Elemental Mastery and Elemental Reactions are mechanics unique toGenshin Impact. While some players may not find it as valuable as other stats like Attack or Critical Rate, building the Elemental Mastery attribute on the right characters can result in excellent team composition and high damage output.
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Genshin Impactintroduced a mechanic called Elemental Reactionsthat plays off each character’s Elemental Vision. These reactions include Vaporize, Melt, Overload, Superconduct, Frozen, Electro-charged, Burning, Shattered, Swirl, and Crystallize. Currently, the only Elemental Reaction with Dendro is Burning by applying Pyro to Dendro-type enemies and obstacles. Playable Dendro characters haven’t yet been introduced toGenshin Impactand it’s unclear whether or not more Dendro Reactions will come later on.When comparing to Anemo and Geo, the only Reactions they have are Swirl and Crystallize, respectively.
Updated on August 05, 2025, by Nahda Nabiilah:Electro units aren’t highly favored because they don’t have an insane Elemental Reaction. Unlike Pyro units that have easy access to 1.5x or 2x higher damage via Vaporize and Melt respectively, the very highest Electro Reaction damage is around 30k damage. To achieve this, the unit needs more than 2000 Elemental Mastery. Meanwhile, Pyro Units can reach this number with practically no Elemental Mastery.
Transformative Reactions did gain a decent buff inGenshin Impact1.6. Unfortunately, this improvement still doesn’t fix the issue of Electro Reactions being underwhelming. Although, at the very least, it greatly improves Swirl.
What Elemental Mastery Does
There are two types of Elemental Reaction; Transformative and Amplifying Reaction.Elemental Mastery determines the damage bonus a character gains from Elemental Reactions. This addition is multiplicative for Transformative Reactions and additive for Amplifying Reactions.
The Reactiondamage scales with the character triggering the Reaction. For example, if an Electro character triggered Overload, then the damage will scale with the Electro unit’s Elemental Mastery. Meanwhile, if a Pyro character triggered the Reaction, then the damage will scale with the Pyro unit’s Elemental Mastery.
How Does Elemental Mastery Work In Genshin Impact
Transformative Reactions create individual damage and don’t replace the triggering damage. It scales from Elemental Mastery and the character’s level. This damage can’t Crit and is not affected by the Elemental or Physical damage Bonus.
For Transformative Reactions, this is how Elemental Mastery works:
Meanwhile,Amplifying Reactions doesn’t have its own damage. Instead, it will amplify (and replace) the original Elemental damage. Because the calculation is derived from the original damage, this Reaction can Crit.
There are two different multipliers for Amplifying Reactions:
For example, if Hu Tao deals 20,000 damage beforeReverse-Vaporize, then she’ll deal 20,000 x 1.5 =30,000 Pyro damage. Meanwhile, if she has Elemental Mastery, then the Reaction damage is boosted according to the stated percentage. For instance, if the Elemental Mastery provides a 30% damage bonus, then the Hu Tao damage becomes 20,000 x (1.5 + 30%) =36,000 Pyro damage.
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Some Elemental Reactions take into account which Element was already applied to the enemy and which Element triggered the Reaction. For example, hitting a wet enemy with fire will deal 150% Pyro damage with theReverse-VaporizeReaction, while hitting an on-fire enemy with water will deal 200% Hydro damage withVaporize.Therefore,it’s important which characters are applying the base Element and who is triggering the Elemental Reaction afterward.
83
590
84
608
85
627
86
645
87
665
88
684
89
704
90
724
Based on ananalysis made by Nable in the HoYoLAB, the table above includes the approximatedBase Superconduct Damageon different character levels.
To get the Base Damage for other Transformative Reactions, players simply have to multiply the Base Superconduct Damage with these numbers:
So among all the Transformative Reactions, Overloaded has the highest damage scaling.
Elemental Reaction Types
Pyro has access to two Amplifying Reactions while Electro has access to none. That’s whyPyro is often seen as superiorwhile Electro is an underdog. For details, here are the Elemental Reactions available inGenshin Impact.
Amplifying Reactions
Amplifying Reactions have the highest damage and the simplest mechanic. So all Travelers need to know is the Elements that triggers it:
Transformative Reactions
Unlike Amplifying Reactions, Transformative ones don’t have a “Reverse” mechanic. However, they do have special features.
These Reactions don’t deal damage. Instead, they provide utilities.
Team Composition And Elemental Mastery
While many characters inGenshin Impactcan be built flexibly, most have a role that they’re best used for. For example, Diluc, Jean, and Razor are best used in the main DPS role while Diona and Bennett are best used as support characters who can deal wide AoE Damage with some added bonuses like shields and healing.
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In this way,Diona could lay down Cryo AoEbefore coming in with Razor’s Elemental Skill or Burst; triggeringSuperconduct. Setting off Xiangling’s Elemental Burst or putting down Guoba, then switching to an Anemo character with a high EM stat can deal heftySwirldamage. Players can also opt-out of having a “main” DPS and instead briskly switch between characters to get high Reaction Damage, but this tactic may not work as well when teaming up in co-op.
Some characters are better built for Elemental Mastery effects. For example,Mona’s 1st Constellationenhances the effects of Hydro-related Elemental Reactions marginally, and Lisa’s Elemental Mastery stat increases with levels.
Elemental Mastery Artifact Sets and Weapons
If the player wants to focus on the Elemental Mastery stat, they should consider farming for Artifacts with those substats and bonuses. In terms of matching sets, look for theInstructor’sset andWanderer’s Troupe, which can either be used for 4-piece or combined for 2-piece set effectiveness. Other than that, here are some artifacts that boost Elemental Reactions damage:
An Elemental Mastery (EM) weapon, if paired with the correct character and artifact, can be a devastating combination. For example,playingHu TaoonReverse-VaporizewithCrimson Witchof FlamesandDragon’s Banecan ease even the hardest content in the game. Here are all the available Elemental Mastery weapons inGenshin Impact:
Genshin Impactis now available on Mobile, PC, PS4, and PS5. A Switch version is in development.
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