I read that tier 1 is all normal, tier 2 monsters can do half elemental and tier 3 monsters can do full elemental attacks.
Does that mean that normal is entirely removed as an attack type or just that elemental attacks are stronger for monsters that do them?
T3 is a mixture of:
Normal
Elemental
Shadow
Piercing
^ All damage types matters on stage but monsters deal full damage in each category (Matters on monster type: Example Construct deals Elemental + normal)
Whenever a mob makes a normal attack, it deals normal damage..
If it makes an elemental attack, it deals elemental damage..
Easy :)
Pure-normal attacks are still there, and in fact they are still the most common attack type.
Look at the warning light beneath the enemy as it charges its attack, that tells you what damage type it's supposed to be. Even in Tier 1, you can see that Zombies are "supposed to" be dealing Shadow damage and Gun Puppies are "supposed to" deal Elemental damage. If the warning light is red, it's Normal damage no matter what tier you're on.
Enemies with pure-normal attacks include
Jellycube
Lichen
Trojan
Devilite
Gremlin Thwacker
Gremlin Demo
Gremlin Mender (Desperate wand-thwack)
Lumber Golem
Retrode (Melee range clawing)
Mecha Knight (regular sword strike, but elemental Mecha Knights will deal split Normal-Elemental damage, like players' elemental swords do.)
I was a bit unclear..
As stated, when a mob is about to do an elemental attack, the varning is Green..
BUT:
in Tier 1 the damage is completely normal.
in Tier 2 the damage is 50% normal and 50% elemental.
in tier 3 the damage is completely elemental.
So the most impostant thiung about this is to be aware of the varninglights..
There are 4 kinds.
red: normal
green: elemental
purple: shadow
yellow: piercing
with the rarity in thet order (according to my experience), with normal as the most common.
There is still plenty of normal damage in Tier 3. Monsters like plain Wolvers still deal pure normal damage.