The universe and all things within it are composed of eight elements: earth, fire, wind, water, ice, lightning, holy, and dark. These elements and the relationships between them govern the fates of all beings. Although not everything in the universe has an elemental alignment, many units and items react to certain elements in special ways.
Tutorial on Elements, The War of the Lions
The following is a list of elements found in Final Fantasy Tactics. The game has eight elements, classic of the Final Fantasy series.
Mechanics[]
There are five modifiers that affect how a unit reacts to elemental damage:
- Boost – Increases the damage done with the element by 25%. (Elemental affinity equipment & weather)
- Halve – Halves the damage taken from the element.
- Absorb – Restores HP by the amount the elemental attack would have done as damage instead.
- Null – Unaffected by the attack (0 damage).
- Weak – Increases the elemental damage by 50%.
These modifiers do not stack with themselves. E.g. the player cannot halve elemental damage twice by stacking equipment. Wearing elemental-halving equipment alongside elemental-nulling equipment is likewise redundant for that particular element.
List of elements[]
Fire[]
It is effective against Skeletons, Ghosts, Treants, and Reavers, but not effective against enemies like Bombs and red Dragons. Fire damage is dampened in rain, making it 25% less effective, but Fire damage can be doubled with Oil and equipment that improves Fire damage; both effects can be stacked to deal even more damage.
Ice[]
Ice is effective against Goblins, Malboros, Ahrimans, and Hydra and Red Dragons. Ice element is boosted by 25% in snowstorm weather, but this is a rare weather condition.
Lightning[]
Lightning-elemental attacks work 25% better in rain, a common weather condition outdoors. No enemy type is strong against it, while Mindflayers are weak to it.
Water[]
Bombs and Minotaurs are weak to it, and Mindflayers are healed by it. Water damage is unaffected by weather.
Wind[]
Wind is an element that mainly appears in enemy abilities, though the player can get some weapons with it and the Geomancer has multiple wind abilities depending on the terrain they are standing on. Hydra-type enemies are weak to Wind damage. Wind is unaffected by weather.
Earth[]
Panthers and Aevises are weak to it, and Automatons and units with Float status are immune to it, and Treants are healed by it. There are no Earth-elemental weapons, and so the player can only hit enemies with the few spells and abilities that embody this element.
Holy[]
Undead enemies tend to be weak to Holy (as well as Fire). The Holy Knight's Holy Sword skills are not Holy-elemental, but the AI assumes that they are. As a result, enemies will never use Holy Sword skills against units wearing a Chameleon Robe or wielding the Excalibur.
Dark[]
No enemy is weak to Dark damage and it is typically associated with Lucavi and their underlings. Automatons are immune to it, and Undead enemies absorb it. Fell swords are all Dark-elemental.