Genshin Impact features a combat system that is simple yet effective. Players can engage in Normal Attacks for quick hits, Charged Attacks that utilize stamina for a more powerful strike, and powerful moves like Elemental Skills or Bursts for elemental damage.
However, the combat gameplay is much deeper than it appears. There are various techniques to amplify the damage dealt by your characters. One of these techniques is Animation Canceling, which, while not directly increasing damage numbers, is crucial for characters with long animations. In some cases, it can effectively double the damage they deal.
What Is Animation Canceling?
Every action in a game triggers a specific animation. While these animations can enhance gameplay by showcasing your character’s actions, they can also slow down your ability to string together combos or perform multiple actions quickly.
This issue mainly arises with fallback animations that play after actions, such as the animation Hu Tao exhibits after each Charged Attack.
To work around this and enhance performance, Animation Canceling allows players to skip these fallback animations, optimizing the efficiency of their characters.
Why Use Animation Canceling?
The benefits of Animation Canceling are significant. Firstly, it allows you to perform actions faster instead of waiting for slower animations to complete, such as Nahida’s Charged Attack or Eula’s Normal Attack combo.
An additional reason for using Animation Canceling is to reset your character’s Normal Attack counter, particularly important for characters whose damage varies with different hits. For instance, if your first two attacks hit for 200% damage while the third only does 100%, canceling your combo after the first two strikes lets you repeat those high-damage hits.
Moreover, Dash Canceling can help evade enemy strikes thanks to the invulnerability frames during dashes.
Furthermore, Burst Cancels enable you to regenerate Energy without wasting time waiting for particles to appear, which is especially beneficial for characters like Xiangling who rely heavily on energy.
For characters like Hu Tao, Animation Canceling also aids in positioning. Given her Charged Attack’s reach, it’s easy to overshoot your target, making it difficult to manage multiple enemies effectively.
Lastly, a primary purpose of Animation Canceling is to maximize the speed of elemental reactions by taking advantage of ICD (Internal Cooldown). Even though most attacks cannot trigger reactions on every hit, certain ones can, and Animation Canceling can accelerate these processes.
How To Animation Cancel
Animation Canceling varies in methods, utilizing different inputs to cut animations short. The most versatile technique is Dash Canceling, usable with any character to boost damage per second (DPS). Jump Cancels are also effective but are generally slower and can encounter issues.
There are niche techniques, such as Swap Cancels or Burst Cancels, which might not yield as much benefit as the others but can still minimize rotation times.
Finally, there are character-specific cancels for bow users and characters like Neuvillette that can significantly boost your DPS under the right circumstances.
How To Dash Cancel
To Dash Cancel, wait until the damage threshold of the animation is reached, then immediately dash by right-clicking, sprinting, or using the designated dash button on your console. Dash Canceling is often the quickest and most efficient Animation Cancel technique available for most characters.
However, Dash Canceling has its drawbacks, particularly for non-bow characters who rely on Charged Attacks. Since dashing consumes stamina needed for attacks, you can quickly deplete your stamina, making this technique less viable for characters like Keqing or Hu Tao (unless you have her C1).
How To Jump Cancel
Jump Canceling is more challenging than Dash Canceling and tends to be slower. To execute this, you need to recognize when damage has been dealt and input a jump command immediately thereafter.
Be cautious, as if you initiate the jump too soon, you may cancel the damage itself, adversely impacting your overall DPS. Avoiding this is crucial for using Jump Canceling effectively.
Jump Canceling can also present difficulties against large enemies with unique hitboxes, like the Perpetual Mechanical Array, where trying to jump can trap you in their hitbox. In such instances, not using cancels might be more beneficial.
How To Aim Cancel
Most weapon types in Genshin Impact operate similarly, but Bow users can access a unique aiming mode for Charged Attacks. This is particularly useful for characters with special Charged Shots, such as Ganyu or Tighnari.
Even for characters who primarily use Normal Attacks like Yoimiya, Aim Canceling can be leveraged, offering a speed comparable to Dash Canceling without using stamina.
To execute an Aim Cancel, quickly tap the aim button (or the R key on PC) twice just before a lengthy fallback animation finishes. For Yoimiya, this occurs after the last Normal Attack in her chain.
While it can be tricky to master, practice will improve your consistency. However, few characters can capitalize on this technique due to limited Normal Attack usage among Bow users.
How To Swap Cancel
Swap Cancel involves changing to a different character to terminate an ongoing animation prematurely. This method can shorten setup time for support characters like Xingqiu by reducing the time it takes to set them up. To perform it, simply press the swap button as soon as your input registers.
How To Burst Cancel
Burst Canceling resembles Swap Canceling in that it doesn’t always lead to a massive DPS boost. However, it is effective for generating energy. Execute it by casting your Elemental Burst immediately after using your Elemental Skill.
This exploit works because time continues during the Burst animation, allowing Elemental Particles to spawn and be gathered by your active character before the animation concludes.
Swap Burst Cancels
While transitioning between characters doesn’t take much time, you can expedite it further. This also helps in avoiding damage when introducing a new character since they can use their Elemental Burst immediately for invulnerability.
Swap Burst Canceling is particularly straightforward on mobile devices, as there is a dedicated button next to your off-field character. On PC, use the ALT key with the corresponding number for your off-field character.
Neuvillette Animation Cancel
Neuvillette possesses a special Charged Attack that typically requires time to charge. Nevertheless, he can utilize Sourcewater Droplets to immediately cast his Charged Attack by activating his Elemental Burst or Skill.
However, you must be close to the Sourcewater Droplets for this technique to be effective.
You can further optimize this by eliminating the absorbing animation altogether. Just momentarily hold the attack button instead of pressing it fully. Your Charged Attack will still work, but the startup animation will be skipped.
Can You Do Animation Cancels On Your Phone?
Yes, Animation Cancels can be performed on mobile devices. However, the difficulty levels can vary, particularly for Aim and Jump Cancels.
If you find these techniques challenging, the overall gain in DPS isn’t substantial enough to require their use to complete any content. Yet, for characters like Hu Tao, practicing at least one specific technique might prove advantageous.
