Damage Type

Each type of physical attack does different types of damage, and enemies have traits may make them resistant or particularly vulnerable to certain damage types. The basic types are:

Damage Type	Weapon Type
Blunt	Hand-to-Hand, Club, Staff
Slashing	Axe, Great Axe, Great Sword, Sword, Scythe, Katana, Great Katana
Piercing	Dagger, Polearm, Archery, Marksmanship, Shuriken

Additionally, the Blunt and Piercing categories can be further divided, separating Hand-to-Hand from the other Blunt weapons, and separating ranged weapons from the other Piercing weapons. While many things that are weak to Blunt are also weak to Hand-to-Hand, and likewise for many things weak to Piercing also being weak to Ranged, some enemies have different weaknesses to each. They are also counted separately for the purposes of things such as Caturae's Tabbiyaa Gambit.

Types

Blunt

• These attacks strike your target with percussive force to break, crush, smash, or disable.
• Abilities: Includes Bash abilities such as Shield Bash, Weapon Bash, and Blade Bash.
• Spells: There are post-75 Physical Blue Mage spells with the Blunt type. See Blue Magic.
  • However, the last Hand-to-Hand Blue spells were Asuran Claws/Cannonball at lvl 70. That means the base damage is capped according to Blue Magic Skill, and at a low level of said skill.
• Pets: Many Jug Pets have access to one or more Blunt TP moves.
  • In the level 75 cap era, pet melee damage was usually Blunt. Many of these pets, including Avatars melee damage have since been reworked to be slashing damage.
    • Only Cait Sith , with Blunt, has non-Slashing auto-attacks.
    • Titan's Megalith Throw and other Throwing Blood Pacts were changed to Slashing also.
    • Ifrit's , Shiva's , and Siren's physical Blood Pacts will be the Hand-to-Hand type in cases where it would make sense: punches, kicks, roundhouse, rush.
• Skillchains: The weapon skills are more often associated with Impaction, Reverberation, and Compression skillchain properties.
• Balance: A widely accessible attack type. While the disadvantages outnumber the advantages, it's of virtually no impact if there aren't common leveling or merit fodder among them.
  • COR is the only job without access to Club, Hand-to-Hand, or Staff skill.
  • RNG, BST, RDM, THF, NIN, SAM, and DNC have one or more of these combat skills, but only at a rank of D or E.

Blunt Resistance

Note: These monster family resistances exclude NMs, which mostly are special cases.

• Blunt damage is enhanced against enemies that have hard exteriors that would crack on impact.
  • > Where Blunt damage bonus is higher than Hand-to-Hand
    • ↑+50% ↑+25% Magic Pots
    • ↑+25% ↑+12.5% Skeletons, Zdeis
  • = Where Blunt and Hand-to-Hand damage bonus are equal
    • ↑+25% ↑+25% Narakas
    • ↑+12.5% ↑+12.5% Corses, Craklaws, Gargouilles
• Blunt damage is reduced ↓ against enemies with gelatinous bodies that absorb impact.
  • = Where Blunt and Hand-to-Hand damage bonus are equal
    • ↓-12.5% ↓-12.5% Orobons, Raazs
    • ↓-25% ↓-25% Ghosts, Greater Birds, Hecteyes, Hydras, Leeches, Matamatas, Sandworms, Slimes, Slugs, Snapweeds
    • ↓-37.5% ↓-37.5% Flan
  • > Where Hand-to-Hand damage bonus is higher than Blunt (i.e. Hand-to-Hand damage is reduced by less)
    • ↓-75% ↓-62.5% Acuex

Slashing

• These attacks cut down your target with slices and tears.
• Pets: Wyverns, Avatars, Familiars, most pets are dealing slashing damage now; before 2014, they usually had blunt damage.
• Skillchains: The weapon skills on slashing weapons will more often have skills with Scission and Fragmentation skillchain properties, but this includes a wide variety of weapons with their own specialties.
• Balance: The majority of weapons deal slashing damage. This type rarely sees any disadvantages, but there are not many enemies it has advantages over either.

Slashing Resistance

Note: These monster family resistances exclude NMs, which mostly are special cases.

• Slashing damage is enhanced against enemies that have thin limbs or tendrils.
  • ↑+50% Hydras
  • ↑+12.5% Euvhis, Hounds, Raazs, Rafflesias
• Slashing damage is reduced against these enemies with plated armor or other defenses.
  • ↓-12.5% Acuex, Acrolith, Corses, Dullahans, Gargouilles, Matamatas, Mantids, Narakas, Orobons, Skeletons, Wivre
  • ↓-25% Craklaws, Flans, Ghosts, Greater Birds
  • ↓-50% Acroliths, Slimes, Trolls, Tulfaires, Umbrils

Piercing

• These attacks pinpoint gaps in the opponent's armor, or other exploitable weak points, seeking to bypass defenses and deal critical damage.
• The only weapon damage type that has ilvl Exception-type weapons.
  • These include: Vampirism, Demersal Degen +1, Arendsi Fleuret, Tabahi Fleuret
• Balance: A damage type with many advantages but restricted to weapons that have more job-exclusive weaponskills.
  • Weapons like Daggers are low damage, so using them effectively requires specialist jobs with the abilities to finesse them with additional bonuses like THF and DNC.
  • Polearms are a DRG staple. WAR and SAM have an adequate B- skill rating.
  • Ranged weapon skills can only be used with RNG or COR as a main job or support job.

Piercing Resistance

• The resistance of Wyrms will change to be vulnerable to Piercing on the ground but resistance to Ranged, then to be vulnerable to Ranged while flying but resistant to Piercing.

Note: These monster family resistances exclude NMs, which mostly are special cases.

• Piercing damage is enhanced against enemies that fly, have scales or plated armor.
  • > Where Piercing damage bonus is higher than Ranged
    • ↑+25% ↑+0% Colibris, Mosquitos
    • ↑+12.5% ↑+0% Gnats, Wamouras, Lucani
  • = Where Piercing and Ranged damage bonus are equal
    • ↑+100% ↑+100% Heartwings
    • ↑+50% ↑+50% Tulfaires
    • ↑+25% ↑+25% Archaic Gears, Bats, Lesser Birds, Twitherym, Greater Birds, Bees, Flys, Sirens, Mandragoras
    • ↑+12.5% ↑+12.5% Amphipteres, Imps, Porxies, Raazs, Ladybugs, Harpeias, Puks, Mantids
• Piercing damage is reduced ↓ against enemies without vulnerable points.
  • = Where Piercing and Ranged damage bonus are equal
    • ↓-12.5% ↓-12.5% Acuexs, Dullahans, Matamatas
    • ↓-25% ↓-25% Craklaws, Ghosts, Snapweeds, Flans, Botuluss
    • ↓-50% ↓-50% Umbrils, Corses, Skeletons, Slimes, Narakas, Hydras

Exceptions

Some weapons also deal different damage than other weapons in their same category during auto attacks, however they do their normal category of damage when performing weaponskills.

• Rapier and Epee-type Swords deal Piercing damage. Some examples: Joyeuse, Degen, Fleuret.
  • Bilbo-type Swords, such as the Tuck, use a similar model as Rapiers, but still deal Slashing damage.
• The Swan Bilbo (Sword) deals Blunt damage.
• The Bourdonasse (Polearm) deals Blunt damage.
• The Crude Sword (Great Sword) deals Blunt damage.
• The Honebami (Great Katana) deals Blunt damage.
• The Chiroptera Dagger (Dagger) deals Slashing damage.
• The Vampiric Claws (Hand-to-Hand) weapon deals Slashing damage.
• The Birdbanes (Hand-to-Hand) weapon deals Piercing damage.
• When using the Monk Job Ability "Formless Strikes", the damage type of melee strikes and kick attacks is nonphysical, nonelemental. This damage will not be subject to any damage-type specific bonuses or penalties.

Calculating Damage Resistance Values

Using attacks with simple damage formulas, such as those that ignore defense or dSTAT, we can quantify an enemy's resistance to a particular damage type.

Resistance Calculations

Type	Source	Calculation
Blunt	Weapon Bash	FLOOR( (DRK or /DRK level) + 11) ÷ 4 ) + Bash Bonus Equipment + Job Point Bonus
Hand-to-Hand		-
Slashing	Excalibur: Additional Effect	User's Current HP ÷ 4
Slashing	Crag Throw: ilvl 119 Titan Blood Pact	( 127Ranged Dmg + -40~48fSTR2,Weapon Rank 18 + 8020%*(STR:206 AGI:197) ) × 4.0fTP (Crit rate varies) × 0.0~3.0Ranged pDIF (non-crit cap at 3.0) × Blood Pact Damage equipment
Piercing	Amigo Sabotender: ??? Needles †	RANDOM(1k, 2k, 4k, 6k, 8k, 10k) damage split evenly between targets in range.
Ranged		-
(Ø attribute)	See Note §
Elemental	Level 1 Skillchain (2 step) ‡	((Damage of last weapon skill ÷ 2) × Skillchain Bonus + Magic Damage (Statistic)) × Magic Affinity × Day/Weather
Magic (Ø element)	Magic Mortar	(Automaton Max HP - Current HP) * (TP Modifier) + Automaton Melee Skill
Breath (Ø element)	Spirits Within	User's Current HP × (TP Modifier)
Breath (Ø element)	Atonement	Enmity × (TP Modifier). Max: (mainhand item)Level × 10
Geomancy		-

† Blue Mage's 1000 Needles deals Breath damage.
‡ As of June 2014: "Skillchains have been adjusted to that they may no longer be resisted, but their potency will now vary depending on the resistance values of the target."
§ The Twilight Scythe (level 90) and Crepuscular Scythe (ilvl 119) are the only sources of non-attribute Physical damage. This can bypass physical immunity on a case-by-case basis if the immunity was implemented as slashing + blunt + piercing immunity.

Unknown Damage Type

If a tree falls down in the forest and no one is around to see it, what type of damage did it deal?

• The damage of Requiescat is only exceeded by its mystery.

Unique Mob Damage Type Resistances

While some mobs may take more/less of a type of damage type, some mobs are fully immune. This includes:

• Fired Urn only takes Slashing damage
• Holey Horror only takes Piercing damage
• Skeleton Scuffler only takes Blunt damage
• Lode Golem only takes magic damage or Quick Draw
• Blest Bones only takes magic damage or Quick Draw
• Steely Weapon only takes damage from ranged weapons and spikes damage. Ninja shurikens thrown via Daken Job Trait do not deal damage.
• Odyssey Sheol Gaol NMs at Veng 25 only take damage from one form of damage type.
  • Kalunga and Mboze V25 only take slashing damage.
  • Xevioso and Arebati V25 only take piercing or ranged damage.
  • Ngai V25 only takes blunt or hand-to-hand damage.
  • Ongo V25 only takes magic damage

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