Elephants - Do they take bonus damage from Spearman and Pikeman?

[DesertRose]

Those units deal 1.75x / 2.5x damage against Cavalry. Do they also have this damage multiplier against elephant units?

Cause elephant units are missing the "Cavalry" class

[Arup]

no they don't 

[Dunedan]

Would make sense if they would though, wouldn't it?

[DesertRose]

Would it? I know AoE2 handles it like this, but from a quick search historically projectiles such as arrows and javelins were most effective against elephants.

But it's good to know that they have to be brought down by pure strength; as they deal AoE damage the most effective counter in 0AD might be ranged units as well.

[Dakara]

No because elefant are not horse 

 

and in previous alpha skirmish was the best against elefant, i don't know today

Edited Wednesday at 11:37 by Dakara

[Deicide4u]

On 03/03/2026 at 6:50 PM, DesertRose said:

Would it? I know AoE2 handles it like this, but from a quick search historically projectiles such as arrows and javelins were most effective against elephants

It makes the most sense to give javelin throwers the damage multiplier, but that would severely nerf an already underused, slow unit.

The decision to retain damage multipliers against cavalry for spearmen was purely based on balance, to counter the cavalry's naturally greater speed and higher stats. Otherwise, we got rid of counter units in A17, if I recall correctly.

[Arup]

On 03/03/2026 at 10:04 PM, Dunedan said:

Would make sense if they would though, wouldn't it?

NO. KEEP MY ELEPHANTS AWAY FROM THIS! ELEPHANTS ARE NOT CAVALRY

[DesertRose]

Oh, bonus damage / counters were removed from the game?

Sad.

[Player of 0AD]

Elephants are currently not that great, so it would be bad to let spear units counter them.

[DesertRose]

That melee elephants don't profit from melee upgrades does not help, either.

[Arup]

????? they do receive all bonus of forge upgrades and will to fight as well

seriously, who's been spreading misinformation about my lovely cute eles?

deadly too :3

[Tapothei]

24 minutes ago, Arup said:

deadly too :3

Since I've learn the power of coding I'll go pull request to nerf your elephants, their hp is set to 1 but their evasion stat is 99.9% with 10 damage with area of effect of megameters also they spawn smaller elphants that moves like a car and punches like a bee but only to allies.

Edited 5 hours ago by Tapothei

[DesertRose]

59 minutes ago, Arup said:

????? they do receive all bonus of forge upgrades and will to fight as well

seriously, who's been spreading misinformation about my lovely cute eles?

soldier_attack_melee_0X.json

	"affects": ["Soldier !Elephant"],

Test it out in-game.

edit:

Has been so in 0.27 as well, so that melee elephants are not affected by melee upgrades has been in the game for a while.

Edited 4 hours ago by DesertRose
0.27

[guerringuerrin]

36 minutes ago, DesertRose said:

soldier_attack_melee_0X.json

	"affects": ["Soldier !Elephant"],

Test it out in-game.

edit:

Has been so in 0.27 as well, so that melee elephants are not affected by melee upgrades has been in the game for a while.

This is true, at lease by checking the stats in-game. Only Will to Fight affects Elephant melee attacks.

Edited 4 hours ago by guerringuerrin

[BreakfastBurrito_007]

They get armor but not dmg from the forge.

Also the splash buff and unit preference behavior change they received in a28 is quite significant. In my opinion they can be very strong in this alpha.

Edited 4 hours ago by BreakfastBurrito_007

[Gurken Khan]

1 hour ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

in this alpha

He didn't get the memo.

On 18/02/2026 at 8:23 PM, phosit said:

The Release 28 is our first release without the Alpha label