what do weapon elements do?

[Mezz]

I was wondering what the purpose of weapon elements such as heaven and earth elements are for

[RX-0Banshee]

It's a new gameplay element that KT decided to try with DW8. It's similar to a rock-paper-scissors system where Heaven affinity beats Earth, does nothing against Heaven, but is weak against Man (something like that). When you're comboing officers and their affinity is weak against yours, you have the chance of performing a Storm Rush (special combo juggle complete with zoom-in animation) for massive damage. Storm Rushing is GREAT against groups of officers (on harder difficulties), so try to learn it as best you can.

[butterfingers158]

Adding on to that, an officer that is using a weapon type strong against yours (red symbol), can't be staggered and does a lot more damage to you (as in a generic officer can 100-0 you on Chaos/Ultimate)

[Mezz]

guess i need to figure out what elements are best to use

[RX-0Banshee]

Originally posted by Mezz:

guess i need to figure out what elements are best to use

Basically, whenever you approach an officer, look at the huge icon above their head: if it's a blue-ish circle with symetrical lines in it, attack them as aggressively as you can.

If they have a red triangle with a white exclamation point, either switch weapons before you attack them or hope you cause enough damage to them before they can attack you because they don't have a hit stun unless they block a charge attack.

They they don't have an icon, then their affinity is neutral and they are just like like the peons but attack you more (depending on the difficulty).

[CaillouVelu]

All this is explain in tutorial in history mode.