Lifesteal

Lifesteal is a combat buff that heals the unit for the full amount of health damage dealt with its basic attack. Each basic attack that deals health damage (not Shield damage) triggers healing equal to the damage dealt, and then consumes 1 Lifesteal stack. This makes Lifesteal a powerful sustain tool that rewards aggressive play, as the unit must attack to benefit from the healing.

The stack consumption per attack means Lifesteal is a limited resource unless continuously replenished. High-damage basic attacks maximize the healing per stack, making Lifesteal most effective on cats with high Strength or Damage Up. The Lifesteal keyword on spells works differently from the status effect; it heals equal to health damage dealt by the specific spell and does not consume stacks. Both versions only heal from health damage, not Shield damage, so hitting Shielded enemies provides no Lifesteal benefit.

Lifesteal synergizes strongly with Bloodzerked (which heals when damaging bleeding targets), Extra Attacks (more attacks means more Lifesteal triggers), and Damage Up (more damage means more healing per hit). There is a visual bug when Lifesteal and Bloodzerked are combined, but both effects function correctly mechanically. Against Lifesteal-equipped enemies, reducing their attack damage or preventing their attacks through control effects limits their self-healing. Lifesteal is a core component of aggressive melee builds that sustain through damage rather than dedicated healing.