Understanding Weakness and Resistances — Tales of Xillia 2 eGuide

The effects of attacks are based largely on what the foe is weak or strong to. When a foe is resistant or strong against a certain attack, the word Resist will appear. On the other hand, if an enemy is weak to the attack you will score a Power Hit. Elemental and weapon types can both affect damage based on weakness and resistances. If an enemy has a weakness/resistance score of 50 listed for a certain damage type, damage of that type is reduced to 50%. If it’s 150, damage is boosted to 1.5x its usual value. Attacks with a physical damage property and an elemental damage property where the foe is weak to one and resistant to the other basically cancel each other out. Bonuses like the ability to stagger a foe only count if you’re receiving a damage bonus in the final calculation. If a weapon has an elemental property, it’s only active on normal attacks. For example with Earth-type dual blades, a normal attack is Earth and slashing type, but a Wind-type arte is 100% Wind-type.

WEAKNESS AND RESISTANCE ATTRIBUTES

All attacks have a damage type except for attacks used when transformed and mystic artes.
Allies’ damage type affinities are affected by equipment and skills.
Elemental damage types affect which ailments an attack can cause.
A weakness/resistance score of 99 or lower is considered a resistance, 101 or higher is considered a weakness, and anything lower than 0 absorbs damage.
Damage of a type that an enemy is resistant to does not reduce its Iron Stance.

Boosting Damage with Weakness-Exploiting Combos

When you attack with a damage type that hits an enemy weakness, the words Power Hit appear along with a gauge and the damage multiplier. Each attack you deal before this gauge empties will deal additional damage based on the damage multiplier. Additionally, if you hit with an attack of another damage type, it will become a weakness-exploiting combo. With each hit from a new element type, the gauge will refill, and the damage multiplier will increase. Even if you hit with a damage type the foe is resistant to, the resistance will be ignored and the attack will be effective. Finally, during a weakness-exploiting combo, your target will not be able to use Iron Stance counterattacks, making this a good chance to deal big damage.

Weakness Combo Properties

Hit the foe with a damage type it’s weak to. Then, after it’s staggered, hit it with another elemental type.
When the gauge runs out, the combo is over.
The gauge empties more slowly when you’re hitting the foe.
Enemy resistances are ignored (treated as affinity 100).
With each hit of a new damage type, the gauge is completely restored and the damage multiplier increases by 10%*. If you can hit all nine damage types, the final type will increase the multiplier by five times the usual amount.

*Value for Normal Battle Difficulty only. This increases at higher difficulty settings.

Weakness Example

Step 1: Ludger uses dual pistols to shoot an enemy with a weakness to shot damage of affinity 120. (So this attack will deal 20% more damage than usual.) This begins the combo, with a starting damage multiplier of 120%. Additional hits from the dual pistols will not raise the damage multiplier.

Step 2: Ludger uses a Wind and Fire attack during the combo. This fills the gauge and adds 20% to the damage multiplier (10% per damage type).

Step 3: Ludger weapon shifts to the sledgehammer for additional damage type (multiplier now at 150%).

Step 4: Having dealt eight of the nine damage types, the multiplier is at 190%. A hit of the final damage type deals five times the usual bonus (so 50%) raising the multiplier to 240%.