If you want to sail through the trickiest boss battles in Metaphor ReFantazio, you need to understand the Affinity system well. Affinities play a huge part in the game’s combat, impacting how you build your party to deal with threats and enemies.
Here, we’ll look at every Affinity in the game—including why they’re important and when you’re likely to see them come up during your first playthrough.
Affinities are essentially the same as weaknesses and resistances in the Persona franchise. The categories that both characters and attacks fall into impact how much damage they take and deal when going against others.
If you’ve not played a Persona game before, think about Pokémon instead and how type match-ups play a part in the iconic franchise. A Fire Pokémon would be weak to a Water attack, and in the same vein, Fire is weak to Ice in Metaphor ReFantazio.
It’s like a big game of rock-paper-scissors, which is fairly standard for an RPG that uses a (mainly) turn-based combat system. Even if you’ve never played a game like this before, it’s relatively easy to pick up and start building a party with Affinities in mind.
A good example of this in action is in the Fire Dragon Mauna fight, which takes place early on in Nord Mines, right at the beginning of the game.
It’s the first challenging boss fight, and it aims to teach newer players about weaknesses and repelled damage, with the nearby vendor selling Ice Chunks that can greatly damage the giant lizard.
To see an enemy’s weaknesses and resistances in the game, hit Analyse when you enter combat. You can find this at the bottom of the screen, alongside the formation and targeting buttons, and we’d suggest having a look at this for every major fight.
This will bring up a screen like the one shown above, giving a breakdown of everything you know about the current enemy. It includes their name, level, skills, potential spoils, and their HP and Affinities.
This information is only fully visible if you’ve already fought an enemy. If you’re tangling with a new foe, you won’t see its Affinities and other key battle information until you’ve defeated it once or paid for information from an NPC.
When you know an enemy’s weaknesses and resistances, choosing a move in battle will prompt you based on whether the foe is weak to the move or if they resist it. This can help plan your attack style and which enemies to focus on in a large battle.
Each move that your characters have will also have an Affinity assigned to it, which you can check by looking at the little symbol next to the move name or by reading the move description.
For example, the Healer’s Hama attack is a Light attack, indicated by the golden cross next to the name. If you hit an enemy with an attack and you’re surprised by how little damage it ends up doing, the enemy likely resists that kind of damage.
You can overcome resistances with the use of items. Items like the Fire Fang can deal Fire damage without any characters needing a specific Archetype or move to use them. This is a blessing in fights against lots of types of enemies, and other items can inflict status conditions like Paralysis, too.
Don’t worry too much if you end up in a battle where you have no Affinity advantage. You don’t need your opponent to be weak to every single attack, as nice as it might be, as it’s possible to buff your party to help them hit harder or aim for critical strikes instead.
There are nine Affinities overall in Metaphor ReFantazio, including elemental types, subcategories of melee damage, and more niche examples like the Dark Affinity. Keep them in mind when building your party and choosing which skills to inherit for a boss fight.
Dark
The Dark Affinity doesn’t come into play very early on in Metaphor ReFantazio. Unsurprisingly, it’s the counterpart to the Light Affinity, often tied to more ominous enemies and attack styles.
Most Affinities have a debuff or status condition associated with them. The most relevant status condition for Dark attacks is Hex, which deals half of any dealt damage to the afflicted and lowers their resistance to Dark-type attacks.
Dark-type attacks will become available to you as you progress with the story and add further Archetypes to your party. You will be able to pick up Sinister Straw Effigies, which can deal Dark damage from mobs like the Curseweight Magileto.
Electric
Electric damage holds a lot of potential throughout the game, and it’s also tied to one of the most useful status conditions. Paralysis can stop an enemy from moving.
Mages get access to Kande early on, which deals a weak chunk of Electric damage. The Thunderstone item can also deal a small amount of Electric energy, which can be handy if you’re trying to get extra Turn Icons in a battle against an enemy that is weak to Electric damage.
Speaking of weaknesses, Electric damage has the potential to take down some of the tankiest Archetypes in the game. The Knight is weak to Electric damage, meaning it’s worth being cautious of foes with this Affinity if you’re running a melee-heavy party.
Fire
Fire is one of the first Affinities you come across in Metaphor ReFantazio, thanks to the military-issue igniters and the Mage Archetype having access to spells like Bot.
It’s powerful, and unless you’re in an area that’s populated by fire beasts and demons, it’s likely you’ll come across enemies who are weak to Fire. Additionally, the Warrior resists Fire, which comes in very handy in the Fire Dragon Mauna battle.
Fire’s associated status condition is Burn, which increases how much damage a character takes in combat. Early bosses and tricky enemies will use the Burn status condition against your party, so ensure you have items to heal it and prevent wiping.
Ice
Alongside Fire, Ice is one of the first Affinities that becomes relevant in an early-game boss fight. Fire Dragon Mauna (and similar creatures) are weak to Ice, meaning that Archetypes like the Mage, which have access to moves like Blizz, are incredibly valuable.
On top of this, enemies like the War Wulha demonic beasts are also weak to Ice, alongside some human enemies you encounter in the Regalith Grand Cathedral. It’s a potentially lethal Affinity, so it’s worth making sure you have at least one Archetype in the party who can access it.
If you’re running with a build that doesn’t have any Ice attacks available, though, you can use the Ice Chunk item to take advantage of the Affinity regardless. Even if it doesn’t hit the enemy for too much damage, it should help you to pick up Turn Icons and swing the battle in your favor.
Light
Light damage is useful when battling against undead creatures and you will see it when you unlock the Healer Archetype. The Hama attack deals weak Light damage, but once you unlock the ability to Synthesize, you can start dealing heavy Light damage.
Other than with the Healer and associated Archetypes, one of the best ways to deal Light damage is to find a Luminous Sphere or a Holy Ossuary. These battle items deal 100 and 150 Light damage, respectively.
Pierce
Melee damage falls into three different Affinities in Metaphor ReFantazio, and some enemies will only be weak to a handful of them.
When looking at melee-heavy Archetypes like the Warrior or the Knight, it’s important to pay attention to the icons beside their attacks to ensure you’re getting the required type. It’s also worth having a look at which melee types an Archetype is weak to, which you can do by going to Akademia.
For example, the Knight resists Slash damage but does not resist Pierce or Strike damage. Despite them all being melee types, they’re treated as separate Affinities.
Slash
Slash damage is essentially a cut instead of a stab. Archetypes with Pierce damage attacks will usually have at least one Slash damage attack in their toolkit, as both types of damage require either a knife or a sword.
Slash damage becomes available early on in the game when you get access to the Warrior for the first time. Attacks like Diagonal Slash don’t deal massive chunks of damage, but they’re a step up from standard melee attacks and can make a difference in a fight.
If you have access to battle items, Corrosive Acid pairs perfectly with any of the three melee Affinities, lowering the enemy’s defense stat for three turns.
Strike
Strike damage is the final melee Affinity, and it’s tied to any attack that features a crushing, heavy blow instead of cutting or stabbing an enemy.
An example of this is the Brawler’s toolkit, where the user exchanges chunks of their health to deal proportionate damage with attacks like Perfect Punch and Skullcracker. One status condition that’s associated with these moves is Forget, which makes a foe forget how to use their abilities.
Wind
Wind is one of the first Affinities you’ll come across when playing Metaphor ReFantazio, as the Seeker Archetype (which is the Archetype that the player character starts off with) has access to the Wind-type attack Cyc.
Single-target Wind attacks like Cyc aren’t exceedingly powerful, but once you unlock Synthesis, you can experiment with moves like Gacyc and Gacyclo that hit harder and take on multiple enemies at once.
Having a variety of attack types on hand is essential for success in Metaphor ReFantazio. You will likely struggle if you head into a boss battle with just single-target damage and no buffs, debuffs, or AoE options.
Make sure to look into the Synthesis option to give yourself even more options when building your party and deciding which Archetypes to study in Akademia.
