Zi Xiao, one of the unique characters inGunfire Reborn, brings a refreshing blend of speed, control, and burst damage to the battlefield. His fast-paced playstyle, revolving around mobility and short cooldowns, makes him a thrilling choice for players who enjoy high-risk, high-reward gameplay. Mastering a Zi Xiao build inGunfire Rebornrequires careful attention to scroll synergy, ascension choices, weapon selection, and strategy. Whether you’re playing solo or with friends, optimizing Zi Xiao’s abilities can turn him into an unstoppable force that clears waves of enemies with precision and speed.
Understanding Zi Xiao’s Core Strengths
Mobility and Quick Strikes
Zi Xiao’s core strength lies in his incredible agility. He excels at dodging attacks while dealing constant damage with his fast-paced abilities. His active skill,Flowing Light, lets him teleport forward, dealing damage to enemies in his path. This makes him perfect for hit-and-run tactics and repositioning during intense fights. His mobility is unmatched, allowing him to escape danger or rush headfirst into battle when needed.
Short Cooldowns and Synergy
One of the key features of Zi Xiao is the short cooldowns on his abilities, especially when paired with the right ascensions and scrolls. With a proper build, you can dramatically reduce his skill cooldowns, letting you spam abilities and maintain pressure on enemies. This creates a feedback loop where skill usage fuels even more skill usage, which defines his high-tempo playstyle.
Best Ascension Paths for Zi Xiao
Prioritizing Active Skill Builds
Zi Xiao’s ascensions are divided into three trees:Endless Flow,Radiant Flame, andFlickering Heart. For a high-performance build, it’s important to focus on the right mix of upgrades depending on your desired playstyle.
- Endless Flow: This tree enhances Flowing Light by reducing cooldowns, increasing range, and adding effects like elemental damage or weakening enemies. Prioritize this if you want to maximize mobility and damage through skill use.
- Radiant Flame: Focuses on weapon damage and synergy with elemental effects. Useful when combining high-damage weapons with elemental scrolls.
- Flickering Heart: Supports survivability and skill energy restoration. This tree is helpful in longer fights or harder difficulties where durability matters.
In general, most players lean toward the Endless Flow path for an active skill-centric build, mixing in key Flickering Heart nodes for sustain and cooldown synergy.
Top Ascension Choices
- Lightless Leap: Grants a second charge of Flowing Light. This is one of the strongest picks, doubling your burst potential and flexibility.
- Energy Blade: Adds AoE damage to your dashes, allowing you to clear clusters of enemies more efficiently.
- Time Meditation: Reduces cooldown after each use. Stack this with other cooldown reduction gear for near-continuous dashing.
- Echoing Step: Restores energy upon hitting enemies with Flowing Light. Great for keeping your ability rotation flowing.
Weapon Selection for Zi Xiao
Fast and Elemental-Based Guns
Zi Xiao shines when using weapons that complement his mobility and elemental damage output. Rapid-fire weapons or those with elemental effects are ideal, especially when combined with scrolls that boost status effects or critical hits.
- Demonlore: One of the best elemental weapons for Zi Xiao. The high elemental effect chance pairs well with ascensions that boost status damage.
- Scalpel: Extremely fast fire rate, synergizes with scrolls like Advanced Depot and Elemental Bestowment.
- Laser Gloves: Great for close-range fighting and work well with dash builds, especially when you’re often right in the middle of battle.
- Porcupine: If you want explosive damage in tight spaces, this weapon works wonders with high mobility builds.
Weapon Affixes to Look For
Choosing the right weapon is just the beginning. Look for affixes that improve status effect chance, cooldown reduction, skill damage, or energy restoration. For example:
- +X% chance to apply elemental effects
- +X% skill damage while shield is full
- +X% energy gain on kill
- +X% cooldown reduction when using primary skill
These affixes help you create a well-rounded synergy between Zi Xiao’s base abilities and your weapon of choice.
Scroll Synergies for Zi Xiao
Cooldown and Energy Focused Scrolls
To make Zi Xiao’s skills shine, stack scrolls that reduce skill cooldowns, restore energy, and enhance elemental damage. Some of the best scrolls for his build include:
- Lightning Messenger: Great synergy with lightning-based skills and attacks.
- Skill Booster: Boosts overall skill damage.
- Elemental Torment: Increases damage dealt to enemies suffering from elemental effects, perfect with Demonlore.
- Unfettered Will: Boosts movement speed and damage after killing enemies, aligning with Zi Xiao’s high mobility playstyle.
- Capacity Overdraft: Restores energy faster, allowing you to keep dashing through enemies.
Defensive Scrolls for Survival
Even though Zi Xiao is quick, he can be fragile in prolonged fights. Defensive scrolls can help offset this weakness:
- Paranormality: Doubles your shield but sets your max HP to 1. Risky but powerful if you have good shield regen.
- Flesh and Bones: Good for boosting max health and synergizing with healing scrolls.
- Resilient Life: Reduces damage when under 50% HP useful for clutch survivals.
How to Play Zi Xiao Effectively
Hit-and-Run Style Combat
Zi Xiao is not a tank. He’s built for speed and aggression. Use Flowing Light to dash into enemies, deal damage, and dash out. Always stay mobile, avoiding being pinned down by elite enemies or bosses. Practice weaving in and out of combat using both your skills and weapons to maintain tempo.
Chain Skills for Momentum
Thanks to low cooldowns and energy restoration, your goal should be to keep using Flowing Light as often as possible. Chain skill uses with scrolls and ascensions that reduce cooldown and restore energy. With practice, you’ll be able to use your skills every few seconds, clearing rooms quickly and efficiently.
Target Weak Enemies First
Zi Xiao excels at quickly picking off weaker enemies, which can trigger scroll effects, restore energy, and give you breathing room. Clearing minions also reduces the chaos in bigger fights, making it easier to focus on elite enemies or bosses later.
Zi Xiao Build Summary
A successful Zi Xiao build in Gunfire Reborn focuses on skill spamming, elemental synergy, and rapid movement. By selecting the right ascensions, combining them with fast elemental weapons, and stacking effective scrolls, you can turn Zi Xiao into a whirlwind of destruction. Whether you favor lightning strikes or fire-infused dashes, your build should always aim to enhance his mobility, reduce skill cooldowns, and amplify damage output. Zi Xiao may not be the easiest hero to master, but once you do, few enemies will stand a chance against your relentless assault.