RAID: Shadow Legends Elements Explained – Which Affinity Beats Which?

RAID: Shadow Legends has four different elements, also called affinities:

• Magic
• Force
• Spirit
• Void

And this system is one of the main reasons why some champions suddenly deal less damage, fail to land debuffs, or struggle against certain enemies much more than expected.

Many new players underestimate how important affinities actually are in RAID. But once you understand the core system, a huge part of the game’s combat mechanics becomes much easier to follow.

How the affinity system works in RAID

The three main affinities in RAID work in a simple cycle:

• Magic beats Spirit
• Spirit beats Force
• Force beats Magic

In addition:

• Void is neutral against all other affinities

Depending on the enemy affinity, your champions may:

• deal more damage
• deal less damage
• land critical hits more often
• or trigger significantly more weak hits

And those weak hits are one of the biggest reasons certain fights suddenly feel much harder.

What weak hits actually mean

Weak hits are one of the most important mechanics in RAID’s combat system. When your champion fights against a stronger opposing affinity, the chance of triggering a weak hit increases significantly.

A weak hit:

• deals less damage
• cannot place certain debuffs
• reduces the overall consistency of your champion

This becomes especially problematic for champions that heavily rely on debuffs.

Kael is a perfect example. A large part of his damage comes from poison debuffs. But if he constantly triggers weak hits, those poisons become far less reliable.

That’s why many new players initially think their accuracy is too low – when the actual problem is the affinity matchup.

Why Void champions are so special

Void champions have a unique role in RAID.

They do not have strong or weak matchups against the other three affinities:

• no traditional counter-affinities
• no additional weak hit disadvantages
• stable performance against almost every enemy

That’s exactly why powerful Void champions are often considered extremely valuable. The downside is that Void Shards are much rarer than regular Ancient Shards, which makes strong Void champions some of the most desirable long-term pulls in the entire game.

Why affinities become more important later on

During the start of the game, many fights can still be brute-forced through raw stats alone. But the further you progress into midgame and endgame content, the more important affinities become.

Especially in:

• Clan Boss
• Dungeons
• Doom Tower
• Arena
• higher-level PvE content

the correct champion choice often determines whether a team runs smoothly or completely falls apart.

Many players truly start noticing how important affinities are once they reach Clan Boss, since the boss affinity can change depending on the stage of the fight.

Why some enemies suddenly feel much stronger

Almost every RAID player has experienced this moment. A dungeon or campaign stage suddenly becomes far less consistent, even though almost nothing changed about your team.

In many cases, affinities are the reason.

If your main damage dealer constantly fights against an unfavorable affinity matchup, you’ll often see:

• more weak hits
• fewer debuffs landing
• lower overall damage
• less stable runs

That’s exactly why experienced players eventually build multiple champions for different types of content, since not every champion performs equally well against every affinity

Why this also matters for Lootday players

Many early RAID quests on Lootday indirectly depend on efficient progression.

Players who understand affinities early often progress much more comfortably through:

• campaign milestones
• dungeon objectives
• champion upgrades
• general account progression

Because RAID increasingly revolves around team-building and champion synergy later on, understanding affinities becomes one of the most important long-term fundamentals in the game.

In RAID, the Affinity System initially appears more complicated than it actually is. Precisely for this reason, gaining an early understanding of Affinities is one of the most important fundamentals for long-term progress in RAID: Shadow Legends.