Genshin Impact Version 3.0 introduces Dendro, the signature element of the new Sumeru area. While Collei is a Dendro character players can obtain for free, the Dendro Traveler is another free, surprisingly great, option. Like in past regions, the Traveler can resonate with the element of each area — for example, Anemo in Mondstadt and Electro in Inazuma — and get a whole new kit.
How to Unlock the Dendro Traveler
If you’ve completed the Requiem of the Echoing Depths Archon Quests in The Chasm and are able to start Archon Quest Chapter III: Act I in Sumeru, then unlocking the Dendro Traveler is quite easy. As soon as you set foot into Sumeru, guided by the quest, you will see a Statue of Seven on a hill. With the Traveler in your party, climb the hill, interact with the statue, and select “Resonate.” That’s all you need to do.
If you’re a newer player and do not have Archon Quest Chapter III unlocked, it’s also still possible to enter Sumeru and resonate with the Statue of Seven. The Sumeru area itself is not gated behind any quests, as confirmed by Reddit user Maziiiiiiiiik. They were able to arrive in Sumeru after obtaining the first four Mondsadt characters. So in theory, if you fly into Sumeru from Liyue’s Chasm or even try entering from Tianqiu Valley — you should be able to unlock Dendro Traveler. Note that I haven’t seen proof of players still progressing in the Inazuma or Liyue doing this online yet, so I can’t confirm if there is a minimum Adventure Rank requirement.
Dendro Traveler Kit & Skills
The Dendro Traveler is great for a team with lots of elemental reactions and suits an off-field elemental reaction support role. Their burst, Surgent Manifestation, is the main highlight of the kit. Surgent Manifestation creates a lamp that deals continuous AoE Dendro damage and, depending on what element it comes into contact with, buffs its own damage in different ways. Only one of the reactions can be triggered for each time the Lamp is on the field.
- Lamp + Electro: Lamp’s attack speed goes up.
- Lamp + Hydro: Lamp’s AoE and AoE of attacks expands.
- Lamp + Pyro: Lamp will explode after a short delay and deal AoE Dendro damage.
The Dendro Traveler’s passive skills also buff Elemental Mastery (EM) in two ways:
- If characters’ stand within the lamp’s field, their Elemental Mastery will increase by six every second the lamp is on the field. Maximum of ten stacks.
- For every EM point possessed, the Traveler’s burst damage increases and their skill damage also increases.
See Honey Impact for a full list of Dendro Traveler’s skills.
An ideal way to use Dendro Traveler is to get them on the field for the lamp, and then switch them out for an elemental main DPS who can trigger reactions with the lamp. That means maximizing the Dendro Traveler’s Energy Recharge in order to maximize the lamp’s appearance on the field.
A note here that this isn’t the only way to use Dendro Traveler. If you’d like Dendro Traveler to be more present on the field, they could fit into an elemental sub-DPS role easily as well.
Dendro Traveler Weapon and Artifact Recommendations
There is a debate online right now on whether prioritizing Elemental Mastery or Energy Recharge is best for Dendro Traveler. The jury is still out on that question, and a theorycrafting investigation will likely be needed to get to a definitive answer.
The Traveler’s Dendro damage does scale on their Elemental Mastery, as stated by the passive abilities, but if you just want the Burst to be active as much as possible, prioritizing Energy Recharge is important since their burst cost is 80 — quite a hefty amount.
This guide focuses on maximizing the utility of the Burst, so the Artifact and weapon recommendations will center around getting Energy Recharge in Artifact and weapon substats. In this setup, your other characters should trigger most of the elemental reactions. Since the Traveler mostly will not, their Elemental Mastery stats won’t be as important.
4-Star Weapon Recommendations (Energy Recharge Stat)
- Sapwood Blade
- Favonious Sword
- Festering Desire
- Sacrificial Sword
5-Star Weapon Recommendations
- Skyward Sword (Energy Recharge Stat)
- Freedom Sword (Elemental Mastery Stat): If you’re going to dump EM into Dendro Traveler and use them to trigger Elemental Reactions, then the Freedom Sword is the best 5-star weapon.
Artifact Recommendations
- Emblem of Severed Fate: This set focuses on Dendro Traveler’s Burst damage and also provides ER.
- Two-piece bonus: 20% Energy Recharge
- Four-piece bonus: Increases Elemental Burst DMG by 25% of Energy Recharge. A maximum of 75% bonus DMG can be obtained in this way.
And not to complicate things further, but depending who else is on your team, you may not need as much Energy Recharge (ER) and can toss in some Elemental Mastery. For example, if you have Raiden Shogun — the ultimate battery — I’d suggest prioritizing EM instead of ER in Artifacts.
At the end of the day, you will need both EM and ER Artifact stats for Dendro Traveler. But how much of each really depends on who else is on the Dendro Traveler’s team and how you’re going to use the Traveler.
Dendro Traveler’s Recommended Teams
There’s a lot about Dendro we don’t know yet, so the optimal ways to use Dendro characters still needs to be discovered. Consider this a preliminary analysis on what makes sense for a team including Dendro Traveler.
Two things to keep in mind while creating a team for the Dendro Traveler:
- Dendro Traveler’s burst cost is 80, so a good battery could be useful.
- You’ll also want Electro or Hydro with Dendro Traveler. Since Cyro doesn’t have a reaction with Traveler’s Dendro lamp, it doesn’t make sense to include Cryo characters on their team. Pyro has a reaction — but the lamp explodes quickly when Pyro is applied. It’s more beneficial to have the lamp stay on the field longer.
So with the above in mind, players could try the following comp:
- Hydro or Electro DPS and Battery, Dendro Traveler, & Flex Spot (Swirl or Healing)
- Hydro or Electro DPS: Ayato, Yae Miko, Childe to name a few
- Hydro or Electro Battery: Raiden Shogun, Fischl
- Flex Spot: Kokomi (Healing), Sucrose (Swirl), Kazuha (Swirl), Jean (Healing & Swirl)
The Dendro Traveler’s kit is quite impressive for a character that’s free. And as a bonus, their constellations come for free as you progress through the story. To think, you can get a C6 Dendro character without pulling an unthinkable number of times!