Terminology

Inputs/Moves

Character QS Roles

Most of the higher-tiered characters have one or more of the following roles: Pivot, Dynamic, Intro PriorityAdditionally, characters are ranked from C-S for each of their roles to indicate how well they fulfill that role. Fodders do not have a rank.

Playstyles (In terms of QS)

Quickswap Theory

(you can ignore this for the most part)

Quickswap is just swapping out to a different character when your current character is in long animations… right? For the most part, yes; However, most quickswap teams generally include rotations similar (not exact) to the ones below. These rotations could last as long as a few seconds to the entire playthrough.

Types of Swaps

Ordered Swap : 1-2-3-1-2-3

Ordered Swap is swapping to a character with the lowest cooldown, with the goal being to maximize the amount of swaps you make.

Pivot Swap : 1-2-3-2-1

As the name implies, Pivot Swap is continuously swapping in/out of a Pivot Character, or, a character with a 3-Sequence. This is meant for characters with abilities that have a tight window.Assuming the Pivot Character is Character 2, Rotations will start with Character 1→2 (start 3-Sequence)→3→2→1 etc. Characters that fit this role include:

Can't anyone play this role, even without a 3-Sequence?Yes, but 3-Sequence abilities work the best because you have to swap back to them and not swapping them will cause their combo to be wasted. You are better off playing Ordered Swap if the character does not have a 3-Sequence or abilities with a tight timing.

Duo Swap : 1-2-3-2-3-1

This is when two of your characters will be doing most of the damage/swapping. Where, your 2nd/3rd character are either Dynamic or Pivot Characters. Normally, you want to avoid this playstyle if your “neglected” character is a support like Shorekeeper—this is because supports need concerto energy (gain it by just using one BA), and using an Ordered Swap is most effective.

The general idea is that good team comps usually follow or have a variation of the above. Of course, you don’t inherently need to memorize these, as you will probably employ them without even realizing it.

Characters

QS Capability Tierlist

And with that, here is an extensive guide on each character’s greatest QS strengths and weaknesses; as well as how to play them. Each character and combo/quickswap move is labeled with a difficulty, from 1-5, with 1 being easy to use (flexible timing) and 5 being hard to use (tight timing).To try and avoid some confusion, the Value of a combo is labeled from tiers C-S, indicating how useful they are to QS teams. All units are considered to be S0Some swaps may not be listed here because they are not useful. Echo swaps are also not listed, since everyone has access to them.

Visit "Specific Team Compositions" for gameplay examples

• Xiangli Yao
• Changli
• Carlotta
• Camellya
• Brant

Airborne Abilities

Some character pages will refer to this section. Does not include plunges (except for special situations)

- Changli (BA, Skill, Lib, True Sight),
- Jinshi (BA, Skill, Lib),
- Zhezhi (BA, Skill),
- Shorekeeper (If gaining forte)
- Verina (If expending Forte),
- Jiyan (Lib)
- Carlotta (Lib)
- Aalto (With mist gate ideally),
- Camellya (Blossom Mode),
- Roccia (In Beyond Imagination State)
- Yangyang (With full forte stacks)
- Brant (BA, Skills, Forte, Lib)
- Some NQ's

Specific Team Compositions

Videos are rated with a points based system. A 95% = 5 points off, 90% = 10 points off, etc. May expand on this feature more in the future.

98% - Carlotta, Changli, Shorekeeper | TOA 2.1 P2 : 3-4

Ordered Swap

95% - Changli, Xiangli Yao, Shorekeeper | TOA 2.1 : 2-1

Pivot Swap + Ordered Swap

94% - Roccia, Camellya, Havoc Rover | TOA 2.1 P2 : 1-4

Pivot Swap

Changelogs

Logs from 3 versions prior will be deleted

1.5

- Added Brant
- Elaborated more on Pivot Swap

1.4

- Added "98% Carlotta Changli QS"

1.3

- Added "94% Triple Havoc Team Comp"
- Added pivot swap example
- Made some improvements to Changli

• Terminology
• QS Theory
• Characters

Xiangli Yao

Roles: (S) Pivot, (S) Dynamic

Playstyles: Advanced, Casual

(S) Pivot: All of his moves that utilize his 3 hypercubes in Liberation form are all 3-Sequences. This includes Lib Skill and BA+Lib Skill(S) Dynamic: Most moves are swap cancelable.Xiangli Yao is arguably the best QS character, carried by his 3-Sequence Liberation Skill combo.You want to be in his liberation state as much as possible because 95% of his value comes from his Liberation Skill Combo. He needs enough energy regen(>120%) to have his Lib charged after using 3 Hypercubes.Additionally, before casting his liberation, make sure to use his Skill, as it buffs his damage (that is, if you have the Void Thunder Echo Set).

Examples

Example Rotation, which uses all of his hypercubes (Bolded words are combos explained in the combos section):Lib-Swap-Liberation Skill(1/3)-Swap-Liberation Skill(2/3)-Swap-Liberation Skill(3/3)-Swap-NQ-Swap-Liberation Skill(1/3)-Swap-Liberation Skill(2/3)-Swap-Liberation Skill(3/3)-Swap-BA+Lib Skill(1/3)-Swap-BA+Lib Skill(2/3)-Swap-BA+Lib Skill(3/3)If done perfectly, Xiangli Yao's skill will still be on cooldown after casting NQ, for 0.5s-0.9s. However this shouldn't be an issue if you are actually using the skills of your other characters (for simplicity, I tried not to use any other character skills in the video below)

Team Compositions Tips / Playstyle

As a Pivot, Xiangli Yao can be played with virtually anyone. You want to swap out every possible time from his Liberation Skill. Most casual QS players will skip the first or second swap. His second swap out of his 3-Sequence Liberation Skill will be airborne (Unless you clash his hitbox with the underside of a boss), so ideally you want a character that can use a skill or ability in the air. (See "Airborne Abilities" on the home page)As usual, these aren't requirements, and you can resort to the plunge attacks of other characters as a last resort.

Common Combos

• Terminology
• QS Theory
• Characters

Changli

Roles: (S) Dynamic, (A) Aerial, (S) Intro Priority

Playstyles: Advanced

(S) Dynamic: Most of her moves are swap cancelable(A) Aerial: Changli can perform BA's in the air and also use her skill, TS, and liberation in the air.(S) Intro Priority: Changli has the best intro skill in the game, second only to Calcharo. The faster she can fill her forte, the better.Changli loses too much value from being played casually, especially because her damage is not as high compared to other DPS characters.Can easily burn through all abilities if not careful enough.TS = True Sight

Examples

Example opening, which fills her forte to two charges after casting liberation and a full forte (Bolded words are combos explained in the combos section):E-Swap-Lib-Forte-Swap-TS-Swap-Skill-Swap-TS-Swap

Tech

Nightmare Inferno

Nightmare Inferno Rider can be cast in the air, which allows for some more combos than regular IR. Notably, after casting her intro skill, she can use NQ as a way of getting to the ground without waiting for her model to despawn.

Dodge Counter

Changli's dodge counter will automatically start her at BA3, which can be used to quickly gain TS

"Buoyant Skill"

Using Changli's skill against an enemy with high interruption can sometimes cause her to descend slower due to the friction between their hitboxes—this is useful in some openings, where you want her to descend slow so that you have more time to get other character skills inMainly used in an opening that starts with her skill, swaps to other characters, and swaps back to use her liberation + forte. At this point, she will still have her TS buff.However this is a rare occurrence and am unsure how to perform it consistently. Alternatively, to gain more time, jump before casting her skill.

Common Combos

• Terminology
• QS Theory
• Characters

Carlotta

Roles: (S) Dynamic, (B) Intro Priority, (C) Aerial

Playstyles: Advanced?, Casual, Light

(S) Dynamic: Most of her moves are swap cancelable, with the exception of her liberation with her forte buff.(B) Intro Priority: Her intro skill gains crystals which is used to fill her forte. Her forte provides a massive buff for her liberation damage.(C) Aerial: she has some combos that can be chained starting from a decently fast plunge attack, utilized after casting her skill (Eg Plunge-Swap-F-Swap-Lib, Plunge-Swap-Q-Swap). Additionally, her Liberation can be cast in the airDue to her high skill cooldown and reliance on the forte buff, may be less "quickswappy". In advanced playthroughs, it's common to burn through all of her abilities and have a 5-7 second cooldown on her skill, leaving you with no option but BA's or HA's.

Examples

Example Opening (Bolded words are combos explained in the combos section):Skill-Swap-Plunge-Swap-Lib Shots(1/4)-Swap-Lib Shots(2/4)-Swap-Lib Shots(3/4)-Swap-Lib Shots(4/4)-Swap-Lib Final Shot-Q-Swap-Skill-Swap-Plunge

Common Combos

• Terminology
• QS Theory
• Characters

Camellya

Roles: (S) Pivot, (B) Aerial

Playstyles: Advanced

(S) Pivot: Her Spinning combo is always accessible and is a 3-Sequence combo.(B) Aerial: While in Blossom Mode, Camellya works well with aerial-based characters and can hit enemies at a decent range away from the ground.If using Camellya in a QS team, her spinning combo is absolutely vital. However, it also has the tightest windows in the game, making her the hardest character to QS with.

Examples

Example Opening, starts when Camellya is swapped to (Bolded words are combos explained in the combos section):Lib-Q-Swap-Plunge-Spinning Combo(1/3)-Swap-Spinning Combo(2/3)-Swap-Spinning Combo(3/3)-Swap

This video explains Camellya more in depth

Team Compositions Tips / Playstyle

In QS, Camellya should ideally be played as a Pivot that revolves around her Spinning Combo. In some cases, this combo may launch her in the air which can cause other characters to be airborne—be prepared for this situation (See "Airborne Abilities" on the home page). You can alternatively spam her skill, since it has an extremely low cooldown and can basically be spammed.

Common Combos

• Terminology
• QS Theory
• Characters

Brant

Roles: (S) Aerial, (A) Pivot

Playstyles: Advanced, Casual, Light

(S) Aerial: His primary way of gaining Bravo is through his aerial BA's(A) Pivot: Only reason he is not an S is because of lack of team synergy and using him as a Single Pivot character will decrease stamina dramatically.

Team Compositions Tips / Playstyle

Any characters that work well in the air will work well with Brant—while he works alright on the ground, other characters will have trouble attacking if they have to plunge before casting a skill. See "Airborne Abilities" in the "Characters" page. Ideally, you want to play Brant as a Pivot character, due to his slightly tight timings (not as tight as Camellya Spinning Combo, but not as free as Roccia Forte) with his airborne BA-Chain (He resets to the ground if not swapped back in time).
Some examples with other teammates are shown below (Yangyang Forte, Aalto, Camellya)

Evidently, Brant will always use his Aerial BA-Chain while airborne, meaning that another way of getting Brant to use his BA-Chain is by casting skills that will spawn Brant in the air (Changli E, NQ's, Roccia, etc). Similarly, Brant is able to preserve his airborne status even after using his Plunge (E while airborne) if there is someone to stall staying in the air (Aalto, Changli, Jinshi, etc).The video below shows how Changli can stall.

Additionally, there is a way to continue Brant's BA-Chain. When using Brant's outro skill, the cooldown of his swap timer will continue to decrease while stopping his animation.

Brant's Forte also has a staggering hitbox, and can be used to clear up to three waves. (Say, if enemy 1 died to his forte, and enemy 2 spawned right after; enemy 2 would be hit by his forte as well)

Examples

Example Playthrough

Video Guide for Brant

Common Combos