Your guide to Cryo characters in Genshin Impact

If you want to control a battlefield in Genshin Impact, Cryo characters are the ones you want. With the right combinations, you can freeze enemies in place and control a fight, even when you're outnumbered. Here's what you need to know about Cryo when choosing characters and building your team.

Cryo abilities cool down your opponents, which affects their overall speed. When you hit an enemy with Cryo, you'll slow all their animations by 15%. Cryo can also freeze enemies and lower their defenses to Physical attacks. That makes it a great element for crowd control, particularly when you're dealing with lots of enemies, or when you're trying to lay on a lot of damage to a single foe.

Frozen is one of the best Elemental Reactions possible with Cryo characters, as it can stop foes in their tracks, allowing you to either take advantage to lay into them with your damage-focused characters, or remove them as threats while you deal with something more pressing.

Freeze is an Elemental Reaction with Hydro on a Frozen target, so you need to get foes wet before you can apply it; the best way to do that is to have a Hydro character in tow. Hit a frozen enemy with a Blunt attack or a Geo attack and you'll shatter them, unfreezing the enemy and dealing extra Physical damage in the process.

Freezing enemies is often a go-to use of Cryo characters, but there are other Elemental Reactions that can be useful, depending on your team. Pairing Cryo with Electro creates Superconduct, which lowers an enemy's Physical RES by 40%, making them susceptible to more damage. Cryo and Anemo create Swirl, which does additional Cryo damage while spreading Cryo effects around to nearby enemies.

Melt is created when you pair Cryo with Pyro, which does 1.5 times the normal Cryo damage. And finally, combining Cryo with Geo creates Crystallize, generating a Cryo shard that creates a Cryo shield for your character. Which reactions work best for your team will depend on its makeup – for instance, you can combine Anemo, Cryo, and Hydro to freeze lots of enemies fast.

Elemental Resonance is an effect that occurs when you have two characters of the same Element on your team at once, powering up your Cryo abilities. With Cryo Elemental Resonance Shattering Ice, you'll gain a 15% greater chance to do critical hits on enemies afflicted by Cryo or who are frozen. Your characters also recover from Electro effects 40% faster.

When choosing your Cryo characters, keep in mind that the Element is best applied to lots of enemies at once, even without Elemental Reactions. The 15% reduction in enemy speed makes Cryo useful in a lot of situations, giving you an edge that can help you manage lots of enemies and avoid taking damage.

Ideally, you'll want to choose characters for your team who use area-of-effect attacks that can hit multiple enemies with Cryo at once to take full advantage of the Element's status effects and reactions. Pick other teammates for your Cryo characters who can help take advantage of that crowd-control mindset, and who can exploit effects like Freeze and Superconduct for big damage.