[PSA] Phase Weakness =/= Weapon Damage Weakness

[hollow minnow]

When targeting an enemy unit with either a phase weakness OR a weapon damage weakness, the in-game UI will describe the "Phase Weakness Effect" (+10% damage and +2 stability damage). This gives the false impression that phase weakness is the same as weapon damage weakness.

However, this is in fact not the case. Weapon damage weakness exists as a separate effect, and stacks with phase weakness. It is simply not shown properly in targeting preview. This is an important distinction since certain in-game mechanics interact only with phase weaknesses but not weapon damage weaknesses.

A recent example would be the final boss of Endless Projections, where certain effects are only triggered by phase weaknesses but not weapon damage weaknesses.

[civic kite]

Hmm is it not the same? I swear I’ve been using Tololo’s S1 that only gains CI on “phase weakness” against enemies that only had the bullet weakness

[hollow minnow]

I honestly think that's a mistranslation, since TLL S1 does gain CI on both phase weakness and weapon damage weakness. The fan translation (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DogyU3K7ZXw2qbhP1EhRXIAw5nCyIV5G5e-QWviBZME/edit?gid=107213461#gid=107213461) for the skill states: "If this counters the enemy's weakness, increases Contamination Gauge by 2 points". This suggests to me that the skill is trigger properly when it counters any weakness (whether phase of weapon damage), but in-game that translation has not been properly reflected.

[civic kite]

Yea that makes sense

[hollow minnow]

Other instances where the fan translation refers to "enemy's weakness" but in-game is translated as "phase weakness" include (among released characters):

1. Ksenia's Ult (V3)
2. Littara's fixed key 3
3. Qiongjiu's fixed key 5
4. Mosin-Nagant's Ult (V0)
5. Mosin-Nagant's Ult S1 (V1)
6. Ullrid's fixed key 6
7. Lotta's Ult (V1)

It's possible that all these refer to not just phase weakness, but rather phase or weapon damage weaknesses. However, what's clearly distinctive was that the Endless Projections boss treated phase weaknesses and weapon damage weaknesses differently. Indeed, one of its other abilities specifically refers to weapon damage weakness instead of phase weakness. No idea what the "positional weakness" refers to.

[civic kite]

I think there’s that phase resonance set bonus too, where there is a bonus effect if you hit two phase weaknesses but as far as I know, a skill can only have 1 weapon type and 1 element type?

[hollow minnow]

I suspect that "weapon damage weakness" may be an outdated term that only exists in tutorial. Maybe they decided in the end to just group everything and call them "phase weaknesses" to avoid confusion. However, there are still leftover mechanics (or at least boss mechanics) which treat phase and weapon damage weaknesses differently, and now we have no way of differentiating them just from reading.

In other words, the localization team probably thought everything in the game treats phase and weapon damage weaknesses the same, and the only thing that matters is whether you are triggering one of the weaknesses or both at the same time. And they would have been probably right at launch. However, as more content releases it turns out that those two weaknesses are not always treated the same way.

[cyan iron]

Another reference

[hollow minnow]

Definitely seems like a clear inconsistency, most likely indicative of a change in terminology use over time that does not 100% fully reflect actual game mechanics