Starch Chain

#Overview

Starch Chain fires a spark at the nearest pest within 150 units of Tibo, which then jumps from enemy to enemy. Each arc hits the first target and then makes 3 more jumps, so it damages up to 4 enemies for 14 each. Every 1.8 seconds it fires 2 arcs: a raw amount of 1 plus the +1 base amount bonus every non-aura weapon gets (see Stats). Levels add jumps (7 jumps, or 8 enemies per arc, at level 8), raise damage to 38 and add a third arc.

It is offered on level-up and can be given by poteto's gift chest. At level 8 a chest evolves it into Gratin Arc if you own Hot Sauce. Paired with a maxed Starch Bolt it can instead unite into Starch Supercell. See Evolutions.

#How it works

• Pierce is the jump count. After the first hit, the spark jumps once per point of pierce, capped at 60, so pierce bonuses from passives and items lengthen the chain.^[1]
• Each jump goes to the nearest enemy not yet hit by this arc, as long as it is within 70 units of the previous target. If nothing is close enough, the chain stops early. The jump distance grows with the square root of area: double area gives about 1.4 times the jump distance.
• Every link deals full damage. There is no falloff along the chain.
• Arcs are separate. The arcs of one cast fire 0.2 s apart and each starts again from the nearest enemy, so later arcs can hit the same pests as the first.
• Like Starch Bolt, the weapon only fires when an enemy is within its 150-unit range.

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; 14 pests held in a line, 30 units apart, from 30 units to Tibo's right): at level 1 two arcs 0.2 s apart every 1.8 s each hit the 4 nearest pests; at level 8 three arcs each hit the 8 nearest pests. All three seeds gave the same figures.

#Tips

• Starch Chain does most of its work when pests are packed within 70 units of each other. Against spread-out enemies the chain ends early.
• Pierce bonuses are worth more here than on most weapons, because each point is a whole extra target per arc.

#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 80).
• Can be given by poteto's visit (listed in poteto.newWeapons).

#Evolution

Result	Requires	Type
Gratin Arc	Starch Chain (max level) + Hot Sauce	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.^[2] See Languages.

#Data

{
  "id": "starch-chain",
  "tier": "base",
  "base": {
    "damage": 14,
    "cooldown": 1.8,
    "amount": 1,
    "area": 1,
    "speed": 0,
    "duration": 0,
    "pierce": 3,
    "knockback": 0.3,
    "interval": 0.2
  },
  "levels": [
    {
      "pierce": 1
    },
    {
      "damage": 6
    },
    {
      "amount": 1
    },
    {
      "pierce": 1
    },
    {
      "damage": 8
    },
    {
      "pierce": 2
    },
    {
      "damage": 10
    }
  ],
  "weight": 80,
  "behavior": {
    "kind": "chain",
    "range": 150,
    "jump": 70
  }
}