A Quick Dendro Guide: Touching Grass Without Touching Grass

Introduction

Dendro is the seventh element of this fantastic small indie game, with fully functional reactions introduced in patch 3.0 along with the element’s associated region, Sumeru.

Prior to patch 3.0, Dendro had only manifested as either an inert aura imposed upon the player, as part of a Burning reaction when combined with Pyro, or as a semi-permanent aura onto Dendro slimes that could only be Burned.

Dendro now has a complete arsenal of reactions in the forms of: Burning, Bloom, Core Explosion, Burgeon, Hyperbloom, Quicken, Spread, and Aggravate.

Note: For some sections of this guide, it may be helpful to have some prior familiarity with Elemental Gauge Theory. Detailed knowledge is not necessary except for as noted.

Dendro Reactions

Dendro will only react with Pyro, Hydro, and Electro. Dendro has no direct interaction with Cryo, Geo, nor Anemo.

Not Everything that Burns is Dendro

Wood – including shields and environmental objects – and grass are not Dendro, and can only Burn. Their existence alone cannot react with Electro nor Hydro to cause Quicken or Bloom. That would be chaos.

Multi-Stage Reactions

Typical elemental reactions (Melt, Overloaded, Swirl, etc) are achieved in two steps:

(1) apply the first element to establish an aura, then (2) apply the second element to trigger a reaction to the established aura.

Other than Burning, Dendro-based reactions can have two stages that are completed in three steps:

A crude, but flawed way to conceptualize multi-stage reactions is by thinking of a Frozen reaction followed by Shattered.

Burning

+

Burning occurs when an entity (both players and enemies) is afflicted with both Dendro and Pyro auras, causing AoE Pyro damage over time (DoT). 

Elemental Properties

* See Multi-Aura Reactions for more details.

Additional Notes

Residual Burning does not trigger the CRIT Rate passive of the Royal weapon series despite most other transformative reactions doing so.

Quicken

+

The combination of Dendro and Electro leaves a unique Quicken aura on an enemy. Quicken itself does not have a damage effect, but additional Electro or Dendro can be applied to the Quicken aura to trigger Aggravate or Spread (respectively).

Elemental Properties

*Exact mechanics of Quicken aura and gauge are still being calibrated by Mihoyo in beta and tested following ongoing changes. See Multi-Aura Reactions for more details.

Spread

++

Applying Dendro to a Quicken aura will trigger Spread, increasing the base damage* of the attack that applied Dendro. Ownership for damage calculations is based on the application of Dendro which triggered the Spread.

Aggravate

++

Applying Electro to a Quicken aura will trigger Aggravate, increasing the base damage* of the attack that applied Electro. Ownership for damage calculations is based on the application of Electro which triggered the Aggravate.

Attacks which apply Electro do include secondary Swirl damage, the Swirl hits which deal damage and apply Electro to a target other than the origin of the Swirl. 

*Adds to Talent% x ScalingFactor before DMG%, CRIT, or any other factor are considered. See Scaling & Damage formulas for more details.

Bloom

+

Bloom occurs when Dendro (or Quicken) interacts with Hydro, creating a Dendro Core (aka Seed) on the ground next to the enemy. Pyro or Electro can be applied to Seeds to trigger a second-stage reaction in the form of Burgeon or Hyperbloom (respectively), or left to explode on their own after 6 seconds, with all of the aforementioned dealing transformative Dendro DMG. 

Dendro Core (Seed) Properties

Elemental Properties

Seed targeting:

Core Explosion

++ Do Nothing

If neither Pyro nor Electro are applied to a Seed, the Seed will expire after 6 seconds or after more than 5 Seeds exist on the field. Expired Seeds will explode, dealing AoE Dendro DMG to both enemies and nearby party members. 

Damage to party members is 5% of the damage enemies would receive before resistance calculations.

Elemental Properties

Burgeon

++

When Pyro is applied to a Seed, Burgeon occurs, dealing AoE Dendro damage to both enemies and nearby party members. 

Elemental Properties

Hyperbloom

++

When Electro is applied to a Seed, Hyperbloom occurs, creating a spark that homes in on the closest enemy, dealing Dendro damage. Bloom is technically AoE, as are all attacks in Genshin, but the AoE is small enough (~1m) to be unnoticeable in most cases.

Elemental Properties

Self Damage

All Bloom-related reactions will deal damage to on field party members within their AoE as well as enemies. Damage to party members is 5% of the damage enemies would receive before resistance calculations.

This is typically unlikely to be an issue for Hyperbloom, as the AoE is small enough to typically miss the player, but can present a challenge for teams built around Burgeon.

Multi-Aura Reactions

WARNING: MEGA DWEEB SHIT, PRIOR EGT KNOWLEDGE ASSUMED

In most cases with multi-aura reactions, triggering elements will react with auras one at a time according to a priority list. 

For example, Pyro applied to Electro + Hydro will result in an Overload, and then potentially result in a Vaporize if enough Pyro gauge remains after triggering the Overload and consuming the Electro aura. More Info 

Fridging

Because Cryo does not react with Dendro, it is possible for both auras to coexist. When Hydro is applied to Cryo + Dendro, Hydro will react with Cryo first, and then Dendro with any remaining Hydro gauge.

For example, 1U Hydro applied to .8U Cryo + .8U Dendro will trigger Frozen, reducing the Hydro trigger gauge to .2U, and then Bloom, using up the remaining Hydro trigger gauge and reducing the Dendro aura gauge to .7U. Since less of the Dendro gauge has been removed than would otherwise be expected from 1U of Hydro, this can allow for more Blooms off of a single instance of Dendro. Example

You put the salad in the fridge to keep it fresh longer.

Dendro on Electro-Charged

Dendro applied to Electro-Charged (or Electro + Hydro) will result in Quicken, then Bloom if enough Dendro trigger gauge remains. As Quicken reaction applies the Quicken aura, which can behave as a Dendro aura for the sake of Bloom reactions, a Hydro character can react with this Quicken aura for an additional Bloom off of just one Dendro application. Example

Since Dendro application is more often the limiter on Bloom procs than Hydro application, this can become a valuable means of extending limited Dendro app into more seeds, much like Fridging.

If enough Hydro gauge is applied to Quicken with an underlying Electro aura, any remaining Hydro gauge after the Bloom reaction will react with Electro and trigger Electro-Charged.

Sibling Auras

When two of the auras are sibling auras (Frozen/Cryo, Burning/Pyro, Quicken/Dendro), the aura of both will be reduced. However, the gauge of the trigger element remaining will be reduced from the maximum of the two sibling auras. 

For example, 1U Electro applied to 1U Burning, 1U Dendro, and 1.6U Pyro will reduce the Pyro gauge to .6, the Burning gauge to 0, and the triggering Electro gauge to -.6 (effectively 0) meaning the Dendro gauge will be left untouched. However, 2U Electro applied would reduce both Burning and Pyro to effectively 0 and leave .4U of triggering Electro, which would then react with the Dendro to cause Quicken. 

Scaling & Damage Formulas

Transformative Reactions

Both Burning and all Bloom-related reactions (Core Explosion, Burgeon, and Hyperbloom) are transformative reactions and follow the usual transformative reaction formula:

\begin{equation*}
\text{Level Multiplier} \cdot \text{Reaction Multiplier} \cdot \left( 1 + \frac{16 \text{EM}}{2000 + \text{EM}} + \text{Reaction Bonus}\right) \cdot \text{Resistance Multiplier}
\end{equation*}

Reaction Multipliers

Additive Reactions

Spread and Aggravate enter the damage formula for talent damage hits as base damage increases, similar to Shenhe or Yun Jin’s buffs or to weapon passives like Redhorn Stonethresher:

\begin{equation*}
(\text{Talent}\% \cdot \text{Scaling Factor} + \text{Additive Talent Damage} + \text{Additive Reaction Damage} ) \cdot \left( 1 + \text{DMG}\% \right) \cdot \left( 1+ \text{CRate} \cdot \text{CDMG} \right) \cdot \text{Resistance Multiplier} \cdot \text{Defense Multiplier}
\end{equation*}

This means that they do benefit from DMG% and CRIT when triggered by talent damage hits (anything other than Swirls).

For Swirls, Aggravate is added to the Swirl damage after any Swirl specific reaction bonus:

\begin{equation*}
( \text{Level Multiplier } \cdot \text{ Swirl Reaction Multiplier} \cdot \left[ 1 + \frac{16 \text{EM}}{2000 + \text{EM}}\right] + \text{Additive Reaction Damage} ) \cdot \text{ Resistance Multiplier}
\end{equation*}

Note that swirls can only aggravate when triggered off of the primary target onto a secondary target.

The additive reaction damage of Spread and Aggravate can be calculated as:

\begin{equation*}
\text{Level Multiplier} \cdot \text{Reaction Multiplier} \cdot \left( 1 + \frac{5 \text{EM}}{\text{EM} + 1200} + \text{Reaction Bonus}\right)
\end{equation*}

EM is not snapshotted for purposes of calculating additive reactions. This means that Spread and Aggravate damage will be based on whatever EM the character has at that moment, even when triggered by abilities which otherwise snapshot such as Beidou’s Burst. More Info

Reaction Multipliers

Base Reaction Scalings at Lvl90 

\begin{equation*}
\text{Level Multiplier} \cdot \text{Reaction Multiplier}
\end{equation*}

Credits

Authors

Editing and Review

Testing and Theory Development

Changelog

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