Albedo is a synthetic human being created by Rhinedottir (Gold), an alchemist from Khaenri'ah.

He was released in Version 1.2. His Version 2.3 rerun brought new weapons and artifacts for him.

Talents

Elemental Skill

Albedo is basically used for his Elemental Skill, which creates a 10m radius circle that does Transient Bloom Geo damage within the AoE against opponents that are hit.

The Transient Bloom damage scales with Albedo's DEF.

It also creates a Solar Isotoma "elevator" that one can stand on to gain height to do (high) plunging attacks. The max vertical height the elevator reaches is around the height of Zhongli's stele.

The skill has a 30 second duration and 4 second cooldown, so similar to Raiden's skill, it can basically last forever, and Albedo hardly needs to be on the field. So he can spend more time doing alchemy research.

The skill also generates Geo particles, so Albedo can be used as a "Geo battery".

Elemental Burst

With one of Albedo's passives, using his burst will grant 125 EM to nearby party members for 10s. This can be useful for reaction teams (vaporize, melt).

It costs 40 energy, so Albedo usually does not need much ER.

Constellations

His constellations are overall ok. His C4 increases plunging attack DMG by 30% for those within the Solar Isotoma field, which is ok for Xiao.

Build

Artifacts

Since Version 2.3, the Husk of Opulent Pines is Albedo's BiS.

Before Version 2.3, Albedo could be run on 2 piece Archaic Petra and 2 piece Noblesse. The Golden Troupe set (Version 4.0) is also strong for Albedo, but does not give DEF like the Opulent set does.

Artifact Stats

A typical Albedo build is to go for DEF on the sands, Geo DMG Bonus on the goblet, and CRIT (or DEF) on the circlet. Substats include CRIT, DEF, and sometimes ATK if one is building more into burst damage.

Weapons

The Version 2.3 event sword Cinnabar Spindle (which one can get to R5) is Albedo's BiS.

Albedo has a solid 3 star option that is usually better than many 4 star options:

• Harbinger of Dawn R5: However, the Cinnabar sword is usually more consistent against the new Corrosion effect (which will lower Albedo's HP even if he is not on field).

Among 4 stars:

• Cinnabar Spindle: with this one can go for a CRIT circlet over a DEF circlet, especially when the Husk set gives DEF as well
• Festering Desire is solid

The 5 star options are mostly good. Note that as Albedo's skill damage scales with DEF, he may not need too much ATK:

• Jade Cutter: providing CRIT Rate but low base ATK is a very suitable option for Albedo

Teams

Albedo is usually run for Geo resonance with Zhongli. This pair is then stuck on to other teams that center around a hypercarry.

Albedo has been used in the following top-tier ("meta") teams (also popular in Spiral Abyss):

1. Xiao-Jean-Albedo-Zhongli (although this does not deal as much damage as Xiao-Bennett teams)
2. Hu Tao-Xingqiu-Albedo-Zhongli (although this may not deal as much damage as Hu Tao-Xingqiu-Thoma-Kazuha)
3. Diluc-Xingqiu-Albedo-Zhongli (with Diluc in place of Hu Tao; though a Diluc-Xingqiu-Bennett-Venti team can usually do more damage)
4. Itto-Gorou-Albedo-Bennett (this is one of the teams where Albedo is one of the best picks)

A Ganyu melt team (Ganyu-Xiangling) often needs Bennett to battery Xiangling, and the fourth spot is usually contested with Kazuha, Zhongli, or Venti, so Ganyu does not need Albedo here.

Another question is whether one can use Ningguang (with Thrilling Tales) in place of Albedo for the above teams. Usually, Albedo provides more off-field utility than Ningguang, so it is better to run Albedo.

Albedo is overall a solid support that is typically used for more defensive, comfortable gameplay and Geo resonance. That said, there are usually more offensive teams that can deal higher DPS.

Calculations

At Lv10 his E does 240.48% DEF at most once every 2 seconds. The mv is then $$z = 240.48/2 = 120.24\% \text{ DEF}$$ Suppose Albedo has 4 piece Husk with a Geo DMG goblet and is Lv90. His total damage bonus with max stacks is $$46.6 + 24 + 28.8 = 99.4$$ So the dps is $$x = 1.994z = 239.75856\% \text{ DEF}$$ If one has Geo Resonance (giving 15% more DMG bonus) the dps is $$x_g = 2.144z = 257.79456\% \text{ DEF}$$

Note that the dmg bonus from geo resonance will not work off-field. As Albedo is usually played off field, he will not receive the 15% dmg bonus then. He will only get it if he is on field and shielded. However, the -20% geo res shred will still apply to Albedo's damage, even if off-field.

Often Albedo is played in Itto-Gorou teams, but since Gorou's buffs apply to on-field characters ('active' characters), Albedo will not receive Gorou's buffs either.

Suppose Albedo has 3000 DEF, whereas a typical dps character may have 2000 ATK. With Bennett, characters can reach 3000 ATK. So the DEF to ATK conversion is roughly 1 to 1. It is possible to boost Albedo's DEF with Gorou, but Gorou is more of a niche character compared to Bennett. Note since the damage scales with DEF, it is unaffected by ATK boosts such as Bennett's buff.

The scaling is ok, but the advantage really is the 100% uptime. It is literally free damage.

Weapon

The 2.3 cinnabar weapon gives 69% def and increases Albedo's E dmg by x% of his DEF. Since Albedo's E scales with his DEF, this weapon effectively increases his E scaling. Cinnabar is sometimes compared with the pjc and harbinger of dawn.

The r5 cinnabar gives 80% more scaling to Albedo's E (increasing the dps by 33%). The mv becomes $$z = (240.48 + 80)/2 = 160.24\% \text{ DEF}$$ The dps is then $$x = 319.51856$$ With geo resonance it is $$x_g = 343.55456$$ This makes Albedo do more damage than Ayaka (and Navia as a corollary) in some situations.

E cast and Q

Casting his E also does some damage. He can do it once per 4s. And this is possible in quickswap teams with Navia (say Albedo-Bennett-Furina-Navia). The additional dps is 234.72% atk scaling. But if he is built on defense and has 1k atk, the effective scaling is 1/3 of this (compared to 3k atk). But in such a team, he will probably have Bennett too to reach 2k atk, so effective scaling is 2/3. The E cast dps is then $$x_e = 1.994*234.72*(2/3)/4 = 78.00528$$

We can also consider his Q dps in such a quickswap team. It has 660.96% atk scaling and generates 7 fatal blossoms if his E is deployed. And apparently there is some noise in USA media about this having quadratic scaling. Each fatal blossom has 129.6% atk scaling (lv 10). The total scaling is $$660.96+7*129.6 = 1568.16$$ which is more than Navia's E nuke. Say he has 2k atk (with Bennett) so it gets 2/3 effective scaling. The dps is $$x_q = 1.994*1568.16*(2/3)/12 = 173.71728$$ which is non-negligible. It is not like an epsilon that can shrink to 0 in calculus. Whoever said casting his Q is a dps loss is smoking copium.

The total dps is (without geo resonance) $$x + x_e + x_q = 571.24112$$ which is actually quite high.

But note to achieve this Albedo wants to be in a team with Bennett and a quickswap team where he can actually cast his E once per 4s (so a Navia team as this may not be possible in an Itto team if Itto takes 11s of field time). So it is not just that Albedo helps Vicky, but Vicky helps Albedo too. The corollary of above is that in an Albedo-Bennett-Navia team, Albedo can actually do the most damage. We were surprised as well.

Does this make Albedo the best geo dps since day 1? By calculations, Arataki Itto is still the best geo dps in the game. But we were surprised at how much dps Albedo can actually do. Turns out the Chalk Kreideprinz has much unlocked potential that Gold is not telling us.

So rather than say it is Albedo supporting Vicky, it is more like Vicky is supporting Albedo. Thus it seems Vicky's best teams are when she acts as a support to other geo dps like Albedo and Arataki Itto (and yes they appreciate and enjoy the service of her excellency, her royal majesty, the mafia queen). So we have Furina as a support/subdps, Navia as a support/battery/subdps. As of 4.4 Fontaine still does not have a strong 5* female dps that can give the men a run for their money. Perhaps we need to tap into other parts of Alexandrina Victoria's name to make her legacy shine.

The release of Fontaine characters has had the effect of revisiting the original Mondstadt characters and realizing how good they actually are. So perhaps there was no need for a geo renaissance. Geo was already chad with characters like Albedo and Arataki Itto. Just pair them with Bennett.

Golden Troupe

Golden 4p is also viable as it gives 70% dmg bonus on E. And Furina Q can give more dmg bonus to Albedo. And golden may actually be a dps increase if we follow similar calcs as above and assume same level of def. Another consideration is that Golden only buffs his E damage (not his Q) but this may not matter too much.