Weapon-elemental

The internal icon representing weapon-elemental skills since EBF4; this icon is never visible in-game.

"Element and effects depend on current weapon."

―Various skill descriptions, Epic Battle Fantasy 4

The term "weapon-elemental" is a common fan-made nickname used by the community, as well as this wiki, to refer to skills that derive their elements and status effects from equipped weapons in the Epic Battle Fantasy series.

Characteristics

Weapon-elemental skills are available to every character in the team, and each of them has different methods of performing them:

Matt and NoLegs perform direct strikes or combos with their respective weapons.
Natalie can smack a single target with her staff or (since EBF4) assault the foes with blasts of multicolored energy.
Anna mainly fires arrows from her bow, although she can also use an arrow or the bow itself as a makeshift dagger or club, respectively.
Lance can strike a foe with his sidearm, shoot bullets from it, smash a foe with his equipped gun, or charge up and launch a massive energy beam.

Most weapon-elemental skills inflict physical damage, with the main exceptions being Natalie's Normal Attack (EBF4 only), Spectrum/Rainbow Blast, and Hyper Beam. The Hidden Power Limit Break is unique among weapon-elemental skills in that it can be physical or magical depending on which of the user's offensive stats is higher.

Weapon-elemental skills have the following features:

These skills derive their elemental property from the weapon currently held by their user, normally keeping the weapon's elemental degree — this is wildly inconsistent in EBF2 and 3, but was standardized to 50% in EBF4 and 5. The only exceptions are Matt's Legend skill in EBF3, which halves the elemental degree, and his Unleash skill in all games, which raises it to 100% (except with certain weapons in EBF2).
- As EBF1 lacks elements in the sense they are used in next games, equipping a sword with "elemental" properties makes Matt's weapon-elemental skills affected by the target's resistance to the corresponding "elemental" Bushido skill — Seiken with "Holy-elemental" Heaven's Gate or Eruption with "Fire-elemental" Inferno.
Generally speaking, single-target and centered weapon-elemental skills are capable of triggering bonus skills, as well as status effects/debuff specified by the held weapon. Those that target all enemies evenly are incapable of triggering bonus spells, but can still inflict status effects and debuffs as normal.
Weapon-elemental skills are not affected by Equipment Effects that enhance the power of elemental skills, regardless of circumstances. Combined with their generally inferior elemental percentage, this means that weapon-elemental skills are usually incapable of dealing as much damage as their 'properly' elemental counterparts without relying on bonus skills or/and having elevated base power.