Genshin Impact Element guide: All Elements, Elemental Reactions, and Status Effects

Genshin Impact Diluc Fire
Genshin Impact Diluc Fire (Image credit: miHoHyo)

Water, Earth, Fire, Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony...oh wait. Wrong fandom. Ahem

Genshin Impact is a magical game where every playable character is the master of an Element. The way these Elements interact with each other sometimes results in added effects or damages to your opponents. So, you'll definitely want to take advantage of certain Elemental combinations in order to defeat enemies more efficiently.

Depending on what Elements the Genshin Impact characters in your party have can also result in party bonuses. Here's everything you need to know about Genshin Impact Elements, Status Effects, Elemental Reactions, and Elemental Resonance.

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Genshin Impact is one of the best PS5 games you can play on the console right now, and it's completely free to play. Cross-progression means that if you link your account, you can even carry your progress across your PS5 console and your mobile device. With the high-quality production values, it's easily one of the best Android games even if you're used to console or PC gaming.

Genshin Impact: Elements

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There are currently seven Elements in Genshin Impact, though it's possible that more will be added into the game as time goes on. Nations across Teyvat worship different members of The Seven Archons, which are godly individuals who bestow elemental powers on their followers.

New regions are being added to Genshin Impact with major expansions. As an example, the Genshin Impact 3.0 update featured the new mountainous Sumeru region.

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Element Nation Archon
Anemo (Wind) Mondstadt Barbados (Venti)
Cryo (Ice) Snezhnaya The Tsaritsa
Dendro (Nature) Sumeru God of Wisdom
Electro (Lightning) Inazuma The Immortal Shogun
Geo (Earth) Liyue Rex Lapis
Hydro (Water) Fontaine God of Justice
Pyro (Fire) Natlan Murata

Genshin Impact: Status effects

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When cast on enemies, certain elements can cause status effects:

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Element Status Effect
Cryo The opponents Movement Speed gets reduced.
Dendro Has no effect on its own, but can set an enemy up for multiple Elemental reactions.
Electro Electro spreads in water and affects any enemies who are Wet.
Hydro When a character or enemy touches water they become Wet, which opens up the possibility for an Elemental Reaction.
Pyro Burns the affected individuals and causes damage for a certain length of time.

Genshin Impact: Ley Line disorders

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There are some enemies and challenges that emit elemental auras. If players get too close to these enemies or enter these challenges, characters on the field can be affected with the following disorders.

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Disorder Element Status Effect
Condensed Ice Cryo Makes it so you consume more Stamina.
Engulfing Storm Electro Makes it so your Energy Recharge constantly drains.
Slowing Water Hydro Makes CD take much longer by -80%, so you have to wait an extended period for a move to be usable again.
Smoldering Flames Pyro Makes it so you get damaged by burns repeatedly over a certain amount of time.

Genshin Impact: Elemental reactions

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When some Elements collide with other Elements it can result in an elemental reaction that can cause added damage or other effects to those nearby.

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Reaction Elemental Combinations Effect
Aggravate Dendro + Electro + Electro After creating Quicken Aura, use Electro to gain a Flat DMG bonus.
Bloom Dendro + Hydro Creates a Dendro Core, which will explode after 6s, dealing Dendro AoE DMG.
Burgeon Dendro + Hydro + Pyro After creating a Dendro Core, apply Pyro to detonate, dealing increased AoE Dendro DMG.
Burning Dendro + Pyro Inflicts Pyro DMG to the affected individual over time.
Crystalize Geo + Cryo, Electro, Hydro, or Pyro Creates floating crystals on the battlefield. When picked up, these create an Element shield around the player.
Electro-Charged Electro + Hydro Continuously inflicts Electro DMG to the affected individual over time.
Frozen Cryo + Hydro Temporarily freezes the target in place.
Hyperbloom Dendro + Hydro + Electro After creating a Dendro Core, apply Electro to create a Sprawling Shot which homes in and deals increased AoE Dendro DMG in a smaller radius.
Melt Cryo + Pyro Deals extra DMG to those affected.
Overloaded Electro + Pyro Inflicts those within its influence with AoE Pyro DMG.
Quicken Dendro + Electro Creates a Quicken Aura.
Spread Dendro + Electro + Dendro After creating a Quicken Aura, use Dendro to gain Flat DMG boost.
Superconduct Cryo + Electro Reduce the target's Physical RES by 50% while dealing AoE Cryo DMG.
Swirl Anemo + Cryo, Electro, Hydro, or Pyro Spreads any Elements that the wind comes in contact with and deals extra Elemental DMG.
Vaporize Hydro + Pyro Does more DMG than usual.

Genshin Impact: Elemental resonance

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Elemental resonance is a passive effect that occurs when certain combinations of elemental characters fill your party. These effects also stack. For example, if your party is made up of two Geo characters and two Pyro characters, everyone in your party will benefit from the effects of Enduring Rock and Fervent Flames.

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Reaction Elements Effect
Enduring Rock 2 x Geo Your interruption resistance goes up and if your characters are protect by a shield, their Attack DMG increases by 15%.
Fervent Flames 2 x Pyro Increases your ATK by 25% while making it so Cryo effects last 40% less of their usual time.
High Voltage 2 x Electro Superconduct, Overloaded, and Electro-Charged Reactions will always generate an Electro Elemental Particle with a CD of 5s. Additionally, any Hyrdro effects will last 40% less of their usual time.
Impetuous Winds 2 x Anemo Decreases Stamina Consumption by 15%, reduces Skill CD by 5%, and increases Movement SPD by 10%.
Protective Canopy Four unique Elements All Elemental RES increases by 15%.
Shattering Ice 2 x Cryo Increases your party's CRIT Rate against Cyro Frozen enemies by 15%. Also, reduces the effect time of Electro by 40%.
Soothing Waters 2 x Hydro Your party's incoming healing increases by 30% while any Pyro effects last 40% less of their usual time.
Sprawling Greenery 2 x Dendro Bloom, Burning, and Quicken give party members 30 Elemental Mastery for 6s. Aggravate, Burgeon, Hyperbloom, and Spread give party members 20 Elemental Mastery for 6s.

Experiment your way to success

There's a lot to discover while exploring Genshin Impact's massive open world. Hopefully knowing more about each type of Element and how it reacts to others will help you along your journey. The developers are continuing to expand the world with huge updates, like the introduction of Dendro characters through Genshin Impact 3.0.

Rebecca Spear
Staff Writer

Rebecca Spear is a staff writer for Android Central who loves following the latest tech, drawing with her Wacom, and playing video games. You can find her posting about her pets, art, and video game preferences on Twitter @rrspear.

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