Elements and Elemental Advantage

With elemental advantage, an attack deals 1.6 times normal damage. Attack into resistance or disadvantage and a 0.625x modifier applies. Being on the wrong side of a matchup makes your attacks weaker; it doesn't just withhold the bonus.

The resisted figure is the less certain of the two. The 0.625x modifier is the clearest one listed, but the resisted multiplier also appears as exactly half damage and as 0.5 to 0.6 times normal damage, so that number is not settled yet. Either way the lesson holds: hitting into resistance costs you a real share of your damage.

Aniimo combat has no elemental chain reactions. You won't find combos where one element primes a target for another. Each hit is judged on its own matchup and nothing more.

When you attack, the game checks the element of the ability you use, not the type of the Aniimo using it. A Fire-type Aniimo using a Water skill attacks as Water. To exploit a target's weakness, choose a skill of the element that target is weak to.

That changes how you should read any Aniimo skill guide. When you plan a skill set, the main question is which elements the skills cover, since those are the weaknesses your team can hit. An Aniimo whose skills are all one element can only exploit the weaknesses of that one element, whatever its own type.

Elements also matter outside combat. Fire-type abilities can burn away and destroy vine obstacles in the environment, so it helps to have Fire on hand while you explore.

Most elements are super effective against two other types. These are the elements and matchups known so far:

Fire attacks deal 1.6 times damage against Grass and Ice. Fire-type Aniimo themselves are weak to Water attacks.

Water is weak to Grass, since Grass attacks are super effective against Water.

Lightning attacks deal 1.6 times damage against Water and Wind. Electric is also listed as an element in the game.

Wind is super effective against Dark and Grass.

Light and Dark are super effective against each other. Dark attacks are also super effective against Grass.

Earth attacks are super effective against Ice.

Grass comes up a lot as a target: Fire, Wind and Dark all hit it super effectively. If you are building around Grass, expect most teams to have an answer to it.

Two matchups have conflicting answers, and both matter for team building.

Dark's third target is listed as either Fire (Blazin) or Electric. The Electric version comes from a post-beta change that replaced Fire with Electric, so this matchup changed during the beta. Treat Dark against Fire as unreliable until you have checked the in-game chart.

Earth's second target is listed as either Fire or Lightning. If it is Lightning, Earth becomes a serious threat to any team built around Lightning. If you run a Lightning-heavy team, check this in the chart before you rely on it.

The resisted damage multiplier is the third open question: 0.625x, exactly half, or 0.5 to 0.6, as covered above.

Defence works differently from offence. When something attacks your Aniimo, the matchup depends on your Aniimo's own typing against the element of the incoming attack. You choose skills for offence, but your Aniimo's type is what takes the hits.

Water shows how this works. Water-type Aniimo resist Fire attacks and Rock attacks. Fire-type Aniimo are weak to Water attacks. A Water Aniimo with Water skills therefore takes less from Fire and deals more to it.

That is why the usual advice for Fire challenges is a Water-type team, with Earth Aniimo alongside. The general rule: look at which element you are facing, then bring Aniimo whose typing resists it and whose skills hit its weakness.

06Where to start

Choose skills by the elements they cover, and choose Aniimo by the typing that will take the hits. For Fire content, take Water and Earth. Until the Dark and Earth matchups are settled, check them in the in-game elemental type chart before building a team around either.