Starch Bolt

#Overview

Starch Bolt calls down small static strikes on random pests near Tibo. Every 2 seconds it picks 3 different enemies within 160 units of Tibo and blasts each one; the blast also hurts anything else standing within 12 units of the target. The weapon's raw amount is 2, but like every non-aura weapon it gets +1 from Tibo's base amount bonus (see Stats).^[1] Levels add one strike at a time (7 at level 8), raise damage from 18 to 48 and widen each blast by half.

It is one of the 17 weapons a standard run can start with (the game picks one from the run's seed), and it is also offered on level-up and by poteto's gift chest.^[2] At level 8 a chest evolves it into Thunder Tuber if you own Sprouting Eyes. Paired with a maxed Starch Chain it can instead unite into Starch Supercell, which frees a weapon slot. See Evolutions.

#How it works

• Only fires with a target in range. The weapon waits until some enemy is within 160 units of Tibo; until then it rechecks every 0.1 s instead of spending its cooldown.^[3]
• Random, distinct targets. Each strike picks a random enemy inside that circle and marks it so the same cast does not pick it twice. If there are fewer enemies in range than strikes, the extra strikes are lost.^[4]
• All strikes land at once. Unlike projectile weapons, a strike weapon resolves its whole amount in a single cast, so the 0.1 s interval does not spread them out.
• Blast size. The blast radius is the size of 12 times area. Range is not scaled by area, so area makes each blast bigger but does not let the weapon reach further.
• Extra amount from Sprouting Eyes and other sources adds strikes.

Measured in the headless sim (tools/play.mjs, build 41 main-B2gf34bA.js, Standard, Normal, god mode, seeds s1, s2 and s3; the seeded starting weapon removed, the weapon given with give, spawning stopped after 4 s of play and the pests already on the field held at fixed spots with 10⁹ HP; 12 pests held on a ring 75 units from Tibo): at level 1 every 2 s exactly 3 pests were struck on the same tick, and at level 8 exactly 7, every 2 s, each for the weapon's full damage. All three seeds gave the same figures.

#Tips

• Because targets are random, Starch Bolt is better at thinning a crowd than at focusing a boss. With a single enemy in range only one strike lands per cast.
• Sprouting Eyes is worth picking early: it adds strikes now and is the catalyst you need for Thunder Tuber later.

#Stats

Values are the raw numbers from the game's definitions, before Tibo's global stat multipliers, difficulty and time scaling. In play, Tibo's base stats add +1 amount to every weapon except aura, cone, nuke and ring weapons, and make every duration ×1.25 (see Stats). Field names in code are the game's internal names. Attack descriptions such as “Melee slash” are this wiki's summary of the internal attack kind.

#Level progression

Each level-up adds the listed change to the weapon's raw values. Totals are cumulative.

#Base values

#Behaviour parameters

Raw parameters of the attack (behavior), copied from the game definition. What they do in play is explained under How it works above.

#Obtaining

• Offered as a card on level-up (offer weight 85).
• Listed in the game's player.startWeapons pool (see Level-up).
• Can be given by poteto's visit (listed in poteto.newWeapons).

#Evolution

Result	Requires	Type
Thunder Tuber	Starch Bolt (max level) + Sprouting Eyes	Evolution
Starch Supercell	Starch Bolt + Starch Chain	Union

#Names in other languages

Verified: the name the game shows when another language is selected in Settings, from its translation files.^[5] See Languages.

#Data

{
  "id": "starch-bolt",
  "tier": "base",
  "base": {
    "damage": 18,
    "cooldown": 2,
    "amount": 2,
    "area": 1,
    "speed": 0,
    "duration": 0,
    "pierce": 0,
    "knockback": 0.5,
    "interval": 0.1
  },
  "levels": [
    {
      "amount": 1
    },
    {
      "area": 0.25,
      "damage": 10
    },
    {
      "amount": 1
    },
    {
      "damage": 10
    },
    {
      "amount": 1
    },
    {
      "area": 0.25,
      "damage": 10
    },
    {
      "amount": 1
    }
  ],
  "weight": 85,
  "behavior": {
    "kind": "strike",
    "size": 12,
    "range": 160
  }
}