Reactive

Reactive is the boss variant of the Kinetic Spikes buff, granting 1 stack of Kinetic Spikes. Whenever the boss takes damage from any source, it emits a Sparkle projectile that deals 1 magic damage to a random enemy (your cat) at infinite range. The boss has a sparkling particle effect and a bright tint. Every instance of damage triggers a Sparkle, so multi-hit attacks cause multiple retaliatory projectiles that randomly target your team members.

Against a boss, Reactive creates a persistent attrition drain on your team since boss fights involve many more total attacks than regular encounters. Over a long fight, the accumulated Sparkle damage across your team can be substantial, especially if your team uses multi-hit abilities frequently. The random targeting means your squishy backline cats can be hit even when positioned safely away from the boss. Reactive combined with high-health boss encounters maximizes total Sparkle damage output.

Minimize the number of individual damage instances per turn by using fewer, harder-hitting attacks rather than multi-hit combos. Each attack triggers only one Sparkle regardless of how much damage it deals, so a single 10-damage hit only generates one Sparkle while ten 1-damage hits generate ten. Healing and sustain become more important to offset the constant Sparkle drain. Area-of-effect abilities that hit the boss alongside other targets still only trigger one Sparkle per damage instance on the boss. Accept the Sparkle damage as a tax on attacking and ensure your team has the health pools to absorb it over the full fight.