A Look into the Vortex Vanquisher

The Vortex Vanquisher is part of the Liyue Series of weapons alongside the Memories of Dust and the Sumit Shaper. Said to be Zhongli’s signature weapon and one that certainly suits his style, while this weapon may look beautiful on the outside, there are some kinks to work out if you want to use it in your team. Learn about all of the Vortex Vanquisher’s pros and cons before making any investments.

In-Game Description

This sharp polearm can seemingly pierce through anything. When swung, one can almost see the rift it tears in the air.

Ascension Materials

• 5 x Grain of Aerosiderite
• 14 x Piece of Aerosiderite
• 14 x Bit of Aerosiderite
• 6 x Chunk of Aerosiderite
• 23 x Fragile Bone Shards
• 27 x Sturdy Bone Shards
• 41 x Fossolized Bone Shards
• 15 x Treasure Hoarder Insignia
• 23 x Silver Raven Insignia
• 27 x Golden Raven Insignia

What can the Vortex Vanquisher do?

At level 90, the Vortex Vanquisher has a Base ATK of 608 and an ATK substat of 49.6% which definitely is not bad for a 5-star weapon.

Its passive, Golden Majesty, increases a character’s shield strength by 20% but that’s not all. Every time a character lands a hit on an opponent, their ATK is increased by 4% for 8s. This has a maximum of 5 stacks. This effect can only occur every 0.3s. Finally, while the character is protected by a shield, the ATK increase effect is increased by 100%.

The Cons of Vortex Vanquisher

With amazing stats, the Vortex Vanquisher seems like the perfect weapon for Zhongli. After all, it boosts his ATK as well as his shield so what’s not to like? Well, there are some kinks here.

The passive of the Vortex Vanquisher only works when Zhongli is on-field. This means that if you use him as a Shielder or Burst Support, you can’t really reap the benefits of the shield strength and ATK increase. There’s also the fact that this is a 5-star weapon so you’d be spending a lot of Primogems for something you can’t really make use of. After all, even for Zhongli, there are other, F2P friendly 4-star weapons that can perform better.

Finally, the only other character that can make use of this weapon is Thoma. However, even for him, there are better weapons.

The Pros of Vortex Vanquisher

If you love Zhongli and use him as your main DPS, then the Vortex Vanquisher isn’t a bad choice for you. Why? Well, being the main DPS, Zhongli will have more time on the field to reap the benefits of the 4% ATK increase with every hit. His shields rarely ever have a downtime if timed properly so his ATK is increased further. The only issue you’ll have is finding a proper balance between his ATK, HP and Crit Rate/DMG since all of these stats will have to be focused on his artefacts.

To do this, it’s recommended you run him on a Physical DPS build so that you can increase his damage significantly.

Conclusion

The Vortex Vanquisher looks like a decent weapon and perhaps in the future, there might be a character that can truly utilize it. But for now, it’s better to skip over this polearm and if you managed to roll it while trying to get Amos, while perhaps a DPS Zhongli might be in the cards.