Elemental (Final Fantasy VII)

Elemental is a Support Materia in Final Fantasy VII. It can be linked with most Materia, including Magic Materia, Summon Materia, Independent Materia, Command Materia, to apply the element of the Materia to equipment. When equipped on weapons, it will infuse the element with elemental damage from the Materia; against enemies vulnerable to that element, the character's physical attack will do double damage. When equipped on armor, Elemental will provide resistance to, immunity to, or absorption of the element depending on the level of the Elemental Materia.
If the linked Materia has a specific element, it will apply that elemental effect. In most cases, including all Command and Independent Materia as well as several Magic or Summon Materia, it will simply link the Hidden element. This usually has no effect.
==Obtained==
Elemental is first found in the Shinra Bldg. on floor 62, if the player guesses the mayor's password on the first try. The password is found by reading the title of the book on the left end of the middle shelf in the library room with cyan shelves and a blue floor. 
Title 	Password
2 Economic report: Space Dev Program 	BEST
1 Results of failed space mission "YA-79"	KING
1 Breakdown of SOLDIER members by class 	BOMB
10 New plans for urban planning 	MAKO
Elemental is later found on Mt. Nibel mako fountain. If the player plays Tifa's piano in Nibelheim while she is the party leader in "A Shocking Reunion", they also obtain the Elemental Materia, but only if Cloud "jammed on" the piano in "The Tragedy of Five Years Ago".
After this, the only way to obtain more Elemental Materia is by mastering one. This requires 80,000 AP, and the best way to do this is to equip weapons and armor with Double or Triple AP growth.
==Stats==
===Growth===
Level	AP required	Effect
1 	0 	Makes weapon take on elemental properties of linked Materia. Armor resists element of linked Materia by taking half damage.
2 	10000 	Makes weapon take on elemental properties of linked Materia. Armor nullifies element of linked Materia.
3 	40000 	Makes weapon take on elemental properties of linked Materia. Armor absorbs element of linked Materia.
4 	80000 	MASTER
===Effects===
When equipping the following Materia, a specific element will be applied. In any other case, equippable Materia will provide Hidden.
Materia 	Element
Fire 	Fire
Ice 	Ice
Lightning	Lightning
Earth 	Earth
Poison 	Poison
Gravity 	Gravity
Choco/Mog	Wind
Shiva 	Ice
Ifrit 	Fire
Ramuh 	Lightning
Titan 	Earth
Leviathan	Water
Alexander	Holy
Phoenix 	Fire
Typhon 	Wind
When a unit has elemental resistance (either through the Elemental Materia, or from equipment), they also gain status protection if the attack against them uses an element and inflicts a status at the same time. E.g. against a Poison-elemental attack that also inflicts the Poison status, LV1 Elemental + Poison would also halve the chance of contracting Poison from the attack, as well as halving damage. With LV2 Elemental Materia, both the damage and the status ailment would be nullified from the attack, even if the character was not otherwise immune to Poison status.
==Use==
Elemental can be linked with the majority of Materia on a weapon to imbue all physical attacks with elemental damage, or on armor to provide resistance to, immunity to, or absorption of the element in particular. The Elemental Materia has a wide variety of strategic uses both defensively and offensively. Whether the player should use the Materia offensively or defensively is situational, based either on the enemies they are encountering in a dungeon, or how resistant their characters already are. At level 3, when the Elemental Materia will absorb attacks entirely, it is often best to use it defensively if enemies use damage of a certain element often as it means players will have to heal much less often.
Elemental Materia used offensively can allow characters that mostly deal physical damage to exploit enemies' elemental weaknesses that usually only spellcasters can otherwise take advantage of. When used this way, it should be given to characters with a high Strength stat, such as Cloud, Barret, Tifa, or Cid, to make the most of their high physical damage. It is almost always best paired with Magic Materia, as Summon Materia come with larger stat penalties that compromise physical attacks. However, the Water, Wind and Holy elements are unique to Summon Materia.
If used defensively, Elemental should be given to the most vulnerable party members with the lowest HP as a priority. On characters who have Summon Materia equipped already, Elemental is one of the few Materia it can be paired with, making it a good choice to use on armor.
Elemental can be linked with Materia that have no specific element to instead link with the Hidden element. This element usually has no effect, however, as the only enemy attack that deals Hidden-elemental damage is Ultimate Weapon's Ultima Beam. However, the Hidden element and Elemental Materia can be used to become immune to Dorky Faces' Funny Breath: If the player has leveled up Elemental to Lv2, they can exploit the Hidden element of the Dorky Faces' Curses and Funny Breath attacks by linking Elemental with any non-elemental Materia on the party's armor to protect against these attacks. Players do not gain an immunity to the statuses used; instead, the chance of inflicting the Status drops to 0.
Category:Support Materia in Final Fantasy VII