While Lex attacks enemies by forming words, enemies attack Lex with several different types of attacks.
Attacks introduced in Bookworm Adventures[]
Normal[]
- Attack [Att] - Delivers health damage to Lex.
Ailments[]
- Burn [Brn] - Causes a certain amount of damage to Lex for a certain amount of turns.
- Stun [Stn] - Causes Lex to lose one turn.
- Freeze [Frz] - Causes Lex to lose one turn.
- Poison [Psn] - Causes a certain amount of damage to Lex for a certain amount of turns.
- Power-Up [PoU] - Adds health damage to the enemy's attacks for a certain amount of turns.
- Power Down [PoD] - Decreases health damage of Lex's attacks for a certain amount of turns.
- Petrify [Pet] - Causes Lex to lose two turns.
- Bleed Attack [Bld] - Causes a certain amount of damage to Lex for a certain amount of turns.
Tile Attacks[]
- Tile Smash [Smh] - Takes all health damage away from certain tiles for a certain amount of turns.
- Tile Lock [Lck] - Makes tiles unusable for a certain amount or turns.
- Plague Tile [Plg] - Has a similar effect to smashed tiles, but can spread to nearby tiles like a virus.
- Gem Steal [Gem] - Steals gems at random from Lex's tile grid.
- Alter Tiles [Alt] - Changes the letters of some of the tiles.
Enhancements[]
- 3+4 Letter Immunity [Imm] - Makes the enemy immune to either 3-letter words or 3-letter and 4-letter words; those cannot be played.
- Weakness [Wkn] - Enemy takes extra damage from either a certain category of word or an ailment.
- Armored [Arm]/[ArH] - Enemy is especially resistant to damage. Classified as either armored or heavily armored.
Restoration[]
- Heal [Hal] - Restores a certain amount of the enemy's health.
- Life Leech [Lee] - Like heal, except enemies steal some of Lex's health to heal themselves.
- Purify [Prf] - Removes all ailments of the enemy; it is represented with the same heart as heal.
New attacks introduced in Bookworm Adventures, Vol. 2[]
Tile Attacks[]
- Warp Tile [Wrp] - Similar to smashed tiles, except it changes letters every turn.
- Cursed Tile [Cur] - Letters deal damage to Lex when used.
- Fire Tiles [Fir] - Starts at the top row of the grid and drops one row each turn; if they reach the bottom before you use them, Lex is burned and the entire tile grid becomes smashed tiles.
Ailments[]
- Stasis [Sts] - Disables treasures and companions for a certain amount of turns.
Shields[]
- Absorbing Shield [AbS] - Absorbs a small amount of damage for a certain amount of turns.
- Reflecting Shield [ReS] - Absorbs a small amount of damage and returns it to Lex for a certain amount of turns.
- Immunity Shield [ImS] - Makes the enemy immune to 3-letter and 4-letter words for a certain amount of turns.
Others[]
- Potion Steal [Ptn] - Steals potions at random.
Trivia[]
- The Fire Tile is an odd attack.
- It was the same negative attack in the Bookworm Adventures sequel, Bookworm Deluxe, and had the same effects.
- It is not in Arena mode. It is replaced by either burn, tile smash, or both.
- The Immunity Shield is only used by one enemy in the entire game: Gluttonous Monk.
- Plagued Tile and Gem Steal are similar in one way - in the first game, it could only effect one tile at a time, but in the second game, they could effect multiple tiles at a time.
- Gem Steal cannot steal a Rainbow Tile.
- There is a difference between Stun and Freeze - even though they both cause you to lose a turn, Stun can be negated by a treasure, while Freeze cannot.
- In Arena Mode, there are a few notable attack changes.
- The Grim - Freeze becomes Stun.
- Monolithic Obelisk - Stun becomes Stasis.
- Bigger Brother - Fire Tile becomes Burn and Stasis & adds 3-letter Immunity.
- Burn does not negate freeze and vice versa.
- There are four enemies that are immune to 3-letter and 4-letter words: Codex, Gluttonous Monk (with his immunity shield active), Lady Summer-Speak, and Phase Three.