Thorny

Thornies are an enemy encountered in the Ossuary. One appears as an elite key guardian in High Peak Castle, occupying the green room.

Behavior
The Thornies will attack by rolling in a ball towards the player, dealing contact damage and knock-back. They will jump away if the Beheaded gets too close to them, leaving them vulnerable after landing. Dodge roll through their roll attack and attack them when they get out of their ball form. If you attack these enemies with a melee weapon while facing their spiked back, damage will be inflicted on you.

Strategy

 * Their rolling attack can be easily parried or dodged.
 * Using any attack on their unprotected side will cause them to flip around and become temporarily stunned which is indicated by a "!" sign, the same one used for when they are about to attack, and a screech. Try not to attack their back when they flip around as even the smallest of attacks will trigger their defensive state.
 * Using the "Mario Jump" affix will cause you take damage.
 * Not all melee attacks will trigger the Thorny's spike damage. The two melee whips, Valmont's Whip and Wrenching Whip, will ignore their spiked back and deal damage as usual. Slam attacks will also not trigger this effect.
 * The Wrenching Whip will however make the player take damage on its third hit combo, as the player will perform a kick instead of using the whip.
 * Because of their spiked back, the Assassin's Dagger becomes dangerous to use, unless the player is invincible.
 * The Swarm is an extremely powerful counter to this enemy, as Thorny's attacks can only hit 1 biter at a time and its roll will stop if it bumps into one of them. The short cooldown of this skill allows it to easily distract and defeat them.

Trivia

 * In the early days, Thorny didn't have any spikes on its back. Instead, it only had the sort of shield and was named "goat" in the game files. His attack was the same as thorny according to the spritesheet.


 * Along with the fact that Thorny is called "satyrSpike" in the game files, this suggests that his design was inspired by the mythological Satyrs. Indeed, Satyrs were often represented as part goat with horns on their forehead, much like Thorny.

Cierniarz