bonus of making sure that she does not miss out/delay on a Final Strike, which at this point is going to be important for stagger alignment.

Structuring rotations this way means that her Combo Skill is available to be used in-stagger for a Hover state extension, enabling no-Ultimate rotations, or better yet, can give her enough ABATK uses to build an Ultimate after 2 volleys, making for 3 back-to-back ABATK sets.

This isn't always optimal though, and sometimes, having out-of-stagger extensions can be best for maximising Sign generation, so it depends on the team and encounter.

Then there’s factoring in Typhoeus’ gear and weapons, as Deep Rampart, her Signature and Battle Pass picks have stacking damage buffs that ramp-up with Arts Bursts. This can lead to more complex rotations:

• Using Typhoeus Battle Skill as late as possible, to expend Hunting Arrows Signs and ramp-up her weapon buffs,.

• Wait for her to drop/Final Strike, then use her Combo Skill to re-stock on Hunting Arrows.

• Build-up 4 Nature Inflictions and get to stagger within the next 20-30 seconds at most.

• Use her Battle Skill when in stagger, getting all Power Shots to benefit from Nature Infliction consumption and not needing to ramp-up her gear and weapon buffs. As this is building 2 Signs per shot (1 from Nature Burst and 1 from consumption), this volley alone takes her to 8 Signs.

• Use her Combo Skill to extend the Hovering state, as at this point, Final Strike count is not as valuable as getting as many shots in the stagger period.

• Make use of ally Battle Skills and Combo Skills to re-apply Nature Inflictions for the x1.3 multiplier and maximise damage while Typhoeus’ own Combo Skill’s buffs are active.

• Ultimate after the Final Strike to re-enter Hovering state, and unload another 2 Hunting Arrows and one last Final Strike.

In many cases, Typhoeus’ teams will lack the Nature Infliction generation to sustain an Ultimate without Ultimate Gain Efficiency pieces, or get one at all, but losing out on it isn’t as big a loss when compared to other operators, especially if a Combo Skill is used in-stagger.

Different teams will also have slightly different structures, as integrating Corrosion and ally buffs can change the exact ordering, so refer to the rotations in the teams section for more detailed breakdowns.

Overall, optimising Typhoeus can get exceptionally difficult, especially as overcapping on Signs is very common (and at times a necessity for the most damaging rotations).

Between all of the different operator combinations that Typhoeus can run in, the variety of rotations (some with Corrosion, some without), SP availability, on top of encounters with multiple enemies that can boost Energy generation, there are countless possible ways to manage her resources.

Given her preference for 2 enemy encounters, it’s best to not be overly concerned with overcaps and instead tailor rotations to having enough Hunting Arrows for a burst that's aligned with ally Infliction application and buffs/debuffs.