Elements and Arts Reactions in Arknights: Endfield

During combat, dealing damage with Heat, Cryo, Electric, or Nature Arts will cause an Arts Infliction. This will deal bonus damage of the respective element and apply a debuff to your enemy called Arts Infliction.

For example, if you inflict enough Electric Arts damage to an enemy, you will trigger an Electric Arts Infliction.

Repeatedly causing the same Elemental Arts Infliction will build up to 4 stacks of the Infliction, causing an Arts Burst of elemental damage whenever a new stack is applied. This can be particularly valuable in mono-element teams, if you can boost the damage of the Arts Burst, or when an enemy is vulnerable against a specific element.

When applying Arts Inflictions from one Element while another is already active, you instead cause an Arts Reaction. These are special effects that work differently depending on the last Arts Infliction that was applied to the enemy, coloquially called a Trigger or Combo:

• Combustion is caused when applying Heat Infliction to an enemy that is already debuffed with another elemental Infliction. It deals Heat damage in an explosion, and puts a heavy damage over time effect on your enemy.
• Corrosion is caused when applying Nature Infliction on an enemy that is already debuffed with another elemental Infliction. It decreases the target's defense over time, increasing all damage taken by them.
• Electrification is caused when applying Electric Infliction to an enemy that is already debuffed with another elemental Infliction. It causes the enemy to take increased Arts damage from all sources.
• Solidification is caused when applying Cryo Infliction to an enemy that is already debuffed with another elemental Infliction. It freezes the enemy, immobilizes them, and allows you to shatter them for bonus damage.
• Shatter is caused when hitting a Solidified enemy with Physical damage. This will deal a large burst of Physical damage, and breaks the frozen status.

Physical damage in Arknights: Endfield works differently from the other four elements. Instead of causing Inflictions, it applies an effect called Vulnerable, which can stack up to four times. Once this effect is active on an enemy, you can hit them with another Physical Status skill, which will cause the effect of the individual skill. There are four of these Status effects:

• Crush will consume all Vulnerable stacks to deal massive burst physical damage, similar to an Arts Burst. The more stacks consumed, the higher the damage.
• Breach will consume all Vulnerable stacks to lower the target's defense against Physical damage, scaling with the amount of Vulnerable stacks you removed.
• Lift adds another Vulnerable stack, deals bonus Stagger damage, and lifts the enemy into the air.
• Knock Down will add a Vulnerable stack, deal bonus Stagger damage, and knock the enemy down.

When focusing on high Physical damage teams compositions, you will want to maximize the amount of Vulnerable stacks you generate, before consuming them all to lower the target's Physical defense with Breach or deal massive burst damage with Crush.