Blade value

About Blade

Blade exists for one matchup: sword users. Its passive parries sword attacks, including ones with Aura active, as long as you are around 104% of the enemy's level, and it even handles swords carrying fire, freeze, electric or magic effects. Many Portal users are sword mains who rely on Portal for movement rather than damage, so Blade works as a troll counter to them.

Know the exceptions before you build around it. The Ice Trident and Light Spear are not swords, so they still hit you, and Saishi, Shark Anchor and Rengoku can still stun you. Blade replaced Chop in Update 24; Chop dodged swords by separating limbs instead of parrying.

As a damage fruit it is weak. There are only four damaging moves, most of the damage lands on the final tick, and you can't aim up or down, since attacking downward makes you float and miss. What it does bring is easy combos between moves, good stuns and multi-target hits that reach Sea Beasts, so it pulls some weight in Sea Events and Raids. It also has an M1, which only Bomb shares among Common fruits.

We would buy it as a counter pick, not as a main. A physical Blade is cheap and easy to get, so it rarely moves a trade.