Elemental damage

Elemental damage is a modifier that exists on certain attacks and weapons. Elemental damage is one of the manifestations of Light, and can be used to a player's advantage to make their attacks more effective. It comes into play for both Guardians and enemies.

Elemental Types

There are four types damage types:

• Kinetic - White - The default damage type on most weapons. Will do base damage on any enemy.
• Solar - Red - Causes thermal damage, with a chance of igniting enemies
• Arc - Blue - Causes shock damage, with a chance for splash damage
• Void - Purple - Causes void damage

Weapons

Weapons can be infused with elemental damage; by default, most weapons only do kinetic damage, but some may come with modifiers. The modifier is indicated not only on the weapon's stats, but also in the weapon menu on the HUD. At the common level, only Fusion Rifles do elemental damage, but at higher levels nearly all special and heavy weapons do elemental damage. Only a handful of primary weapons do elemental damage, and most of those weapons are typically acquired in raids.

The damage type on most weapons is random, though some weapons such as exotics or legendary raid weapons have a set damage type.

Weapon Class	Solar	Arc	Void
Auto Rifle	Abyss Defiant	Necrochasm	Atheon's Epilogue
Pulse Rifle		Oversoul Edict, Praedyth's Timepiece
Scout Rifle	Vision of Confluence	Fang of Ir Yut
Hand Cannon		Fatebringer	Word of Crota
Sniper Rifle	Black Hammer, Icebreaker	Patience and Time	Eye of Sol, Praedyth's Revenge
Fusion Rifle	Murmur †, Praetorian Foil, Pocket Infinity, Vex Mythoclast	Murmur †, Light of the Abyss, Plan C
Shotgun	Invective	Astral Horizon, Found Verdict, The 4th Horseman	Swordbreaker
Machine Gun	Super Good Advice	Song of Ir Yut, Thunderlord	Corrective Measure
Rocket Launcher	Hezen Vengeance, Hunger of Crota, Gjallarhorn, Dragon's Breath		Tomorrow's Answer, Truth

† Murmur is capable of switching between Arc and Solar damage.

Guardians

Each Guardian subclass focuses on one type of elemental damage. This extends to melee attacks, grenades, and supers.

Class	Solar	Arc	Void
Hunter	Gunslinger	Bladedancer	x
Titan	x	Striker	Defender
Warlock	Sunsinger	x	Voidwalker

Enemies

Elemental damage will do bonus damage against certain types of enemies. The most obvious way to tell if an enemy is weak to a certain damage type is to see what color shield they have; for example, Fallen Captains with blue Absorption shields are weak to Arc attacks. Every race has at least one type of enemy shielded by default, but will also have another type of enemy that's shielded whenever the Epic modifier is active (or during certain public events.

Race	Solar Shield	Arc Shield	Void Shield
Fallen	Noble Shank	Captain	x
Hive	Wizard	Anointed Knight	x
Vex	x	Harpy Zealot	Minotaur
Cabal	Centurion, Psion Flayer	Psion Flayer	Elite Psion, Psion Flayer

Enemy weapons and abilities typically have their own elemental damage types as well. Normally this doesn't come into play, unless players are playing a mission with damage modifiers on. For example, a Nightfall mission with a 300% boost to arc damage applies to both Guardians and enemies, so enemies that do arc damage are especially dangerous.

Race	Solar weapon	Arc weapon	Void weapon
Fallen	Shrapnel Launcher, Fallen Walker's main cannon	Shock Pistol, Shock Rifle, Wire Rifle, Shock Grenade, Shock Dagger, Shock Sword, Pike, Skiff, Fallen Walker's secondary armaments	Servitor
Hive	x	Boomer, Thrall's melee attack, Cursed Thrall explosion, Wizard's darkness blast	Shredder, Ogre's eye beam attack, Shrieker, Tombship
Vex	Slap Rifle, Line Rifle, Hobgoblin's Shield	x	Torch Hammer, Slap Grenade, Goblin's melee attack, Hydra, Cyclops
Cabal	Slug Rifle, Projection Rifle, Heavy Slug Thrower, Harvester, Interceptor, Goliath Tank	Psion Psychic attack	x