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
"A spark can give life...or take it."

- Grimoire Arc text.

"Sometimes the only answer is to burn it all away."

- Grimoire Solar text.

"It's fitting, then, that we have weaponized the unknown."

- Grimoire Void text.

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.
 * Arc—Blue—causes shock 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.

† 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.

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.

† Valus Trau'ug will alternate between different elemental types.

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. Note that Taken versions of enemies will do a different type of elemental damage than the original base enemy.