'Genshin Impact' Guide: Attack Damage Scaling Explained

Tianquan Ningguang of the Liyue Qixing in Genshin Impact

The behind-the-scenes mathematics in “Genshin Impact” can get quite complicated, especially when damage is concerned. There are a lot of factors that affect a player’s damage values, and not everyone has the time or the patience to dig into each one of them.

However, knowing how attack damage scales is important for maximizing DPS, especially against tougher late game content. Here’s a short guide explaining how ATK values work and how to get the most damage out of characters in “Genshin Impact.”

Base Damage and Bonus Values

Every character has their base ATK values. Players can check this value by opening the “Details” tab in the Attributes screen of their characters.

The white number next to the “Attack” stat represents their character’s Base Damage, while the green number with the plus sign indicates their bonus ATK stats. Distinguishing these values is important due to how ATK% scaling works, according to Reddit user u/valiant_bear’s findings.

Base ATK depends on a character’s level and the Base ATK of the weapon they have equipped. This does not include any ATK% bonus from weapons.

ATK% Scaling

The ATK% stat from artifacts will only affect a character’s base damage and multiple ATK% stats are additive of each other, not multiplicative.

For example, when a character with 100 Base ATK receives a 50% ATK boost, then they will end up with only 150 ATK total. If another 50% is added, then the total will be 200.

In this case, the formula is: 100 x (1 + 0.5 + 0.5) = 200.

Physical and Elemental DMG% Scaling

Phys DMG% and Elem DMG% stats work similarly to ATK% in how they are calculated. They still modify a character’s Base ATK, but they will stack multiplicatively with ATK% stats.

Using the same example above but with one 50% ATK Boost and one 50% Phys/Elem DMG% Boost, the formula will be: 100 x 1.5 x 1.5 = 225.

Which is better, ATK% or Elem DMG%?

It’s almost always better to have a Phys/Elem DMG% artifact in the goblet slot because of how these stats affect each other, so long as the corresponding elemental damage type is being used. Ideally, players should aim for an ATK% sands artifact to pair with their chosen elemental goblet to get the most damage as possible.

However, players can consider using an ATK% goblet so long as it has good substats. An ATK% goblet with more ATK or CRIT stats can outperform an elemental goblet with bad substats, resulting in better DPS overall.