At first glance, Genshin Impact looks like a straightforward "mash A to win" anime-fantasy RPG, but as you encounter more bosses and become familiar with your talents, you'll eventually realize that careful planning and deliberate team building can make or break your experience.
Elemental strengths and weaknesses are a common feature of every RPG, but few games make them as important in combat as Genshin. All elemental reactions in the game scale with "elemental mastery" but this seemingly simple stat obscures the complexity of elemental reactions and the damage they deal or mitigate — read on for a comprehensive explanation of reactions and how they stack up.
Updated May 11th, 2021 by Joseph Burrell: Genshin Impact's elemental reactions continue to be the highlight of its combat system. Fans are still awaiting the arrival of the promised dendro element but a few other reactions have received minor updates in the meantime. Recent leaks also suggest that all electro reactions will be overhauled in the near future, so stay tuned!
Burning - A Work In Progress
The Dendro element is yet to be properly implemented, and burning is the only status effect it can apply right now, so players should expect this reaction to continue to be reworked. Burning occurs when pyro and dendro interact, most of the time you'll see it happen when grass ignites.
Burning simply accelerates the amount of damage over time received by a unit standing in fire. That's not particularly useful unless you're trying to cook Paimon. The damage also increases per world level, burning is the only reaction to scale this way. Dendro should be fully functional by the time the upcoming character Yaoyao is released so hopefully, its other reactions will be more exciting
Crystallize - A Revamped Option
When a geo attack collides with any elemental status inflicted upon a target, a crystal spawns that grants you a shield against all damage and slightly absorbs damage from the element that spawned it. The shield's HP increases with the geo unit's elemental mastery.
Throughout Genshin's first few patches crystallize was underwhelming -- as was the entire geo element. Ningguang was always powerful but this was due to her heavy, long-range attacks and rewarding constellations, not the strength of geo. Even Zhong Li (the Geo Archon) performed poorly upon release. Since then, miHoYo has revamped the geo element, Zhong Li himself, and geo resonance. Crystallize still doesn't directly boost DPS, but the shield it provides and the characters who can trigger it are buffed up enough to be favoured in the meta.
Swirl - Better With Specific Setups
Swirl, the first reaction that new players encounter, is decidedly middling. Swirl is caused when anemo reacts with any other element aside from geo or dendro. Swirl's effect is always the same: paltry anemo damage is dealt and the combined element is dispersed across the field and applied to enemies in range. This reaction is most noticeable when pyro is involved as it will set nearby grass ablaze.
Swirl on its own isn't much to write home about, but fortunately, it is complemented by the skill sets of anemo characters, Sucrose, Jean, and Venti. They have excellent crowd control capabilities which is perfect for rounding up enemies and applying status effects en masse.
Overload - Use With Caution
Overload is the hardest-hitting reaction pound-for-pound, scaling faster with elemental mastery than any other reaction, it's also the biggest double-edged sword. When electro and pyro interact overload is the result. It's the highest single instance of reaction damage and knocks back everything caught in its blast radius...including you.
It's unclear whether patch 1.1 broke overload or if this change was intentional, but after this update, electro damage you deal in the presence of pyro makes your character explode, too. This means A-tier characters like Fischl now have to watch out for even the most unassuming candlesticks, so buyers beware.
Electro-Charged - Don't Use Near Water
When electro and hydro Combining hydro and electro onto enemies with the wet status or bodies of water makes them electro-charged. Overload has the highest single instance of damage of any reaction but electro-charged hits twice, so it can be more powerful. This effect also arcs between all nearby wet enemies, causing additional stuns and damage.
Electro-charged scales with character level and elemental mastery. Using electro in rainy weather creates a show of sparks that fortunately won't harm the player the same way that overload can. But be careful about using electro when you're standing in a body of water though...
Frozen - Don't Let It Go
The frozen reaction is as intuitive as it sounds, hydro and cryo come together to turn your enemies into popsicles. Freezing enemies is meant for crowd control, not dealing damage, but it's still a handy reaction for any time you feel like you're being overrun by mobs.
Frozen enemies can't move until the status effect expires. Frozen lasts for the duration of the element that was cast first so be sure to use cryo and hydro in quick succession.
Frozen (Shatter) - For The Unorthodox
Shatter isn't technically an elemental reaction but it applies a damage bonus in much the same way. Shatter occurs when crushing damage, from the fan-favorite claymore weapon or geo magic, hits an enemy that's frozen, making it the only 3-step reaction in the game. Cast hydro, then cryo (or vice versa), and finish with crushing damage to break your frosty enemies apart.
Shatter deals more damage than electro-charged but less than overload. It also scales with elemental mastery and character level, instead of elemental damage bonuses. Shatter enables unorthodox teams such as Ningguang, Chongyun, and Barbara or Xinqui.
Superconduct - Better With Time
Superconduct is the combination of cryo and electro statuses; this reaction does the least damage upfront (even less than swirl). But it allows for some big follow-up hits as it halves the physical defense of all enemies caught in its area of effect.
The only flaw of superconduct is that it doesn't lower elemental resistances, so make sure you're using physical damage dealers to capitalize on this debuff — catalyst users are better left on the bench for the 12-second duration of superconduct.
Vaporize - Best With Upgrades
Vaporize, naturally, is triggered by combining pyro and hydro. This reaction is one of two (equally powerful) combos that actually do deal damage differently depending on which element is applied first. All prior reactions will always yield the same effect regardless of status application order.
Vaporize doesn't have a set damage value that gets multiplied by character level and elemental mastery like every other reaction (melt and dendro excepted). Instead, vaporize multiplies the damage of the specific attack that caused it — 1.5 times for a pyro attack hitting hydro, and 2 times for hydro hitting pyro. For this reason, vaporize seems underwhelming when you start the game before you've upgraded any talents. Once you've upgraded your elemental skills and element bonuses, vaporize will hit like a truck.
Melt - S-Tier
Melt works just the same as vaporize but is the combination of pyro and cryo. This time, pyro should be the one triggering the reaction — your second attack — hitting cryo for a 2 times multiplier. Cryo on pyro likewise rewards a 1.5 times multiplier. It helps to remember Pokemon elemental relationships. You'll never lose damage in Genshin, but vaporize and melt hit harder when hydro hits pyro and pyro hits cryo, respectively.
Once again, the goal here is to upgrade the talents that will be triggering the reaction. The fact that Diluc, Bennett, Mona, Tartaglia, and Xinqui are considered the best units in the game, and together will trigger melt. So melt itself is thought of as the best reaction, as well.
