Elemental Damage

Elemental Damage is a gameplay mechanic in Arknights.

Overview

Introduced in Under Tides, Elemental Damage functions similarly to status effects in "Souls-like" games (Dark Souls series, Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Elden Ring) in which it is an auxiliary damage independent from HP and inflicts various negative statuses upon reaching a certain threshold.

Originally, Elemental Damage could only be inflicted on friendly units; as of Expeditioner's Joklumarkar, it can also be inflicted on enemies by certain Operators, which is distinguished by the nomenclature "(Elemental Damage) - Player". Regardless, devices (but not summons) are unaffected by Elemental Damage.

• Elemental Damage is displayed as a circular depleting meter above the unit's HP meter which is only visible when they had taken Elemental Damage; if a single unit suffers from multiple Elemental Damages at once, only the one with the highest amount that will be displayed.
  • Enemies have the Effect Resistance/ERST attribute which reduces the Elemental Damage taken at a percentage-based rate (e.g. 10 ERST = -10% Elemental Damage taken).
• Once the Elemental Damage reaches 1000 for friendly units and normal/elite enemies or 2000 for boss enemies, it will explode or burst, applying an effect that varies on the type of Elemental Damage in question (see table below).
  • After Elemental Damage bursts, the unit enters a cooldown or fallout state where the Elemental Damage they received are cleared over time (the meter steadily fills up), during which they are immune to further Elemental Damage.

Elemental Dmg.	Information	Cooldown
Nervous Impairment	Introduced in Under Tides, Nervous Impairment's burst effect causes the victim to receive 1000 True damage and be Stunned for 10 seconds.	10 sec.
Corrosion Damage	Introduced in Dossoles Holiday, Corrosion Damage's burst effect causes the victim to receive 800 Physical damage and have their DEF permanently reduced by 100 (which can stack indefinitely).	10 sec.
Burn Damage	Introduced in Episode 09. Friendly burst effect: The victim takes 1200 Arts damage and has their RES reduced by 20 for 10 seconds. Enemy burst effect: The victim takes 7000 Elemental damage and has their RES reduced by 20 for 10 seconds.	10 sec.
Necrosis Damage	Introduced in Episode 10. Friendly burst effect: The victim cannot use their skill and generate SP as well as losing 1 SP and taking 100 Arts damage every second for 15 seconds. Enemy burst effect: The victim is inflicted with Enfeeble that halves ATK but decays over 15 seconds, during which they also takes 800 Elemental damage every second.	15 sec.

Recovery

Wandering Medics remove Elemental Damage on friendly units as they heal them equal to half the Wandering Medic's ATK and can heal friendlies with full HP to remove the Elemental Damage on them.

Operator	Source	Range/target	Value
Eyjafjalla the Hvít Aska	Soundless Sustenance	Friendly units within healing range once active	Level 1: 2% ATK/second Level 2: 3% ATK/second Level 3-4: 4% ATK/second Level 5-6: 5% ATK/second Level 7: 6% ATK/second Mastery 1: 7% ATK/second Mastery 2-3: 8% ATK/second
	Replenishing Mist	Healed target, lasts 4 seconds and can be stacked up to 3 times	Elite 1: 8% ATK Elite 2: 10% ATK
Highmore	Sustenance from the Reaper	Self on attack for each enemy hit (capped to block count)	Elite 1: 18 Elite 2: 30 REA-X Stage 2: 35 REA-X Stage 3: 40 Potential 5: +5

Modifiers

Operator	Source	Range/target	Value
Eyjafjalla the Hvít Aska	Volcanic Ash Remedy	Friendly units within range	−12%; multiplied while Volcanic Echoes is active Level 1: 2× Level 2: 2.3× Level 3: 2.6× Level 4: 2.9× Level 5: 3.2× Level 6: 3.5× Level 7: 3.8× Mastery 1: 4.2× Mastery 2: 4.6× Mastery 3: 5×

Trivia

• The official English localization uses different capitalization of "damage" to distinguish between the mechanic ("Elemental Damage") and the damage type ("Elemental damage"), although sometimes "Elemental Damage" is used to refer to both subjects.
  • This confusion likely stems from the use of 元素损伤 (Pinyin: Yuánsù sǔnshāng) for Elemental Damage and 元素伤害 (Pinyin: Yuánsù shānghài) for Elemental damage in the original Chinese texts; 损伤 and 伤害 had the same meaning of "damage" despite the different characters for different contexts. A more correct translation for the former would be "Elemental Impairment".