Palworld element matchups: why a weakness hit doubles your damage

Element matchups are the fastest damage multiplier in the game. Hit a weakness and you double your output; hit a resist and you halve it. Here’s the full 9-element chart, how dual-element Pals stack, and the same-element bonus worth checking before you walk into a tower boss.

The weakness chart (2x damage)

Attacking element	Deals 2x to
Fire	Grass, Ice
Water	Fire
Grass	Ground
Electric	Water
Ice	Dragon
Ground	Electric
Dark	Neutral
Dragon	Dark
Neutral	None (can’t land a weakness hit)

Fire, Water, Electric, Ground and Grass form a loop, each one strong against the next. Ice, Dragon, Dark and Neutral run in a straight line instead: Ice beats Dragon, Dragon beats Dark, Dark beats Neutral.

The 0.5x resist, and Neutral’s one exception

A Pal resists two things: the element it’s already strong against, and its own element. A Water-type Pal cuts incoming Fire damage in half, since Water beats Fire, and it also halves damage from other Water attacks.

One exception is worth remembering. Neutral damage never gets resisted, by anything. It can’t double up on a weakness, but it always lands at full value. When you’re not sure what an enemy resists, Neutral is the safe swing.

Dual elements multiply, they don’t just add

Against a Pal with two elements, multiply the two matchup values together instead of averaging them.

• Two stacked weaknesses: 2 × 2 = 4x
• One weakness and one resist: 2 × 0.5 = 1x (cancels out)
• Two stacked resists: 0.5 × 0.5 = 0.25x

A dual-element Pal weak to both of your elements takes 4x, which sounds great until you remember the reverse also happens: hit one weakness and one resist on the same target and you’re back to 1x, no better than swinging Neutral. Check both elements before committing to a fight, not just the one that looks favorable. This also matters for variant Pals that swap their element, since the matchup you memorized for the base form no longer applies.

The same-element move bonus

A Pal deals roughly 1.2x damage when the move it uses shares its own element. Give a Fire-type Pal a Fire move and it hits harder than the move’s base power would suggest. When you’re building out a team, pairing each Pal’s element with a move of the same element is close to a free damage bump.

For a quick lookup mid-fight, the element matchup tool covers the whole chart on one screen. If you’re picking a Pal to actually land these hits, see the best attacker per element. Once you know the chart, no matchup in the game catches you off guard.