Attack and Defense Types

Teambuilding is one of the most important parts of Blue Archive because of the game’s rock-paper-scissors-like implementation of attack types and defense types. A single student might do amazing against certain types of enemies, while doing very poorly against others, and this article will explain why that is.

Attack Types

Distinguished with a sword icon, every student and enemy has their own attack type. So far, students may deal Explosive (or commonly known as Red) damage, Piercing (or commonly known as Yellow) damage, or Mystic (or commonly known as Blue) damage. These damage types determine which enemy armor type/color they are strong against.

Enemies and Total Assault Bosses up to Extreme have a certain attack type that is exclusive to them: Normal, which deals 100% damage against any and all student armor typings. It is essentially a jack of all trades, while being a master of none.

Siege is also an attack type that is super effective against battlefield structures (such as cover) and characters with Structure/purple armor, however, no such student exists that can make use of this typing yet.

Defense types

Distinguished with a shield icon, every student and enemy also has their own defense type. This determines which type of attack they resist and which type of attack they are weak against. They may have Light (Red), Heavy (Yellow), or Special (Blue) armor.

Pretty much every single type of enemy here has their own defense types that you are recommended to take advantage of. While the early story stages of Blue Archive can easily be steamrolled with a team that has zero synergy, you will find yourself hitting a wall really fast when faced against future, tankier enemies that are good at resisting some of your students’ attacks.

Rock-Paper-Scissors

The easiest way to remember which attack type is strong against which defense type is to simply look at their colors. If an attack has the same color as an enemy’s armor, it will deal x2 damage to them. On the other hand, an attack that an enemy resists will only deal x0.5 damage. Finally, if an enemy is neutral to a type of attack, it will simply deal x1.0 damage.

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you should only stick to matching colors when on a stage. Certain students are good enough to warrant their usage even outside of their dedicated niche. Examples include Iori, a Yellow Striker student, being used in certain blue-armored stages, or Iroha, a Blue Special student, being used in certain red-armored stages. Most of the time, their damage and utility is good enough that lets them punch against enemies with different armor.

The reverse is also true - Iori may still be decent against Blue armored enemies, but she falls really hard against Red armored enemies. The same goes for Iroha and Yellow armored enemies. Not even their strengths can save them against enemies that outright resist their attack typings and it may be better for you to simply use the same-color principle as mentioned above.

Not every stage is similar and has mono-type enemies either. Some of them may have two different armor-types showing up, forcing you to split your students’ attack types, so make sure that the student team you create has decent synergy when these types of stages pop up.

Enemy attack types

Most enemies, such as those that appear in Story or Hard mode stages, only have Normal attack types, and as such, the type of color your Strikers have as attacks and how they match up against the enemy armor matters more than whether or not the armor your students have can tank the enemy’s attacks.

The exceptions to this rule are for Total Assault bosses in Insane and beyond, as well as for the PvP mode.

In Total Assault, the boss’s attacks from Normal all the way up to Extreme all have Normal typing, but in Insane and Torment, their attack typing changes, potentially increasing or decreasing your student options, as now you also have to consider whether or not a student has armor that can tank a boss’s attacks, or if you can move them to safety so the boss doesn’t target them if their armor is weak to the boss’s attacks.

In PvP, you will be fighting other players and their students, which all have different attack types and armor, just like yours. While the process itself can feel like RNG, especially when the AI randomizes the skill order, you can still manipulate your chances and increase your chances of victory by ensuring that you’re bringing the right type of students that play to their strengths in both attack and defense types.

Type Compatibility Chart