Genshin Impact takes place in the world of Teyvat, where the seven elements—Pyro, Cryo, Hydro, Geo, Electro, Anemo, and Dendro—interact with the living creatures of the land to shape beautiful landscapes and bustling civilizations.
Each nation of Teyvat is looked over by an Archon who controls one of the elements, acting as gods aimed at protecting their people.
While everyone in Teyvat is affected by the elements, only those that hold Visions can control them as the Archons do. The most outstanding case, however, is the player character, who doesn’t have a Vision of their own but can use the elements with ease; something likely related to their arrival from a different world.
When the elements converge, they create elemental reactions. These are powerful combinations that are particularly useful in battle, providing a variety of effects from amplifying damage done, shielding your allies, and even causing massive explosions. In order to pull these off, players will need to have characters in a party with different elemental attunements, or they can use their abilities against enemies of specific elemental types.
Elemental reactions are the key to success for players in Genshin as they encounter increasingly-strong foes. Here are some of the most efficient reactions that can help any traveler in Teyvat overpower their enemies.
Best elemental reactions in Genshin Impact Version 3.5
Aggravate (Dendro + Electro + Electro)
Since Dendro’s official introduction to Genshin with the release of Sumeru, it has quickly become the most dominant element and one whose reactions will likely keep it at the top of many tier lists for updates to come.
This unique interaction plays on the Quicken reaction, which occurs simply when Dendro comes in contact with Electro. By inflicting Electro damage on an enemy immediately once more, it will cause the Aggravate reaction to occur, greatly increasing the damage done by that Electro attack. This can be done multiple times in succession as long as Dendro is still applied to the target.
The release of characters like Nahida, Alhaitham, and Cyno has made triggering Quicken, Aggravate, and the other Dendro/Electro reaction Spread, much easier to play around and use to wipe out large groups of enemies at once. Should players not have a good applicator of Dendro, they can always attune the traveler to Dendro at a Statue of the Seven in Sumeru.
Bloom (Dendro + Hydro or vice versa)
Bloom is a rather interesting elemental reaction, as it creates physical objects that players can use as additional weapons to deal damage to their opponents.
Attacking a Dendro-inflicted foe with Hydro damage (or vice versa) will create Dendro Cores, small plants that appear around the foe that, after a short duration, will explode and deal damage to anyone nearby—including players. If Pyro or Electro damage is added into the mix, the Burgeon and Hyperbloom reactions occur respectively, amplifying the damage done and activating the Dendro Cores immediately.
These Bloom reactions are especially helpful in areas like the Spiral Abyss where players will face off against groups of enemies at once. Players that have the character Nilou may notice the Dendro Cores she creates trigger even more powerful reactions, making her a great option for Bloom teams or any team that involves Dendro Cores.
However, players should be wary of the damage these reactions do to their own characters, as it cannot be mitigated by any means.
Melt (Cryo + Pyro or vice versa)
In nearly every patch, a new Cryo character is added to Genshin that gives players more options to slow enemies. This also makes it increasingly easy for players to create Cryo-based reactions such as Freeze and Melt, which many times make world exploration significantly easier.
Melt in particular is a powerful tool against nearly any enemy, including allies. Simply inflicting Cryo damage and following it up with Pyro triggers this reaction, which greatly increases the Pyro damage dealt. While this reaction occurs whether Pyro or Cryo is inflicted first, if Pyro activates this reaction its damage is amplified more than if Cryo did.
Melt serves as a more efficient reaction than Freeze due to its ability to trigger on nearly enemies, regardless of if they are a normal foe or a boss. Freeze may be able to lock opponents in place, but most boss-type opponents are incapable of being frozen in place and will not take additional damage from the ice being shattered.
Crystallize (Pyro/Cryo/Electro/Hydro + Geo)
Geo has the unique property of creating the same elemental reaction regardless of what element it comes in contact with (except for Dendro, Geo, and Anemo, with which no reaction occurs), just with different beneficial effects.
A target inflicted with Pyro, Cryo, Hydro, or Electro damage that is then attacked with Geo damage causes a reaction known as Crystallize, where gems will appear around their body. Should the player pick these gems up, they’ll gain a shield based on the original element that Geo came in contact with. This will block large amounts of incoming damage of that specific element for a short period of time.
Pairing the Crystallize reaction with characters like Hu Tao and Kuki Shinobu, whose skills deal damage to themselves that, in turn, increases their effectiveness, can keep them alive at the health checkpoints where they are the most useful.
The more gems the player picks up after causing a Crystallize reaction, the more effective the shield will be. The shield’s health scales with both the level and Elemental Mastery of the Geo character that created it, so players may want to invest heavily into Geo characters they may have sitting around in order to boost the defenses of their teams.
It’s unclear if Crystallize will be able to work with the other elements in the future, but for now, only Pyro, Cryo, Hydro, and Electro can trigger the effect in Genshin.
