Brassicaceae Knuckles

Brassicaceae Knuckles is a relic that grants the player one stack of Muscircle (translated in some files as Macho/strong/근력/强劲) each time the pegboard is refreshed. It appears as a build-around relic for refresh-focused decks and scales with play patterns that create frequent board refreshes. The relic becomes functionally stronger at higher Cruciball difficulties: from Cruciball 3 onward it also removes one Critical peg from the board, improving its safety when heavily stacking Muscircle.

The core effect is deterministic: whenever the board is refreshed, gain 1 Muscircle. This encourages strategies that either reliably trigger refreshes or populate the board with Refresh Pegs so that ordinary shots produce multiple refreshes per turn. Brassicaceae Knuckles pairs exceptionally well with relics and orbs that add Refresh Pegs (Fresh Bandana, PegBag), increase weight on the board (Training Weight), or create extra balls/multiball (Matryorbshka, Summoning Circle, Duplication Station). Orbs and combos that duplicate shots (Duplication Potion + Tactical Treat / Reorbanizer) or repeatedly refresh the board (Refreshing Punch, Ball Lightning) accelerate Muscircle stacking.

Practical notes and synergies:

• Aim to assemble refresh sources and multiball so each shot converts into multiple refresh events; each refresh is another Muscircle stack.
• Duplication Potion combined with Tactical Treat or Reorbanizer is a classic way to multiply refresh opportunities; following this with multiball or splash orbs rapidly snowballs damage.
• Renewed Vigorb is an orb analogue that benefits from the same refresh-centric playstyle and amplifies returns.
• Strange Brew is recommended alongside extreme scaling setups to avoid losing damage to health-cost tradeoffs.
• Leaf The Rest For Later can create dense boards of Refresh Pegs but is higher risk; it accelerates scaling when it works.
• Heavy Shaft Potion and Unpretentious Pendant mitigate the downside of Critical Pegs: Heavy Shaft triggers a refresh on hitting a Critical Peg, while Unpretentious Pendant removes a Critical from the board and increases damage. These items pair well when stacking Muscircle to lessen the chance of a single Critical disrupting high-scaling runs.
• Refreshircle is a straightforward way to generate refreshes when other synergies are not found. Etherwheel can serve a similar role with higher base damage and a level-3 discard refresh option.

Flavor and trivia: the relic’s name is a pun on brass knuckles and the cabbage family Brassicaceae (broccoli being one member). Its concept is based on the childhood admonition to “eat your vegetables to grow big and strong,” reflected mechanically by granting Muscircle (strength) on refresh. The relic’s Cruciball scaling (starting at Cruciball 3 removing a Critical peg) makes it more forgiving and powerful at higher difficulties.