Winter Cordelia

Weapon: Inseverable Spear

Assist: Positional Assist / Assistless / Flexible

Special: Luna / Moonbow / Ruptured Sky / Glimmer / Galeforce 

Passive A: Atk/Spd Clash / Impact Skill

Passive B: Flow Guard / Seal Def 4 / A/S Near Trace / S/D Near Trace 

Passive C: Def/Res Hold / Inf. Spd Tactic / Fatal Smoke / Panic Smoke 4 / Flexible

Sacred Seal: Distant Guard / Swift Sparrow / Atk/Spd Form / Blade Session

• Cordelia’s Inseverable Spear makes her a phenomenal asset for offensively-tuned teams, easily maximizing everyone’s damage output and maneuverability through her buffs. This build seeks to emphasize her own faculty for dealing damage, though, as the majority of what she can do for her team is built into her weapon. An Asset to either of her offensive stats works wonderfully here.
• The Unyielding Snow pair are fortunately that complicated at all when it comes to general gameplay, as their default skills are powerful and their primary course of action is to begin closely bundled with their team to fully spread Inseverable Spear’s buffs, maneuver around and initiate as needed — and, in case greater burst is needed, use their Harmonized Skill to make up the difference.
  • As mentioned, their base kit is extremely solid and synergistic for general Player Phase play. For most, simply equipping a Sacred Seal that enhances Cordelia’s offenses can complete her entire build. 
  • The main considerations for alternatives here would largely apply to her B skill, as Flow Guard offers a great deal of safety in her initiations but a Near Trace of your choice can prove useful for more movement options — especially given how it makes it easier to position her so that subsequent allies can more easily trigger the【Dual Strike】effect. She may also want to consider swapping out Galeforce for a damage dealing Special if more burst is desired.
• Further, as she can enable the Duo Hindrance structure and harshly threaten challenging teams due to the teamwide benefits of Inseverable Spear, Cordelia also shines in Aether Raids Defense. However, with this setting change, the necessary considerations to make for her build do become a little more intricate as well.
  • First and foremost, it's typically ideal to avoid equipping an Assist and to replace Galeforce with a damage dealing Special. Doing both ensures Cordelia can frontload as much damage as possible without relying on the finicky nature of the Defense AI, instead employing standard movement-based overload.
  • Atk/Spd Clash remains Cordelia’s premier A skill option due to the sheer amount of stats it provides, in addition to usually eliminating the influence of debuffs on her damage. That said, Impact skills do present an interesting alternative if seeking to give Cordelia’s initiations a much higher degree of safety.
  • Similarly, Flow Guard is excellent and should rarely be replaced, with Trace skills being pretty poor options here (unlike for general gameplay) as the AI really doesn't use Canto all that well. The newly introduced Seal Def 4, though, can be considered for those who want Cordelia to deal as much damage as possible, inflicting a flat -11 Def on her foes constantly while still offering the potential benefit of Guard.
  • Cordelia’s C skill choice is the most flexible, though it’s hard to go wrong with her native Def/Res Hold as it ensures improved damage for everyone. Still, Inf. Spd Tactic is an incredibly potent option in mixed compositions to grant infantry allies access to Null Follow-Up, and Smoke skills are always neat for their mix of debuffs. 
  • Lastly, it’s important to consider the fact that the main draw to Cordelia’s inclusion on a team — that being Inseverable Spear’s excellent bonuses — is considered a “start-of-turn” effect, meaning that it can be readily shut down by Elimine’s【False Start】debuff. 
    • This makes it difficult to utilize her during Astra / Anima Season due to the Scouring Saint’s presence; while Res stacking can be considered to potentially work around this, it’s not the easiest thing to pull off once, let alone consistently. 

Weapon: Inseverable Spear

Assist: Positional Assist / Flexible

Special: Galeforce 

Passive A: Atk/Spd Clash / Fury 

Passive B: Wings of Mercy / Flow Guard / S/D Near Trace / A/S Near Trace

Passive C: Def/Res Hold / Tempest Skills / Flexible

Sacred Seal: Blade Session / Swift Sparrow / Atk/Spd Form / Quickened Pulse / Fury

• Cordelia’s striking offensive excellence may also be put to great use in the context of Galeforce compositions; her Inseverable Spear again proves useful in helping her team slice through otherwise formidable walls and quickly land enough strikes to trigger Galeforce in quick succession, while her own natural mobility and strengths make it easy for her to contribute simultaneously. Increasing one of her offensive stats with an Asset is recommended once again.
• The crux of this build lies, naturally, in the usage of Galeforce as Cordelia’s Special, which she thankfully has access to by default. When combined with a complementary team (who either also use Galeforce or act as a low HP beacon), this remains a powerful tool in the context of Aether Raids Offense as its self-refreshing quality allows her team to quickly sweep through the enemy team. 
  • The usual caveat of Galeforce lies in its staggering five-turn cooldown, though this actually isn't too much of an issue for Cordelia at all. 
  • Inseverable Spear comes prepackaged with both Slaying Lance and Breath effects at once, minimizing the hits needed to trigger Special to two — and unlike other fliers, Cordelia has no need to pass any stat checks or equip further skills, and can potentially get both strikes immediately due to her【Dual Strike】bonus. 
  • While this usually suffices, those who want to use Cordelia as the initiator in the Galeforce chain (meaning that she will likely not benefit from【Dual Strike】since her teammates will wait on her to get to low HP to warp in) may want to consider further reducing the hits necessary to one for maximum consistency. 
    • This means acquiring two flat charges, one of which Cordelia can obtain herself through the Quickened Pulse Sacred Seal. Outside of that, however, she will have to rely on specific ally selection due to her flier status; this includes Askr, Groom Rafiel, and Velouria (though she, in particular, grants two charges straight up). 
• Atk/Spd Clash should not be replaced unless you're intending to use Cordelia as the initiator of the Galeforce chain as mentioned previously, in which case using Fury becomes ideal to stack enough chip damage for allies equipped with Wings of Mercy to warp next to her. In such instances, Flow Guard or a Near Trace skill stand as her ideal B skills; otherwise, as a follow-up Galeforce unit, Wings of Mercy should always be used.
• Tempest skills are fantastic C skill options; additional movement is not to be underestimated, as it offers better options while both initiating and potentially retreating during these strategies. Otherwise, it's hard to beat the value of her native Def/Res Hold.