Genshin Impact features many different types of enemies. Some of these enemies have elemental shields. These shields can be broken through physical DMG, but the most optimum way to break them is by using elemental reactions. In this guide, we will talk about how to break any time of elemental shields in Genshin Impact.
Unlike other games, Genshin Impact does not have the concept of type counters. However, there is a thing called Elemental Gauge. The elemental Gauge is what determines what reactions take place. When an element is applied to a target, it is called an Aura. The second applied element causes the reaction, and it is called the Trigger.
Elemental Gauge is a type of HP, but for elemental auras. It decays over time, and it is consumed when elemental reactions take place. Elemental shields do not have HP, instead, they have Elemental Gauge. Therefore, it is easier to break elemental shields by causing certain reactions that consume a huge chunk of Gauge Units.
Types of Elemental Shields and how to break them in Genshin Impact
1. Electro Shields
Using Pyro or Cryo attacks will burn through the Electro gauge fast and break the shield. Dendro attacks also do the trick. On the other hand, Electro itself is not a good element to break the shields of other elements.
2. Cryo Shields
The best way to break Cryo shields is to use Pyro attacks. This causes a powerful Melt reaction. Electro attacks can also be used, but they will never be as potent as Pyro attacks.
3. Pyro Shields
The best way to tear down Pyro shields is to cause the Vaporize reaction with Hydo attacks. Electro is once again a weaker way of achieving the same result.
4. Hydro Shields
Before the release of Dendro, the best way to take down Hydro shields was to use Cryo attacks. It had the added benefit of immobilizing the enemies in place. However, Dendro has now taken the place of the best way of dealing with Hydro shields. Unlike Cryo attacks, Dendro attacks cause a Bloom reaction with Hydro that destroys the Gauge Unit much faster than Cryo does with the Frozen reaction.
5. Geo Shields
The best way to break Geo shields is to use attacks that count as heavy attacks. This includes:
- Claymore Normal/charged attacks
- Claymore/Sword/Polearm plunging attacks
- Klee/Ningguang Normal/Charged attacks
- Overloaded reaction (Pyro+Electro)
- Elemental skill and bursts of certain characters
Most elemental reactions do not affect Geo shields since Geo does not have any offensive reaction with any element.
6. Using Anemo Swirls to break shields
Another interesting way to break elemental shields is to Swirl them. Characters like Venti, Sucrose, and Kazuha apply Anemo while pulling enemies together. If there are enemies with shields belonging to different elements, they will be pulled together and Swirled against each other. This helps break the shields very easily.
7. Using Sunfire Jean to break shields
Sunfire Jean is the name given to the unique interaction between Jean and Bennett’s bursts. Both of their bursts try to apply their respective elements to the active character while standing in the circle. This creates multiple instances of “Self Swirls” where the active character does Pyro Swirl DMG to any enemies nearby. This helps take down any elemental shield that is not Pyro. Sunfire Jean is an application of using Swirls to break shields, except in this case there is no grouping ability required to cause the Swirl DMG.
8. Easy Cheat Sheet
To make it easy to understand which element is useful against which elements, a Reddit user has created a cheat sheet to display the information neatly. It is a summary of everything discussed in this shield-breaking guide.
Final Thoughts
Shield-breaking is a necessary task to defeat enemies. Some enemies take reduced DMG while shielded, meanwhile, some enemies do not take any DMG at all. These enemies become hard to defeat if no member of the party can burn through the shield’s Gauge Unit.
Pyro is the most useful element for shield-breaking since it is strong against both Cryo and Electro. Hydro is another useful element since it helps deal with the annoying Pyro shields that do not take much DMG from other elements. Dendro is a savior against formerly annoying Hydro shields. As a matter of fact, at the moment the Hydro shield is the easiest one to take down because of how powerful the Dendro reaction is.
Electro is the least useful element for shield-breaking. While it acts as a soft counter against Pyro, Hydro, and Cryo, it is not strong against any element at all. While building teams for exploration, players should aim to have at least a Pyro and Hydro character on their party, since it will help them deal with most elemental shields.
Did you find our guide on how to break Elemental Shields in Genshin Impact helpful? Let us know in the comments below!
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