THE FIELD NOTES · CRITTERFRONT

Cactus

Ironhide on the march. Blaster at home. Get to know both sides of this creature.

Cactus creature icon
Cacti → Cactus → Cactus Boss
3 goldShop tier 2Physical damage

Cactus belongs to Ironhide on attack and Blaster on defense. Buying one family gives you both combat forms.

Planning considerations

Cactus has a short basic attack range and a periodic needle area. Check actual route coverage before using a central-looking hex. Its attacking retaliation is triggered by adjacent enemy turrets becoming stunned, so evaluate it alongside a source of stun.

Plan a team with Cactus ↗

One recruit. Two abilities.

ON DEFENSE · Blaster

Retaliate tower

Every 6/5/4/2s, emits needles in a 1/1/2/3-hex radius, dealing 100% normal attack damage to nearby marchers.

ON ATTACK · Ironhide

Retaliate marcher

Whenever an adjacent enemy turret becomes stunned, deals 8%/16%/24%/32% of that turret's maximum health as damage.

Cactus base stats

Unmodified star-I stats · Physical damage
StatDefending towerAttacking marcher
Health150165
Attack damage1110
Basic attacks / second11
Range (hexes)11
Minimum range (hexes)0
Splash radius (hexes)00
Armor1010
Magic resistance44
Movement speed (hexes / second)Anchored0.5
Nexus damage1
BodyGround towerGround
Normal attackYesYes

Catalog attack values can remain nonzero when an ability disables normal attacks. Attack × APS is not a damage forecast. Ability effects, stars, synergies, resistances, and round modifiers change combat outcomes.

Find a team connection.

Ironhide partners

2 families: marchers gain Ironplate equal to 20% max health; when it breaks, adjacent enemies are stunned for 0.5s. 4 families: Plate increases to 50% and the stun to 1s. 5 families: Plate increases to 100% and the stun to 1.5s. Blast removes Plate at 2x efficiency; other non-pure damage at 0.5x.

Other Ironhide families: Treant, Scorpion, Dragon, Hermit King.

Blaster partners

2 families: multi-target tower hits leave a telegraphed 40%-damage Blast Aftershock. 4 families: Aftershock damage increases to 80%. 5 families: it deals 100% damage and has no cooldown.

Other Blaster families: Mushroom, Birdie, Soul Mage, Bomb.

These are shared-synergy options, not a tested win-rate ranking. Only distinct deployed families count; bench units and summons do not add members.

What changes with stars?

Two matching copies at the same star merge into the next star. Stars I, II, III, and IV represent 1, 2, 4, and 8 copies. Health scales by 1×, 1.7×, 2.8×, and 4.5×; attack scales by 1×, 1.6×, 2.5×, and 4×. Nexus damage increases by one at each star after I. Each ability uses its own values listed above.

Generic star scaling does not increase armor, magic resistance, range, or basic attack speed. Learn the recruiting and merging loop or read about tower and marcher positioning.