Elements

Loveless features 24 unique elemental types which pervade many aspects of its combat system. Every demon may have up to 2 elements, and every move may have up to 2 elements; resulting, every demon has certain strengths and weaknesses against certain kinds of moves. Elements may also affect how a demon is able to act in battle, such as the ability for Phantom types to move through other demons, and for Water types to be healed by Water tiles.

## Super-elements

Elemental types are split up between eight super-elemental categories, three elements a piece; normally, when a demon uses a move that is outside of their elemental types, that move's power is reduced slightly and its cost is increased slightly; however, if one of the demon's elements shares a super-element with one of the elements of a move, then these detriments are lifted, allowing them to use that move as if it were related to their natural type. Thus, a demon with two elements that are each from two different super-elements allows that demon access to up to 6 elemental move types without any detrimental effects.

The super-elemental types are as follows:

* Sun
* Moon
* Forest
* Cave
* Whimsy
* Occult
* Holy
* Unholy

## The Elements

What really needs to be paid attention to, however, are the elements themselves, as they all have their own individual quirks, strengths, and weaknesses.

### Fire

These demons are usually engulfed in flame, and consequently, they are very comfortable around it; they will absorb any fire attacks used against them, and will absorb the "aflame" status effect's damage, healing them. As you might expect, they really dislike water, and become especially weakened by the "drench" status effect. Water tiles are anathema to them, and landing on them will result in nasty damage.

### Nuclear

These demons are notorious for inflicting the "turbocancer" status effect on opponents; they are typically mutated, growing unusual appendages, or glowing bright green, and their attacks are nearly all poisonous. While being immune to "turbocancer" themselves, they will inflict this status on any demon that gets near them, ally or enemy, so be careful with these guys.

### Muscle

Big, rippling muscles; get SWOLE. These demons are PUMPED. All of their moves are either wrestling-related or some kind of martial art. Their heart pool is massive and their strength is usually very high, but their psychic-game is fairly unrefined. Take advantage of their damage-sponge nature to protect your other demons from harm, but be careful against demons that focus on psychic attacks.

### Ice

These demons will slow down enemies using the "freeze" status, stopping their march in their tracks; this makes them ideal for protecting long-ranged demons, without requiring high defense or resistance. However, they really don't like fire, and "aflame" is a death sentence, so exercise care when dealing with fire types.

### Oil

Similarly to ice, they're excellent at slowing down enemies using the "oil" status, and are very weak to fire, but in a different way: any enemy that has the oil type, or the "oil" status, and which is hit with fire, will explode and hit with "aflame" guaranteed, hurting all demons around them in a radius. This can be used against you, or to your advantage.

### Mind

As a counter to the muscle type, the mind type is the psychic master, manipulating the minds of their enemies using their big, overactive brains; incredible psionics, intuition and willpower pools, they never seem to run out of energy and can be a huge problem to physically-focused demons. Their bodies, however, are usually extremely frail, and so they are best kept far away from battle, damaging opponents from behind the front lines.

### Energy

These demons are masters at manipulating energy--lightning, plasma, chi--but are consequently rather unstable. Their moves usually strike somewhere besides where the demon was aiming, and they don't play very well with water, fire or oil. Keep them away from weird tiles and needing to be accurate with their abilities, and they can rip the enemy team apart.

### Flora

The trees, the flowers, the vines, the mushrooms; these demons are usually either plant-life or overrun with it, and are very adept at absorbing the damage they deal to demons, absorbing blood as nutrients. They will also absorb all light and water moves. However, they're extremely susceptible to fire, and their entire being just seems perfect to fuel the flames; perhaps keep a water demon around to put them out and heal them, when the time comes.

### Wind

These demons are usually winged and extremely agile; highly likely to have the ability to fly, which translates into the ability to fly over enemies and allies, a massive tactical bonus; they're also unaffected by tiles, a boon but also a bane. Just don't get them drenched or oily; hard to fly when you're coated in oil.

### Glass

Amongst the more unusual demons are the glass demons; they either have glass equipment or are entirely made up of glass. As you may know, glass is extremely brittle, and this is true for these demons as well: they're all physically-oriented but the most frail demons, with the most type weaknesses (mostly revolving around physical types, like metal, earth, muscle, and so forth.) However, to compensate, they have very unique and versatile moveset, allowing them to heal and damage from afar using audial moves, and to create substitution golems to die on their behalf. They also have the most immunities of any type, generally unaffected by any psychic types (dark, light, mind, and so forth.)

### Earth

These demons are made up of stone, dirt, sand, and other earthy materials. They're about as rugged as they come, with the exception of metal, and weigh a ton; so, usually they're going to be able to endure very well, but also won't be able to move far anyway. They make for very ideal front-line blockers; their health pools are more balanced compared to muscle, and their strength is not as high, but their defense and resistance is top-notch, with relatively high elemental strengths. If you just need a wall in battle somewhere to curb the enemy's movement, they're great for the job.

### Metal

Even more than earth, these demons are heavy-duty, weigh a ton, and can't move very far. However, their resistances are a little different; while earth is good at defending against mostly anything, metal is better at stopping physical damage than psychic damage, and their psychic abilities are typically very poor. While earth is better at stopping fire, ice and water, metal is weak to all three (and will rust if hit with water.) However, metal is a better fit against stopping muscle and flora types, whereas earth is weak to both.

### Magic

They have the special capacity to not be affected by the super-elemental limitations; they have moves of just about every elemental type, and can use them all to their maximum effectiveness, allowing them to bypass just about any strength and exploit any weakness an enemy might have if the player is savvy to the elements. However, because of their stretched talents, they're masters of none, and there are hardly any purely magic moves. They also tend to be pretty frail, so keep them away from the frontline.

### Music

These demons primarily work with psychic moves, and take advantage of the audial stretch that stems from noise; their moves usually span the entire battlefield, allowing them to be useful no matter where they're positioned. However, due to the nature of noise, they're not that great at dealing damage, better off inflicting status effects and healing allies (though very loud noises can indeed harm opponents, at least their ears.) Though they may not necessarily be weak to attacks, their nature allows them to function well anywhere, so it may be best to keep them away from danger anyway.

### Majesty

They are masters of mental manipulation, making themselves appear very important and influential (whether or not they really are is a separate matter.) Their greatest strength lies in empowering their allies and planting doubt into the enemies, as otherwise they usually aren't very strong independently, apt to die with among the lowest health pools of any type. Almost exclusively a support type, unless the demon has another type that gives them a little more firepower.

### Phantom

When enough souls cluster together without any reaper to claim them, they become strong enough to exist as an entity in themselves; technically not dead, but technically not living. These spirit beings may move through other demons, allied or opposed, and are entirely unaffected by all physical moves (but consequently, cannot deal any damage using physical moves.) Thus, they are a purely psychic type--one could say they don't really exist at all...

### Cosmos

Great manipulators of time and space, with the power to move planets, meteors and stars: their moves usually have some charge-up period before their full wrath is unleashed (it takes a bit to move around in outer-space); by that time, the enemy may have moved out of the way already, but on the other hand, this forces them to avoid certain spaces, allowing the player to better control the flow of enemies in the battlefield. Just make sure you don't accidentally walk into your own traps!

### Nightmare

These demons make great use of their disturbing appearances to affect the mental states of their opponents, i.e. inflicting the "terror" status, or causing enemies to focus on them before all other allies. They feast on the dreams of their enemies, leaving behind just nightmares, enabling them to heal themselves while dealing damage; psychic vampires. Shine a bit of light on them, and they scurry; true creatures of the night.

### Divine

Equipped with unwavering righteousness and a strong sense of justice, these demons are usually (fallen) angels of some sort, and seek to vanquish all those they consider to be evil (the fact that they are demons is lost on them, as they are fully convinced that they are holy creatures battling for all that is good.) They frequently double-up as both warriors and healers, and are especially effective against evil-looking demons, such as nightmare and devil types; however, their loyalties are to God, and not you, so keep your eyes on them; they are apt to be the ones who lead your own team against you.

### Water

Cleansing demons, their moves usually wash away other status effects, like oil, aflame, bleed, freeze, and so forth, leaving behind the "drench" status which does little more than slow down the opponent slightly, and make them more susceptible to energy attacks. Their agility increases when traveling on water tiles, and their willpower is restored while standing on a water tile. They absorb all water moves used against them, and are immune to "drench". Fire types hate them, flora types love them; in fact they pair very well with flora types, as all of their moves heal floras and take care of their fire weakness, but are virtually inept when floras are the enemy.

### Light

Good-natured, light-bearing demons; unlike the misguided divine, light is actually interested in improving things, and primarily serve as buffers and healers; equivalent to a "white mage" in other games. A nice hug, blowing a kiss, giving compliments; these are the hallmarks of the light demon. However, they also have the ability to manipulate light itself, and frequently emit light; they use this to create illusions which have a variety of different unique effects, and are usually capable of lighting dark places. They're great at exposing the nasty exploits of both divine and devil types, but are also very off-put by the enigma of the dark type's mind.

### Devil

Red skin, horns, a pointed tail, pitchforks, maniacal laughter, and a cruel sense of humor; these demons are the most stereotypically demonic of all demons, and truly exemplify their worst behaviors, making no attempt at hiding their sadism and egos. They will lead you on, just to break your heart; they will point and laugh if you trip and fall; they will monologue until you fall asleep. Supervillains would be envious of their narcissistic exploits. Consequently, due to their inability to take any other creature seriously, divine types are greatly wounded by their treatment and laughter, causing each to go at one another's throats at all times of day (partly why God had to put one in time-out; figures he'd favor the bigger ass-kisser.) Devil types are highly versatile, great for offense and support, coming with a number of healing abilities of their own, making them oddly similar to divine types.

### Blood

Competing with nightmare for most horrifying, these demons know how to manipulate blood and may even be sustained by it in conjunction with or in lieu of souls; they may inflict other demons with high blood pressure, causing clots and heart-attacks; they may coat themselves in blood, either their own or an opponent's, as a means of restoring willpower; they may throw their own blood at an enemy to inflict "disturbed". Their heart pool is usually going up and down like a rollercoaster as they straddle death for maximizing damage, a very high-risk high-reward type.

### Dark

These demons usually at least look attractive on the surface, but what goes on in their minds could drive any man to madness. These demons are masters at inflicting negative status effects on the enemy, and are stuck in a death-spiral themselves; they may form suicide pacts with their own allies as a form of improving their stats, and drink to restore what minuscule willpower they have. So, it may be best to keep these guys away from direct combat, to throw insults from afar.