Genshin Impact - Elite Bosses - Anemo / Electro / Geo Hypostasis, Cryo / Pyro Regisvines

I'm not the best player so I initially had a lot of trouble with the Elite Bosses -- the ones you need to fight for key character ascendence materials. I found I had trouble with various strategies from the online guides, so these are the strategies that worked for me.

I'll be using only the free-to-play characters in my guides: Traveler, Amber, Kaeya, Lisa, Noelle, Barbara. Note that Barbara is a free-to-play character only for now, but may not be so in the future as she is part of a launch event that will end when version 1.1 of Genshin Impact arrives.

We'll talk about the easier Hypostasis Bosses first, then the Regisvine Bosses, then the Oceanid

If your damage is too low, it will be harder simply because you will need to survive longer. Focus on the characters that can help you clear bosses so that you can get the materials to improve the weaker ones and they can help you with other bosses.

• The main characters are Amber, Barbara, and Lisa. You need Noelle for the Geo Hypostasis but that only helps Noelle's Ascendence.
• Amber is good for the Anemo and Electro Hypostases. Fight them when it's raining for Vaporize elemental effect with your charged Pyro shots.
• Barbara + Lisa together are good for the Cryo and Pyro Regisvines -- and even for StormTerror (you don't have to climb up its back, just shoot from the ground since their attacks go through barriers). They can also be good for the Anemo Hypostasis if you are careful.
• Lisa + Kaeya are good for the Oceanid. Kaeya just needs to survive to use his Elemental Skill and doesn't need a lot of development.
• Overall, you want to focus development on Lisa. For her Talents, just develop her Normal Attack.

General - Hypostasis Bosses (cube bosses)

• The fights happen in a circular arena. You can be outside the arena, but not too far or too long, otherwise the boss will reset.
• The boss is a rhomboid core and you can damage it only when it is exposed in this way. Most of the time when the boss is attacking, you cannot harm it, but there are exceptions.
• Sometimes you might be caught in a "trap" attack. Try switching to Noelle and activating her shield to survive it if you couldn't evade it.
• When the boss changes shape and rushes, sidestep these attacks with dashes instead of trying to outrun them. You can keep sprinting and sometimes get out of the telegraphed areas but it's trickier, especially if you run directly away from it in the path of its charge. Also, if you end up chased out of the arena the boss might reset.
• At low health, all the Hypostasis bosses have a healing move. They cancel whatever they are doing and fly to the center of the arena to prepare three elemental nodes you must destroy. Any you fail to destroy will heal the boss. When the boss is at low health again, it repeats this healing move but any nodes you previously destroyed will not reappear.

Anemo Hypostasis "Beth"

Keep your distance and if unsure of what the boss will do, stay close to the edge of the arena. You can use Amber; or Barbara + Lisa if you don't want to run back to the boss to attack it. Once you're used to this boss, Barbara + Lisa giving each other elemental reactions is probably more effective than just Amber.

Rush Attacks

• The boss can change shape and rush you like other Hypostasis bosses. However it also has a special rush move where it builds a very wide area of effect that ends with powerful implosion. If you are still inside you will take a lot of damage.

Shockwave

• Early in the fight, the boss will typically create Anemo orbs that are too high to reach (and you cannot climb the pillars around the arena to glide to them). During the fight, depending on what attacks the boss uses, wind updrafts may be created. If it won't put you at too much risk, you can use those to glide into and thereby destroy some of these orbs.
• The Shockwave attack uses any remaining Anemo orbs. The boss moves to the center and absorbs some of the floating Anemo orbs it previously created, then creates a huge blast for huge damage. Run just outside of the arena and wait it out.

Tornadoes

• The boss flies up and scatters tornadoes in the arena. Just find a safe zone between them and wait it out.

Triple Whirlwind

• The boss drops a whirlwind at your feet which activates shortly. Keep moving until the boss has dropped three.

Healing

• At low health the boss creates Anemo Orbs and updrafts. Use the updrafts to fly into the Anemo Orbs.
• Remember that if you are too high up you can cancel gliding to start falling quickly.
• You can also make an attack which will launch you down, but that can end up costing you too much time because once you attack you are locked in that long animation.

Electro Hypostasis "Aleph"

Use Amber or Barbara and in general stay about midway from the center of the arena. Sometimes you will need to run out, sometimes you will need to run in.

Using Barbara has the great advantage of frequently healing all the damage from missed dodges -- her attacks heal when her Melody Loop is active, even when you attack the boss when it is invulnerable. But during the boss's low-health healing phase, you really MUST have Amber (or another strong fire character).

Once you are used to the boss attack patterns, you can also use Noelle instead and stay close. You still want Amber for the healing phase though.

Electro Hypostasis is the final boss for World Level 2 and World Level 4 Ascension quests.

Cage

• The boss starts dropping pillars. If you don't get out of the area fast enough you will be trapped.
• I recommend you immediately rush to the boss -- whether you end up trapped or not, the boss will be vulnerable during this time.
• If you are using Barbara, you can shoot her attacks right past the cage walls at the boss if it is within range.
• If the boss is close to the wall, melee attack swings might be able to hit it through the wall.
• If you want to get out, you can walk right up to a pillar and use Amber's fully charged fire shots to destroy one, which causes a section of shield to collapse.
• Otherwise shield up with Noelle and hit the boss if it is inside.
• When the boss starts dropping pillars, the pattern is fixed, so if the ground slopes down, pillars there will be in mid-air and the force field between the pillars do not extend down. If the ground slopes down enough, you can actually just run down the slope and get out of the cage. But this is generally too hard to set up, so don't rely on this.
• When the cage is closed, the boss starts sprinkling electrical zones. You can quite easily just run around out of them, sprinting only occasionally. Just do this and wait it out if you can't attack the boss.
• Whether you are trapped or not, the boss will continue channeling this attack so it is vulnerable for a long time.

Lasers

• The boss rearranges its cubes into four turrets that rotate around it. During this set up phase, there is no laser yet, so it is your chance to run inside the ring where the boss is exposed and where it is completely safe for the duration of the lasers. After the attack finishes channeling the boss pulls its cubes together and knocks you out. The damage isn't major and is probably worth soaking in exchange for getting in a few good hits.
• If you don't think you can dash inside to the safe zone in time, you can instead run to one of the pillars around the arena. The lasers shoot very far but the pillars will block it. Stand behind a pillar and wait till the attack ends.

Missiles

• The boss flies up and rearranges into a flat circle to fire electric bolts.
• During this time the boss is actually vulnerable. Switch to aiming but keep walking sideways. That should be enough to avoid the missiles.
• The sooner you shoot back and hit the boss, the sooner it will stop the attack and drop to the ground. A charged shot or a few normal attacks from Barbara should cause it to fall down.
• I found that if I used Barbara, it did not cause the boss to drop to the ground and stop.

Rush Attacks

• When the boss changes into a drill bit or a wall, it rarely follows up with another shape-shift to attack. At World Level 5+ it can immediately switch to Missiles, but otherwise stops and becomes vulnerable briefly.
• When the boss changes into a fist, it usually follows up by changing into a scissors then a wall slam. And if you get hit by one, you are likely to get hit by the next one as well. (Stone - Scissors - Paper).
• When you dash to avoid the attack, go sideways and start circling around to its back. This typically makes any of its follow-up attacks easier to avoid. Because it tries to move a fixed distance each time, those follow-up attacks can miss you by a wide margin without you having to dodge at all.
• Once you are used to the attack patterns and know the tells far ahead of the actual attack, you can stay quite close. Circling around to the back becomes easier because it's closer, and its follow-up attacks miss you by a wider margin.
• It appears that the minibombs left behind by Klee's Elemental Skills can "block" a fist charge. As soon as it hits one, it stops.

Swirls

• The boss moves to the center and you can see purple swirls start to rise from the ground.
• Try to stay calm and take short steps or sprints into safe zones. Switch to Noelle and shield up if you need to -- you MUST have Amber alive for the healing phase.
• Alternatively, run to one of the pillars at the edge of the ring and stand behind it (but not too close) to let the structure block the energy waves.

Healing

• At low health the Electro Hypostasis will abort whatever it is doing create three crystals of electro-shielding. Of the free to play characters, I found only Amber could destroy them quickly enough. Kaeya's ice attacks can also do decent damage but not as efficiently.
• If for whatever reason you don't have a strong Amber, you can try freezing the crystal with Kaeya then using the Traveler's Palm Vortex or Gust Surge to Cryo-damage the crystal a second time with the Swirl reaction of Anemo. Between the two Elemental Skills you should be able to destroy one crystal per cooldown.

Geo Hypostasis "Gimel"

You can use Barbara + Lisa on the boss, but otherwise you need Noelle for the structures and you can probably use Noelle all the way through.

In general stay about midway from the center of the arena. You'll need to move around quite a bit.

Pillars

• When the fight starts, the boss will drop some golden pillars. During the fight, the boss usually goes to whichever pillar is closest to you and initiates one of its big attacks -- however this is not necessarily true at World Level 5+.
• Initially, the pillars have a lot of health so it is unlikely you can destroy one before the boss initiates its attack around the pillar. Simply move to another pillar and start attacking that.
• If the boss is not on the pillar you are attacking, do NOT destroy it. Instead, trim it down so that you can destroy it in one or two normal attacks. Then if the boss flies over to that pillar, destroy the pillar to stun the boss and make it vulnerable for a few seconds.
• Barbara and Lisa will automatically target the boss if it is vulnerable to damage even if it is on top of a pillar.

Pillar Attacks

• Whenever the boss moves to a pillar that you cannot quickly destroy, you should also start moving but stay close to the edge of the ring. There are two wide-area attacks the boss uses the pillars for:
• Shockwaves: Every remaining pillar emits a wide radius of cracked earth that does a lot of damage. Run out of the arena or to a safe zone (e.g., if some pillars have been destroyed) and wait it out.
• Falling Rocks: Around each pillar, portals open to rain rocks. Move to a safe zone and wait it out.
• Pulse: The boss prepares a single, very wide, pulse that does a lot of damage.
• For Shockwaves and Falling Rocks, a large gold cube can appear near the pillar the boss is hovering over. If you can reach it and quickly destroy that, you get a dome shield that protects you from that specific attack.

Missiles

• The boss flies up and rearranges into a flat circle to fire bolts at you. You can run at normal speed sideways and avoid the missiles safely.
• During this time the boss is actually vulnerable. Switch to aiming but keep walking sideways. That should be enough to avoid the missiles. The sooner you shoot back and hit the boss, the sooner it will stop the attack and drop to the ground.
• Alternatively, you can stand behind one of its pillars, which will block the bolts while you hack at the pillar. The boss can damage its own pillar with its missiles.

Swirls

• The boss moves to the center and you can see purple swirls start to rise from the ground.
• Try to stay calm and take short steps or sprints into safe zones. Switch to Noelle and shield up if you need to -- you MUST have Amber alive for the healing phase.
• Alternatively, run to one of the pillars at the edge of the ring and stand behind it (but not too close) to let the structure block the energy waves.

Rune Ring

• If a ring of runes appears around your character, an attack at your location is imminent.
• Start moving, and Dash when the area of effect starts to show on the ground.

Healing

• At low health the boss will go to the center and create three geo pillars. Smash them quickly with Noelle's claymore.

General - Regisvine Bosses (flower boss)

• A lot of guides suggest using an archer to hit the weak spots and basically stun the boss quickly. If like me you find it hard to quickly aim for the weak spot, go with a Barbara + Lisa and ignore trying to hit that. You need to alternate these two characters to keep up Elemental Reactions.
• If you are good at archery and hit for a lot of damage, the fight can be a lot safer because you will more frequently stun the boss by destroying the shield on the weak spot, which will first be a jewel at the base then the jewel on its head, and keep alternating between the two.
• The fights happen in a circular arena. You basically cannot leave or the boss will reset shortly after you leave, even a short distance.

Cryo Regisvine

If you can be calm and patient, use Amber in between its attacks to hit the weak spots. Don't be greey for damage -- just use her charged attack to hit only the weak spots. You can still use Barbara + Lisa when it is down to quickly do damage by alternating Hydro and Electro and you only need to be close to the weak spot because their attacks auto-target.

If you are using only Barbara + Lisa, keep circling when you can to avoid facing the boss's head.

Stay around mid-range: You want to be there because it has some attacks where either the inner circle or the outer ring are safe zones, so you need to move in and out when that happens.

Homing Ice Bolts

• Generally, run sideways and inward toward the regisvine. Sometimes running inward will cause them to overshoot and miss. Otherwise, wait for them to get close, and do a dash to avoid the impact.

Ice Beams

• There are two types: Two beams that the boss converges on you, and a single big beam that the boss sweeps around the room.
• You basically need to learn the timing of your dash. There is a very short window at the start of a dash where you are apparently invulnerable and will dodge anything. During that window, you can cross the beams harmlessly.
• For the two-beam attack, the boss typically does it a second time right away if you are still "in front" of it. If you dodge the initial attack and keep circling the boss, you can sometimes go far enough that the boss doesn't try to beam you again.
• For the single beam, dodge past it initially and when it sweeps around, even if it looks like it hits you, it should do no damage.

Ice Bombardment

• Room-wide bombardment of ice in small circular bursts. If you are hit, dash immediately to put some distance. Otherwise, you can just keep running at normal speed in a circle around the boss and wait for the attack to end.

Icy Ground

• Watch out when the ground below you turns icy white due to the boss's moves. It is dangerous to use Barbara's healing skill "Let the Show Begin" as that Wets you, so you'll end up frozen if you stand on that icy ground.

Ice Smash

• There are two patterns: Three smashes in quick succession, or two sweeps with its stem then one big smash right at you. Either way, after the sequence it is stunned briefly with its head on the ground.
• For the triple-smash, try to dodge close to the body and keep circling the boss. That way you should be able to just run at a normal pace and still avoid the last two smashes.

Spin

• The boss will occasionally spin quickly around. Move outward to the safe outer ring.
• The boss always spins shortly after getting up from being stunned.

Pyro Regisvine

I recommend using Barbara + Lisa to continuously attack and keep around mid-range so you can move in or out when necessary. Circle sideways when you can and you probably will have to because the boss has a lot of wide area attacks and you will need to dodge.

Fire Barrage

• The boss tracks you with rapid fire bursts. Dodge sideways and preferably get closer inward so that your sideways dodge moves you further than the boss's turret rotation. If you are further from the boss, the boss can turn to track you more easily.

Fire Bombardment

• Unlike the Cryo Regisvine you can't simply walk and expect to avoid everything. You need to make brief dodges now and again.
• Switch to Noelle and shield up to help you here especially if you are having trouble keeping health up on Barbara and Lisa.

Fire Smash

• The boss will do this either once, or thrice, then be stunned briefly.

Spin

• The boss will occasionally spin quickly around. Move outward to the safe outer ring.
• The boss always spins shortly after getting up from being stunned because its weak-spot crystals broke.

Oceanid

• The Oceanid Boss is theoretically easy: Just freeze the Illusions with Kaeya and burn them down faster than they regenerate.
• You really want to freeze the water illusions because they use a lot of rushing and knockdown and sometimes continuous area effects. If they are frozen, all that stops immediately.
• Noelle can also do surprisingly well here because her shield will protect her from being staggered and interrupted. However, some illusions fly overhead, and the Crane illusions will hop away (sometimes into the water), so you still need some kind of ranged attacks.
• If you take too long against each illusion phase, the Oceanid will prepare an unavoidable area effect blast for a lot of damage. If you are in the water at the time you will drown automatically.
• Use Lisa as she gets Electro interaction with the constant Wet status on the illusions, but be careful to focus targets, especially against the boars which have high health and good regeneration -- typically her normal attack will just target whatever is closest, even turning her around to do so. She can also hit the flying illusions.
• Some illusions transform into a water ball and explode in a wide radius after they are defeated. You basically cannot outrun this. Try switching to Noelle and activating her shield to absorb it.