Stellar Swirl Reaction Guide

Stellar Swirl is the newest reaction in Genshin, introduced alongside Snezhnaya in 7.0. Together with Stellar-Conduct, they make up the Stellar Glimmer Reaction ecosystem, which is going to be main focus of Snezhnaya's combat and endgame for the foreseeable future. Learn all about how to use it here.

What is Stellar Swirl?

• Stellar Swirl is the modified version of the Cryo Swirl Reaction. Other types of Elemental Swirls cannot become Stellar Swirls.
• It is enabled passively when one of the following characters are in your team, as of 7.0:

Odette Sandrone Traveler (Cryo)

Odette Build Guide | Sandrone Build Guide | Traveler (Cryo) Build Guide

Without at least one of the above, you cannot trigger Stellar Swirl. These are presently the only characters with the passive talents that enable the Reaction, similar to how only certian characters are able to activate a certain Lunar Reaction. Only characters with either Cryo or Anemo Stellar Linchpins can activate it, and we are likely to get more of them.

What Does It Do?

• When a Stellar Swirl Reaction is triggered, it will deal a little bit of Anemo DMG to the enemy it was triggered on, and on a small AoE around them.
• Additionally, if one doesn't already exist, it will spawn a "Stellar Vortex".
• Triggering Stellar Swirl activates the "Radiance: Stellar Swirl" effect for the party. Characters that deal Stellar Swirl damage or otherwise directly interact with Stellar Swirl typically require this effect to be active for those interactions. This effect lasts 8 seconds and refreshes on every Stellar Swirl.

Stellar Vortex

When a Stellar Vortex spawns, it will initially do nothing on its own. After 3 seconds, it will explode and deal Cryo DMG to all enemies in its Area of Effect. The damage it deals in this state is equivalent to a bit under 3 Stellar Swirls, although Cryo instead of Anemo, and will hit the according enemy RES.

If additional Stellar Swirls are triggered during those 3 seconds, the Stellar Vortex will 'level up' and be accordingly enhanced. Each new Vortex will always spawn in at Level 1, and each additional Stellar Swirl will grant it 1 additional 'level':

• At Level 3, it will grow in size and deal 50% more damage compared to Levels 1 and 2. This comes out to the damage of 4 Stellar Swirls.
• Levels 4 and 5 have no additional effect besides increasing the AoE.
• If a Vortex reaches Level 6, it will immediately detonatewith a larger AoE. Its damage will be the same as in Levels 3 through 5.
• Reaching Level 6 is very inconsistent, as it requires a total of 5 additional Swirls within 3.5 seconds. Due to its damage not increasing, it is generally not worth aiming to detonate every Vortex early.
• The next Vortex will always spawn at Level 1, regardless of the Level the previous one detonated at.

After a Stellar Vortex detonates, it will give you the ability to perform a High Jump. This is presently not relevant in any combat scenario, but might be useful in exploration.

Stellar Swirl & Stellar Vortex Damage

• Instead of dealing a flat amount of damage that scales with the Elemental Mastery of the character that triggered the Reaction, both Reactions will deal damage that scales with the Elemental Mastery & Crit Rate/DMG of every character that participated in them. That is to say, if any of the Elemental Aura that was consumed to trigger the Reaction belonged to a character, they will be considered a 'participant', or 'contributor'. This is also how Lunar-Charged and Lunar Crystallize work, though their numbers and calculations are different.
• Contributors are sorted based on their EM and Crit, and they are then weighted for the Reaction's damage. Below is the table for how the Contribution Multipler of the Reaction is calculated:

"CM" stands for Crit Multiplier. The formula for it is: 1 + Crit Rate * ( 1+ Crit Damage ).

This is an approximation that gets close enough to how the game handles it. All of the above are applicable to both Stellar Swirl and Stellar Vortex detonations.

Interactions with Stellar-Conduct

The two Stellar Glimmer reactions can co-exist, but will not directly interact with each other. Triggering Stellar-Conduct reactions does not have any benefit for Stellar Swirl and vice versa, although Stellar Vortex explosions will contribute 1 stack towards the Polestar Field's count.

Additionally, when both "Radiance: Stellar-Conduct" and "Radiance: Stellar Swirl" are active, for characters that can deal both types of Stellar Glimmer damage like Sandrone, Odette, and the Traveler (Cryo), Stellar-Conduct will take priority and they will deal Stellar-Conduct damage. This is generally a positive, as it allows them to use Anemo Supports like Sucrose, without a downside to their Stellar-Conduct damage.

What Is 'Direct' Stellar Swirl Damage?

Several talents of Stellar Swirl related characters will deal Stellar Swirl Damage. Unlike the damage of the Reactions themselves, that damage is regular Elemental Talent damage just like any other but with some key differences in how its calculated. It is directly equivalent to how Lunar Damage works.

Regular Elemental Damage:

• Is calculated and deals damage with Elemental DMG Bonus. If an attack is Pyro it will scale on Pyro DMG Bonus, if an attack is Cryo it will scale on Cryo DMG Bonus, etc.
• Is able to apply the corresponding Element to the enemy, and thus trigger Elemental Reactions.
• Does not interact with Elemental Mastery unless it triggers Vaporize or Melt.

Stellar Swirl Direct Damage:

• Does not interact with regular Elemental DMG Bonus, regardless of Element. There are separate sources of Stellar Swirl / Stellar Glimmer DMG Bonus, which correspondingly don't interact with damage that isn't Stellar.
• Is not able to apply Element to the enemy. It cannot trigger Elemental Reactions.
• Most importantly: Elemental Mastery is directly converted to DMG Bonus. The more Elemental Mastery you have, the more Stellar DMG Bonus you gain. Like with all other Elemental Mastery interactions, this effect is at its strongest at low Elemental Mastery and gets progressively relatively worse with more EM. This DMG Bonus stacks with other sources of Stellar DMG Bonus.

There are several characters that directly interact with Stellar Swirl in their kits, and a few that are important to their teambuilding that might not interact with it directly. Knowing who to use and when is crucial to maximuze the value you get out of your Stellar Swirl teams.

Stellar Swirl On-fielders

Currently, there are two that are dedicated and one that can play with Stellar Swirl, but not deal Stellar damage or interact with the mechanic too much. Sandrone and Yumemizuki Mizuki both deal Direct Stellar Swirl damage through their talents when Radiance: Stellar Swirl is active, whereas Varka can slot in a Stellar Swirl Support to deal with certain Stellar content if he wishes to.

Stellar Swirl Supports

The pool of dedicated Stellar Swirl Supports is presently relatively small, and the best units are significantly stronger than the worse ones. Odette and Traveler (Cryo) are excellent supports for any SSW team, and arguably necessary for those teams to compete with other modern teams.

Qiqi and Diona (at C6) will buff teammate Stellar Swirl damage but will not themselves activate the reaction or deal much Stellar Swirl damage.

Other Supports

Due to there being a total lack of Anemo Stellar Swirl specific Supports, any Anemo Support that will slot into this team will have to not be a dedicated one. Sucrose makes yet another return as the overall Best in Slot for most Stellar Swirl teams, whereas Faruzan at C6 and Prune at C6 have some limited use as well. Venti can be a decent Support for Sandrone teams specifically, as she makes great use of the Energy Refund Venti's Burst provides. Other Cryo supports like Escoffier can also be decent here, but due to easier access to Viridescent Venerer's Cryo RES Shred, she might not be as effective as in Stellar-Conduct teams.

Best Stellar Swirl Teams

With the above in mind, we can construct some strong teams with both Sandrone and Mizuki.

Sandrone - Odette - Sucrose - Qiqi

The overall best team for Sandrone Stellar Swirl. Traveler (Cryo) can slot in over either Odette or Qiqi to great effect, even being stronger than Qiqi sometimes but at the cost of a sustain option. Escoffier is decent over Qiqi but overall worse, and Diona is generally dificult to use despite her superior buffing. Prune at C6 and Venti can be Sucrose alternatives if Sucrose is busy otherwise. Sandrone in Stellar Swirl teams will generally prefer to use 2 Charged Attacks + Burst instead of 3, if her Energy can afford it. This is due to the short duration of the Stellar Swirl Radiance and the lack of a support like Yae Miko, being much more incentivized to perform shorter rotations than in SC.

Example Rotation:

( open the first rotation with: Sandrone Skill → Sucrose N1 → )

1. Odette Skill or Burst + Enhanced Skll
   →
2. Sucrose N1 + Burst or Skill
   →
3. Qiqi Skill
   →
4. Sandrone Charged Attack + Skill + Burst
   →
5. Sucrose N1 + Skill
   →
6. Sandrone Charged Attack + Skill
   →
7. repeat

For more information on Sandrone Stellar Swirl teams and Rotations, visit our Sandrone Guide.

Yumemizuki Mizuki- Odette- Traveler (Cryo)-Sucroseor Faruzan

Qiqi and Diona can be strong alternatives to the Cryo Traveler here, but overall worse. If you don't have Odette, the Cryo Traveler will be required to activate Stellar Swirl in the team. Sucrose and Faruzan and very comparable on paper, although Sucrose will likely edge out in practice due to not relying on her Elemental Burst. Non-C6 Faruzan is of course considerably worse.

Example Rotation:

( open first rotation with Traveler (Cryo) Skill + Sucrose N1 )

1. Odette Skill + Enhanced Skill
   →
2. Sucrose N1 + Skill or Burst
   →
3. Yumemizuki Mizuki Skill ( + Burst whenever up)
   →
4. Sucrose N1 + Skill or Burst
   →
5. Traveler (Cryo) Skill + Enhanced CA + Burst

For more information on Mizuki Stellar Swirl teams and Rotations, visit our Mizuki Guide.