Shadow of Chimalya in Genshin Impact: How to Find and Defeat

In Genshin Impact, “Shadow of Chimali” is an elite mini-boss and a local legend of the Pyro Kingdom, which can only be fought in a special location of the Night Realm. An empowered creature that has taken the form of Hydro Incarnation Wyob, players are challenged to a “Sealing Trial” where they must find a way to turn their opponent's powerful water attacks against them.

In this guide, we will tell you how to find, choose a team and defeat the “Shadow of Chimaglia”, fulfilling all the conditions for obtaining the named achievements from the “Duelist I” collection.

Shadow of Chimaglia Achievements: How to Unlock All

For the battle with the legend “Shadow of Chimaglia”, you can get three new achievements with the following conditions:

• 1st achievement (+5 Primogems): Defeat the “Shadow of Chimalya” for the first time;
• 2nd achievement (+10 Primogems): Defeat the “Shadow of Chimalya” without losing any allies in battle;
• 3rd achievement (+20 Primogems): Defeat the “Shadow of Chimalya” and knock down the hydro shield and interrupt the technique with the absorption of the flow creatures at least once during the battle.

Remember that achievements for local legends cannot be obtained during one battle— for each one you will have to allocate a special fight.

Where is the “Shadow of Chimali”

To get to the special arena for the battle with the “Shadow of Chimali”, move to the center of the Ancestral Temple, and then go down to the lower level of the western half of the location – in the corner of the cliff, not far from the waterfall, there is an obsidian totem that opens the way to the Kingdom of Night.

The battle against the “Shadow of Chimali” is called the “Trial of Sealing»: in battle, you will need heroes of the cryo element, who will help with freezing some of the creature's skills for counterattacks, knocking down the hydro shield and protecting during powerful techniques.

Combat techniques of “Shadow of Chimalya”

Hydro Vyob has many long-range techniques in his arsenal and is almost constantly under a water shield. Let's go through all the skills of “Will of the Horned Shields” in more detail:

• The appearance of “stream creatures” and water columns

At the beginning of the fight, the legend constantly generates homing “flow creatures” (hydro bubbles that slowly burst when approaching the character) and water columns, before the appearance of which the creature casts a blue mark under our hero, in the place of which a geyser will appear.

• A prolonged volley of water surrounded by hydro columns

One of the most dangerous techniques of the legend, which is very similar to Nevillet's charged attack, begins after several geysers appear on the field at once. The enemy remains in place and prepares to release a volley of water for a few seconds, then fires and quickly turns towards its target. This is a rather long attack that no shield or hero with high HP can withstand.

• Whirlwind

The only melee attack, during which the enemy makes a small swing and spins around its axis. Used if your character is too close to the legend.

• Short volleys of water

This technique starts after you knock down the enemy's first bar of durability. In this phase, the enemy stands in the center of the arena and periodically fires short aimed volleys at the target. Then the technique with the absorption of water balls immediately begins.

• A technique with the absorption of “flow creatures”

The second dangerous technique, the interruption of which is associated with receiving the third achievement: after finishing releasing short volleys, the enemy flaps his “wings” and restores the defense bar, and then begins to concentrate. At this time, “stream creatures” appear around the arena, which fly to the legend and, if not stopped, restore damage to the hydro shield. At the end, the enemy awakens and sends a wave across the entire field, causing a fatal amount of damage.

Squad selection

For this battle, you need to allocate at least one slot for a hero who can quickly and often use the cryo element. The easiest way is to form a mono-element pack, or choose only a couple of heroes for freezing, and give the remaining positions to convenient characters with high damage. Let's look at some examples:

• F2P squads

Of the epics, give preference to the two above-mentioned builds. In the fight against the Shadow, you can do without a healer (or take Mika on one of the slots, who will restore HP from the ult + increase the attack speed and physical damage of two-handed weapons) and put in support of two very useful shielders – Layla and Dion. Of course, they will not save from strong attacks, but they will help with passive freezing of the enemy's water projectiles.

In the first squad, Kaeya is great for the phase with absorbing the “flow creatures” – save his ult and activate it when the bubbles appear, then run up to them and send a charged attack towards the legend (the bubbles will instantly freeze from the ice floes flying around the hero). In the second squad, it is better to use Charlotte for this phase – all her attacks deal cryo damage, so they immediately freeze the bubbles. Try to save stamina and spend it on pushing away the ice balls, and when the shield falls, deal as much damage as possible with damage dealers, such as Freminet or Chun Yun.

You can either combine heroes with each other or take them in packs with legendary characters, which we will talk about below.

• Squads with legendary heroes

With legendary heroes, everything is a little simpler: if there is Risley in the squad, you can delegate all control over freezing to him, because the character constantly attacks with cryo. The rest of the pack can be adjusted to the needs of the main DD, for example, taking Furina and Shen He + Qi Qi for additional healing and situational maintenance of the cryo status.

Ayaka and Gan Yu also work well in combination: the heroines will alternate on the field to freeze hydro pillars or flying bubbles in time + both of them can be used for the absorption phase, but Ayaka will be much more maneuverable (coming out of sprint, she immediately freezes any water objects and carries out charged attacks much faster). To ensure the survival of cryo units, Zhongli's shield will come in handy in the squad, as well as Bennett – he will heal a little with the ult and buff damage, but only during moments of enemy inaction.

How to defeat “Shadow of Chimalya”

This local legend can be a problematic opponent for players who do not use cryo characters in battle, as it has many abilities that are almost impossible to counter without freezing. Therefore, you will have to prepare for the battle and learn the weaknesses of the “Shadow of Chimali”, which we will discuss below.

• Don't forget to use food buffs.

You can give preference to increasing crits, damage of the main damager's element or resistance to hydro + increasing defense and reducing stamina consumption (in the absorption phase of “flow creatures” you need to run up to the balls as quickly as possible, which quickly depletes the stamina bar). Refresh the effects during the fight if their duration ends.

• Use the columns as a shield.

If you freeze the geysers that Viob creates in the first half of the fight, you can use them as a shield. For example, you can hide behind them from the bubbles flying at the character.

When Shadow is preparing to take a long hydro volley, hiding behind a frozen column is the only way to survive. Run to the nearest pillar as quickly as possible and freeze it, then stand there until the enemy finishes the attack with a stream of water.

• Freeze and throw the balls at the enemy.

To knock down the hydro shield in the first half of the fight, you will have to freeze the “flow creatures” generated by the enemy, and then counterattack them into the Shadow with a charged attack. This tactic can and should be used on all water bubbles that appear in the arena.

To stop the devastating damage from the move with the absorption of balls, find the place where the first one appears and move clockwise, along the way freezing and reflecting each projectile towards the boss (even if you hit a little from the side, the ball will still fly towards the legend; you don’t have to waste time and stand directly opposite).

How to repeat the fight with the “Shadow of Chimalia”

The fight with the Shadow can be restarted an unlimited number of times if you win the first time or choose to repeat the challenge (English “P” on PC) – in both cases, your hero will be transported to the black obelisk in front of the arena, through which you can also leave the Realm of Night.