What an element is#

Each weapon has a Crystal socket. Empty, a weapon uses plain water. Put in an elemental crystal and the weapon's element changes: the Haddock Howitzer's splash changes with every shot, and the Kingfish Katana's lunges, fully charged swings and Extendable Blade attacks carry it. Metal crystals are not elements: they are parts for brakes and Rail Scales.

Side by side#

ElementOn the Haddock HowitzerOn the Kingfish KatanaRole
Hydric (water) Slows and roots what the shot and its splash hit. The splash comes again a moment later as an echo, hitting the struck mob too. Slows and briefly roots. Bosses are only slowed, and a rooted mob can't be rooted again straight away. Lunges are the most frequent and the most nimble. Control and the all-rounder. Best for single targets and for keeping enemies where you want them.
Galvanic (lightning) Leaves a shocking field on the ground for a few seconds, striking everything in it with bolts and drawing hostile mobs back towards its middle so they can't walk out. Hits a little harder, then arcs to the nearest mobs, reaching further when the target is in water or rain. Extended attacks chain to several enemies. Crowd clearing: damage spread over a group, steady rather than explosive.
Pyric (flame) Sets the target alight and explodes instead of splashing, with the widest reach and the hardest hit of the three. It breaks no blocks. Burns its target and part of each hit ignores armour. Lunges end in a burst that hits and throws back everything around the end point. Raw damage and swarm farming, at the price of waking whatever is near.

Pyric sets what it hits alight for 4 seconds on the howitzer.

These are Enthalpy's defaults; packs often change them. Kits strengthen the katana's element, the non-damage parts especially.

Armour matters: Galvanic's many small pulses lose more to armour than Pyric's big hit, so Galvanic shines against large packs of weak mobs and Pyric against tough single ones.

Getting a crystal#

Galvanic and Pyric crystals, like metal crystals, are grown in a Brine Accretor from one block and molten salt:

  • Galvanic Crystal: a block of copper.
  • Pyric Crystal: a magma block.
  • Hydric Crystal: a Blue Ice block. Frostfin breed the ice for it.
Galvanic CrystalBrine Accretor
1,000 mB
40,000 FE
Pyric CrystalBrine Accretor
1,000 mB
40,000 FE

The Hydric Crystal#

Hydric has a second way in: it can be crafted by hand, from prismarine crystals, a bucket of water and a raw fish. The katana also comes with one already socketed.

Hydric CrystalShapeless
Hydric CrystalBrine Accretor
1,000 mB
20,000 FE