Elements

Elements are a concept included in both the Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors series, and many other Warriors related series. They can be fused with weapons or added as a separate item. Sometimes only one is allowed though more recent games and the Warriors Orochi series allow multiple elements. Elements are effects that affect enemies that are stuck by certain charge attacks. Some charge attacks will have elemental activation, some won't. The elements are generally as follows:

Elements

 * Lightning/Thunder/Bolt: Stuns foes and spreads in some games. As of Samurai Warriors 2, this effect will often be indicated by slow enemy fall speeds followed by a short period of immobility or small yellow indicators over their heads. The next hit will launch them into the air no matter what by a small amount (which may hamper continuous damage output as it forces an airborne state). Enemies killed by the lightning in earlier games do not count towards to player's direct K.O's.
 * In Dynasty Warriors 3, lightning causes targets affected by it to cause a lightning shockwave/quake effect upon them landing, along with causing another crashing knockback effect. Each target hit by the said quake(s) counts towards filling up the player's Musou bar, and can get very chaotic in tight spaces.
 * In Dynasty Warriors 4 however, it instead causes a lightning bolt to rain down upon the target hit, causing it to have increased range around other targets. This often tampers with knockdown effects, as targets hit by this are in a shocked/burnt state seen in Zhang Jiao's fire-based attacks, but hitting them with more incoming lightning bolts or with another bolt while they are airborne will cause a launch in a random direction (this often painfully effects most C5 attacks). This launch has been toned down by a notable amount as of Samurai Warriors 2.
 * However, in Samurai Warriors 4, the element has been heavily nerfed due to even less damage done on airborne foes, especially against generals.
 * Fire: Gradual damage on the target that ignores defense but cannot kill. The effect is brief if the target is on the ground, but if airborne they will stay on fire unless they recover in the air, due to keeping them in longer periods of hitstun. This also causes a burned state upon them in the case of Zhang Jiao's fire-based moves, where they flail about a small bit before crumpling to the ground.
 * Ice: Chance to freeze and ground foes through attacks and lowers enemy defense as they are frozen so. Frozen opponents cannot be set on fire and cannot break out of the ice for a short period of time. In previous games, foes who break out will continue/finish their hitstun animation upon being frozen, while in later games they are juggled into the air instead (which may decrease continuous damage output).
 * Wind/Air: Increases knockback and damage of airborne attacks. Wind will often add extra height to the target's air time. In Dynasty Warriors: Online it will also inflict "lethargy" on any computer or player commander by slowing down the target's foot speed for a short time as well as disabling double jumps. In the former's case, in recent games it has been analogous with the below element.
 * Light/Flash/Blast/Wind: Breaks or damages through guard (as in inflicting chip damage not unlike in most fighting games), or is even outright unblockable while occasionally throwing in extra damage.
 * Drain/Night/Absorb: Absorbs life or Musou from an enemy upon activation attack.
 * Clones/Multi: Creates a clone which will attack; can sometimes mess with knockback functions.
 * Dark/Vorpal/Death/Demon/Slay: Instantly kills peons and takes an extra percentage of a general's HP; sometimes drains the player's Musou bar (mainly in Dynasty Warriors 5) upon successful infliction.
 * Poison: Appears only in Dynasty Warriors 4 and Dynasty Warriors 8. Lowers defense for a time or has similar effects as the fire effect in Dynasty Warriors Advance.
 * Earth: Added in Samurai Warriors 4. Has a high chance of stunning targets and often allows extra damage inflicted upon said stunned targets.

Appearances
In Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors 3, they are attached to weapons and require full Musou gauge to use (the former only has them for specific fourth/fifth weapons and they can only be activated with certain character's charge attacks); the fire element was very common in a True Musou attack. Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends allows players to bypass this requirement with an item. In Samurai Warriors 2, the concept was slightly changed as they only required one full Musou bar out of three to activate. It also introduced the Demon and Wind elements, with the former being initially considered too powerful. This was changed in the expansion as the Demon element was downgraded. The same element system is retained in Samurai Warriors 3, though once again Demon element power has slightly been adjusted. Samurai Warriors 4 retains the elements found in previous games and also adds Earth element to the mix, but in trade, the lightning/thunder element has been heavily nerfed.

In Dynasty Warriors 4 and Dynasty Warriors 5, they come in the form of items, Orbs. Dynasty Warriors 4 still requires a full Musou bar to active the elements, and they can now apply to all charge attacks save for a few select ones. However, level 10 and 11 weapons negate this requirement (only for all physical attacks and certain non-physical attacks like elemental shots from certain characters' C1's; non-physical attacks still require a full Musou bar). In the Xtreme Legends expansion, it can also extend to one's True Musou attack as well.

These orbs are normal items found on field in Dynasty Warriors 4, but in Dynasty Warriors 5 they act as rare and special items that need certain conditions to acquire them, and no longer require full Musou bars to activate (though C1 and C2 attacks no longer activate elements). In Dynasty Warriors 6, only the regular elements Fire, Ice, and Bolt appear; they are attached to weapons and certain horses. Elements in Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce also inflict secondary ailments that may continuously persist within a set amount of time.

In the Warriors Orochi series, they are an ability attached to a weapon. These abilities can be given to other weapons through the Weapon Fusion system. They do not require a full Musou bar to activate, they will only activate on certain attacks, known as "activation attacks". In the second game however, any multi-input attacks would only activate them on the final input (with Cao Cao's C3 being an exception for its first input), and only Technique-types would be able to have elemental activation on their C1-EX and C2-EX moves (as the rest of the C1 and C2 moves no longer do so).

Innate Elemental Affinity
Elemental attributes used by each character when controlled by the computer.

Dynasty Warriors 4
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Fire

 * Zhao Yun
 * Zhang Fei
 * Xiahou Dun
 * Zhou Yu
 * Lu Xun
 * Sun Jian
 * Lu Meng
 * Lu Bu
 * Yuan Shao
 * Zhang Jiao
 * Meng Huo
 * Zhu Rong

Poison

 * Sima Yi
 * Zhen Ji
 * valign="top" width="10%"|

Lightning

 * Guan Yu
 * Liu Bei
 * Ma Chao
 * Jiang Wei
 * Wei Yan
 * Dian Wei
 * Xu Zhu
 * Zhang Liao
 * Xu Huang
 * Taishi Ci
 * Gan Ning
 * Sun Ce
 * Da Qiao
 * Dong Zhuo
 * valign="top" width="10%"|

Ice

 * Pang Tong
 * Yue Ying
 * Sun Shang Xiang
 * Diao Chan

Blast

 * Zhuge Liang
 * Huang Zhong
 * Xiahou Yuan
 * Cao Ren
 * Sun Quan
 * Huang Gai

Vorpal

 * Cao Cao
 * Zhang He
 * Xiao Qiao
 * Zhou Tai
 * }

Dynasty Warriors 5
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Fire

 * Zhao Yun
 * Zhang Fei
 * Huang Zhong
 * Guan Ping
 * Xiahou Dun
 * Dian Wei
 * Xu Zhu
 * Xiahou Yuan
 * Zhang He
 * Zhou Yu
 * Lu Xun
 * Sun Shang Xiang
 * Sun Jian
 * Lu Meng
 * Gan Ning
 * Huang Gai
 * Da Qiao
 * Xiao Qiao
 * Ling Tong
 * Diao Chan
 * Zhang Jiao
 * Meng Huo
 * Zhu Rong
 * valign="top" width="10%"|

Ice

 * Wei Yan
 * Pang Tong
 * Yue Ying
 * Zhang Liao
 * Sima Yi
 * Zhen Ji
 * Cao Pi

Shadow

 * Zhou Tai
 * valign="top" width="10%"|

Light

 * Guan Yu
 * Zhuge Liang
 * Liu Bei
 * Ma Chao
 * Jiang Wei
 * Xing Cai
 * Cao Cao
 * Xu Huang
 * Cao Ren
 * Pang De
 * Taishi Ci
 * Sun Quan
 * Sun Ce
 * Lu Bu
 * Dong Zhuo
 * Yuan Shao
 * Zuo Ci
 * }

Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce & Multi Raid 2
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Wood

 * Zhuge Liang
 * Jiang Wei
 * Xu Huang
 * Zhen Ji
 * Xiao Qiao
 * Beauty Yu
 * Nu Wa

Fire

 * Guan Yu
 * Guan Ping
 * Dian Wei
 * Zhang He
 * Zhou Yu
 * Lu Xun
 * Sun Shang Xiang
 * Sun Jian
 * Zhang Jiao
 * Meng Huo
 * valign="top" width="10%"|

Earth

 * Ma Chao
 * Wei Yan
 * Sima Yi
 * Cao Ren
 * Taishi Ci
 * Lu Meng
 * Dong Zhuo

Metal

 * Zhang Fei
 * Huang Zhong
 * Pang Tong
 * Xiahou Dun
 * Zhang Liao
 * Huang Gai
 * Ling Tong
 * Sun Quan
 * Da Qiao
 * Yuan Shao
 * Xiang Yu
 * Sun Wukong
 * valign="top" width="10%"|

Water

 * Zhao Yun
 * Yue Ying
 * Xu Zhu
 * Xiahou Yuan
 * Cao Pi
 * Gan Ning
 * Xi Wang Mu
 * Fu Xi

Yin

 * Cao Cao
 * Zhou Tai
 * Lu Bu

Yang

 * Liu Bei
 * Cai Wenji
 * Sun Ce
 * Diao Chan
 * King Mu
 * }