Re: Legendary Upgrade: Thorn Apart (Guide)
by benn1nat0rOriginal Post
Legendary Upgrade: Thorn Apart (Guide)
Welcome back ...
... To my Legendary Upgrade guide series. In this series, each time a new Legendary Upgrade is released, I will go over them, but before that happens, I will first be covering the ones that have been released for a while.
For this time around, I am going to cover the Thorn Apart upgrade for Rose! So, if you wish to know how to get your hands on the upgrade, use it effectively, or decide whether you think it is worth equipping, or you just want general notes or advice on it, check out this guide!
An Overview of Thorn Apart
Thorn Apart is a Legendary Upgrade for Rose. It gives the Rose a secondary orb charge-up weapon that disables aiming, but that can deal a lot of damage (named Thorn Apart). These orbs charge up passively, but at a really slow rate, but the use of your abilities allow you to charge your secondary weapon much faster. This weapon can instavanquish some Zombies by default, use Jinx on that Zombie first if you wish to increase your damage on that enemy further. As this is not an ability, you can use this attack at any time, even if you are reviving an ally or if your abilities are fully negated (unlike secondary shields, and such as stealing a battery in Turning Point). Just note that if your abilities are negated, you cannot recharge the attack effectively until they are no longer negated. Being vanquished causes you to lose all of your current orbs, but if you get revived, you get to keep them, so it may be worth waiting for that revive if you have a lot of orbs charged and you wish to use them. It may also be worth mentioning that the Thorn Apart has very good homing (max orbs: 5).
My Personal Legendary Upgrade likeness rating: 80%. Having an extra way to deal damage with Rose is fun. Because this upgrade is so reliant on the use of your abilities, it means I tend to use abilites even more so for Support (and whenever I get the opportunity to use them). Also, when using Arcane Enigma, instead of trying to run for the hills, I tend to head towards my allies and speed boost them until the effect ends. Also, while I have held Gnome Bombs and similar, I have surprised a couple of Zombie opponents by using fully-charged Thorn Aparts on them with the Gnome Bomb by charging it beforehand (Quick Tip: when holding an item and your abilities are negated, such as Crystal Dog in PvE, Gnome Bomb or Stealing a Battery, use your Thorn Apart wisely if you have charged it beforehand, you're not going to charge another in time without the use of your abilities, but at least you can fight back more effectively.
How to Obtain this Upgrade
To obtain this upgrade, you needed to get it in the April Prize Map at the end of the Golden Path. However, if you are a new player and was not able to get this upgrade, or you missed out on this upgrade in the Prize Map, you can also buy it for 300 Rainbow Stars through Rux at any time. Just note that if you did not buy the upgrade from the Prize Map, you will not get to own the Celestial Beauty or Astral Perfection Costume that matches with the Legendary Upgrade alongside it (I have heard reports of Celestial Beauty being sold through Rux, so it is possible you can obtain that costume that way).
Once you own this upgrade, you keep it forever, you may equip it (and unequip it) as often as you wish, for 5 upgrade points, and you may put it on as many of your Rose builds as you want at once. Because of the expensive cost to equip it, you should consider whether it is worth equipping in some circumstances.
Celestial Beauty:
Astral Perfection:
Gameplay
This is a video I made regarding the basics of this upgrade:
Disadvantages of Upgrade
- You cannot aim at all while you use the upgrade, rather that holding aim releases your Thorn Apart orbs instead.
- You are very reliant on the use of your abilities.
- Being vanquished makes you lose all of your orbs.
Advantages of Upgrade
- You can instavanquish many Zombies with it.
- An overall higher DPS, and an extra way to deal damage.
- Being supportive gives you orbs and helps your team.
- You can launch the orbs at any time, even if your abilities are negated. Your orbs are not an ability, they are a secondary weapon.
- Being revived makes you keep all orbs you had.
Tips for Using this Upgrade Effectively
You have got to practice with this upgrade in order to get a lot better with it. It changes the playstyle of Rose, here, I will share my personal tips with you to help you do better with Rose and her Legendary Upgrade:
- Use your supportive abilities as well as you can. You get orbs much faster this way. Each Jinx assist gives you 1 orb. You get 1 orb whenever you speed boost enough allies with Arcane Enigma. Each Goatify gives you 1 orb. For this reason, always aim to Goatify as many zombies as you possibly can.
- Reviving an ally (apart from using abilities) gives you an orb, so try and revive allies whenever you find it reasonable for you do to so. Shared revives also count.
- If a Butter Beacon used by a Kernel Corn on your team reveals lots of clustered Zombies in an area, even behind a wall, aim your Goatify there and get lots of orbs.
- If you want to improve your damage using Thorn Apart against enemies, Jinx your enemy before you attempt to use Thorn Apart on them.
- Enemies that have less than 125 health will not require all 5 orbs to vanquish them, especially if you Jinx them first. If you are aiming for a specific enemy type, you do not have to charge up as many orbs. Consider what enemy you go for before going to release all of your orbs.
- If you want to make an enemy that you vanquish unrevivable, Goatify them first, then release your orbs.
- Use your Magic Thistles primary attack to weaken enemies as required before using Thorn Apart to finish the job.
- When your team is attacking an enemy, especially if they have a lot of health, use Thorn Apart to assist in weakening that enemy or as a homing finisher.
- If you feel you are about to be vanquished, release your Thorn Apart, unless you feel that you may be revived.
- When you use your Arcane Enigma, even if it is retreating from a fight, head to an ally (or a group of allies) and speed boost them for some Thorn Apart charge.
Watch some of me and my brother's gameplay of the Thorn Apart upgrade below if you are interested, you may learn some tips, and also how annoying aimbot 80s Rocket Ride as well while you are at it! 
What could you equip for your other 2 upgrade points?
You have 2 extra upgrade points available for you to use once you have equipped this upgrade. My suggestions for some combos you can equip are:
- Super Savior and Refreshing Revive (1 upgrade point each). These two upgrades work excellent together. The only upgrade you can use in conjunction with Thorn Apart that helps you get your abilities back faster is Refreshing Revive. Getting a revive will give you an orb, and your abilities back faster. This means that you can fuel through your orbs faster. If you use your abilities and then earn a revive, you can use them again more frequently. Super Savior allows you to use your abilities (and jump) unrestricted while you revive, meaning you can reduce your chances of being vanquished, if you see good opportunities to use your abilities (but you are reviving), you will still be able to do so without ditching the revive. You can also use Arcane Enigma while you revive to make yourself invulnerable while you revive, and if you speed boost enough allies and get the revive successfully, you can also gain your Arcane Enigma back (along with other abilities) more quickly, and you can use your abilities to protect yourself. Also remember you can release any Thorn Apart charge you have made (with or without Super Savior) if you feel it is necessary.
- Carpool (2 upgrade points). When you speed buff more allies with Arcane Enigma, it will last for longer, which means effectively more Arcane Enigma, a quicker cooldown, and, therefore more orbs towards your Thorn Apart. If you can conduct this properly, you can actually use Arcane Enigma essentially infinitely, meaning you can non-stop use Arcane Enigma and charge your orbs. However, this relies on having lots of teammates nearby and getting speed boosted, but overall this upgrade is great for getting orbs at a faster rate.
- Thistle Missile (2 upgrade points). Your Thorn Apart will also benefit from increased projectile speed, as well as your Magic Thistles, giving enemies less time to get away from it, and therefore, a relatively higher hit chance.
Who does Thorn Apart Hard Counter (opinion)?
Scientist. You only need 4 Thorn Apart orbs to vanquish them. His Primary Weapon will not deal much damage to you if you keep your distance, move a distance away if you feel it is necessary. If they have the Steam Blaster upgrade equipped, use the Thorn Apart to safely vanquish them from a distance and protect you and your team. If they got too close to you, try to Thorn Apart them, or use Arcane Enigma to skedaddle away and head back to your team for protection (or moreover, away from the Steam Blaster). You could also try to Goatify the scientist, to make him useless against you (virtually) or Jinx (to make sure he is vanquished faster). Especially if they have Steam Blaster, it will make it much easier for you and your team to vanquish him if you use your abilities and primaries properly and work together against him.
The Thorn Apart is excellent against his Sticky Healy Thingy as you instavanquish the Scientist anyway, with only 4 orbs, unless he is overhealed. If he is fully overhealed, simply use 5 orbs instead, and Jinx him first, and he will still be vanquished. The Scientist will likely use Warp once they know that they are being locked on with homing, but they are unlikely to successfully get away since the Thorn Apart has homing, but it is still possible. The Healing Hose can heal other Zombies, but he cannot heal himself with it and he is even more defenseless against attacks if he is healing allies.
Using Abilities in Sync with Upgrade
Jinx: Use your Jinx on enemies that other allies are attacking, or that have high health, or that are an important target to focus. This ability has a short cooldown, so use it as often as you can. You can also Jinx multiple enemies at once if they are closely clustered enough. If you get a Jinx assist, you get an orb instantly. You are able to get a shared vanquish as well as a Jinx assist, but keep in mind that if you get the direct vanquish on an enemy that you Jinxed yourself, you will not get an orb, so it is better to put some damage with Magic Thistles into them and let your teammates finish the job, unless you would prefer to use your Thorn Apart on that enemy afterwards.
Arcane Enigma: If you use this ability to retreat, try and head to your allies instead and get as much charge as you can this way for your orbs! If you are speed buffing many allies at a time, you will find this really beneficial as you can fuel orbs faster, you can also reset the time of your Arcane Enigma faster if you speed buff many allies, and then gain more orbs overall. Just note that you cannot fire orbs during Arcane Enigma, but I also suggest not cancelling Arcane Enigma so you can do so, otherwise you will need to deal with a longer cooldown of Arcane Enigma, and therefore less orbs. Because this ability makes you invulnerable, use it when you feel that you need it, as well, as you do not want to lose the orbs you have gained, but remember there is always the possibility of being revived.
Goatify: This ability is the most important for charging your orbs, if you can Goatify 5 or more enemies at once, you can gain all of your 5 orbs instantly. Also, if you vanquish a Goatified enemy using your Thorn Apart, they are unrevivable, similar to when a Chomper eats a Zombie, so doing this can really help your team win fights with one man down on the other team that they cannot resurrect. If a Kernel Corn uses a Butter Beacon on your team and you find many highlighted enemies in a group, shoot a Goatify that way as your enemies are not likely to notice that the Goatify is coming until it is too late. It goes through walls, so you do not need to worry about the Goatify being wasted this way. Try and activate this ability after you have launched your current orbs to gain more. If you manage to use Goatify from behind your enemies, you are likely to get a lot of enemies this way, and catch them off-guard.
Reviving: Remember, reviving (shared or physical) gives you 1 charge for Thorn Apart as well, so lookout for those opportunities.
Conclusion
Just a few more quick tips with Thorn Apart that I have noticed throughout my time. Before a game officially starts, such as in Turf Takeover, you are unable to charge your Thorn Apart orbs, so be mindful of when you use your abilities before the start of the game, or you will have wasted potential (possibly). It is best to save your abilities until after the game has started. This is not a bug either, it saves abusing abilities to charge it before the game starts.
The other thing is you want to time your abilities as well, for instance, if you activate Thorn Apart and then Goatify enemies, then you can quickly gain some more orb charges. However, if you Goatify and then Thorn Apart, you will not. This is because, at the time, (this is an assumption) you had all 5 orbs and, even though you fired them after the Goatify activated, you had maximum orbs at the time of the Goatify if that makes sense, so you will not get more orbs for that. For this reason, if you want to use your Thorn Apart, try and do that, then use your abilities to get more orbs. This will maximise your potential, so be aware of that.
This Legendary Upgrade can be hard to obtain and can cost a lot of upgrade points to equip, but with the proper use of Thorn Apart and the way you use your abilities, it will be worth it! Use your final 2 upgrade points to maximise your output. I personally suggest running Refreshing Revive and Super Savior (you know why) as you can fuel your orbs quickly this way!
I suggesting trying out this upgrade if you have not, and deciding whether you like it.
Hopefully this guide was helpful to some!
See you next time!
Signed
Accepted Solution
Re: Legendary Upgrade: Thorn Apart (Guide)
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@TheSprinter85 Thank you so much for making this guide! I think this is one of your best ones so far (hard to say if that's true, all of your guides are awesome 
)!
On a side note, I have to say I really like this upgrade. It encourages players to play Rose as a support character. I wish Steam Blaster were reworked to rework the same way.
Re: Legendary Upgrade: Thorn Apart (Guide)
@benn1nat0r If you and the community love these guides and the effort that me and my brother put into them, then I am satisfied. But again, I also love making them. Wait till I make a guide on the types of shields and reviving. It’s gonna be a blast!
@Fork_x_Spoon I use those 2 legendary plant upgrades a lot, which is why I have got to learn about of things about the upgrades. It’s a shame that while I really like the Zombie Legendary Upgrades because they are melee-based (love it) but they are very overpowered in some aspects, so I don’t feel the greatest playing them. I have a heart. However, I will be getting footage of the 2 upgrades to add to the upcoming Legendary Upgrade guides. Watch me use the Brainium Basher upgrade for the first time in PvP. Thank you for your tip: that most certainly is a good one, also on the developers part because it prevents cheesing with it. Normally, I now run to my allies instead of away so I do not have to wait 60 seconds.
!
