Understanding Sucrose's Core Scaling
Sucrose is a 4-star Anemo Catalyst user in Genshin Impact primarily known for her exceptional support capabilities. Unlike many other damage-focused characters who prioritize ATK%, CRIT Rate, and CRIT DMG, Sucrose's build revolves almost entirely around a single, often overlooked stat: Elemental Mastery (EM). This emphasis on EM is due to her kit's reliance on elemental reactions, specifically Swirl, and her ability to share a portion of her EM with her team.
Why Elemental Mastery is King
Elemental Mastery is the most important stat for Sucrose for several critical reasons:
- Swirl Damage: Swirl is a transformative elemental reaction, and its damage scales with the character's EM and character level. Since Sucrose is constantly triggering Swirl with her Anemo abilities, stacking EM directly increases her personal damage contribution. This reaction damage ignores enemy DEF but is affected by Elemental RES, which can be further shredded by the 4-piece Viridescent Venerer set.
- Buffing Teammates: Sucrose's second passive talent, 'Catalyst Conversion,' increases the Elemental Mastery of all other party members by 20% of her own EM for 8 seconds when her Elemental Skill or Burst hits an enemy. This ability makes her an invaluable buffer for teams that rely on amplifying reactions like Vaporize and Melt or transformative ones like Electro-Charged and Hyperbloom.
- Enhancing Reactions: The EM buff she provides allows her teammates to deal significantly more damage from their own elemental reactions. For example, a Pyro DPS like Hu Tao will deal more damage with their Vaporize reactions, while a Dendro team with Fischl and Xingqiu will see increased Hyperbloom and Electro-Charged damage.
The Importance of Character Level
In addition to EM, Sucrose's character level is crucial for maximizing her Swirl and transformative reaction damage. The damage formula for these reactions includes a character level multiplier, which increases exponentially at higher levels. For this reason, leveling Sucrose to 90 is one of the most resource-efficient ways to boost her damage output, even more so than leveling her talents.
Stat Comparison: EM vs. ATK/Crit
To illustrate why Elemental Mastery is prioritized over other stats for a support Sucrose, consider this comparison:
| Stat Focus | Impact on Swirl Damage | Impact on Team Support | Optimal For | Key Artifacts | Notes | 
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elemental Mastery | Directly increases Swirl damage (based on character level). | Buffs team's elemental reaction damage significantly. | Support/Reaction Driver | 4-piece Viridescent Venerer (VV), Instructor | The standard and most effective build for most teams. | 
| Attack/Crit | Does not affect Swirl damage; only affects the Anemo damage portion of her abilities. | Provides no team-wide reaction buffing. | Hypercarry/DPS (sub-optimal) | 2-piece VV + 2-piece ATK% set | Requires significant resource investment for a less impactful result. | 
Recommended Build for Sucrose
To get the most out of Sucrose, follow this general build philosophy:
- Prioritize Elemental Mastery: Equip her with artifacts that have Elemental Mastery as the main stat on the Sands, Goblet, and Circlet. Aim for a total EM of 700-1000 for optimal results.
- Focus on Energy Recharge: After EM, Energy Recharge (ER) is her most important substat. She needs sufficient ER to use her Elemental Burst regularly, which provides crucial crowd control and element-spreading capabilities.
- Choose the Right Artifact Set: The 4-piece Viridescent Venerer set is almost always her best-in-slot option. It increases her personal Swirl damage by 60% and, more importantly, shreds enemy elemental resistance by 40% for the element swirled.
- Select an Optimal Weapon: Sacrificial Fragments is an excellent 4-star weapon for her, as it provides a large EM stat and has a chance to reset her Elemental Skill cooldown, increasing her particle generation and buff uptime. For pure team buffing, Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers (TTDS) is a fantastic 3-star option, offering a large ATK% buff to the next character taking the field.
- Upgrade Her Level: As mentioned, raising her character level to 90 provides a significant boost to her Swirl damage, so prioritize this over talent leveling for a support build.
Conclusion
For most players, the question of what stat does Sucrose scale off of is answered by a single word: Elemental Mastery. By prioritizing EM and character level, you can build a powerful support character capable of significantly amplifying your team's damage through elemental reactions. While a hypercarry DPS build focusing on ATK and CRIT is possible, it is significantly less effective and a poor use of her kit's full potential. For any team that benefits from powerful elemental reactions, a well-built Sucrose remains one of the game's most potent and accessible Anemo supports.
Further Reading
For a deeper dive into the mechanics of elemental reactions, including how they interact with Elemental Mastery, refer to the KeqingMains Sucrose Guide.