Hooked Necklace

Rare neck armor. Provides +2 Shield, Thorns, and melee revenge damage. Metal-tagged. A thorny neck piece that punishes enemies on two fronts: Thorns deals damage whenever you're hit by anything, while the melee revenge damage specifically fires back against close-range attackers. Stacks well with other Thorns sources and suits tanks that want enemies to regret engaging them in melee.

Thorns reflects a portion of damage back to any attacker on every hit, making it a constant passive tax on all incoming damage. MeleeRevengeDamage adds a second layer specifically against melee attackers, meaning a melee enemy that hits this cat takes both the Thorns reflection and the separate revenge damage in the same exchange. +2 Shield provides a modest defensive floor on top. Metal tag creates potential synergies with metal-typed item bonuses.

The Hooked Necklace excels on frontline tanks who expect to be attacked every turn by melee enemies, since the double-punish (Thorns plus revenge damage) accumulates substantially over a long fight. Combining it with other Thorns pieces or mutations amplifies the reflected damage component further. The Metal tag is a secondary consideration unless the run has metal synergies available from other items or mutations.