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 as of the Warriors Orochi series multiple elements can be equipped. Elements are effects that affect enemies that are stuck by certain charge attacks. Some charge attacks will have elemental activation, some won't.

Elements

 * Lightning/Thunder/Bolt/Shock: Stuns foes and spreads in some games, as well as causing the target(s) struck to fall-over in place. 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 KO's, but in later games lightning can also serve to extend the combo counter; it is also in that in those said titles, using it alone without other proper elements results in neutered damage due to forcing juggle combos.
 * 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. Said element also occurs during a Double Musou Attack between two players.
 * 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 affects most C5 attacks). This launch has been toned down by a notable amount as of Samurai Warriors 2.
 * In Warriors Orochi 3, this element works much differently than in previous titles, in that instead inflicts damage based on the target(s) HP, and also stuns targets. However, in that game it no longer possesses its traditional area-of-effect or the fall-over effect.
 * In Dynasty Warriors 8 however, this element still functions the same as in Warriors Orochi 3, only it is now able to spread to other targets. But as a trade-off, it receives a notable nerf where it no longer triggers on targets that are already airborne unlike its other version known as Induction/Inviting Thunder as mentioned below. When paired with other elements though, it is able to spread them more effectively than the aforementioned Induction whenever it is paired with Explosive.
 * Samurai Warriors 4 reverts it back to its original incarnation from the original Samurai Warriors games, albeit somewhat nerfed in overall damage.
 * In the Samurai Warriors series, this element is named as Senkō (閃光, lit. Glint) in the Japanese script.
 * Fire/Flame/Blaze/Inferno: Gradual damage on the target that ignores defense but cannot kill. The effect is brief if the target is on the ground (depending on the type of hitstun inflicted), but if airborne they will stay on fire unless they recover in the air, due to keeping them in longer periods of hitstun. In earlier games, 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. In several of the Musou Warriors games, almost all True Musou Attacks will have have the Fire element added to it by default.
 * In the Samurai Warriors series, this element is named as Guren (紅蓮. lit. Crimson Lotus) in the Japanese script.
 * In Dynasty Warriors 8 and Warriors Orochi 3, attacks that have fire by default (e.g: Zhang Jiao's Musou Attacks and Sun Quan's EX1) will either only deal the minimal damage tick or only acts as a visual effect unless the character's weapon has the attribute sufficiently levelled up.
 * In Dynasty Warriors 7, Dynasty Warriors 8 and Warriors Orochi 3, switching characters or weapons and attacking an airborne target affected by Fire will instantly stop the damage tick.
 * Ice/Frost: Chance to freeze any enemy targets, causing to remain grounded with lowered defense for the duration. Frozen opponents cannot be set on fire and cannot break out of the ice for a short period of time, and not even able to reverse out with a Musou Attack. 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 via the aerial damage penalty); however, this usually only happens if the target suffers damage at least once while frozen before breaking out.
 * In games that involve attributes that allow more damage against airborne targets, equipping ice in tandem is usually not recommended; the Fire element in particular will not work on frozen targets. In games that can allow both Fire and Ice to be fused onto the same weapon, one element's effects will override the other.
 * Some games may cause enemy targets to activate a well-timed option that has invincible frames, but will cause the element to freeze them in place which causes them to remain frozen and invincible for the whole duration.
 * In Warriors Orochi 3, if the player taps the R1 button at any point of being frozen, then their character will perform their R1 Type Action at the earliest possible frame upon having the freeze wear off, unlike with a Musou Attack.
 * In the Samurai Warriors series, this element is named as Tōga (凍牙, lit. Freeze Fang) in the Japanese script.
 * In Dynasty Warriors 8, it is now possible for an enemy to be afflicted with the effects with both Ice and Fire, though the damage tick of Fire only begins when the opponent is airborne.
 * 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.
 * When it first debuted in Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends, it only applied to characters who had projectile-charge attacks, and often replaced their respective projectiles with a miniature wind tornado graphic via the wind trap at Hefei Castle. Wind element attacks in that game also allowed foes hit to be juggled with a fairly high launch in a set distance that only works on a grounded hit (midair hits cause the attack's usual hit effect to occur); Zhuge Liang's C3 and C6 attacks however, were two of the sole exceptions in that they inflicted standard knockdown.
 * Light/Flash/Blast/Wind/Gale/Cyclone: Breaks or damages through guard (as in inflicting chip damage on blocked-hit akin to most fighting games) whenever it is wind-based, or is even outright unblockable while occasionally throwing in extra damage whenever it is light-based.
 * In the Japanese script of Dynasty Warriors 4, it is referred to as "Retsu" (烈, lit. Violent/Fury). In Dynasty Warriors 5 ' s Japanese script however, it is referred to as "Yō" (陽, lit. Yang).
 * In the case of it being labelled as the "Wind" element, in Warriors Orochi 3, it also inflicts damage based on the target(s) HP, while also still having the original chip damage effect like with the Blast version from Dynasty Warriors 4, only much more amplified; however in Samurai Warriors 4, the chip damage has been severely nerfed, to the point where it is weaker than the Blast variation of the attribute (though it can still chip low-HP targets to death).
 * In Dynasty Warriors 8 as Cyclone, it functions roughly the same as before via percentage HP damage, though it receives a notable nerf in the Xtreme Legends expansion where Cyclone's effects now only apply to targets that are blocking.
 * In the Samurai Warriors series, this element is named as Rekkū (烈空, lit. Violent Air) in the Japanese script.
 * Dark/Vorpal/Death/Demon/Slay/Reaper/Slash: Instantly kills peons by pure chance and takes an extra percentage of an enemy general's HP. However, the instant kill-percentage may also apply to enemy generals as well (such as in Dynasty Warriors 8); said instant-kill-based damage is often calculated individually for every target hit by a single activation attack, thus attributes and/or hitboxes that continously proc elemental activation can increase the chances of landing this on a single target.
 * In both Dynasty Warriors 3 (including its expansion) and in Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends, the percentage damage applies to the target's current HP instead of the total like in other games (only applies to enemy generals); in this case, if the target's HP was near-full, then the element would inflict massive damage (including being able to guard break heavily in Dynasty Warriors 3). However, damage would severely decrease the closer the opposing target was to low HP, to the point of nearly being unable to finish off the target (which is normally the type of damage that applies to non-K.O. hazards).
 * In the Samurai Warriors series, this element is named as Shura (修羅, lit. Shura/Carnage Scene) in the Japanese script. In Dynasty Warriors 5's Japanese script, it is referred to as "In" (陰, lit. Yin), where it also drains the player's Musou bar (mainly in Dynasty Warriors 5) upon successful infliction.
 * Poison/Venom: Appears only in Dynasty Warriors 4 and Dynasty Warriors 8. Lowers defense for a time or has similar effects as the fire element in Dynasty Warriors Advance. Unlike Fire, the damage tick will have a consistent duration on its targets regardless of their current stage upon them being inflicted with it.
 * Earth/Tremor: Added in Samurai Warriors 4. Has a high chance of stunning targets and often allows extra damage inflicted upon said stunned targets. A reprisal of the original version of the Bolt element via its Warriors Orochi 3 incarnation, and is named as Kongō (金剛, lit. Vajra/Diamond/Adamantine) in the Japanese script.

Alternate Attributes
These attributes aren't considered to be elements themselves, but they're known to have a strong synergy with them that can overlap with their activations.
 * Drain/Night/Absorb/Recovery/Uplift: Absorbs life or Musou from an enemy upon activation attack. The latter is naturally applicable to all attacks in the main series games outside of certain crossovers such as Warriors Orochi, but Dynasty Warriors 8 offers extra attributes and other skills on top of it that can increase the base Musou filling rate.
 * In the Warriors Orochi series, this is split up into two different attributes as Drain/Absorption AKA "Kyūsei" (吸生, lit. Sucking Nature) and Absorb/Osmosis AKA "Kyūkatsu" (吸活, lit. Sucking Life); the former absorbs HP while the latter absorbs Musou. Any elemental-activation attack that can synergize with these draining attributes (especially in the third Orochi installment) often results in larger-than expected absorption that overlaps with the damage that is usually inflicted by Bolt, Wind and Slay.
 * In Warriors Orochi 4 however, K.O.ed units as well as Musou-consuming attacks that activate both Absorption and elements no longer will trigger Osmosis.
 * Clones/Multi: Creates an afterimage which will attack via its own hitboxes; can sometimes mess with knockback functions.
 * In Warriors Orochi 3, this will only apply to normal attacks.
 * Echo/Explosive/Induced Burst: Causes collateral-damaging energy bursts to occur upon a successful attack on a target. Introduced first as Echo in Warriors Orochi 3. Said energy bursts can also count as extra hits and damage per energy burst, though in Dynasty Warriors 8, each explosive burst can carry elemental activation on any elemental activation attack, which causes a chance for elemental damage to be spread to other targets; however, unlike in Warriors Orochi 3, the bursts no longer occur 100% of the time even with the attribute fully maxed out.
 * Note that Musou Attack/Rage Attack animations will not trigger this attribute, but any lingering hitboxes after the animation ends will trigger the bursts (e.g. Zhou Tai and Human Nezha's Musou Attacks). In Warriors Orochi 3, most Musou Attacks with beginning flinch animations will also trigger the bursts. However, there are often instances of the bursts interfering with an attack's normal hit effects, which may result in a C2's smaller launch, a Spirit Charge that won't properly stagger, a Musou Attack initial freeze-flinch that won't occur, and so forth.
 * However, in Warriors Orochi 4, this attribute has suffered a severe nerf in that it inflicts extra knockback on targets when triggered, knocking them out of reach quite often and making it difficult to generate large amounts of combo counts compared to before.
 * Storm/Rending Wind: A unique attribute with an incorrect description in Warriors Orochi 3: Ultimate. Cutting wind ripples are generated whenever an attack occurs out of a 10% chance, which often can generate a consistent amount of damage and combo generation. Note that Musou Attack/Rage Attack animations will not trigger this attribute, but any lingering hitboxes after the animation ends will trigger the bursts (e.g. Zhou Tai and Human Nezha's Musou Attacks). In Warriors Orochi 3, most Musou Attacks with beginning flinch animations will also trigger the bursts.
 * However, in Warriors Orochi 4, this can only be triggered when attacking enemy generals, monsters or Chaos Origins. The cutting wind ripples will also last for a set duration as opposed to a brief moment like in Warriors Orochi 3: Ultimate.
 * Induction/Inviting Thunder: First introduced in Dynasty Warriors 8. An alternate counterpart to Thunder, where it instead causes a lightning bolt to emit upon striking a target. Unlike Thunder, the bolts from this attribute do not spread other elements as effectively, but can conduct with Explosive to generate increased collateral damage on a physical-damage scale. Also unlike Thunder, the bolts can occur on any possible hitbox, and can also occur on airborne targets though without the ability to stun. However, the bolts do not emit 100% of the time even with the attribute fully maxed out.
 * Note that Musou Attack/Rage Attack animations will not trigger this attribute, but any lingering hitboxes after the animation ends will trigger the bolts (e.g. Zhou Tai's Normal Musou and Xu Shu's Alternate Musou). However, there are often instances of the bolts interfering with an attack's normal hit effects, which may result in a C2's smaller launch, a C1 not properly inflicting its slowed-down hitstun, and so forth.
 * Windstorm/Raving Wind: Introduced in Warriors Orochi 4, this attribute causes an enemy-sucking tornado to emit whenever an enemy general, monster or Chaos Origin is defeated.

Appearances
In Dynasty Warriors 3 and its expansion, they debuted as being attached to specific fourth/fifth weapons which only activated on certain charge attacks; the fire element was very common in any True Musou attack. Later games as of Dynasty Warriors 4 however, add a corresponding stat number to the element allowing for more chances to properly occur and for more power the higher the said number is on the attribute.

While the Dynasty Warriors games often had elemental activation only on charge attacks, the Samurai Warriors series on the other hand, allows for elemental activation on all attacks (barring a jumping charge) out of a random occurrence.

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 by itself has been heavily nerfed due to all units being able to recover sooner (and the midair Spirit Evade).

In Dynasty Warriors 4 and 5, they come in the form of items, being Orbs. Dynasty Warriors 4 requires a full Musou bar to active the elements, and they can now apply to all standard-grounded 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. Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends allows players to bypass the musou bar requirement with a separate item.

These orbs are normal items found on field in Dynasty Warriors 4 while all having a statistic that allows for an increase in both power and by-chance-occurrence according to the level/stat number of the orb equipped (a staple for the Musou Warriors games onwards), but the fifth game treats them like special items that need certain conditions to acquire them while doing away with the stat numbers, and do not require full Musou bars to activate save for the Shadow element (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, which is the debut of allowing more than one element to be present on a weapon at once while also bringing back the statistical values. 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 charge attacks would only activate them on the final input (with Cao Cao's C6 being an exception for its first input and final input), but overall this nerf neuters their offensive power heavily; 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 much like in Dynasty Warriors 5). The third game however, now varies a lot more in terms of which independent moves possess basic elemental activation; so far nearly all normal attack chain finishers do so (a staple carried over since the start of Samurai Warriors) save for a select few.

Several accounts have shown that elements are activated primarily through grounded combat, though in later titles starting as of Samurai Warriors 2 and the Warriors Orochi series, elements can now activate through mounted attacks. There are also games where as long as there is a lingering hitbox on an inputted charge attack, then it will activate elements, but this heavily varies per moveset and other modifiers applied (such as attack speed).

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

Dynasty Warriors 4
{| border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10" align="center" width="100%"
 * valign="top" width="10%"|

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
{| border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10" align="center" width="100%"
 * valign="top" width="10%"|

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
{| border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10" align="center" width="100%"
 * valign="top" width="10%"|

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
 * }