Elements

Most Magic Spells can be categorized into Elements. The Elements include Cold, Earth, Fire, Instant K.O., Lightning, Poison, Status, and Water.

* Cold: Of the three basic Elements, Cold has the most powerful Spells. This helps to make up for the fact that there really aren't many creatures weak to Cold. Further, a lot of creatures (including all Undead) resist Cold, making it perhaps the least useful attack Element. You won't run into very many Cold attacks, but there's plenty of gear that protects against it anyway. Cold type attacks receive a 15% boost to damage while it’s snowing.

* Earth: The only Earth attacks in the game, the Quake Spell and Fissure Special Attack, are both Instant K.O. attacks that affect multiple foes. Characters can gain resistance to Earth with a Ribbon, the Anti-Rub Spell, or the Wall Spell. Many creatures resist Earth, especially any creature depicted as able to fly or swim. Very few creatures are weak against Earth magic. Earth spells gain more accuracy during a Sandstorm.

* Fire: Fire is your staple attack Spell Element, and one you'll be hit with quite a lot. You'll find plenty of protections against Fire, which is fortunate because you'll run into multiple normal enemies with Fire Special Attacks, and several more using Fire Spells. On the offensive side, Fire is most effective against Undead and Cold-type creatures. A lot of Monsters resist Fire as well, including those that are themselves fiery, as well as creatures that live in water. Fire is a weakness you'll be exploiting a lot, but you need to pay close attention to weaknesses to get the most out of it. Fire type attacks receive a 25% boost to damage in biomes.

* Instant K.O.: You won't see a lot of K.O.-elemental attacks, but as every one of them (predictably) causes K.O., that's certainly not a bad thing. The Protect Ring and Ribbon protect you against Death, so by the time you reach the end game you should be well-protected from these attacks. As you might expect, a lot of Monsters resist Death, making the Death-based Spells you get pretty bad. Strangely, there are no multi-target Death-elemental Spells.

* Lightning: You won't be hit with a lot of Lightning attacks during the game, but it is a staple attack Spell Element for your party. Surprisingly enough, you'll encounter Lightning most commonly underwater. The most dangerous Lightning attacks are the breath weapons of Blue Dragons and Tiamat. Most Aquatic creatures are vulnerable to Lightning, and few non-boss Monsters resist it. All in all, it's a pretty effective basic attack Element in most cases. Lightning attacks receive a 15% boost to damage on targets wearing Metal Armor.

* Poison: As an Element, Poison covers not only the usual Poison Status, but also Stone (as well as the instant K.O. Spell Bane). You get three Poison Spells of your own, but many Monsters resist Poison. Tiamat is notable because she has a Poison weakness (one of only two creatures in the game with one, in fact).

* Status: Most Spells and abilities that inflict Status Ailments other than Poison and Stone are Status-elemental. A lot of Monsters—all Undead and most bosses included—resist Status attacks, making many debuffs a lot less useful than they otherwise could have been. Nonetheless, most Status effects are quite powerful: Slow and Mute can shut down Monsters who deal all their damage through large numbers of hits or powerful Spells, for instance. There are several Status-resistant Enchantments and equipment, and there are plenty of Monsters with Status-elemental attacks and Spells.

* Water: Water is one of the four main attacking elements, and is powerful against Fire and Earth creatures, and not much else. There are next to no Monsters that use Water Attacks or Spells, so any form of Water-Resistance is essentially unneeded. Aquatic creatures as well as Ice creatures are both resistant to Water attacks. Damage-wise, Water Spells are usually somewhere between Lightning and Ice. Water type attacks receive a 15% boost to damage in rainy weather.