In Gales of Nayeli, many attacks deal elemental damage, adding an additional factor to your decision-making in combat. Not only are different foes—and different playable units—vulnerable and resistant to different types of elemental damage, but elemental damage attacks also carry unique intrinsic effects to differentiate themselves from each other. Thus, understanding elemental effects, and the elemental attacks at your disposal and that your enemies may use against you, is critical to planning and executing successful strategies over the course of the game.

Not all attacks that deal elemental damage are magical attacks: whether an attack that deals elemental damage will scale off of the user’s Strength or Magic will depend on the individual attack or weapon, which will also determine which of the foe’s defenses it will target. For example, a Wind-element Combat Art that deals physical damage will target the enemy’s Defense and Wind Resistance and scale off of the user’s Strength stat.

Elements also carry bonus effects that alter the properties of attacks that carry their element. For example, all Wind-element Combat Arts or attacks, no matter their origin, will have the bonus effect of dealing extra effective damage to targets who are in Flying classes. Most properties of elemental attacks apply automatically to weapons imbued with their respective element.

The list of elements and their bonuses are:

Fire: Fire elemental attacks automatically deal extra effective damage against foes vulnerable to it, such as Bugs. In return for having no other unique effects, Fire elemental attacks typically deal higher base damage compared to other elements.

Thunder: Thunder elemental attacks always strike twice consecutively before the foe is allowed to potentially counter, regardless of the Speed of either the attacker or the target. 

Ice: Ice elemental attacks always reduce the user’s Defense and Resistance in combat, but also always enable follow-up attacks after the Counter round. This effect also applies to weapons such as Tomes that are normally unable to perform follow-up attacks.

Earth: Earth elemental damage targets the foe’s physical Defense and uses the user’s Strength to calculate damage. This includes Earth Elemental Tomes. Weapons imbued with Earth also increase the user’s Defense.

Wind: Wind elemental damage always deals extra effective damage against Flying-class targets.

Light: Light elemental attacks have a wide variety of enemy classes that they deal extra effect damage against, depending on the specific attack or weapon. Many Light elemental attacks also buff the user or nearby allies as a secondary effect.

Dark: Dark elemental attacks frequently inflict debuffs on the target and surrounding enemies, and have high base power relative to when they are accessible. However, most Dark elemental attacks or weapons also debuff the user or allies, or even deal damage to the user in return. 

This is just a brief look at how elements play a large role in the combat of Gales of Nayeli. As we reveal more of the tools available to you, we hope that you’ll come to understand how you can use elemental damage and elemental effects to plan your strategies throughout the game!

See you tomorrow with more daily updates leading up to the Kickstarter Campaign!
David