When Genshin Impact was released, it already had five five-star characters placed in its normal banner. Out of these characters, there is Mona, a hydro catalyst with an extremely unique costume design that's themed around astrology. Being a catalyst means that Mona isn't an outright powerhouse like Diluc or Keqing, but she is still incredibly powerful and useful for those lucky enough to add her to their teams.
Mona is a character who can easily take control of the battlefield and can easily be run as either a DPS main or a supporting character, depending on what the player's current team is in need of.
Support or DPS
Mona is a character that is versatile enough to fill multiple roles. Her moves are designed to both make her a DPS or provide support to the rest of the team. This is further supported by the unique effects caused by gathering all six of her constellations.
- C1 - Mona's burst now does 15% more elemental reaction with electro, pyro, and hydro swirl. Opponents affected by the frozen effect will also stay frozen 15 seconds longer.
- C2 - When Mona uses her normal attack, there is now a 20% chance of a charged attack occurring afterwards. This ability is only able to activate every five seconds.
- C3 - Stellaris Phantasm can now be leveled up to level 15.
- C4 - On-field characters who attack a character with Mona's omen effect will have their crit rate increased by 15%.
- C5 - Mirror Reflection of Doom can now be leveled up to level 15.
- C6 - When Using her elemental skill, Illusory Torrent Mona gains a 60% increase to her charge attack. The more she moves, the more this can increase up to a total of 180%; this attack lasts for eight seconds.
Depending on what artifacts you want to use on Mona, this can make her powerful enough to take on elemental bosses or one of the best support options in the game. Mona, unlike most characters, technically has an extra move. The sprint button allows mona to go beneath the bound and gives her an incredibly fast movement speed that can be used to dash around enemies. Illusionary Torrent makes her even faster, and when she comes out of the sprint near an enemy, the wet effect is applied.
A big part of using Mona is making the distance between yourself and enemies, and her aquatic sprint plays a huge role in that. While sprinting, Mona can't climb, but she can move on top of the water, making her perfect for beachside battles in Liyue. A great combo for making room is holding the skill button, so Mona will automatically move back when unleashing Mirror Reflection of Doom and then using the skill to readjust your position on the battlefield.
Additionally, if Mirror Reflection of Doom goes out, Mona will summon another while speeding around in her water form. This can happen every two seconds and further helps Mona to set up the field. Her other passive skill, Waterborne Destiny, increases her hydro damage to 20% of her energy recharge rate.
Controlling The Field
As Mona, players have the ability to completely control the battlefield. Her elemental skill not only can get her out of danger fast, but it also pulses hydro damage while drawing the attention of enemies. This creates an opening for Mona to use her normal attack and for her to use an AoE charge attack that hits the closely grouped enemies.
Her burst, Stellaris Phantasm, has two different effects depending on how strong the enemy is. Weaker enemies will be trapped in a bubble and unable to move. Stronger enemies and simply places an omen on stronger enemies. When Mona hits the enemies affected by an omen, she deals more damage to that enemy.
Setting Up a Team
For those planning to use Mona as a DPS, there are quite a few characters to partner her with in order to deal more damage and freeze enemies.
- Ganyu - Can Summon a cryo lotus to help freeze enemies or burst to rain down cryo icicles onto the field.
- Chongyun - Chongyun's burst summons talismans that fall onto the field one by one dealing cryo damage.
- Lisa - Lisa's burst summons a lantern that will deal electro damage to enemies.
- Fischl - Fischl summons Oz, who will constantly attack enemies with electro bolts.
- Xiangling- Xiangling can deploy Guoba using her elemental skill to damage enemies with pyro.
- Qiqi - Qiqi can provide healing while giving mona a way to freeze enemies who get too close. Her burst also offers a way to heal while freezing multiple opponents.
This list is a bit shorter than normal since many support characters would require Mona to do close combat. On the flip side, Mona is able to successfully help the following characters by holding them still with her burst and pulsing hydro damage with her elemental skill.
- Diluc
- Razor
- Kaeya
- Diona
- Amber
- Ganyu
- Fischl
- Lisa
- Keqing
- Klee
- Xinyan
- Bennett
- Beidou
Players should also keep in mind that using Mona's unique sprint can help them to travel quicker and across small patches of water with ease.
