'Genshin Impact' Guide: How Does Elemental Mastery Work?

The combat in “Genshin Impact” relies heavily on combining different elements to create unique combos that help players deal more damage. However, as an RPG, it’s only natural for there to be some way to boost those damage numbers.

Elemental Mastery dictates how strong Elemental Reactions are. This stat can be gained via artifacts or character ascension passives. Players who want to deal as much damage with elemental effects and combos will want to build as much EM as possible, but it’s important to consider how Elemental Reactions work first.

Applying Elemental Effects

Normally, the order in which elemental effects are applied only matters when Melt and Vaporize are concerned. However, when Elemental Mastery comes to play, it’s important to consider which character applies to which element.

An Elemental Reaction’s damage scales off of a character’s ATK and EM stats and a combo’s damage will always be based on the character who triggers the reaction.

For example, if a low-EM character triggers an Overload reaction on a target primed by a high-EM Pyro unit, then the Overload damage will be weak because its damage will be based on the low-EM character’s stats. If the combo order is reversed, then the Overload damage will be much stronger.

Elemental Mastery Artifacts and Weapons

The EM stat is best equipped on characters that rely primarily on elemental reaction damage except for Geo units. Burst Supports that trigger reactions like Sucrose, Bennett, and to some extent, Xiangling, can make good use of Elemental Mastery due to the nature of their abilities and their respective play styles.

How Does Swirl And Elemental Absorption Work?

The Swirl reaction (Anemo + any element except Geo/Dendro) will deal Anemo damage in a large area and spread any element that is already inflicted on one enemy to every other enemy within range. This can potentially cause multiple elements to interact with each other and thus create multiple reactions.

Most Anemo abilities like Anemo Traveler’s tornado and Venti’s Elemental Burst will absorb other elements, making them deal both Anemo and the second element’s damage. Any Elemental Reaction caused by this combo will still depend on the EM stat of whoever triggered Swirl and the subsequent reactions. Due to this, Anemo supports are typically better with EM than Anemo DMG% on their artifacts.