Douball-Edged Sworb

Douball-Edged Sworb is an orb that deals damage to both enemies and the player when drawn, functioning as an offensive option with a self-damage drawback. It appears as a discrete orb in the game’s pool of orbs and resolves its entire damage effect in a single hit upon drawing, making its timing and mitigation important to effective use.

Because all damage occurs at once, Douball-Edged Sworb interacts strongly with effects that block or reduce a single incoming instance of damage. Relics and abilities that reduce self-damage or negate an immediate hit fully prevent the orb’s penalty. For controlling how much recoil you take from the orb, refreshing the peg board after killing an enemy is the most direct method to lower the number of pegs the orb will hit and therefore the total self-damage. Items that change how many pegs are refreshed also affect the orb’s recoil: Leaf The Rest For Later reduces the number of refreshed pegs (sources disagree on whether it sets the count to 4 or 5), which significantly lowers self-damage.

Practical points for using Douball-Edged Sworb:

• Use relics and effects that block a single hit (for example, puppet-style blockers or Sash of Focus) because the orb’s damage is delivered in one instance; such effects completely block the self-damage when they activate.
• Time draws so that you kill an enemy before the board refresh, or otherwise cause a board refresh immediately after resolution, to minimize the number of pegs that the orb will hit.
• Combine the orb with relics or cards that explicitly reduce self-damage to make its enemy damage more favorable relative to its cost.
• Treat the orb as a high-risk, high-reward option: it provides concentrated damage but demands planning to avoid heavy recoil.

The name “Douball-Edged Sworb” is a pun on “double-edged sword.”