The post-launch answer
The game is live, so this page now treats the visible combat system as the baseline rather than presenting every observation as a preview caveat. The evidence supports Fire, Cryo, Electric, Piercing and Morphic as named damage types and shows useful behavior for several of them. It does not support a complete table of hidden enemy resistance percentages.
That distinction is useful in actual missions. You can make a good loadout decision from a repeatable effect without pretending you know a hidden multiplier the game has not exposed.
Post-launch damage decision matrix
| Damage type | What current evidence supports | When that matters | What is still unverified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire | Strong anti-Xenomorph context in hands-on footage | Swarm pressure and targets where damage-over-time/elemental coverage helps | Exact weakness percentage by enemy |
| Cryo | Slow, freeze and a shatter opportunity | Creating a safe focus-fire window or stopping pressure | Exact buildup thresholds and resistance values |
| Electric | Slowing/control behavior | Holding lanes and reducing movement pressure | Exact slow percentage/duration across every target |
| Piercing | Present as a distinct damage category | Matchups where armor/target behavior makes the category relevant | A complete live resistance table |
| Morphic | Seen as a later-game damage category | Build and matchup testing once available | Universal superiority claims or hidden multipliers |
The decision rule is simple: prefer the damage type whose visible effect solves the current encounter, then verify the matchup instead of trusting a copied percentage chart.
Why the site does not publish fake weakness percentages
A polished table can still be wrong. If a page says “Xenomorph type A takes +25% Fire” without a reproducible source, the precision makes the misinformation worse, not better.
For a useful test, hold as much context steady as possible:
- Use the same weapon or a comparable baseline.
- Test the same enemy type and difficulty.
- Separate direct damage from a status effect or team debuff.
- Repeat the interaction instead of relying on one combat moment.
- Record traits, augments and class effects that can change the result.
Until that evidence exists, this page reports the behavior you can use and leaves the unknown number unknown.
Fire: use it for the matchup, not the label
Hands-on gameplay presents Fire as valuable against Xenomorph threats. That is enough to justify carrying Fire coverage when the mission is dominated by those enemies, especially if the alternative loadout duplicates damage types already covered by the team.
It is not enough to claim every Fire weapon is better than every non-Fire weapon. Handling, ammunition, traits and the weapon’s role still decide whether the pick works.
Cryo: control can be the real damage increase
Cryo’s value is not only the number that appears on a hit. Slowing or freezing a target can create a cleaner weak-point window, stop a dangerous push and let multiple players focus the same threat. A shatter opportunity can add another payoff when the condition is met.
For a four-player team, that control can be more valuable than a small paper-DPS advantage from another option. The stronger claim to test is therefore “does this Cryo setup reliably create safer kill windows?” rather than “what hidden percentage does the enemy have?”
Electric: think lane control
Electric is shown with slowing/control behavior. Use it when the team benefits from keeping enemies in predictable firing lanes or delaying a push. On higher difficulties, that can also reduce frantic movement that increases friendly-fire risk.
Again, the visible control behavior is the verified part. Exact duration and resistance interactions need live testing before they belong in a numeric table.
Piercing and Morphic: keep claims proportional to the evidence
Both categories appear in the current evidence set, but their full matchup tables are less established than the basic Fire/Cryo/Electric behaviors above. This page therefore keeps them in the decision framework without inventing an “always use this against that faction” rule.
When you test them, compare the same mission state and record the enemy, difficulty, weapon, traits and augments. That produces evidence a future update can actually use.
Patch boundary
The official August 25 announcement confirms the live release and Day 1 patch. Hotfix #2 on September 2 addresses shader caching, gameplay stutter and a reward-container crash; it does not publish a new resistance table. The developers’ September 4 update says another patch is being worked on, so balance-sensitive conclusions remain worth rechecking after substantive updates.
Bottom line
Build for coverage and control first. Fire, Cryo and Electric already have visible use cases; Piercing and Morphic deserve the same evidence standard rather than confident guesses. If a future official note or repeatable live test establishes exact weakness values, those can be added. Until then, this guide stays useful by telling you what the system visibly does and where that changes a mission decision.