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Thorns is a buff that deals damage to a character's attacker when hit.

For enemies, Thorns only applies for hits dealt by attacks. Thus, cards such as Fire Breathing and relics such as LetterOpener Letter Opener do not trigger Thorns.

Thorns is particularly effective against enemies that hit many times in a single attack, such as Byrds, Book of Stabbing, or Corrupt Heart.

Sources of Thorns[]

  • BronzeScales Bronze Scales: Relic that grants the player 3 Thorns at the start of combat.
  • LiquidBronze Liquid Bronze: Potion that grants the player 3 Thorns when consumed.
  • Caltrops(+): Power card for the Silent that grants 3(5) Thorns for that combat.
  • Flame Barrier(+): Skill card for the Ironclad that grants 12(16) block and adds 4(6) Flame Barrier for that turn. The Flame Barrier buff is functionally identical to Thorns, the only difference being that it only lasts one turn.

Enemies with Thorns[]

  • Spiker (Act 3 Monster): Starts with 3 Thorns, capable of buffing Thorns indefinitely.

Notes[]

  • The Guardian (Act 1 Boss), gains a Thorns-like buff in Defensive Mode. Its buff triggers when an attack card is played rather than whenever it takes damage. In other words, playing a multi-hit attack only does the thorns damage once, but playing an X-cost card with 0 energy will still activate the buff.

Update History[]

  • Patch V1.1: The Dealer
    • Fixed enemies not applying powers if they died in the process (e.g. Thorns).
    • Fixed Nemesis gaining Intangible too early and messing up damage from Thorns.
    • Fixed Rip and Tear, Sword Boomerang, and Thunder Strike continuing its hits over Thorns and Shifting powers.
  • Weekly Patch 51: Recursion
    • Fixed issue where stacked Thorns on Spiker enemies was not interacting correctly with relics and powers.
  • Weekly Patch 44: Chrysalis
    • WORDING: Improving consistency for Flame Barrier and Thorns wording.
  • Weekly Patch 36: Power Through
    • Thorns and Flame Barrier powers are made consistent.
  • Weekly Patch 21: Channel Lightning
    • Thorns now correctly works when killing the spiker as the last enemy in fast mode.
  • Weekly Patch 13: Thinking Ahead
    • Fixed bug where Nemesis could take more than 1 damage from Thorns, Potions, and relics like Letter Opener.
    • If damage type is thorns, then the damage is dealt even if the owner is dead (Spiker/Guardian).
  • Weekly Patch 10: Quality of Life
    • Fixed issue where thorns would secretly affect ModeShift for TheGuardian.
  • Weekly Patch 9: Ascension
    • Fixed bug where Centennial Puzzle doesn't trigger off of enemy thorns.
  • Weekly Patch 6: We're Back!
    • Reaper now heals as part of the attack now, not after (you heal before thorns hit you).
    • Runic Cube now triggers off of Thorns as intended.
  • Weekly Patch 5: Happy Holidays!
    • Thorns power gets a new icon.
  • Weekly Patch 3: Balance Balance Balance
    • Thorns power now triggers on-damage effects.
  • Weekly Patch 2: Slimes!
    • Fixed bug where enemies that don't fully die (Darklings) do their full multi-hits even if they die from thorns.
    • Plated Armor no longer decrements from non-attack damage (like thorns).
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