| “ | You can add fire, ice, electricity, and other power effects to a weapon.” |
| — Add various effects to your weapon! • Kirby Star Allies loading screen |
Elements, also referred to as Power Effects, are properties of certain objects and abilities that the player can interact with and take advantage of during gameplay. They have long been an important part of the Kirby series, and are interacted with through elemental Copy Abilities, enemies, bosses, and environmental hazards
General Information
Since the introduction of Copy Abilities in Kirby's Adventure, elements have served an important role in puzzle solving, notably in lighting fuses with the aid of the Sizzle element through the Fire, Burning, and Crash abilities. While all elements have an impact on element-specific environmental objects, they all also affect enemies in their own ways, like how Blizzard can freeze enemies solid.
Despite their debut in Kirby's Adventure, Kirby: Squeak Squad was the first game to explicitly categorize elements into Fire, Ice, and Thunder. Kirby Star Allies would be the next game to categorize them, now into Blizzard, Bluster, Sizzle, Splash, and Zap.
Elements can be imbued into Copy Abilities through the use of Mix abilities in some games, such as Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, a game with a heavy focus on combined abilities, and Kirby: Squeak Squad, which introduced Ability Scrolls, allowing for elemental mixes of Sword and Bomb, as well elemental variations of Throw, Tornado, and Wheel, all dependent on the situation that the ability is used in.
Elements became a central gameplay mechanic in Kirby Star Allies, which allowed some abilities that use physical weapons (known as base abilities) to be imbued with elements from the elemental attacks of Friends to become Elemental Weapons. All Elemental Weapons will have their attack strength increased by 25%. Additionally, some elements interacting with specific Copy Abilities and playable characters will trigger unique Team-Up Attacks without adding the element to the ability or character.
List
Below is a list of the elements as categorized in Kirby Star Allies, along with Copy Abilities and playable characters that wield them. This excludes instances of characters only being able to wield Copy Abilities. As an example, Gooey was once only capable of copying abilities in Kirby's Dream Land 3, but has since been given his own moveset in Kirby Star Allies and can be included.
| Element | Copy Abilities | Playable Characters | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|
 Blizzard |
Freezes enemies, water, and lava. Extinguishes Fire Blocks and fires. Effective against fire and water based enemies. May freeze the player solid for a short amount of time. | ||
 Bluster |
Extinguishes Fire Blocks, sweeps up leaves, and activates fans. Effective against fire-based enemies. | ||
 Sizzle |
Lights fuses and candles, melts Ice Blocks, icy terrain, and snowy terrain. Vaporizes cloud blocks. Burns grass and plants. Does extra damage against ice-based enemies. Often does extra knockback against the player. | ||
 Splash |
Extinguishes Fire Blocks and fires. Destroys Electro Saws. Effective against fire and electricity-based enemies. | ||
 Zap |
Electrifies water, metallic surfaces, and power lines. Effective against metallic enemies. May do extra knockback against the player and capable of forcefully ejecting Copy Abilities from Kirby. |
Trivia
- While the Splash element has arguably only existed since the introduction of Water in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, it technically first appeared in Kirby's Dream Land 3 through Pitch's variation of Cleaning, which was required in order to sprout Kamuribana for a Heart Star, though it showed no other traits of Splash until it became part of Cleaning's moveset in Kirby Star Allies.
- In sub-games where the player specifically plays as Meta Knight or King Dedede, they are given enhancements to their abilities in order to allow them to solve the game's puzzles that would otherwise be impossible with just Sword or Hammer. These enhancements do not apply when these characters are used for multiplayer settings, such as in Kirby's Return to Dream Land or Kirby Star Allies.
- Every character playable across the entire main Kirby series is at some point able to utilize elements offensively in one way or another with the exception of Chef Kawasaki, Beetley, Bugzzy, Vividria, Wheelie, and Como.