Technically 1.2 is when she was released, but close enough. 6 year old team still clearing!
This was a pretty difficult challenge because I was playing on a weaker account with not great cards. I had to come up with a very creative strat in 12-3-2 (double fruit melt) to have enough damage to clear.
High quality Youtube (removed builds here, to shrink video size): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7tIfriO9h4
Pretty tough clear, skip ahead like 1 minute if you don't care about seeing failed runs.
Fall damage and AOE is really important because this team's single-target damage is not very good.
Was able to 3/3 clear this Stygian with Ganyu, Nicole is quite strong.
Higher quality on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DskO9hWC0ic
Can 1.x DPS still clear?
This was the craziest Stygian cycle so far. 3/3 shill bosses. Usually each cycle there is at least one boss where you can play pretty flexible teams, like Drake, Turtle, Watcher, Herra, but this one is just... wtf
I tried clearing every boss with Ganyu.
Higher quality on YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ViomFPR4s
This clear took me almost 20 hours. Probably one of the most difficult clears I've ever done. Extreme amount of optimization, technical difficulty, and RNG required.
With C0R0 Nicole in place of Bennett, it's really easy, and I can consistently clear, but I wanted to challenge myself with the old team.
Higher quality on YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhEMsRe8xCg
Watcher might be the perfect boss for Ganyu Melt - it's so easy to abuse the reaction mechanics.
There are several cool things about this team on Watcher - Ganyu's attacks (CA and burst) can hit the Watcher and deal damage/apply cryo. Sucrose's burst can also hit the Watcher. In the final rotation, this allows for both the cryo and pyro pillar to melt, which is critical for the damage - Sucrose's burst applies pyro to melt the cryo pillar, and afterwards, Ganyu's burst applies cryo to melt the pyro pillar, maximizing the damage.
In addition, Xiangling being amazing in forward melt means that she can break the cryo pillar faster than Ganyu breaks the pyro one, so even though the pillars are immune to one element, it ends up working out.
Higher quality on YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42KGKwgvM6A
Pretty tough abyss when you don't use the shill. That geo-shroom on 12-2-2 ruined what was a perfectly playable abyss for burnmelt Ganyu. It forced me into using a team that you might see in IT rather than any serious gameplay. Really not a fan of the arbitrary "if you use x element the enemy becomes basically invincible" on top of the existing element requirements. It really kills teambuilding and creativity.
Luckily the top-half was pretty fast, so combined with both sides Ganyu can 36* the whole abyss even with a giga-bricked team
Higher quality on YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqydWF1x-U8
C1 Ganyu Melt "Speedrun" Top-Half 59s average per chamber. Builds at the end of the video.
Higher quality on YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-meR68q1u8