Guide ·
The element triangle: fire, nature, water and neutral
Every tower and every creep in The Last Maul has an element: fire, nature, water or neutral. The right element can make a tower half again as strong; the wrong one can halve it. You don't need to memorise anything to start playing, but once your maze is solid, the element triangle is the next thing that decides whether a hard wave leaks. This guide gives you the exact rule, which creeps and towers belong to which element, and how to use it in a game.
The rule
Three elements form a circle, each strong against the next:
- Fire beats nature. Fire towers deal 1.5× damage to nature creeps.
- Nature beats water. Nature towers deal 1.5× damage to water creeps.
- Water beats fire. Water towers deal 1.5× damage to fire creeps.
Turn it around and you get the weak hits: fire against water, nature against fire and water against nature deal only 0.5× damage. Everything else, same element against same element, is a normal 1× hit.
Neutral is outside the triangle. A neutral tower deals normal damage to everything, and every tower deals normal damage to a neutral creep. Neutral towers are never strong and never weak.
Bosses shrug off half the weakness. A weak hit against a boss deals 0.75× instead of 0.5×. Strong hits against a boss still count in full. So a boss of the "wrong" element for your race is a slower fight, not a hopeless one.
| Tower ↓ / creep → | Fire | Nature | Water | Neutral |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fire | 1× | 1.5× | 0.5× | 1× |
| Nature | 0.5× | 1× | 1.5× | 1× |
| Water | 1.5× | 0.5× | 1× | 1× |
| Neutral | 1× | 1× | 1× | 1× |
Which creeps carry which element
| Element | Creeps | Bosses |
|---|---|---|
| Fire | Wyvern | Orc Warlord, Demon Lord, Dragon Lord |
| Nature | Scout, Swarmling, Howlrunner | Thornwarden |
| Water | Bat, Regenerator | Rimeshroud, Stormwake |
| Neutral | Grunt, Armored, Skeleton, Ogre | Void King, Siegebreaker and the giants |
A few things stand out. The fast creeps (Scouts, Swarmlings, Howlrunners) are nature, so fire splash is at its best against the rushes. The water creeps include the Regenerators, which heal unless you kill them quickly, and the Bats, which fly. The tanky Armored and Ogres are neutral: no element trick helps there, only raw damage and towers that ignore armour.
Which towers carry which element
Each race leans toward one element or stays neutral. Branches can differ from the tower they grew from, so check the tower's page before you commit.
| Race | Elements of its towers |
|---|---|
| Fire | Mostly fire (Ember, Flame Tower, Volcano and their branches); the Mortar and Fire Organ are neutral |
| Frost | Mostly water (Chill, Frost Tower, Glue, Glacier and their branches); the Sniper is neutral |
| Water | All water |
| Nature | The Poison line is nature; the rest (Sprig, Stone Thrower, Aura, Ancient) is neutral |
| Storm | A mix: the Tesla line is nature, the Laser line fire, the Spark and lightning lines neutral |
| Light | All neutral |
| Gale | Neutral, apart from the water Hailstorm |
| Arcane | Neutral, apart from the nature Sorcerer |
So there are really two kinds of race. Element races (Fire, Frost, Water and, line by line, Storm) hit very hard against one element and pay for it against another. Neutral races (Light, Gale, Arcane and most of Nature) are steady against everything. Neither is better; they want different habits.
How to use it in a game
Read the next wave
Between waves the game shows what is coming. If the next wave is nature and you play Fire, it's a wave to send early for the bonus gold. If it is water and you play Fire, that's the wave to spend on more damage first, or to ask a teammate for help.
Mix inside your own race
Element races have lines of other elements for a reason. Fire's neutral Mortar line doesn't care that a water wave is coming. Storm can lean on its Tesla line against water and on its Laser line against nature, depending on what the act throws at it. One or two towers of your off-element in the maze cover your weak waves cheaply.
Cover each other in co-op
In a team the triangle is the easiest way to split the work. A Fire player and a Water player cover each other's weak spots almost perfectly: Water hits the fire creeps that Fire is only normal against, and Fire burns the nature rushes that Water hits at 0.5×. A neutral race in the team catches whatever falls between. The races page lists what each race is strong and weak against: Fire is strong against Swarms, grouped enemies, Water against Grouped enemies, fast units.
Don't over-think bosses
Because weak hits against bosses deal 0.75×, element matters less in a boss fight than in a crowd. Against a boss, raw damage and range count first; against a crowd of nature or water creeps, the triangle can decide the wave.
Elements and the rest of the rules
- Armour comes on top. An Armored creep shrugs off 35% of every hit before the element even matters; towers that deal true damage ignore armour and are the answer there.
- Slows don't care about elements. A slowed creep regenerates at only 50% of its normal rate, whatever its element.
- Flyers have elements too. Bats are water and wyverns fire, so the same triangle applies to your anti-air. See how to stop flying creeps.
Want to see it in action? Open The Last Maul at thelastmaul.com/play, pick Fire or Water and watch how much faster the creeps of the element you beat go down. For maze shapes that put your strongest element towers where they get the most shots, read the maze strategy for every map.