Category PvE

Elemental affinities play a role in Final Fantasy Tactics’s story and an even more significant role in PvP. This article covers the intricacies of how these affinities work and what each type of bonus does in combat.

Table of Contents
● Different Types of Elements
● Elemental Modifiers (Boost, Halve, Absorb, Negate, Weak)
● Status Effects and Weather
● Equipment with Elemental Support

Different Types of Elements

In Final Fantasy Tactics, there are eight elements: fire, lightning, ice, water, wind, earth, holy, and dark. By themselves, they don’t mean much other than the type of damage they are considered, but once you factor gear or if you are going up against a monster things can change quickly.

Most monsters in the game are weak to a particular element and may be resistant to others. This is where elemental affinities can become an advantage in the story. In the Monsters Premade format for PvP, one of the main focuses on the roster is using elemental advantages to deal double damage so you can bring down your opponent twice as fast.

We will explore how you can take elements one step further by going more into modifiers.

Elemental Modifiers

There are five types of modifiers that can either increase or reduce or eliminate elemental damage: boost, halve, absorb, negate, and weak. It is important to know how they function especially in PvP as this can deter or enhance the damage you deal to your opponent’s team! We will cover what each one does below:
● Boost – Increases the damage done with the element by 25%.
● Halve – Decreases the damage taken from the element by 50%.
● Absorb – Restores HP instead of taking damage from the element. Whatever the damage total would be is healed instead.
● Negate – Nullifies all damage taken from the element.
● Weak – Increases the damage taken from the element by 50%.

These modifiers do not stack with themselves. For example, having 2 Boost: Fire does not mean 50% damage but still only increases your fire damage by 25%. The same applies to halve, absorb, negate, and weak.

Status Effects and Weather

Some status effects and even weather conditions can play a role in elemental affinities. Though we won’t go into too much regarding weather since we published an in-depth weather guide already, we will instead highlight weather interactions as well as how some status effects here below:
● Float status – Immune to earth attacks while also being treated 1 height higher.
● Oil status – Take double the damage from fire attacks. This status is removed once fire damage is taken.
● Thunderstorm – Fire damage dealt decreased by 25% and lightning damage dealt increased by 25%.
● Snowstorm – Ice damage dealt increased by 25%.

Equipment with Elemental Support

Now that we have gone over the types of elements and modifiers that can affect them, let’s go over the gear in the game that either deals its damage as a particular element or has a modifier built-in:

Did you know that certain weather conditions can actually affect battles? In this article, we go over how the random elements of weather can play a role in battles and how you should take advantage of it if you come across it.

What Are Weather Effects and the Ivalician Calendar

Weather effects can occur randomly on outdoor maps only and have a few positive and negative effects depending on the weather. Weather cannot stop or change once it has been started. Here are a few tidbits regarding weather depending on the mode you are playing Final Fantasy Tactics in:

● In story missions and multiplayer Rendezvous mode, each battle has its weather determined and is not randomized.
● In random battles, the weather is considered random and follows the Ivalician calendar. In multiplayer Melee mode, weather on outdoor maps is considered random and does not seem to follow the Ivalician calendar.
● Indoor maps and the Midnight Deep dungeon cannot have weather. There are also no accuracy penalties against Bow and Crossbow attacks in these locations.

Ivalician Calendar

Chance for Weather (Day or Night)

Clear Weather (Indoor and Outdoor)

Weather can sometimes not occur on an outdoor map and it cannot happen at all on indoor maps. All indoor maps are treated as “clear” as well as the Midnight Deep dungeon areas.
● During night-time with clear weather, the evasion rate against Bows and Crossbow attacks is multiplied by 1.80. Note: Midnight Deep does not increase the evasion rate against Bows and Crossbows even though the area appears dark.

Rainstorms and Thunderstorms

Rainstorms and thunderstorms are both similar in nature; the game depicts them as heavy rainfall and thunderstorms add flashes occasionally to the background to indicate it as such. The following positive and negative effects occur during rainstorms and thunderstorms:
● Evasion rate against Bows and Crossbows attacks are multiplied by 1.33 (or 1.80 if at night).
● Fire-element damage is reduced by 25%.
● Lightning-element damage is increased by 25%.
● Movement through swamp tiles costs 2 Move per tile in rainstorms and 3 Move per tile in thunderstorms. These movement penalties can be ignored via Mystic’s Ignore Weather movement ability.
● Don’t be confused by light rain, it is depicted as slower-moving rainfall animations and is considered “clear” weather, causing no positive or negative effects.

Snowstorms and Light Snow

Battles that take place on snowy terrain have a chance to cause light snow or snowstorms. When either of these weather conditions occurs the following takes place:
● Snowstorms are depicted by horizontal and vertical snowfall animations and increase the damage of all ice-element attacks by 25%.
● Light snow is depicted by only vertical snowfall animations and is treated as “clear” weather.