The following is a list of elements in Final Fantasy VII. The element of one's attack determines the damage it deals depending on the target's weakness or resistance; if the target absorbs the element of the attack, they gain health rather than lose it. Many Summon and Magic Materia have innate elements that apply effects on the wearer when coupled with the Elemental Materia.
Magical elements[]
Fire[]
One of the earliest accessible elements. It is the progenitor of the Fire line of spells. Flare is another fire-elemental spell. Its summons are Ifrit and Phoenix, and its Enemy Skills are Flame Thrower and Beta. When Vincent is in Galian Beast form, he may use the fire-elemental Beast Flare. Kujata, Typhon, and Magic Breath also make use of it. Fire Fang, Fire Veil, and Molotov are Fire-elemental battle items.
Ice[]
One of the two initial elements the player can access, as Cloud comes equipped with two elemental Materia. It is the eponymous element of Ice spells. Freeze is another ice-elemental spell. Shiva is its summon and is the first elemental summon available. Kujata, Typhon, and Magic Breath also make use of it. Antarctic Wind and Ice Crystal are Ice-elemental battle items.
Ice is most useful against Fire enemies.
It can be protected against with the Aurora Armlet and Ice Ring, along with other methods.
Lightning[]
One of the two initial elements the player can access, as Cloud comes equipped with two elemental Materia. Its standard spell line is Bolt, its summon is Ramuh, and its learnable Enemy Skill is Trine. When Vincent is in Death Gigas form, he may use the lightning-elemental Livewire. Kujata, Typhon, and Magic Breath also make use of it. Bolt Plume, Dragon Fang, and Swift Bolt are Lightning-elemental battle items.
Lightning tends to work well against machines and aquatic enemies, making it useful for the prolific amount of machines in the early game.
It can be warded with the Bolt Armlet and Bolt Ring, among other means.
Earth[]
The element is accessible after leaving Midgar. Final Fantasy VII expanded Quake into a full line of damage spells. The Break spell and Yuffie's Limit Landscaper are earth-elemental attacks. Titan is the summon representative. Typhon also uses it in its attack. Earth Drum and Earth Mallet are Earth-elemental battle items.
Earth misses against most flying enemies, and due to the mechanics of the elemental system, so will any multi-elemental attack with Earth as a component.
Quake spells hit the hardest of all standard elemental spells.
Earth can be guarded with the Escort Guard, which can only be worn by men, and Tetra Elemental, which also guards against Fire, Ice, and Lightning.
Poison[]
The last element obtainable before leaving Midgar. It is closely linked with the Poison status. Bio is a full line of spells, and while there is no dedicated summon, Hades inflicts various statuses, including Poison. Deadly Waste and M-Tentacles are Poison-elemental battle items.
Poison damage and the Poison status are interlinked. If an unit is immune to Poison damage, it cannot be inflicted with Poison status, even if it has no resistance. If a unit is immune to Poison status, it is also immune to Poison damage. Enemies healed by Poison gain a Regen-like healing from Poison status, which can also be exploited by the player using appropriate protections. This can allow a party to stack Poison with Regen for fast sustained healing.
Bio is useful for its ability to both inflict Poison and because it does more damage than Fire, Ice, or Bolt, though less than Quake.
Poison can be defended against using various accessories and other methods, including the Star Pendant, Ribbon, and Poison Ring.
Gravity[]
Gravity lends its element to the Demi line of spells, expanding it to three tiers. It deals damage based on current HP, as well as enemy resistance. This means that an enemy weak (double damage) to Gravity can be immediately killed with Demi2. Barret's Limit Mindblow and the Enemy Skill Laser are also Gravity-elemental. Graviball and T/S Bomb are Gravity-elemental battle items.
Gravity is ineffective against most bosses, but tends to be effective against flying or otherwise airborne enemies.
The Minerva Band can defend against Gravity.
Water[]
Like Wind, Water lacks a proper spell line, but it does have a summon, Leviathan. The powerful Enemy Skill Aqualung provides reliable access to Water damage once gained. Dragon Scales is a battle item that deals Water damage.
Water can be defended with the Water Ring and other methods.
Wind[]
Unlike other elements, Wind lacks a standard spell line. Wind is inaccessible until the Choco/Mog and Elemental Materia are obtained. Choco/Mog's Materia is Wind-elemental, even though both its attacks are non-elemental. Typhon, likewise, is a Wind-elemental Materia despite the attack doing Fire/Ice/Lightning/Earth damage. The only Wind-elemental spell accessible to the player is Tornado late into the game. The player can also use the Wind-elemental battle item Bird Wing.
Wind proves effective against many flying enemies. Adding it to a Long Range attack can be useful for certain enemies.
Holy[]
Because of the story importance of Holy, the Holy ability is not available to the player like it is many other Final Fantasy games. The only means of inflicting Holy damage in the game is Alexander, and there are no Holy enemy abilities.
Both the Minerva Band and Ziedrich defend against the Holy element, although the former can only be worn by women. The only time this would come into play is if the player or a confused character turned a Holy attack onto the party.
Restorative[]
A special curative element, it is unique among the magical elements in that no Materia has it as an element, including Restore. Using Restorative spells against undead enemies causes them damage due to them having a positive resistance value. Most units in the game are set to -100% (Absorb), which causes Restorative magic to heal them. The standard lines of spells are the Cure and Life lines, with Regen offering a notable special case.
Restorative as an element cannot be resisted, but it is impacted by MBarrier status like any other damage, which reduces healing damage as well as normal damage. The Ziedrich, notable for protecting against nearly all damage types, does not reduce Restorative damage.
Hidden[]
Never officially named, and also referred to as the "10th Element." While the original Japanese version had several enemy attacks using it, later versions reassigned the elements for all of them that do damage, with the notable exception of Ultimate Weapon's Ultima Beam. Aeris's Limit Breaks also use it.
The element can be defended by pairing an Elemental Materia with a Materia which does not possess an element. Unlike the physical damage types, the Ziedrich does not protect against it.
Physical elements[]
Cut[]
A physical damage type associated with blades and slashing. It is the sole damage type for Cloud's weaponry and is also possessed by a few of Barret's and one of Cid's.
Physical damage types generally have no enemies which are weak or resist them, and can all be resisted through the same means, making them mostly superfluous.
Hit[]
A physical damage type associated with blunt force trauma. It is the sole damage type for Aeris and Cait Sith's weaponry, the damage type for all but one of Red XIII's weapons, the damage type for most of Tifa's weaponry, including all of her gloves and knuckles, two of Barret's weapons, and one of Cid's.
Physical damage types generally have no enemies which are weak or resist them, and can all be resisted through the same means, making them mostly superfluous.
Punch[]
A physical damage type representing piercing attacks, as "to punch a hole." It is the damage type of most of Cid's weaponry, and both Barret and Tifa have three weapons which have it. In particular, it is used for Tifa's claw weapons.
Physical damage types generally have no enemies which are weak or resist them, and can all be resisted through the same means, making them mostly superfluous. However, some enemies, such as the Sahagin and Desert Sahagin are automatically hit by Punch attacks, with no chance to evade.
Shoot[]
A physical damage type associated with ranged attacks, and closely linked to the Long Range property. It is the sole damage type for Vincent and Yuffie's weaponry, the damage type of most of Barret's, and is possessed by one of Red XIII's.
Physical damage types generally have no enemies that are weak or resist them, and can all be resisted through the same means, making them mostly superfluous. However, the strong connection between Shoot and Long Range make this damage type particularly useful for the party, as it allows party members to attack with the same damage from the back row and to hit out-of-reach enemies.
Shout[]
The final physical damage type, which represents sonic attacks, though most of these have energy-like animations. Notable examples include Cloud's Blade Beam Limit Break and Ruby Weapon's Ruby Ray. Despite Cait Sith using megaphones, they do not deal this damage type, as the attack comes from punching on command for Hit damage rather than attacking the enemy with the sound.
No enemies have an affinity with Shout, and it is the only of the physical elements that Ziedrich does not halve.
Other damage types[]
Some enemies also have an "elemental" weakness to non-elemental effects, specifically status effects. Attacks utilizing these statuses will behave just like an elemental effect in these cases, even if the enemy is immune to the status. These have no bearing on the party.
Confusion[]
Confusion can be applied to a weapon attack by pairing Added Effect with Mystify, Contain, or Hades.
Sleep[]
Sleep can be applied to a weapon attack by pairing Added Effect with Seal or Hades.
Death[]
Death can be applied to a weapon attack by pairing Added Effect with Destruct or Odin.
Frog/Small[]
Frog and small can both be applied to a weapon attack by pairing Added Effect with Transform or Hades.
Silence[]
Silence can be applied to a weapon attack by pairing Added Effect with Seal or Hades.
Stop/Slow[]
Stop can be applied to a weapon attack by pairing Added Effect with Choco/Mog or Time. Slow can only be applied to a weapon attack by pairing Added Effect with Time
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