Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - Elemental Rods Guide
Our Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - Elemental Rods Guide is the best source of information for the Elemental Rods of the game, giving you comprehensive details on their background, usage, acquisition, and effective attacks.
Background on Elemental Rods
In BOTW, after leaving the Great Plateau, we will be able to expand our choices of weapons. And this includes the usage of the elemental rods, powerful weapons that normally drop from Wizzrobes.
However, we easily discover in BOTW how fragile these rods are. They are very limited in usage, and if you accidentally use them as a melee weapon, they will soon break and disappear.
Hence, they never really got any special attention and are considered more like niche weapons, interesting but optional.
Why Use the Elemental Rods?
In the Age of Calamity, with the introduction of new game mechanics, the status of the elemental rods as niche and optional weapons no longer holds.
The Big Secret of the Game
In fact, there is one big secret in the game that nobody talks about. And that is - the most powerful weapons in the game are the elemental rods.
This is due to these changes in the game mechanics from BOTW to Age of Calamity:
- Weapons no longer break
- Rods no longer have limited use.
- Rods consume elemental crystals. As long as you have a crystal for a rod, you can use it.
- Introduction of the Weak-Point Gauge mechanic (WPG).
- Clearing the WPG of a major enemy is the most efficient way of reducing its health
- Optimal elemental attacks make the WPG brittle
- Elemental effects now apply to all enemies, from bosses to minor enemies
Combining the facts contained from points 1 to 7 above, we came up with the discovery that the elemental rods are the most powerful weapons in the game.
They will help you:
- Crowd control enemies
- Stun-lock bosses and mini-bosses
- Kill enemies of all kinds, with the least amount of time
There are no exceptions to these new game mechanics. In the below scene, we are stun-locking and defeating easily some of the most powerful non-boss enemies in the game:
- White-Maned Lynel - considered the most difficult Lynel in BOTW, normal mode
- Guardian - considered a challenge in BOTW
- Silver Moblin - a representative strong common enemy
With one rod attack, these strong enemies, including their minions, are all on the path to destruction.
And this power applies to all the bosses in the game as well. As long as you know how to make optimal elemental attacks, you can stun-lock and easily defeat any boss in the game.
Here is Waterblight Ganon being destroyed with the help of a Lightning Rod.
Meet the Elemental Enemies
One of the new game mechanics in the Age of Calamity is the introduction of new elemental enemies. I didn't include this mechanic in the list above, as it is not a pre-requisite on why the rods are the most powerful weapons in the game. But the fact that there are now more elemental varieties of enemies in the game makes the rod even more powerful.
And it has to do with these additional mechanics:
- An elemental enemy has a weakness and an immunity
- Defeating elemental enemies produces elemental crystals
With the introduction of the new mechanic, we now have Fire Guardians, Electric Lynels, Ice Hinoxes, and so on. Almost all of the strong non-boss enemies became elemental.
By defeating more elemental enemies, you gain more elemental crystals, which serve as ammo for your rods.
- Defeating a Fire elemental enemy produces Fire crystals.
- A Fire elemental enemy is weak to Ice and neutral to Lightning. However, it can still become weak to Lightning if the environment is optimal. See the optimal attacks section.
- Defeating an Electric elemental enemy produces Lightning crystals.
- An Electric elemental enemy is neutral to Ice and Fire. However, it can still become weak to both if the environment is optimal. See the optimal attacks section.
- Defeating an Ice elemental enemy produces Ice crystals.
- An Ice elemental enemy is weak to Fire and neutral to Lightning. However, it can still become weak to Lightning if the environment is optimal. See the optimal attacks section.
Acquire the Elemental Rods
Before we continue on the advanced topics of making effective and optimal elemental attacks, let's review how to acquire the elemental rods.
The rods are not missable. In fact, before completing Chapter 1, you must already have the three rods.
Acquire the Fire Rod
You will get your Fire Rod by defeating the first available Fire Wizzrobe in the Chapter entry The Battle of Hyrule Field.
Once you acquire this rod, it is yours forever.
Defeat the Fire Wizzrobe and it will drop its weapon. This will only happen if you don't have a Fire Rod yet.
Acquire the Ice Rod
You will get your Ice Rod by defeating the first available Ice Wizzrobe in the Chapter entry Road to the Ancient Lab.
Like the Fire Rod, this is permanently yours.
Defeat the Ice Wizzrobe and it will drop its weapon. This will only happen if you don't have an Ice Rod yet.
Acquire the Lightning Rod
You will get your Lightning Rod by defeating the first available Electric Wizzrobe in the Chapter entry Road to the Ancient Lab.
Like the Fire Rod, this is forever yours.
Defeat the Electric Wizzrobe and it will drop its weapon. This will only happen if you don't have a Lightning Rod yet.
Effective Combat with the Elemental Rods
There are three things you have to remember to consistently make optimal elemental attacks with your rod:
- Elemental monsters have immunity
- Fire and Ice elemental monsters have a default weakness
- The environment can create an elemental weakness
Beware of Elemental Immunity
Do not attack elemental monsters with the same type of element, otherwise, it will not affect the monster and you will end up wasting a crystal.
In the case below, the Fire Rod has no effect on a Fire Wizzrobe.
Use Optimal Elemental Attacks
The Hinox below is not an elemental monster. If you hit it with a Lightning rod, it will still be affected. You will stagger it and can attack it for a few seconds.
You will be able to damage its WPG. However, that WPG is not brittle. You want that WPG to be brittle when you do an elemental attack.
Now, consider using a Fire rod on this Hinox. You can easily observe that the radius of the AOE becomes larger. That means you will be able to produce an optimal attack.
When you execute the attack, the WPG becomes brittle, as shown in its fragmented appearance. The reason this attack became optimal is the grass below the Hinox. By being observant of such details, you can make your elemental attacks optimal.
In the example below, we are able to make an optimal elemental attack even though the environment didn't help us. This is because we are using the default weakness of the elemental monster. The Fire Guardian is weak to Ice.
In the example below, the Ice Guardian is in trouble because:
- It is weak to the Fire rod
- It is standing on top of the grass, which will burn, contributing to its vulnerability
Here is another example of a neutral enemy that got affected by an optimal attack. By bringing the enemy on top of the water, it became very weak to the Lightning rod.
Using the same example above, the target became very weak to the Ice rod because it was standing on top of water.
To learn more combat tips, view our Combat Guide.
