Elements and Elemental Reactions in Genshin Impact

In Genshin Impact, there are seven Elements which serve as key gameplay foundations upon which most of the games combat is built on. These seven Elements are also incorporated into a wide range of puzzles around Teyvat as well as the Lore with each Archon residing over a specific Element.

The Seven Elements are:

• Pyro
• Hydro
• Anemo
• Electro
• Dendro
• Cryo
• Geo

Different Elements react with each other in different ways to cause a range of Elemental Reactions.

On top of Elements, there is also Physical Damage as a "Pseudo-Element". Physical Damage is much less reaction focused, instead dealing damage through attacks which do not create Elemental Reactions.

There are some exceptions to this, Blunt Attacks such as attacks from Claymores and Plunging Attacks from non-ranged weapons can create the Shatter reaction when attacking Frozen enemies. Additionally, the Superconduct reaction reduces the enemies Physical Resistance by 40%.

When 2 Elements interact they create an Elemental Reaction which then provides different gameplay mechanics such as increased damage, shielding, access to other reactions and more.

The damage on these primarily scales based on your characters Elemental Mastery as well as their level. The order of reactions is also important, for example Pyro on Hydro deals less damage than Hydro on Pyro.

Elemental Resonances are buffs provided to your party depending on the number of characters belonging to specific Elements. For example having 2 Pyro characters provides a 25% ATK increase.

Some of these resonances can be important factors to consider during team building. Check our guide below for information on each resonance as well as the best resonances:

Elemental Infusions are a mechanic that changes the damage from a characters Normal, Charged or Plunging Attack into elemental damage. With some characters infusing their own weapons and other characters infusing the weapon of any character on-field.

Internal Cooldown (ICD) is a gameplay mechanic which limits how often an Element can be applied to a target for the purposes of Elemental Reactions.

Many characters have different ICD's and some have none at all this allows them to "bend the rules" on Elemental Reactions.