Guides › Creature
Shelly and Thornblade: Early Water and Grass DPS
Two early damage dealers, two very different kits. Shelly moves and splashes; Thornblade counters and spends stacks.
The short version
- Shelly is a Water-element DPS: Q is a rolling dash that uproots obstacles, E is area-of-effect splash damage.
- Shelly's dash cannot traverse water, which surprises people given her element.
- Thornblade has a base attack stat of 121 and functions as a physical damage dealer.
- Thornblade has a defensive counter skill, and its basic attacks can consume Sword Dance stacks for boosted damage.
- Thornblade's typing is unsettled: it is given as pure Grass and as dual Grass and Water.
- Assign members of the Shelly family to the Tidewhisper Sandcastle facility in the Homeland and they produce Pearls.
Shelly and Thornblade are the two early damage dealers new players end up comparing, and they do not play alike. One is a Water-element DPS that moves and splashes. The other is a physical attacker with a counter in its kit.
Between them you get area damage, a dash, a counter and a stacking damage buff. Here is what each piece actually does, and where Thornblade's element is still an open question.
Shelly is a Water DPS with a dash and a splash
Shelly is a Water-element Aniimo, classified as a DPS. The kit splits cleanly in two.
Q executes a rolling dash. It can uproot obstacles, which makes it useful outside combat as well as in it, and it has one hard limit: the dash cannot traverse water. That catches people out, because Shelly is a Water Aniimo and the assumption goes the other way. Field use is a subject of its own and covered elsewhere on the site.
E is the damage button when more than one thing is in front of you. It deals area-of-effect splash damage to multiple targets, so Shelly's value rises with the size of the group she is facing.
Shelly's family has a use back home, too. Assign members of the Shelly family to the Tidewhisper Sandcastle facility in the Homeland and they produce Pearls. A Shelly you are not currently fielding is still earning.
Thornblade hits for 121 and punishes you for swinging
Thornblade has a base attack stat of 121 and functions as a physical damage dealer. No elemental scaling to think about on the basic form: the number on the tin is the number that matters.
Two things shape how it plays. First, a defensive counter skill, so Thornblade has an answer to incoming damage rather than only outgoing damage. Second, Sword Dance stacks: Thornblade's basic attacks can consume them to deal boosted damage. Your basic attack is not filler on this Aniimo. It is where the stacks get spent, which means a Thornblade rotation is about having stacks available when you need the damage.
121
Thornblade base attack
Thornblade's typing is not settled
Two typings are in play for Thornblade. It is given as a pure Grass type, and it is also given as a dual Grass and Water type. That is genuinely unsettled, not something you can look up once and be done with. In its basic form it is a Grass-element Aniimo.
The forms do not all share a typing. Prismana Thornblade, the Prismana form of the Grass-element Thornblade (No. 034), is a dual Grass and Water type. The Thunderstorm form is Grass and Electric. Those are two of the four listed forms, alongside the Basic and Towerwood forms; the forms system has its own article and this is the short version. The practical upshot is that "what element is Thornblade" depends on which Thornblade, and for the base creature it is still an open question.
Picking between them early
Shelly wants targets plural. The E splash pays out against groups, and the Q dash gives her a way to close or reposition on land. Thornblade wants a fight it can stand in: 121 base attack, physical damage, a counter for the incoming half and Sword Dance stacks for the outgoing half.
They are not competing for the same slot so much as covering different problems.
Shelly
- Water element, classified as a DPS.
- Q is a rolling dash that can uproot obstacles.
- The dash cannot traverse water.
- E deals splash damage to multiple targets.
Thornblade
- Grass element in its basic form.
- Physical damage dealer with 121 base ATK.
- Has a defensive counter skill.
- Basic attacks can consume Sword Dance stacks for boosted damage.
Where to start
Bring Shelly when you expect crowds, and keep the Q dash off water. Bring Thornblade when you expect to trade hits, and treat basic attacks as your stack spender rather than downtime. Park spare Shellys at the Tidewhisper Sandcastle for Pearls either way.
Most of this page was re-checked against the released game on 18 September 2026. The rest has not been re-confirmed since release.