Raiden Shogun

5★

ElectroPolearmMain Damage

TL;DR

Raiden does two jobs at once. Her Skill sits on the team chipping in Electro damage and making everyone's Bursts hit harder. Her Burst puts her on the field for 7 seconds of very large numbers that also refill the whole party's Energy, hers included. Cast hers last, after everyone else has used theirs. It hits harder for it. Energy Recharge is her damage stat, which is unusual and makes her one of the easier 5-stars to build.

Rotation

Skill (E) first, before anything else, so the Burst buff is up for the whole team.
Swap through the rest of your team and use all of their Bursts.
Come back, Burst (Q), swing for the full 7 seconds.
Swap out. Everyone's Energy is mostly refilled, so go straight into the next rotation.

Abilities

Skill (E)	Leaves a floating eye that hits enemies about once a second while your on-field character attacks. It also buffs the whole team's Burst damage. It lasts 25 seconds, long enough to cover a rotation.
Burst (Q)	She pulls out a very big sword for 7 seconds. Her attacks turn Electro and count as Burst damage rather than Normal Attack damage. They hand Energy back to the whole party, her included, five times over the 7 seconds.
Her stacks	Every time a teammate uses a Burst, Raiden banks stacks in proportion to its Energy cost. The more she has when she casts, the harder her Burst hits. Her own Burst gives none. There is a counter, you will never need to look at it.

The one mechanic to understand

Energy Recharge is her damage stat.

On most characters you stack Energy Recharge until the Burst comes back on time and then stop. On Raiden every point above 100% keeps paying, turning into Electro damage bonus and into how much Energy her Burst gives back, to her as much as to the team. So there's no such thing as wasted Energy Recharge on her and you never have to choose between casting the burst on time and doing damage. Around 220% is comfortable if she's your only Electro character, noticeably less if she has company.

What actually matters

Burst last. Her stacks come from the Energy your other characters spend on their Bursts, so an 80 Energy Burst is worth twice a 40 and going first throws away a big chunk of her damage. Skill first, everyone else's Bursts, hers at the end.
Energy Recharge over everything. Substats, sands, weapon. Every point of it does something for her.
Level her Burst talent first. Her swings during the Burst count as Burst damage, so the Normal Attack talent does almost nothing for her. Burst, then Skill, leave normals last.

Gear

Weapon	Energy Recharge. The Catch is free from the Inazuma fishing association and adds Burst damage and Burst Crit on top, which is the exact shape of her kit. Refine it to R5, the materials are cheap.
Artifacts	4-piece Emblem of Severed Fate. It converts Energy Recharge into Burst damage and all of her damage is Burst damage.

Sands	Goblet	Circlet	Substats
ER / ATK	Electro DMG	Crit	Crit / ATK

Take the Energy Recharge sands unless her Burst is already coming back every rotation without it.

Works well with

Hydro

Pyro

Dendro

Pyro is on the list because her most famous team is a pair of Pyro characters plus a Hydro one, all of whom are hungry for the Energy she hands back. Dendro is the other direction, where her Electro sets off Aggravate, or Hyperbloom if there is Hydro in the team too.

Don't bother

Watching the stack counter. Skill first, teammates' Bursts, hers last. The counter looks after itself.
Levelling her Normal Attack talent early. It barely touches her actual damage.
Worrying you have too much Energy Recharge. There isn't such a thing on her.
An Attack goblet. Electro damage wins once she has a reasonable attack base from the sands and her weapon.

Want the full deep dive? Read Raiden Shogun on KeqingMains.

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