Line #123 Main/InfinityPlusOneElement


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4	[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/infinity_plus_one_element.png]]]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350:[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Frederick]] laughs... er, ''scowls'' at your silly [[Franchise/FireEmblem Weapon Triangle]].]]
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7	ElementalRockPaperScissors is an ''extremely'' common tactic for video games, and even outside of the {{RPG}} genre where it originated, it's one of the more common RPGElements. Whether it makes use of FireIceLightning or [[ElementalPowers The Four Elements]], or even some unique proprietary system, it's fairly common for games to make use of some "circle" of elements. Depending on the number of elements in the system, one element is weak to and strong against one other element specifically, or there are several distinct weaknesses and strengths for every set.
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9	Sometimes.
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11	However, [[BossBattle Bosses]] (especially {{Superboss}}es) and OlympusMons don't always play by these rules. So frequently in [=RPG=]s or games with RPGElements, you'll encounter a rare {{Mon}}, spell, or other doohicky that ''doesn't'' play by the rule of ElementalRockPaperScissors. It frequently has its ''own'' unique "element," shared by no (or ''very'' few other) monsters, spells, weapons, or whatever. It belongs to an Infinity Plus One Element. Said element generally has the following traits:
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13	* In ElementalRockPaperScissors, is resistant to (or is at least not ''weak'' to) every other element.
14	** Sometimes, its only weakness will be ''[[TakesOneToKillOne itself]]''.
15	* In the same system, is frequently ''[[FlawExploitation strong]]'' [[SuperpowerLottery against]] every other element.
16	* Belongs to a ''very'' small subset of the population of spells, {{Mons}}, or weapons; usually 5 or fewer.
17	* Is [[NintendoHard hard as sin]] [[LootDrama to get]], and usually unavailable until near [[InfinityPlusOneSword the end of the game.]] If it ''is'' [[UnusableEnemyEquipment available at all.]]
18	* Has a "special" symbol or color which breaks the [[ThemeNaming theme]] of the other elements.
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20	Naturally, the ability to be strong against ''every single element'' makes these types of things more or less an intentional GameBreaker, so they're generally hidden at the end of {{Superboss}}es or ThatOneSidequest. Sometimes overlaps with NonElemental, though NonElemental monsters tend more toward being [[JackOfAllStats Jacks of All Stats]] --Infinity Plus One Elementals tend to be [[MasterOfAll better at everything.]] Sometimes takes the form of an EleventhHourSuperpower. Compare ElementNumberFive, which may overlap, and ElementalTiers, where it's due to a balance mistake rather than a deliberate design.
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22	----
23	!!Examples:
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25	[[foldercontrol]]
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27	[[folder: Anime and Manga]]
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29	* Most continuities of ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' utilize a simple triangle--Vaccine beats Virus, Virus beats Data, and Data has higher average stats than the other two (effectively beating Vaccine by default.) However, ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' introduces as its final villain the D-Reaper, a being that doesn't fit any of the three types because it's not a Digimon at all, and is strong against them all. The protagonists wind up having to change the type designation of their own Digimon in order to fight it properly.
30	** ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'' has heroes and villains that correspond to the Ten Legendary Warriors, a group of Digimon that are based on ElementalPowers. The season finale has the Warriors' combined form, Susanoomon, which incorporates a stylized Kanji for [[HolyHandGrenade "heaven" or "sky"]] the same way that several of the Warriors incorporate the Kanji for their respective elements.
31	** As the series went on, several Digimon (mostly stronger ones) became of the Free attribute. It is extremely rare, and completely bypasses the rock-paper-scissors mechanic of the other three. Naturally, stronger antagonists and/or digital lifeforms that are not Digimon (such as [[VideoGame/DigimonStoryCyberSleuth Eaters]]), tend to also be Free.
32	* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', the Egyptian God Cards (and in the [[Anime/YuGiOh5Ds 5D's]] anime, the [[Myth/NorseMythology Aesir]]) are DIVINE-Attribute and Divine Beast-Type, which reflects on their status as PhysicalGods and confers some gameplay benefits such as immunity to monster effects, resistance to all spells, and inability to trigger traps. However, even though the Egyptian God Cards now have official tournament-legal counterparts, they're not very playable ''because'' of their unique Attribute and Type, which means they have ''no'' support whatsoever.
33	* The Sky Flame from ''Manga/Reborn2004''. Of the [[spoiler: original]] seven Dying Will Flames, the fewest people can produce Sky Flames, and those that do [[BornWinner usually go on to become leaders and Bosses]]. It can also [[SkeletonKey open any Box Weapon]], and can use its Harmonization property to [[AllYourPowersCombined fuse with other Flames]], which is the principle behind Xanxus's Flame of Wrath[[labelnote:]]Sky + Storm[[/labelnote]] and [[spoiler:the Oath Flame[[labelnote:]]Sky + Earth[[/labelnote]]]].
34	* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'': ''Sei Kou ki'', or Sacred Energy, is considered the ultimate type of power, far superior to both ''Youki'' (Demon Energy) and ''Reiki'' (Spirit Energy). It normally takes 40 years of intense meditation and training to master, but Sensui [[LoopHoleAbuse cheated]] by having each of his [[SplitPersonality seven personalities]] do the training at the same time, so he achieved it in less than 6 years. Even Koenma's trump card, the Mafuuken, a spirit-energy based spell built up over centuries that was designed to seal the most powerful demons in the absolute worst-case scenario, failed to contain Sensui due to the fact that it was designed to work against demons, and it just wasn't that effective against Sacred energy. However, while his Sacred energy may have been stronger pound-for-pound than any other type of spiritual power, it could still be overwhelmed by enough brute force, which was just what happened when Yusuke was temporarily [[DemonicPossession possessed]] by his [[LivingDistantAncestor ancestor]] Raizen, because he was simply that much more powerful than Sensui.
35	[[/folder]]
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37	[[folder: Fan Works]]
38	* ''VideoGame/PokemonWack'': The Void and Wack types. Void is immune to every type in the game, and Wack resists every type and is super effective against every type. These types are reserved for a few special bosses.
39	[[/folder]]
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41	[[folder: Literature]]
42	* In Victoria Hanley's ''The Light Of The Oracle'', being [[BlowYouAway air-chosen]] (which, [[TheChosenOne of course, the protagonist is]]) counts as this. Most other oracles are chosen by various birds, with [[AnimalMotifs their patron bird]] determining the [[SuperpowerLottery power]] they get. (For example, swan-chosen are TheBeastmaster, and [[DarkIsEvil vulture-chosen]] can put curses on people.) However, the novel being a [[ClicheStorm simple]] one, we get no context or detail on said power other than that it is uber-rare and much stronger than all the other powers. Oh, and that simply having it makes the protagonist special and [[StoryBreakerPower a threat to oracles much older and more experienced than her.]]
43	* ''Literature/TheTravelersGate'': In a world with only eleven elements, the system still manages to have ''three'' {{Gamebreaker}}s.
44	** Of the original nine Territories, Ragnarus held unquestioned supremacy. It consists of nothing but a vast vault filled with weapons and other useful devices, many of which directly counter other Territories. The downside is that using each weapon [[PowerAtAPrice requires paying a price]] (the price varies for each weapon), but it's usually worth it, and really skilled Ragnarus Travelers can even force others to pay the price for them. Ragnarus ruled supreme for centuries.
45	** At some point, the Territory of Elysia was created. Because it is artificial, it was created to directly reflect each of the nine Territories, intended to be a beacon and an ideal for them to follow. Because of that, Elysia has powers that are very similar to what each Territory is capable of, and therefore can fill every spot on the TacticalRockPaperScissors chart by themselves. Elysia conquered the other Territories and sealed away Ragnarus for centuries until they went into decline and Ragnarus returned.
46	** Finally, Valinhall was created a mere sixty years before the start of the series. It was not created with a specific purpose besides glorifying challenge and battle, but Valin filled it with the various artifacts he collected over his life, many of them won from other Territories. A Valinhall Traveler just has to pass the trial and they will win a power that can be used at any time. The broad array of powers means that they can counter nearly anything another Territory can do, and since they summon them into their own bodies rather than summoning monsters means that most anti-Traveler tactics don't work on them. Each Valinhall Traveler is a OneManArmy with a side order of assassin, easily able to kill any other Traveler of any power level. The only Territories that really give them trouble are Ragnarus and Elysia, and Valinhall still tends to come out on top.
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48	[[/folder]]
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50	[[folder: Live-Action TV]]
51	* In ''Series/ShadowAndBone'', Darkness and Light are both extremely rare elements for Grisha; only one known Dark bloodline exists, and Light was purely hypothetical before Alina manifested her power. Not only are they both extremely powerful, but they have the surprising side effect of [[spoiler:immortality. Alina deduces, based on some things Mal says about how she's changed, that the more they use their powers the longer they will live.]]
52	[[/folder]]
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54	[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
55	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' tends to do this with certain spells.
56	** There are very few enemies who can resist sonic damage, and many are vulnerable. Wizard/Sorcerer sonic spells deal less damage than fire/cold/lightning counterparts.
57	*** Sonic and acid damage in Edition 3.5 were so useful as a means of bypassing damage resistance that the Archmage class' ability to swap elemental types about was considered very powerful even when it cost them one of their most powerful spells.
58	** Force. Magic Missile is a BoringButPractical staple spell that deals force damage. Forcecage and Wall of Force are basically unbreakable barriers unless you carry a specific counterspell. Even better, Force spells deal with those pesky incorporeal creatures.
59	** Damage from "divine power" is explicitly not resistable by anything. Unfortunately there is almost no means of dealing it except feats that convert only half of a spell's damage to divine. As this results in a net gain of zero damage unless the target's energy resistance would have soaked over 50% of the spell's base damage, or [[TooDumbToLive the caster is using a spell the creature is 50% resistant or immune to]], it's mostly SchmuckBait.
60	** Some abilities exist to convert a particular element into an Infinity Plus One Element which cannot be resisted, the most common of which convert your Fire spells into {{Hellfire}}.
61	** A handful of other spells such as Bebilith's Claw forget to actually specify what type of damage they deal, which should imply they have no type and as such are not resistible by anything. Force's ability to negate incorporeality is potentially still more useful, though.
62	* Universal spells/creatures/relics in ''TabletopGame/MagiNation.'' All Magi can use them without extra cost, all Magi can use Universal relics, and they tend to be pretty powerful, too. As you can imagine, actual Universal ''Magi'' (who can use ''everything'') are really, ''really'' rare--and all promotional, to boot.
63	** Let's put it this way: the single most famous hero in the setting, Rajye, is Universal.
64	* Biolith in ''Eye of Judgment''.
65	* Sunburst in ''Chaotix''.
66	* Void and Demon Chi in ''TabletopGame/WeaponsOfTheGods''.
67	[[/folder]]
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69	[[folder: Video Games]]
70	* ''VideoGame/AdventureQuest'' has the Void element, made from the raw energy of uncreation. While reliable sources of Void damage are exceedingly hard to come by, it is generally well worth the cost as the vast majority of monsters take 200% base damage from Void-element attacks by default.[[note]]For comparison, most monsters take 130% base damage from their primary elemental weakness, making Void damage more than 1.5 times as effective as elemental weaknesses on average.[[/note]]
71	** Its {{prequel}} AlternateContinuity ''[[VideoGame/{{Dragonfable}} [=DragonFable=]]]'' has a few of these, all of which focus more on a lack of weaknesses/resistances than being strong against anything: There's Void, Harm, Good, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Bacon]]. Yes, ''[[EdibleBludgeon Bacon]]'' is an element.
72	* ''VideoGame/AlterAILA'' has a somewhat different ElementalRockPaperScissors with its normal/fire/electric weapons. Nominally, everything should be slightly weak to the fourth element "Psi," though it doesn't work out that way in practice. [[spoiler:Each character's secret final weapon appears to be a fifth element ("laser," perhaps) that nothing resists.]]
73	* ''VideoGame/{{Angband}}'' has quite a few powerful elemental types, such as Time, Gravity, Nexus, Chaos, and Nether. However the crowning example would be Mana, which unlike the others cannot be resisted.
74	* "Shadow" element in ''VideoGame/AzureDreams.'' Belongs only to the legendary monster that becomes available in the epilogue. It is denoted by a picture of a triad containing the three conventional elements that apply to every other monster in the game. Technically, it is neither strong nor weak against anything, but its only spells are ridiculously overpowered, rendering you invulnerable or allowing you to autokill enemies of any strength.
75	* ''VideoGame/TheBattleCats'' [[ParodiedTrope parodies]] this. In addition to the other types, represented by [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience flat colours]], [[spoiler:the Cat God]] has his own unique type not shared by anything else in the game, [[spoiler:Cool Dude]], which, functionally, is just the Traitless enemy type under a different name.
76	* ''Manga/{{Bleach}} 3rd Phantom'' has bosses using an "All" element, which behaves like this.
77	* The later ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' games can be like this with the Holy/Light elemental. It's not that it is broken in and in itself, considering it depends almost entirely on the enemies you fight and some DO resist it, it's that over half of the enemies ARE weak to it. In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow'' and ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow'', Holy damage is also pretty uncommon for Soma to come by. Most things that resist Holy don't take much damage, or are weak to Dark, that isn't too hard to get. Additionally, aside from bosses, Holy-resisting enemies don't take many hits, or it's a monster that resists EVERYTHING.
78	* The Light element in ''VideoGame/ChildOfLight'', which is not resisted by any enemy and there's quite a few weak to it. Light-elemental spells (which are pretty strong) can only be used by the main character. It can also be [[ElementalPunch added to anyone's physical attacks]].
79	* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' has "electrolytic" damage that is only dealt by one particular end-boss.
80	** Psionic damage used to be this. Very few armors or defenses protected against it, [[NighInvulnerable Invincibility]] toons were ''weak'' to it, and it carries all sorts of StatusEffects to disable Defenders. New armors and defenses protect against Psionic attacks, and Defenders have powers to resist status effects in general.
81	*** Toxic damage used to be an enemy-only damage type (and pretty rare, to boot), but there was ''nothing'' in the game that provided any protection from it, much like electrolytic damage. This changed fairly early in the game's run, when Toxic damage was added to the Spines power set's attacks, and Toxic Resistance was added to a large number of defensive and support powers. And even with that change, there was still no power that grants Defense ([=CoH's=] dodge chance) against Toxic damage (at least not specifically). (This was due to a coding problem, not by design.)
82	** The Void Hunters used to deal special "Nictus" damage, which (in addition to being super effective against Kheldians) was also impossible to resist. It was eventually replaced with the already established Negative Energy damage, allowing non-kheldians to resist it normally.
83	* Light-type was this in the first ''[[VideoGame/TheDenpaMen Denpa Men]]'' game. Very few enemies resisted it, and many were outright weak to it. Light-type Denpas also had no weaknesses; only a resistance to the enemy-exclusive Dark type. In the following games, however, Light was {{nerf}}ed to being [[TakesOneToKillOne weak to itself]], many more enemies became Light-resistant, and [[UnusableEnemyEquipment Dark was no longer enemy-exclusive.]]
84	* In ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'', the "magic" element (as distinct from fire and lightning spells) is this in the lore, but ''not'' in the game - enemies can resist or be immune to magic and still vulnerable to the elements, and this is a very common scenario due to the existence of a magic damage spell that deals percentage damage, which had to be [[UselessUsefulSpell kept in check]] by making everything that is remotely hard to kill magic immune. Played straight with the [[PurposefullyOverpowered Apocalypse]] spell, which looks like a fire spell but ignores all resistances and always hits.
85	** ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' has the odd "burn" element that is [[DummiedOut not accessible]] to players, but mods and hacks can give players burn attacks. It creates a glitchy flame sprite on the target, deals immense amounts of damage and is impossible to resist or mitigate in any way. The Median XL mod repurposes it as a kind of negative energy attack for bosses.
86	* ''VideoGame/DinosaurKing'' has the Secret element. Unlike the other elemental types, they don't tend towards any specific dinosaur group, and have diverse powers (Eoraptor, for example, can use every move card). Eoraptor is the reward for obtaining the 72 main dinosaurs, the others are not available outside of hacking or special events.
87	* The ''VideoGame/{{Disciples}}'' line of games has the standard elements (Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Physical, Mind), and various creatures have resistances to each of these. There are 2 more elements however. Death is an Infinity-Plus-Or-Minus-One element. It's only available to 1 of the factions, which is almost entirely Undead, and thus immune to Death attacks, the Minus-One comes in when you have Undead vs. Undead fights where it's worthless. There is NOTHING immune to the last element Life, and only the capital guardians and the odd campaign boss use it.
88	* ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'': The series generally has three elements -- Fire, Ice and Wind -- with every enemy having varied weaknesses and resistances to each. And then there's the "Star" Element, which nobody resists or are weak to. It's not quite the same as being a [[NonElemental "neutral"]] type, though, since there are enemies that will resist non-type damage (and quite well, at that), but not Star. ''VideoGame/Disgaea5'' changed Star to be [[ElementNumberFive its own element]], with its own resistance values.
89	* The Boss-types in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestMonsters'' games--they're hard to breed, and resistant to most magic types. They also have fast-growing stats. But be warned! Getting even the ''first'' one (the basic Dragonlord) is [[ThatOneSidequest a timesink and a half.]]
90	* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'':
91	** The Marked for Death shout unintentionally became this due to a data error. Instead of temporarily debuffing the target's armor rating by a small amount, it instead ''damages'' armor rating by that amount each second, as if armor rating was a stat like health or stamina. This results in an unresistable, permanent and extremely high loss of armor rating that leaves the opponent vulnerable to one hit kills from the [[CherryTapping smallest amount of damage]].
92	** There is "bleed" damage from weapons which is also unresistable, unaffected by armor, goes through shield block and even bypasses damage immunity. Luckily this effect is only found with meaninglessly low magnitudes.
93	* ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy'':
94	** Bomb is this in [[VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy3 the third game.]] There are huge stretches of the game where almost every enemy is weak to it, and almost nothing actually resists it except a few fire enemies; most importantly it is the weakness of every clay and golem enemy, who otherwise rarely match in the elements they aren't immune to, and all three monoliths, which each are immune to all but two or three types. Lance gets two bomb weapons and two bomb specials regardless of weapon, and they'd all be solid choices even without the element. In the hands of enemies it's nothing special, except that only four items resist it and it can be hard to recognize.
95	** Poison in the [[VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy5 the fifth installment.]] This is mainly because few enemies are immune to it or absorb it and it introduces new status effect, [[TheVirus Virus]]. This is essentially poison on steroids, as it multiplies by itself and spreads to enemies and allies that interact with the infected subject, meaning you can set it up and forget about it. Of course, this means you will most likely get infected with it as well, but you can either make yourself immune to the status or outright absorb poison damage, meaning you can get free healing on top of everything else. Also Virus and actual Poison status stack, so they'll make short work of anything not outright immune to them. Some bonus bosses practically require poison damage to defeat them.
96	* ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness''. Mantorok-aligned spells. The other three ancients had a clearly defined ElementalRockPaperScissors deal going on. Mantorok's rune was hidden in a secret area halfway through the game, and casting your spells with it had some very game-breaking effects such as [[spoiler:turning your character completely invisible]] or, even better, [[spoiler:giving you a constant regeneration effect for ALL of your vital stats at once via the Magick Pool spell]]. According to the plot, the as-of-yet-unrevealed yellow ancient can counter all four of the others.
97	* In ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' a select few powerful attacks and {{Limit Break}}s deal "[[NonElemental untyped]]" damage, which cannot be resisted by any means. In a ShoutOut to its fellow Atlus franchise, this is sometimes referred to as Almighty.
98	* The Bleed Damage under Elder Scrolls also features almost identically in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' - armor offers no protection, no enemy or creature has any resistance to it, and multiple hits stack their effects. A couple of weapon mods apply a bleeding effect to their carrier weapon, but the most common occurrence tends to be the aptly named "Bleeding" legendary prefix that adds 25 points of bleed damage to every bullet fired or every hit struck. Should you get lucky and find it on a fast-firing weapon (like a [[GatlingGood Minigun]] or, even better, a [[ChainsawGood Ripper]]), you've got a veritable GameBreaker on your hand that can shred through even the toughest bosses in no time. What's even better: No enemy in the entire game inflicts bleed damage by default. The only times you might find yourself exposed to it are the rare instances of some legendary baddy turning the legendary Bleeding weapon they're carrying on the player character.
99	** Though it does come with the cost of not granting the bonus immunities that the base elements did.
100	* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
101	** An OptionalBoss of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' has a special "untyped" elemental attack. Of course, you can protect yourself against it [[GoodBadBugs with the right materia configuration]].
102	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles'': The last element your Crystal Chalice can get is [[spoiler:Memory]], and can be used to bypass miasma streams of any element.
103	** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', every unit has a zodiac symbol; each unit will take less or more damage from other units at various places along the zodiac. And then there's the OptionalBoss Elidibus, who is the only unit with the Serpentarius zodiac symbol (an actual pseudo-zodiac constellation more commonly known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiuchus Ophiuchus]]) which has no affinity with any other. In addition, he has a special summon called Zodiark, which is NonElemental.
104	** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'':
105	*** All elements follow ElementalRockPaperScissors, but the ''distribution'' of elemental spells and abilities is highly skewed. Light and Darkness-elemental abilities that ''actually deal damage'' are rare among players, as per typical Final Fantasy thoroughfare.
106	*** Perhaps the best example of this trope would come in the form of skillchain properties. As skillchains increase in level, they take on more elements and become more devastating. The ultimate skillchain, Cosmic Elucidation, represents all 8 elements simultaneously, hits for a substantial amount of damage, and is only wielded by one boss in the entire game. It ''currently'' cannot be executed by players. It also has an additional effect of ejecting your party from the fight, resulting in an automatic loss.
107	** Technically, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' doesn't have this since all its elements are in mutually opposing pairs. In practice, Holy is the Infinity +1 Element. It's available to the player later than other elements, and it's effective against undead (common in late-game and bonus dungeons) as well as some bonus bosses, while few enemies resist it.
108	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' used to have this, but it's been removed apart from certain boss mechanics and The Forbidden Land: Eureka. There are six elements, the classic four plus Ice and Lightning, and two meta "aspects," Dark (chaos/activity) and Light (order/stasis). Non-elemental magic attacks deal "unaspected" damage. The 1.0 release intended elemental resistances to matter, but the ARR re-release made them mostly irrelevant, and patch 4.2 removed player-side elemental resistances entirely. Player-used magic attacks may still have elemental aspects, but purely as flavor. While some bosses, and the Eureka elemental wheel, still consider elemental resistance, non-elemental damage isn't relevant to either.
109	* In ''Franchise/FireEmblem'', while dark magic always factors into ElementalRockPaperScissors, it is the most damaging form of magic and almost all dark spells have bonus effects (fixed damage, ignoring defenses, healing the user etc). It's also the rarest form of magic, few playable units can use it. In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]]'', the only 2 characters that can use it are available only from the second playthrough onward, and even then only [[EleventhHourSuperpower during the last part of the game]]. Some games even go so far as to make it enemy-exclusive, and ''Path of Radiance'' completely left it out.
110	** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'' has Fire, Wind, and Thunder as the three rock-paper-scissor elements that make up the magic triangle. However, it also has the rare Light and Dark elements, which beat all 3 common elements and are neutral to each other. Only 4 Light tomes exist in the game, one of which can only be used by one character for the very last boss. Dark tomes are enemy-exclusive.
111	** Dark magic may be back on top with ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening''. There is no rock-paper-scissors for magic, and light magic is almost entirely absent. Each element simply has its own attributes. Wind is accurate but weak, has a spell that hits twice, and one that boosts Speed. Fire is balanced, has a spell that boosts Magic. Thunder is inaccurate, but the most powerful, and has a critical chance. Its top spells boost Skill and have high critical rates. Dark magic is powerful but inaccurate, like Thunder, but some tomes also have powerful side effects. You can steal enemy HP, attack twice, have a huge chance at a critical, attack from 3-10 spaces away, or just bring the power. To use it, you have to be a Dark Mage or Sorcerer (which also means you're locked into ''only'' using tomes), or have a rare skill called Shadowgift, which lets other magic users wield it, too. [[note]]The only units who have Shadowgift are Aversa, Morgan if Aversa is her mother, and the DLC versions of Micaiah and Katarina.[[/note]] The Book of Naga is the only light magic tome. It's extremely rare and incredibly powerful, so it could be considered the Infinity +1 Element too.
112	* In ''VideoGame/FossilFighters'', OlympusMons Frigisaur and Ignosaur [[spoiler: and Guhnash, the final boss]] have a special black "Legendary" element no other types have. They're resistant to most attack types. The sequel, ''Fossil Fighters Champions,'' introduces five new Legendary mons in the form of [[spoiler: the [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Zombiesaurs]], which includes the final boss, Zongazonga]].
113	* ''VideoGame/GloryOfHeraclesDS'' has the standard four elements, Fire, Earth, Lightning, and Water, which have a cycle of resistances/weaknesses, but then there is the Dark element, which is strong versus all of them! And on top of that, there's the Light element, which is strong versus Dark.
114	* ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'' would rather call it the Infinity+1 Race. Some of the game's skills and items only benefit a specific race, most notably the Bahamut Weapons. However, characters of Unknown race (who don't fit in the main four races, such as demons, vampires, or Primal Beasts in human form) get bonuses from any and all of these. This includes the player character, allowing him/her to fit into any party setup.
115	* ''[[VideoGame/InfinityBlade Infinity Blade II's]]'' Holy element (separate from its Light element, funnily enough) does not have a separate resistance associated with it. The only resistance offered against Holy is provided by Prism Defense.
116	* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' has three: Slime in the Clan BonusDungeon The Slime Tube, and has a bunch of items in the Tube that affect slime. There's also Shadow, used by your shadow, which is damage immune but [[ReviveKillsZombie takes damage when you heal yourself.]] Then there is finally Bad Spelling, which take damage when you [[GoodHurtsEvil read the dictionary to them.]]
117	* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' has unstoppable damage which absolutely can not be resisted. They generally come from disruptor blasters and a few rare lightsabers crystals.
118	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyroDawnOfTheDragon'': Entering Fury mode allows both Spyro and Cynder to use a special "Fury Flame" BreathWeapon. It has no particular element, and does a ''lot'' of damage to the [[OptionalBoss Elite Enemies]] specifically.
119	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDragoon'' has two of these. One is literally Non-Elemental, which is neutral to everything and exists mainly in item form, except for [[EleventhHourSuperpower one battle]]. The other is Thunder, which is also neutral to everything, but has a Dragoon associated with it by the end of Disc One.
120	* In ''VideoGame/LilMonster'', the "Star" element is one of these--it breaks the card suit theme of the other "elements." Only one {{Mon}}, the FinalBoss, is Star-type naturally, but it drops a gem that will turn your monster Star-typed, making it strong against all suits.
121	* ''VideoGame/LuminousArc2'' has [[spoiler: the silver element]], which universally resists everything.
122	* ''VideoGame/MagicalVacation'': Dark magic does double damage to just about every other element in the game and is only weak against Holy magic which itself is the rarest element in the game. The catch? One must have [[SocializationBonus 100 amigos]] to learn the magic, which is an all but impossible task.
123	* ''Videogame/MightAndMagic'' series has an Energy element in some of its games. Usually nothing in them has any resistance to it whatsoever, and no magic school can cast spells that do energy damage. To you, if it is available at all, it is exclusively through Blasters, an endgame weapons (in ''VI'' the penultimate quest being to retrieve them because FinalBoss is vulnerable to ''nothing but energy''), and only the baddest monsters such as Gold or Crystal Dragons and Drones deal energy damage.
124	* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'':
125	** Before ''[[VideoGame/MonsterHunter3Tri Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate]]'', the elements were water, fire, ice, thunder and dragon. ''[=MH3U=]'' introduced [[LightningBruiser Brachydios]] as its flagship monster and along with it, the new Slime element. It does well against all elements, [[StuffBlowingUp it explodes]] and it's overall considered to be overpowered, although you don't encounter Brachydios until high rank missions. ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter4'' renamed it the more intuitive "Blastblight" and [[{{Nerf}} reined its power in a bit]]. It's still useful for breaking off monster parts, but it's not "never use any other element ever again" levels of broken anymore. Most weapons that have a status ailment will usually inflict it once, ''maybe'' twice on a monster during a fight, plus some monsters may be resistant or even immune to the standard status ailments. Blast, however, has almost ''no'' monsters who are resistant to it.
126	** Dragon element is an example of this trope being used without being overpowered. Dragonblight sets a hunter's CriticalHit chance and elemental damage to zero, which can cripple a hunter's effectiveness; on the other hand, Dragon-element weapons tend to be rare and hard to forge, but very few monsters resist Dragon, and the more powerful they are, the more vulnerable they tend to be.
127	* ''VideoGame/OctopathTravelerII'' at first seems to follow the same paradigm as [[VideoGame/OctopathTraveler the first game]], with magic split between Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Light and Dark. Until the game introduces "Gratton's Hypothesis": based on the story of the legendary mage D'Arquest blowing a gigantic crater into a continent with magic alone, a scholar named Gratton concluded that the six elements were too limited by their status as physical manifestations to achieve that level of power, and theorized the existence of "The One True Magic", that trumps all others. Osvald, the playable Scholar, and his archnemesis Harvey have had a longstanding rivalry over their race to properly discover the One True Magic. [[spoiler:In the end, Osvald reaches it through ThePowerOfLove, while Harvey settled on trying to harness the power of the local GodOfDarkness (which it turns out was also how D'Arquest did it) until [[EvilIsNotAToy it blew up in his face]]]]. As a playable ability, the One True Magic bypasses the [[AttackItsWeakPoint attribute weakness system]] and just punches through shield levels no matter the target.
128	* {{Inverted}} in ''VideoGame/{{Omori}}'' with the Afraid emotion. The standard emotions form a Rock-Paper-Scissors relationship (Happy beats Angry, Angry beats Sad, and Sad beats Happy, while Neutral is unaffected by anything). The Afraid emotion is much rarer, only inflicted by certain enemies (mostly the many Something variants) or in story-driven battles, but it is the ''weakest'' emotion. An Afraid character takes more damage from all the other emotions. Additionally, while other emotions confer both positive and negative effect (e.g. Angry increases Attack but reduces Defense), Afraid has the most severe negative effect (prevents the affected character from using any skills) with no positive effect.
129	* ''Videogame/PathOfExile'''s chaos damage. Its only direct benefit is that it ignores energy shield (which most enemies don't have anyway) and deals damage directly to an enemy's health, and it doesn't apply status effects like elemental damage. However, it has the immense endgame advantage that there aren't any effects that [[AttackReflector reflect]] chaos damage, which given a players comparative health and damage output can often result in near-instant death if a reflecting enemy is encountered unexpectedly. To counteract this chaos damage has far fewer ways to penetrate the resistance of the few enemies that do resist it, gems good for supporting chaos spells often have an attached drawback, and most chaos spells are awkward to use. There are also a couple of way to get supplemental chaos damage, namely chaos damage conversion and poison, which deals chaos damage over time based on base physical and chaos damage.
130	* ''VideoGame/Pikmin2'': The Bulbmin are resistant to ''all'' overworld hazards, instead of just the standard one the rest of the colored Pikmin are. The game balances them, however, by making them the rarest Pikmin type by far. They are only found in three of the hardest dungeons in the game, you can't take them out of the dungeon you find them in, and at absolute most you can only have up to forty of them at once. The only cave that gives you forty of them is also the one that is on a time limit before an invincible boss chases you.
131	* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' has had several throughout its existence:
132	** Dragon types were supposed to be this for Generation I as it resists Fire, Grass, Water, and Electric, so no matter which starter you picked you were at a disadvantage. Add to it, there was only one dragon type family and only the Champion and final Rival battle used them. This didn't quite work in practice, as while the type's defensive strengths functioned fine, its ''offensive'' capabilities were rendered meaningless by the fact that the type had one (1) damaging move, a FixedDamageAttack that was exempt from ElementalRockPaperScissors entirely.
133	*** In later generations, more Dragon-type Pokémon and moves were introduced (if it turned out not to be a GameBreaker, why not treat it like the other types?) but it still retained some of this flavor - Dragon-types usually aren't encountered until late in the game, and a great number of [[OlympusMons Legendary]] and pseudo-legendary powerhouses are part-Dragon. By [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Gen V]], dragons started edging into GameBreaker territory ''anyway'', not because it was inherently a better type[[labelnote:*]]although the fact that nothing except Steel resisted Dragon was a huge factor - most types were restrained from setting up and sweeping whole teams because there were a handful of Pokémon types they'd do poorly against, but with only one resistance, Dragons were able to rampage through teams if Steel types were removed first. In fact, the popular "[=DragMag=]" strategy in Gen V was based entirely on using Magnezone to do this.,[[/labelnote]] but because dragons are just strong in general. It retains the highest average base stat total of all types, with the average BST of fully-evolved Dragon-types being over 600 (600 being the common BST for Legendaries). ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' had to [[{{Nerf}} introduce a new type]] ([[OurFairiesAreDifferent Fairy]]) to ease off the growing power of the Dragon type.
134	** While Dragons were intended as this, the real GameBreaker type of Generation 1 was [[PsychicPowers Psychic]]. Psychic types in Gen I had functionally no weaknesses as the only types (Bug and Ghost) that did double damage to them were laughably weak, and Ghost was actually ineffective against Psychic due to an error. Furthermore, nothing resisted psychic attacks except other Psychic types. Combine with the Special stat counting for both Special Attack and Special Defense and Psychic types were nigh unstoppable. Gen II [[{{Nerf}} introduced two new types]] Steel and Dark to counter it, the former resisting Psychic attacks and the latter being outright immune; combined with the split of Special Attack and Special Defense and Psychic went from GameBreaker to "Pretty good".
135	** In competitive play, Normal types ruled Gen I along with the Psychics. Since Fighting moves were basically nonexistent in competitive matches, Normal types had no weaknesses to worry about, got a massive variety of attacks, and could abuse the strongest attack in the game (at the time): Hyper Beam, which in Gen I didn't need a recharge turn if you knocked out an enemy with it.
136	** Steel, a type added in Gen II, got an average number of weaknesses (Fire, Ground, and Fighting) but resisted an absurd ''eleven'' types, not counting its immunity to Poison. A pure-Steel Pokémon would be resistant or immune to 70% of attacking move types--more than twice as many as the second-best defensive type (Fire)--and the Poison immunity protects any part-Steel-types from the related [[StatusEffects status effect]], including the "toxic" variant. The trade-off is that Steel is a comparatively weak attacking type, with poor coverage and few good moves, but most Steels have a second, better offensive type to use for STAB. This was {{nerf}}ed slightly in Gen VI, where it lost its resistances to Dark and Ghost, but Steel remains a disproportionately tough type to take down.
137	** ''VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness'' only - [[TheCorruption Shadow power]] is explicitly this on an offensive level. Shadow moves aren't very effective on Shadow Pokémon (the only Pokémon that can use Shadow moves), but super-effective against ''everything else!'' Due to Shadow Pokémon being exclusive to Cipher and its affiliates, not a soul outside of Orre is aware of this. [[TheDarkArts Maybe it's better that way.]]
138	** In the ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' sub-series, Ghost-type is god. The ability to literally walk through walls is supremely powerful, and it's quite telling that under normal circumstances you aren't allowed to recruit them until you beat the main story.
139	** The DLC for ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' introduces the Stellar Type, a Tera Type that can harness the power of every type. This grants a boost to moves of any type, but only once per type each battle. In addition, the two moves that can be Stellar-type themselves (Tera Blast and Tera Starstorm) are guaranteed to hit any Pokémon for at least neutral damage (except Terastal Form Terapagos while Tera Shell is active), and can hit any Terastalized Pokémon for supereffective damage. This is exceptionally good on Pokémon with the ability Contrary; ordinarily, using a Stellar Tera Blast lowers the user's Attack and Special Attack, but Contrary causes it to boost them instead.
140	* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' includes a combat triangle that states melee is strong to range, range to magic, and magic to melee. This transfers over to style armours in the form of rather large resistances to the opposing style while a glaring weakness exists for the others; certain high-end boss monsters have been given essentially an "all" damage type which ignores the armour bonuses making the triangle fairly moot.
141	** Thankfully, this is averted in the ''Old School'' variant. A select few bosses were given "untyped" damage of the combat triangle, which in practice just means you can't use Protection From X prayers to negate damage, but are still just as vulnerable to being stopped by armour as the "typed" variants. The kraken, which is the first thing to be given untyped damage, is notably stopped dead by typical high-leveled range armour due to using untyped magic.
142	* The ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' series has the Almighty element. Partial resistance is extremely rare on enemies and available to the player only in [[VideoGame/DevilSurvivor2 one spinoff title]], while full immunity is relegated to bosses with StoryDrivenInvulnerability or ThatOneAttack. To offset the overall lack of targets that can resist Almighty, most Almighty attacks will carry a high MP/[[VideoGame/Persona3 S]][[VideoGame/Persona4 P]] cost. Ironically, in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'', Almighty is the ''worst'' element for the main character to use since he gets a unique passive skill late in the game that grants all of his attacks Pierce properties and Pierce now breaks through Repel-level defenses.
143	* ''VideoGame/SpellforceIII'' has a basic set of five physical and four elemental damage types, each with its corresponding resistance attached. And then there's "pure damage", an unaligned element that appears to ignore any and all resistances. Only a few high-level abilities, some rare and powerful monsters, and two top-tier defence towers use it, all of which have very powerful attacks by default, so being hit by any of them hurts. ''A lot''.
144	* ''VideoGame/StarWarsGalaxies'' had the "lightsaber" damage typing (which nothing resisted) and a runner up in stun damage for [=PvP=] (which could be resisted, but at far lower rates than the more common damage typings like Energy or Kinetic).
145	* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' generally classifies attacks as Physical Blade/[[LaserBlade Energy Blade]]/[[EnergyWeapon Beam]]/[[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter Bullet]]/Missile/[[AttackDrone Remote]], with some units having abilities which can block attacks of a certain type (such as jamming or reflective armour). However, it sometimes gives Anime/{{Dancougar}}'s attacks the unique "Beast" type which bypasses all such abilities.
146	* In ''Vattroller X'', the weapons owned by the [[GuestFighter guest characters]] have no type. This means that once you [[GuideDangIt insert their passwords]] [[DoubleUnlock and buy them]], you can equip them as soon as possible, especially because save slots share equipments.
147	* The light weapon type that Vandalier Ash uses in ''VideoGame/VandalHearts'' seems to be this. Combine that with Vandalier infinite item spamming, crazy block chance and ridiculous stats and you got a GameBreaker.
148	* The "Stasis" element ''used'' to be this to a T for the ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'' MMORPG, because no enemy had resistances to it (except bosses, to prevent Game Breaker status). "Stasis" is the essence of destruction and the opposite of Wakfu (the essence of life and growth), so it was only used by the Foggernaut, steam-powered robots who could shoot lasers of Stasis. Only six of the Foggernaut's attacks could cause Stasis damage, and the Foggernaut had no way to gain elemental mastery for Stasis like other elements, so the spells themselves were beefed up to compensate. As of writing, the Foggernaut's Stasis abilities have been revised, and now automatically target the enemies' weakest defense, and the Foggernaut gains mastery equal to the average mastery of his/her other elements. Considering enemies still have no specific resistance to it and ''all'' of the attacks add ''negative'' Stasis resistance to their targets, even the revision fits this trope.
149	* ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' also had chaos damage, which ignored all resistances and damage reduction effects. This was mostly exclusive to the Burning Legion however, and the only unit players got to control (outside of the single-player campaign) that did chaos damage was the summonable Infernal and the Demon Hunter's [[OneWingedAngel ultimate form]], both of which only lasted a limited time. (The expansion adds a Pit Lord hero that can summon a Doom Guard, which also deals chaos damage much like the Infernal).
150	** At the same time, chaos damage doesn't deal any bonus damage to any armor type and normal damage is very close behind chaos damage, dealing reduced damage only to fortified armor (most structures), dealing bonus damage to medium armor (most ranged attackers), and normal damage is given to most melee units. Thus in multiplayer, a respectable army of melee troops can actually be more physically damaging if given the opportunity to shine.
151	** The campaign-only Divine armor type used by some bosses. Whoever has it is invulnerable to (well, takes ScratchDamage from) everything except chaos damage. When it appears, either the boss in question isn't supposed to be killed or (in one instance) something else is needed to gain the ability to kill it; so yes, Divine armor is a honest-to-God PlotArmor.
152	* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' features True Damage, which suffers no drawbacks against any health type and [[ArmorPiercingAttack outright ignores armor]]. Fittingly, it's the rarest damage type in the game; it can't be added to weapons with mods, and it only comes from finisher attacks, Slash procs, and a handful of Warframe powers.
153	* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has its magic attacks split to schools by damage type. There's fire, frost, nature, arcane and shadow. While no enemy is really weak against a particular school (barring some special cases, like one boss in one of the very first raids that needed to be hit by frost damage to freeze it), many have resistance or immunity to their own type (so fire is ineffective against black dragons or fire elementals etc.), and there are items and spells that boost resistance to a school. Holy damage has no resistance score. To compensate for this, holy spells mostly deal less damage. It is very important for paladin [[StoneWall tanks]], who rely on being able to damage everything to keep opponents focused on them.
154	* This is one reason why, in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'', Mythra and [[VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}} KOS-MOS]] are considered the best Blades in the game. Very few enemies resist Light, and you can always use a Dark attack to ''give'' them a weakness to Light. The only way to balance this is that Mythra is locked to Rex (Meaning that to build up any light elemental chains without using other elements you have to fill Rex's affinity gauge fast) and KOS-MOS is the rarest Blade in the game.
155	* ''VideoGame/YggdraUnion'' has this in spades. So, [[TacticalRockPaperScissors swords beat axes, which beats spears, which beat swords. All three of these weapons beat bows, bows beat magic, and magic beats these three weapons.]] ...and the BigBad has [[GameBreaker SCYTHES]], which are strong against the three main weapons and weak against NOTHING. Before you ask, yes, only he can use them.
156	** Except in the PSP remake, where you can recruit [[OptionalPartyMember a sweet little housewife with a gardening scythe.]] [[BadassNormal SHE IS JUST AS STRONG AS DRAGON RIDERS.]]
157	** Don't forget Durant and his pet dragon! He can upgrade to Gulcasa's class, too, with it. [[GameBreaker So guess what happens to other enemy units in the game?]]
158	* Some of the earlier ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' video games made ElementalRockPaperScissors out of monster cards' Attributes such that a monster with Paper attribute automatically defeats a monster with Rock attribute in battle, regardless of attack and defense points--however, Ritual monsters and a few other rare ones (and in games that include them, the Egyptian God Cards) had the "Divine" attribute that put them outside of the cycle, preventing them from being arbitrarily destroyed.
159	[[/folder]]
160
161	[[folder: Webcomics]]
162	* ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'': Several {{magical girl}}s possess some form of ElementalPowers, usually based on classical elements -- water, earth, fire, and air -- or similar pseudo-elements like electricity. All of these abilities have their own strengths and weaknesses, and most of them are relatively balanced in terms of utility. Tessa Quinn, however, uses "[[PureEnergy aether]]," a unique element that lets her vaporize monsters in a single powerful blast, and has no obvious drawbacks. It can even be repurposed to heal someone at the brink of death, though [[HealingMagicIsTheHardest this strains even Tessa's limits]].
163	[[/folder]]
164
165	[[folder: Western Animation]]
166	* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
167	** The ElementalPowers of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air are the only things that a person can bend; other bending arts were simply adaptations of one of the four (plant- and bloodbending were just bending the water that are contained in those, metalbending uses the minerals contained in the imperfections of the metal...). However, the last episode introduced energybending, which Aang came up with as a way of not killing the BigBad after having a conversation with a lion-turtle the size of an island. ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' expands on it further--the Avatar can bend the energy within themself in the form of an AstralProjection, and can also channel ''and'' manipulate spirit energy in the same way they would other elements. Another advantage that it has over the four classical elements is that the Avatar doesn't need their physical form to bend energy.
168	** Airbending itself counts, as the limited number of airbenders means no one is prepared for enemies that can fly and turn the very atmosphere against you [[spoiler:and as the Earth Queen found out, remove the air from your lungs]]. Perhaps best demonstrated in Book Three of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', when the nonbender Zaheer suddenly gets airbender powers (admittedly, no one would have seen that coming) to easily escape his TailorMadePrison.
169	[[/folder]]

Context Main / InfinityPlusOneElement