Element
In Soul's Remnant, there are currently 7 element types in the game: Normal, Fire, Ice, Ghost, Metal, Lightning, Water. Element typing plays a significant role in Soul's Remnant, not only reducing and increasing damage dealt, but for the player it also adds a chance to trigger an additional effect when landing a skill on an enemy.
We have an unofficial element, Healing, for the sake of organization on this wiki.
Changing Your Element
The player by default will deal Normal type damage, and referring to the table below will show you that you deal less damage to Ghost and Metal type enemies. This can be changed by equipping a weapon. Every weapon you find has a randomized Element type to it, and when equipping a weapon your skills take on that weapon's Element type.
Visually, beyond just changing the elemental effectiveness of your attacks, taking on a different element will also change the appearance of your skill. Some skills will have only their color change to match its current element, while other skills will have their sprite change as well. Every element also has an additional hit effect that will show when triggering its effect. Ghost, for example, will show an impish face:
Type Chart
Attacking Element Column on the left (↓), Defending Element Row across the top (→)
| Normal | Fire | Ice | Ghost | Metal | Lightning | Water | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Resisted | Resisted | Neutral | Neutral |
| Fire | Neutral | Resisted | Effective | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Terrible |
| Ice | Neutral | Terrible | Resisted | Effective | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral |
| Ghost | Neutral | Neutral | Terrible | Neutral | Effective | Neutral | Neutral |
| Metal | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Terrible | Neutral | Effective | Neutral |
| Lightning | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Terrible | Resisted | Effective |
| Water | Neutral | Effective | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Terrible | Resisted |
Example:
Using a fire attack against an ice enemy like a Sadling will deal more damage.
Using a fire attack against a fire enemy like Blaze will deal less damage than usual.
And using a fire attack against a water enemy like Snapper will deal even less damage.
Damage Numbers
Looking at the damage numbers is a good way to check if your element is a good match up for the monster(s) you are fighting. The numbers that show up when damage is dealt have a fill color and an outline color, and these colors will change independently from one another, for specific reasons.
Neutral damage numbers have a white fill color and faded blue outline color.
Terrible/Resisted element damage turns the outline color into a dull gray.
Effective element damage replaces the outline color with a sharp red.
Critical damage replaces fill color with yellow, adding a small explosive depiction behind the numbers as well.
The damage that enemies deal to players have a faded red fill color and a dark red outline color.
Damage that other players deal have a lower opacity to them.
Additional Effect
Weapons with Normal element may surprise you with how much more damage you deal with them equipped. This is because beyond just a unique visual effect, every element also has a unique additional effect. For the Normal element, it's effect is a chance to add a respectable amount of damage. Elemental Potency will increase the strength of an element's effect, and Elemental Chance will increase how often the effect occurs. You can find their effects below, or by talking to NPC at Spawn!
Normal: Deal 85%* extra damage.
Fire: Deal 25%* damage to up to 4 nearby foes. The initial target also burns for 20%* damage per second for three seconds.
Ice: Apply "Frozen" for 6* seconds, slowing the target for the duration. "Frozen" also has an additional stacking effect which increases the target's damage taken by 30% at one stack, 45% at two stacks, and 60% at three stacks.
Ghost: Create a gravity well effect for three seconds, dealing 110%* damage over time and pulling monsters towards its center.
Metal: Lower the target's DEF while gaining a stacking buff that increases your own DEF. Maximum stacks of 10*.
Lightning: Deal damage to up to 4 nearby enemies, 75%* damage to the first and reducing that amount by 40% with each bounce (e.g. 500 -> 300 -> 180 -> 102).
Water: Slow the enemy slightly, and create a healing orb for 5s that any single player can absorb in order to immediately recover up to 15HP*.
*the value of this number is calculated as when the player has exactly 100% Elemental Potency. Having less than that or more than that will change this number's value.