Set Bonuses: Count Memberships and Read the Trigger
A set bonus can justify keeping a weaker individual item, but only if its effect helps your current cat. Compare the completed bonus with the items and effects you give up.
Activation and Equipment Slots
The site’s extracted snapshot records 101 equipment set bonuses, each with a requirement of three pieces. Your equipment slots are Head, Face, Neck, Trinket and Weapon. A class collar is separate from those equipment slots.
Not every item belongs to a set. For example, the snapshot’s Magic Mirror (Broken) has no set membership. Check the actual item record rather than assuming every replacement advances a set.
An item can also belong to more than one set. Lucky Clover is listed under both Lucky and Leafy. Hunter’s Quiver belongs to Hunter and Leather.
Shared Membership Changes the Slot Calculation
The snapshot lists these three compatible pieces:
| Piece | Slot | Set memberships |
|---|---|---|
| Scrapper’s Hat | Head | Tinkerer, Scrap |
| Scrapper’s Mask | Face | Tinkerer, Scrap |
| Tattered Scrap | Neck | Tinkerer, Scrap |
Counting those records gives three pieces for each set, using three equipment slots. This is why “three pieces plus two pieces always leaves the second set inactive” is not a universal rule: some pieces count toward both sets.
This is a membership example from the older data, not a tested current-version build. Check the installed game’s set activation and the pieces’ individual effects.
Concrete Bonuses to Compare
The Set Bonuses reference combines effect descriptions with separately recorded stat contributions. Do not read only one of those fields.
| Set | Recorded bonus | What to evaluate |
|---|---|---|
| Scrap | +3 Shield and +1 Thorns | Whether the defensive contribution is worth the replacement items |
| Bone | +4 Shield; find a random common bone item after each battle | Immediate protection and later item opportunities |
| Sludge | +2 Shield at the end of each turn | Whether the cat benefits from that trigger and survives until it |
| Recycled | Also find a rare item when a Recycled set piece breaks | The specific break condition, and the loss of the broken piece |
A theme is not a reliable description of the mechanic. The recorded Bone bonus is not a blanket necromancy boost, and the Sludge bonus is not a damage-over-time effect.
Decide Whether the Third Piece Is Worth It
- Count memberships on the actual pieces, including shared tags.
- Read the bonus’s timing and trigger, then compare them with your abilities and likely actions.
- Compare the complete loadout before and after the swap: stats, individual effects, bonus and durability.
- Keep useful alternatives when replacing an item could disable the set later.
A passive is not automatically better than three strong unrelated items. A condition that rarely happens may add little; a flat defensive bonus can be useful immediately. Neither makes every set a good choice for every cat.
Four or five pieces of one set do not automatically imply a stronger tier. The snapshot’s recorded requirement is three; inspect the set’s actual rules before expecting an additional completion bonus.
Sources and Version Limits
Reviewed on October 9, 2026. Requirements, memberships and examples come from this site’s extracted item and set-bonus records, whose game build was not recorded. The examples illustrate counting and trigger evaluation, not a measured win-rate ranking.
The official 1.1 notes state that cursed items and parasites are no longer excluded from item degradation. Check break-related plans against your version rather than assuming those item categories last indefinitely.
Use Items to compare individual pieces and Combat to check whether a bonus fits your turn plan.