The following is a list of elements in Final Fantasy.
Mechanics[]
In the original Famicom, NES and Pixel Remaster releases, spells and attacks can have eight elemental properties: fire, ice, lightning, earth, poison, time, instant death and spirit.
Between WonderSwan Color and 20th Anniversary Edition releases, poison was split into two elements of poison and stone, and spirit was split into six: darkness, paralysis, confusion, mind, sleep and silence.
The Pixel Remaster translation renamed elements and one status condition. These changes include:
- Quake → Earth
- Death → Instant Death
- Confusion → Confuse
A weapon can have multiple elemental properties, and a piece of armor can grant resistance to multiple elemental properties. However, spells and enemy abilities never have more than one property (spells like NulAll grant the targets resistance to specific properties, but the spells don't have any elemental properties themselves).
Weaknesses and resistances to elemental properties have different effects for damaging spells, status spells and weapons:
- Spells and enemy abilities have a base accuracy value of 148. If a target resists the attribute of the ability, the base accuracy is changed to 0. If a target is weak to the attribute, the base accuracy is increased by +40.
- For status-inflicting spells, such as Quake, Stop, Break and Sleep, the hit calculation determines whether the spell succeeds or fails in inflicting status ailments.
- From the GBA release and onward, damaging spells instead gain a damage bonus based on the caster's intellect if they hit.
- In the NES, WSC and PS1 releases, damaging spells deal half damage if they miss (for example, Fire deals 20-40 damage if it hits or 10-20 damage if it misses).
- In addition to the hit modifiers, damaging spells and enemy abilities deal 1/2 damage against resistant targets, and 1.5x damage against weak enemies.
- Attacking with a weapon which matches one of a target's weaknesses (such as attacking a Skeleton with the Flame Sword) provides bonuses in the attack formula.
- Damage per hit is increased by a random value between +4 to +8.
- Accuracy is increased by +40.
- In the original NES/Famicom release, this is bugged and weapon elemental properties have no effect.
Status conditions[]
In Pixel Remaster, status conditions are listed as part of a monster's resistances in the bestiary. However, status conditions are not considered elemental attributes. If a monster lists a status condition as a resistance, it is immune to having that status effect applied on them, regardless of what elemental attribute the source attack is.
This can be particularly confusing for poison and instant death, which both have an attribute element and a status condition that share their names. The bestiary does not differentiate between them.
Instant death resistance in the bestiary means resistance to the element, rather than the condition. This means, provided the enemy has very low magic defence (e.g., Skeleton), there is a very low possibility for Death to work. Kill, which only checks for resistance and has no accuracy check, always fails on a target with instant death resistance.
Most monsters have poison status condition resistance rather than element, despite the player having no way of inflicting poison status on enemies. This leaves them vulnerable to Scourge, which does not inflict poison status but instantly kills. Scourge's condition is also independent of instant death (both condition and element), so even if an enemy lists resistances to both poison and instant death, they may still be killed by Scourge. The only exceptions to this are the four fiends and the final boss, who have poison element resistance and immunity to Scourge.
In all versions prior to Pixel Remaster, monsters and player characters do not have resistances to status conditions. They can only have resistance to elemental attributes. Resistance to status-based elements does not guarantee any additional resistance to the status effect itself. If the effect is applied via a means that does not have the status element, a resistance does not eliminate or reduce the chance that the effect is applied. Examples of this are the non-elemental spells Sleepra and Slowra.
Fire[]
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Fire | Black Magic | Minor fire damage. |
| Fira | Black Magic | Moderate fire damage. |
| Firaga | Black Magic | Major fire damage. |
| NulBlaze | White Magic | Grants resistance to fire. |
| NulAll | White Magic | Grants resistance to all elements. |
| Flame Sword | Sword | Fire-elemental, effective against undead and regenerating monsters. |
| Excalibur | Sword | All elements. |
| Ice Shield | Shield | Grants wielder fire resistance. |
| Hero's Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to all elements. |
| Ice Armor | Armor | Grants wearer fire resistance. |
| Dragon Armor | Armor | Grants wearer resistance to fire, ice and lightning. |
| White Robe | Armor | Grants wearer resistance to fire and death. |
| Red Jacket | Armor | Grants wearer resistance to fire. |
| Ribbon | Helm | Grants wearer resistance to all elements. |
Ice[]
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Blizzard | Black Magic | Minor ice damage. |
| Blizzara | Black Magic | Moderate ice damage. |
| Blizzaga | Black Magic | Heavy ice damage. |
| NulFrost | White Magic | Grants resistance to ice damage. |
| NulAll | White Magic | Grants resistance to all elements. |
| Ice Brand | Sword | Ice elemental. |
| Excalibur | Sword | All elements. |
| Flame Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to ice. |
| Hero's Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to all elements. |
| Flame Armor | Armor | Grants wearer resistance to ice. |
| Dragon Armor | Armor | Grants wearer resistance to fire, ice and lightning. |
| Black Robe | Armor | Grants wearer resistance to ice and time. |
| Ribbon | Helm | Grants wearer resistance to all elements. |
Lightning[]
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Thunder | Black Magic | Light lightning damage. |
| Thundara | Black Magic | Medium lightning damage. |
| Thundaga | Black Magic | High lightning damage. |
| NulShock | White Magic | Grants resistance to lightning. |
| NulAll | White Magic | Grants resistance to all elements. |
| Excalibur | Sword | All elements. |
| Opal Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to lightning. |
| Hero's Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to all elements. |
| Opal Armor | Armor | Grants wearer resistance to lightning. |
| Dragon Armor | Armor | Grants wearer resistance to fire, ice and lightning. |
| Ribbon | Helm | Grants wearer resistance to all elements. |
Earth[]
Prior to Pixel Remaster, this was referred to as Quake.
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Quake | Black Magic | Chance to inflict Instant Death against all enemies. |
| NulDeath | White Magic | Grants resistance to earth, instant death, darkness, paralysis, sleep, spirit, confuse and silence elements. Does not add resistance to poison, stone or time elements. |
| NulAll | White Magic | Grants resistance to all elements. |
| Excalibur | Sword | All elements. |
| Hero's Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to all elements. |
| Gaia Gear | Armor | Grants wearer resistance to quake and stone. |
| Ribbon | Helm | Grants wearer resistance against all elements. |
Poison[]
In Pixel Remaster and the Famicom/NES originals, stone-based attacks are grouped with poison.
In all version in-between, stone was separated out into its own element.
Poison[]
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Scourge | Black Magic | Attempts to inflict Instant Death against all enemies. |
| NulAll | White Magic | Grants resistance to all elements. |
| Excalibur | Sword | All elements. |
| Aegis Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to poison and stone. |
| Genji Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to poison and stone. |
| Hero's Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to all elements. |
| Genji Armor | Armor | Grants wearer resistance to poison, stone and death. |
| Ribbon | Helm | Grants wearer resistance to all elements. |
| Genji Helm | Helm | Grants wearer resistance to poison and stone. |
| Poison Darts | Enemy Attack | May inflict poison on all party members. |
| Poison Gas | Enemy Attack | Deals poison damage to the party. |
Stone[]
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Break | Black Magic | Attempts to inflict Petrification against a single enemy. |
| NulAll | White Magic | Grants resistance to all elements. |
| Excalibur | Sword | All elements. |
| Aegis Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to poison and stone. |
| Genji Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to poison and stone. |
| Crystal Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to stone. |
| Hero's Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to all elements. |
| Gaia Gear | Armor | Grants wearer resistance to quake and stone. |
| Genji Armor | Armor | Grants wearer resistance to poison, stone and death. |
| Crystal Mail | Armor | Grants wearer resistance to darkness, silence and stone. |
| Ribbon | Helm | Grants wearer resistance to all elements. |
| Genji Helm | Helm | Grants wearer resistance to poison and stone. |
| Crystal Helm | Helm | Grants wearer resistance to stone. |
| Crystal Gloves | Ring | Grants wearer resistance against stone. |
Time[]
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Stop | Black Magic | Attempts to inflict Paralysis against all enemies. |
| Warp | Black Magic | Attempt to inflict Instant Death against all enemies. |
| NulAll | White Magic | Grants resistance to all elements. |
| Excalibur | Sword | All elements. |
| Hero's Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to all elements. |
| Black Robe | Armor | Grants wearer resistance to ice and time. |
| Ribbon | Helm | Grants wearer resistance against all elements. |
Instant Death[]
Prior to Pixel Remaster, this was referred to as Death.
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Death | Black Magic | Attempt to inflict Instant Death against an enemy. |
| Kill | Black Magic | Attempt to inflict Instant Death against an enemy. Always succeeds if the target has 300 or less HP and isn't resistant against the Death property. Always fails if the target has over 300 HP, or is resistant against the instant death property. |
| NulDeath | White Magic | Grants resistance to earth, instant death, darkness, paralysis, sleep, spirit, confuse and silence elements. Does not add resistance to poison, stone or time elements. |
| NulAll | White Magic | Grants resistance to all elements. |
| Excalibur | Sword | All elements. |
| Hero's Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to all elements. |
| White Robe | Armor | Grants the wearer resistance to the fire and death properties. |
| Genji Armor | Armor | Grants wearer resistance to poison, stone and death. |
| Ribbon | Helm | Grants wearer resistance against all elements. |
| Protect Ring | Gloves | Grants wearer resistance to the death property |
Spirit[]
Spirit attribute attacks are primarily related to status conditions. In Famicom, NES and Pixel Remaster, spirit is a single element. In all versions in-between, spirit was split into multiple different elements as according to their specific status conditions applied.
Darkness[]
Not to be confused with Dark element, Darkness deals primarily with the darkness status.
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Dark | Black Magic | Attempt to inflict all enemies with darkness status. |
| Blind | Black Magic | Attempt to inflict darkness against an enemy. Always succeeds if the target has 300 or less HP and isn't resistant against the miscellaneous status property. Always fails if the target has over 300 HP, or is resistant against the miscellaneous status property. |
| NulDeath | White Magic | Grants resistance to earth, instant death, darkness, paralysis, sleep, spirit, confuse and silence elements. Does not add resistance to poison, stone or time elements. |
| NulAll | White Magic | Grants resistance to all elements. |
| Excalibur | Sword | All elements. |
| Hero's Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to all elements. |
| Crystal Mail | Armor | Grants wearer resistance to darkness, silence and stone. |
| Ribbon | Helm | Grants wearer resistance against all elements. |
Paralysis[]
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Hold | Black Magic | Attempt to inflict paralysis against an enemy. |
| Stun | Black Magic | Attempt to inflict paralysis against an enemy. Always succeeds if the target has 300 or less HP and isn't resistant against the miscellaneous status property. Always fails if the target has over 300 HP, or is resistant against the miscellaneous status property. |
| NulDeath | White Magic | Grants resistance to earth, instant death, darkness, paralysis, sleep, spirit, confuse and silence elements. Does not add resistance to poison, stone or time elements. |
| NulAll | White Magic | Grants resistance to all elements. |
| Excalibur | Sword | All elements. |
| Hero's Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to all elements. |
| Ribbon | Helm | Grants wearer resistance against all elements. |
| Crystal Ring | Ring | Grants wearer resistance against sleep and paralysis. |
Sleep[]
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Sleep | Black Magic | Attempts to inflict all enemies with sleep status. |
| NulDeath | White Magic | Grants resistance to earth, instant death, darkness, paralysis, sleep, spirit, confuse and silence elements. Does not add resistance to poison, stone or time elements. |
| NulAll | White Magic | Grants resistance to all elements. |
| Excalibur | Sword | All elements. |
| Ribbon | Helm | Grants wearer resistance against all elements. |
| Crystal Ring | Ring | Grants wearer resistance against sleep and paralysis. |
Mind[]
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Slow | Black Magic | Attempt to reduce enemies' attack multipliers. |
| Fear | White Magic | Makes enemies more likely to flee from battle. |
| NulDeath | White Magic | Grants resistance to earth, instant death, darkness, paralysis, sleep, spirit, confuse and silence elements. Does not add resistance to poison, stone or time elements. |
| NulAll | White Magic | Grants resistance to all elements. |
| Excalibur | Sword | All elements. |
| Hero's Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to all elements. |
| Ribbon | Helm | Grants wearer resistance against all elements. |
Confuse[]
Prior to Pixel Remaster, this was referred to as Confusion.
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Confuse | Black Magic | Attempts to inflict an enemy with confuse status. |
| NulDeath | White Magic | Grants resistance to earth, instant death, darkness, paralysis, sleep, spirit, confuse and silence elements. Does not add resistance to poison, stone or time elements. |
| NulAll | White Magic | Grants resistance to all elements. |
| Excalibur | Sword | All elements. |
| Hero's Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to all elements. |
| Ribbon | Helm | Grants wearer resistance against all elements. |
Silence[]
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Silence | White Magic | Attempt to inflict an enemy with silence status. |
| NulDeath | White Magic | Grants resistance to earth, instant death, darkness, paralysis, sleep, spirit, confuse and silence elements. Does not add resistance to poison, stone or time elements. |
| NulAll | White Magic | Grants resistance to all elements. |
| Excalibur | Sword | All elements. |
| Bard's Tunic | Armor | Grants wearer resistance against silence. |
| Crystal Mail | Armor | Grants wearer resistance to darkness, silence and stone. |
| Hero's Shield | Shield | Grants wielder resistance to all elements. |
| Ribbon | Helm | Grants wearer resistance against all elements. |
Non-elemental[]
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Black Magic | Attempt to lower an enemy's evasion. |
| Focara | Black Magic | Attempt to lower all enemies' evasion. |
| Sleepra | Black Magic | Attempt to put one enemy to sleep with a higher rate of success. |
| Slowra | Black Magic | Attempt to lower one enemy's hit rate. |
| Flare | Black Magic | Massive non-elemental damage against all enemies |
| Dia | White Magic | Light non-elemental damage against all undead enemies. |
| Diara | White Magic | Moderate non-elemental damage against all undead enemies. |
| Diaga | White Magic | Heavy non-elemental damage against all undead enemies. |
| Diaja | White Magic | Massive non-elemental damage against all undead enemies. |
| Holy | White Magic | Massive non-elemental damage against all enemies. |
Dia[]
In the original Famicom/NES versions, Dia does not function as an element. Instead, the spell is scripted to check whether the target has the Undead type. If so, it deals non-elemental damage to the target, otherwise, it has no effect.
Dia is, however, listed as an elemental weakness in the Bestiary in some remakes, including Dawn of Souls.
Notes[]
- In the original Famicon and NES releases, XFER/Dispel was supposed to remove all elemental and status resistances, however it was bugged and non-functional.