Fire, ice, and lightning are the three principal elements. They are represented by the spells Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder, respectively.
Scholar in Advanced Battle Tactics
The following is a list of all elements in Final Fantasy VI.
Mechanics[]
- If a target is weak against an element, spells and attacks with that element deal double damage to the target.
- There are three levels of elemental resistance: Halving, negation, and absorption. Any level of resistance overrides weakness.
- If the target halves an element, spells and attacks with that element deal half damage to the target.
- If the target negates an element, spells and attacks with that element deal 0 damage. This effect overrides halving.
- If the target absorbs an element, spells and attacks with that element heal the target. This effect overrides halving and nullification.
- If an element is nullified by Force Field, it deals 0 damage. This effect overrides weakness and resistance.
These priorities apply when a character has conflicting elemental weaknesses and resistances from equipment (such as one piece of equipment that has an elemental weakness and another piece of equipment, which provides resistance to the same element), and to multi-elemental spells, such as Aqua Breath and Tri-Disaster (the Valigarmanda summon).
For example, Aqua Breath, a Wind / Water spell, would deal double damage against enemies who are weak against both elements (such as the Earth Dragon boss), and against enemies who are weak against one of the elements with no resistance against the other element (such as the Red Dragon and Gold Dragon bosses), against enemies who are resistant to one or both of the elements (such as the Blue Dragon and Storm Dragon bosses), the highest applicable resistance level applies.
The Debilitator overrides resistance in addition to bestowing a weakness.
Fire[]
It is associated with Terra Branford, who can learn Fire-aspected spells naturally just by leveling up. Fire is opposed to ice. The fire-elemental offensive esper is Ifrit. Many undead and ice-type enemies are weak to fire damage.
Ice[]
Ice-elemental attacks usually work especially well on fire-attuned enemies and dinosaur/reptile-type enemies. Celes Chere is associated with the element, learning ice spells just by leveling up. Some ice attacks inflict frozen status to targets.
Lightning[]
Many mechanical and aquatic enemies are weak to lightning damage.
Earth[]
Earth does not work on flying enemies and those with Float. Earth is one of the weaker elements for the player to use, as they only have access to three methods of inflicting damage with the element, and most enemies will nullify the element outright, or absorb it. As the spell Quake also hurts the players party unless they are geared for the element, and there are better methods of dealing damage to enemies with other elements, Earth is largely unneeded.
Wind[]
Few enemies resist it or are weak to it, but the player gains access to some quite strong wind abilities.
Water[]
Water is strong against almost all machine-type enemies. Strago has some good water spells in his Lore, but otherwise water is a fairly rare element. To get Mog's water Dance, the player should raft through Lethe River with him in the party. Imp equipment absorb water damage.
Poison[]
It is a fairly rare status, the most common source perhaps being the Poison status, which will deal poison-elemental damage periodically to the afflicted. Poison damage tends to be ineffective against undead-type enemies, but be effective against human-type opponents. There are no poison-elemental espers and two poison spells: Poison and Bio. Poison-elemental weapons randomly cast either spell when used for attacking. Animal suits for Strago and Relm protect against poison-elemental damage.
Holy[]
There is only one holy-elemental ability and one holy-elemental spell that is not a summon, but there are numerous holy-elemental weapons. Holy tends to be especially strong against undead-type enemies.
Holy was known as Pearl in the SNES version due to censorship. Nintendo Power referred to it as Spirit in the Enemy Guide section of their Final Fantasy III player's guide.
Restorative[]
Undead enemies are hurt by healing items and spells/abilities.