SPLINTERLANDS BASICS: PASSIVE OR INDIRECT DAMAGE TYPES AND AND HOW TO AVOID THEM

The monsters and summoners come with different kinds of special abilities in Splinterlands game, some of these abilities boost monster's health, speed, attack, or all stats, while some abilities provide special types of damage in addition to the normal damage. These types of damages trigger when a monster hit another monster with any attack type or being hit by another monster.

These damages are known as 'Passive or Indirect' types of damage that give a player an advantage to do additional damage to opponent's team and take an advantage in the battle by adding additional passive damage.

Abilities for Passive Damage

Following abilities provide passive damage types to a monster:

1. Thorns
2. Blast
3. Return Fire
4. Magic Reflect
5. Backfire
6. Redemption
7. Poison

Let us further explain the nature of above mentioned abilities and how do they work to trigger additional damage to an attacking or attacked monster.

1 - Thorns

When a melee attack monster hits an enemy monster having "Thorns" ability, the attacker will receive 2 damage back. This damage type only affects melee attackers and does not do any harm to ranged or magic attack monsters.

Card Example: The following Earth unit card possesses "Thorns" ability.

^{Venari Knifer card with Thorns ability}

It is to be noted that melee attack monsters with "Shield" ability receive half the damage from Thorns due to shield protection. Divine Shield ability also protects from the first damage taken with Thorns.

2 - Blast

When a monster having "Blast" ability hits a monster, the adjacent monsters will also receive some damage. The damage to adjacent monster or monsters will be divided by 2 and rounded to a whole number.

This is a very interesting ability, because if the target monster is in the middle of the battle lineup, "Blast" ability will damage both monsters that are on left and right sides of the target monster.

Card Example: The following Earth unit card possesses "Thorns" ability.

^{Goblin Tower card with Blast ability}

If opponent's monsters have armor on them and they are hit with a Melee or Ranged attack, then this ability will damage the armor first.

But, if the attacking monster has Magic damage, then Blast damage will penetrate through the armor and damage the health of that monster, unless the adjacent monsters have Void or Void Armor protections. Divine Shield also consumes first damage from Blast.

3 - Return Fire

When a monster having "Return Fire" ability is hit with a ranged attacked, the affected monster will send some damage back to the ranged attacker. The damage returned to the attacker will be divided by 2 and rounded to a whole number.

Card Example: The following Earth unit card possesses "Return Fire" ability.

^{Centauri Mage card with Return Fire ability}

The returned damage will affect the Armor or Divine shield first, if the attacker is protected with the armor or Divine Shield.

4 - Magic Reflect

When a monster with "Magic Reflect" ability takes a hit from a magic attacker, it returns half the damage to the attacker, the returned attack is divided by 2 and rounded to a whole number.

Card Example: The following Earth unit card possesses "Magic Reflect" ability.

^{Failed Summoner card with Magic Reflect ability}

When monster is protected with Divine Shield or Void Armor, the damage will be consumed by the protection ability first. Monster with Void ability also receives half of the reflected damage, although 1 damage will become 0.

5 - Backfire

When an attacker misses a hit against the monster having "Backfire" ability, it will take 2 damage points because of missing an attack.

Card Example: The following Dragon unit card possesses "Backfire" ability.

^{Naga Assassin card with Backfire ability at level 4}

This indirect damage hits any type of protection on the monster first. This ability also works with 'Phase' ability to evade magic attacks.

6 - Redemption

A monster having "Redemption" ability deals 1 damage to all enemy units upon its death. This damage is counted as a melee damage.

Card Example: The following Fire unit card possesses "Redemption" ability.

^{Exploding Rats card with Redemption ability at level 5}

Damage from Redemption ability is counted as a melee damage, and can be protected with Armor, Shield, and Divine Shield.

7 - Poison

When a monster has "Poison" ability there is a chance that its attack will apply poisoned on the target monster. The poisoned monster will take 2 damage in each round,

Card Example: The following Neutral unit card possesses "Poison" ability.

^{Uraeus card with Poison ability at level 4}

This is a unique damage type that does not follow any protection rules and directly take 2 health per round. The only way to avoid this damage is to use a unit that can remove the poison effect from a monster with 'Cleanse' ability, which dispels all negative status effects from an affected monster.

It is to be noted that monster having "Immunity" ability cannot be affected with Poison.

How to Increase Indirect or Reflected Damages

There is way to increase Thorns, Return Fire, and Reflected Magic damage types by 1 point by either using a summoner or a monster with ""Amplify"" ability. This ability adds +1 additional damage to above mentioned damage types.

Suppose if an enemy unit takes 2 Thorns damage, with 'Amplify' it will now take 3 damage from Thorns instead.

Card Example: The following Water unit card possesses "Amplify" ability at level 4.

^{River Nymph card with Amplify ability at level 4}

How to Avoid Reflected and Indirect Damages

There is an ability known as "Reflection Shield" which provides immunity from Thorns, Blast, Reflected Magic, and Return Fire type damages.

Currently there are very few monsters that possess this ability, perhaps we might see a summoner in the future who grants Reflection Shield to all monsters, but this is totally a speculation for now.

Card Example: The following Neutral unit card possesses "Reflection Shield" ability.

^{Venator Kinjo card with Reflection Shield ability}

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I hope this tutorial will help you understand passive and indirect types of damages and also give you an idea about taking proper protective measures in ranked battles against these types of damages.

If you still need any support, feel free to write your query in the comment section.

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^{Game Images Courtesy: Splinterlands.com Website}

^{Information Sources: Abilities and Splinterlands Support Page}