Genshin Damage Types: Physical vs 7 Elements, Full DEF/RES Formula Explained

Genshin Impact splits all damage into 8 separate types: Physical and the 7 elements — Pyro, Hydro, Electro, Cryo, Anemo, Geo, Dendro. Every single hit carries exactly ONE damage type at a time — there's no such thing as a hit that's both Physical and Elemental simultaneously.

• A hit's damage type comes from the specific skill dealing it, not from the character's element icon. For instance: normal/charged attacks for nearly every character (even elemental DPS like Hu Tao or Ganyu) default to Physical — only Elemental Skills/Bursts, and a handful of special weapons, actually deal Elemental damage.
• The Traveler is the one exception that can swap elements between story regions, but still only carries one element type at any given moment, just like any other character.
• Because every hit only has one type, every "%DMG Bonus" stat on gear explicitly names which type it boosts (Physical DMG Bonus vs. Pyro DMG Bonus, etc.) — slot the wrong type and that bonus does nothing.

Check which characters hit hardest with which damage type on our Genshin character list.

The final damage of a hit is calculated through several multiplicative layers stacked one after another:

• Base DMG = the skill's % Multiplier (from the talent table) × the matching scaling stat — most hits scale off ATK, but some specific kits scale off DEF (Noelle, Albedo, Arataki Itto...), HP (Xingqiu, Yelan, Barbara...) or EM (certain Transformative reactions).
• Multiplied by (1 + %DMG Bonus): every source of the SAME type (Physical DMG Bonus, or the one matching Elemental DMG Bonus, team buffs, weapon passives...) gets added together into a single number before multiplying.
• Multiplied by the Crit coefficient: no crit = ×1, a crit hit = ×(1 + Crit DMG%) — see the full Crit Rate/Crit DMG breakdown on our Crit ratio page.
• Multiplied by the enemy's DEF Multiplier (depends on character level vs enemy level + any %DEF reduction/ignore).
• Multiplied by the enemy's RES Multiplier (depends on the matching elemental/physical resistance %).
• If that hit also triggers an Amplifying reaction (Vaporize/Melt), one more Reaction Multiplier gets applied — see our full elemental reactions page for that layer.

Because these layers stack in sequence, a +10% anywhere always nets exactly +10% damage at that layer — no single layer is universally "more important," just whichever one your current build is lacking the most.

The DEF Multiplier formula (per the KQM TCL library): <code>DEF Multiplier = (Character Level + 100) / [k×(Enemy Level + 100) + (Character Level + 100)]</code>, where k = (1 − %DEF Reduction)×(1 − %DEF Ignore).

• Character and enemy both at level 90, no DEF reduction: DEF Multiplier = 190/(190+190) = 0.5 — meaning you only deal 50% of your "theoretical" damage against a same-level enemy/boss, which is exactly why deep Spiral Abyss bosses always feel so much tankier than low-level trash mobs.
• DEF Reduction sources (Lisa's A4 passive −15% DEF, Razor's C4 −15% DEF, Klee's C2 −23% DEF, Kamisato Ayaka's C4 −30% DEF, Nahida's C2 −30% DEF, some weapons) stack additively with each other, but are hard-capped at 90% total — piling on more sources beyond that does nothing.
• DEF Ignore/Penetration is a separate layer that multiplies into k rather than stacking linearly with DEF Reduction — combining both gives you more than either alone.

Since the DEF Multiplier scales with LEVEL rather than %HP, when gearing for endgame content (high AR, Spiral Abyss Floor 12), prioritize characters/comps that bring built-in DEF shred from our team building page instead of just stacking more ATK%.

Unlike DEF, an enemy's elemental resistance (RES) is tracked SEPARATELY per damage type (Physical/Pyro/Hydro/...). Most common enemies sit around a 10% base RES per type (e.g. standard Hilichurls), while some enemy types have wildly different base RES per damage type (Mitachurl runs roughly 30% Physical RES but only ~10% Elemental RES) — which is exactly why the same team's damage swings wildly just from fighting a different enemy type, build unchanged. The RES Multiplier formula splits into 3 tiers (per the KQM TCL):

• RES ≥ 75%: Multiplier = 1/(4×RES + 1) — heavy diminishing returns, the higher the resistance, the harder it is to push further.
• 0% ≤ RES < 75%: Multiplier = 1 − RES — the normal linear range.
• RES < 0%: Multiplier = 1 − (RES/2) — negative RES still boosts your damage, but at half the effectiveness of the equivalent positive RES reduction.

Real example: an enemy with 10% base Physical RES gets hit with Superconduct (a flat 40% Physical RES reduction, confirmed matching between Icy Veins and other aggregate sites) → remaining RES = 10% − 40% = −30% → Multiplier = 1 − (−30%/2) = 1.15, meaning your actual damage only goes up by 15%, not the full 40% printed on the effect. Other common RES-shred sources: the 4-piece Viridescent Venerer set (−40% RES to whichever element got Swirled), and Zhongli's Jade Shield (−20% RES against ALL damage types for whoever's inside the shield). Check more shred-oriented artifact sets on our artifacts page.

The Circlet and Goblet artifact slots only ever roll ONE of these two forms as a DMG main stat: Physical DMG Bonus, or one specific Elemental DMG Bonus (Pyro/Hydro/Electro/Cryo/Anemo/Geo/Dendro DMG Bonus — there's no such thing as a generic "Elemental DMG Bonus"). Since any single hit only ever carries one damage type (see the first section above), these two bonus categories never stack on the same hit: a Physical hit only benefits from Physical DMG Bonus, a Pyro hit only benefits from Pyro DMG Bonus — even if the character is somehow equipped with or buffed by both at once.

• Build implication: a Physical DPS build (Eula, Razor, Noelle...) needs a Physical DMG Bonus Goblet, NOT an elemental one, even though the character is still Cryo/Geo-attuned.
• Characters who mix Physical hits (normal/charged attacks) AND Elemental hits (skill/burst) within the same rotation — extremely common — need their Goblet picked based on whichever type actually deals the MOST real damage, not on gut feeling about "what element the character is."
• Team buffs that boost a specific element's %DMG Bonus also only apply to that exact matching type — double-check before you build around one.

Because of this, figuring out "which damage type does my character actually deal most of their damage in" is step one of any build, even before comparing our weapon rankings.

Beyond base RES, several Genshin enemy types have special phase-based immunity/resistance mechanics rather than a fixed number: Abyss Mages cloak themselves in an elemental shield — that shield only breaks fast when hit by whichever element triggers a reaction with the shield's own element (e.g. a Hydro shield shatters fast to Cryo via Frozen or to Electro via Electro-Charged; a Pyro shield shatters fast to Hydro via Vaporize or to Cryo via Melt), while hitting it with the shield's own matching element does almost nothing; The Setekh Wenut (the desert worm boss) cycles which body segment is exposed, and each segment only takes normal damage during its own "open window" — this is a DIFFERENT boss from the Golden Wolflord, which works nothing like it: the Wolflord is effectively invulnerable until you smash the Rifthound Skulls carried by the Rifthounds it summons, not any body-cycling window. Because of this, building around just one damage type — no matter how strong — can leave you stuck the moment you run into the exact shield/armor that counters it.

• A team with mixed damage types (at minimum Physical + 1-2 different elements across your 4 characters) always has a fallback option to break shields/armor regardless of which enemy the map throws at you — this is exactly why "formula" Spiral Abyss teams almost never run all 4 characters on the same element.
• Check the enemy's current shield/armor type before entering a Spiral Abyss chamber so you can swap in the right counter character.

Find mixed-element shield-breaking team suggestions on our team building page, and look up each character's kit/stats on our character page.