Bruise

Bruise is a debuff that increases physical damage taken by 1 per stack. Each stack adds 1 to every incoming physical damage instance, making the bruised unit progressively more vulnerable to physical attacks. Bruise is persistent and does not decay on its own, so it accumulates over the course of a fight as more stacks are applied.

Bruise is primarily applied by the Heavy Hits buff, which causes basic attacks to inflict 1 Bruise per hit for the current turn. The Heavier Hits variant applies even more Bruise stacks. Since Bruise affects every incoming physical damage instance, it becomes more dangerous as more physical attackers target the bruised unit. In team fights, applying Bruise to a priority target before your physical damage dealers attack maximizes the bonus damage.

Bruise only amplifies physical damage, not magic damage. This makes it a counterpart to Magic Weakness, which amplifies magic damage through guaranteed crits. Against bruised enemies, maximizing the number of physical attack instances (through Extra Attacks, multi-hit abilities, and multiple cats attacking the same target) extracts the most value from each Bruise stack. Brace directly counteracts Bruise, as both modify damage by a flat amount per hit. A unit with equal Brace and Bruise stacks sees no net change in physical damage taken.