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1[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/KouchuuOujaMushiking https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mastercard_c.jpg]]]]
2%%
3In many works where elements or tactics have an unequal relationship with one another, the comparisons among them are ColorCodedForYourConvenience. The most frequent setup is Red > Green > Blue > Red. Though, like the page image, [[ChromaticArrangement Green may swap with Yellow.]]
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5Because ElementalPowers often have [[ColorCodedElements specific colors associated with them]], ElementalRockPaperScissors may also apply.
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7Video games are where this trope is most common, though it is not unheard of in other media or even real life.
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9----
10!!Video Game Examples:
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12[[folder:Action Games]]
13* ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors 8'' featured an unusual selection of elements for its weapons. While you could still have fire, ice, etc. for special elemental weapon skills, each weapon had an affinity: Man, Earth, and Heaven. Man, in red, overcomes Heaven, blue, which in turn beats Earth, green. Earth defeats Man, and the cycle continues. Having affinity advantage against enemy officers meant causing more flinching and extra critical damage to them, while having an affinity disadvantage meant taking more damage and having your blocks broken more often.
14* In ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'', Chattur'gha (red) beats Xel'lotath (green) beats Ulyaoth (blue) beats Chattur'gha.
15* ''VideoGame/GundamBreakerMobile'' has red-marked Power builds doing more damage to green-marked Technique builds, which do more damage to blue-mark Speed builds. Speed builds do bonus damage to Power builds, and certain NonElemental 'balanced' builds neither gain bonuses from nor suffer drawbacks from this system. As many Gunpla parts reward a specific build type, the typeless builds are extremely uncommon.
16* ''VideoGame/HonkaiImpact3rd'' started out with three character types, Biological (yellow-orange) beating Psychic (light purple) beating Mecha (light blue) beating Biological. Two further types were later added, Quantum (dark purple) and Imaginary (gold-tinged silver) which beat their own, were weak against each other, and had no advantage over the other types.
17* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX'': Power (red) beats Speed (green) beats Magic (blue) beats Power.
18* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterStories'' and ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterStories2WingsOfRuin'' have Power (red), Technical (green), and Speed (blue) attacks.
19* In the first two ''VideoGame/{{Spectrobes}}'' games, Corona Spectrobes and Krawl are red, Aurora ones are green, and Flash ones are blue. Corona beats Aurora, which beats Flash, which beats Corona. You can even get special outfits for Rallen which imbue him with the given element, and are colored accordingly.
20[[/folder]]
21
22[[folder:Card Games]]
23* ''VideoGame/DinosaurKing'': Being the MorePopularSpinOff of ''VideoGame/KouchuuOujaMushiking'', not only does the Rock-Paper-Scissors style gameplay carry over (Rock (Red) beats Scissors (Yellow) which beats Paper (Blue) which beats Rock), but it also introduces [[ElementalRockPaperScissors six elemental types]] (Lightning (Yellow), Wind (Blue-Grey), Grass (Green), Fire (Red), Water (Blue) and Earth (Purple)) for each dinosaur type [[note]](Ceratopsians are Lightning types, Small and Medium Theropods are Wind types, Ornithopods are Grass types, Large Theropods are Fire types, Sauropods and Spinosaurid Theropods are Water types and Thyreophorans are Earth types)[[/note]], with their own strengths and weaknesses (Lightning beats Water, Water beats Fire, Fire beats Wind, Wind beats Grass, Grass beats Earth, Earth beats Lightning).
24* ''{{VideoGame/Hearthstone}}'s'' Mercenaries mode has Protectors (red) beating Fighters (green) beating Casters (blue) beating Protectors.
25* ''VideoGame/KouchuuOujaMushiking'': The bugs' typings are literally sorted by RockPaperScissors, where Rock (Red) beats Scissors (Yellow) which beats Paper (Blue), which beats Rock.
26* ''VideoGame/TheSevenDeadlySinsGrandCross'': Most units have the attributes of Speed (blue), Health (green), and Strength (red). Speed beats Strength, Strength beats Health, and Health beats Speed. The game would later add the Light (yellow) and Dark (purple) attributes, which, when paired with the three base attributes, allow for more damage dealt against advantageous attributes with Light or disadvantageous attributes with Dark.
27[[/folder]]
28
29[[folder:Fighting Games]]
30* ''VideoGame/JumpSuperstars'' has each character and assist koma assigned one of 3 types. Power (red), which beats Intelligence (blue), which beats Gag (yellow). If you're weak to a type, you take more damage from them and deal less yourself. Certain komas, when upgraded, will change their type.
31* ''VideoGame/PokkenTournament'' uses a fighting game triangle with color effects on the Pokémon performing the moves. Attacks (red) beat throws (green), which beat counters (blue), which beat attacks.
32* Spirits in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' are color-coded Attack (red), Throw (green), Defense (blue), or Neutral (purple). The first three are strong or weak against each other in the usual red > green > blue > red order. [[PurpleIsPowerful The last one]] is, appropiately, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin neutral]] to everything.
33* In the formerly-defunct mobile game ''VideoGame/TransformersForgedToFight'', classes are color-coded. Warriors (red) beat Scouts (green), which beat Tech-class bots (aqua), which beat Demolition-class bots (yellow), which beat Tacticians (blue), which beat Brawlers (purple), which beat Warriors.
34[[/folder]]
35
36[[folder:Massively Multiplayer Online Games]]
37* The four Card-Jitsu minigames in ''VideoGame/ClubPenguin'' have three elements: Snow (white), which beats water (blue), which beats fire (red), which beats snow. There's also a rumored shadow element (black) and [[spoiler: cheese (yellow or green) from a [[https://clubpenguin.fandom.com/wiki/Comics comic]]]].
38[[/folder]]
39
40[[folder:Platform Games]]
41* ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'' has three different types of color-coded character: Speed (blue) beats Flight (yellow) beats Power (red) beats Speed.
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43
44[[folder:Role-Playing Games]]
45* ''VideoGame/{{Dislyte}}'': There are four elements in the game that an Esper can have that forms a Rock-Paper-Scissors mechanic and they each have their own color. Flow (purple) beats Inferno (orange), which beats Wind (teal), which in turn beats Flow. Shimmer (a gradient of neon purple, blue, and green) takes and receives neutral damage from the other elements.
46* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' has the Fort Condor minigame in the Integrade DLC with Yuffie's side mission. Defense (blue) gets advantage against Vanguard (Red) which in turn has advantage against Range (green) which then in turn has advantage against Defense (Blue).
47* Some of the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' games (i.e. ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Fates]]'', ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes Heroes]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemEngage Engage]]'') have the same [[TacticalRockPaperScissors weapon triangle]] as most other ''Fire Emblem'' games. Unlike most of them, they also color-code Swords red, Axes green, and Lances blue. ''Fates'' also adds the other weapon types to the weapon triangle: Spells (red), Bows (green), and Daggers (blue).
48* ''VideoGame/FossilFighters'': Using four elements compared to the traditional three, [[FireIsRed red fire]] beats [[YellowEarthGreenEarth yellow earth]] beats [[WindIsGreen green air]] beats [[WaterIsBlue blue water]] and the cycle repeats.
49* ''VideoGame/GachaWorld'': Its ElementalRockPaperScissors include Fire (red) beating Wind (green), which beats Water (blue) that in turn beats Fire. Light (yellow) and Dark (purple) deal super effective damage against each other.
50* ''VideoGame/MinionQuestTheSearchForBowser'' and ''VideoGame/BowserJrsJourney'' use a "power triangle" to determine weaknesses. They are Melee (red) beats Ranged (yellow) beats Flying (blue) beats Melee.
51* ''VideoGame/{{Omori}}'': Emotion-based combat buffs follow a coloured rock-paper-scissors theme: Happy (yellow) beats angry (red) beats sad (blue) beats happy.
52* Every ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' game starts with the player choosing one of three starter Pokémon, which have this relationship to each other and overlap neatly with ColorCodedElements and ElementalRockPaperScissors: Fire (red) beats Grass (green) beats Water (blue) beats Fire. Due to the franchise's popularity, this heuristic may be the TropeCodifier in general.
53* ''VideoGame/SINoALICE'' has an ElementalRockPaperScissors system where Fire (red) beats Wind (green), which beats Water (blue), which beats Fire.
54* Present in ''VideoGame/YakuzaLikeADragon'' in the business management minigame. During board meetings, the share holders and other interested parties must be countered with the appropriately-skilled (indicated by their being either red, blue, or green) member on your board team in order to efficiently complete the "battle."
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56
57[[folder:Sports Games]]
58* ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'': Each character, hissatsu technique, avatar etc. has one of the four attributes: earth, fire, wind, and wood. Fire (red) beats wood (green), which beats wind (blue), which beats earth (orange), which beats fire.
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60
61[[folder:Visual Novels]]
62* ''VisualNovel/PrincessWaltz'' uses a card combat style where during the fight scenes Green overpowers Red, Red overpowers Blue, and Blue overpowers Green.
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64
65!!Non-video game examples:
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67[[folder:Toys]]
68* 1990's toy line ''Battle Beasts'' consisted of small figurines with a mystery rub-off decal on their chests, indicated which of the three factions they belonged to: Wood, Water, or Fire. Fire burns Wood, Water douses Fire, and Wood blocks Water.
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70
71[[folder:Western Animation]]
72* ''WesternAnimation/{{Redakai}}'' has the Red, Strength-based attacks that beat Green, Speed-based attacks that beat Blue, Intelligence-based attacks that beat Red.
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74
75[[folder:Real Life]]
76* Side-blotched lizards ''(Uta Stansburiana)'' are a species of lizard where males have three different throat colors, each corresponding to a different mating strategy. Orange males are the most physically dominant and control large territories. Blue males have less individual control and only have one mate, as opposed to many, but compensate by cooperating with each other. Yellow males are non-territorial, instead mimicking females to sneak into other territories and mate. The orange lizards can overpower the blues, the blue lizards can catch the yellows, and the yellow lizards can hide beneath the suspicion of the oranges.
77[[/folder]]

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