Step 2: Damage Type
Source Player Core pg. 399
Once you've calculated how much damage you deal, you'll need to determine the damage type. The blast of a laser rifle deals fire damage. The sting of an entropy strike spell deals void damage. Sometimes you might apply precision damage, dealing more damage for hitting a creature in a vulnerable spot or when the target is somehow vulnerable.
Damage Types
Damage has a number of different types and categories, which are described below.
Ghosts and other incorporeal creatures have a high resistance to physical attacks that aren't magical (attacks that lack the magical trait). Furthermore, most incorporeal creatures have additional, though lower, resistance to magical physical damage (such as damage dealt from a doshko with the magical trait) and most other damage types.
Two special types of energy damage specifically target the living and the undead. Vitality damage harms only undead creatures, withering undead bodies and disrupting incorporeal undead. Void damage saps life, damaging only living creatures.
Powerful and pure magical energy can manifest itself as force damage. Few things can resist this type of damage—not even incorporeal creatures such as ghosts.
Some creatures are immune to precision damage, regardless of the damage type. A creature immune to precision damage would ignore the 1d4 precision damage in the example above, but it would still take the rest of the piercing damage from the Strike. Since precision damage is always the same type of damage as the attack it's augmenting, a creature that is resistant to physical damage, like a hardlight scamp, would resist not only the rifle's damage but also the precision damage, even though it is not specifically resistant to precision damage.
Physical Damage
Damage dealt by weapons, many physical hazards, and a handful of spells is collectively called physical damage. The main types of physical damage are bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing. Bludgeoning damage comes from weapons and hazards that deal blunt-force trauma, like a punch from a battleglove or being hit by an enercycle. Piercing damage is dealt from stabs and punctures, whether from a dragon's fangs or the bullet barrage from a machine gun. Slashing damage is delivered by a cut, be it the slice of a jinsul's leg blades or the buzz saw of a massive machine.Ghosts and other incorporeal creatures have a high resistance to physical attacks that aren't magical (attacks that lack the magical trait). Furthermore, most incorporeal creatures have additional, though lower, resistance to magical physical damage (such as damage dealt from a doshko with the magical trait) and most other damage types.
Energy Damage
Many attacks deal energy damage. Energy damage is also dealt from effects in the world, such as the biting cold of a blizzard to a raging forest fire. The main types of energy damage are acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic. Acid damage can be delivered by gases, liquids, and certain solids that dissolve flesh, and sometimes harder materials. Cold damage freezes material by way of contact with chilling gases and ice. Electricity damage comes from the discharge of powerful lightning and sparks. Fire damage burns through heat and combustion. Sonic damage assaults matter with high-frequency vibration and sound waves. Many times, you deal energy damage by casting magic spells or attacking with specific weapons, and doing so is often useful against creatures that have immunities or resistances to physical damage.Two special types of energy damage specifically target the living and the undead. Vitality damage harms only undead creatures, withering undead bodies and disrupting incorporeal undead. Void damage saps life, damaging only living creatures.
Powerful and pure magical energy can manifest itself as force damage. Few things can resist this type of damage—not even incorporeal creatures such as ghosts.
Spirit Damage
Directly affecting the spiritual essence of a creature, spirit damage can damage a target projecting its consciousness or possessing another creature even if the target's body is elsewhere. The possessed creature isn't harmed by the blast. Spirit damage doesn't harm creatures that have no spirit, such as constructs. Many effects that deal spirit damage also have the sanctified, holy, or unholy trait.Mental Damage
Sometimes an effect can target the mind with enough psychic force to actually deal damage to the creature. When it does, it deals mental damage. Mindless creatures and those with only programmed or rudimentary intelligence are often immune to mental damage and effects.Poison Damage
Venoms, toxins, radiation, and the like can deal poison damage, which affects creatures by way of contact, ingestion, inhalation, or injury. In addition to coming from monster attacks, items, and spells, poison damage is often caused by ongoing afflictions, which follow special rules described on here.Bleed Damage
Another special type of physical damage is bleed damage. This is persistent damage that represents loss of blood. As such, it has no effect on nonliving creatures or living creatures that don't need blood to live. Weaknesses and resistances to physical damage apply. Bleed damage ends automatically if you're healed to your full Hit Points.Precision Damage
When you hit with an ability that grants you precision damage, you increase the attack's listed damage, using the same damage type, rather than tracking a separate pool of damage. For example, a seeker rifle Strike that deals 1d4 precision damage from an operative's Aim increases the piercing damage by 1d4.Some creatures are immune to precision damage, regardless of the damage type. A creature immune to precision damage would ignore the 1d4 precision damage in the example above, but it would still take the rest of the piercing damage from the Strike. Since precision damage is always the same type of damage as the attack it's augmenting, a creature that is resistant to physical damage, like a hardlight scamp, would resist not only the rifle's damage but also the precision damage, even though it is not specifically resistant to precision damage.