Sandrone

5★

CryoClaymoreMain Damage

TL;DR

Sandrone's Charged Attack sends out a little machine that hangs in the air firing beams. That's where nearly all her damage comes from. Fire it too long and the machine overheats. Her Skill puts her on a hovercraft, which cools it back down and dumps the charge into one big shot. So you hold the attack button for the whole fight and tap Skill as soon as the 3rd big hit lands. Three of those, then Burst. She needs an Electro teammate or none of the good version happens.

Rotation

Supports first and make sure your Electro teammate has put Electro on the enemies.
Hold Charged Attack and keep holding it. Count the big hits.
Skill (E) as soon as the 3rd big hit lands, attack button still held down. The hovercraft drains the meter into a big shot and the held button pulls her straight off it into the next Charged Attack.
Three rounds of that, then Burst (Q). It can go earlier if you need it sooner.

Abilities

Charged Attack	Summons the machine and sets it working. It sweeps the ground in front of her as one continuous beam that pulses whenever a big hit lands, filling its own meter as it goes. After the 3rd big hit the meter is nearly full, which is your cue for the Skill. This is her damage.
Skill (E)	She boards the hovercraft and drifts forward for up to 6 seconds, steerable. Two Cryo shots go out as she gets on, the second one several times bigger if the machine's meter was over half full. While she's riding it the meter drains fast, which is what you're after. 4 second cooldown, so you'll use it constantly.
Burst (Q)	Costs 60 Energy. A barrage plus a long beam. The beam gets bigger for every chunk of meter the machine has burned off since the last time you cast it.
The machine's meter	Climbs to 100 while the machine is firing. At 100 it overheats, fires slowly and weakly and stays that way until the meter drops back under 50. The Skill drains it in a moment. The more it drains the bigger the Skill's shot and the Burst beam, which is why you fire through all 3 big hits before pressing it.

The one mechanic to understand

With Sandrone in the party, Superconduct stops happening and Stellar-Conduct happens instead. Triggering it drops a glowing field on the ground and standing in that field is what turns her kit on: her beams get upgraded and the shot she dumps out of the machine hits several times harder. Superconduct needs Cryo and Electro. She supplies the Cryo, so an Electro teammate is a requirement. It's the difference between her real kit and about a third of it.

What actually matters

Skill on the 3rd big hit. Earlier wastes meter the big shot and the Burst beam wanted. Later and the machine overheats into its slow mode. The Skill's 4 second cooldown also means one pressed early isn't back when that happens.
Attack, not Cryo damage. Stellar-Conduct damage completely ignores Cryo damage bonus, so an Attack goblet beats a Cryo one by a distance. This is the single most common way to build her wrong.
Energy Recharge only up to about 140%. Past that it's doing nothing for you and the stats are better spent on Crit.

Gear

Weapon	Crit first, Attack second. Tidal Shadow is free off a Fontaine blueprint and gives a big Attack boost as long as somebody in the team heals occasionally.
Artifacts	4-piece Disenchantment in Deep Shadow, which is built for this kind of damage. 4-piece Gilded Dreams is the stand-in while you farm it.

Sands	Goblet	Circlet	Substats
ATK	ATK	Crit	Crit / ATK

Works well with

Electro

Cryo

Electro is the requirement. A second Cryo character keeps the aura topped up so the reaction keeps firing instead of stalling between her Charged Attacks.

Don't bother

Normal Attacks. Her string exists and it isn't what you use.
Letting go of the attack button. Held down, it cancels the hovercraft on its own, so there is no Normal Attack or dash to time.
Elemental Mastery. It does something for the reaction, it just loses to Crit and Attack in every slot.
Levelling her Burst before her Normal Attack talent. Her Charged Attacks run off the Normal Attack talent, which is nearly all her damage.

Want the full deep dive? Read Sandrone on KeqingMains.

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