Fridge is a completely new term in the Genshin Impact reaction meta and it’s all Dendro’s fault. Version 3.0 of Genshin Impact finally released the seventh and possibly the final element of Dendro to the game and it’s a weird element, to say the least. For starters, Dendro only has reactions with Pyro, Hydro and Electro so at first glance this automatically puts the other elements at a disadvantage, namely, Cryo, Anemo and Geo.
While there’s still no solution for Geo, Anemo and Cryo have surprisingly synergised well in Dendro comps. In this article, we’re focusing on Cryo and how it synergises in Bloom comps despite the initial fear of Cryo messing up your Dendro reactions.
What are Fridge Teams and How Do They Work in Genshin Impact 3.0?
Fridge teams are essentially Bloom teams with a Cryo unit for Cryo application.
Ordinarily, adding Cryo to the mix in a Dendro comp would mess up your reactions as Cryo easily reacts with Pyro, Hydro and Electro. Cryo would demolish a Quicken comp as it would react with the electro you’ve applied to enemies thereby reducing the duration of Quicken on affected enemies by a mile. This in turn also drastically reduces the efficiency and damage of your team. In a Buregon comp with Thoma, adding a Cryo member would cause Melt instead of Burgeon which can get annoying.
Cryo only fits into pure Bloom teams as Hydro and Cryo don’t cause a damage reaction but instead causes Frozen which is a status just like Quicken. It has its own duration during which the affected enemies remain frozen in place.
Cryo also doesn’t react with the Dendro cores caused by Bloom. This means you can not only keep enemies frozen but also trigger Bloom at the same time. And since the enemies are stuck in one place, you can use an Anemo unit to collect them all together and have the Dendro cores burst near enemies to cause tons of damage.
You would think Cryo has a weird place in this comp but it’s actually made possible due to Hydro’s weird nature. We already know that when Hydro is swirled by Anemo, while it does spread to other surrounding enemies, it only damages the initial Hydro bearer with Swirl damage and then spreads the Wet status. This is because Hydro is a greedy element.
If you apply Dendro to enemies first and then use Hydro on them, it will entirely remove the Dendro status from enemies by creating only one Bloom core. It is thus preferred to use Hydro on enemies first and then use Dendro for causing continuous Bloom reactions. Cryo bypasses this dynamic in a fun and creative way.
Since Dendro doesn’t react with Cryo and it is still a persistent element, you can have multiple enemies affected by both Dendro and Cryo at the same time. Once this is completed, you can now reliably use your Hydro unit to not only Freeze opponents by reacting with Cryo but also cause Bloom by reacting with Dendro.
The Frozen status combines both Cryo and Hydro so you can still consistently use your Hydro application to keep making more Dendro cores from your Bloom reactions as your Hydro isn’t directly affecting Dendro strongly enough to remove it.
While all this explanation may be confusing, one clarity is that in this team you don’t necessarily need a main dps. You can run this entirely using your support characters and it would still work provided you have a high enough EM on your Hydro unit. In this team, Hydro causes all of the reactions so a high EM is vital for your Hydro unit.
Characters and Team Comps
As for which characters are the best for Fridge teams, you can use the Dendro Traveler or even Collei as a reliable Dendro applier in this team. For your Cryo slot, you can use Diona if you need more survivability for your team as she provides both shield and healing. If you instead want more damage, Kaeya, Rosaria, Ganyu, Ayaka are all reliable options. You can even build these as your main dps to deal more personal damage.
As for your Hydro slot, Kokomi is ideal for her AoE Hydro application. She also provides healing even though she should mainly be using EM artifacts- preferably the Gilded Dreams set. You can also use Xinqiu, Yelan or Ayato if you want to maximise your damage. Barbara is not recommended as her Hydro application is slower compared to the rest. You can even build Ayato as your main dps here.
In these comps, units that rely on their burst for a reliable elemental application like Xinqiu, Yelan, Collei, Dendro Traveler and so on must also have enough ER to keep up and contribute to the team. Your fourth slot should ideally be an Anemo unit like Venti, Sucrose or Kazuha that can gather up the Bloom cores near the Frozen enemies to cause the maximum damage from their AoE Dendro DMG explosions.
Overall, while Fridge teams aren’t the best or most efficient in terms of damage, they are still fun and reliable to use. It’s a new gameplay experience and no one likes to pass up on that. The current Ganyu rerun is ideal as she is a powerful Cryo applier. With more Dendro and Sumeru characters on the way, we’re sure an ideal Fridge team will emerge that will go toe to toe with meta teams and we can’t wait for it.