Childe Bows and Artifact sets

Welcome back! Childe is fairly F2P unfriendly, as there are little bows that synergise with his kits among the forgeable and 3 star bows.

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So with much apprehension, we lightly recommend the compound bow over the prototype crescent, as you will not be doing many aimed shots with Childe.

The Compound Bow however, offers a Phys DMG Bonus substat, which is almost useless as he does Hydro DMG in his melee form (which is where most of his DPS comes from).

We DO NOT recommend building this bow just for Childe.

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Instead, if you're desperate for a bow, any bow, tide yourself over with the Raven Bow for now, before you get some of the gacha 4 star bows.

In melee form, Childe will be dishing out Hydro statuses everywhere, allowing the bow's passive to have a high uptime.

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The BP bow, Viridescent Hunt, is a decent option, providing CRIT rate substats, and a useful passive that can be triggered by melee attacks.

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First among gacha bows, the Rust has potential to be Childe's best option, even among 5 star bows.

We've seen some calculations that R4 Rust may outperform R1 Skyward Harp, but we have not tested it, so do take it with a pinch of salt.

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Finally, the biggest baddest bow of bows, the Skyward Harp. Being 5 stars, it comes with a higher base attack, as well as having a good substat - CRIT Rate.

Its passive also increases CRIT DMG, while having AoE procs that deal damage every so often.

With all weapons at unrefined ranks, Skyward Harp will be undoubtedly the best bow for Childe.

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Artifact sets

In 1.2, new artifact sets were released, one seemingly tailormade for Childe!

This set provides Hydro DMG as well as a Normal and Charged Attack DMG boost after Skill usage. This allows Childe to deal increased damage with his melee form.

(Old 1.1 Patch)

There are no Hydro artifact sets currently available for Childe, which means that it is a little awkward to build for him.

First set we'll look at is the 4 PC Noblesse Oblige. This playstyle will involve using Childe to rapidly regenerate energy and cast his Burst, then swap out. This means that Childe will mostly be a sub-DPS, coming in to cast his massive ult, providing buffs and leaving.

If you're dead-set on using a low Constellation Childe as non-burst DPS, you can look into investing into a 4 PC Thundersoother, with a electro enabler such as a Fischl or an ulting Beidou (less viable). Electroshock procs are long, allowing for uptime of the 4 PC set bonus.

Lastly, you can consider a Retracing Bolide 4 PC set, together with a character that can provide shields, such as Noelle, or Traveller, and perhaps Zhongli in the future.

All in all, Childe's artifact sets are subpar for now, so possibly just go for the best main and substats on universally good sets such as Gladiator's for now. (Note that 4 PC Glads does not work on Childe).