Edited in Canva Pro.
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Before I start, a bit of disclaimer. I don't know and I haven't checked yet if this is on the FAQ. I learned about these based on my own experience and a some research once I encountered it during my games. Also, who reads the manual. right?
Splinterlands is one of the more complicated card games I played. From the deptrhs of making a strong lineup to nuances of mechanics, it's a difficult game to pick up especially for people without background on card games.
This is the first of many parts of Splinterlands Tips that I wish I knew before battling, during my novice/bronze days, and after my first month of playing Splinterlands.
I hope this would help you pick up this amazing game faster and easier so you can focus on enjoyuing the deck building part rather than understanding why things happened when they shouldn't.
Monster Stats, a brief explanation.
For the first part, we will be focusing on stats. These are the main factors that affects a monster's performance in battle. Stats also affect the ROLES and POSITION of each monster in battle, high health acts as tank to absorb damage and is positioned on the first slot, high damage acts as your main DPS and is normally put in the middle or last for safety.
There are 6 MAIN STATS for each monsters:
Photo from Splinterlands.
- Health: When the health goes to 0, the monster is defeated. First to lose all monsters loses the battle.
- Armor: Acts like a second health. Used to block damage before depleting health.
- Speed: Determined turn order and used in hit/evasion mechanics.
- Damage: Shows how much damage your monster deals per turn. Can be melee, ranged or magic types.
- Rarity: Shows the rarity of the card. Some rules of combvat uses rarity on what can and cannot be used on that battle.
- Mana Cost: Determines the mana cost of using that card. Every game has a total mana cost and you can only use equal or less than that total mana cost.
- Abilities: These are the ability icons for the monster's abilities. Hovering your mouse will tell you a vague description of the ability.
Going In-Depth
At first, Stats looks simple and straightforward but there are a few things you must know about each of them, which the game won't tell you.
Health and Health Indicators
As stated, if your monster loses health and his health turns to 0, it dies and will be unusable for the rest of the battle. One Splinterlands Hidden Mechanics is the health indicator.
A white health means that the monster is at max health or, by the game's eyes, the monster currently not took any damage. A red health means that the monster currently took damage and is under "damaged" condition.
Why is this important? Isn't this obvious?
It is important because some abilities activate on "damaged" condition. And yes, while it is obvious, having a lower health than the start doesn't always mean it's damaged.
Some abilities alter these conditions. Some of them, but not all, are:
For a more specific example, ENRAGE, requires your monster to be on damaged status in order for you to activate it. If your monster has 10 health, and is attacked by 2 damage, his health indicator afterwards turns from white 10 to red 8. Being in red indicator means it is currently damaged activating Enraged increasing the monster's damage and speed.
If the said monster has Heal ability, or you have a monster with Tank Heal ability, when the monster's health is restored turning a red 8 health to 10 white health, the monster is now "undamaged" and Enrage deactivates until it is damaged again.
Another example, if your monster has 10 health, and an opponent with 1 damage with Cripple ability attacks your monster, your monster's health gets reduced from 10 white health, to 9 red health. Afterwards, Cripple activates reducing the monster's max health by 1 changing 9 red health to 9 white health.
While it is "technically damaged," since the max health is now 9 and the game's indicator makes it white, in the game's eyes, your monster is currently on max health at 9. It is also treated as undamaged and if you have Enrage on that monster, even if the health is reduced from 10 to 9, Enrage will not trigger as the indicator is currently white.
Red and white health indicators determines if your monster is damaged in the game's eyes and is important to understand what is happening in the game.
Armor, Armor Indicators and More.
ARMOR is a monster's second health. There are four mechanics about armor that you should know and I consider three of them hidden mechanics because it was not explained in any way.
Armor is Reduced First
When an opponent's monster attacks, armor will always be reduced first. If your monster has 10 health and 2 armor, if an opponent with 1 melee damage attacks, your monster will have 10 health and 1 armor after that turn. Very plain and simple.
Some attacks and effects may damage the health even if your monster has armor. I will explain this at another time so I wouldn't complicate this section more than it is. For now, just keep it in the back of your mind.
Now, let's go to the mechanics which Iconsider, "hidden" because they were not explained at all in the game.
Armor Indicator
Unlike the Health Indicator, Armor indicators are not as important. So far, there's no abilities or mechanics that activates an ability if the armor is damaged. Still, this is a good to know for when such ability comes in the rift.
- Green. means that the armor is not only undamaged but also above maximum base.
- White. means that the armor is undamaged.
- Red. means that the armor is damaged.
If your monster has 1 armor and you use a monster/summoner that increases armor such as Queen Mycelia, you can see the monster's armor indicator at 3 and will be Green.
The next two hidden mechanics are very important and game changing. You canm use this if you're struggling getting your wins.
The Last Bit of Armor Absorbs One Instance of Damage
Let's say you have Hardy Stonefish with 1 health and 1 armor and 1 damage and 1 Speed. You're facing Exploding Rats with 1 health, 2 damage and 4 speed. Exploding Rats attack first because of his higher speed. Let's say both of them will hit their attacks when they do their attacks...
QUESTION:In this battle, who do you think will win?
Hardy Stonefish survives killing Exploding Rats with his attack.
What happens is that Hardy Stonefish's 1 armor absorbs the whole 2 damage from Exploding Rats leaving him with 1 health and 0 armor. Since armor is reduced first and monsters doesn't die if armor goes to 0 or less, by end of that turn, your Hardy Stonefish survives and the next round, he can attack. Since Exploding Rats do not have any armor, he takes 1 damage to health and effectively killing it.
If the armor falls to 0 or below 0, the icon is removed.
Resurrected Monsters Gain Green Armor
Resurrect is an ability that brings back the first defeated ally monster back to life at 1 health. What was not included was that this monster is also going to be revived at full armor, including any additional armor from the summoners and monster abilities you have in your lineup.
If your monster has 10 health and 2 armor as its stats and another 2 armor from Queen Mycelia's Protect ability, totalling to 10 health and 4 armor, if it dies, and you have a monster or summoner with the resurrect ability, that monster will be revived with 1 health and 4 armor.
This discovery makes monsters with Void Armor very strong. Void Armor forces other monsters to reduce its armor first before the health is reduced.
I've already made an article about this that abuses this hidden mechanic. Check my My Zombie Dragon Build.
ORIGINALLY, I was planning to make this a one-part article but never expected it to be this complicated. Therefore, for the stats part, it would either be in two or three parts depending on how long the next ones are.
What I am sure at is I will keep making these tips-kind of articles and pin the links on my profile for easier access.
Since articles in this blockchain cannot be removed, I expect this to help newer players as the Splinterlands playerbase expand more in the future.
- This post is an entry for Splinterland's Social Media 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.
- Animated Banners and Dividers are edited in Canva Pro.
- Some of the fonts used are from instafonts.io
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