Elemental Effects

Fire, frost, gas, and lightning are elemental modifiers for weapons and armor.

On a weapon, an element has a chance to apply its effect on each hit you land. On an armor piece, it augments the piece's ability, if it has one, and has a chance to apply its effect to enemies that hit you.

Delivery

You reach an enemy with an element in two ways.

A tag lands on one enemy. Weapon modifiers tag, and so do most abilities.

An AoE hit leaves an elemental area on the ground, such as a gas cloud or a patch of fire. An area pulses twice a second on anyone standing in it. Blast and explosive bows leave areas alongside their direct hits.

Statuses

Each element leaves a status on the enemy it tags.

• ✦Fire: burning. A tag on a burning enemy extends the burn and skips the ignition damage.
• ✦Frost: frozen. Freeze stacks with each tag and slows the enemy.
• ✦Gas: gassed. The enemy takes 50% more damage from all sources.
• ✦Lightning: stunned. Repeated stuns on one enemy within 30 seconds get shorter: the third lasts 75% as long, the fourth half, and later ones a quarter.

Reactions

Two elements meeting create a reaction.

• ✦Ignite: fire reaches a gas cloud. The cloud explodes and leaves a fire area.
• ✦Steam: fire and frost combine, on a single enemy or between two areas. Both cancel and the enemy takes steam damage.
• ✦Conduct: lightning reaches a gas cloud. The shock spreads through the cloud and hits enemies inside.
• ✦Shatter: lightning hits a frozen enemy. It kills the enemy if the hit would be lethal. Otherwise the enemy keeps its freeze and you can try again.

Steam weakens enemies. Shatter finishes them.

A steamed enemy can't catch fire until the steam fades, so freezing a burning enemy in your gas cloud steams it instead of igniting the cloud.

Immunity

Some enemies are immune to an element. Blazes shrug off fire, and a frost creeper shrugs off frost. The codex bestiary lists each enemy's immunities once you discover them.

Immunity blocks the element's status. A blaze can't burn, from your fire or from lava. Areas of its element and explosions made of it, like an igniting gas cloud, don't touch it either.

Your tags still deal their damage, cut by the enemy's resistance to that element. A blaze is never already burning, so each fire tag deals its ignition damage.

Reactions still work. Freeze a blaze and hit it with fire, and it steams. Freeze a lightning-immune enemy, and lightning can shatter it. Lightning won't stun an immune enemy, and chains won't jump to it or from it. It still conducts through a gas cloud the enemy stands in.

Resistance

Elemental resistance works like armor. Each 100 points is one more health bar against that element's damage, burn ticks and lava included, which armor doesn't reduce.

An immune enemy has 100 points of resistance to its element on top of its armor. With no armor, it takes half damage. With 100 armor, it takes two thirds of what a normal enemy with the same armor would.

Fire resistance rolls on armor. A hit counts every resistance that matches it, so a fire arrow meets your projectile and fire resistance together.

Vulnerability

An enemy vulnerable to an element takes 50% more damage from it, burn ticks included. The bonus adds to gas: a gassed enemy that's vulnerable to fire takes double damage from your fire. An enemy vulnerable to gas takes double damage from all sources while gassed.

Damage Numbers

Your hits pop a number over the enemy in the element's color. Arrows show what changed it: ↑ for each source that raised it, like gas or a vulnerability, and ↓ for each that lowered it, like a resistance. Opposite arrows cancel, so a gassed blaze hit with fire shows no arrow. A dodged hit shows "miss".