Vaporize and Melt are the strongest single-hit multipliers in Genshin, but they scale off your carry's stats, not the reaction itself. The most-misunderstood part is the trigger order: get it wrong and the multiplier drops from 2x to 1.5x, cutting damage by a third. This page clarifies 2x/1.5x, the EM bonus and strong vs weak versions.
This is the key to understanding Vaporize/Melt. Reactions split into two types:
| Amplifying (Vaporize/Melt) | Transformative (Burning/Overload/Hyperbloom...) | |
|---|---|---|
| Damage source | Amplifies the triggering hit | Deals its own separate damage |
| Scales with | ATK, Crit, Elemental DMG, EM | Only level, EM, RES shred |
| Can crit | Yes | No |
| Typical carries | Hu Tao, Yoimiya, Raiden, Klee | Nahida, Xiangling (as support) |
So Vaporize/Melt only pays off when you feed it to your carry: it takes that one high-multiplier hit and multiplies it by 2. A transformative reaction, by contrast, only cares about the trigger's level and EM. These are two parallel team-building philosophies, not one replacing the other.
One rule: the element that lands second sets the multiplier, and the "strong" element gives 2x.
| Reaction | Trigger order | Multiplier | Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vaporize (Hydro+Pyro) | Pyro on Hydro aura | 1.5x | Weak |
| Hydro on Pyro aura | 2x | Strong | |
| Melt (Cryo+Pyro) | Cryo on Pyro aura | 1.5x | Weak |
| Pyro on Cryo aura | 2x | Strong |
Pattern: in Vaporize the Hydro is the strong element; in Melt the Pyro is. Triggering with the strong element gives 2x. So:
This is what "order wrong loses a third" means precisely: you were supposed to take 2x and instead took 1.5x, throwing away 25% for free.
Amplifying reactions use 2.78 x EM / (EM + 1400), a different curve from the transformative one (16x EM / (EM + 2000)):
| EM | Amplifying bonus | Example: 1,000 base x 2x |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | +0% | 2,000 |
| 100 | +18.7% | 2,374 |
| 200 | +35.0% | 2,700 |
| 400 | +64.3% | 3,286 |
| 600 | +83.5% | 3,670 |
| 1000 | +113.5% | 4,270 |
Because an amplifying reaction rides on the carry's full sheet and gets an extra EM multiplier on top, it is "double-dipping": the higher the carry and the higher the EM, the bigger the number. That is why Vaporize/Melt carries usually bank some substats into EM — it multiplies the whole hit, so it is not wasted.
Beyond the multiplier, the version also decides how much aura is consumed:
That is why a "weak" 1.5x can sometimes total more than a "strong" 2x — it does not drain the element dry and can trigger again. This is the kind of thing advanced teams micro-manage; you do not need to frame-calc it daily, but know it exists.
| Slot | Pick |
|---|---|
| Weapon | High-multiplier weapon + Crit substats |
| Circlet | Crit Rate / Crit DMG |
| Sands | ATK% |
| Goblet | Matching Elemental DMG (Pyro C uses Pyro, Hydro C uses Hydro) |
| Substats | Crits + a little EM (the amplifying multiplier) |
| Set | 4pc Thundering Fury / 4pc Crimson Witch of Flames (+40% reaction DMG) |
Crimson Witch adds +40% Vaporize/Melt DMG, the go-to set for an amplifying carry; Thundering Fury is the alternative reaction-set. The carry still stacks Crits first and banks EM as a bonus.
Yes. Amplifying reactions multiply the triggering hit, so they use the carry's ATK and Crit. They are not a separate reaction number, which is the opposite of transformative reactions.
The EM bonus is a multiplier, and the amplifying curve (2.78/1400) is gentle at low EM. A carry's main gains still come from Crits and ATK; EM is icing.
No. Pyro on Cryo is 2x; Cryo on Pyro is 1.5x. To get 2x, arrange the order as "Pyro hitting Cryo".
Yes. That is the clearest difference from transformative reactions, which never crit.
Vaporize and Melt are the strongest single-hit multipliers for a high-stat carry: a 2x version hands your carry one big hit, then an extra EM multiplier stacks on top. Remember two things — the strong element gives 2x, and it scales off the carry and can crit. Get the order right and you are 25% off the pace.
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