Thoughts on Lunar Crystalize and on base Crystalize reactions and the state of geo as a whole?

As a lover of Ningguang and with Columbina and Zibai coming out we are about to be getting the lunar Crystalize reaction which behaves VERY differently from base Crystalize.

Unlike base Crystalize, Lunar Crystalize actually deals damage to things and can resonate with geo constructs.

I had been thinking about the issues with geo in the past year and how to buff geo as Crystalize is a very… useless reaction outside of something like Navia who just uses Crystalize as ammo. While lunar Crystalize does seem nifty and a major boon I am conflicted on it as the ONLY way to get lunar Crystalize is having Zibai or Columbina. Without either of these limited 5 stars, it is impossible to trigger lunar Crystalize which I feel… doesn’t really help geo at all and is a really painful fomo driver for Geo enjoyers.

This is especially painful as I mentioned before, Crystalize is a borderline useless reaction outside. Like lunar charge and lunar bloom did not feel so bad at missing out on as Taser and bloom were already decent reactions in their own right but Crystalize is different. Crystalize’s only real benefit is a super flimsy shield that at best blocks a single hillichurl auto attack and at worst is redundant as many geo characters make their own chonky shields or want Zhongli… who makes a chonky af shield.

So what are your thoughts on the coming lunar Crystalize and the current state of the Crystalize reaction and honestly the state of Geo as a whole?

Edit: I do think it speaks to the state of Geo that the best Geo character is the one character that buffs other elements and SPECIFICALLY does not apply geo herself… essentially making her not really a geo character at all….

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Commentaires

esztersunday2026-01-05 17:20

After I learned Zibai can use Chiori's weapon, and Zhongli... I will try to pull her.

It is sad players have to pull new 5\* characters to use these reactions, Genshin is greedy!

LibraProtocol2026-01-05 17:23

Ngl I have come to really dislike the lunar reactions as they are the first time we have been locked out of an entire reaction due to 5 stars. Like imagine if only 5 stars could trigger bloom because you needed a “Sumeru Tree” or something stupid like that?

GigaEel2026-01-05 17:30

They came close to that with Nilou. Still the only character in the same who can trigger her special type of bloom. And for a while it was meta but HP values have inflated to the point its less viable.

But recently, Lauma brought Nilou out of her coffin

LibraProtocol2026-01-05 17:34

And Nilou has been a very sore spot for many people who want to play bloom specific teams but can’t because she has been rerun in forever outside of the one chronicled wish that ran alongside Lauma and Nahida… so a tough place for that.

Gakamis2026-01-05 17:41

I see them more as modified reactions (like what Nilou does) rather than real reactions, and that does make it a bit better...

... if not for the fact that they are shilling them like that lol.

LibraProtocol2026-01-05 17:44

Imagine if Hoyo made enemies that took extra damage ONLY from Nilou bloom cores and for everyone else was extra tanky…

That has been Nod Krai sadly.

Ad atleast base bloom is usable via hyper bloom
Or burgeon. But base Crystalize is literally the second most useless reaction in the game (only shatter I think is more useless)

Gakamis2026-01-05 17:49

SSS+ tier Shatter hypercarry in Scheznaya trust!!

xyzqsrb02026-01-05 17:23

Still cooked af, regular crystalize is worthless so it's at least better than that. Zibai is good because new dps but it'll be rough making non zibai lunar crystalize work.

LibraProtocol2026-01-05 17:27

Ngl this “locked behind limited 5 stars” is just so stupid. Like imagine if Hoyo made it so only limited 5stars could trigger bloom? “Oh the 4 stars can do dendro damage but they don’t have a “Irmansul branch” so they they can’t do bloom reactions. Only the 5 stars can do bloom!” Like… this is what Nod Krai is feeling like with its lunar reactions. And with the absolute state that Crystalize is, it just makes it feel all that much worse.

Spartan4482026-01-06 13:24

Noelle LCr might work nicely because no ICD and the spin move has a decent amount of hits. And even without that, against group stages you're gonna trigger LCr pretty much every swing even with NAs.

Petraam2026-01-05 17:37

My first lv90 was Noelle. I love Noelle but I learned HoYo hates geo. I don’t pull on geo characters as a result. Zibai might be good but she is basically geo skirk. You gotta have the new characters and you gotta play it with this one element. It’s lame.

Are we even getting a geo equivalent of ineffa or lauma? That is probably the one to get.

LibraProtocol2026-01-05 17:39

And ngl Zibai being good doesn’t mean geo is good much like how Skirk didn’t make cryo usable. She was just so OP that she could brute force her way past how bad cryo was. She was good IN SPITE of cryo. I feel Zibai will be the same sadly…

MirceaHM2026-01-05 17:58

The only Geo characters that make shields are Noelle and Zhongli. Not many characters at all want Zhongli in their team, if any. He's just a comfort pick.

Crystallize is a good reaction, people like you just equate no damage with useless, but don't realise it allows Geo teams to not run a sustain slot in favour of another dmg dealer/buffer.

The biggest thing it does is resistance to interruption. It doesn't matter that the shield breaks, you managed to finish your combo and get another shield ready to be picked up.

The issue with Geo doesn't have anything to do with Crystallize, but with bad kits/low numbers. All Geo buffers are bad on top of being extremely niche.

Compare Gorou, Yun Jin, and now Illuga with Bennett, Iansan, Chevreuse, Faruzan - they simply do not have the same power budget given to them and can only buff 1 or 2 characters at most.

Illuga's full buff is the most restrictive one - it only applies to Zibai, and it's good but not outstanding or broken by any means, especially after nerfs. His regular buff makes him the most versatile Geo buffer, but it's pretty weak.

Zibai is strong because her multipliers are big, not because of Illuga, Lunar Crystallize, or any other factor.

La-Roca992026-01-05 21:19

> Compare Gorou, Yun Jin, and now Illuga with Bennett, Iansan, Chevreuse, Faruzan - they simply do not have the same power budget given to them and can only buff 1 or 2 characters at most.

Not sure Bennett should be comparable in any way to any other support, considering every single character released in the game is released in a way that is either working with him, or completely detached, no inbetween

Vegetto_ssj2026-01-06 03:02

>The biggest thing it does is resistance to interruption. It doesn't matter that the shield breaks, you managed to finish your combo and get another shield ready to be picked up.

And is still really shitty. These paper shield don't guarantee my Yoimiya to finish her combo in a lot of situations where I play Chiori + Xilonen **C1**, and some times those shield don't save you from some critical damage.
Crystalise absolutely needs a buff (stackable is something they should have been)

Neospanner2026-01-05 18:00

Sadly, this is just the way it is. Hoyo is stubborn about not altering the essence of reactions. The most they'll do is tweak the damage numbers - which doesn't help if the reaction does no damage. (And sometimes isn't even enough if the reaction DOES do damage, like Superconduct.)

I'm already prepped for the Tsaritsa to be a Superconduct enabler, making Superconduct awesome (but only when she triggers it).

CristevePeachFan2026-01-06 02:43

Anastasya Ultraconduct DPS 🤑

NemesisCat72026-01-05 18:09

Nod Krai locking reactions behind 5* and demanding you pull 2 characters just to play 1 is the worst. After a year of everyone bitching about Natlan.. yet lots of people are fine with this? Why because “Nod Krai peak”… sure it is.

This is way way worse than nightsoul ever was. Gonna be even more funny when Zibai is the last lunar DPS, a whole 3 lunar DPS wow.

OmniOnly2026-01-05 20:06

From the best Geo used physical to being a shield bot to being a buffer. Crystalize shield would be good if you could build EM. Geo design wise is all over the place. They just recently made Albedo flower work.

Prestigious_East_5132026-01-05 21:18

Geo lover here. Favorite element and I've all the characters and their signatures, even got multiple cons on Chiori in particular lol.

Anyways we're still kinda cooked ngl. Lunar Crystalize isn't gonna solve that either as it does not fix the fundamental issue that Geo just isn't as robust as the other elements. And it definitely won't be from a reaction as restrictive as Lunar-Crystalize, which is something to be exploited by Zibai mostly.

If a Geo character is good, or if an upcoming one will be good, it's gonna be in spite of and not because of their element.

jonnevituwu2026-01-06 01:20

I just wished Illuga was... A bit less trash before c6 and even after c6 bro is still not that good.

He could have been a nice sup for some funny Zhongli microwave teams ngl

Hojuma2026-01-06 07:52

I would appreciate lunar-crystallize more if they utilize geo constructs more. I think the geo construct mechanic is very interesting but very underutilized. I honestly think geo character kit designs should've focused on utilizing and synergizing with the constructs rather than just giving them higher motion values to compensate not doing extra damage with reactions.

They could've made something like geo constructs having innate geo and reacting with our attacks but don't get damaged by friendly fire. Instead we only have Zhongli with a resonance ability which I think is really cool but very weak to actually utilize in combat, not to mention his pillar melting at a slight bump by bosses. There's also Chiori but she just spawns an extra doll.

masquerade1O42026-01-06 09:47

Tbh as a noelle main since day 1 i was hyped to try her with the new reaction and was willing to go for columbina, though they wrecked that hype when the reaction basically works with one team and only that one team

And regarding the crystalize reaction, it really is a missed opportunity when all other elements have op reactions and geo is just stuck with a shield when all the teams that can actually proc this consistently either have zhongli or noelle teams and lunar crystalize could've been a better option for those teams anyway

Spartan4482026-01-06 13:23

I'm gonna be watching Noelle specifically very closely, because her CA hits decently fast and doesn't have ICD. So depending on how LCr damage works out, Columbina could be just as much of a boost to her specifically as Furina was. If not more, potentially.

alexcercia2026-01-07 02:03

The biggest problem with lunar reactions is locking them behind 5* characters, they should have gave us 4* characters for geo, dendro and electro lunar reactions, since making aino able to trigger them would be "too broken", or just make the hydro traveler compatible with moonsign making him able to trigger lunar reactions.

Hope-end2026-01-07 11:00

Honestly, I think the best investment you can make if you like Geo/Anemo/Electro is to get Durin and invest vertically. I got C2R1 Durin, and my teams have never been better. My Navia and Ningguang are so much better than they used to be. Durin also synergizes with Fischl, an amazing sub-DPS, and good buffers.

I honestly don't think Lunar Crystallize can save Geo unless the character is built around it.

Realistic_Mark74012026-01-07 16:45

How good is lunar crystallise even, i see it do damage but it seems to barely do damage and zibai is the one that utilizes it the most by having her own damage scale on lunar crystallise, but the moondrifts themselves dont even seem to be a relevant part of the team damage

LibraProtocol2026-01-07 17:40

Fair, but counterpoint, it does more damage than normal Crystalize… which is literally 0.

niehjd2026-01-11 16:50

Didn't they say the upcoming 4 star Illuga can also trigger lunar crystalize?

LibraProtocol2026-01-11 17:56

Not as far as I have seen. From what I have seen ONLY Zibai and Columbina can trigger lunar Crystalize.