Clear Stygian Onslaught 7.2 in Genshin Impact with Stellar-Conduct against Wavebinder, double Hydro against Emperor of Fire and Iron, and Lunar-Crystallize plus healing against Radiant Moongecko.
The November cycle, Battle Amid the Great Waves, demands three teams that can handle different defensive mechanics. This walkthrough focuses on Fearless, where shields, summoned crabs, and a healing check can consume much of your damage window. Dire uses the same boss mechanics, but level 110 opponents and disabled Exalted Ones buffs demand more from your characters. Build around each encounter's counter first, then choose your damage dealer.
Prepare your difficulty and three teams
Unlock the challenge
Reach Adventure Rank 20 and complete Archon Quest Prologue: Act III, Song of the Dragon and Freedom. Then complete the Tumult Subduer unlock quest near the Teleport Waypoint south of Sal Terrae and north of Mingyun Village in Liyue. Interact with the ley line disturbance to enter the challenge menu. Perilous Trail is recommended for the story experience, but it is optional.
Normal, Advancing, and Hard are available from the start. Clearing Hard unlocks Menacing, followed by Fearless and Dire in sequence. From Menacing onward, you cannot reuse a character across battlefields, so plan all three parties before assigning your strongest supports.
Assign characters by the mechanic they solve
The following lineup uses 12 different characters and gives each battlefield its preferred counter. These are recommended compositions, not guaranteed clears at every investment level.
| Battlefield | Recommended team | Why it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Wavebinder | Mitya, Odette, Yae Miko, Valeriy | Mitya's Electro damage counts as Stellar Glimmer damage, matching the boss's strongest weakness. |
| Emperor of Fire and Iron | Skirk, Escoffier, Furina, Vodyanitsa | Two Hydro supports handle Pyro defenses while Skirk supplies damage after the horns break. |
| Radiant Moongecko | Zibai, Linnea, Columbina, Illuga | Lunar-Crystallize handles the Geo ward, while Linnea supplies healing for Radiant Cocoon. |
If you are upgrading characters for both endgame modes, check your Genshin Impact Imaginarium Theater 7.2 roster alongside these parties to prioritize upgrades that serve both challenges. The alternatives below help when one of these compositions competes for a character you need elsewhere.
How to beat Wavebinder
Wavebinder favors sustained Electro application, especially Stellar-Conduct. Hydro damage is a poor main damage choice because the boss has high Hydro resistance. A powerful non-Hydro carry can work, but its supports still need to control Wavebinder's defensive cycle.
Control Courage during drinking and Valiant Assault
Wavebinder drinks from a flask to build Courage. When Courage fills on Fearless or Dire, it enters Valiant Assault, generates a shield, and greatly increases its resistances. Electro resistance increases by a smaller amount than its other resistances.
Wavebinder's Valiant Assault
Apply Radiance: Stellar Glimmer while Wavebinder drinks to slow Courage accumulation. Electro damage also reduces Courage, with Electro damage counted as Stellar Glimmer reaction damage reducing it much more effectively. Without Stellar interruption, the first shield can appear roughly 10 seconds into the fight; Stellar teams can delay it to around 30 seconds. Treat those timings as composition-dependent, not fixed rotation markers.
Once Valiant Assault begins, keep attacking with Electro. Courage drains during this state, and Electro accelerates that drain. When the state ends, Wavebinder takes backlash damage based on damage absorbed by its shield. Stellar Glimmer reaction damage increases that backlash, so this phase can contribute meaningful boss damage instead of becoming a wait for the shield to expire.
Position near Wavebinder's tail when possible. You can avoid many of its attacks there while maintaining your application.
Choose an alternative team
| Alternative | Strength | Main concern |
|---|---|---|
| Sandrone, Odette, Yae Miko, Qiqi | Stellar-Conduct helps remove the shield quickly. | Time the main damage rotation around the shield break. |
| Vesna, Odette, Faruzan, Vodyanitsa | Stellar-Swirl offers another reaction-based approach. | Shield removal still needs to be fast enough to preserve damage time. |
| A strong non-Stellar team with Fischl | Fischl supplies the Electro application needed to shorten the defensive phase. | This approach needs substantially stronger damage investment. |
Cryo Traveler can also enable Stellar reactions alongside characters such as Yae Miko, Cyno, or Mitya. Treat that as a team core to build around, not a complete four-character composition.
If you cannot field a Stellar team, prioritize Fischl as the Electro support. Breaking the shield through raw damage alone places a much higher demand on your damage output, and the short intervals between shields leave little room to recover lost time.
How to beat Emperor of Fire and Iron
Emperor of Fire and Iron starts with Pyro protection supplied by its twin molten horns. On Fearless, that protection raises its elemental resistance to 160%, or 210% against Pyro. Attack the horns to remove the defense before committing your main damage rotation.
Use Hydro application to destroy the horns
The shield contains 64 Pyro Gauge Units. Hydro needs 32 Gauge Units of application to remove it, compared with 64 for Electro. Individual hits do not always apply an element because attacks have internal cooldowns, so frequent damage numbers do not automatically mean fast shield removal.
Xingqiu is useful here because both hits of his Elemental Skill apply Hydro, supplying two Gauge Units together. His Burst provides further application. Xingqiu and Yelan are a workable double-Hydro support pairing if your main damage dealer is not Hydro.
Watch for attacks that lower the horns toward the ground. Use those openings to connect your elemental attacks with the shield's actual source. Destroying the horns deals damage equal to 10% of the boss's maximum HP and prevents their restoration for a period, opening the window for your strongest Skills and Bursts.
Defeat Sternshield Crabs and stop Radiant Coronation
On Fearless and Dire, Sternshield Crabs channel Pyro into the horns. Up to three can be present at once. Exhausting a crab's Pyro defeats it, causing it to collide with the Emperor, damage the horns, and deal boss damage proportional to the damage the crab received.
Use Hydro attacks that can reach both the boss and nearby crabs when possible. Attacking these summons advances the boss fight instead of merely diverting damage away from your main target.
During Radiant Coronation, the Emperor charges a large area attack. Destroy the twin molten horns to interrupt it. Move into a position where your Hydro attacks can reach the horns; hitting the body without removing them does not satisfy the interruption condition.
Pick a Hydro-focused alternative
Neuvillette, Furina, Xilonen, and Kazuha provide a double-Hydro alternative with broad area coverage. Neuvillette can apply Hydro to the Emperor and its summons, but their jumping attacks can interrupt his Charged Attacks. Leave room to dodge instead of holding your position through every attack.
Mualani, Mona, Xilonen, and Sucrose are another option. With this composition, prioritize connecting attacks directly with the boss and its horns. You do not need a Hydro carry for this battlefield, but you do need enough Hydro application to keep its defenses from controlling the encounter.
How to beat Radiant Moongecko
Radiant Moongecko opens the higher-difficulty encounter by leaving a Moonstone Anchor in the arena and moving out of reach. Attack the anchor instead of chasing the boss. Its layered Geo ward is the first check your composition must pass.
Break the anchor with a suitable damage source
Lunar-Crystallize with Zibai, Linnea, or both is the preferred approach. Geo attacks, Claymore attacks, and Overloaded reactions can also handle the ward, but the alternatives demand more careful execution and can leave a tighter damage requirement afterward.
Destroying the anchor interrupts the boss's charged attack and causes backlash damage. The more damage the anchor receives, the greater the damage transferred to Radiant Moongecko. On Fearless and Dire, Geo attacks further increase that transferred damage, rewarding a composition that does more than barely remove the ward.
Chongyun is a fallback shield breaker if you can execute his Normal Attack sequence consistently: perform two Normal Attacks, dash-cancel, and repeat. Practice that short sequence before relying on it in a timed clear. A Claymore character's presence alone does not guarantee a fast anchor break.
Save healing for Radiant Cocoon
Radiant Cocoon reduces affected characters' damage and incoming healing while increasing the boss's Geo resistance. Restore an afflicted character to full HP through healing to free them from the cocoon and grant the temporary Disentangled effect. Once any party member breaks free, the boss loses the Geo resistance granted by Radiant Cocoon.
After breaking the anchor, wait for the cocoon to apply before spending your main healing ability. Then restore the characters you need to full HP before committing your damage rotation. Healing early can leave the ability on cooldown when the debuff actually arrives.
The Navia, Ineffa, Columbina, and Xilonen alternative also includes a healer. Prepare Ineffa's equipment with the Genshin Impact Ineffa build guide, then keep Xilonen's Elemental Burst available for the healing check. Mavuika, Ororon, Iansan, and Chevreuse offer an Overloaded alternative, but anchor-breaking execution is less forgiving than with the preferred Lunar-Crystallize setup.
Choose your reward target and watch the Resin deadline
The November cycle runs from November 11, 2026, at 10:00 until December 15, 2026, at 03:59, in server time. Completing a higher difficulty also awards the eligible rewards from lower difficulties.
| Clear target | Main reward | Multiplayer requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Normal, Advancing, and Hard | 150 Primogems each, 450 total | Solo or co-op |
| Menacing | One Dust of Enlightenment | Solo or co-op |
| Fearless | One Dust of Enlightenment | Solo clear required for rewards |
| Dire | Radiant Phantasm weapon appearance | Solo clear required for rewards |
| Dire within 180 seconds total | Radiant Phantasm: Sublimation | Solo clear required for rewards |
All six difficulties support co-op in this cycle. Normal through Hard allow matchmaking, while Menacing through Dire require players to join the same world. Use co-op to learn encounters or collect the eligible lower-difficulty rewards, but plan a single-player run for the final two reward tiers.
For the Resin option, reach Adventure Rank 45 and complete a battlefield on Hard or above during the Outbreak. Choose your desired artifact sets in Reward Settings before claiming. You do not need a Fearless or Dire clear to use this reward system.
Every 120 Dire Prestige awards an extra five-star artifact. At 1,200 Dire Prestige, claim another Dust of Enlightenment.
