Summon Thorns Boss Killer
A passive-damage summon build that turns enemy aggression against itself. Mantsterious Stranger and Mom Genes mutations spawn waves of friendly Mants and Spiderlings on every attack, and the Sleek-upgraded Red Strategist Armor grants each summon a thorns aura that reflects 25% of all incoming damage back to the attacker. The harder a boss hits, the faster it dies. On Whoa! difficulty and high NG+ cycles, this loop trivializes every boss fight in the game.
Damage
25% per-hit reflection baseline; 50% with a Summon Thorns Science trinket roll. Kills any boss in under 10 seconds on NG+.
Survivability
Summons absorb all aggro. Player rarely takes direct hits once the minion wave is active.
Boss
Trivializes every boss in the game. Higher NG+ scaling increases enemy damage, which increases reflected damage. Hardest content is the easiest.
The head piece of the mandatory Red Strategist set. Upgrade to Sleek to apply Summon Thorns to all your summons. Each piece must be individually upgraded down the Sleek path.
How to Obtain
Use the fastest-attacking weapon available. The only stat that matters is attack speed, since every swing is a mutation proc chance. Damage output is irrelevant; the summons do all the killing.
Combat Strategy
- ▸Confirm all three Red Strategist armor pieces are upgraded to Sleek before any boss fight. Summon Thorns only activates on Sleek-path upgrades.
- ▸Equip Mantsterious Stranger and Mom Genes in both mutation slots. Both are required for reliable summon generation.
- ▸Bring the fastest-attacking weapon available. Attack speed is the only weapon stat that matters for triggering mutation procs.
- ▸Enter the boss arena and begin attacking immediately at maximum speed to trigger mutation proc chances on every swing.
- ▸Mantsterious Stranger fires at 2% per attack and Mom Genes fires at 10%. A fast weapon generates a summon wave within seconds.
- ▸Once several Mants and Spiderlings are on the field, step away from the boss and let them absorb aggro.
- ▸Every time an enemy hits a summoned Mant or Spiderling, Summon Thorns reflects 25% of that damage back to the attacker.
- ▸Against high-damage bosses on Whoa! or NG+ difficulty, reflected damage alone kills them in under 10 seconds without any further player input.
- ▸If the boss clears the summon wave, re-enter melee briefly to respawn minions and resume the loop.
- ▸The harder the boss hits, the faster it dies. This build scales inversely with enemy difficulty and is strongest on the hardest content.
- ▸For multi-phase bosses that reset between phases, swing a few times at the phase transition to repopulate your summon wave before the next phase begins.
- ▸For bosses that prioritize the player over summons, use the Red Ant Commander set bonus (10% chance to spawn a Red Soldier Ant on attack) as supplemental reflected damage while you dodge.
Sources
Verified: 2026-04-18 · All content is original with full credit to original creators.