Author: furu#3839
Version: 1.1-beta (Genshin Impact 3.2). Will set it as official after proofreading!
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This is a collective work about the Burgeon team archetype, using Amber as the driver. It is a very fun and relatively cheap composition that does its job well. The guide will attempt to cover the pros and cons, the composition, the gameplay, and also compare Amber to other popular Burgeon options.
The guide won't go too deep into the numbers and calculations, but more about the concept of the archetype itself and how to execute it.
1. What is a Burgeon Team
Burgeon is a new elemental reaction added into Genshin Impact 3.0. After creating a Dendro Core via applying Hydro and Dendro to an enemy (a Bloom reaction), applying Pyro to the Core results in a wide area-of-effect (AoE) Dendro explosion.
Therefore, a Burgeon composition will always have at least 1 Pyro, 1 Hydro, and 1 Dendro character.
Burgeon is a Transformative Reaction - just like Overload, Shatter, Electro-charged, Swirl, Bloom, and Hyperbloom - which means its damage only scales with the Level and Elemental Mastery (EM) of the character who triggers Burgeon (Burgeon Driver).
Burgeon and Bloom explosions damage your character as well! They deal 5% of the dealt damage to characters.
Detonating a Dendro Core makes nearby Cores explode too. Sadly, there's a cap of 2 Burgeon damage instances per 0.5s. Even if you detonate 5 Dendro Cores at once, each enemy will only be damaged by two Burgeon explosions.
What a Dendro Core looks like
Detonating a Dendro Core to cause Burgeon
A Burgeon Team, in the scope of this guide, is a composition that heavily revolves around Burgeon mechanics as the main way to damage enemies. Teams using Burgeon for extra damage, like Dendro Traveler / Bennett / Xingqiu / Xiangling will not be discussed.
2. Burgeon Amber Overview
Here's an overview of how to play a Burgeon composition with Amber:
Make Dendro Cores using Hydro and Dendro off-field applicators.
Use Amber to shoot the Cores appearing on the ground.
Pros:
Very high payout-per-investment ratio.
Relatively cheap to make, especially artifact-wise, yet pretty easy to reach a high percentage of potential.
No Amber constellations needed!
Burgeon has insane AoE and very good damage for a Transformative Reaction, making mob stages a breeze.
The fourth slot in the team is very flexible, depending on your stage needs.
The most controlled Pyro user for Burgeon detonation. The Dendro Core hitbox is larger than its visual suggests, you can aim the ground near the Cores and still make them explode!
A chance to run Amber and Collei together!
Cons:
Weak in single enemy fights because Dendro Cores generation scales with the number of enemies.
The amount of damage focused on one single target is low compared to meta teams.
EM has diminishing returns for damage; you will eventually reach a cap.
Kokomi is much better than other Hydro options for Amber Burgeon teams, and she's a limited five-star character.
Slow Burgeon driver when it comes to explosion frequency.
Charge shots make your field-of-view narrower, and enemies might jump into your line-of-sight, blocking the Dendro Core shooting.
Burgeon gameplay in general can be tricky when fighting enemies of certain elements.
Burgeon damage is considered Dendro damage so it doesn't work well against enemies that resist Dendro.
Some of the pros and cons apply to any Burgeon team. We'll go through a few pros and cons with detailed explanations. We’ll explain more specific cases when we look at particular compositions. Lastly, we’ll compare Amber Burgeon to other Burgeon teams.
Why does Burgeon have a high payout-per-investment ratio?
Burgeon is a Transformative Reaction. It does more damage than Overload, has a huge AoE compared to Hyperbloom and doesn't knock enemies away after an explosion. Detonate 2 Dendro Cores with Burgeon, and you'll wipe out most overworld camps.
Burgeon only scales with the Character Level and Elemental Mastery of the driver. You don’t need to farm artifacts with high offensive stats. No need for insane crit value or huge rolls on your artifacts to start playing any Burgeon team.
However, you'll have to level your Burgeon driver up to 90 for bigger damage.
Why is Burgeon cheap to make and easy to reach a high potential?
It is easy to reach a high potential with Burgeon because of how EM scaling works. Here's a table of how much damage Burgeon does when your character is level 90 while having different EM stats, and how much potential it reaches compared to one with 1500 EM.
The percentage stays the same for all character levels. You can stack EM main pieces onto your characters, and they are doing a decent percentage of Burgeon's maximum potential!
Among Burgeon drivers, Amber is the cheapest one to build. Other Burgeon drivers may need other stats like Energy Recharge (ER), HP, or DEF. Amber only needs EM. All of her talents can be left at level 1, saving millions of Mora and many talent books/materials. Her burst has a very low energy cost and she doesn't need stamina to apply Pyro with charged attacks.
3. Why is Burgeon Amber C0 Compatible?
Amber's constellations are hard to get. Since Amber mostly uses her charged shots in a Burgeon team, you don't need to have her constellations.
With C2 and higher, a manually detonated Baron Bunny can detonate Dendro Cores and vice-versa, which you can use to add extra damage. In most cases however, the bunny isn't essential and sometimes becomes detrimental. The team works just fine at C0.
4. Why does Burgeon have a low ceiling and not scale well with artifacts?
The diminishing return in damage makes stacking EM gradually useless. At very high EM investment and without C2 Nahida, you can only expect to do 40k damage per Burgeon explosion. While it's more than enough to clear mob waves, most players will struggle to clear Abyss floors with fewer but larger targets, compared to other compositions.
Burgeon doesn't scale well with artifacts because Crit Rate, ATK, and Crit DMG do not make a huge impact. Hybrid compositions might want these stats to do personal damage with Burgeon as a bonus, but that's outside this guide's scope.
5. Why can Burgeon be tricky against opponents of certain elements?
Dendro Cores can also be detonated by enemies regardless of who created them! An enemy, who can apply either Pyro or Electro to the Dendro Cores, will trigger Burgeon or Hyperbloom and deny your own Burgeon. E.g Pyro Slimes, Electro Slimes, Thunder Manifestation...
While it is not entirely impossible to beat those enemies with Burgeon, you will have to participate in a battle of Dendro Cores ownership.
Compared to existing Amber archetypes, Burgeon Amber does have certain edges that make it worth trying. The gameplay is somewhat similar to Melt Bunny, which is locked behind C2, and really viable at C4+.
The Melt Bunny archetype does much more damage but in a smaller area, and the damage is overkill for mob stages. Also, you only have at best 2 bunnies per 24 seconds, while you can have up to 14 Burgeon explosions in an 11-second timeframe, which is much more suitable for mob stages, which tend to spawn in waves.
3. Burgeon Amber Team Members
As mentioned before, an Amber Burgeon team needs at least 1 Dendro and 1 Hydro character (Amber is already taking the Pyro slot). We'll go through a few options for the other slots. As the Burgeon driver, Amber will be the one staying on-field most of the time.
Dendro member
At the time of making this guide, we only have 4 Dendro characters: Traveler, Collei, Nahida, and Tighnari. We want an off-field Dendro applicator who can apply Dendro to generate Cores while Amber keeps detonating them. Tighnari, with his negligible off-field Dendro application, is not an option.
Guide v1.1 update: Nahida is released!
Collei
Ah, the temptation of playing Amber and Collei together without any reasoning. But yes, Collei is a pretty decent choice. It's really sad that Hoyoverse put a custom Internal Cooldown (ICD) on her Elemental Burst (1). Thankfully, her off-field Dendro application is enough, even at C0. The only downside is that you need to stay close to the enemies so that her Sprout (2) will apply extra Dendro.
From another angle, she is less dependant on her Elemental Burst than Dendro Traveler, so it hurts much less if you use her Elemental Burst and the enemy just dashes out of its area.
The best thing about using Collei in this composition is that she has the potential to keep 100% dendro uptime thanks to Sacrificial Bow and/or her C2.
Alternatively, as a bow user, she can hold Elegy for the End to give Amber even more EM.
Guide v1.1 update: There is one certain gameplay factor that Collei has it better than Nahida / Dendro Traveler when it comes to Burgeon Amber.
In a fight against 5+ enemies that are not clumping up together, Nahida / Dendro Traveler combined with Kokomi can easily create Dendro Cores on almost all of them. While this sounds like a certain winner, as soon as your Amber doesn't detonate fast enough (especially first round of Burgeon), a second wave of Bloom reaction will be triggered, creating more Dendro Cores than the existing limit of 5. As a result, some Dendro Cores will be detonated until the number of existing Cores is 5.
Collei, who applies Dendro in a smaller area, is less likely to make you cap on Dendro Cores number than Nahida / Dendro Traveler.
Even if a second wave of Bloom is triggered and some Cores explode, the smaller Dendro area of effect means the remaining Cores will be certainly around the area that you're aiming at with Amber.
The result is that you are much less likely to miss a detonation shot with Amber because the Core you are aiming at got exploded due to the cap.
Her constellations do improve the Burgeon playstyle, especially C2, which doubles the Sprout duration to 6 seconds. Her C4 gives Amber an upfront 60 EM which is better than Dendro Traveler's EM buff which ramps up overtime to the same amount. Her C6 does an extra instance of Dendro damage per Elemental Skill but does not actually add much otherwise.
(1): Collei's Burst has a no-hit 3-second cooldown rule for ICD. Despite having a large hit count (like Amber's Burst), it will, at best, apply Dendro once every 3 seconds.
(2): The Sprout is from her Floral Sidewinder talent which receives an upgrade with her 2nd Constellation. It starts doing periodic damage when the boomerang from her Elemental Skill returns to her.
Dendro Traveler
Dendro Traveler is a good choice for the composition. His/her constellations are free, and C2 increases the uptime on the Elemental Burst up to 75% (15s duration, 20s cooldown). Unlike Collei, you don't have to stay close to the enemies. The new Sapwood Blade is free and works wonders for this composition.
However, you'll need to make sure the Lamp from the Burst first makes contact with Hydro so it stays on field and continuously applies Dendro. The huge AoE bonus for the Hydro Lamp is generally a good thing for everyone but Amber due to the possible "miss" on Core aiming in certain scenario (check Collei section!).
The Traveler's Elemental Burst costs 80 energy, so you'll need to manage the team's energy generation to keep him/her running at full throttle.
Nahida
The Dendro Archon brings Burgeon to new height but not without certain minor caveats!
Nahida adds so much power to all Burgeon archetypes that it feels like a "Premium Burgeon" team with her around. She provides:
A low cooldown, practically 100% uptime Dendro Application with an incredibly large range.
Up to extra 250 Elemental Mastery on the Burgeon driver, which helps the Burgeon output substantially . Although Amber benefits less from it compared to other Burgeon drivers because she already reaches pretty high EM numbers.
Her own off-field Dendro Damage. She does a lot of damage that way once invested.
The premium C2 boost to Dendro-related reactions. Burgeon can now "crit" with a fixed 20% chance to do 100% more damage. On average, it is a 20% increase on final Burgeon Output which is huge because aside from adding more EM (which eventually becomes severely diminished in return), you don't have many practical ways to improve Burgeon damage. At best, you can actually do close to 160k damage if both Burgeon instances crit, which is a huge jump in output.
There are two minor caveats to Nahida's seemingly perfect Dendro application:
For the off-field Dendro application to work, you have to tag enemies with All Schemes to Know (her Elemental Skill) first. Against waves of enemies, you will have to tag new enemies everytime they spawn. You don't have to do this with Collei or Dendro Traveler.
The second caveat is more about Amber but not necessarily Amber-exclusive. Please read Collei's part for more details.
In overall, Nahida is easily the best choice for the Dendro role in Amber's Burgeon team, even more so at C2. But it doesn't mean Collei or Dendro Traveler are rendered unusable, especially Collei who still has certain edges when it comes to Burgeon Amber gameplay. If anything, Nahida's power benefits other Burgeon drivers much more than Amber.
Hydro member
We want an off-field Hydro applicator. There are a few candidates for the job: Kokomi, Nilou, Mona, Barbara, and Xingqiu/Yelan.
Guide v1.1 update: We have Nilou as a possible off-field Hydro applicator!
Sangonomiya Kokomi
Kokomi is easily the best option as a Hydro off-field applicator. She can achieve 100% uptime on the Hydro application, which easily creates Dendro Cores for Amber to shoot.
Kokomi outheals Burgeon’s self-damage, making the composition much safer.
Kokomi’s gear is flexible; she can run 4pc Instructor for more EM or 4pc Deepwood Memories for shredding Dendro resistance. We recommend Sacrificial Fragments for more Hydro uptime since Kokomi’s only needed for Hydro application and healing. With an R5 Sacrificial Fragments, Kokomi might not even need to use her burst.
Mona
Mona has many ways to apply Hydro, including her alternate sprint. The reason we prefer Kokomi is that Mona needs to be on-field more frequently to reapply Hydro to the enemies, interrupting your Dendro Core shooting spree.
Mona's Elemental Burst doesn't help much because Burgeon damage doesn't scale with the % bonus damage that it gives. She is not a healer, so the flex slot needs to be a shield or healing unit. Prototype Amber can be used to make her heal a little bit but the amount is much less desired than Kokomi.
All in all, Mona's usable, but Kokomi is cheaper and provides more value. Mona can shine in other Burgeon comps in which she has more field-time.
Barbara
She's a bad version of Kokomi in this context. Barbara cannot heal as well as Kokomi with her Elemental Skill. Her Elemental Skill has an atrocious cooldown, limiting her off-field Hydro uptime unless she is equipped with a high refinement Sacrificial Fragments. On top of that, you need to stay close to the enemies to apply Hydro to them.
All in all, I wouldn't recommend using Barbara in this comp, but she could be a possibility in other Burgeon teams.
Xingqiu / Yelan
Xingqiu / Yelan might be an option if you play other Burgeon teams with other drivers. For Amber Burgeon you need to weave in normal attacks to apply Hydro to the enemies, which slows down your Dendro Core shooting spree. Since their off-field Hydro application is single-target, they generally create far fewer Dendro Cores than Kokomi or other AoE Hydro applicators in a multi-enemy fight.
In a single-enemy fight, Xingqiu / Yelan will generate more Dendro Cores than Kokomi due to their high Hydro application rates. They also have really high personal damage. They can be used in other Burgeon teams.
Nilou
The new lovely dancer boasts a very good rate of Hydro application rivalling Kokomi in a vacuum. Although there are a few caveats that really hurts her viability in the Hydro role:
To activate her off-field Hydro application, you will need a lot of input and time. The fastest route is E N2 E (press Skill, do 2 normal attack and finish with another Skill) is still very slow considering Kokomi is just one tap and switch. Not only do you risk getting interrupted while doing it, wrong execution (e.g N3 instead of N2) will render the whole rotation obsolete. It simply feels clunky compared to Kokomi.
Her Hydro application also requires staying close to the enemies .
Given how powerful her own Bountiful Core archetype is, most would go for Bloom comp instead of putting her in the Burgeon support role.
Fake Hydro Applicators
Another way of providing Hydro for the Burgeon comp is to use Elemental Absorption. You can provide Hydro aura with anyone and use Anemo characters like Venti, Kazuha, or Sucrose to absorb Hydro with their Elemental Burst, providing a longer Hydro application.
Most of the time, the said method would work. However, there are cases in which absorbing Hydro is not possible (Pyro Slime says hello!). Pyro has a higher priority for Venti / Kazuha in absorption, so you will need to make sure there is no Pyro aura within the vicinity.
This Hydro application is shorter than simply using Kokomi's Elemental Skill.
Flex Member
There are a few major options for the 4th slot: a 2nd Dendro character, an Anemo flex character, or a Cryo flex character.
A 2nd Hydro flex character isn't needed here simply because there are no interesting Hydro duo that help the team.
Electro is not prefered because it might trigger Hyperbloom instead of Burgeon.
Pyro is not recommended as Pyro Resonance does nothing here, and we want to focus on one Burgeon Driver that builds EM.
For Geo, Zhongli is the most relevant option because he provides Dendro RES shred which will boost our Burgeon damage.
Additional Note: With the presence of the Anemo/Geo flex character, there will be no Dendro Resonance for extra EM but you gain 15% Elemental RES for having 4 different elements in the team which reduces the self-damage from Burgeon a little in return. Can be overlooked but nice to have.
2nd Dendro Character
At the time of making this guide, there are no other alternatives than playing Dendro Traveler and Collei as double Dendro. Dendro Resonance effectively grants 100 bonus EM to the whole team. Since EM has diminishing returns, this bonus is less useful when your EM is high. This setup ensures 100% Dendro application uptime.
On the other hand, the second Dendro unit doesn't bring any huge extra value to the team, since both Dendro Traveler and Collei have good uptime with their Dendro application.
Anemo Flex
Anemo units as mentioned in the Hydro member section, can be used as a pseudo Hydro applicator. In addition, they have decent crowd-control capabilities.
They can actually use the 4pc Deepwood Memories set to shred Dendro resistance (RES).
It is crucial that you don't absorb Pyro or Electro into their Elemental Skills/Bursts since it would ruin the Burgeon reaction.
Anemo units with displacement skills can actually move the Dendro Cores. Depending on your game plan, this can be a good or bad thing.
The major anemo candidates are Venti, Kazuha and Sucrose.
Note: Anemo Traveler also has Elemental Absorption on both of his/her skills. However, there are a few caveats:
The elemental absorption priority for the Traveler is Cryo > Electro > Hydro > Pyro. Hydro is now below Cryo and Electro. If there are any of those auras within the vicinity, Hydro won't be absorbed.
Elemental Skill requires the Traveler to stay on-field during its duration.
The Traveler's Elemental Burst groups enemies but pushes them away which might ruin your setup.
Venti
Venti can group small enemies in an extremely large area and disable them for a long time, making Burgeon detonation on enemies a breeze, especially against spread out enemies.
Venti's Elemental Burst can suck Dendro Cores, which means you'll need to make sure your targets and the Cores are both in the Burst when you detonate.
Collei's Elemental Skill (the boomerang) has a weird trajectory when her target is on a different altitude from her, so you will need to make sure she is facing Venti's Burst (credit to Castiel for the info).
Venti does allow you to play other Hydro units without long Hydro application, but his Elemental Burst (his main way to swirl Hydro in this team) doesn't have 100% uptime either.
Kazuha
Kazuha also helps crowd-control, and can absorb Hydro into his Elemental Burst just like Venti. However his Elemental Skill doesn't group for long, and enemies can break out or move away during the setup. He can also move the seeds using his Elemental Skill.
Kazuha's C2 gives a flat 200 EM to the team, which boosts Burgeon damage decently.
The major downside of using Kazuha is that he only gives 5 pulses of absorbed Hydro every 15s with his Elemental Burst, so there is more downtime with him than a major Hydro applicator.
Sucrose
Sucrose is similar to Kazuha. She can group enemies a little bit longer with her Elemental Burst. She doesn't need to hold Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers, which allows her to use Sacrificial Fragments for more Skill casts and extra EM to buff the Burgeon driver. Sucrose can increase the Burgeon driver's EM at any constellation, unlike Kazuha who needs C2 and is a limited five-star character.
From experience, a team like Sucrose/Kokomi/Collei/Amber is very comfortable to play. Still, Sucrose has a lot of downtime on her Elemental Burstr, so using her with a short Hydro applicator isn't recommended.
Cryo Flex
Cryo is a very interesting choice for Burgeon, but only truly shines with Amber.
Cryo doesn't interact with Dendro, so it doesn't interfere directly with the process of making Dendro Cores. The Freeze reaction makes landing Burgeon explosions on enemies pretty much effortless since they are locked in place and unable to fight back.
Among Cryo off-field applicators, Diona, Ganyu and Rosaria are premium choices.
Diona
Diona has so many things going for her in the Burgeon archetype.
Cryo Support for Freeze.
A shield to mitigate Burgeon self-damage and prevent Amber from being interrupted while doing charged attacks.
Potential Elegy for the End holder, so Collei can hold another bow like Sacrificial Bow or something more offensive.
Her C6 gives another 200 EM to the character staying inside her Burst circle, adding extra damage to the Burgeon explosions.
Independent of artifact sets, so you can even use 4pc Deepwood Memories on her with 100% uptime on Dendro RES Shred or 4pc Instructor if you want Kokomi to hold something else.
Overall, Diona provides a very comfortable Amber Burgeon experience.
Ganyu / Rosaria
Burgeon damage-wise, Ganyu and Rosaria lack the extra 200 EM that a C6 Diona can provide.
However, Ganyu and Rosaria provide much better Cryo application and duration, allowing Freeze to be more consistent and giving more leeways to detonate more Dendro Cores in a row without interruption.
Both Ganyu and Rosaria have high Elemental Burst damage and can serve as a secondary damage source.
Both Ganyu and Rosaria's Elemental Bursts have a 15-second cooldown, which aligns really well with Collei's Elemental Burst and allows quicker pace on Dendro Core detonation.
Lastly, Ganyu and Rosaria can also hold 4pc Deepwood Memories if needed.
C2 is recommended on Rosaria for a higher uptime on Cryo application, while Ganyu has 100% uptime on her Elemental Burst.
Zhongli
Amongst the Geo representative, Zhongli's usage is simple: 20% extra Dendro RES Shred. Sources of Dendro RES Shred are pretty rare (version 3.0) aside 4pc Deepwood Memories so the extra shred can be helpful. Zhongli's shield can help you freely shoot barrages of Burgeon without worrying about Burgeon self damage or enemies' attacks.
Zhongli's artifacts are flexible. He can use 4pc Instructor or 4pc Deepwood Memories without worrying about the loss of stats because his shield will still be very tanky.
4. Weapons and Artifacts
Building a Burgeon team is simple: put as much EM on the Burgeon Driver as possible and give another character 4pc Deepwood Memories.
Amber's Personal Gear
One of the biggest advantages for Amber in a Burgeon comp is how simple her artifacts and weapon choice can be. Just stack EM.
Weapon
We have four bows with Elemental Mastery stats: Elegy for the End, Stringless, Windblume Ode, and Raven Bow.
Stringless is the gacha 4-star option. It gives 165 EM at level 90. The passive can be useful as Baron Bunny and Fiery Rain also benefit from it. However, in a Burgeon-focused composition, those skills do pretty minimal damage.
You do not need any refinements on Stringless as secondary stats aren't affected by refinements.
Windblume Ode is the free but limited 4-star option. Older players will have it from playing the Windblume Festival in Genshin version 1.4. It also gives 165 EM at level 90. The bonus ATK from the passive is not very relevant to the Burgeon archetype.
Elegy for the End is the gacha 5-star option. It doesn't have an EM secondary but the passive gives 60 to 120 EM and an additional 100 to 200 EM depending on the refinement. It is more recommended on a bow support like Collei or Diona, so Amber can use the bigger EM stick.
It is also hard to maximize Elegy's EM buff if Amber has it, as she will practically need to use Elemental Burst to trigger the buff, triggering Burning and messing up the Dendro Core generation.
Raven Bow is a cheap option for newer players or players who don't have better EM-secondary bows. It gains extra style points for looking good on Amber.
Artifacts
To max out Amber's EM, go for EM Sands, EM Goblet, and EM Circlet, with the Flower and Feather containing as many EM substats as possible. For her set, there are a few major choices:
4pc Gilded Dreams
Gilded Dreams is one of the two new artifact sets introduced in Genshin Impact 3.0. Since Amber is the only Pyro character in the team, the 4pc set will give Amber a total of 230 Elemental Mastery whenever she triggers a reaction. This setup has the highest bonus Elemental Mastery, therefore highest Burgeon damage.
Since we want to farm Gilded Dreams, the new Sumeru artifact domain value skyrockets, since we also need Deepwood Memories for the Dendro RES shred as well.
4pc Crimson Witch of Flames
The Crimson Witch of Flames set got some upgrades when Dendro was released. Its 4p bonus now also gives 40% more Burgeon DMG. The more EM you have, the more points of EM this bonus will be equivalent to.
4pc Gilded Dreams will do more Burgeon damage than 4pc Crimson Witch of Flames given the same EM main and sub stats on the artifacts unless you have a total of 2174 EM or more when using 4pc Crimson.
It might be better in a hybrid comp where you still want Amber to do meaningful damage with her attacks and skills, but again, this is outside of the scope of this guide.
2 pc Wanderer's Troupe + 2 pc Gilded Dreams
A fine alternative to 4pc Gilded DreamsTogether, the 2/2 setup does provide 160 EM up front, only 70 EM less than 4pc Gilded Dreams with its passive activated. It should be much easier to assemble because Gilded is a new set and players have accumulated more Wanderer's pieces from all their overworld / weekly runs.
Note: there will be a new Dendro Core supporting set in version 3.3. Although certain calculation has shown that it is like 2% to 5% better than 4pc Gilded while being much less flexible in usage. If you already farmed a good full EM Gilded set, skipping the new set is also a solid option.
Support Gear
There are a few weapon and artifact choices for Burgeon supports. Instead of asking "what can this character use?", we prefer the "which characters can use this?" approach.
4pc Deepwood Memories
The Dendro RES shred set. The condition to trigger it is simple and guarantees permanent uptime. Therefore almost anyone can hold it for the team.
Dendro Traveler and Collei are often chosen to use this set because they also benefit from the 2pc 15% Dendro damage bonus, but in a composition where you want some extra damage from them, you might run 2pc Deepwood with another 2pc ATK% bonus set and have someone in the flex slot holding the 4pc Deepwood.
Diona is a good 4pc Deepwood holder in the flex slot because of how unrestricted her artifact requirements are. She can keep the Dendro RES Shred up 100% of the time as well. Kokomi can hold 4pc Deepwood too if needed.
4pc Instructor
120 EM bonus to the whole team is yummy. Although this comes with downsides.
Instructor is a 4-star set, so the holder's stats will be really low. It is best put on a character that doesn't rely too much on stats. Furthermore, the buff duration is only 8 seconds and can only be triggered when the holder is on-field.
Kokomi is a good Instructor holder because she is the least stats-reliant character in the team, and she's on-field once in a while to refresh her Elemental Skill. It's easy for her to trigger Bloom and activate the Instructor buff.
Collei can be a decent choice too if no one else is holding 4pc Instructor and someone else already holds 4pc Deepwood Memories, but since Energy Recharge is a concern, a five-star off-piece ER Sands is recommended.
Sapwood Blade
The new Sumeru craftable blade can provide extra EM to the Burgeon driver. Dendro Traveler is the prime candidate for it. The blade also gives ER to satisfy the 80-cost Elemental Burst.
There's a catch to Sapwood Blade's buff: you need to pick up its leaf. Sometimes, enemies block the leaf, and theres nothing you can do about it.
If you cannot meet Traveler's ER requirement, consider using Sacrificial Sword or Favonius Sword on him/her because the uptime of Dendro application is significantly more important.
Elegy for the End (for support)
A luxury EM addition to the team. It's not a must have but it is nice to have. Bow supports like Diona, Collei, or Venti can use it.
However if you're having ER trouble on other members, don't hesitate to use Favonius Bow instead.
Key of Khaj-Nisut
A luxury EM addition to the team. Although it is hardly usable on anyone in a Burgeon team aside Nilou. The condition to trigger, and the HP scaling makes it impractical to use on Dendro Traveler.
Other supplementary gearing
Always have enough ER on each member to keep the rotation up with as little downtime as possible. The Amber Burgeon comp wants the uptime on Dendro Cores to be as high as possible. Here are some more gear options to increase uptime:
Sacrificial Fragments on Kokomi is very good, especially when she has to hold 4pc Instructor. The skill refresh alleviates the need to build a lot of ER so that she can Burst often.
Additionally, Sacrificial Fragment gives Kokomi more EM. In certain cases, she will create surplus Dendro Cores, which will detonate until they are back to the capped amount. The explosion damage will be calculated based on Kokomi's EM for some extra damage.
Sacrificial Bow on Collei reduces her ER requirement on artifacts, and makes her Dendro uptime better.
The uptime of the skills are extremely important in order to consistently produce Dendro Cores, so make sure you calibrate your ER needs on your members, resorting to 2pc Emblem of Severed Fate, or Favonius/Sacrificial weapons if needed.
5. Gameplay
The gameplay of Amber Burgeon is simple: generate Dendro Cores via off-field supports and keep detonating them with Amber.
The rotation of the team will vary based on which support character is used. Here are some remarks on the core members:
With Kokomi, you would just refresh the Elemental Skill whenever it is about to expire, be it using her Burst or Sacrificial Fragments. Her Hydro uptime will be more than enough.
Keep in mind that if Kokomi is the Instructor holder, she needs to be on the field to activate its effect. You either need to wait for a Bloom reaction before switching characters or use her Elemental Burst. Kokomi's Elemental Burst does Hydro damage instantly so you can also use it to quickly make Dendro Cores and activate Instructor's effect without wasting much time.
With Dendro Traveler, make sure you infuse the lamp of the Elemental Burst with Hydro and not Pyro. Pyro destroys the Lamp which makes you unable to generate Dendro Cores.
With Collei, the Sprout from her Elemental Skill requires you to stay close to the enemies. Her Elemental Burst doesn't apply that much Dendro at all despite the number of hits, her Elemental Skill (the Boomerang and the Sprout) will handle a big part of her Dendro application. In this case, a shield will protect the active character from both enemies in melee range and the Burgeon self-damage.
Collei has a clunky animation after using her Elemental Burst and Elemental Skill, so try to Sprint as soon as you can to cancel a part of it.
With Amber, the game plan is shooting the Dendro Cores as often as you can. Most of the time you will just use her charged shots.
You can always use her Elemental Burst to quickly detonate Dendro Cores too, which is very useful when fast opponents are about to move away from the Dendro Cores. Keep in mind that Amber's Burst applies a large amount of Pyro, so only use her Elemental Burst at the end of your rotation.
I have C2/C4 Amber, should I throw the Baron Bunny down and shoot it? Good question.
The Baron Bunny in a full EM build regrettably doesn't do that much damage. It takes some extra time to throw one down before shooting too, so without throwing the Baron Bunny you get to detonate more Dendro Cores, which results in higher damage overall.
Damage-wise, if you know that the enemies are going to move, you can throw a Baron Bunny down and shoot the last Dendro Cores for more damage.
Baron Bunny still help with staggering enemies and destroying shields. Burgeon isn't good at staggering, and Pyro is better at breaking shields than Dendro so the extra utility is welcome. On the other hand, when you need to AVOID staggering enemies (e.g freeze), don't use the Baron Bunny.
Amber can reliably shoot 3 to 6 Burgeon rounds for one Hydro + Dendro application from Kokomi and Collei respectively, before having to swap back to them for another round of Dendro Cores generation.
Amber's major downside as a Burgeon driver is that her detonation rate is slower than some other Burgeon drivers, so you can mitigate this by shooting as fast as possible to limit the downtime, using aim cancel or dash cancel techniques.
6. Rotations
Sample teams and rotations:
(E = Elemental Skill, Q = Elemental Burst, C = Charged Attack)
Diona (Elegy) / Kokomi (Sacrificial Fragments) / Collei (Sacrificial Bow) / Amber
Diona E -> Diona Q -> Collei E -> Collei Q -> Kokomi E -> Amber 3C to 4C on Cores -> Diona E -> Collei E -> Kokomi E -> Amber 2C to 3C on Cores -> Amber Q (optional)
Rosaria (Favonius Lance) / Kokomi (Sacrificial Fragments) / Collei (Elegy) / Amber
Rosaria E -> Rosaria Q -> Collei E -> Collei Q -> Kokomi E -> Amber 4C to 6C on Cores -> Amber Q (optional)
Very short and robust rotation, but requires a lot of ER on Collei to make the rotation fast.
Diona (Fav/Elegy) / Dendro Traveler (Fav) / Kokomi (Sacrificial Fragments) / Amber
Diona E -> Diona Q -> Traveler E -> Kokomi E -> Traveler Q -> Amber 5C to 6C on Cores -> Amber Q (optional) -> Traveler E (to get energy back)
Venti (Elegy) / Kokomi (Sacrificial Fragments) / Collei (Sacrificial Bow) / Amber
Kokomi E -> Venti E -> Venti Q (absorb Hydro) -> Collei E -> Collei Q -> Amber 3C on Cores -> Collei E -> Kokomi E -> Amber 3C on Cores -> Amber Q (optional)
For other types of Amber Burgeon teams, especially ones with pseudo Hydro applicators, exact details vary between teams. Here's a demo with Venti / Childe for example (thanks Castiel for the demo!):
6. Comparison to other Burgeon drivers
Any characters that can apply Pyro can be a Burgeon driver. They can be grouped into 4 categories:
On-field bow drivers: Amber, Yoimiya
On-field catalyst drivers: Klee, Yanfei
On-field melee drivers: Diluc, Bennett, Hutao, most melee characters standing within C6 Bennett's circle.
Off-field drivers: Thoma, Xinyan, Xiangling
Given the same amount of Elemental Mastery and same Character Level, they will do the same Burgeon damage. Therefore, it is more valuable that less meta characters are used as Burgeon drivers.
There are certain pros and cons for each of these driver groups, and some difference between drivers in the same group.
However, there is a special advantage for the Bow Drivers: Freeze Burgeon.
Being bow users, they can simply shoot the Dendro Cores themselves, triggering Burgeon while applying no Pyro to the enemies, keeping them Frozen if you're playing a Cryo support, resulting in a very comfortable series of Burgeon explosions in which enemies cannot retaliate, or more importantly, run away. This proves to be vital in tough stages like Abyss 3.0 Floor 12-3-1.
All other mentioned Burgeon driver groups cannot aim for the cores directly, but only by hitting the enemies, so they cannot freeze at all, and can only focus on the damage aspect.
Here is a compiled list of pros and cons, and comparison of some currently popular Burgeon drivers to Amber Burgeon if possible.
Disclaimer: The demo videos don't have equivalent stats and levels for all characters. Technically they would do the same amount of damage with the same amount of Elemental Mastery and same Character Levels. Here we focus on how it executes the Burgeon plans.
Disclaimer #2: The team used for all Burgeon drivers is the same and might not be their best respective team. The demo attempts to showcase how different they are when it comes to executing the Burgeon plan.
Thoma Burgeon
Fast Burgeons, but less damage per reaction.
Pros:
Can use Kokomi as the driver to speed up Dendro Cores creation speed for faster paced Burgeon. This is the biggest selling point.
Has a shield to help mitigate damage and prevent interruption for Kokomi as a driver.
Much simpler gameplay than Amber and has pretty decent uptime if all conditions matched.
His off-field Pyro doesn't disappear if his shield is broken.
Cons:
Very stats-hungry. Thoma needs both EM and ER to function. Since he needs ER he either needs to sacrifice some EM stats, or have really good artifacts, or at least use Favonius Lance/Kitain Cross-spear. Since he's off-field, energy management skills are crucial. Overall this results in weaker Burgeon damage.
Elemental Burst reliant. Against enemies that can drain energy, such as Bathysmal Vishaps, Thoma may not be able to reliably detonate Dendro Cores.
If you want the shield to useful defensively, you need to invest HP stats and talent levels. HP stats investing means even lower EM stats.
C2 is needed for better uptime.
Thoma's detonation range is small. You will need to have Dendro Cores close to enemies and spawn near you.
Cannot do Freeze Burgeon.
Xinyan Burgeon
Excellent range, but VERY high investment.
Pros:
Can use Kokomi as a driver to speed up Dendro Cores creation speed.
Has really nice uptime on her shield. We assume level 3 shields because you will mostly use Burgeon to fight crowds of enemies.
Much simpler gameplay than Amber.
Xinyan's detonation range is big. Since she can detonate Dendro Cores from further away, Xinyan provides a layer of comfort. Even if enemies can move away from you, or the Cores spawn away from you, Xinyan can still detonate them with her large range. This is her biggest selling point.
Her Pyro application doesn't require you to attack and is slow enough! Compared to Thoma, Xinyan's gameplay doesn't require the on-fielder to do normal attacks, paving the way for other Burgeon strategies like using Mona as driver. Her Pyro application is every 2 seconds, which is slow enough compared to Xiangling's Pyronado, which tends to trigger a lot of Burning reactions instead.
100% Level 3 shield uptime with C2.
Cons:
Pyro AoE damage vanishes if her shield breaks. This is Xinyan Burgeon's biggest weakness, one of the main reasons why she is not often used.
Extremely stats-hungry. Even more than Thoma. Aside from EM for damage and ER for uptime, Xinyan needs DEF to maintain her shield's Pyro application. Getting all these stats requires a lot of resin for artifact domain runs. Burgeon damage will drop significantly if you trade EM for other stats.
Xinyan needs talent levels on her Elemental Skill since her shield's strength scales with it.
Xinyan needs her C2 to consistently get access to level 3 shields for her Pyro application.
Cannot do Freeze Burgeon.
Klee Burgeon
Ah yes, the OG terrorist.
Similar style and team to Amber. Controlled Pyro application if you have trigger discipline.
Can be built with full EM, maximizing Burgeon output.
No need to level talents.
Very easy to play since Pyro application is always available, and her detonation range is large.
Cons:
Trigger discipline needed, you cannot mash the buttons or there will be too much Pyro and you will trigger Burning instead.
Using charge attacks will cost stamina, which has to be managed.
Cannot do Freeze Burgeon.
Thanks Dibbo for the demos on Klee Burgeon.
Yanfei Burgeon
Yanfei features a lot of similarity to Klee in gameplay, but with some slight differences which are generally for the better.
Pros:
Similar style and team to Amber. Controlled Pyro application if you have trigger discipline.
Can be built with full EM , maximizing Burgeon output.
No need to level talents.
Very easy to play since Pyro application is always available, and her detonation range is large.
Yanfei's stamina management is much more comfortable than Klee's since Yanfei's Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst can be used to trigger Burgeon without applying too much extra Pyro.
Yanfei's Scarlet Seals further makes stamina management more comfortable.
Cons:
Trigger discipline needed, you cannot mash the buttons or there will be too much pyro and you will trigger Burning instead.
Yanfei's detonation range is good when she has Scarlet Seals, but it might not be a good idea to use a lot of normal attacks to get those Seals.
She wants ER if you want to use her Elemental Burst (either for more Pyro or her C4 shield). ER stats investing means lower EM and Burgeon damage.
Cannot do Freeze Burgeon.
Diluc Burgeon
Mondstadt's Batman is back for some cabbage bombing action!
Pros:
Very good Pyro availability with triple Skills and an infusion.
Can be built into full EM just like Amber, maximizing Burgeon output.
No need to level talents.
Cons:
Requires trigger discipline, only attack when you see the Dendro Cores.
Diluc's detonation range is pretty limited. As a melee character, there will be cases he cannot reach the Cores at all.
His Elemental Burst can push mobs away from Kokomi's Elemental Skill.
Cannot do Freeze Burgeon.
All factors considered, all the burgeon drivers here are more or less usable with their own pros and cons and also provide their own unique Dendro-related gameplay.
7. Conclusion
Burgeon is a very cost effective playstyle that provides a lot of damage in a large area. Even so, peak damage for transformative reactions is nowhere near Vape/Melt archetypes. Despite this, Burgeon does have an excellent edge for its big and sustained area-of-effect damage, which is even suitable for certain high floors of Spiral Abyss!
Amongst all the Burgeon teams, many people have thought that Thoma is the only viable option. I'd say this is not even slightly true. This guide not only shows how Amber can be played as a Burgeon driver, but also attempts to compare different Burgeon drivers in an objective way, so you can choose which one you think is most fun and effective to play.
Check out a few demonstrations of Burgeon Amber in Spiral Abyss!
Shoutouts to my friends and fellow Amber mains who have assisted me in making this guide possible:
Gabriel#2349
Castiel#9817
Megazeru#0550
ygg#2755
Hanny#4968
Zzyli#3018
n1tr0t0m#7245
june#7349
InYoFace#2460
Dibbo#2639
and everyone in Amber Mains Discord server.
Thank you very much for reading up to this point. I hope it was an informative and fun experience! Now go out there and blow stuff up!
Changelog:
Sep 25, 2022: Finalized Draft. Thanks everyone for the proofreading.
Oct 5, 2022: Revised the structure and document clarity again. Again, thanks everyone for the feedback!!!
Oct 9, 2022: Revised the structure and document clarity again. Thanks Hanny and Zzyli!!
Oct 20, 2022: Updated with new illustrative videos!
Dec 5, 2022: Updated the content to version 3.2 of Genshin Impact. Added Nahida, Nilou.