Elite Buff: Absorbent

Internal engine status effect. This is the status applied to elite enemies with the Absorbent modifier. Absorbent allows the enemy to absorb a portion of incoming damage and convert it into healing, making chip damage and damage-over-time effects largely ineffective.

The absorption mechanic rewards burst damage strategies over sustained pressure. Small hits may be completely negated by the healing, while large hits exceed the absorption threshold and deal net damage. This makes Absorbent the inverse of Hardy: where Hardy resists all damage equally, Absorbent specifically punishes low-damage approaches while remaining vulnerable to concentrated strikes.

Burst the Absorbent elite down with concentrated high-damage attacks to overwhelm the absorption. Marked guarantees critical hits that produce the large damage numbers needed. Coordinate attacks from multiple cats in a single turn to stack damage faster than the healing can recover. The boss variant, Elite Buff: Absorbent (Boss), has a higher absorption rate and requires even more focused burst damage.