Genshin Impact Elemental Reaction In-Depth Guide

by Harushizu

1.0 Elements

In Teyvat, there are 7 types of elements:

Pyro, Hydro, Anemo, Electro, Dendro, Cryo, Geo

When different element meets each other, they create elemental reaction.

2.0 Elemental Status

When dealing elemental damage to a target, you can afflict Elemental Status onto the target. You can trigger elemental reaction if you deal a different elemental damage to the target that has Elemental Status on it.

Elemental Gauge will either reduce over time or upon triggering Elemental Reaction (more details at below).

• When a character is affected by Pyro element, no damage will be done by Pyro Elemental Status existing alone.
• When a character is affected by Cryo element, movement speed is reduced.
• When a character is affected by Hydro element, Wet status will be afflicted.
• Geo element cannot be afflicted beforehand, it will only generates Elemental Shards after reacting with other elements.
• Anemo element will affect target with a very short interval when it hits the target. Therefore it is not used before other elements.
• When a character is affected by Dendro element, it will receive DoT damage. If it reacts with Pyro element, it will explode once and burn continuously for certain period of time.

Certain elemental mobs and ores have their own element.

Some of them cannot be removed/cleared. Example: Anemo Hypostasis, Hydro Slime, Cryo Slime.

They are suspected to have the ability to continuously apply element on themselves.

However, for Pyro Slime and Electro Slime will apply element on themselves with interval, therefore you will sometimes notice their elemental status will be exhausted.

3.0 Elemental Reaction

Elemental Reaction is divided into 4 main categories:

Damage Increase: Vaporize, Melt

Additional Damage: Overload, Superconduct, Electro-charge, Shatter, Swirl

Shield: Crystallize

Others: Burn, Frozen

3.1 [Damage Increase] Reaction

Types: Vaporize, Melt

Effect: Increase damage dealt directly

Damage Multiplier: Original damage x (100% + Bonus Factor)

Note:

1. Bonus Factor – additional damage from elemental reaction
2. Bonus factor will change depends on the order of an element is applied.
3. This damage depends on Attack Value, able to crit, bonus elemental damage (eg. Artifact’s main stat and set effect), “Increase [Elemental Reaction] by xx%” effect from Artifacts and Elemental Mastery of the Character who triggers elemental reaction (Vaporize and Melt)

3.1.1 Bonus Factor

When Hydro element meets Pyro element, Vaporize effect occurs. When the reaction occurs, it will reduce the durability of the former elemental status.

Bonus Factor is higher when Vaporize is triggered by using Hydro element on target inflicted by Pyro element status.

• When Vaporize is triggered by Hydro element, bonus factor is 100%. (2x of original damage)
• When Vaporize is triggered by Pyro element, bonus factor is 50% (1.5x of original damage)

When Pyro element meets Cryo element, Melt effect occurs. When the reaction occurs, it will remove the former elemental status (Reduce the former Elemental Gauge to 0).

Bonus Factor is higher when Melt is triggered by using Pyro element on target inflicted by Cryo element status.

• When Melt is triggered by Pyro element, bonus factor is 100%. (2x of original damage)
• When Melt is triggered by Cryo element, bonus factor is 50% (1.5x of original damage)

Bonus Factor includes values mentioned above and Artifacts (eg. 4-Piece Set effect from Crimson Witch of Flames)

Example: When 4 pieces of Crimson Witch of Flames are equipped, Bonus Factor for Vaporize triggered by Hydro will become 115% and triggered by Pyro will become 65%.

3.2 [Additional Damage] Reaction

Types: Overload, Superconduct, Electro-charge, Shatter, Swirl

Effect: Deal additional damage when elemental reaction occurs

Damage Multiplier: Fixed damage depends on the character who triggered elemental reaction

Note:

1. Does not affected by attack value, cannot crit
2. Does not affected by level discrepancy
3. Does not affected by target’s DEF
4. No damage difference between characters (same level character will deal the same amount of damage)
5. Affected by target’s Elemental Resistance

Damage dealt with Additional Damage reaction is only affected by stats that increase damage for respective Elemental Reaction eg. Elemental Mastery and Artifacts set effect. (eg. Thunder Fury and Crimson Witch of Flames.

Respective reduce elemental resistance effect can increase the damage of Additional Damage reaction as well. (eg. Viridescent Venerer)

3.2.1 Overload

When Pyro element meets Electro element, Overload reaction occurs, creates an explosion and deal Pyro AoE elemental damage.

Effect:

1. Explosion created from Overload can largely reduce the durability of the shield from Geo element objects and mobs (eg. Stormterror). It is also effective on reducing the durability of Geo shield.

When Overload is triggered by Electro element on target inflicted by Pyro Elemental Status, Pyro Elemental Gauge will reduce by small amount. (After Elemental Reaction occurs, Pyro Elemental Status will remain for a short period)

When Overload is triggered by Pyro element on target inflicted by Electro Elemental Status, Electro Elemental Gauge will reduce by large amount. (After Elemental Reaction occurs, Electro Elemental Status will be removed)

Note: When Overload is triggered on multiple mobs at the same time, only ONE instance of Overload damage is applied. (Tested by myself)

3.2.2 Superconduct

When Electro element meets Cryo element, Superconduct reaction occurs, deals a Cryo AoE elemental damage.

Effect: Target affected by Superconduct effect will have its physical DEF reduced by 40% for 10 seconds

When Superconduct is triggered by Electro element on target inflicted by Cryo Elemental Status, Cryo Elemental Gauge will reduce by small amount. (After Elemental Reaction occurs, Cryo Elemental Status will remain for a short period)

When Superconduct is triggered by Cryo element on target inflicted by Electro Elemental Status, Electro Elemental Gauge will reduce by large amount. (After Elemental Reaction occurs, Electro Elemental Status will be removed)

3.2.3 Electro-charge

When Electro element meets Hydro element, Electro-charge reaction occurs, deals a single targeted Electro elemental damage.

Effect:

1. Target will receive damage once upon Electro-charge reaction occurs and a second time later while also discharge it to one target around affected by Hydro elemental status.
2. Paralyze is applied and it is possible to continuously trigger the reaction to apply continuous paralyze debuff on the target.

When Electro-charge is triggered by Hydro element on target inflicted by Electro Elemental Status, Electro Elemental Gauge will reduce by small amount. (After Elemental Reaction occurs, Electro and Hydro Elemental Status will remain for a short period)

When Electro-charge is triggered by Electro element on target inflicted by Hydro Elemental Status, Hydro Elemental Gauge will reduce by large amount. (After Elemental Reaction occurs, Hydro Elemental Status will be removed)

When on/in the water, electricity will continue to be remained on the water and continuously inflict damage (to both allies and foes).

Note:

1. There is bug regarding on Electro-charge (For most of the cases, the damage dealt by Elemental Reaction will depends on Electro-user no matter triggered by Hydro or Electro) and will be (hopefully) fixed in v1.1.
2. When Electro-charge is triggered on multiple mobs at the same time, only ONE instance of damage will be applied. However, if 3 mobs have Hydro status and Electro-charge is triggered on 2 of the mobs, the 3rd mob will receive damage due to discharge effect, providing the mob is within the range for discharge. (Tested by myself)

3.2.4 Swirl

When Anemo element meets Pyro/Hydro/Cryo/Electro elements, Swirl effect occurs, deal additional elemental damage.

Effect:

1. Element infused in the Swirl can be spread to targets around, and can cause elemental reaction with other different elements.
2. When a character is inflicted by certain type of element, the element can be spread and cause Swirl effect with the element infused.

Since the Elemental Status of Anemo element exhausts very fast, it is not recommended to use it beforehand of other elements.

Only when Elemental Gauge reached a certain level, the element can be infused with Swirl and spread out. (eg. 3 second after Mona normal hit, although the target has Hydro elemental status, the Hydro element cannot be infused and spread with Swirl.)

Elemental damage dealt by the element infused in Swirl is depending on the Elemental Mastery of the caster of Anemo elemental skills.

With “Viridescent Venerer” Artifacts, you can reduce the Elemental Resistance of the targets hit.

3.2.5 Shatter

Different from other Elemental Reaction, this effect occurs when a frozen target get hit by Claymore attack or Geo elemental damage. It will deal an extra single target physical damage, usually use along with Superconduct that reduce physical DEF of the target.

Elemental Reaction are supposed to be coexist with each other. However during actual combat, Shatter is not coexist with other elemental reaction.

When a target is frozen, under most circumstances:

1. Diluc’s elemental skill can only trigger Melt effect
2. Beidou’s elemental skill can only trigger Superconduct effect

3.2.6 Summary for Additional Damage type Elemental Reaction

Character who used to trigger Elemental Reaction: Lv80, 0 Elemental Mastery; Target: Hilichurl (10% all elemental resistance)

Overload is clearly the strongest AoE damage from Additional Damage type elemental reaction you can get so far, but since it always create explosion that blow targets away, it should always be used along with mob gathering skills (eg. Venti’s Elemental Burst).

While the damage ratio of Electro-charge effect is only 2.4, due to its special mechanism of dealing two times Electro damage, the true value should be 4.8 (2.4×2).

Since the interval CD of triggering Electro-charge is the lowest and reduction of the gauge of Elemental Status is low if Hydro element is used to trigger Electro-charge effect, it is possible to frequently trigger this elemental reaction to deal huge amount of damage. Thus, highest single target elemental reaction damage.

Damage dealt with Additional Damage Elemental Reaction on different level (lvl1 to 80), Please refer: [Additional Damage] Reaction Damage for Lv1 to Lv90

3.3 Crystallize

Crystallize effect occurs when Geo element damage hit target inflicted by Pyro/Hydro/Cryo/Electro element.

(Crystallize can only occurs upon triggering with other element)

After triggering Crystallize, it will generate Elemental Shards, and remove the target’s elemental status if it is Weak Elemental Gauge. Two Elemental Shards can be generated from Strong Elemental Gauge.

Effect:

1. Elemental Shield will break after absorbs certain about of damage.
2. It can absorb 150% corresponding elemental damage and 250% for Geo elemental damage.

Elemental Shield durability is depending on Character’s level that triggered the Elemental Reaction, Elemental Mastery and Shield Strength increment from Artifact (eg. Retracing Bolide). It does not depend on Character’s HP and DEF.

3.4 Other Elemental Reaction

3.4.1 Burn

When Dendro element meets Pyro element, Burn effect occurs, deal continuous burning damage.

Burn effect will continue until Elemental Status of Dendro element is exhausted.

When Burn effect is triggered on Character, one physical damage is received and receive continuous burning damage.

3.4.2 Frozen

When Hydro element meets Cryo element, Frozen effect occurs, freeze target for 6 seconds (approximately). However if the target is frozen again within a short period, freeze duration will be reduced, but not less than 50% or 3 seconds (approximately).

Frozen effect will inflict Cryo Elemental Status. Frozen is only a debuff that prevents the target from moving, it does not change the damage received by the target.

4.0 Elemental Gauge on Additional Damage reaction

Elemental Gauge will reduce over time or upon triggering Elemental Reaction. Total amount of the gauge and duration of the Elemental Status are different for each element, skills from Characters and target. (Ruin Guard has lower Elemental Gauge compared to Hilichurl)

Example:

1. Razor’s Elemental Skill is used to inflict Electro elemental status, Barbara is used to trigger Elemental Reaction, Electro-charge can be triggered THRICE.
2. Keqing’s Elemental Skill is used to inflict Electro Elemental Status, Barbara is used to trigger Elemental Reaction, Electro-charge can be triggered TWICE only.

Conclusion: Razor’s Elemental Skill has higher amount of Elemental Gauge than Keqing’s Elemental Skill.

4.1 Reduction of Gauge of Elemental Status

4.1.1 Overload

1. When Overload is triggered by Pyro element, Electro Elemental Gauge will reduce by LARGE amount and Electro Elemental Status will be removed.
2. When Overload is triggered by Electro element, Pyro Elemental Gauge will reduce by SMALL amount and Electro Elemental Status will remain for a short period. Overload can be triggered again during this period. (This is still debatable for now, but based on my small experiment and Chinese community, Overload cannot be trigger for the second time.)

4.1.2 Superconduct

1. When Superconduct is triggered by Cryo element, Electro Elemental Gauge will reduce by large amount and Electro Elemental Status will be removed.
2. When Superconduct is triggered by Electro element, Cryo Elemental Gauge will reduce by small amount and Cryo Elemental Status will remain for a short period. Superconduct can be triggered again during this period.

Note: Someone mentioned regarding the order of the Elemental damage dealt, both Elemental Status will remove upon triggered Superconduct. More test should be conducted.

4.1.3 Electro-charge

1. When Electro-charge is triggered by Electro element, Hydro Elemental Gauge will reduce by LARGE amount and usually an extra (auto) Electro-charge will be triggered.
2. When Electro-charge is triggered by Hydro element, Electro Elemental Gauge will reduce by SMALL amount and both Hydro and Electro Elemental Status are remained. During this period, 2 – 4 times of Electro-charge can be triggered. Concluding that Electro-charge reduce Elemental Gauge by the least among all elements.

Video: Experimenting on Electro-charge https://youtu.be/_UMUBctEGSE

4.1.4 Swirl, Shatter, Crystallize

Since they are only triggered on specific elements, Elemental Status are reduced by large amount and removed upon trigger. However, Anemo element can spread other elements through Swirl effect.

4.1.5 Summary

4.2 Theory of Elemental Reaction Coexistence

Elemental Reaction occurs according to certain priority order. If an Elemental Reaction is triggered and the remaining Elemental Gauge is enough to trigger another Elemental Reaction once more, we call it Multi Elemental Reaction. However, if Elemental Gauge is only sufficient to trigger one Elemental Reaction, Elemental Reaction with higher priority will occur.

Priority order: Damage Increase > Additional Damage > Crystallize

Examples:

1. Diluc dealing Pyro elemental damage on Frozen target will trigger Melt Elemental Reaction first. If Elemental Gauge is still sufficient, Shatter Elemental Reaction will occur next.
2. Beidou dealing Electro elemental damage on Frozen target will trigger Superconduct Elemental Reaction first. If Elemental Gauge is still sufficient, Shatter Elemental Reaction will occur next.
3. Ningguang’s normal attack (Geo element) will trigger Shatter Elemental Reaction first. However, if the Elemental Gauge is insufficient to trigger Shatter Elemental Reaction, Crystallize Elemental Reaction occurs.
4. Bennett dealing Pyro element damage on a target with both Wet and Electro Elemental Status will trigger Vaporize first. If Elemental Status is still sufficient, Overload Elemental Reaction will occur next.

5.0 Elemental Conversion on Normal/Charged Attack

Pyro > Cryo > Electro

Testing Character: Bennett, Diluc, Keqing, Chongyun

1. Within Chongyun’s field, when Diluc’s Elemental Burst is used, Diluc deals Pyro element normal attack.
2. Within Bennett’s field, when Chongyun’s Elemental Skill is used, Character inside both field will deal Pyro element normal attack.
3. Within Chongyun’s field, when Keqing’s Elemental Skill is used, Keqing deals Cryo element normal attack.
4. Within Bennett’s field, when Keqing’s Elemental Skill is used, Keqing deals Pyro element normal attack.

Note: However, for Noelle’s Elemental Burst (converting her attack to Geo element), her attack remains Geo element within Chongyun’s field. (I do not have Bennett to test)

6.0 Elemental Shield

In Genshin Impact, there are two kinds of shield: Damage Resistance Shield and Damage Reduction Shield.

6.1 Elemental Advantage against Damage Resistance Shield (Abyss Mage)

6.2 Elemental Advantage against Damage Reduction Shield (Fatui Skirmisher)

To show and prove Electro element is faster than Cryo+Pyro combo against Hydro Damage Reduction Shield.

Please refer: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV13p4y1Y7wP?zw

7.0 Summary

All Elemental Reaction damages depend on Elementary Mastery of the Character who triggered the reaction.

[Damage Increase] reaction directly increase damage dealt, depending on Character’s attack, bonus elemental damage (eg. Artifact’s main stat and set effect), “Increase [Elemental Reaction] by xx%” effect from Artifacts, Elemental Mastery and can be crit.

[Additional Damage] reaction damage is based on a fixed value affiliated to the Character level who triggered the reaction. Independent from Character’s attack, level discrepancy, target’s DEF and cannot be crit. Dependent on target’s Elemental Resistance and receive “Increase [Elemental Reaction] by xx%” effect from Artifacts.

Overload deals highest AoE damage.

Electro-charge deals highest single target damage.