Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is a bright, zany, fantastical romp through an environment players have only ever seen once before in the series. It eschews the usual Borderlands aesthetic of post-apocalyptic, capitalist wasteland in favor of a magical world filled with trolls, goblins, fairies, and a regal, two-horned Pandoracorn.
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But even with all these differences, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is still very much a Borderlands game, and that fact is most evident in the elemental damage types. Returning hallmarks like shock and fire are here, as is a new addition, dark magic. Each element has its strengths in combat, but some are simply more potent than others, and it can be helpful for players to know which element they can truly rely on in a pinch.
5 Shock
Shock damage is the go-to element for stripping enemy wards and leaving them vulnerable to other attacks. While it does deserve commendation for the role it plays in shield depletion, Shock damage is practically useless in every other aspect of combat. It deals reduced damage against every other health meter, including the regular old health, and its repeatedly damaging elemental effect is often underwhelming against enemies.
But the true reason Shock damage is the least useful element in Wonderlands is that few enemies actually have shields. The few that do are typically bosses who also come with resistance to Shock damage, rendering the element all but useless.
4 Poison
Poison is the new name for Corrosive, a damage type that excels against armored enemies and can leave foes with a debilitating, lingering damage effect. Similar to the Shock element, though, Poison is predominantly used to strip away a specific type of defense, rendering it less useful in general combat.
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Also, like Shock damage, Poison sometimes fails to actually do its job, feeling no more powerful against an armored enemy than any other element. Many late-game enemies, especially those found in the Chaos Chamber, also sport a resistance to Poison damage, further weakening Poison's combat potential.
3 Fire
Fire is the age-old element that mankind has both feared and revered for millennia. In Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, players can fling it at their enemies in much the same way an eight-year-old would throw a water balloon. Spells, guns, and even melee weapons can be imbued with this incendiary damage type, and it continues to be a potent force in the Wonderlands combat theater.
Fire's only drawback is that, while it's great against most enemies, it's not so great against shielded or armored ones. Those defenses need to be stripped away before Fire can do its thing, which means the element's true damage potential is largely dependent on the player having access to other elements as well.
2 Dark Magic
Dark magic is the new kid on the block, and it makes a splash right out of the gate. What Dark Magic lacks in increased utility against certain health types, it makes up for with its ability to drain the health of enemies to heal the player.
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There's almost no downside to using Dark Magic, either, as very few enemies are resistant to its damage type. The only limitation of Dark Magic is that it often trades this healing power for damage output, and it has no real benefit against any particular type of health.
1 Frost
Frost damage is by far the most useful element type in all of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, and it's not that difficult to see why. Frost damage, unlike Fire, Shock, or Poison, has no beneficial damage bonus against flesh, wards, or armor. It also can't heal the player like Dark Magic. But what it can do gives players an unparalleled level of control over the battlefield.
Frost slows enemies down, sometimes even freezing them completely. This is an expected trait, as the element is known for the perk across a variety of games. But Wonderlands is a game with a plethora of powerful foes who will stop at nothing to smash the player in the face. Frost not only stops these advances, but its more potent spells can eliminate any threat in a matter of seconds.
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is available now for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and the Epic Games Store.
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