Each enemy has an element to which they are vulnerable. Heavy damage can be dealt with the right elemental attack. The four elements are fire, ice, lightning, and wind, and they all have corresponding elemental attacks such as Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, and Aero, spells that are available to Ravagers.
Noel using an ice spell.
The following is a list of elements in Final Fantasy XIII-2. The game has four "elements of nature"—fire, ice, lightning, and wind—as well as classification of either physical or magical damage. The role associated the most with elemental abilities is the Ravager, whose main role is to build the chain gauge.
Serah specializes in fire and thunder and magical, whereas Noel specializes in wind and ice and physical; however, by the end of the game, both party members have some abilities of all elements. In addition to the two party leaders, Paradigm Pack allies can be recruited to bring situational variety.
The elements system is based on the one from Final Fantasy XIII, with wind-elemental abilities expanded and water and earth having been removed. Bar-effects also no longer appear, being replaced by the Sentinel's Element Guard, and "Enaero" has been added to elemental infusions.
Mechanics[]
Types[]
An ability can be of one "element of nature" (fire, ice, lightning, or wind) and be either physical or magical. An ability can be non-elemental, but it cannot be both physical and magical at the same time. During battle, the player can press 
/
to use Libra and learn the target's elemental vulnerabilities and strengths.
Physical elemental abilities.
Fire, ice, lightning, and wind are attached to abilities in the Ravager role and both magical and physical variants exist. These elemental abilities are notable for quickly raising the target's chain gauge, though the gauge will also drop fast unless stabilized by abilities from Commando and/or Saboteur. Physical and magical variants of Ravager abilities are equally good at doing damage and raising the chain gauge on a level playing field, though the spell variants may have a slight edge for being faster to use.
The "elements of nature" are also associated with en-effects, buffs bestowed by Paradigm Pack Synergists, such as Enfire to attach the fire element to abilities that would otherwise be non-elemental. Abilities made elemental via en-effects do not become more adept at raising the chain gauge; it only affects damage calculation if the enemy is weak to/resists damage from that particular element (see below). Elemental infusion does not override other elemental abilities' elements, i.e. Enthunder does not have any effect on the Fire spell. Only one infusion can be in effect for any one target.
A "restorative" pseudo element for healing spells and items could also be conferred to exist, though it lacks an in-game icon. Non-elemental abilities exist, though truly a "typeless" ability is absent, as every ability that affects the target's HP in some manner is classified as either physical or magical.
Resistance, weakness, and damage boost[]
Enemies have innate elemental vulnerabilities and resistances on the following continuum, viewable in their Enemy Intel:
- Absorbed · Immune · Resistant · Halved · Normal · Weakness
Absorbed has the enemy be healed by the respective element, Immune takes no damage from the respective element, Resistant takes only 1/10th of normal damage from the respective element, Halved halves damage from the respective element, and Weakness takes double damage from the applicable element. The Imperil status weakens the affected to all "elements of nature" by one stage, i.e. Absorbed becomes Immune and Normal becomes Weakness. An enemy natively weak to an element does not become further weak toward an element when afflicted with Imperil. A combination of targeting an enemy's elemental weakness and raising the stagger gauge is typically the best way to win battles fast, but Imperil has no effect on physical or magical resistance; enemies can be weakened to physical/magical damage with Deprotect/Deshell, though many are resilient to debuffs, and enemies that are outright immune to physical/magical will have no effect even under such debuffs.
Physical and magic resistance take priority over elemental vulnerabilities, i.e. attacking an enemy that is weak against lightning but immune to magic with the Thunder spell will deal no damage, but attacking the same enemy with Sparkstrike will be especially effective. Some foes nullify both physical and magic attacks, and the player may need to stagger them first to do any damage.
Party members are neutral toward elements unless weakened by contracting Imperil (which always makes party members fall to the Weakness category of elemental resistance) or Deshell/Deprotect, or bolstered by passive abilities, such as from equipping accessories (resistance varies depending on the effect's level), and the Sentinel's Element Guard, which replaces "bar spells" from Final Fantasy XIII.
The player can boost the power of fire, ice, lightning, and wind with elemental infusion from Paradigm Pack allies, which also makes abilities that are otherwise non-elemental take on an element. Elemental damage is also boosted by 30% via synthesis abilities that activate for Serah and Noel when elemental-protection accessories of the opposite element are equipped at once, e.g. ice-protection accessories worn at once boosts the character's fire power. Paradigm Pack creatures, meanwhile, boost their elemental damage against targets that are already weak to the respective element with innate passives: Felflame, Felfrost, Felspark, and Felgust.
AI behavior[]
Ravagers controlled by the computer and Auto-battle select abilities designed to drive up enemies' chain gauges based on enemy data the player has discerned. If no elemental, physical, or magical resistances have been discerned from the enemy, AI Ravagers will continue to use abilities of differing elemental properties until a weakness or resistance is found.
AI Ravagers will queue up Fire→Flamestrike→Fire→Flamestrike if they know an enemy is weak against fire, and has the same physical and magical resistance, because this drives up the chain gauge more than four Fires or four Flamestrikes.
List of elements[]
Fire[]
Fire is opposed to ice, and is especially associated with Serah, though Noel and many in the Paradigm Pack also learn fire-elemental abilities in their Ravager trees. Enfire makes otherwise non-elemental abilities fire-elemental and boosts already fire-elemental abilities' power. The player can protect against fire damage from enemies with status enhancements, Sentinel's abilities, and accessories.
Ice[]
Ice is the element opposed to fire, and is associated with Noel though Serah also learns some ice abilities in her Ravager tree. Another way to use ice abilities is via the Enfrost status and Paradigm Pack creatures and their Feral Links. The player can protect against ice damage with accessories and passive abilities.
Lightning[]
Lightning is the element opposed to wind, and is associated with Serah though Noel also learns some lightning abilities in his Ravager tree. Another way to use lightning abilities is via the Enthunder status and Paradigm Pack creatures and their Feral Links. The player can protect against lightning damage with accessories and passive abilities. Lightning is also still associated with the lightning element, but outside of DLC, she is only playable in the tutorial.
Wind[]
Physical[]
Magical[]
Water[]
Despite the water element being removed from the game, there are some abilities which still use it. For example: Hedge Frog's Swamp Water and Sahagin Prince's water attack. Additionally, Apotamkin's Feral Link, Multicast, includes a cast of Water spell, which will heal Ochu and Microchu. The Resist Water passive ability has been removed, but water-elemental damage can be mitigated by the Sentinel's Element Guard or the passive ability Resist Elements.
Water's associated abilities can still be found within the game's data and they function as intended if added to a character's ability list through a third party tool.
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Aquastrike | Ravager | Inflict water-attribute physical damage. |
| Water | Ravager | Inflict water-attribute magic damage. |
| Watera | Ravager | Inflict water-attribute magic damage on target and nearby foes. Staggered targets take more damage. |
| Waterga | Ravager | Inflict water-attribute magic damage on targets within a wide radius. |
Earth[]
Despite the earth element being removed from the game, there are some enemy abilities which still use it. For example: the self-healing attack of Debris, Ochu's tentacle attack, Long Gui's stomping attack and Quake, and Proto-behemoth's Sunder. The Resist Earth passive ability has been removed, but earth-elemental damage can be mitigated with the Sentinel's Element Guard or the passive ability Resist Elements.