Zhuang Fangyi build guide — the sword immortal, her cold start, and the trap in her team
By DayOneFix Editorial · August 24, 2026
You went to hard pity for her — the top comment thread on the biggest Chinese guide is literally people reporting in as the “120 plus 80 double pity club” — and now your first thirty seconds of any fight do approximately nothing. That is Zhuang Fangyi working correctly. She is a ramp carry: she converts setup into one of the highest damage ceilings in the game, and if you cannot afford the setup she is the wrong pick for that fight.
The CN nickname is 「T0劍仙」, T0 sword immortal, from 叫我棉被’s April guide — about 1.41 million plays, the largest audience any single-operator Endfield guide has outside Laevatain’s. 让你爱上学习 went with 「九劍誅仙，五雷轟頂」 (about 615,000 plays), roughly nine swords to slay an immortal, five thunderbolts to the skull. Neither of those is subtle, and neither is wrong.
First, the thing most pages bury: she is not pullable right now
Zhuang Fangyi is a limited operator. She headlined [Thunder of Renewal] when version 1.2 [At the Wake of Spring] launched on 17 April 2026, stayed in the Chartered pool for three banners, and left. Check it against Gryphline’s own banner tables: she is in the 1.3 [Expunger of Sin] pool, and she is gone from both 1.4 pools. She is also not in the RE-Factor Headhunting #1 pool opening 24 September, which runs Yvonne, Ember, Lifeng, Ardelia, Last Rite and Pogranichnik.
So this page is for people who already have her. If you do not, the only honest answer is that Gryphline has published nothing about which operator any RE-Factor banner after the first will feature.
What is official about her, which is three things
| Fact | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| 6★ Striker, Electric, entry 11 of 33 | Gryphline’s official operator page |
| She performs dive attacks | 1.4 [Homecoming] update notes, 16 July 2026 — a fix for dive attacks lacking vibration feedback on mobile |
| Released 17 April 2026 on [Thunder of Renewal], with a free Combat Drills trial | 1.2 [At the Wake of Spring] update notes |
There is a fourth thing hiding in the 1.4 notes that nobody flagged as a Zhuang Fangyi buff but functionally is one: “After the controlled operator performs a single dive attack, following up with a basic attack within a short time will not reset the basic attack sequence.” For an operator whose kit is built on dive attacks and on holding basic attack, that is a real quality-of-life change to her combo, shipped in July.
Everything else below is community testing. Gryphline has never published a damage number, a multiplier, or a ranking for her.
The rotation everybody actually copies
The most-copied explanation of how she works is not in a video at all — it is a comment with 840 likes under 叫我棉被’s guide, and it is more concrete than most write-ups.
The core rule it opens with: the more of her blades are on the field, the higher her damage and the faster her ultimate charges. (CN calls them 青霆劍; English databases render it as “Sunderblade”. Gryphline has printed no English name for the resource in any bulletin we have read, so treat both as community vocabulary.)
The loop, as that comment lays it out: take direct control of Zhuang Fangyi and hold basic attack. Use Perlica’s battle skill to put the Electric status on the target. When Zhuang Fangyi’s heavy attack lands, it triggers the three-way link with Perlica and Arclight — fire it immediately. Arclight’s link comes back up in roughly two seconds, so wait for it rather than pressing something else. Then use Zhuang Fangyi’s battle skill to convert the built-up conductive status on the enemy into blades, which triggers Arclight’s link again. The first battle skill after her ultimate costs no energy, which is the detail people most often waste.
春风满马’s version of the same thing (about 344,000 plays) is titled 「丟掉大腦？」 — throw your brain away? — and his own description is refreshingly honest about what it is: a rotation pulled and tested on banner day, not the highest-damage line, but a loop that holds together and is lazy enough to run without thinking. That is usually the version you want.
The cold start is the entire argument against her
This is where the comment sections earn their keep, because they are much blunter than the guides.
Under 春风满马’s video, 227 likes: her only real weakness is a weak cold start at low Potential — and the only content that actually demands a cold start is [Umbral Monument], where he plays the Ember team anyway. Under 叫我棉被’s, 501 likes, going the other way: on a cold start Laevatain genuinely is better; the fastest cold starts anyone has shown still take about thirty seconds, and you deal no damage during them, whereas Laevatain gets two enhanced basic attacks off in the same window.
The joke version, 174 likes: “feels like I pulled another Laevatain.” The reply, 149 likes: “slower to start than Laevatain, and Laevatain’s team has Wulfgard as a flint.” The very top comment on that guide, 1,440 likes, is Laevatain speaking: “What do you mean, an army of one? Where are my teammates?” — the whole complaint about Zhuang Fangyi compressed into one line.
The community did partly solve it. YZ-月咒 published a dedicated “30-second-plus rapid cold start” method (about 318,000 plays), and 叫我棉被’s guide ships a dual-Vanguard cold-start comp as one of its three recommended lines specifically for this. But the honest summary is: she is the strongest thing you own in a long fight and a liability in a short one.
The counter-evidence, for balance: YZ-月咒 took an Electric team to the top of Contingency Contract at risk 54 in July (about 399,000 plays), captioned “it was very hard, but look, I still did it.”
The trap: Perlica needs a different weapon
This is the single most useful practical warning in her whole coverage, and it has its own 489,000-play video from 拿破豚 titled, in effect, before you build Zhuang Fangyi, Perlica must change weapons to join the Electric team — avoid falling into the trap.
The shape of the problem is that Perlica is not being brought as a damage dealer here. She is the status applicator that makes Zhuang Fangyi’s loop close, so the weapon that served her elsewhere is the wrong weapon in this comp. If you slot Perlica in with whatever she was holding and wonder why the rotation stutters, this is why.
Two more team notes worth having:
- The frame is Zhuang Fangyi + Perlica + Arclight, with a flexible fourth. That is 金乌’s framework (about 723,000 plays), and he is explicit that he is giving you a skeleton rather than a fixed list, because the fourth slot is genuinely free.
- Your supports matter more than she does. The wittiest comment under 春风满马’s guide, 318 likes: “everyone’s arguing about Zhuang Fangyi’s strength; I quietly gave Ardelia another Potential.” Notice what her core team is — Perlica, Arclight and Avywenna are all 5★. A T0 carry that runs on 5★ support is the most F2P-friendly top-tier line in the game, which is exactly why Paik ranks Avywenna as the next strongest carry after Zhuang Fangyi, “because she is only a five-star and her teams can be very free-to-play friendly.”
On weapons, the community consensus is about a weapon that is not hers: Thermite Cutter keeps getting called the most useful universal 6★ in the game. One comment, 482 likes: it is “too versatile”. Another underneath: “my one Thermite Cutter is used by three different people in three teams.”
What changed since April — and the deadline that is actually yours
She released in 1.2. Two versions later, two different operators made her better, and both got their own dedicated guides from 巴晓白:
- Arcane, in 1.4 — “this Arcane spoiled Zhuang Fangyi rotten”, about 653,000 plays, 18 July
- Liino, later in 1.4 — “Liino spoiled Zhuang Fangyi again”, about 121,000 plays, 9 August
That second one is time-sensitive for you. Liino’s banner runs until the version handover, and the handover is not 30 August, which is what this site said until 24 August 2026: GRYPHLINE’s press materials for [Dreamscape of Wind and Snow], issued on 21 August, date the version to 2 September 2026. If you own Zhuang Fangyi and were writing off the Liino decision as already lost, you have days rather than hours. The full working is on our 1.5 guide and the Liino banner page.
Where CN and EN disagree about her
They agree she is top-tier. They disagree about whether she is still the answer.
CN never demoted her. 「T0劍仙」 is still the framing, and her guides remain the second-most-watched single-operator coverage in the game.
English tier lists put her at the top and put someone else there too. Game8’s list, updated 9 August 2026, seats Arcane and Zhuang Fangyi together in SS, calling her “the strongest DPS currently” with “exceptional damage” and a lengthy ultimate that works in both single-target and multi-wave content — while noting she “requires significant setup time”. Pocket Tactics, updated 1 August, also has her SS and does not list Arcane at all, which tells you how unsettled the English picture is rather than how strong Arcane is.
English creator attention has moved, though. The big English single-operator guides for her are four months old — IWinToLose’s, about 208,000 views; Braxophone’s “SHE’S INCREDIBLE!”, about 82,000; KyoStinV’s “FANGYI IS AWSOME!!”, about 104,000; Apel calling her flatly “The STRONGEST OPERATOR”. The newest ones, from the last month, are all about Arcane. That is a shift in what people are building, not a measurement of who hits harder.
And one dissenting CN voice from before she even released, worth keeping for calibration: 扳机厨ww’s February video (about 286,000 plays) showcased a 36-second Electric clear and was titled, in Perlica’s voice, “Endministrator, don’t pull Zhuang Fangyi!” — the argument being that Electric was already fine. Nobody repeats that today. Pre-release strength takes have a poor record in this game.
FAQ
Is Zhuang Fangyi still good in Arknights: Endfield? Yes. CN still calls her 「T0劍仙」 and English tier lists still place her in their top band — Game8’s August list has her in SS alongside Arcane, describing her as “the strongest DPS currently” with significant setup time. None of that is official; Gryphline publishes no rankings.
Can I still pull Zhuang Fangyi? No. She is limited, and she left the Chartered Headhunting pool three banners after [Thunder of Renewal], which you can verify in Gryphline’s own banner tables — she is in the 1.3 pools and absent from both 1.4 pools. She is also not in the RE-Factor Headhunting #1 pool opening 24 September, and Gryphline has said nothing about later RE-Factor banners.
Why does Zhuang Fangyi do no damage at the start of a fight? Because she is a ramp carry. Her damage scales with the blades she accumulates on the field, and CN players report that even optimised cold starts take roughly thirty seconds before real output begins. The usual answers are a dual-Vanguard cold-start comp, or bringing a different team to content that punishes slow starts.
What is the best Zhuang Fangyi team? The frame CN converged on is Zhuang Fangyi, Perlica and Arclight with a flexible fourth slot — most often Ardelia, Gilberta or another Electric 5★. That is community consensus, not an official recommendation. Critically, Perlica needs a weapon appropriate to this comp rather than whatever she was holding elsewhere.
Does Liino improve Zhuang Fangyi? CN guides say yes — 巴晓白 made a dedicated video for the pairing in August. Liino is the Electric Supporter whose banner closes at the version handover, which Gryphline’s press materials date to 2 September 2026.
Is Zhuang Fangyi worth building for free-to-play players? Her core supports — Perlica, Arclight, Avywenna — are all 5★, which makes hers one of the cheaper top-tier lines to actually finish. The expensive part of Endfield is rarely the carry.
Related
- Endfield best characters: what to build, and why
- Endfield best teams: the comps and the logic behind them
- Last Rite build guide
- What version 1.5 “Dreamscape of Wind and Snow” actually brings
- The Liino banner and its deadline
- Liino build guide
- Endfield gacha guide: banner types, pity and F2P planning
Sources
Zhuang Fangyi’s rarity, class, element and roster position (6★, Striker, Electric, entry 11 of 33) are from Gryphline’s official operator page, read 24 August 2026, using that page’s own class and element labels. Her release date, banner name, trial availability and the composition of every Chartered pool she appeared in — and her absence from both version 1.4 pools, which is how we can state that she has left — are quoted from the official “At the Wake of Spring” Version Update Notes of 17 April 2026, the “Sketches of Lost Heirlooms” notes of 5 June 2026 and the “Homecoming” notes of 16 July 2026. Her dive attacks, and the dive-attack-into-basic-attack change that benefits her, are both quoted from the [Homecoming] notes. The RE-Factor Headhunting #1 pool and its 24 September date come from the “Dreamscape of Wind and Snow” Version DEV Comm of 22 August 2026. The 2 September version date is from GRYPHLINE’s own press materials for the version, issued 21 August 2026 and carried in full by Gematsu among others; it is publisher-issued but does not appear in any bulletin on the official news hub, and our 1.5 guide sets out that distinction. Community material is reported as opinion with the creator named and Bilibili play counts read 24 August 2026: 叫我棉被 (「T0劍仙」 guide, about 1.41m, and the comment thread beneath it, which supplies the rotation at 840 likes, the Laevatain cold-start comparison at 501 and the “army of one” line at 1,440), 春风满马 (「丟掉大腦？」 lazy rotation, about 344k, whose own description states it is not the highest-damage line, plus its comments), 让你爱上学习 (about 615k), 拿破豚 (the Perlica weapon warning, about 489k), 金乌___ (team framework, about 723k, and the Thermite Cutter comments beneath it), YZ-月咒 (rapid cold start about 318k; Contingency Contract risk 54 clear about 399k), 巴晓白 (the Arcane pairing about 653k, the Liino pairing about 121k) and 扳机厨ww (the pre-release “don’t pull her” argument, about 286k). English reads are attributed to IWinToLose Gaming, Braxophone, KyoStinV, Apel, DYSPRO and Paik, with YouTube view counts read the same day. Tier placements are Game8’s list as updated 9 August 2026 and Pocket Tactics’ as updated 1 August 2026. The blade resource has no published English name in any Gryphline bulletin we have read; 青霆劍 is the Chinese community’s term and “Sunderblade” is a third-party database rendering. Checked 24 August 2026.