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.
THE FIELD NOTES · CRITTERFRONT
Cactus
Ironplate on the march. Blaster at home. Get to know both sides of this creature.
3 goldShop tier 2Physical damage
Cactus belongs to Ironplate 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 ATTACK · Ironplate
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
| Stat | Defending tower | Attacking marcher |
|---|---|---|
| Health | 150 | 165 |
| Attack damage | 20 | 15 |
| Basic attacks / second | 1 | 1 |
| Range (hexes) | 1 | 1 |
| Minimum range (hexes) | 0 | — |
| Splash radius (hexes) | 0 | 0 |
| Armor | 10 | 10 |
| Magic resistance | 4 | 4 |
| Movement speed (hexes / second) | Anchored | 0.5 |
| Nexus damage | — | 1 |
| Body | Ground tower | Ground |
| Normal attack | Yes | Yes |
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.
Ironplate partners
2 families: marchers gain Ironplate equal to 35% max health; when it breaks, adjacent enemies are stunned for 1s. 3 families: Plate 50%, stun 1.5s. 5 families: Plate 75%, stun 2s, and every other allied marcher gains 30% Plate. Blast removes Plate at 2x efficiency; other non-pure damage at 0.5x.
Other Ironplate families: Treant, Scorpion, Dragon, Hermit King.
Blaster partners
2 families: multi-target tower hits leave a telegraphed 100%-damage Blast Aftershock in a 1-hex radius (1s cooldown). 3 families: 150% damage, no cooldown. 5 families: 300% damage, no cooldown.
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.