Magic and fiends have properties called elements. There are four elements: fire, ice, lightning, and water. Fire and ice are opposed, as are lightning and water.

Lulu's tutorial on elements (the tutorial does not mention holy).

The following is a list of elements in Final Fantasy X. There are five types—fire, lightning, water, ice, and holy—as opposed to eight as in previous series's games (earth, wind, poison, and dark are absent). The four types are the main elements and holy is a niche element with only few associating abilities.

In the early game, Lulu is the party member who focuses on dealing elemental damage and targeting foes' elemental weaknesses the most often with her black magic, but later on in the game the player gains various ways for dealing elemental damage and the ability to customize equipment abilities. Other ways to deal elemental damage include weapons' strike abilities, Lulu's Fury, Wakka's elemental reels, Rikku's Use items and Mix, Yuna's aeons, and Kimahri's Ronso Rages.

Mechanics[]

Each enemy unit and aeon has fixed a set of elemental affinities. Most of the time, elements will remove a standard amount of damage; however, units can be weak to it and take 50% more damage, they can halve the damage, resist it and lose no health, or they can absorb it, which means they gain health from the element. Enemies defeated by an attack that targets their elemental weakness are typically overkilled.

Player characters' elemental affinity is dictated by auto-abilities present in weapons and armor. Weapons deal elemental damage if they have a "strike" ability. e.g. Tidus's Brotherhood weapon becomes a water-elemental weapon once it gains the Waterstrike ability. There is no "holystrike"; to do holy damage, the player needs to use the Holy spell or Blessed Gem item.

A single weapon can have multiple elemental strikes and the damage bonus for hitting an elemental weakness (+50%) stacks when an enemy is weak to multiple elements and the player's weapon hits multiples of these weaknesses. For example, the YKT-63 and YAT-99 enemies on the Bevelle Highbridge are weak to both fire and water, so having a weapon with Firestrike & Waterstrike deals x2.25 damage. Crystal weapons have all four elemental strikes, making them best for targeting enemy weaknesses specifically. Weakness takes priority over immunity/resistance/absorb, and so a crystal weapon will be effective on any enemy that does not resist all elements.

"Strike" weapons are better against an enemy's weakness that only using Strength+% weapons, as hitting a target's weakness is +50% damage and the best physical damage boost is Strength+20%. Different types of boosts do stack, however. (The Strength+% does not actually boost the character's Strength stat, but the final damage dealt by the weapon.) However, an elemental strike offers no damage boost against enemies that are not weak to the element and would be a detriment against enemies that resist that element. Strike abilities also will not affect every ability, such as Overdrives, which will remain "special" damage rather than physical or elemental.

Armor can protect against or absorb elements with "ward" (half damage), "proof" (no damage), and "eater" abilities (healed by the associated element). Absorbing an element and this gaining health counts as healing for the Healer Overdrive Mode. Another way to protect against specific elements is with Nul-spells, and even by strategically summoning an aeon that absorbs a specific element. There are no armor abilities or Nul-state that would protect against holy.

Equipment can be changed mid-battle, meaning the player can keep equipment with "strike", "ward", "proof", and "eater" for various elements in stock and then swap when needed.

The Sensor ability shows an enemy's affinity to the four basic elements—fire (red), lightning (yellow), water (blue), and ice (white)—but not their affinity to holy, which the player can only discover through trial and error.

The game internally has 8 elements (3 of which are unused), but enemies also have a special property that renders them immune to any type of ability whose effect is based on their current/maximum HP/MP. Gravity is added as an element in the sequel, Final Fantasy X-2.

Fire[]

Fire is the opposing element of ice.

Fire has three tiers of basic spells: Fire, Fira, and Firaga. The spell and status effect NulBlaze protects the unit from fire-elemental attacks. Firestrike adds fire element to the party member's weapon and the armor abilities that protect against it are Fire Ward, Fireproof, and Fire Eater.

Desert enemies tend to be resilient against fire attacks. A notable exponent of the fire element is the Bomb, who often absorbs the element and utilizes fire attacks. Beasts and plant enemies are usually weak against fire. The fire summon, Ifrit, attacks with Hellfire as his Overdrive and innately absorbs all fire-elemental damage. Wakka can use fire through his elemental reels and Kimahri can learn Fire Breath as a Ronso Rage.

Lightning[]

Lightning is the opposing element of water.

Lightning has three tiers of basic spells: Thunder, Thundara, and Thundaga. Dark Ixion's Thundaja attack is non-elemental. The spell and status effect NulShock protects the affected from lightning-elemental attacks.

Most aquatic enemies are weak against lightning. Mechanical enemies are also usually weak against lightning. The lightning summon, Ixion, attacks with Thor's Hammer and other lightning-elemental attacks. The weapon ability Lightningstrike adds the lightning element to a weapon. The armor abilities that protect the wearer against lightning damage are Lightning Ward, Lightningproof, and Lightning Eater.

The Thunder Plains has many lightning-aspected enemies.

Water[]

Water is the opposing element of lightning, thus being especially good on the Thunder Plains region.

Water has three tiers of basic spells: Water, Watera, and Waterga. There are also various other ways of dealing water damage, such as with Waterstrike weapon ability and water-elemental gem items. The spell and status effect NulTide protects the unit from water-elemental attacks. When Waterstrike is added to Tidus's Brotherhood weapon as part of the story, its weapon model in battle begins to emit bubbles, but no other weapon gets a special effect from an elemental strike ability.

The player can protect against Water damage with the armor abilities Water Ward, Waterproof, and Water Eater.

Ice[]

Ice is the opposing element of fire.

Ice has three tiers of basic spells: Blizzard, Blizzara, and Blizzaga. The spell and status effect NulFrost protects the unit from ice-elemental attacks.

Enemies that have an affinity to ice usually dwell in snowfields of the Mt. Gagazet. The ice summon, Shiva, attacks with Diamond Dust. Rikku can use ice gems for frosty damage and Wakka can use Ice Reels via his Overdrive.

The weapon ability that makes one's attacks ice-elemental is Icestrike. The armor abilities that protect the wearer against ice are Ice Ward, Iceproof, and Ice Eater.

Holy[]

Holy is a rare element, and Holy affinities are not shown when an enemy is scanned. However, in some cases it can be visible: usually when using equipment with Sensor, a particular line of alignment (weak, resist, etc) will only show up if at least one element falls under it; however, if the enemy has an alignment to Holy, but lacks the same alignment to any other element, that line will still show up but appear blank. This only works with Sensor, as Scan always shows all lines regardless.

The Holy spell is a higher level offensive spell affiliated to this element. It is the only purely damaging Wht Magic spell. The only other way to deal Holy damage is with the Blessed Gem item. Holy has no opposing element and there is no Holy-elemental aeon.