Quick Links
The Traveler always plays the role of the introductory unit to every new nation inGenshin Impact. Their abilities will often mimic those of the respective Archon, albeit in a much less powerful way. As a unit, the Traveler has consistently allowed for some versatility, but they are easily outclassed by other units in the game.
Hydro Traveler, in particular, is hard to pin down. They are certainly not a powerhouse, they have a niche play style that can feel clunky, and they fail to live up to the potential of the mighty Hydro supports already on the roster. However, with some determination, they can still find a place in some of your teams.
Hydro Traveler’s Best Overall Team: Nilou Bloom
This might be a surprising option for Hydro Traveler, considering thatthe Dendro variant of this character is already known to have a role in Nilou Bloom, providing some solid support to this team. However,Hydro Traveler has unexpectedly good utility in Nilou Bloomthanks to their ability to useranged Hydro attacks faster than most single-target ranged Hydro units.
Coupled with their outstanding resistance to interruption, and their slow Hydro application,they can be used inmulti-target situations to hit targets standing further away from the heart of the battle. The best Nilou Bloom composition for this character is:
Action
Nahida
Nahida’s Burst can enhance an active character within the AoE of her Shrine of Mayabased on certain principles. Hydro, Electro, and Pyro, as the only elements that react with Dendro, can causeunique effects on her Burst’s behavior when other characters in her team wield any of these elements.In this case, as she is in a heavily Hydro-based team,the duration of the Shrine of Maya will be extended.Deploy this Elemental Burst to give Nahida’s Tri-Karma Purification damagea lengthy buff, and thendeploy her Elemental Skill to mark up to eight opponentswith theSeed of Skandha, which will connect them.
Nilou
When Nilou takes the field, you mustquickly trigger her Elemental Skill to begin the Dance of Haftkarsvar. If you intend to use her as an on-field DPS, you canfinish this state by consuming the three stacksof the Dance of Haftkarsvar using Normal Attacks, whichwill change her Normal Attacks into special Hydro Attacks. On the other hand, to use her off-field, use her Elemental Skill twice soshe creates a Whirling Water Wheel that will follow the active character and apply Hydro.What’s important when using Nilou istriggering her Passive Talent: Court of Dancing Petals. This only happens whenthe team is composed solely of Dendro and Hydro characters, andwhen the active character takes Dendro DMG. Nilou will help to boost her teammates' Elemental Mastery by 100upon triggering her Court of Dancing Petals talent, and she will aid in the creation of Bountiful Cores, which are essentially an upgraded version of Dendro Cores thatdeal more DMG, have a larger AoE, and explode faster.
Sangonomiya Kokomi
Kokomi’s Elemental Skillgrants you 12 seconds of consistent Hydro application to aid in theproduction of Bountiful Cores. This also serves to heal any allies in need throughout a rotation, whichis crucial in a Nilou Bloom team because characters will need toactively take DMG from Dendro Cores.
Hydro Traveler
Traveler will not always be completely necessary, butthey will excel in multi-target situations. Asthe AoE forother Hydro units will be limitedto the area directly by the characters or within a certain radius of them, Traveler can use theirElemental Skill to hit targets outside this area. Hold down the Elemental Skill toenter aiming mode and sweep through those opponentsstanding far away toprompt the creation of Bountiful Coresat those locations too.
Viable Replacements
There is a more F2P variant of a Nilou Bloom team that can use Hydro Traveler as a teammate:
Traveler does not serve the same niche role in this alternative version, as this team is more effective in single-target situations, and as such, it isnot an optimal setup for them.
The rotation usesNilou’soff-field version of her Elemental Skillto prompt Hydro application, followed byYaoyao’sElemental Skill to apply Dendroat intervals. Then,Collei’s Elemental Skill and Elemental Burstfor more Dendro applications. And last,Hydro Traveler’s Elemental Skill (hold).
Hydro Traveler Vaporize Team
In this team composition,Hydro Traveler takes on the role of the primary DMG dealer. The rest of the team works asoff-field supports to boost their performanceand make them stronger.
The biggest downside of this team is that it hasexceedingly high energy requirements. This might be an issue in some situations asTraveler’s DMG will still not be anything outstanding, even with the support of all other teammates.
This team composition can help youmake the most of Hydro Traveler’s offensive capacity, though. The lineup consists of:
Bennett
Trigger his Elemental Burstimmediately on battle start. This will deploy anInspiration Field in the form of a small AoE. In this area, characters receiveattack buffs or, if necessary, get healed.
Kaedehara Kazuha
Then you can quickly switch toKazuha anddeploy his Elemental Burst as well, causing it to become infused with Pyro. This will apply Pyro to nearby enemies, setting theperfect conditions for Vaporize.
Mona
Follow up byusing Mona’s Elemental Burst. Though there are somecomplicated mechanics behind playing Monaand the way her buffs work in practice, themain concern for this formation is that she serves as a support for the Traveler, so you won’t need to worry about timing and other conditions when using her burst.
Lastly, useTraveler’s Elemental Skill(hold) to shoot projectiles at the enemies while buffed by all other party members. TheirDMG should be generally improvedunder these conditions.
Sucrose is a good alternative for Kazuhain most compositions as a four-star withdecent grouping abilities and a burst that can incapacitate smaller enemies.
Hydro Traveler Hyperbloom Team
Hyperbloom teams have become the default best teamsever since the release of the Dendro element. This isthanks to the relatively low investment and near autopilot natureof the Hyperbloom play style.
These teams areusually composed of a Dendro applicator, a Hydro applicator, an Electro applicator, and a drivercharacter tasked with the function oftriggering the reactions.
The element of the driver can be essentially anything, as demonstrated by themany ideal Cryo drivers and crowd control unitsthat work perfectly in Hyperbloom.
In this case,Hydro Traveler would be the driver and double as another Hydro reaction supportin the process. Using the most popular Hyperbloom composition is the ideal scenario for Hydro Traveler, which leaves us with the following team composition:
Trigger her Elemental Burstto buff allies.In this case, as there areboth Hydro and Electro characters in the partythe duration of the Shrine of Maya will be extended, andthe intervals for Tri-Karma Purification will get shorter. Triggerher Elemental Skill bypressing to “scan"enemies andlock the Seed of Skandha on them, facilitating Dendro reactions.
Yelan
Trigger her Elemental Burst, which gives the active character the ability totrigger Hydro applicationwith normal attacks. Yelan’s Burst canonly launch a coordinated Hydro attack at one-second intervals. The consistent Hydro application from this effect will interact with Nahida’sDendro application to generate Dendro Cores.
Kuki Shinobu
Activating Shinobu’s Elemental Burstwill create an Electro Field that can causeall Dendro Cores in its AoEto immediately “activate,“dealing moderate Dendro DMG. Triggering herElemental Skill creates a Grass Ring of Sanctificationthat dealsElectro DMG to nearby opponentsand follows your character around, while also providing healing.
Hydro Traveler, as the reaction driver, will need torely on their Normal Attack to a certain extentin this team composition. With that said,they can sub in as Hydro applicators as wellwhen necessary.
As usual,Yelancan be replaced byXingqiuin this compositionwith essentially no decrease in performance. On the other hand,finding a replacement for Nahida can be tough, as Hyperbloom teams are heavily dependent on her abilities, butyou can insertother Dendro units like Yaoyao or Colleihere.
Dendro Traveler is the best Traveler variant overall, and they easily outperform Hydro Traveler in most (if not all) teams where Hydro Traveler can fit,except Freeze teams(keep in mindtheir Hydro application is not the best for Freezeif you’re going this route). Nevertheless, if you intend to use Hydro Traveler and make them work, you will findthat they remain versatile within their obvious limitations.
