Gears

Weapons

haze dragon Scythe of the Haze Dragon
Recommended
haze dragon weapon
Crit-focus variant. Pick this if you already inflict an attribute (from insignias or food buffs), or you plan on using Unforgiving Darkness pants to inflict attribute. This weapon is ~1% stronger over Star of the Ice Plumes, but a future HexChess fight has a gimmick that forces you to use ultimates to destroy a specific crystal, so this might come in handy. CN Scytheguard equipment video by 木棉与贯一 that has a detailed analysis on the weapons section.
ice plumes Star of the Ice Plumes
ice plumes weapon
All-Attribute variant. Pick this if you don't want to deal with weapon-specific insignias or consuming food buffs to inflict attribute. This weapon is ~1% weaker over Haze Dragon scythe, but is a lot more flexible for builds/alt characters. If it's your main character however, it's worthwhile to simply eat a specific food buff (the recipes are learned from doing explorations) to get attribute inflict, so I'd lean towards the crit-focus weapon.

Armors

Baseline

flawless-will helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesflawless-will helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesflawless-will helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesflawless-will helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesflawless-will helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoes / valiant helmet / valiant pants / valiant shoes

5-piece Pure Pledge Set or 4-piece + Valiant Guard Helmet/Pants/Shoes

Set NameEffect
Pure Pledge Set [2/5]Scytheguard [Lv.1-35 Active Skill] +1
Moonlight Redemption: Every 1% Healing Effect converts to 0.5% Skill DMG, up to 15%.
Pure Pledge Set [4/5]Healing Effect 3.6%
Skill DMG +2.6%
Scytheguard [Gift of Ancient Judgement] Level +1
Moonlight Ode: When at full HP, attacks deal an additional 10% DMG and gain 50 CD Rate.
Pure Pledge Set [5/5]Oath of Defense: When performing the ritual Descent, gain an Aura that increases allies' DMG by 5% and DMG RES by 5% for 8s.
valiant helm valiant pants valiant shoes flawless-will helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesflawless-will helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesflawless-will helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesflawless-will helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesflawless-will helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoes

Your choice of taking the lazy route of having all 5-pieces, or the route of 4-piece Pure Pledge and crafting the Valiant Guard Helmet/Pants/Shoes, as the 5-piece set bonus still activates even with a Valiant Guard piece (Only up to 2 pieces, the 3rd piece will deactivate the 5-piece set bonus). Here's a quick visual on which pieces to keep, depending on if you're building as DPS, or as a support:

  • flawless will helmet
    Pure Pledge Helmet
    Ignore
  • flawless will breastplate
    Pure Pledge Breastplate
    DPS
    Support
  • flawless will gloves
    Pure Pledge Gloves
    Optional
    Support
  • flawless will pants
    Pure Pledge Pants
    DPS
  • flawless will shoes
    Pure Pledge Shoes
    Ignore
  • valiant helmet
    Valiant Guard Helmet
    Core
    When entering combat, gain 5% Crit Rate. Every 30s, Crit Rate increases by 0.5%, up to 10%.
    When entering combat, gain 2% Crit DMG for every HexChess Armor equipped, up to 10%.
  • valiant guard pants
    Valiant Guard Pants
    Core
    When no teammates are alive within a 30m radius, gain 22 All-Attribute ENH (roughly ~10% DMG increase). This bonus decreases to 11 when teammates are nearby.
    When entering combat, gain 3 All-Attribute ENH and RES for every HexChess Armor equipped, up to 15 points.
  • valiant guard shoes
    Valiant Guard Shoes
    Core
    DMG dealt is increased between a fluctuating range of 0% and 10%.
    When entering combat, gain 6 points of ASPD and CD Rate for every HexChess Armor equipped, up to 30 points.

Drop Priority

haze dragon / ice plumes

Weapon

flawless will breastplate

Breastplate

flawless will pants

Pants

gloves

Gloves

Burst set

mighty-chariot helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesmighty-chariot helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesmighty-chariot helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoes

Mighty Chariot Setup #1 (Helmet, Pants, Gloves) (Finisher Trigger)

mighty-chariot helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesmighty-chariot helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesmighty-chariot helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoes

Mighty Chariot Setup #2 (Helmet, Breastplate, Pants) (Resonance Trigger)

Set NameEffect
Mighty Chariot Set [3/3]All Stats +200
Duration of all [Chariot] effects increased to 12s.
When 3 different [Chariot] effects or marks are active simultaneously, all Chariot effects and marks merge into Mournful Strike and Rageful Awakening effects.
Rageful Awakening: Crit Rate is increased by 25%, and Crit DMG is increased by 50%. Convert any Crit Rate exceeding 100% into Crit DMG at a 1:1 ratio, taking only the higher value between physical and magical, with a maximum conversion of 25%. Physical and Magic PEN is increased by 10%, and DMG to Bosses is increaed by 10%, last for 15s. Cannot gain any [Chariot] effects or marks for 24s after the effect ends.
mighty-chariot helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesmighty-chariot helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesmighty-chariot helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesmighty-chariot helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoes

Maximum sandbag padding setup
As a burst-orientated class, this set synergizes with her kit, granting massive bonuses like Skill DMG, Crit Rate & Crit DMG for 8s (12s with the set bonus) when you align all of the conditional effects. In practice? Ensuring that all the bonus effects activate at the right time, not to mention micro-managing pets, cooldowns and your personal buffs, makes this set annoying to optimize if the boss hadn't died in the inital burst window, and performs much worse the lower your weapon enhancement is. CN guides imply +18 weapon minimum, but it's unclear whether you can get away with a +15 weapon.
The individual pieces are very good however, and they're often used in other builds.
Read up more about this section from 木棉与贯一

  •  helmet
    Might Chariot Helmet
    After casting a finisher, gains Chariot Banner, increasing Skill DMG by 12% for 8s. After the effect expires, gain Chariot Banner Mark until the next Chariot Banner is gained.
  • chest
    Mighty Chariot Breastplate
    After casting a Resonance Skill, gain Chariot Horn, increasing Crit DMG by 18% for 8s. After the effect expires, gain Chariot Horn Mark until the next Chariot Horn is gained.
  • chest
    Mighty Chariot Pants
    After casting any active skill, gain Chariot Charge, increasing Physical & Magical PEN by 10% for 8s. After the effect expires, gain Chariot Charge Mark until the next Chariot Charge is gained.
  • gloves
    Mighty Chariot Gloves
    After casting a Pet skill, gain Chariot Beast, increasing Crit Rate by 12% for 8s. After the effect expires, gain Chariot Beast Mark until the next Chariot Beast is gained.
unforgiving darkness pants unforgiving darkness shoes / shoes shoes

2-piece Unforgiving Darkness (Pants, Shoes) / 2-piece King's Cavalry (Gloves, Shoes)

unforgiving darkness pants shoes shoes shoes

Strong individual pieces to further boost your DPS. Buffs are treated as a snapshot, which means that casting skills with the 13% DMG Bonus from the King's Cavalry shoes applies it for the entire duration. However, this means that buffs gained while mid-animation will not apply.

Crafting Priority

unforgiving darkness pants

Pants

helmet

Helmet

gloves

Gloves

breastplate

Breastplate

unforgiving darkness shoes shoes

Shoes

Sustain set

kings-cavalry helmetkings-cavalry gloveskings-cavalry shoes

3-piece King's Cavalry Set (Helmet, Gloves, Shoes)

Set NameEffect
King's Cavalry Set [3/3]All Stats +200
After dealing
High Frequency
Pyro/Cryo/Electro/Umbro DMG 10 times to the same enemy, deals an additional instance of Penalty of the Oath.
Penalty of the Oath: DMG Multiplier = 600% + (Highest Attribute ENH x 1%), up to 1,000%. Min. trigger interval: 0.4s
kings cavalry helm kings cavalry gloves kings cavalry shoes

The sustain set is straightforward: press buttons get buffs that lets you do more damage and lower cooldowns. However, Scytheguards can't consistently multi-hit 10 times in a single skill to proc conditionals (only 4 skills can do this) as they're a burst-orientated class. King's Cavalry also lacks Crit Rate, which may be a deal-breaker for those who have invested into other stats such as Attribute ENH.

  • kings cavalry helm
    King's Cavalry Helmet
    Dealing Pyro/Cryo/Electro/Umbro damage 10 times in a single skill lowers all your skill cooldowns by 0.25s on a 1s cooldown.
  • kings cavalry shoes
    King's Cavalry Shoes
    Gain a burst of speed (+100% MSPD, decays to 0% after 0.5s) when casting skills, every 10% MSPD gain +1% DMG up to +13%.
  • kings cavalry gloves
    King's Cavalry Gloves
    Gain DMG increase based on the distance between you and the enemy, up to 10%. Minimum +4% DMG within 5m (to be tested), and +2% every additional 5m.

The gloves don't benefit Scytheguard as much beyond the unconditional +4% DMG boost (to be tested), but the other pieces benefit Basic Attack classes more, which Scytheguard does not focus on, or the conditional effects are much harder to optimize around:

CN Scytheguard equipment video by 木棉与贯一 that has a detailed analysis on King's Cavalry.
flawless will breastplate flawless will pants / mighty chariot breastplate / unforgiving darkness pants

2-piece Flawless Will (Top, Pants) / Mighty Chariot Top / Unforgiving Darkness Pants

Set NameEffect
Pure Pledge Set [2/5]Scytheguard [Lv.1-35 Active Skill] +1
Moonlight Redemption: Every 1% Healing Effect converts to 0.5% Skill DMG, up to 15%.
flawless will breastplate flawless will pants unforgiving darkness pants
2-piece Flawless Will is low budget and activates the +1 Lv.1-35 effect for Whirlwind Scythe and Ultimate Blossoming, the two hardest hitting skills. You can also use Unforgiving Darkness pants to gain Attribute inflict/shred Attribute RES for more damage, and you can additionally replace the top with Mighty Chariot Breastplate. If you can't inflict attribute and you want the pants to cover it, then crafting pants is higher priority.

Crafting Priority

kings cavalry shoes

Shoes

kings cavalry gloves

Gloves

kings cavalry helm

Helmet

flawless will breastplate / unforgiving darkness pants

Breastplate

flawless will pants / unforgiving darkness pants

Pants

Support set

helmet helmet,gloves,pants,shoes-helmethelmet,gloves,pants,shoes-gloveshelmet,gloves,pants,shoes-pantshelmet,gloves,pants,shoes-shoes

Mighty Chariot Helmet / 4-piece Unforgiving Darkness Set (Helmet, Gloves, Pants, Shoes)

Set NameEffect
Unforgiving Darkness Set [3/3]All Stats +200
Final Redemption: You and all teammates within 100m gain Redemption. When HP is above 50% or a barrier/shield is active, gain a 10% DMG Bonus. This effect does not stack.
When entering combat, increases ATK & MATK by 10%. For each living teammate within 200m, gain an additional 3% ATK & MATK, up to a maximum of 19%. With 3 or more living teammates, gain an additional 10% Physical & Magic PEN.
unforgiving darkness helmet unforgiving darkness pants unforgiving darkness shoes unforgiving darkness gloves unforgiving darkness set

The support set, compared to the DPS set, focuses around giving additional aura buffs to allies and debuffing enemies defenses, while greatly improving your heals. You still get bonuses that improve your personal DPS, but obviously not as much compared to the two sets mentioned above.
Default choice for those who care more about consistency and stable output.

  •  helmet
    Might Chariot Helmet
    After casting a finisher, gains Chariot Banner, increasing Skill DMG by 12% for 8s. After the effect expires, gain Chariot Banner Mark until the next Chariot Banner is gained.
  • unforgiving darkness helmet
    Unforgiving Darkness Helmet
    After entering combat, +15% Healing Effect. When HP falls below 50% and no barriers/shields are active, regen 3% HP every 3s (Also applies to teammates within 5m)
  • unforgiving darkness gloves
    Unforgiving Darkness Gloves
    Crit & Non-Crit DMG +5%
    PCrit & MCrit + 2%
    After entering combat, PCrit & MCrit +8%. Increases PCrit & MCrit by 4% for all allies within 100m. Neither effect stacks.
  • unforgiving darkness pants
    Unforgiving Darkness Pants
    Gain Attribute inflict based on your highest attribute. When dealing Attribute damage, lower the enemy's All-Attribute RES by 1 for 5s, up to 11 points.
  • unforgiving darkness shoes
    Unforgiving Darkness Shoes
    After entering combat, gain +8% Physical & Magic PEN. Each crit reduces enemies' PDEF & MDEF by 0.5% for 5s, up to 5%.

The breastplate isn't recommended because it only improves PDEF and MDEF, and that's not impactful as using your DMG Res aura. Also, people will die anyways if they're constantly eating attacks regardless...

CN Scytheguard equipment video by 木棉与贯一 that has a detailed analysis on the Support-focus armor section.
chest chest

2-piece Mighty Chariot (Top or Gloves)

mighty-chariot helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesmighty-chariot helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesmighty-chariot helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoesmighty-chariot helmet,breastplate,gloves,pants,shoes
Your choice of changing around Mighty Chariot pieces for personal DPS improvement as long as you activate the 3-piece Unforgiving Darkness set; while Scytheguard is one of the few classes that can heal/buff, that doesn't mean she can't do damage! CN Scytheguard equipment video by 木棉与贯一 illustrates these choices here.
flawless will breastplate flawless will gloves / unforgiving darkness gloves

2-piece Flawless Will (Top, Gloves) or Unforgiving Darkness Gloves

Set NameEffect
Pure Pledge Set [2/5]Scytheguard [Lv.1-35 Active Skill] +1
Moonlight Redemption: Every 1% Healing Effect converts to 0.5% Skill DMG, up to 15%.
flawless will breastplate flawless will gloves
Low budget option; Flawless Will top gives +5.1% Crit Rate & DMG, and you could replace Unforgiving Darkness gloves with Flawless Will Gloves for the set bonus. The gloves also gives +6.3% Healing Effect, and combining it with Unforgiving Darkness Helmet gives +21.3% Healing Effect total, which gets converted into +10.5% Skill DMG from the set bonus, but this means giving up Unforgiving Darkness gloves' Crit Rate.

Crafting Priority

unforgiving darkness pants

Pants

unforgiving darkness gloves

Gloves

unforgiving darkness shoes

Shoes

unforgiving darkness helmet / helmet

Helmet

flawless will / unforgiving darkness / breast

Breastplate

Accessories

seal talisman

Soul Supressor Seal, Talisman (Blademaiden)

Electro Focus
seal talisman
seal talisman

Sunlight Seal, Talisman (Gunner)

Crit DMG Focus
seal talisman
seal

Earthdrake Seal (Berserker)

seal
Off-class pieces that serve as stat sticks.
spirit tamers seal spirit tamers talisman

Spirit Tamer (Seal, Talisman)

spirit tamer seal spirit tamer talisman
Default choice if you can't decide. The lowered cooldown for Gift of Ancient Judgement will help in a future HexChess raid as it'll force you to use only ultimates for a DPS check, making this highly recommended later on.
CN Scytheguard equipment video by 木棉与贯一 that elaborates more on this section.

DPS set

summoner bracer summoner necklace summoner ring

Summoner Bracer + 2-piece Sanctifying Light

Pyro & Electro Focus
udes will necklace udes will bracer udes will ring

Ude's Will Set

Set NameEffect
Ude's Will Set [3/3]DMG to Debuffed +8.0%
Ude's Breath II: Increases Scorch duration by 50% and reduces Scorched targets' DMG by 10%.
udes will necklace udes will bracer udes will ring
Set NameEffect
Sanctifying Light Set [2/5]Blazing Havoc: Increases Crit DMG by 24% against enemies affected by Scorch.
summoner bracer sanctifying light necklace sanctifying light ring
Your choice of going with Summoner Bracers with 2-piece Gunner's accessories for the Crit DMG, Pyro & Electro ENH, or going for Ude's Will. You will need a pet or a class that inflicts Scorch for consistency with activating the 2-piece Sanctifying Light set bonus.

Support set

summoner necklace summoner bracer summoner ring

Summoner set

Set NameEffect
Summoner Set [2/5]Golden Crescent: All teammates gain Skill DMG +6% and Healing Received +8%.
Summoner Set [3/5]Blazing Blade: After casting Full Moon skills, Skill DMG +4% for 15s, stacking up to 3 times.
After casting New Moon skills, Healing Effect +4% for 15s, stacking up to 3 times.
summoner necklace summoner bracer summoner ring
The default choice for support builds. Not much to say here.