Elemental damage

An attack's elements decide which of the target's defenses apply to it, and some elements change how the target reacts, such as fire making it play a burn animation.

Elements have two sets of names:

An attack uses DAMAGE_TYPE_ flags, such as DAMAGE_TYPE_FIRE. These are bits, so one attack can have several elements.
A defense table uses ELEMENT_ keys, such as ELEMENT_FIRE, to list a defense for each element.

Each DAMAGE_TYPE_ element flag in the table below matches the ELEMENT_ key with the same name. An attack with no element flags is a normal attack, and uses the ELEMENT_NORMAL defense.

Element types

Element	Description
`ELEMENT_NORMAL`	Attacks with no element flags. There's no `DAMAGE_TYPE_NORMAL`.
`ELEMENT_FIRE`	Fire damage. Triggers `EVENT_BURN_HIT` and `EVENT_BURN_DEATH`.
`ELEMENT_WATER`	Water damage, such as Sushie's attacks.
`ELEMENT_ICE`	Ice damage.
`ELEMENT_MAGIC`	Magic damage, such as Kammy Koopa's magic.
`ELEMENT_SMASH`	Hammer damage.
`ELEMENT_JUMP`	Jump damage.
`ELEMENT_COSMIC`	Star damage, such as Star Storm.
`ELEMENT_BLAST`	Explosion damage, such as Bombette's attacks. Triggers `EVENT_BURN_HIT` and `EVENT_BURN_DEATH`, like fire.
`ELEMENT_SHOCK`	Electric damage.
`ELEMENT_QUAKE`	Earthquake damage, such as Quake Hammer. Hits buried actors, which other attacks miss.
`ELEMENT_THROW`	Thrown damage, such as Hammer Throw.
`ELEMENT_MYSTERY`	Unused. Some defense tables list it, but no attack uses it, so its value has no effect.

ELEMENT_END marks the end of a defense table, and isn't an element.

Dealing elemental damage

To make an attack deal elemental damage, pass the element's DAMAGE_TYPE_ flag to EnemyDamageTarget. You can combine it with other element flags and with modifier flags:

// fire breath, which doesn't make contact
Call(EnemyDamageTarget, ACTOR_SELF, LVar0,
    DAMAGE_TYPE_FIRE | DAMAGE_TYPE_NO_CONTACT,
    0, 0, 4, BS_FLAGS1_TRIGGER_EVENTS)

If an attack has several element flags, the target uses whichever of its defenses against those elements is lowest.

For the rest of an attack, see Attacks.

Defense tables

A DefenseTable maps elements to defense values. A positive value reduces damage, a negative value increases it, and 99 makes the actor immune.

s32 DefenseTable[] = {
    ELEMENT_NORMAL,   1,   // 1 point of defense against normal attacks
    ELEMENT_FIRE,    99,   // immune to fire
    ELEMENT_WATER,   -2,   // takes 2 extra damage from water
    ELEMENT_ICE,     -2,   // takes 2 extra damage from ice
    ELEMENT_END,
};

If an element isn't in the table, the actor uses its ELEMENT_NORMAL defense against it.

Each part of an actor has its own defense table, set in its ActorPartBlueprint. For how to define parts, see Parts.

Element immunity flags

A part's .elementImmunityFlags field makes it immune to the elements it lists. It takes DAMAGE_TYPE_ flags, combined with |:

ActorPartBlueprint ActorParts[] = {
    {
        .flags = ACTOR_PART_FLAG_PRIMARY_TARGET,
        .index = PRT_MAIN,
        // ...
        .elementImmunityFlags = DAMAGE_TYPE_FIRE,
    },
};

When an attack with one of those elements hits the part, the actor loses no HP and the game doesn't show a damage number. The actor still receives the hit's event in its event handler, so it can react to the attack.

Elemental events

Fire and blast attacks send burn events to the event handler in place of the usual hit and death events:

Usual event	Fire or blast event
`EVENT_HIT`	`EVENT_BURN_HIT`
`EVENT_DEATH`	`EVENT_BURN_DEATH`

To play the burn animations, handle these events with EVS_Enemy_BurnHit.

When an actor's contact attack touches an electrified target, such as the player under the Static status, the attacker gets hurt and receives EVENT_SHOCK_HIT, or EVENT_SHOCK_DEATH if the shock defeats it. Handle these events with EVS_Enemy_ShockHit.