Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:Elements2.gif|link=Kingdom of Loathing
{{quote|''"If there's one thing I know, it's [[Pokémon|water beats fire. But grass beats water, and fire beats grass]]. Good God, it's like a never-ending circle!"''|'''Daichi''', ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh GX the Abridged Series]]''}}
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* Metal
Unlike the Western elements, the Eastern elements are not in a static arrangement of opposition and alliance, but define a process or cycle that runs along a five-pointed star (and may well have influenced those European systems that also employ five elements).
The name of this trope comes from the tendency for each element, regardless of originating magical system, to be strong against some of the other elements, and weak against others. Which is which greatly depends on the individual universe and the system(s) from which the alchemical symbolism was lifted. And often, the ''interpretation'' of an element either in or out of context can change its attributes or purposes. (As can the needs of the story!) The complexity of the system gets ''really'' fun when you come up with a coexisting "antimatter" set of elements directly opposed to the normal ones.
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Common strengths/weaknesses often include (but are not limited to):
* [[Playing
* [[An Ice Person|Ice]]
** Ice is also often effective against reptiles and amphibians who naturally have a poor tolerance for extreme cold.
* [[Dishing Out Dirt|Earth]]
* [[Shock and Awe|Electricity]]
** Electricity can also be viewed as divine, and be effective against the undead for this reason (even if normal Light is not).
** Can be pretty useless against grass elements, earth, rock, and every other related to mineral or with grounding capabilities.
** Air and electricity can be the same element in some [[RPG
* [[Making a Splash|Water]]
* [[Blow You Away|Air]]
* [[Green Thumb|Nature]]
* [[Time Master|Time]]
* [[Gravity Master|Gravity]]
* [[Light'Em Up|Light]] and [[Casting a Shadow|Dark]] are usually conflicting forces who are equally strong against each other, but weak as a defense. Light is usually effective against [[Revive Kills Zombie|the undead]] and other evil beings such as demons, while Dark is effective against [[Light Is Not Good|"good" beings such as angels]]. Light and Dark may be the same element if the MCs are [[True Neutral]] or often to equal on footing to be strong or weak vs. each other in some settings; other times they are portrayed as weak/strong to each other equally.
Elements are almost always immune or resistant to themselves; and can sometimes even [[Feed It
The magic-specific subtrope of [[Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors]]. See [[Poor Predictable Rock]] for when people totally fail to recognize the implications of this system. See also [[Field Power Effect]] for terrain and conditions that help one element and hinders others. May result in a [[Shapeshifter Showdown]]. Bypassed by wearing a [[Kryptonite-Proof Suit]]. Not to be confused with [[Fire, Ice, Lightning]], which is only sometimes a case of Elemental RPS. Contrast [[Inverse Law of Complexity to Power]], where this trope is applied between fundamental and abstract elements.
{{examples
== Anime and Manga ==
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** Neptune gets ocean-themed water powers because of the Japanese word for Neptune: "Sea king star/planet". Same goes for Uranus ("Sky king star") and Pluto ("Dark ruler star"). Saturn's meaning might be a bit more obscure ("Soil star") but it's related to the whole idea of dying, while Sailor Moon is her opposite (rebirth) in the S arc.
* ''[[Naruto]]'' has this in their elemental jutsus. It's a somewhat different cycle though (element points to one it beats) Fire-->Wind-->Lightning-->Earth-->Water-->Fire.) Also, this only appears to apply to the effect of jutsu on each other, not with regular materials.
** To elaborate, each elemental jutsu has its own "theme"; for instance, Earth jutsu are mostly defensive (making walls, for example), and that plays into how they work. Fire attacks feast on Wind, so if you counter Fire with Wind you will simply make the Fire more powerful; Lightning disrupts and tears through Earth; Earth blocks Water; and Water obviously snuffs Fire out. Wind v Lightning is yet to be demonstrated, but presumably involves redirection. Other elemental clashes can still have bad
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', a number of occasions show up that set two Devil Fruits against each other with surprising, [[Magic
** Furthermore, even non-elemental powers can be counteracted by others. Persona's Negative Hollow doesn't work on negative people, like Usopp. Hawkeye Mihawk's sword skills can't do a thing to {{spoiler|Buggy's [[Detachment Combat|Chop-Chop powers]].}}▼
▲*** As of Chapter 573, we have learned of such an effect with Marine Admiral Akainu and his power to become magma: {{spoiler|Magma has an advantage over regular fire. There is actual science behind this, as lava has both heat and mass (effectively smothering a weaker flame with its own) hotter than normal fire.}}
* In ''[[Bleach]]'', when Harribel reveals her water abilities, Hitsugaya proudly declares that he wins at
▲** Furthermore, even non-elemental powers can be counteracted by others. Persona's Negative Hollow doesn't work on negative people, like Usopp. Hawkeye Mihawk's sword skills can't do a thing to {{spoiler|Buggy's Chop-Chop powers.}}
▲* In ''[[Bleach]]'', when Harribel reveals her water abilities, Hitsugaya proudly declares that he wins at [[Elemental Rock Paper Scissors]]: No mater how much water she throws at him, he can just turn it into ice and use it against her. {{spoiler|Harribel reveals it's really more of a tie, because she can attack with HOT water, allowing her to turn his ice into water and use it against him}}. ''Then'' {{spoiler|Hitsugaya seems to ''re''-negate that water}} and prepares to finish the duel by... {{spoiler|[[When All You Have Is a Hammer|using more ice]].}}
* Interestingly, the five ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' Gundams were each given an elemental association in the design phase: Deathscythe is Wind, Heavyarms is Fire, Sandrock is Earth, and Shenlong is Water. Wing is unmentioned, but as the "unifying" aspect of the team as well as the only dedicated flyer, probably represents Void.
* The original Mew Mews symbolise the four basic Western elements (Mint = Air, Lettuce/Retasu = Water, Pudding/Purin = Earth, and Zakuro = Fire), with Ichigo symbolising Light.
* An episode of the Toei ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!'' animé had Yami Yugi playing a magical game where he and his opponent controlled dragons that represented the five Eastern elements. A bit more complex than most examples, since the dragons not only had dominance against other elements; they could also be joined with complementary elements to gain more strength, like in the Chinese philosophy of the five elements.
* ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' averts this trope for the most part. [[Hot
* In ''[[
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** ''[[Spider-Man]]'' villains Electro, Sandman, and Hydro-Man have all been defeated by being doused with water and/or some chemical compound that negatively affects them, like wet cement.
** The [[X-Men]] hero Iceman once defeated the Human Torch despite the apparent weakness, using his ice powers to create steam and water vapors around Torch and extinguish his flames. Obviously, The Torch was struck dumb.
** The ''[[
*** This is much more more fun if you realize that pure oxygen and pure hydrogen tend to explode when combined.
*** Vapor and X-Ray were both members of the U-Foes, a group of villains who tried to get superpowers by copying Reed Richards' flawed space flight. They ended up as direct analogues of the Fantastic Four (but evil, and therefore punchable), making them Elementals twice removed.
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** A [[Goth]] girl became able to tap into the power of crystals. (Water, somehow)
** A [[The Hedonist|party girl]] harnessed "hot" energy. (Fire)
** A drifter who wandered into the same diner as the others gained the ability to control machines. (Air, again kind of indirect)
* The Golden Age [[Green Lantern]] has an inverted version of the East Asian elemental relationships. He used the element of fire, was strong against metals, but was weak against wood.
** The modern [[Green Lantern]] comics have this with the emotional/color spectrum rather than elements. For instance, Willpower/Green rings are vulnerable to Fear/Yellow rings, which are vulnerable to Hope/Blue rings, which depend on the aid of Willpower/Green rings to actually do anything.
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== Fan Works ==
* In ''[[
== Literature ==
* Magic in ''[[
* In one of Piers Anthony's ''[[
* In ''[[Codex Alera]]'', it's less rock paper scissors and more three pairs of opposing elements: Fire vs Water, Air vs Earth, and Wood vs Metal. Keeping a craftsman with only an Earth Fury suspended in mid-air saps their powers, burying an Aircrafter saps theirs, dunking a Firecrafter in water or surrounding a Watercrafter with fire will cancel them out, and putting a Woodcrafter in a metal box will cancel out theirs. It's never seen, but it can be assumed that stuffing a Metalcrafter into a wooden crate would drain their powers. An exceptional craftsman can have multiple elemental pet Furies of varying types, though, which makes keeping them prisoner or nullifying them much more difficult.
* [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Elemental Masters]]'' series has four elements: Air, Water, Fire, Earth. The opposing pairs are Water-Fire and Air-Earth. This was particularly grim in ''Phoenix and Ashes''.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* The [[Time Travel]]-laden [[The Verse|'Verse]] shared by the ''[[
* [[Downplayed Trope]] in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (
** Averted in the actual card game itself, but some of the earlier video game adaptations used two tiers of Elemental RPS based on eleven elements: The first one is, in advantageous order: Fire, Forest, Wind, Earth, Thunder, Water, and Fire. Then you have Shadow-->Light-->Evil-->Dreams-->Shadow. The eleventh element, Divine, had no type advantages or disadvantages. A monster with a superior Attribute will automatically win a battle regardless of actual stats.
* ''[[Battle Beasts]]'' had a similar gimmick, though initially, there were only three elements: Fire, Water, and Wood, in order of weakness. A fourth element was introduced later called the Sunburst that trumped the other three, but was so incredibly rare to find it might as well have been nonexistent.
* In ''[[Dungeons
** Basic ''[[Dungeons
** The para-elemental planes were:▼
*** Ice (Air & Water)▼
*** Magma (Fire & Earth)▼
** The positive quasi-elemental planes were:▼
** Several fansites have come up with quasi-para-elemental planes; the planar equivalent of [[Sailor Earth]].▼
** In D&D Minis, some attacks had an elemental damage type; resistance or immunity to that type would reduce or prevent said damage (e.g. Red Dragons being immune to fire-type damage). However, vulnerability would ''double'' the damage instead, such as casting a Fireball on a White Dragon.▼
▲** Basic ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' had "elemental dominance", as shown below. In conflicts between elemental beings, a creature whose element dominated its opponent's could inflict double damage and only took minimum damage in return.
*** Air has dominance over Water.
*** Water has dominance over Fire.
*** Fire has dominance over Earth.
*** Earth has dominance over Air.
** In AD&D1 and then at its most extreme in AD&D2, most prominently in ''[[Planescape]]'', this was taken a step further - to having the para-elemental planes between the "neighbour" elements and quasi-elemental planes between four primary elemental planesand a positive or negative energy plane. This also means a plane's composition varies with "cardinal directions" from one neighbour plane to another; Elemental planes have 4 neighbours (2 quasielemental and 2 para-elemental), Paraelemental 6 (2 elemental, 4 quasielemental) and Quasielemental also 6 (elemental, energy, 2 quasielemental and 2 para-elemental).
▲*** Ice (Air & Water)
▲*** Magma (Fire & Earth)
*** Ooze (Earth & Water). Most of it is too thick to breathe with gills, but somewhat transparent like murky water... just enough to let the travellers see all sorts of disgusting things while passing through various caustic, poisonous and/or diseased regions.
*** Smoke (Fire & Air). Where one can find assorted subtle flavours of "burning", "toxic" and "thick".
*** Lightning (Air + Positive). Doesn't blast everything all the time, but often enough. The Air side is called "Subdued Cacophony" - the rest is... not subdued.
*** Mineral (Earth + Positive). Made of crystals and gems, and with natives who don't like sneaky miners - if the plane itself won't [[Taken for Granite|turn the visitor into gem statue]] first.
*** Radiance (Fire + Positive). Considered one of the most beautiful places in the Multiverse and even has breathable air. Sight-seeing tourism is usually limited to the creatures capable of looking at it without being immediately blinded (it's ''all'' as bright as the midday sun) or fried a little later.
*** Steam (Water + Positive). Counterintuitively, it was cold and clammy rather than hot. Water-side turns into bubbly water, Positive-side to thin sparkling mist. The border with Lightning is called simply "Death Cloud". Ooze border is invitingly called "Realm of Cloying Fear", gradually turning from very stinky fog to oily paste.
*** Ash (Fire + Negative). Sucks out heat, and mostly kind of powdery. Fire-side it has cold flames that give no heat ''but still burn you'', Magma-side, ashes are hot, stinging and swirling and temperature gradients range from "extreme" to "ludicrous". Dust-side, it's hard to tell where's the border.
*** Dust (Earth) + Negative). Breathable with some sort of makeshift respirator, but everything (including living bodies) slowly disintegrates.
*** Salt (Water + Negative). All parts of it sucks moisture out of the visitors - not quite the salt you dine with, ranges from very brakish water on the Water side to solid rock salt to salty dust plains toward Vacuum, decaying salt mountains on Negative and highly corrosive bog of Stagnant Sea on the Ooze side. In case you can move through solid salt, it has hard and very sharp crystal inclusions making the travel less boring.
*** Vacuum (Air + Negative). Airless and mostly, well, empty.
** D&D3 turned on continuity-softening [[Yes Except No|indecisive]] path, trying to use Eastern elements by placing in the core damage type it called "Energy" and mix them with the existing material later. This led to many moments of either random shoehorning or "the same plus pointless complications".
▲** In D&D Minis, some attacks had an elemental damage type; resistance or immunity to that type would reduce or prevent said damage (e.g. Red Dragons being immune to fire-type damage). However, vulnerability would ''double'' the damage instead, such as casting a Fireball on a White Dragon.
** In the 4th edition, the genasi, who are each tied to an element, start out with the options of Earth, Wind, Storm, Fire, and Water, but can be expanded into any number of other "elements," such as sand, acid, dust, darkness…the list goes on.
▲** Several fansites have come up with quasi-para-elemental planes; the planar equivalent of [[Sailor Earth]].
* Rolemaster (ICE) has an Elemental book with twenty-two elements. In alphabetical order: Aether, Air, Chaos, Cold, Dark, Earth, Electrical, Fire, Gravity, Heat, Ice, Inertia, Light, Nether, Nexus, Plasma, Spirit, Time, Vacid, Vibration, Water, Wind. Vacid appears to be some sort of mixture of ten other elements.
* ''[[Magic:
** White (light, valor, order): White magic endears itself to game play that either revolves around numerous weak creatures all attacking at once or a few powerful champions which can be further augmented through various enchantments. White is also partial towards life restoring magic and spells which can prevent your opponent from doing damage to you or your creatures.
** Blue (water, deception, intelligence): Blue magic tends to be centered around counter spells and complicated alterations that are designed to affect the flow of the game. Blue also has the highest average number of flying creatures, though they are generally not well suited for direct combat and instead usually employ abilities which can deal damage indirectly or affect the flow of the game.
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** Green (life, nature, raw power) Green likes focusing on big and powerful creatures to attack opponents and stomp out enemy creatures. Its magic leans towards buffing up creatures and altering/gathering resources.
*** Each color also has defining weaknesses. Blue can stop spells before they even happen, but afterwards they have limited options. Black struggles to deal with things that don't live - artifacts, enchantments, and other black creatures. Red can smash physical things, but can't deal with enchantments, and has to burn down creatures with damage, so they have trouble with big creatures. Green's only way of dealing with creatures (well, non-flying creatures, anyway) is creature-on-creature combat. White can deal with almost any threat, but only partially; white removal either gives its opponent a way out, or makes an "equal" trade by destroying a broad class of things, including the White player's.
* Master of Magic adapts the same colours as ''[[Magic:
* In the table top roleplaying game ''[[Exalted]]'', there are five elements in creation, a combination of Western and Eastern, each associated with an elemental pole that effects the geography and condition of the area around it: Fire (South, a vast desert), Water (West, an endless ocean), Earth (Center, the tallest mountain in Creation), Air (North, a frozen plain), and Wood (East, a dense forest). In addition, the Underworld, while not having elemental poles, contains five "Corpse Elements", which are memories of the corporal elements, each having its analogue: Pyre Flame (Fire), Blood (Water), Bone (Wood), Ash (Air), and Void (Earth). Finally, the Primordial machine-god Autochthon's body has its own elemental poles, Lightning, Oil, Metal, Smoke, Steam, and Crystal.
* Steve Jackson Games' ''Illuminati!'' has players (various illuminati-level [[Chessmaster]] factions) vying for control of various groups of varying levels of oddness such as the Postal Service, the FBI, the KKK and Goldfish Fanciers, making these attempts either directly or through other groups they control. Groups have zero to three alignments, except for one group which has five. Most alignments are opposed to one other alignment, such as "Liberal" and "Conservative", "Government" and "Communist". "Criminal" has no opposition, and "Fanatic" is opposed to itself. To make the system more complex, trying to Control or Neutralize a group means attacks get a bonus when alignments match (except Fanatic) and a penalty when they oppose; attempting to Destroy (permanently remove) a group reverses the penalties and bonuses from alignment. Thankfully, players' core Illuminati groups themselves have no alignments.
* The HERO System is interesting in that it completely ''averts'' all aspects of this trope in the core mechanics. An attack, whether it's a laser beam, a fireball, or a freezing blast, all gets boiled down to a damage type (Normal or Killing) and a damage class (how many dice the attack rolls). This is all handled through a concept called "Special Effects," where all aspects of an attack aside from the mechanical core concepts are simple tertiary traits. The game still incorporates
== Toys ==
* Surprisingly averted in ''[[Bionicle]]'', besides light and shadow being equally weak to each other
* in the 80s, ''[[Battle Beasts]]'' had a heat sensitive sticker on their chests which, when rubbed would reveal their [[Elemental Powers|elemental strength]]. The symbols would represent either fire, wood or water and could be used in a rock, paper, scissors game — fire burns wood, wood absorbs water, water extinguishes fire. Later a [[Infinity
== Video Games ==
* ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' is probably the most famous example, with its [[Fire, Ice, Lightning]] spells beating ice, fire, and water enemies. The most common arrangement is to have eight elements: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Air, Water, Earth, Holy, and Darkness; Fire melts Ice freezes Water puts out Fire; Lightning electrocutes Water; flying monsters, if not Air-elemental themselves, are untouched by Earth spells but battered by Air magic; undead are Shadow and hence weak to Holy (including most forms of [[Revive Kills Zombie|healing magic]] - though not all monsters who are weak to Holy take damage from healing effects).
** Despite the fact that most of these elements show up in every game, due to the [[Fire, Ice, Lightning]] nature of the Black Magic spell system, some of these elements are quite difficult to access. For example, Water, Earth, and Wind spells are often completely unavailable to most of your party, or only available in the form of one summon or the occasional elemental-based weapon, while Holy and Shadow damage spells are often unavailable until the end of the game.
** Confusingly, in ''[[
*** Water's being effective against electricity is also notable in earlier games, including ''[[
**** Note that in the [[Final Fantasy]] series, there are no actual elemental weaknesses or strengths, but instead weaknesses and strengths are determined by the enemy. This makes it easier to, for example, make an enemy with weaknesses to everything instead of giving it one particular element.
** In ''[[
*** The first rule of being a [[Black Magic|Black Mage]] in Final Fantasy XI is to know this wheel. When preparing an attack, you then must observe the element of the day, the weather, the moon phase, know what skill chain is going to be used, and the elemental weakness and strengths of the mob that you are fighting; then nuke with your strongest Thunder-based spell.
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
* [[MARDEK]] RPG actually had a sensible explanation for all four interactions: Water extinguishes Fire, Fire consumes Air, Air erodes away Earth, and Earth absorbs Water.
* The console [[RPG]] ''[[
** It might be worth noting that in the original Japanese, the lightning element was always represented with the kanji for the heavens, hence why Crono got both the lightning-type Thunder spells and the light-based Shining (Luminaire).
** "Thunder stun all dinosaur! You know?"
** Interestingly, there are several in-game examples where
*** [[Justified Trope|That is because]] [[Completely Missing the Point|he always uses the one element that can get out of his barrier]].
** The use of the Shadow element in futuristic (and Magus') attacks might be justified by the fact that both of the characters who use it {{spoiler|come from a(n eventually) [[Incredibly Lame Pun|dead world]].}}
** The sequel, ''[[
*** Not to mention having two characters with the same innate is a bad idea when going up against bosses of the opposite, especially [[That One Boss|that bastard Miguel]].
* ''[[Pokémon]]'' has ''seventeen'' ([[Pokémon Red and Blue
** This series in particular has some rather odd elements. There are more "classic" RPG elements like [[Fire, Ice, Lightning|Fire, Ice, and Electric]], some oddball-but-still-sensible elements like Fighting, Poison, and Psychic, and some that evoke "Does that really count as an element?", such as Ghost and Bug. There is no particular pattern to what resists what (each type's weaknesses and resistances is basically independent of every other type) and there is no specific number of resistances that every type should have (Ice has one resistance and four weaknesses, Steel has a whopping eleven resistances, three weaknesses, and one immunity), and 'mons are often assigned two types that may or may not cancel or increase each others' weaknesses or resistances, resulting in a very intricate Rock Paper Scissors sequence. In fact, different elements don't even consistently work against themselves, as Fire-type Pokémon are resistant to Fire-type attacks, but Dragon-type Pokémon are extra-vulnerable to Dragon-type attacks.
** In ''FireRed'' and ''LeafGreen'', this is parodied in the Teachy TV's tutorial on Pokémon types, when the [[Witty Banter|Poké Dude]] interrupts his [[So Once Again the Day Is Saved|usual ending speech]] to say that he's a "cool-type", and compatible with "awesome-type" kids.
** An interesting fact: If there were a hypothetical Pokémon of all 17 types, it would only be weak to Rock-type moves, because there are more Pokémon types weak to it than Pokémon types that resist it, and that no types are immune to it.
** There are two monsters whose typing makes them have no weaknesses: Sableye and Spiritomb, who are Ghost/Dark. If the ability "Wonder Guard" is hacked onto either of them, they become immune to all damage, save for weather effects, entry hazards, residual poison damage, and (through a programming oversight) the move Fire Fang, among other things.
*** The fifth generation adds three more, kicking the total of Pokemon without weaknesses up to five. Tynamo, Eelektrik, and Eelektross are all pure Electric-type Pokemon, which are only weak to Ground-type attacks. However, all three of them have the Levitate ability, which makes the user inherently immune to Ground-type attacks.
* [[
* In [[Quest for Glory|Quest for Glory II]], you use fire to beat an earth elemental, earth to beat an air elemental, air to beat a water elemental, and water to beat a fire elemental.
* The ''[[
** In addition to extra damage, recent games in the series award extra combat actions to the player for exploiting enemy elemental weaknesses, and penalize actions for hitting monsters with elements they're immune to.
* Spoofed in the browser-based [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]] ''[[
** Well, the interesting thing is that "sleaze" seems to be defined as "oily" half the time. Bacon grease, motor oil, even [http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Halibut a rotting fish] (though that rather obviously also deals stench damage).
** There are also a few minor elements like Bad Spelling that aren't part of the cycle, and it's possible to discover that the game supposedly has a ''sixth'' major element: {{spoiler|Cuteness}}. Maybe.
** The KoL element chart looks rather similar to that of Wu Xing, noted at the top of the page. Granted, some of the elements aren't in their strictly original positions, but the same general shape applies.
* Exemplified in the ''[[Suikoden]]'' series of
** In ''[[Suikoden Tactics]]'' (also called ''Rhapsodia''), the elemental wheel is more strongly emphasized, with each character having an innate elemental alignment. Characters are healed (and their attack and defense go up) when standing on terrain whose alignment matches their own, and are harmed (and attack and defense go down) when on their "enemy" element. The chain goes: Fire < Water < Lightning < Earth < Wind < Fire. While some of the relationships make sense (Water/Fire/Lightning), some are more esoteric and seem to rely on science (earth being a ground for lightning/fire burning up oxygen).
* [[
** ''Battles of Prince of Persia'' also had a size triangle. Large > Medium > Small > Large. It also featured triangles based on weapon types, much like Fire Emblem.
* In addition to the weapons [[Tactical Rock
** In FE 9 and 10, there are thunder, fire, and wind spells that form a triangle (these are all part of anima in the other games). FE 10 took the trope to a new level by having another triangle for light, dark, and anima, and within anima another triangle of fire, thunder and wind.
*** Never mind the fact that, in FE 10, there were maybe ''ten'' users of Dark magic. And Micaiah (light-wielding maiden who was also one of the main characters of the game) faced precisely ''zero'' of these.
*** The Thunder/Fire/Wind triangle from FE 9 was originally present in FE 4 and 5; the Anima/Light/Dark triangle replaced it in the GBA games.
* Capcom likes this. ''[[
** Oddly, ''[[
** Most infamous example is Leviathan, who has a boss battle that takes place entirely underwater. And she's weak to fire, resistant to lightning.
* The old (Game Boy/SNES) series of ''Little Master'' SRPGs embodied this trope by featuring a three-element system, consisting
* In ''[[Guild Wars]]'', the elementalist profession has the four classical elemental disciplines to draw its spells from. Typically, earth has strong defenses, air does heavy lightning damage to individuals and small groups, water slows and inhibits your enemies, and fire does widespread damage to large groups. Unlike some other models, there's not as much opposition between the elements though. For example, one water spell causes increased damage and blindness to an enemy set on fire, while an earth spell renders a character nearly immobile, but immune to all but lightning damage.
** Some enemies do take more or less damage from some damage types, but overall the difference is minor. Rangers also have a bonus + 30 armor to elemental damage.
*** Destroyers are an exception, in that they're immune to the Burning condition.
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'', the elements are Fire, Frost, Shock (the three most prominent and obvious ones), Poison (sort of), and normal [[Magick
** Every magical effect is considered to be Magicka, even if it is also fire or frost. So being vulnerable or able to resist magicka allows one to resist most magical effects, even if they have their own elements.
** ''The Elder Scrolls'' games haven't really employed Elemental Rock Paper Scissors that much, except with respective Daedra, atronaches (Daggerfall), and golems (Arena). All but two races experience at least one natural resistance but this is typically negligible during normal gameplay, unless it is the general resistance to magic type.
* ''[[
* The combat for ''Arcana'' on the Super NES was centered on the idea of elemental strengths and weaknesses. Several spells either affected an element onto the target, changed the target to a given elemental alignment, or even combined several elements together to make spells that could affect multiple weaknesses; these were strangely given the name "Attribute X", with the X being the power level of the spell. The game based not only its gameplay but its world mythology around the interplay of the four elements. It also subverted some of the typical expectations of
* ''The [[Legend of Dragoon]]'''s cast of characters are all of a specific elemental
** There's also a neutral element, mostly possessed by enemies. {{spoiler|I believe Dart has this in his Divine Dragoon form.}}
* ''[[
* ''[[Lords of Magic]]'' has 8 elements representing 8 factions in an all-out war. They were:
** Order: Knights, civilization.
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** Earth: Dwarves, tradition.
** Water: Merfolk, amazons?
* ''[[Dinosaur King]]'' is quite literally
* In ''[[Jump Super Stars]]'', power beats knowledge beats laughter beats power.
* The game ''Kartia'' had a variant using the "qualities" of creatures you could summon, which were Common, Doll, and Shadow. Common beats Doll, ''et cetera''. For those who couldn't keep the dynamic straight, these creatures also had a symbol by their name: rock, paper, or scissors.
* The ''[[Tales
** Tales of Legendia had Fire-Ice, Lightning-Earth, and Dark-Water/Holy, which each being strong and weak toward each other. Of course, certain enemies were strong to both in the pair...
** Tales of Vesperia and Tales of the Abyss only uses Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Light and Dark.
*** The odd man out for Tales of the Abyss is sound.
* ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'' uses this for its main trio of [[Eldritch Abomination]] gods and the magic associated with them, color-coded complete with which color beats which other in the same way as the starter trios in Pokémon, only red represents matter/strength, blue represents magic, and green represents sanity. There is also a fourth god and color, purple and the rough equivalent of "nuke" in Elemental Rock Paper Scissors.
** It's slightly more complex than that, though. Though for you, the powers are a simple RPS chain, for enemies they have actual gameplay effects. Red enemies regenerate and deal ludicrous physical damage, and take a lot of hits on top of that. Blue enemies tend to have odd special attacks- blue zombies explode if not decapitated, for instance- and deal magic damage in addition to physical damage. Green enemies are weak physically, but deal sanity damage and aren't really affected by the loss of limbs or heads- this only removes their ability to deal physical damage with the limb in quesiton. And your purple damage doesn't really deal extra damage, but it causes the metaphysical equivalent of poison, which grinds enemies, slowly but surely, to dust.
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* The many hundreds of Divine Beasts in ''Jade Cocoon 2'' each belong to one of four elements; Fire, Wind, Water or Earth. Each element has its own specialties and attributes. Fire beasts generally have high Strength and Wisdom (measures of the strength of Skill and Magic attacks, respectively) and powerful Skill (melee) and Magic attacks, and are the strongest attackers. Wind beasts usually have high Speed (the beasts with the highest Speed value attack first) and a lot of special attacks (which induce status effects, like poison and sleep). Water beasts, as well as having some potent Magic attacks, also possess healing spells for restoring the HP and MP of your Divine Beasts and curing status effects, and are generally resistant to special attacks. Earth beasts specialise in defence, with high Vitality and Spirit (which dictate a Beast's Skill and Magic defence, respectively) and a variety of buffs (such as Defence and Speed increases), defensive spells (like damage-absorbing walls) and impressive attacks. As a rule of thumb, Fire's high attack power beats Water and Wind's low HP, Wind's high Speed and status effects beat Earth's general sluggishness and susceptibility to special attacks, Water's healing spells and resistance to special attacks beat Fire and Wind's primary abilities, and Earth's excellent defence beats the offensive power of Fire and Wind.
* The original ''Jade Cocoon'' has a Fire-->Air-->Earth-->Water-->Fire sequence, plus a non-elemental foot stomp attack to which fliers are immune. Each spell in the game is tied to an element and, with the exception of the damage and elemental boost spells, unique to that element. You can combine your divine minions in such a way that they have two or more elements, but it reduces their elemental damage output accordingly and cuts them off from the boost spells.
* ''[[
* In [[Seiken Densetsu 3]], air is USED as the same element as electriticy, where Carlie's "Thunder Saber" spell is cast by summoning Jinn, the game's air elemental/god.
* ''[[
* ''[[Metroid|Metroid Prime 2: Echoes]]'' uses the Light-Dark dichotomy: the Light Beam slaughters Ing and other Darklings, and the Dark Beam is generally very effective against creatures on Light Aether. The first Prime game would have fallen squarely into this with its [[Fire, Ice, Lightning|elemental beam weapons]], but with the exception of a few fighting-fire-with-fire enemies and the Chozo Ghosts, the Plasma Beam [[Game Breaker|kills everything dead]], even the creatures in [[Lethal Lava Land|Magmoor Caverns]].
* [[Magical Starsign]] has Wood beats Wind beats Earth beats Water beats Fire beats Wood.
* ''[[
* Angband has a slew of them, mostly based of the D&D one. You have the basic fire, ice, electricity, acid, and poision. Expanding on this is plasma, chaos, time, nether, nexus, inertia, gravity, force, sound, light, darkness, disenchantment, and shards. Some variants expand this with water, wind, and lava.
* The first [[X
** Physical: Wolverine, Beast, Rogue, Nightcrawler, Colossus.
** Energy: Cyclops, Storm, Iceman, Gambit, Jubilee, Magma.
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** The [[Elemental Embodiment|Elementals]] provide a nice twist to the "rock-paper-scissors" aspect: Fire and Water are vulnerable to the opposite element's damage spells and immune to their own, while Earth and Air are vulnerable to their ''own'' damage spells and immune to the opposite's ones.
** ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] V'' has the Dungeon Racial ability Elemental Chains, which lets Dungeon creatures and the elemental spells of the hero inflict additional damage if the target has the opposite element. Creatures change their element randomly when this happens.
** From [[Might and Magic]] VI (which was developed in conjunction with Heroes III) onward, the [[More Popular Spinoff|technically main]] series used a related system, with the four western elements being the basis for the four [[Exactly What It Says
* ''[[
* [[Interactive Fiction]] game ''[[Mingsheng]]'' by Deane Saunders has an almost literal case of
* ''[[World of Mana]]'' tends to have elements that oppose each other in pairs: light versus dark, moon versus plant, fire versus ice, and earth versus air.
* [[Hoshigami]] has an eastern elements-inspired hexagon, in which elements both oppose and assist one another: Fire opposes Ice and assists Force; Ice opposes Wind and assists Earth; Wind opposes Force and assists Lightning; Force opposes Earth and assists Fire; and Earth opposes Fire and assists Ice. There's also the Light and Dark elements that oppose each other and assist Lighting and Fire respectively.
* In ''[[Fossil Fighters]]'', water beats fire, air beats water, earth beats air, and fire beats earth. Neutral-type vivosaurs are unaffected by this.
* ''[[Grim Grimoire]]'' - Glamour → Necromancy → Sorcery → Alchemy → Glamour. This overlaps with [[Tactical Rock
* ''[[Freedom Force]]'' is another game that uses binary
** Partially averted. The substance a character is made of (flesh, stone, ice etc.) sets their base resistances. But attacks and defences are all bought with points, meaning that you can have a character made of ice who throws fireballs and has a passive defence vs fire. Attack types and resistances/vulnerabilities are largely arbitrary. Aside: Characters made of flesh are vulnerable to radiation attacks making a character with radiation attacks scarily effective. The assigned heroes are all balanced for this, but a custom can hit well above their weight class...
* ''[[The Tone Rebellion]]'' includes a standard version of
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has this in some places. Elemental creatures do exist, and will usually be immune to their own form of damage (Fire immune to fire; water immune to frost; air immune to lightning, etc.) Some elementals take extra damage from their opposite number and others do not; for example, the water elementals in Arathi Highlands are extremely vulnerable to fire damage, but [http://www.wowwiki.com/Ragnaros Ragnaros the Firelord] is not especially bothered by frost.
** Well the original Ragnaros was totally immune to fire, so he has the strong against his own element aspect down pat.
** The elementals in Arathi Highlands elaborate on this: they have all four types of elementals in different places around the zone, and each type will drop a special, one-use object that can be used to instantly kill one of the other types. For example, the water elementals drop "Crest of Water" which destroys a fire elemental, and so on.
** Generally, [[WoW]]'s
** The Ascendant Council fight in the Bastion of Twilight raid instance has elements of this. You fight two sets of two elementals at the same time, and use the abilities of one elemental to negate some of the more damaging abilities of the other. Most notably, using an earth debuff from one elemental to prevent a one-shot kill from the wind elemental, and a wind debuff to prevent the one-shot kill from the earth elemental.
* A modern variation occurs in ''[[Scurge: Hive|Scurge: Hive.]]'' Creatures are divided by Biological, Mechanical, and Energy, and are respectively weak to Fire, EMP, and Diffusion attacks.
* The ''[[
* The magic system in the MMORPG [[Perfect World]] is this to a T, except it uses the Taoist elements: Fire>Metal>Wood>Earth>Water>Fire. Then again, since the game is developed in China, this isn't all that surprising.
* In [[Spectrobes]], Corona->Aurora->Flash->Corona. Also, in the Wii game Origins, Fire->Plant->Earth->Sky->Water->Fire.
* [[Warriors of Might and Magic]] follows this scheme: Fire burns Earth, which blocks Air, which bests Water which beat Fire. Furthermore, Light and Darkness are efficient against each other and other two elements (Light against Fire and Air and Darkness against Earth and Water).
* [[Luminous Arc 2]] has Fire, Water, Nature, Wind, Light, and Shadow Frost,<ref>
* On the higher difficulties of ''[[
* [[Septerra Core]]. Fire beats Earth, Earth beats Air, Air beats Water, Water beats Fire.
* [[Quest 64]] plays this one in a less typical faction. In fact, every element interacts with eachother in various ways, and there's no immunities, just resistances.
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** Water - Does double damage to Fire, regular damage to Earth, 50% to itself, and 75% damage to Wind.
** Neutral/Universal/Nonphysical: Does regular damage to everything, and resists all elements.
* The main character in ''[[
* A few ''[[Castlevania]]'' games in the [[Metroidvania]] genre have weapons that deal elemental damage and enemies variously affected by it. The one that takes the cake is ''[[Castlevania: Circle of the Moon]]'', which had a whopping ten elements (Fire, Ice, Electricity, Poison, Plants, Ground, Stone, Wind, Light and Dark), one for each of the Battle Cards. However, except for the elemental Armors and Devils, the strengths and weaknesses of the monsters to the various elements were never explicitly spelled out, and this added to the [[Guide Dang It]]-ness and the [[Fake Difficulty]] of the game.
* ''[[Dragon Ball Fusions]]'' has all characters assigned to one of three types: Power, Technique, and Speed. Power [[Unskilled But Strong|beats technique]], technique beats speed and speed beats power.
* ''[[Monster Girl Quest]]'' has an inconsistently-applied elemental system:
** Luka can access the power of the four Western elements through summoning the Four Spirits, but these do not deal increased or decreased damage to enemies, instead applying thematically-appropriate buffs ([[Blow You Away|Sylph]] enhances speed, [[Dishing Out Dirt|Gnome]] enhances strength and defense, [[Making A Splash|Undine]] enhances attack and evasion, [[Playing With Fire|Salamander]] enhances attack and recharges SP). However, late-game enemies have spirits of their own which are countered by summoning the spirit of the opposite element. For example, if an enemy summons the earth-elemental Gnomaren, then summoning Sylph will allow Luka to dodge their attacks.
** Two of Alice's spells, Omega Blaze and Frost Ozma, do additional damage to enemies weak to fire (e.g. plants) and ice (e.g. lamias) respectively. This is the only example of elemental weaknesses in the game.
* ''[[Monster Girl Quest Paradox]]'' uses a more conventional elemental system with twelve elements: fire, ice, lightning, water, wind, earth, holy, dark, physical, pleasure, bio and sonic. Each race has its own elemental weaknesses and resistances.
** Holy and dark are clear [[Infinity+1 Element]]s, with most monsters being weak to holy while angels and a few monsters are weak to dark. These two elements are used much more rarely than the others, but they cannot be evaded or reflected by their target.
** The physical element is, naturally, used by physical attacks. Physical resistance is only relevant in the game's [[Bonus Dungeon]].
** The pleasure element is a defining aspect of the series, being inflicted by sexual acts. Succubi are both good at using and resisting this element.
** Bio and sonic are associated with poison and sound-based attacks, respectively.
* ''[[Lust Grimm]]'' has a strange set of elements due to being a [[H-game]]: the elements are body parts of enemies: hand, foot, mouth, chest, butt, pussy and tentacle. Each enemy is vulnerable to and/or resists damage dealt to particular parts of their body, conversely, their attacks use specific body parts. Certain status effects affect elemental resistances.
== Webcomics ==
* The mages in ''[[What's Shakin']]'' have the powers of all elements, but excel in only one. In contrast to typical canon, ice and water elements are weak against fire as seen in the ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20130313045855/http://whatsshakincomic.com/2011/08/22/page-48-2/ fight against Fred]''.
* In the ''Triquetra Cats'', the main characters have control over the elements of Earth Fire and Water, their mother has control over the element of Air, (as they are all on the same side it has never been resolved if one is weaker/stronger than the other save for minor sibling rivalry squabbling, in which they use their powers in possibly the weakest strength possible anyway)
* ''[[Adventurers
== Web Original ==
* Taken [[Up to Eleven]] with [http://www.umop.com/rps.htm RPS 101]. Each 'element' is weak to 50 and strong against 50, and there are descriptions for why for each.
* ''[[
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[
** While the bending elements are all equal in terms of power they do have very different mental aspects that put them in opposition of
* In an episode of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003
{{quote|
** The turtles themselves' personalities are based around the four elements - Leonardo as Water, Raphael as Fire, Donatello as Earth and Michelangelo as Air.
*** And it should be mentioned that pizza, the
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[[Category:Native American Mythology]]
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