How To Minimise Internal Cooldowns In Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact‘s combat system is extremely nuanced. However, at its core, it revolves around utilizing different characters to trigger Elemental Reactions for damage. While there are certain exceptions that are self-sustained, such as the Physical DPS Eula
, most Genshin Impact characters favor a more team-based playstyle.

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Since these reactions are extremely strong, Hoyoverse has put a strict ICD (Internal Cooldown) on how quickly a character can use them. Here’s everything you need to know about it, as well as how you can potentially bypass ICD.

What Is ICD?

ICD is short for Internal Cooldown, which is a stopgap measure programmed into Genshin Impact to stop characters from triggering too many reactions. This is both time-based and hit-based, and follows a similar sequence for most characters.

For example, if you’re using Sangonomiya Kokomi
to break the Pyro Hypostasis’s shield, the first attack she does will take away a portion of it. However, when you hit it again, you’ll notice the shield does not lose HP. This is because Kokomi follows the three-hit rule of standard ICD.

What Is Standard ICD?

Sangonomiya Kokomi from Genshin Impact standing in front of the bridge leading to Sangonomiya Shrine.

Most characters in Genshin Impact follow a standard ICD. This is 2.5 seconds or once every three hits of a particular skill. In the Kokomi example, you’ll notice her third hit also does not deal any damage to the shield, but the fourth one does. This is because the fourth hit completes the three-hit rule, being the third hit after the last application.

The ICD timer and hit-count both reset after an Elemental Reaction is triggered. If Kokomi has done two attacks after her first, but the 2.5 seconds pass and she applies Hydro with the third attack, the fourth will not apply Hydro.

It’s also important to note that this Internal Cooldown is specific to the enemy, not your character. For example, if you’re fighting two enemies afflicted with Pyro, the first attack on each enemy will Vaporize.

Similarly, this ICD is tied to the specific skill causing the reaction. If you use Kokomi’s Normal Attack to deal damage to a shield, using either her Elemental Burst or Charged Attack immediately afterward will take away the shield as well.

Why Does ICD Exist?

Keqing from Genshin Impact posing on the ground holding her sword backwards in Sumeru.

There are a few reasons why characters and enemies alike need a cooldown to their elemental application. First, this makes it so continuous reactions do not occur, as doing so could overload the game and result in crashes.

It’s also a way to make the game more balanced, since, otherwise, characters that hit faster would always be better.

Additionally, it lets Hoyoverse come up with more game mechanics that would be trivialized if every single hit of fast-hitting abilities, such as Amber’s Elemental Burst or Fischl’s Oz’s attacks, triggers reactions. Not having this is what makes enemies like the Abyss Herald so fearsome.

Can You Bypass ICD?

ICD is hard coded into the game, so there aren’t any ways of breaking the rule. However, there are characters that don’t follow standard ICD. If you’re facing enemies with huge elemental shields or using a character like Hu Tao
who needs to Vaporize all her hits to deal proper damage, you can utilize these characters.

For characters with skills that do not have ICD, you can further leverage the advantage by using animation cancels to cause even more reactions.

Character	Skill	ICD (Seconds)	ICD (Hits)
Nahida	Tri-Karma Retribution from Elemental Skill	0s	0
Xiangling	Elemental Skill	0s	0
Xiangling	Elemental Burst: Pyronado	0s	0
Hu Tao	Charged Attack	0s	0
Ganyu	Level Two Aimed Shot	0s	0
Bennett	Elemental Skill:	0s	0
Tighnari	Level Two Aimed Shot	2.5s	4
Yelan	Elemental Burst	2s	0
Yae Miko	Elemental Burst	0s	0
Kaedehara Kazuha	Elemental Burst	0s	0
Sucrose	Elemental Burst	0s	0
Amber	Elemental Burst	1s	0
Diluc	Elemental Burst	5s	5
Diluc	Elemental Skill	0s	0
Candace	Elemental Burst (Including Wave Impact and C6 Damage)	0s	0
Rosaria	Elemental Skill, Elemental Burst	0s	0
Venti	Elemental Burst	1s	3
Collei	Elemental Skill	0s	0
Collei	Elemental Burst	3s	3
Fischl	Oz’s Coordinated Attack and C6 Damage (shared ICD)	5s	4
Fischl	Fourth Ascension Passive (A4 Passive)	0.5s	0
Kokomi	Elemental Skill	0s	0
Chongyun	Elemental Burst	0s	0
Tartaglia “Childe”	Riptide Slash Passive, Elemental Burst(s)	0s	0
Xinyan	Elemental Skill	0s	0
Nilou	Tranquility Aura from Elemental Skill	1.9s	4
Barbara	Melody Loop from Elemental Skill	2.5s	3
Cyno	Passive: Featherfall Judgement	2.5s	3

Additionally, there are some characters that can exploit the ICD despite having normal ICD timers. This is done by either hitting too quickly, or by having multiple instances of attacks at once.

Character	Skill	ICD
Xingqiu	Elemental Burst	Xingqiu’s coordinated attacks are sent in waves of three individual damages. This makes it so each trigger applies Hydro to enemies hit. At C6, this application becomes even greater.
Yelan	Elemental Burst	Yelan’s coordinated attacks are also sent in waves of three, applying Hydro on each proc.
Venti	Elemental Burst	Venti’s Elemental Burst has extremely fast hits and a separate instance of elemental damage if an element has been absorbed. This lets him rapidly trigger reactions.

ICD And Dendro

Dendro works a little differently than other reactions when it comes to ICD. While Dendro itself affects opponents the same way, the secondary reactions (Burning, Burgeon, Hyperbloom, Aggravate, and Spread) are more nuanced.

Burning has a special Burning Aura that has both Dendro and Pyro properties. It also has its own special ICD, applying Pyro every two seconds.

The Quicken aura can exist alongside other Electro, Dendro, or Cryo auras. This means that you can trigger multiple Elemental Reactions at the same time.

Burgeon and Hyperbloom have no ICD whatsoever. As we discussed above, the actual ICD is based on the target, not the source. As such, since each Seed is a unique entity, any hit done on one will trigger a reaction.

Quicken is initially triggered when Dendro and Electro react. However, the trigger doesn’t do anything but put the Quicken aura on enemies. You can then either react with Dendro or Electro to trigger Spread or Aggravate respectively. The difference from Quicken to either Spread or Aggravate has no ICD.