Elements - August 12, 2015

Daily posting, on the topic of elements.

There are 5 elemental types in Gachduine: Physical, Fire, Cold, Lightning and Acid.

Physical, while not officially an element, makes up a majority of attacks and is mentioned as a distinction from the others. This is the only "element" where Physical Defense lowers damage received.

Fire has been both a gameplay and story element across the entire Skylight series, since Skylight 1. Skylight Symbiote is a flammable substance (and Fire attacks will immolate Symbiote Clouds the target is in, or if caught in the area of effect), and a number of the Symbiote Monsters created from it (Indestructibles, Lifeless, Coheres, Spectres) are also Fire-weak as a result.

It was through this known flammability that the Northern Burning, a nationwide firestorm from 17 years prior, came about. Fire attacks can be protected against with Elemental Defense and Null Immolation protects the user from immolated Symbiote Clouds. Flamethrowers and Barrels naturally have Fire elemental damage, as well as one rare Shotgun (Vehemence), and Fire Shot will turn any weapon's attack into a Fire elemental one, among other Fire related abilities.

Cold has also had some level of presence throughout the Skylight series, though not as prominent as Fire. Despite Skylight Symbiote's flammability, it thrives in heat and its replication functions better in it. By that logic, making it cold lessen the Symbiote's replication and functionality. As a result, Cold attacks take away Competencies from a number of Symbiote Monsters.

Cold damage is reduced through the Elemental Defense Competency. Cold damage is inflicted through the Glacier weapon and the Absolute Zero Extreme. Both will remove Symbiote Monster Competencies.

Lightning damage acts very similarly to Physical attacks, with little that's particularly standout (just that it uses the target's Elemental Defense rather than Physical Defense). However, what isn't openly mentioned in-game in Skylight Freerange 1, is that some superbosses had Lightning weaknesses (based on story reasons for past Dragoon games). There is one superboss in Gachduine that has a weakness to Lightning, too, though not as severe as the standard Symbiote Monster fire weakness.

Lightning damage is caused through use of the Jupiter weapon. There is a rare Sledgehammer (Mjolnir) and a rare Hover Staff (Lightning Rod) that each have the Lightning Elemental Competency, making their attacks Lightning elemental.

Acid damage ignores enemy defense, both Physical and Elemental. Sulfur Balls, making a return as an item from Skylight 1 to a weapon type in Gachduine, inflict Acid damage. There is a rare Barrel (Eschaton) that inflicts Acid damage through the Acid Elemental Competency, as well.

The Armageddon Competency uses all 4 non-Physical elements to randomly targets characters (Lightning), areas (Fire, Acid) or the whole battlefield (Cold).

Though there are other mechanics in Gachduine, there are few that can go into much detail that haven't already been discussed. Upcoming daily postings will go into more detail about the factions in Skylight Freerange 2: Gachduine.