Is there a mechanical difference between the elements?

[u/sinsaint]

After doing a few runs as an alchemist and playing around with monster infusions, I've come to feel that messing around with monster elements seems pretty futile. The monsters already have the elements they need for the attacks they already have, so there really isn't a reason to change the default elements.

It's unlikely that a monster will have attacks that require elements you can't afford, as every attack you unlock will use the elements that monster already has, so why would you change the element?

The exception, I realized is in the case where an element has a mechanical difference from the others, but I'm struggling to see what that difference is (besides some obvious stuff like how Burn is associated with Fire).

What are the mechanical priorities of each element, does someone have a list? And why else would someone change the elements of their monsters?

[u/purplecharmanderz]

Actions you can learn depend on 2 things:

• your type
• your elements

You can only learn an action for which you share at least 1 element with, and at least 1 type with.

Dark elder with terror is a prime example where this can be helpful if you want to run a specific team.

Terror has 6 base actions, and 4 mavericks.

Dark elders elements give him access to 2 mavericks, and 3 of the base types. Notably though out of those 5 options - 4 of them are because he's a fire monster. And exactly 1 is due to being earth as well.

If we swap earth to water however, his options go from 5, to 10. As all the actions he can't learn are water, and the one earth action he gets that isn't also fire - is water.

As such its less a "what does each element prioritize" and more "what does each type" support more. As its very type by type.

Shield is very wind based, but so is dodge and sidekick. Shield is also fairly water based, and heal and regen. And terror is extremely water based, given 4 of the 6 base actions, and all 4 of the mavericks are part water...

[u/purplecharmanderz → u/purplecharmanderz]

As an additional point here. Alchemist adds additional weight to actions of an element you infuse onto a monster. Making those more likely.

As such the element portion is more about action control than anything. In some cases its actually ideal to change to an element that reduces options to increase the odds of what you want.

[u/Yosara_Hirvi → u/purplecharmanderz]

I might add, ewpanding the options is not always beneficial if you're looking for something specific, less options means better odds of findi g what you seek for.

Also, changing monster's element might allow some funny build, Flame Skewer on Faerie can be fun (especially with Nosferatu's signature trait somewhere in the team)

[u/purplecharmanderz → u/Yosara_Hirvi]

Yeah. Did wind up mentioning this in my own comment to the main comment i made.

Additionally you automatically get an extra 0.2 weight added to any actions of the infused element in this scenario - which is only a bit worse than just learning an action of that element for weighting. Getting that while also modifying your options can then also further increase the effect of that weighting change.

It is alot of control if you know what you're aiming for.

[u/sinsaint → u/purplecharmanderz]

I was kinda hoping I could memorize it by element, since there are only 4 elements, but memorizing each elemental priority by type sounds like a LOT of work. It answers my question though, ty.

[u/TotallyNotCalledEvan]

Not innately. However, there are strong synergies between certain elements and types. Most of the best terror actions are water based, so a terror type monster usually wants the water element. Other combos include

Fire - Burn

Earth - Poison

Wind - Dodge 

[u/Luigrein]

I believe altering their elements affects what moves they can be offered on leveling, so if you're aiming for a particular power it can help there. Also if you are going all in on burn (to follow up your example) you can grab 3 fire/whatever and alter their second types to give you full break coverage with much less reliance on pulling specific monsters.

[u/juppie1]

1. mons are only offered actions that have at least 1 of their element types in the active (for instance a water mon can learn water attack and water/fire attack, etc but is never offered pure fire or wind/earth ones, etc). (This is the main one: to have a chance to learn moves your mon couldn't otherwise.)
2. basic attacks generate aether of the mons types
3. Sidekick hits have the typing of your monsters elemental type for staggering.
4. infusion a monster with an element or type gives 1 xp (if you have the upgrade).

There are no mechanical differences between the elements and element generation is skewed towards the stuff you have actions for but not enough aether (it's random, but weighted in your favour this way). So there is no advantage for switching for this reason.

[u/purplecharmanderz → u/juppie1]

The infused mon only leaves the pool if its the signature trait being infused for the record.

[u/juppie1 → u/purplecharmanderz]

My bad. Thank you.

[u/SivirJungleOnly2]

Another thing people haven't mentioned is that what abilities you're offered isn't completely random. You are more likely to be offered abilities which share types and elements with the types and elements you've already selected in your run.

So for instance, when I am trying to fish for a particularly powerful ability like Temporal Borealis on a monster, I will continuously infuse it with Wind/Water/Sidekick to increase the odds of it being offered that ability.