Glossary

This page is about community-derived information, concepts, or terminology.

This page contains unofficial information, concepts, or terminology derived from or based on community discussion, invention, or knowledge. This page may be subjective and contain information or terminology that is not used by miHoYo or in official Genshin Impact communications, and may not be an officially recognized concept.

This is a list of both official and unofficial terminology, abbreviations, jargons, and specific vocabulary which are commonly used by the Genshin Impact community. They are used to simplify and facilitate rapid communication in discussions, especially regarding gameplay.

These terms are mostly used in the English language. Most of these terms, especially abbreviations, are not explicitly case-sensitive, but nevertheless are listed in the case most commonly found as.

Use Ctrl+F (find) to search for particular terms

Contents: # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

#[]

1.1, 2.0, 5.8, etc. — Refers to the game's Version 1.1, 2.0, 5.8, etc. update.
1–1, 1–2, 1–3,... 12–3 etc. (or 12–3–1, 12–3–2, etc.) — Refers to a specific part of the Spiral Abyss. Notation: Floor-Chamber or Floor-Chamber-Half.
1 Piece, 2 Piece, 4 Piece (or 1PC, 2PC, 4PC) — The number of Artifacts of the same Artifact Set on a Character.
1U, 2U, etc. (or Gauge Units/GU) — The strength of an elemental application, measured in units (U), of an ability. The strength of elemental application of the aura and trigger elements affect the amount of elemental reactions that can be triggered before the elemental aura is depleted. See Elemental Gauge Theory.
50–50 (or 50/50) — The 50 percent chance of getting a rate up 5-star character or weapon in Character Event Wishes or Chronicled Wishes, provided that a non-rate up 5-star character or weapon was not the last 5-star character or weapon obtained.
75–25' (or 75/25) — The 75 percent chance of getting a rate up 5-star weapon in Weapon Event Wishes, compared to the 25 percent chance to get a non-rate up 5-star weapon.
90 — To ascend and level a character to Level 90.
[stat]/[stat]/[stat] — The three main stats being used or recommended for Sands of Eon, Goblet of Eonothem, and Circlet of Logos respectively. The Flower of Life and Plume of Death are not included since their main stats will always be flat HP and flat ATK respecively. For example, ATK%/Anemo/CRIT refers to using and ATK% Sands, Anemo DMG Bonus Goblet, and either CRIT Rate or CRIT DMG Circlet respectively.

A[]

A0, A1, A2, etc. — The Ascension Phase of a Character (i.e., "A5 Amber" refers to Amber with Ascension level 5). A1 and A4 may also refer to the Passive Talent unlocked on said Ascension.
Abilities — Another term for "Talents."
ADC — Abbreviation of ATK/DMG Bonus/CRIT, a common set of main stat selection for the Sands, Goblet and Circlet slots for Artifacts respectively.
AEP/ARXP/AXP/AEXP — Abbreviation of Adventure Experience.
Affix (or Affixes, Minor Affix) — The official term for stats and substats on Artifacts and Weapons.
AFK — Abbreviation of "Away from Keyboard."
Aggro — Usually refers to aggravating an enemy. In Genius Invokation TCG, it also describes a deck consisting in maximizing damage output throughout the rounds.
AoE — Abbreviation of "Area of Effect."
AP — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Archaic Petra.
Apologems — Portmanteau of "Apology" and "gems." A general term referring to premium currencies distributed as compensation for issues and bugs by a game company.
AR — Abbreviation of Adventure Rank. For example: AR 55 and AR 60.
ASIMON — Acronym for the Algorithm of Semi-Intransient Matrix of Overseer Network Normal Boss.
ATK — Abbreviation of the "Attack" attribute.
Aura — Either refers to Enemy Auras or to an element present on an enemy or character (the first element used in an Elemental Reaction). An Aura Character is a character that consistently applies their element to an enemy first. Coexisting/Underlaying auras refers to having multiple existing aura on the same enemy or character.
Auto Attack (or AA) — The Normal Attack of Characters.

B[]

Back-load — Refers to doing something that either ramps up over time or happens at or toward the end of a rotation, a character's field time, or activation of a Talent. For example, Eula's Lightfall Sword exploding seven seconds after casting Glacial Illumination, the DMG Bonus from Yelan's Adapt With Ease ramping up over time and being the highest at the end of Depth-Clarion Dice's duration, or the healing from Xingqiu's Hydropathic only occurring after Guhua Sword: Raincutter expires.
Banner — Another term for Wishes (e.g., the "Venti Banner" refers to the Ballad in Goblets Character Event Wish).
Basic Attack — The Normal Attack of Characters.
Battery — A character whose main purpose on the team is to generate Energy for other characters.
Best in Slot (or BiS) — A Weapon or Artifact that performs the best for a character.
Bleeding — Refers to a debuff characterized by a continuous loss of HP, such as Corrosion.
BoL — Abbreviation of Bond of Life.
Bonk/Bonking — Refers to the Plunge Attack DMG that can be dealt while falling in mid-air. Not to be confused with the Plunge DMG from the landing Low/High Plunges.
Booking (or Book Trick) — The usage of in-game menus during combat to either cancel the time limit for Claymore Charged Attacks or allow the active character to collect Energy in shorter in-game timespan since Energy particles and orbs do not pause along with the menu.
Bot — When used after a skill or ability name, it means primarily using a character for said ability. For example, a "Shieldbot" refers to supports used mainly for their shields, and an "Ult Bot" refers to Burst Supports.
Bountiful Bloom — Refers to Nilou teams that utilizes Bountiful Cores.
BP — Abbreviation of "Battle Pass."
BS — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Blizzard Strayer.
Buff — A positive effect (or the ability that produces it).
Buffer — The act of adding an input before the current action has ended in order to queue up the next action to perform as early as possible; often used in context of Normal Attacks. It can also refer to characters that can provide a positive effect.
Build — A specific combination of a Weapon and Artifacts equipped on a character. May also include talent priority.
Burnmelt — A portmanteau of the reactions Burning and Melt, which refers to use of the Burning Aura in order to Reverse Melt Cryo. Can also refer to a team composition that uses this combination of reactions to deal damage such as Ganyu, Bennett, Dehya, and Nahida.
Burst — Shortened form of Elemental Burst.
Burst Support — Refers to characters in the team whose main function is to deal damage through their Elemental Burst, taking relatively less time on-field.

C[]

C0, C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6 — The Constellations of a character, often to refer to how many constellations a character has.
C6R5 — A character (typically a 5-Star character) with six Constellations, equipped with a weapon (typically a 5-Star weapon) whose Refinement rank is at 5 (see R1, R2, ...).
CA — Abbreviation of "Charged Attack."
Cancel or Animation Cancel — Ending a skill's or attack sequence's animation early by starting a different animation in the middle of the previous animation. The most common cancels are Jump Cancels and Dash Cancels which are performed by Jumping or Dashing to skip any remaining animation frames after damage is already dealt.
Capped — The state of the Original Resin counter being at the natural recharge limit.
Carry — One or more party members who contribute significantly to the party. The most common types of carrying are through dealing the most damage or healing party members. In the theorycrafting community, Carry has a varying definition referring to specifically damage dealers. It can contextually mean a damage dealer that requires field time, Hypercarries, or simply just a character with a significant damage contribution.
CBT — Abbreviation of "Closed Beta Test," referring to the beta tests of the game in the past prior to its global release. Version 0.0.1, Version 0.7.1 and Version 0.9.9 are the three closed beta tests.
CC/Crowd Control — Refers to abilities used to gather multiple enemies closer together to better apply abilities and talents on the greatest number of enemies and maximize efficiency of the damage dealt over time. It can also refer to characters who have such abilities and talents, or specialize in it. Less commonly, it can refer to abilities and talents which create any sort of Displacement.
CD — Abbreviation of either "Cooldown" or the "CRIT DMG" or "Critical Damage" attribute, depending on the context.
CDMG — Abbreviation of Crit DMG or "Critical Damage" attribute.
Cinder City — Shortened form of the Artifact Set Scroll of the Hero of Cinder City.
Circle Impact — Refers to the strategic limitations that certain Character Talents impose on the player due to only applying their effects inside a restrictive and often circular area which does not move with the active Character. Such Talents require players to carefully position characters and/or enemies to make the most of their effects. Examples include Bennett's Fantastic Voyage, Rosaria's Rites of Termination, and Diona's Signature Mix.
Circlet — Shortened form for the Circlet of Logos Artifact piece.
Cleanse — Removing the imbued elements or Ley Line Disorders by intentionally causing elemental reactions on the character.
Collision Cancel — An animation cancel that utilizes colliding into an object during a jump cancel in order to land faster.
Comp — Abbreviation of "Team Composition," which refers to a particular combination of characters used in a team.
Cons — Abbreviation of Constellation.
Core — Contextually refers to either a key group of characters who work well together and are central to a team's synergy, or to Dendro Cores and Bountiful Cores, depending on the context.
Cost — A system that measures team investment by tallying the number of limited 5-star Characters, Constellations, and Weapons, each being worth 1 cost. For example, a team consisting of a C6 Xingqiu with an R1 Favonius Sword, a C1 Bennett with an R1 Skyward Blade, a C4 Xiangling with an R5 "The Catch", and a C0 Jean with an R5 Sacrificial Sword would be a 0-cost team due to having 0 limited 5-stars, while the same team but with Xiangling's "The Catch" replaced with an R1 Staff of the Scarlet Sands and swapping Jean for a C2 Kazuha would make it a 4-cost team. This is not to be confused with Energy Cost for Elemental Bursts.
CR or CRate — Abbreviation of "CRIT Rate" attribute.
Crit Fishing — The practice of using extremely low CRIT Rate (in order to use higher damage stats such as CRIT DMG) and taking multiple attempts to achieve a run where all or most attacks crit.
Crit Value (or CV) — A way of quantifying the amount of investment into total CRIT on a character or artifact. ${\text{CV}}={\text{CRIT DMG}}+(2\times {\text{CRIT Rate}})$ . For example, if an artifact has 3.9 Crit Rate and 7.8 Crit DMG, the CV is 15.6, calcualted as $7.8+(3.9\times 2)$ .
Crown — Either Crown of Insight in context of an item or Talent level, or Circlet of Logos in context of artifacts.
Crowning — Spending a Crown of Insight to level a character's combat Talents (Normal Attack, Elemental Skill, or Elemental Burst) to their final base rank (Lv. 10, not including levels from Constellations).
Cup — Another term for the Goblet of Eonothem Artifact piece.
CWoF/CWF/CW — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Crimson Witch of Flames.

D[]

Dailies — The four Daily Commissions. Some players also include the daily Battle Pass missions when using this term.
DB/DBane — Abbreviation of the Polearm weapon Dragon's Bane.
DD — Abbreviation of "Damage Dealer."
Debuff — A negative effect (or the ability that produces it).
DEF — Abbreviation of the "Defense" attribute.
DM — Abbreviation of the Polearm weapon Deathmatch or the Artifact set Deepwood Memories, depending on the context.
Dolphin — A player who spends moderate amounts of money on the game.
Donut — Refers to the Catalyst weapons Everlasting Moonglow and Jadefall's Splendor, or to Mavuika's Charged Attack while she is in the Nightsoul's Blessing state.
DoT — Abbreviation of "Damage over Time."
Downtime — The period of a cooldown during which an Elemental Skill, Elemental Burst, or other effect becomes inactive; compare with uptime. The term may also be used to refer to a server maintenance period (typically between Version updates).
DPC — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Desert Pavilion Chronicle.
DPR — Abbreviation of "Damage per Rotation."
DPS — Abbreviation of "Damage per Second." It is typically used to refer to any character who serves as the party's main damage dealer, but may also be used to refer to the party's general damage output.
Dragonstrike — Using Hitlag to boost jumping height, allowing melee characters to perform Plunging Attacks regardless of terrain.
Driver — A character that is used on-field to constantly trigger other characters' off-field abilities. Drivers often have fast animations, consistent elemental application, or other on-field utility. For example, Sucrose is a popular driver for Beidou's Stormbreaker in a Sucrose, Beidou, Fischl, and Xingqiu Taser team.
Dual scaling — Talents that have a multiplier that scales off multiple different stats. For example, Tamoto DMG and Upward Sweep Attack DMG from Chiori's Fluttering Hasode scale off both ATK and DEF.
Dynamic — The opposite of Snapshotting. Refers to Talents that aren't Snapshottable and update their effects according to a character's current stats.

E[]

E — Refers to character Elemental Skills, after its default key binding on PC. Additionally, tE refers to the tap Skill and hE refers to the hold Skill.
EC — Abbreviation of the Electro-Charged Elemental Reaction.
Echoes — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Echoes of an Offering.
EDC — Abbreviation of Elemental Mastery/DMG Bonus/CRIT, a common main stat selection for Artifacts.
EGT — Abbreviation of Elemental Gauge Theory, a community-created framework on how Elements are handled within the game, explaining elemental reactions, auras, and internal cooldowns.
Elites — Abbreviation of "Elite Enemies" such as Eye of the Storm and Ruin Graders. Not to be confused with "Elite Bosses," a former in-game name for Normal Bosses such as Electro Hypostasis and Pyro Regisvine.
EM — Abbreviation of the "Elemental Mastery" attribute.
Enabler — Typically used to refer to a character that can allow a different character to deal more damage, usually through the application of an Aura element. For example, the term "enabler" has been used to describe Tartaglia's role in applying Hydro very quickly, allowing Xiangling's Pyronado to Vaporize and deal more damage.
EoSF/ESF — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Emblem of Severed Fate.
ER — Abbreviation of the "Energy Recharge" attribute.
Experience Books (or EXP Books, XP Books) — Refers to the Character EXP Materials that can be used to increase a Character's level.

F[]

Fav — Shortened form of any weapon from the Favonius Series.
Feather — Another term for the Plume of Death Artifact piece.
FFXX — A popular team composition whose name is an initialism of its members: Faruzan, Furina, Xiao, and Xianyun. This team is occasionally called "Final Fantasy 20" as a joke.
FGM — Abbreviation of the Bow weapon The First Great Magic.
Field Time — Refers to the amount of time necessary for a character to be active.
Flagship Event — The main event during a Version. See Flagship Event.
Flat Stat (Flat HP/ATK/DEF) — Artifact substats with numerical values instead of percentages. They are generally less desirable than percentage substats.
Flex — Shortened form of Flexible, often refers to slots in certain teams that have multiple viable character options. Can also refer to sharing an impressive feat such as a showcases of luck, high amount of investment on a character, or skillful gameplay.
Flower — Shortened form for the Flower of Life Artifact piece.
Footstool — Using certain enemy collision boxes to gain altitude in order to perform Plunging Attacks regardless of terrain.
FoPL — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Flower of Paradise Lost.
Forward Vape or Forward Melt — The 2× multiplier version of the Vaporize reaction (applying Hydro on Pyro) or the Melt reaction (applying Pyro on Cryo) respectively, as opposed to Reverse Vape or Reverse Melt.
Fragile — Shortened form of Fragile Resin.
Free to Play (or F2P) — Refers to players who do not spend real money on the game.
Freemogems — Primogems earned through natural progression such as Daily Commissions, Quests, Events, Achievements, and Promotional Codes, i.e. methods of acquiring Primogems that do not require spending real money.
Fridge — The act of applying Hydro to a target with coexisting Cryo and Dendro auras. Due to reaction priorities, Frozen will be triggered first, which will consume the majority of the Hydro trigger. Bloom will then be triggered, and due to the reduced Hydro gauge, the Dendro aura will be consumed minimally. This allows for more instances of Bloom to be triggered using the same Dendro aura. The name "fridge" comes from the analogy of refrigerating vegetables to keep them fresh for longer.
FRIKEE — Acronym for the Fontaine Research Institute of Kinetic Energy Engineering or the area named after it.
Front-load — Refers to doing the majority of something early, often in large bursts, either at the onset of a rotation, character's field time, or activation of a Talent. For example, using Tartaglia's Havoc: Obliteration right after he becomes the active character, the effects of Arlecchino's Masque of the Red Death being the strongest at the start but diminishing over time, or Instructor's 4-pc effect only affecting the beginning of character's field time but expiring midway.
FS — Abbreviation of the Sword weapon Freedom-Sworn.
Funerational — A more unconventional variant of National that doesn't incorporate Bennett and, instead, is composed of Hu Tao, Xiangling, Xingqiu, and Yelan.
Funnel/Funneling — Refers to using one character to generate Energy particles, then swapping to another character to catch those particles in order to fill their Elemental Burst faster.

G[]

GAA — Acronym referring to the Golden Apple Archipelago region.
Gacha — Refers to games that exchange in-game currency for random virtual items, with an option to purchase the in-game currency with real-world money. In Genshin Impact, Wishes are the gacha mechanic, spending Acquaint Fates, Intertwined Fates, or Primogems to obtain characters and weapons.
GD/Gilded — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Gilded Dreams.
Gear — Refers to Artifacts and Weapons equipped on Characters.
Gems — Abbreviation for Primogems. Can also refer to Character Ascension Materials, also called Ascension Gems in this context.
GF/Glad — Shortened form of the Artifact set Gladiator's Finale.
Goblet — Abbreviation of Goblet of Eonothem Artifact piece.
Goldfish — Refers to players who spend very little money on the game, usually referring to purchasing only the Blessing of the Welkin Moon, Battle Pass Gnostic Hymn, and rarely Genesis Crystals up to their initial top-up bonus.
GT — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Golden Troupe.
Guarantee — Certainty of obtaining the Rate Up Character in Wishes due to having lost the 50/50 before.
Guoba Swirl — The use of Sucrose's Astable Anemohypostasis Creation - 6308 or Faruzan's Pressurized Collapse to Swirl Guoba's self-applied Pyro. The aforementioned two abilities are the only sources of Anemo capable of interacting with Guoba.

H[]

Hard Pity — The phenomenon of having a guaranteed 5-Star on the 90th Wish on Wanderlust Invocation and Character Event Wishes, or on the 80th Wish on Weapon Event Wishes.
Hat or Headpiece — Another term for the Circlet of Logos Artifact piece.
Healer — Refers to a character whose talents can regenerate HP.
Hitbox — The area that, when an attack successfully crosses, deals damage to enemies and/or players as well as applies status effects. This can include areas around an enemy or character model that is not visually part of the model, but nevertheless registers damage or effects.
Hitlag — Additional frozen frames added to a character's attack animation when melee attacks hit an enemy or object. The character is momentarily paused for a few frames depending on the type of enemy or object to give the player the impression of weight behind their attacks.
HoD — Abbreviation of either the Artifact set Heart of Depth or the Sword weapon Harbinger of Dawn, depending on the context.
HoOD/Husk — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Husk of Opulent Dreams.
Hourglass — Another term for the Sands of Eon Artifact piece.
HP — Abbreviation of "Health Points," "Hit Points," or "Health."
HT — Abbreviation of Hu Tao.
Hypercarry — A team archetype that focuses on using teammates to help a single character, known as the Hypercarry, deal the overwhelming majority of the team's damage. For example, Xiao, the Hypercarry, in a team with Bennett (increases Xiao's ATK), Faruzan (reduces enemies' Anemo resistance, increases the team's Anemo DMG, and generates Anemo particles), and Zhongli (reduces enemies' resistances and improves Xiao's survivability).
Hyperfridge — A team that utilizes the Fridge interaction to create more Dendro Cores to Hyperbloom. Consists of a Cryo, Dendro, Hydro, and Electro character.

I[]

Ice Bridge/Ice Bridging — Refers to using a Cryo Character's elemental application via Infused Normal Attacks, Elemental Skill, or Elemental Burst to freeze and traverse water by walking on ice. Kaeya's Elemental Skill, Frostgnaw, is a popular ability to use for this purpose because of its low cooldown and ability to create relatively longer lasting ice. Certain Anemo abilities such as the Traveler's Palm Vortex (held) can be used to spread existing ice.
Ins — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Instructor.
Internal Cooldown (or ICD) — A hidden cooldown of an elemental source before they can reapply elements or trigger an Elemental Reaction again.
International (also International Team or Childe National) — A popular variation of the National team composition that uses Tartaglia in place of Xingqiu and Kaedehara Kazuha in the fourth slot. Occasionally, Sucrose would be used in the fourth slot, instead. The team's name refers to how every member is from a different nation.
Invincibility Frame (also iFrame or I-Frame) — A brief moment of invulnerability caused by certain animations. In Genshin Impact, this typically refers to dodging enemy attacks by sprinting or using a character's Elemental Burst.

J[]

K[]

Kazu — Abbreviation of Kaedehara Kazuha.
Key — Contextually can refer to Shrine of Depths Key, Story Key, Quest Item keys or the Sword weapon Key of Khaj-Nisut.
Kit — Refers collectively to a character's Talents.
KQ — Abbreviation of Keqing.

L[]

LB — Abbreviation of the Lunar-Bloom Elemental Reaction.
LC — Abbreviation of the Lunar-Charged Elemental Reaction.
LoFi — Abbreviation of the Sword weapon Light of Foliar Incision.
LoS — Abbreviation of "Line of Sight."
LP/Lost Prayer — Abbreviation of the Catalyst weapon Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds.
LW — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Lavawalker.

M[]

Main (plural Mains) — (noun) A character that a player chooses to primarily use; (noun) A player who chooses to primarily use a particular character; (verb) The action of choosing to primarily use a character.
Main DPS or MDPS — A generic term that tends to refer to the character that does the majority of a team's damage.
Mainstat — The primary stat(s) for Weapons and Artifacts.
Mats — Abbreviation of "Materials."
Mav — Shortened form of Mavuika.
MC — Abbreviation of "Main Character," the Traveler. AMC/GMC/EMC/DMC/HMC/PMC are abbreviations referring to Traveler when they are in their Anemo/Geo/Electro/Dendro/Hydro/Pyro] forms respectively.
Meme build — The building and use of a character that is considered contrary to the generally accepted usage. Examples include a Barbara built for damage instead of Healing or a Xiao stacked with Elemental Mastery for Swirls instead of an ADC build.
Meta/Metagame — The strategic aspect of a game that transcends the boundaries of conventional gameplay. In Genshin Impact, the meta involves decisions intended to make combat gameplay more efficient and effective, such as selecting characters preferred for their higher damage outputs, or using certain team compositions of characters with good synergy to maximize the effectiveness or total damage dealt within a given time.
MH — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Marechaussee Hunter.
MHY — Abbreviation of miHoYo, the developers of Genshin Impact.
Microwave — The use of Zhongli as an off-field DPS by using his Stone Stele in combination with Geo Traveler's Geo constructs to increase the range and the amount of pulses.
Mist — Shortened form of the Sword weapon Mistsplitter Reforged.
Mob — Shortened form of "Mobile object." Usually refers to enemies.
Mono(-element) — Commonly refers to a team with usually at least three characters of one element that deals the vast majority of its DPS through raw non-reaction damage of said element. The final slot of the team is often filled with an off-element character that can support the team better than without. Common off-element characters are Bennett, Zhongli, Furina, Kazuha, or other characters that can use Viridescent Venerer.
Morgana — A team composition comprised of Mona, Ganyu, Diona, and Venti that utilizes the Freeze reaction. The name is also a portmanteau of Mona, Ganyu, and Diona.
Motion Value (or MV) — The percentage of a character's stats dealt using an attack (usually found in the attribute scaling section on character talent pages). Motion Value per second (or MV/s) is often used to help calculate character DPS.
Moveset — Refers collectively to a character's Combat Talents.
Multi (plural Multis/Multies, also "Multipull," "10 Pull," "10×," etc.) — Colloquial term for doing 10 Wishes at once, by spending 10 Intertwined Fates, 10 Acquaint Fates or 1,600 Primogems, as opposed to "Singles" which are a single Wish at a time.

N[]

N1, N2, etc. — The number of Normal Attacks done in a sequence or attack string.
N1C, N3C, N1CD, N1CJ,N1CJP, etc. (or Combat Notation) — Refers to a specific attack sequence or animation cancel that can be used by most characters. "N" represents Normal Attack, "C" represents a Charged Attack, "D" represents a Dash cancel, a singular "J" represents a Jump cancel, "W" represents a Walk cancel, and "RR", exclusive to bow characters, represents a type of aim cancel. "JP" represents a Jump followed by a Plunging Attack and is usually reserved for Xiao or characters under the effects of Xianyun's Starwicker mechanism. Additionally, a number before an attack sequence denotes how many times the sequence should be executed and a number after "N" denotes the number of attacks from a Normal Attack chain. Longer sequences that denote a whole team's rotation may also include: ">", representing swapping characters; "()", representing optional inputs; "#[]", representing repeating a sequence a specific number of times.
NA — Abbreviation of "Normal Attack."
National Team (or National) — A team composition comprised primarily of Xiangling, Xingqiu, and Bennett. The Standard National team is often agreed to include either Sucrose or Kazuha, and the Original National team from when it was first conceived includes Chongyun. There are many variations of this team depending either on the Flex slot or the Hydro character replacing Xingqiu's slot. Variations will often be referred as "(Flex character) National," or with a name ending with "-ional" such as "Rational" or "International."
Nymph — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Nymph's Dream.
Nerf — A character, weapon, or item having its effectiveness at a task reduced due to a change from the developers.
NK — Abbreviation of Nod-Krai.
NS — Abbreviation of Nightsoul.
NO — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Noblesse Oblige.
NPC — Abbreviation of "Non-player character" or "Non-playable character."
Nuke — Refers to dealing a large amount of damage in a short time, especially in one hit.
Nuker — Refers to a character that deals a large amount of damage in a short time, especially in one hit.
NW (or Nighttime/Whispers) — Abbreviations of the Artifact set Nighttime Whispers in the Echoing Woods.

O[]

Off-field Character — Refers to characters that are in the party but not on the field, or usually spend relatively little time as the active character in a team composition.
Off-field DPS — Refers to characters that deal damage while off-field.
Off-piece — An artifact that does not match the Artifact Set in use, but is still equipped due to it having better affixes than the previous counterpart, namely because the minimum requirement for the preferred artifact set bonus has already been fulfilled.
OHC — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Ocean-Hued Clam.
OL — Abbreviation of the Overloaded Elemental Reaction.
One Rotate — Defeating an enemy or clearing a Spiral Abyss floor/Imaginarium Theater Battle Events in one Rotation.
OTK — Abbreviation of "one turn kill." In Genius Invokation TCG, it describes strategy to defeat opponents in one turn.
Oven — A team that utilizes the Fridge interaction to create more Dendro Cores to Burgeon. Consists of a Cryo, Dendro, Hydro, and Pyro character. The name stems from describing an Oven as a "hot Fridge."
Overcap — Refers to exceeding 100% of the CRIT Rate stat.
Overvape — A portmanteau of the reactions Overloaded and Vaporize referring to the triggering of both reactions simultaneously by applying Pyro on a target affected by both a Hydro and an Electro aura (Electro-Charged). Can also refer to a team composition that uses this combination of reactions to deal damage, such as Raiden National (Raiden Shogun, Xiangling, Xingqiu, and Bennett).
Overworld/Open World — The overworld includes all areas accessible via the map, including Teyvat, the Serenitea Pot, and limited-time areas such as the Golden Apple Archipelago.

P[]

Paramita Papilio Slide (or PP Slide) — The extension of Hu Tao's Paramita Papilio state through use of her Charged Attack due to the state not being able expire during her CA. Often utilized to prolong the state enough to cast Spirit Soother as late as possible while still allowing it to benefit from Paramita Papilio's ATK bonus. This is separate from Hitlag Extension.
Pay to Win (or P2W) — The idea of a game where the player can only achieve significant success by spending money. Typically used derogatorily to comment on a game's monetization system(s).
PC — Abbreviation of "Player character" or Playable Character.
Permafreeze — A team that's centered around maximizing the time the Frozen reaction is active on enemies. It is often used to capitalize on Blizzard Strayer's 4-piece set bonus.
PF — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Pale Flame.
PHEC — Abbreviation of Pyro, Hydro, Electro, and Cryo. PHEC is abbreviated in order of standard Elemental Absorption priority. Often used in relation to Elemental Reactions shared by said four elements such as Swirl and Crystallize, or character Talents that involves them such as Navia's Mutual Assistance Network.
Pipe — Refers to the Sword weapon Fleuve Cendre Ferryman.
Pity — The counter for Wishes that guarantees a 4-Star or 5-Star after a given amount. See soft pity and hard pity.
PJC — Abbreviation of the Sword weapon Primordial Jade Cutter.
PJWS — Abbreviation of the Polearm weapon Primordial Jade Winged-Spear.
PvE or Player versus Environment (also Player versus Mobs/Monsters) — Gameplay that involves the player(s) competing against computer-controlled opponents (AI); characteristic of single player games, or multiplayer games wherein players cannot directly attack each other. This is contrasted with "Player versus Player" (or PvP). Most content in Genshin Impact is PvE.
PvP or Player versus Player — Gameplay in which human players compete against each other, often in a combat-oriented setting. Genshin Impact has very limited PvP content, usually during Co-op events.
Plume — Shortened form for the Plume of Death Artifact piece.
PMA — Acronym for the Perpetual Mechanical Array Normal Boss.
Primos — Shortened form of Primogems.
Proc — To activate or trigger an effect such as a buff or debuff.
Prototypes — Either refers to the Billets used in forging weapons, as before Version 1.3, they were called Prototypes, or refers to weapons from the Prototype Series.
Pulls — Wishing on a Wish, or the number of Wishes made during a banner or saved up in Primogems, Acquaint Fates, or Intertwined Fates.

Q[]

Q — Refers to Elemental Bursts, named after its default key binding on PC.
QoL — Abbreviation of "Quality of Life." Improvements to the player's experience in terms of convenience, comfort, and accessibility with little or no significant impact to the regular gameplay difficulty or to a character's combat performance.
Quadratic Scaling — Refers to damage that scales exponentially with the number of enemies. For example, assuming $n={\text{Number Of Enemies}}$ , there will be $n + n(n-1) = n^2$ number of damage instances for each attack. The formula for total damage will be ${\text{BaseDamage}}\times n^{2}={\text{Total Damage}}$ . Currently, the only true example of Quadratic Scaling is Tartaglia's Riptide mechanic; some other character's talents like Albedo's Rite of Progeniture: Tectonic Tide, Ganyu's Celestial Shower, and Kamisato Ayato's Kamisato Art: Suiyuu and the Swirl reaction all have Pseudo-Quadratic Scaling which means they have a maximum capacity on the number of enemies they can scale off of.
Quickbloom — A portmanteau of the reactions Quicken and Hyperbloom. Refers to either using a character with lower amounts of Hydro application, or using a Dendro aura to underlay a Quicken aura in order to have higher Quicken uptime while simultaneously creating Dendro Cores to Hyperbloom. Can also refer to a team composition that uses this combination of reactions to deal damage, such as Cyno, Fischl, Nahida, and Barbara.
Quickswap — Refers to a team composition or playstyle in which each character only stays on-field for a brief period of time, usually just to cast Elemental Skills and Elemental Bursts.

R[]

R1, R2, R3, R4, R5 (or Refines) — The Refinement rank of a Weapon.
Rainbow — Refers to either an equipped combination of Artifact pieces from different sets that results in no useful Artifact set bonuses or a Team composition that uses 4 characters of different Elements, often in relation to Chasca teams.
Rational Team (also Rational or Raiden National) — A popular variation of the National team composition that uses Raiden Shogun in the fourth slot.
Reduce CD — Short form of "Cooldown Reduction" attribute.
Rep — Shortened form of Reputation.
Reroll — In the first year of Genshin Impact's release, it referred to creating new accounts in hopes of getting the desired 5-Star Character through Wishes. Currently, it usually refers to using Dust of Enlightenment to change the Minor Affixes of a fully-leveled 5-star Artifact, known more specifically as Artifact Rerolling.
Rerun — When a Character Wish or Event returns after its first run.
RES — Abbreviation of "Resistance" attribute. "Res" can also be an abbreviation of Elemental Resonance.
Resin Overcap — When the Original Resin counter exceeds the natural recharge limit.
Resin Refresh (also Refill) — Replenishing Original Resin using Primogems.
Reverse Vape or Reverse Melt — The 1.5× multiplier version of the Vaporize reaction (applying Pyro on Hydro) or the Melt reaction (applying Cryo on Pyro) respectively, as opposed to Forward Vape or Forward Melt.
RNG — Abbreviation of "Random Number Generator." In the community, RNG is synonymous with "luck." Good RNG equates to good luck and vice versa.
Rolls — Wishing on a Wish or the number of Wishes saved up in Primogems, Acquaint Fates, or Intertwined Fates. Also refers to obtaining Artifacts from clearing Domains, defeating Bosses, etc. or fully enhancing an Artifact in hope of getting good substats.
Roll Value (or RV) — The percentage of useful possible substat rolls over the highest potential roll of said substat of a 5-Star Artifact. The highest possible roll for an 5-Star Artifact substat has a value of 100% with each lower rolls subsequently losing its value by 10%. The Current RV of an Artifact is the total value of its useful substat rolls and the Maximum RV of an Artifact is the highest potential substat value it can possibly get. The Maximum RV for a 5-Star Artifact is 900%.
Rotation/Rot — A specific usage order of multiple characters' abilities (Normal Attacks, Elemental Skills, and Elemental Bursts) in a team. Once all the relevant abilities have been used and are off of cooldown again, a rotation may repeat.

S[]

Sac — Shortened form of any weapon from the Sacrificial Series.
Salad — A Hyperbloom team consisting of an Anemo, Dendro, Electro, and Hydro character that often uses the Anemo character as the Hyperbloom trigger through the use of Elemental Absorption or the Swirl reaction, allowing for the Electro character to be built as a Catalyze damage dealer and often benefiting from Viridescent Venerer's 4-Piece Bonus. The name stems from the Soup team, however, with the Pyro ("the heat for the soup") replaced by Dendro ("vegetables") so the Anemo can "toss the vegetables around."
Sands — Shortened form for the Sands of Eon Artifact piece.
SC — Abbreviation of the Superconduct Elemental Reaction.
Scara — Shortened form of Scaramouche.
Scroll — Shortened form of the Artifact Set Scroll of the Hero of Cinder City.
Seed/Seeds — Another term for Dendro Cores.
Selfish Carry — Refers to DPS characters that need to stay on the field for the full duration of a skill to deal the most damage. Swapping out usually prematurely ends the skill.
Server reset — A specific server time which marks the beginning of a new day, refreshing most of the timed content such as daily login bonuses, daily Commissions and events.
Set — Shortened form for Artifact Set.
Shieldbot/Shielder — Refers to characters built to maximize their shield's damage absorption at the expense of their overall damage or other support abilities. Full HP Zhongli and full DEF Noelle are a few such builds.
Shred — Refers to effects that decrease enemy RES (RES Shred) or DEF (DEF Shred).
Signature/Sig — A blanket term for weapons that are wielded in official media by a character, often has its Banner ran alongside a character, or mechanically or visually suits a character. Examples include Primordial Jade Winged-Spear for Xiao, Cinnabar Spindle for Albedo, or The Bell for Freminet. Characters' signature weapons are often also their Best in Slot weapons, but not always.
Singles — Using a single Acquaint Fate, Intertwined Fate, or 160 Primogems on a Wish. Usually, it specifically refers to spending one wish at a time instead of spending multiple wishes at once.
Skill — The Elemental Skill of Characters.
Snapshot — Some long lasting/deployable abilities are based on the character's stats at the time of casting. This allows some buffs that are active at the time of casting to effectively last for the entire duration of the ability even if the buff itself runs out. See Snapshotting.
SoBP — Abbreviation of the Claymore weapon Song of Broken Pines.
SoDP — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Song of Days Past.
Soft Pity — A theory that suggests an increased drop rate before reaching the guaranteed "hard" pity for a 5-Star, starting at around 75 Wishes on the Wanderlust Invocation and Character Event Wish, or around 65 Wishes on the Weapon Event Wish.
SoH - Abbreviation of the Polearm weapon Staff of Homa.
SoSS — Abbreviation of the Polearm weapon Staff of the Scarlet Sands.
SoT7 or SoTS — Acronym referring to Statues of The Seven.
Soup — A team consisting of a Hydro, Electro, Pyro, and Anemo character which triggers Electro-Charged, Vaporize, Overloaded, and Swirl reactions simultaneously to deal damage.
Split scaling — Refers to when a character has multiple significant Talent multipliers that scale off different stats. For example, Transient Blossom DMG from Albedo's Abiogenesis: Solar Isotoma scales with DEF, while his Rite of Progeniture: Tectonic Tide scales with ATK.
SR/Shimenawa — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Shimenawa's Reminiscence.
SRP — Abbreviation of Simultaneous Reaction Priority.
SS — Abbreviation of the Claymore weapon Serpent Spine, or less commonly the Sword weapon Summit Shaper. Not to be confused with screenshot.
SSR — A general gacha game term referring to the highest rarity character or item. In Genshin Impact, this would be a 5-Star Character.
ST — Abbreviation of "Single-Target."
Stance — The current character's attack position. Stance will affect how Normal, Charged, and Plunge attacks are performed. Most characters only have one stance, but some, like Tartaglia, have different stances that change their attack pattern.
Stat Stick — A weapon that is equipped on a character for the stats it provides, but provides little to no other effect. For example, equipping Aquila Favonia on Bennett for its high Base ATK rather than utilizing its passive effect.
Sub DPS — A generic term that tends to refer to characters in the team that deal a significant amount of damage but aren't the main DPS.
Sub-reaction (also Chain Reaction) — Reactions that requires the activation of another reaction in order to be available to trigger. Examples includes Hyperbloom and Burgeon requiring Bloom, Spread and Aggravate requiring Quicken, and Shatter requiring Frozen.
Substat (or Subs) — The secondary stat(s) for Weapons and Artifacts.
Sukokomon — A team composition that consists of Sucrose, Sangonomiya Kokomi, Fischl, and Xiangling. This team is known as the precursor to the Soup team archetype and has a relatively difficult rotation. The name is a portmanteau of Sucrose, Kokomi, and Pokémon, the latter word referring the how many "summons" this team uses.
Summons — Wishing on a Wish or the number of Wishes saved up in Primogems, Acquaint Fates, or Intertwined Fates. Can also refer to objects that are created from certain Talents like Oz from Fischl's Nightrider and Midnight Phantasmagoria, Ushi from Itto's Masatsu Zetsugi: Akaushi Burst!, or Bogglecat Box from Lynette's Magic Trick: Astonishing Shift.
Sunfire — Combining both Jean's Dandelion Breeze and Bennett's Fantastic Voyage to constantly Swirl Pyro from the on-field character onto enemies.
Susbedo — Short for "Suspicious Albedo," a nickname for Subject Two.
Sustained/Sustain — Refers to providing a consistent effect throughout a rotation, character's field time, or duration of a Talent. For example, dealing damage with Xiangling's Pyronado throughout combat, repeatedly healing from standing on Bennett's Fantastic Voyage, or constantly grouping enemies with Astable Anemohypostasis Creation - 6308 while Sucrose is active. Alternatively, sustain can also refer to team or character survivability or a character that provides defensive utilities such as Healing, Shields, or DMG Reduction.

T[]

T1, T2, T3, etc. (or Talent Levels) — The Talent Level of a Character (i.e., "T9" refers to a Talent that is level 9).
Talent Books — The Talent Level-Up Materials that resemble books, mainly obtained from challenging Domains of Mastery.
Talent Priority — A recommended order in which one should raise the level of a character's Combat Talents.
Taser — A team composition that focuses on using the Electro-Charged reaction. One popular Taser team composition includes Sucrose, Fischl, Beidou, and Xingqiu. Childe Taser (sometimes called Childe Fireworks) involves Childe, Fischl, and Beidou.
TCG — Short for "trading card game." In the context of Genshin Impact, it refers to Genius Invokation TCG.
TF/TFury — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Thundering Fury.
Thundering Furry — A team consisting of Razor, Bennett, Xingqiu, and a Dendro character that utilizes Razor's wide area of Electro application, his Normal Attack infused with Pyro from Bennett's Fire Ventures With Me, and self application of Electro and Pyro from Lightning Fang and Fantastic Voyage respectively to simultaneously trigger Hyperbloom, Burgeon, and Overloaded. Contrary to the name "Thundering Furry," Razor often uses Gilded Dreams instead of Thundering Fury.
Time-gated — Refers to content or features that only become available after set time intervals. Examples include daily quests such as Tatara Tales, and parts of Events that become unlocked after a certain number of hours or days. The term is also used to refer to things that replenish over time, such as Original Resin.
Timepiece — Another term for the Sands of Eon Artifact piece.
ToTM/ToM — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Tenacity of the Millelith.
TP — Abbreviation of either teleport or the Bow weapon Thundering Pulse, depending on the context.
Trigger — The second element applied in an Elemental Reaction that causes the reaction to occur.
Triple Crowning — Spending three Crowns of Insight to level each of a character's combat talents (Normal Attack, Elemental Skill, and Elemental Burst) to their final base rank (Lv. 10, not including levels from Constellations).
TS — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Thundersoother.
TTDS — Abbreviation of the Catalyst weapon Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers.
TTK — Initialism for "Time to Kill."

U[]

Ultimate (or Ult) — Another term for the Elemental Burst of Characters.
Umbrella — Refers to the Sword weapon Toukabou Shigure.
Unit — Refers to a playable character, or alternatively, the unit of measurement in Elemental Gauge Theory, depending on the context.
Uptime — The period of a cooldown during which an Elemental Skill, Elemental Burst, or other effect remains active. "100% uptime" refers to the maximal, prolonged use of a Skill or Burst due to reduced cooldown (decreasing downtime) or an innate cooldown being equal to or shorter than the effect duration. Compare with downtime.
Utility Support (or Supp) — Tends to refer to the characters that can support the team with crowd control, buff, shield, damage reduction, or healing abilities.

V[]

V1.1, V2.0, V5.8, etc. — Refers to the game's Version 1.1, 2.0, 5.8, etc. update.
VA — Abbreviation of Voice Actor.
Vape — Abbreviation of the reaction Vaporize between the Hydro and Pyro elements. May also refer to team compositions that primarily utilize this reaction to deal damage.
Vapemelt (also Freezemelt) — Portmanteaus of Vaporize, Melt, or Freeze referring to either triggering Melt on an enemy with Freeze Aura, or the usage of Cryo to prevent enemies from having a Pyro Aura and allowing occasional triggers of Vaporize, Frozen, and Melt. Vapemelt/Freezemelt is unable to occur if the enemies have immunity to the Frozen Reaction or if the triggering attack is a Blunt Attack. Can also refer to a team composition that uses this combination of reactions, such as Hu Tao, Xingqiu, Kaeya, and Layla.
VH — Abbreviation of the Bow weapon The Viridescent Hunt or the Artifact set Vermillion Hereafter. Vermillion Hereafter can also be abbreviated to VHA.
VG — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Vourukasha's Glow.
VV — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Viridescent Venerer, or much less commonly for the Polearm Vortex Vanquisher.

W[]

Wavedash (also Glide Cancel) — An animation cancel that utilizes Wind Currents such as the hold version of Venti's Skyward Sonnet to allow characters to jump, glide, and land instantly.
Web Event — Events that do not involve normal gameplay or do not take place within the game, and are usually accessed through a web browser.
Weeklies — The Weekly Bosses, Bounties, or Requests, whose rewards can only be claimed once a week.
Wheelchair — A team core consisting of Xilonen and Chiori. The name is ascribed to the duo's ability to "carry" any typical Pyro/Electro/Cryo/Hydro DPS and support, due to Chiori and the other DPS gaining massive damage boosts from the Elemental RES decrease of Xilonen's skill Yohual's Scratch, the Elemental DMG Bonus from Scroll of the Hero of Cinder City (Xilonen's BiS), and the Geo Resonance effect which can easily be triggered by picking up Crystallize shards. This team composition gained popularity when a Chinese player used Xilonen, Chiori, Neuvillette, and Tartaglia to clear Version 5.1's Spiral Abyss Floor 12 in an extremely short amount of time.
Welkin — Shortened form of Blessing of the Welkin Moon.
WGS — Abbreviation of the Claymore weapon Wolf's Gravestone.
Whale — Players who spend large amounts of real world money on a game that monetizes in-game items.
WL — Abbreviation of World Level. WL0, WL1,... WL8, WL9 are used to denote the World Level of a player's world.
WT — Abbreviation of the Artifact set Wanderer's Troupe.

X[]

XL — Abbreviation of Xiangling.
XQ — Abbreviation of Xingqiu.
XY — Abbreviation of Xianyun, or less commonly, Xinyan.

Y[]

YL — Abbreviation of Yelan.
Yoi — Shortened form of Yoimiya.

Z[]

ZL — Abbreviation of Zhongli.
Zoom Cancel — The cancelling of the camera zoom-in from Elemental Bursts usually from standing in Water or near certain walls such as Geo Traveler's and Zhongli's Geo Construct.