Share Your Battle: The Kraken

Background by Jong Marshes on Unsplash
The Kraken animated in Photoshop. Cover edited in Canva.

Known on mythologies as giant squids as huge as buildings. Tentacles that can bring down ships with one swoop. These mythical beings, as cruel as the names, not only are deadly in the stories but in Splinterlands as well. With the consecutive losses, I tried to rent "the most powerful monster in Splinterlands" and I got 400 RP in one night. Today, I want to share my experience and hopefully create a wave to hype these amazingly strong monster that can take out the whole enemy team on his own.

They say that in the recent shifting of the Planet that has come with the Untamed, great schisms were opened on the floors of the seas. Through these new openings emerged new monsters from the core beyond, larger than anything even the most traveled Azmaré pirate has ever seen. The Kraken is one such beast, and one that occasionally swims as high as the water’s surface. Sailors who have seen it say that it approaches from beneath like a great storm cloud, somehow darkening everything around it with its massive shadow. With the swipe of a single tentacle, the Kraken can capsize the mightiest ships as if they were a child’s bath toy. The Kraken is so huge that special Gloridax sorcery was used to ensure that its projected essence in tournament battle was only a small portion of its actual size. If this precaution had not been taken, summoning the Kraken would have crushed every spectator in the arena.

Lore can be found on Splinterlands Card Lore Page.

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

Very unfortunate that this deadly creature is quite expensive. The cheapest goes a little low than $40. I'm actually planning to save up for this baby since this one monster can surely get you to silver on his own (provided you have the required collection power.).

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

As of making this article, the price for rental is around 6 DEC per day. I think it's much lower right now but even at 6 DEC, this is a very worthwhile expense as it makes my game A LOT EASIER.

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

This is probably what I would call a PERFECT CARD. High 4 damage, high 4 speed, very high 14 health with a dash of 3 armor. This is the stats of The Kraken from level 1 to level 3. At level 4, armor is increased by 1.

In terms of abilities, it is very cohesive and quite strong to be honest. Every abilities are there for a reason and that reason is to kill the opponent faster while protecting your whole team.

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

At level 1, The Kraken gains the Taunt ability. This one skill protects your team from any opportunity, sneak, scattershot, snipe and any abilities that target another monster besides The Kraken. Taunt makes The Kraken the only available target by the opponent's team regardless of their abilities. This makes it a very good protection due to his high health.

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

At level 2, The Kraken gains the Demoralize ability. Demoralize reduces all opponent's attack damage by 1. Demoralize does not reduce any melee damage if it is already 1. This increases his survivability and allows you to control melee heavy team compositions like Tarsa Sneaks.

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

At level 3, The Kraken gains Enrage Ability. Enrage gives 50% increased melee damage and speed to the monster with the ability if it took damage. This mean The Kraken goes up to 6 damage and 5 speed at level 3 if he took damage.

One thing to remember is that if the monster is at full health, like at the start of battle or if you used heal or tank heal to make the monster at full health, the Enrage ability loses its effect until it is damaged again.

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

At level 4, The Kraken gains the Retaliate ability. The monster with the Retaliate ability has a chance of attacking the melee monster that attacked it. In other words, it's like Thorns ability but only a chance. The advantage of this ability over thorns is that since Kraken has 4 damage (6 with Enrage ability active), the melee monster who attacked him has a chance of getting damaged by the same amount. This also complements with Taunt ability.

For example, Silent Sha-Vi is a melee monster with Sneak ability. Due to The Kraken's Taunt ability, Silent Sha-Vi MUST target The Kraken for his attack regardless of his Sneak ability. Since Silent Sha-Vi is a melee monster, after damaging The Kraken (activating Enraged Ability in the process), the Kraken then has a chance of responding attacking Silent Sha-Vi right after Silent Sha-Vi's attack.

Retaliate may activate multiple times in one round.

Click the link below to see the full battle:

https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_54dd24d426a08d31d6512defebd66d19

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

26 Mana Cap.A mid mana cap match allowing you to have monsters with the total mana cost of 26.

Standard Rules of Combat. No changes on the rules and mechanics of the battle.

All Elements Unlocked. You may choose any of the 6 elements to be used in the battle.

Abilities used in this battle are from Splinterland using my account.

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

1. The Kraken's attack kills Shieldbearer.

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

1. The Kraken's attack kills Venari Crystalsmith
2. Battering Ram's Opportunity attack kills Pelacor Arbalest.

Photo from my Splinterlands account.

1. The Kraken's attacks kills Time Mage.

Yes, I like it very much. I thought it would be ineffective due to the new overpowered monsters but The Kraken is still the best and king of Splinterlands. Unlike other monsters, you can even use him on low mana matches and it can fetch you wins by itself. The Kraken is probably my most favorite monster right now in Splinterlands for grinding.

Summoner: Bortus: Reduces the magic damage of all opponents by 1. Monsters with 1 magic damage are unaffected. Reducing the opponent's damage helps in The Kraken's survivability.

1. The Kraken: The main tank of the team. Taunt protects everyone while everyone else protect him.

2. Battering Ram: I have an extra 2 mana so I added a 2 mana cost monster that can attack from another position.

3. Crustacean King: Has Tank Heal ability that recovers 1/3 of the monster's health in the 1st position, rounded down, per round. Since the Kraken has 14 health, Crustacean King heals him for 4 (14/3=4.66 or 4) per round.

4. Scavo Hireling: Has the Repair ability that recovers the armor of the monster by 2 with the highest damaged armor. Since The Kraken has 4 armor, and Crustacean King has 1 armor, it would prioritize recovering The Kraken's armor.

5. Merdaali Guardian: Chaos Legion version of Crustacean King.

The Kraken with his taunt ability takes all the damage while he's being healed 8 health (4 from Crustacean King, 4 from Merdaali Guardian) and 2 armor (from Scavo Hireling) per round. Opponent requires to damage me at least 9 health per round to inflict 1 damage to me per round.

Yes, with flying colors. The heal from one monster is enough but having 2 is just overkill. I also like the part that while The Kraken is protecting everyone, everyone supports him as well. That is what I'd like to call, "Teamwork."

From the line up, honestly nothing. A level 2 The Kraken will unlock Demoralize which is good against Tarsa team compositions. This allows me to control and lessen the damage so the Kraken would not be bursted in 1 round.

• This post is an entry for Splinterland's Social Media Challenge contest.
• Other sources that I do not own are cited under their respective photos. Photos and drawings without cited sources are mine and made for this post.

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Good luck and keep grinding!