Genshin Impact Elements Guide: Types and Combos

Genshin Impact, the open-world free-to-play adventure game from MiHoYo, is now out for PlayStation 4, PC, iOS, and Android. As you adventure through the world, you meet and collect a variety of characters, each with their own elemental affinity. They might have the ability to create massive gusts of wind, or douse your enemies with water.

While you won't have all the elements available to you at the start of your adventure, before too long you'll not only find one that you like, but also find out how they can work together with different status afflictions.

What elements are in Genshin Impact?

The elements that you will encounter in Genshin Impact each have their own unique names, but are also very closely related to the normal array of elements that you'll find in a video game.

• Anemo - Wind Element
• Geo - Earth Element
• Electro - Lightning Element
• Dendro - Nature Element
• Hydro - Water Element
• Pyro - Fire Element
• Cryo - Ice Element

The different elements that your characters have are viewable on the party select screen in the upper-left-hand corner of their icon. This will dictate the types of special attacks that those characters will have to accompany their normal weapon attacks.

It's not all flashy lights either, as hitting enemies with each of these elements will impart upon them a negative status. Be careful though, as getting hit by elemental attacks can also impact your characters negatively.

How are Genshin Impact elements used in combat?

Different elemental attacks in Genshin Impact affect enemies and players with various effects. The elements also interact with the environment, acting differently if an enemy is standing in water, for example. Understanding these effects will give you the edge in battle. 

Enemy Negative Statuses

• Geo - This will cause enemies to deal less elemental damage. Enemies will also drop a shield the player can use to protect themselves. The shield will be more effective against the enemy's elemental type but will disappear when its health has been reduced to 0.
• Electro - When standing in a body of water, an enemy will cause lightning to chain between multiple enemies.
• Hydro - Gives an enemy the 'Wet' status.
• Pyro - Burns an enemy, causing them to lose health over time until the status runs out.
• Cryo - Slows the enemy's movement speed.

Player Negative Statuses

• Electro - Devouring lightning - Weakens your Elemental Burst talent energy usage.
• Hydro - Slowing Water - Increases the cooldown timers on your abilities.
• Pyro - Smoldering Flames - Burns the player, causing you to lose health over time until the status runs out.
• Cryo - Condensing Ice - Your character uses more Stamina dodging and running.

Combining Genshin Impact elements

It's not just about hitting an enemy with that element though, as you can use your different party members and the world around you to combine their abilities for a variety of different responses. There are a number of ways that the elements can interact with one another in Genshin Impact.

No Order Requirement

• Electro and Pyro - Overloaded - Large area-of-effect Pyro damage.
• Electro and Cryo - Superconduct - Large area-of-effect Cryo damage, reduces enemy speed.
• Electro and Hydro - Electro-Charged - Deals electro damage over time (this one you'll quickly encounter when enemies are standing in shallow water).

Order-Specific Combo

• Enemy affected by Pyro, Electro, Hydro, or Cryo, and then Anemo - Swirl - The initial elemental effect will be spread wider.
• Enemy affected by Dendro, and then Pyro - Burning - Burns the enemy over time more effectively then Pyro on its own.
• Enemy affected by Hydro, and then Cryo - Frozen - Freezes the enemy in place.
• Enemy is frozen and then hit with a Heavy Attack - Shattered - Breaks the enemy out of Frozen status, dealing more physical damage.

Different Order Combos

Melt

• Pyro and then Cryo - Dispels both effects and deals x1.5 Cryo damage.
• Cryo and then Pyro - Dispels both effects and deals x2 Cryo damage.

Vaporize

• Hydro and then Pyro - Dispels both effect and deals x1.5 Pyro damage.
• Pyro and then Hydro - Dispels both effect and deals x2 Hydro damage.

These combos can be done by using an enemy's own Pyro attack against them, or you can even cause these effects by quickly swapping between your different characters.

When your characters' special abilities are completely charged you can see a glowing elemental symbol next to their name. You can use this to know when to plan a big attack. For those playing on PC, you can also automatically swap to a character and have them use their special attack by pressing the Ctrl key and the number for the character from 1-4.

Creating a party to make use of Genshin Impact elements

Your party in Genshin Impact can be made of up to four characters. Depending on the different characters' elements you can get different kinds of status effects. As long as you have a full party, at least one of these effects will be active, and by planning out your team, you could even have two of these active at once.

• Any Four Unique Elements - Protective Canopy - All Elemental Resistance +15%.
• Two Fire Types - Fervent Flames - Affected by Cryo 40% less. ATK up by 25%.
• Two Water Types - Soothing Water - Affected by Pyro 40% less. Incoming Healing up by 30%.
• Two Wind Types - Impetuous Winds - Decreases Stamina use by 15%. Movement up by 10%. Skill cooldown reduced by 5%.
• Two Elec Types - High Voltage - Affected by Hydro 40% less. Superconduct, Overloaded, and Electro-Charged have a 100% chance to create Electro Elemental Particle (Cooldown 5s).
• Two Ice Types - Shattering Ice - Affected by Electro 40% less. Crit Rate increased by 15% against frozen or Cryo affected monsters by 15%.
• Two Earth Types - Enduring Rock - Increases resistance to interruption. When protected by a shield increase ATK by 15%.

Each of these boons can be used to better fit your playstyle. If you really want to be able to run in and deal high damage, a duo of ice users could freeze every enemy and enjoy the benefits of boosted critical hits, for example.

Recently, developer MiHoYo pushed out an update that affected Genshin Impact's anit-cheat software.

What is your favorite use of elemental attacks in Genshin Impact? Are you already picking out a team best for your playstyle? Do you enjoy using the environment in your attacks?