Elemental Gauge Theory

OverviewAdvanced MechanicsSimultaneous Reaction PriorityCharacter Data

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Elemental Gauge Theory
Type	Game Systems Combat

Elemental Gauge Theory, also known as Gauge Unit Theory, is a community-created framework on how Elements are handled within the game.

It explains the following phenomena:

• Elemental Reactions
• Elemental Auras, duration, and decay (including Gauge Units and breaking elemental shields/armor)
• Internal Cooldown of elemental application

Introduction

The fundamental concepts of Elemental Gauge Theory are auras from elemental attacks and the gauge cost of elemental reactions.

Gauge Unit — Also known as an Elemental Gauge, this is a unit bound to the application of an element, such as a character's talent. This can be thought of as the strength or amount of the applied element.

• The value of this gauge influences the duration and durability of elemental auras (see below) applied and how much one instance of application can consume an existing aura through an Elemental Reaction.
• The higher the gauge, the stronger the element application. This means elemental auras (see below) applied last longer and can support more Elemental Reactions, and Elemental Reactions inflicted consume a greater amount of an aura.
• Note that in the game's source code, the Gauge Unit value is denoted using a parameter named "Element Durability."
  • 1 Gauge Unit = 25 units of Element Durability

Elemental Aura — An application of an element from an external source, such as a character's talent, that lingers on enemies and other entities after application.

• Cryo, Dendro, Electro, Hydro, and Pyro attacks can apply an aura.
• Anemo and Geo attacks cannot apply an aura.
• If a second element is applied to an existing aura and triggers an Elemental Reaction, the existing aura will be partially or fully consumed. The extent of this consumption depends on the Gauge Units of the second element as well as the type of reaction triggered.

Decay — Elemental auras will decay linearly at a certain rate. The decay rate is usually determined by the Gauge Units of the first element applied.

Elemental Application

See also: Elemental Gauge Theory/Character Data

Most elemental attacks apply 1, 1.5, 2, 4, or 8 Gauge Units of their respective element. If the attack creates an aura, the decay rate will also differ depending on the Gauge Units.

Character abilities as well as most enemy attacks can apply 1, 1.5, 2, or 4 Gauge Units. 8 GU attacks are extremely rare and only seen on certain event abilities.

Note that Bow users have Gauge Unit dropoff on their fully-charged aimed shots, which may result in non-standard elemental applications. For more information, see Bow#Damage Dropoff.

For the complete dataset for character talents, see Elemental Gauge Theory/Character Data.

Elemental Aura

If an elemental attack hits an enemy without triggering an Elemental Reaction (except Electro-Charged, Burning, Aggravate, and Spread), the corresponding elemental aura will be applied to the enemy.

Aura Tax

If an aura is created through an elemental attack, there will be an Aura Tax, which reduces 20% of the Gauge on the aura created. However, Self Auras are not affected.

$\text{Initial Gauge}_\text{Aura} = 0.8 \times \text{Gauge}_\text{Elemental Attack}$

• Example: Bennett's Passion Overload (Tap) can apply 2U of Pyro. However, due to Aura Tax, the aura it creates will have its Gauge reduced to 1.6U.

Aura Duration and Decay Rate

When an aura is created through an elemental attack:

• $x = \text{Gauge}_\text{Elemental Attack}$
• The base duration of an aura is calculated as:
  $\text{Base Duration} = 2.5 x + 7$
• The current Aura Gauge at the time t is calculated as:
  $\text{Current Gauge}(t) = 0.8 x \times \left(1 - \frac{t} {\text{Base Duration}}\right)$
• The decay rate (the amount of time required to reduce the current Aura Gauge by 1) can be expressed as:
  $D(x) =\frac{\text{Base Duration}}{\text{Initial Gauge}} = \frac{35}{4x} + \frac{25}{8}$

Therefore, elemental attacks that apply Gauge Units of 1, 1.5, 2, 4, and 8 will result in the following auras:

Attack	Resulting Aura	Base Duration (Seconds)	Decay Rate (Seconds Per GU)
1U	0.8U	9.5	D(1) = 11.875
1.5U	1.2U	10.75	D(1.5) = 8.9583
2U	1.6U	12	D(2) = 7.5
4U	3.2U	17	D(4) = 5.3125
8U	6.4U	27	D(8) = 4.21875

Decay Rate Inheritance

Most Elements

When an element identical to that of an existing aura is applied, the elemental gauge value will inherit the elemental gauge of the initial aura or the trigger — whichever is higher. However, the decay rate of the initial elemental aura will be inherited. This suggests that applying a stronger elemental aura on top of a weaker one results in an aura with a longer duration.

• Example: Applying a 1U elemental attack on an elemental aura of 1.6U with a decay rate of D(2) is inefficient since the resulting aura would have still a decay duration of 12.0 seconds, computed by multiplying the higher aura gauge which is 1.6U with the initial decay rate of D(2) = 7.5 Seconds Per GU. However, the reverse, applying 2U on a 0.8U aura with a decay rate of D(1) will result in a much longer decay duration of 19.0 seconds resulting from the higher gauge of 1.6U and an initial decay rate of D(1) = 11.875 Seconds Per GU.

When an elemental reaction is triggered but does not fully consume the elemental aura, the decay rate of the aura is inherited until it is cleared.

• Example: Applying a 1U elemental attack on a 1.6U, D(2) aura would cause a Superconduct reaction that still leaves an elemental aura of 0.6U, D(2). Here the aura decay rate D(2) remains unchanged.

Pyro

The Pyro aura is an exception to the above rules, as it does not have decay rate inheritance.

If Pyro is applied again on a target with an existing Pyro aura:

• If the new Pyro Aura has a higher gauge than the remaining Pyro Aura, the new Pyro Aura will replace the existing one with a new decay rate.
• If the resulting Pyro Aura has a lower gauge than the remaining Pyro Aura, the existing aura will not change.

Elemental Reactions

An elemental reaction is produced from a combination of two different elements. The gauges of the elemental aura and the triggering element dictate the cost of the reaction — specifically, in each reaction, this is expressed as:

Most Elemental Reactions

$\text{Gauge}_{\text{Result}} = \text{Gauge}_{\text{Aura}} - \text{Reaction Coefficient} \times \text{Gauge}_{\text{Trigger}}$

• When $\text{Gauge}_{\text{Result}} > 0$, the elemental gauge is reduced due to the reaction, however the aura still remains.
• When $\text{Gauge}_{\text{Result}} < 0 \Rightarrow \text{Gauge}_{\text{Result}} = 0$, the elemental aura is cleared.

The Reaction Coefficient for each reaction type is as follows:

Reaction Type	Reaction Coefficient
Pyro Melt Hydro Vaporize Dendro Bloom	2
Cryo Melt Pyro Vaporize Hydro Bloom Crystallize Swirl	0.5
Overloaded Superconduct Frozen Quicken	1

Example: A target with 2 units of Pyro Aura can have Cryo Melt triggered on it 4 times by using a trigger of 1 unit of Cryo $[2 - (0.5 \times 1) \times (4 \text{ times}) \Rightarrow 0]$, however, a target with 2 units of Cryo Aura can only have Pyro Melt triggered on it once using a trigger of 1 unit of Pyro $[2 - (2 \times 1) \times (1 \text{ time}) \Rightarrow 0]$.

In practice, the decay of elemental aura and internal cooldown of elemental application might negatively impact the ability to repeatedly trigger reactions.

Frozen and Shatter

Main article: Elemental Gauge Theory/Advanced Mechanics § Frozen

When Frozen is triggered, Hydro and Cryo are consumed as usual with a Reaction Coefficient of 1, but will create a Freeze Aura which can react with and be consumed by Pyro, Electro, and Anemo.

• Hydro or Cryo Auras can coexist with the Freeze Aura as Underlying Auras.
  • Underlying Auras will be created if the initial aura used to trigger Frozen was not fully consumed, or if Hydro/Cryo is reapplied after Frozen has been triggered.
  • Underlying Auras have complex interaction behaviors when triggering further reactions. See Elemental Gauge Theory/Simultaneous Reaction Priority for details.
• Upon hitting a Frozen target with a Blunt Attack, the Freeze Aura will first be consumed based on the attack's Poise DMG. If this consumption does not fully remove the Freeze Aura, Shatter will be triggered.
• Hitting a Frozen target with a Geo attack will also trigger Shatter, even if the Geo attack is not Blunt. Non-Blunt Geo attacks will trigger Shatter directly and will not consume the Freeze Aura based on Poise DMG.
• When an elemental attack triggers Shatter, it will first clear the Freeze Aura and only applies the attack's element afterwards.

Quicken

Main article: Elemental Gauge Theory/Advanced Mechanics § Quicken

When Quicken is triggered, Dendro and Electro are consumed as usual with a Reaction Coefficient of 1, but will create a Quicken Aura which can react with and be consumed by Pyro and Hydro. The Quicken Aura will also react with Electro and Dendro to trigger Aggravate and Spread respectively, but the Quicken Aura and the trigger element will not be consumed.

• Dendro or Electro Auras can coexist with the Quicken Aura as Underlying Auras.
  • Underlying Auras will be created if the initial aura used to trigger Quicken was not fully consumed, or if Dendro/Electro is reapplied after Quicken has been triggered.

Electro-Charged

• Electro and Hydro exist simultaneously as an aura during the reaction regardless of the element that acted initially as the aura or trigger.
• The consumption for Electro-Charge occurs each tick, and reduces the gauge of both elements by 0.4U until either element's gauge value reaches 0.
• The target is inflicted by both Electro and Hydro auras at the same time for the duration of Electro-Charged thus reactions involving these elements are still possible during its duration (i.e., a Pyro attack can trigger both Vaporize and Overload simultaneously on an Electro-Charged target).

Burning

Main article: Elemental Gauge Theory/Advanced Mechanics § Burning

The Burning reaction applies a Burning Aura. The Burning State is maintained by both the Burning and Dendro auras and will end if either is depleted.

• While Burning, the Dendro Aura will be affected by a steady per-frame consumption of 0.4U per second.
• Pyro and Dendro Auras can coexist with the Burning Aura as Underlying Auras.
• Burning DMG will re-apply 1U of Pyro. This application follows an ICD of 2 seconds.

Elemental Shields

Main article: Shields/Enemy

Elemental shields are a visualized form of auras used by enemies and objects that do not decay by themselves unless in special cases. The Gauge Units of elemental shields determines their durability, and the shield bar displays the amount of Gauge Units remaining.

As one of the means of breaking elemental shields, Elemental Reactions consume the Gauge Units of elemental shields just like they do regular auras, and their effectiveness is still determined by the Reaction Coefficient.

Internal Cooldown of Elemental Application

Main article: Internal Cooldown

Elemental attacks have internal cooldowns before being able to reapply their elemental effect.

When applying an element with an attack, there is an internal cooldown (ICD) on sequential applications with the same type of attack. ICD is usually counted based on a hit counter and a timer. When the first attack of a particular ability hits, it will apply its elemental effect and start both the hit counter and the timer.

For most character abilities, the standard ICD is 2.5 seconds or 3 hits. This means that the ICD is reset either after 2.5 seconds have passed or after 3 hits of the particular move are made. Note:

• The first hit after the 3-hit sequence will apply an element, but does not reset the 2.5 second timer.
• The first hit after the timer will apply an element, reset the timer, and reset the hit sequence.

Some characters abilities may have special ICDs or no ICD at all.

Note that ICD is counted separately for each attacker and each target.

0U Elemental Attacks

Elemental attacks can apply 0U of their element, either due to their own properties or as a result of Internal Cooldown. Notable 0U elemental attacks include the activations of Guide to Afterlife, Niwabi Fire-Dance, and Lightning Rose, mid-air collision of Plunging Attacks, and Spiritbreath Thorn/Surging Blade attacks.

0U elemental attacks cannot apply auras or trigger Elemental Reactions. However, they can still trigger effects that only require attacks of a specific elemental type, such as lighting torches, breaking Electro Crystals, or activating Elemental Monuments. 0U non-Blunt Geo attacks can also trigger Shattered.

Other Languages

Language	Unofficial Name	Literal Meaning
English	Elemental Gauge Theory	—
Chinese (Simplified)	高等元素论 Gāoděng Yuánsù Lùn	Advanced Element Theory
Vietnamese	Thuyết Định Lượng Nguyên Tố	Elemental Measurement Theory

Change History

Released in Version 1.0

[Edit History]

Version 3.0

• Decay Rate Inheritance was removed for the Pyro aura.