Lyney

5★

PyroBowMain Damage

TL;DR

Lyney is a bow character who lives on fully charged shots. Each one costs him a slice of health and banks a stack, up to five of them. His Skill spends the lot for a big Pyro hit that heals him back up. Five aimed shots then Skill, over and over. He wants the enemy on fire and other Pyro characters in the party.

Rotation

Burst (Q) to open. Three seconds as a cat, then fireworks, a free hat and a free stack.
Hold the Charged Attack until the flame runs down the arrow, then fire. A hat drops on the target and his health ticks down.
Repeat until you have five stacks. His health bottoms out at 60% and stops there.
Skill (E) to spend them all. It heals him and pops the hat at the same time.
Straight back into aimed shots while the Skill's 15 seconds run down.

Abilities

Charged Attack	Two levels of charge. A partial charge is a plain Pyro arrow. A full charge is the one that matters: Pyro damage, a hat summoned where it lands, a bite out of his own health and a stack banked. Five stacks is the cap.
Skill (E)	15 second cooldown. Clears every stack for an area Pyro hit that grows with the number cleared. It heals him off his Max HP at the same time. If a hat is out it explodes as well.
Burst (Q)	60 Energy, back in 15 seconds. He turns into a cat for 3 seconds, dropping flames on anything he runs past, then finishes with fireworks, a hat and one stack. You can cancel the cat early.
The hat	Sits there for 4 seconds taunting enemies, with health based on his Max HP. When it breaks or expires it fires a Pyro shot at something nearby. One at a time.

The one mechanic to understand

Only a fully charged shot takes health and banks a stack, so a rushed shot is a wasted one. The health cost is capped: it never takes him below 60%. The Skill hands a chunk back every time you spend the stacks. On top of that, the hat each shot summons pays him 3 Energy and extra damage when it lands, but only if that shot actually cost him health. So the whole character comes down to charging every shot properly.

What actually matters

The enemy needs to be on fire. His passive adds 60% damage against anything with Pyro on it, so his opening shot is his weakest and everything after it benefits. Each other Pyro character in the party adds another 20%, up to 100% total.
Don't heal him. The health loss is the mechanic and the Skill covers it. A healer keeping him topped up just wastes their time, though it doesn't stop him banking stacks.
Crit and Attack. His hits scale off Attack. The stack payout is a multiplier on top of that. HP only decides how big the health cost feels.

Gear

Weapon	Crit and Attack. Prototype Crescent is craftable in Mondstadt and gets a big Attack boost whenever a charged shot hits a weak point, which is what he fires all day.
Artifacts	4-piece Marechaussee Hunter. It hands him Crit Rate whenever his own health moves, which with him is every shot and every Skill.

Sands	Goblet	Circlet	Substats
ATK	Pyro DMG	Crit	Crit / ATK

Works well with

Pyro

Anemo

A second and third Pyro character is his own passive asking for it. Anemo pulls the enemies into a pile so a stationary archer can hit them all. Hydro is the awkward one: it washes the Pyro off the enemy that his damage bonus needs.

Don't bother

Tapped shots. They cost no health, bank no stack and summon no hat.
Spending the Skill on one or two stacks. Get to five unless he's about to die.
Aiming for weak points. His shots are Pyro damage, not a marksman's headshot.
Worrying about the hat's health. It's meant to be broken.

Want the full deep dive? Read Lyney on KeqingMains.

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