Archive of Our Own

→ General principles

• Pyro: generates energy by altering how body normally uses fuel
• Cryo: breaks laws of entropy, leading to special dealings with heat
• Electro: most present alternative pathways to the way the nervous system normally works
• Hydro: applications of the properties of water (cohesion and adhesion, melting/boiling point, water as a solvent)
• Anemo: breaks laws that affect matter velocity on the larger scale
• Geo: warps matter to form highly stable constructs that may absorb or dissipate energy

Kazuha

• Can change mass of self
• When mass is decreased after jumping, force conservation holds and acceleration greatly increases as pull of gravity also decreases. Allows for high jumps. Increasing mass when airborne → plunge attack from greater force of gravity
• Same principle applies for lateral movement for quick movement. —Good for dodging attacks, and can be used to gain distance from opponent after taking a hit

Sucrose

• Can create a field that alters gravity. Works for both opponents and inanimate objects
• Application is to nullify gravity, or reduce it enough to catch opponents off guard, and incapacitate opponents mid-air. Then to increase it for fall damage
• Can also trap weak opponents to the ground and hinder movement of strong opponents
• User is not affected by gravity manipulation. User may be either inside or outside of the field
• Position of the field is set upon casting. Opponents may counter by moving out of field

Venti

• Links two points in space as a “wormhole”. One sucks matter in, one spits matter back out
• The farther away the linked points are, the smaller the max power
• Versatile in how either end of the two linked points may be utilized in combat. Fine disruptions at a distance using either end are also possible.
• Wormhole that sucks inwards can be resisted with enough power.
• Against powerful opponents that cannot be transported, the best strategy is to mess with their balance by quickly and unpredictably opening and closing linked points

Xiao

• Short-range teleportation that creates an afterimage (which has mass) for ~2s. Good for feints in close range combat
• Duration of afterimage can be increased, though repeated use is not sustainable
• User plans movement of afterimage before teleportation (movement paths simultaneously planned before teleportation)
• Afterimage is not necessary to use teleportation
• Can travel quickly by repeated use of teleportation skill

 Tartaglia

• Uses blood as a nucleation point for water to gather. Limited to blood from user
• Hydro constructs, unnaturally strong water cohesion, include melee weapons and signature narwhal. The unstable water construct explodes upon contact with opponent, acting as a bomb.
• Stability of hydro construct decreases with increasing distance from user. Ranged attacks with hydro constructs are difficult
• Blood that is lost during battle can be controlled at risk of passing out

 Fischl

• Oz was originally an engineer project. Gained “consciousness” when user obtained vision, electro mysteriously mimics that of human nervous system
• Only one consciousness can be sustained by the user, although supplementary vessels (additional robots) may coordinate automatic electro attacks (tasers)
• If oz is destroyed, the “memories” of oz return to and are stored in the user. Can be transferred to a new suitable vessel once the user creates one

Beidou

• Redirects incoming blows. Physical attacks that are felt by the user’s nervous system are translated to electro energy and redirected to the nervous system of the opponent via the point of contact.
• User feels lessened version of the original blow, and upper limit of redirection is the pain tolerance of user
• Strong in one-on-one in hand-to-hand combat. Against weapon users, if weapon conducts electro, redirection can be felt by the weapon wielder. This skill provides some degree of protection against physical attacks by inanimate objects in general as long as electro can be safely redirected to said object (i.e. not bombs, water, or other unsafe objects)

Zhongli

• Geo shield absorbs and dissipates energy of incoming attacks. Shield wraps around the body of the user (immediately around body, rather than a cylinder surrounding the user), and is usually invisible. Will briefly glow when dissipating the energy of incoming attacks as some incoming energy is converted to light
• Shield can be extended to allies as well as inanimate objects. Shield strength decreases as distance to allies increases. Larger surface areas are sustainable for shorter periods of time. For example, can be extended to cover a building but only for a few seconds
• Not much offensive utility. However, high defensive utility: in addition to providing protection against physical attacks, shield may nullify opponent’s abilities that affect the user (gravity manipulation, electro redirection, friction reduction, position swap, etc.) (excludes skills that solely support the opponent, such as enhanced perception or invisibility)

Raiden Shogun

• Signals from brain to muscle and from muscle to brain bypass normal nervous system pathways via electro conduction (i.e. Schwann cells on steroids). User moves very, very fast
• Skill can also be used to connect signals from user’s brain to that of the opponent. Physical bodies of both parties are put out of action, and their minds are transported to the Plane of Euthymia. Time appears to move slightly more slowly in the plane
• Physical attacks within the plane are meaningless. “Battle of will”. Or a nice chat room in a friendlier setting

Kokomi

• Alters the way water acts within the human body, generally increasing the rate of diffusion of solutes dissolved in water for buff and healing effects
• Application as healing: metabolites in body find each other faster, so body can repair itself faster
• Application as buff: increases stamina by increasing rate of cellular respiration. Increases the upper limit of the speed of O2 diffusion for respiration
• CANNOT be used to negatively mess with the health of opponents. Can only increase the speed of normal, beneficial metabolic pathways

Hu Tao

• General explanation for pyro users: when needed, they can convert chemical energy of fuel molecules into pyro energy for instant use. By bypassing the need to generate ATP, less energy is lost as heat and energy payoff is both faster and greater than that of normal respiration. With further training, pyro energy gained can be increased beyond the amount that is stored in the starting fuel. Pyro users tend to break energy conservation laws more often than users of other elements
• For this user, muscle tissue can directly sustain itself on pyro energy, giving the user very high stamina. User will not tire in a drawn out battle

Yoimiya

• The extra pyro energy from efficient fuel burning can be redirected outwards towards by enhancing user’s physical attacks or by releasing the extra energy in other ways — Aka User can throw objects really, really hard by accelerating objects with extra pyro energy
• Cannot accelerate with pyro energy alone from standstill; user must initiate movement

Heizou

• Allows for a different directional flow of wind (matter) across two sides of an arbitrary two-dimensional plane. I.e. punch opponent in the face, opponent feels anemo knockback. However, the knockback is only felt in the upper body. In this case, the 2D plane is the cross section of the opponent).
• Good for knocking opponents off balance and messing with their recovery from attacks

Chongyun

• Creates a field with minimal friction within (Cryo = abnormally decrease entropy, therefore little heat lost as friction). (With practice, user can adapt to low friction conditions)
• User can create supplementary cryo constructs only within the field. Created constructs can help user move with friction limitation. —For small-scale use, can create tiny field with small cryo construct.

Xingqiu

• Creates hydro “shield”. Unlike geo shield, hydro shield is much less durable, more flexible and provides cushion from attacks from opponents. User consciously increases thickness of hydro shield at impact site
• User can also manipulate hydro to adhere to opponent, decreasing precision by spreading the impact of opponent’s attack over a greater area and thus reducing their effect
• Chongyun’s low friction field + lack of grip w/ Xingqiu’s shield = flailing enemies on an air hockey table

Yelan

• Hydro shield alters refraction of light through the hydro, granting invisibility (total internal reflection using “special” hydro that has an index of refraction lower than one)
• Only works for certain angles at a time. Cannot simultaneously be invisible from all 360 degrees, so there is a potential weakness when the user is up against a group of opponents.
• In close range combat, user can cover only part of body with invisibility shield to disguise hits and to generally confuse the opponent

Albedo

• When the user touches earth, they can summon geo construct(s) with the earth as the source. Geo constructs can be used as an offensive structure or a line of defense to block incoming attacks, the limitation is that the user must touch earth
• Summoned geo constructs resonate naturally, and wavelength of resonance depends on size of construct. When hit by an attack, energy is converted into increasing the resonance amplitude. Construct resonance is a form of attack

Ningguang

• User can store matter in a dense form and decondense it for use later. In combat, use = summoning geo projectiles. Does not need to be connected to ground at time of summoning
• There is a limit on the max amount of matter that can be stored at once. User eventually must recharge, during which they are vulnerable to attacks (like in a snowball fight)
• Especially powerful as ranged aoe; user can rain mini-meteors on opponents

Ganyu

• User summons two basketball-sized spheres. The first gradually extracts thermal energy within a very large radius. In other words, can cool down and eventually freeze opponents
• User holds onto a second sphere that stores the thermal energy collected by the first. The second sphere remains bound to user
• Because the user is also affected by the thermal energy extraction, the first sphere is best for ranged use. Also, possessing the second sphere gives user some level of resistance
• On its own, the second sphere slowly releases the collected energy as thermal radiation. Alternatively, second sphere may be thrown at the first sphere to explosively release the extracted energy as a bomb
• Spheres may also be used as a budget heater/air conditioner

Eula

• Instead of forcing the opponent to absorb the energy from the impact of physical attacks, physical attacks remove thermal energy from the opponent at the point of impact
• There is lessened knockback, and opponents get colder and slower the more they are hit
• When opponents or and inanimate object hit the user, the user also feels lessened knockback. The user does not experience therma energy loss
• Great for both physical offense and defense in general

Keqing

• User may swap places with one human target. Does not work with inanimate objects
• Swapped entities retain both direction and magnitude of prior momentum
• Principle: electro “snapshots” position of user and the target through their proprioception by the mind. Target must be conscious, and because swapped entities must have compatible minds, and user may only swap positions with other humans
• 1 min cooldown for each swap, and max range is mid-range combat

Razor

• Enhanced sensitivity to sound, sight, smell, and taste stimuli. Signals picked up by sensory organs are magnified by electro before being sent to the brain
• Sound and sight perception is most useful to read opponent’s movement to predict their attacks, allowing user to preemptively react
• Night vision
• User is probably a good food critic thanks to enhanced taste perception