The Five Alive Modifier in Splinterlands is simple. Five Alive Modifier means only up to five units can be used in battle. Because of this limit, every choice really matters and one wrong pick can cost the game. This Modifier makes battles faster and more focused since there are less units on the field and each of your unit has bigger role to play.
Modifiers
Five Alive - Up to five Units can be used.
- Last Stand gains more value in Five Alive Modifier because there are less units to kill before it activates. Since only four allies need to die instead of five, it can trigger much faster compared to normal battles. When a unit gets the boost from Last Stand it can suddenly turn into a strong carry and win alone. In this kind of battle, that stat increase feels more powerful because there are fewer enemies left to stop it as well.
5 Combos You Can Do with Five Alive Modifier
| Modifier | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Last Stand | Gains increased stats if it's the only Unit on the team alive |
| - Last Stand gains more value in Five Alive Modifier because there are less units to kill before it activates. Since only four allies need to die instead of five, it can trigger much faster compared to normal battles. When a unit gets the boost from Last Stand it can suddenly turn into a strong carry and win alone. In this kind of battle, that stat increase feels more powerful because there are fewer enemies left to stop it as well. | ||
 | Taunt | All enemy Units target this Unit (if they are able to) |
| - Taunt is very strong in this Modifier because you can build your whole team around one main tank. All enemy units will focus that Taunt unit if they can which helps protect your backline. With only five units, it is easier to support that tank with Heal and Repair and keep him alive longer. If your Taunt unit survives long enough, he can absorb all the attacks while your team destroys their team. | ||
 | Heal | Restores a portion of the Unit's health each round |
| - Heal becomes more valuable here because every unit slot is precious. A unit that can restore its own health each round can stay alive much longer. The longer the unit survives, the more value they can do for you. Since there are fewer attackers on the field, a self healing unit can sometimes outheal the enemy damage. This makes Heal units very hard to deal with especially if the enemy has low damage or your unit has high health. | ||
 | Resurgence | Self-resurrects once per battle with 100% health and armor. All magic debuffs are removed, and all magic buffs are reapplied. Skips turn. Deals 1 physical damage to all units. |
| - Resurgence Modifier is very strong in Five Alive Modifier because it gives you another life in theory. When a unit revive itself after death with all of its health and armor, it feels like you suddenly have six units instead of five. This extra life can change everything and force the enemy to spend more attacks to kill the same unit again. With fewer total units on both sides that revive effect feels even more important. | ||
 | Deathblow | This Unit does 2x damage if their target is the only Unit left on the enemy team |
| - Deathblow can activate faster in this Modifier because you only need to kill four enemy units before it works instead of five. Once the enemy is down to their last unit, the damage becomes double which often ends the match quickly. In a smaller lineup, reaching that final stage happens sooner than later. This makes Deathblow a strong finisher that can close games especially if your enemies have the Last Stand or Heal in their last unit. |
Battle Breakdown
Early Game:
Quality-wise, the enemy has a better team in my opinion. Blue Wyrm Travesty is especially scary with his towering 7 melee attack. The good thing is that all of my units have armor so even with the huge attack, if it hit the armor, it would only destroy the armor and my health would be untouched on that one attack. Since all of them have magic damage, all attacks of Blue Wyrm Travesty will hit the armor first giving my units high survivability against him. With Elowen Sylphie, two of my units also have Resurgence so when they die, they can revive which gives me two more units in theory.
Mid Game:
My enemy's lineup seems to be in a bad matchup for me. This lineup is very strong in trying to make the game longer because of the two Resurgence. On the other hand, Shock Trooper doesn't like long games because of Electrified. Because of this bad matchup, my enemy would be losing a lot of health especially since they don't have units that would restore the lost health.
Late Game:
It's still Round 3 but the enemy lineup is in danger already. My Endless Ape still is very healthy and also have Resurgence giving him another round at life if needed. Their setup of having full magic damage and Blue Wyrm Travesty the only melee unit helped a lot since all of this unit's attack landed on my unit's armor. I also just realized that they are using Loving the Moo as an archon and never used Elemental for the Poison. I think this was a wrong idea. They Blast and Magic Reflect is also given to Shock Trooper and Rune Arcanist. I think the Rune Arcanist one is wrong and should have given to Blue Wyrm Travesty instead. Even if the damage will hit the armor instead of health, at least the next unit will have no armor when he attacks. This would also make use of the high damage as Blast scales off damage. If he followed these things, I think they could've won this battle.
Full Battle can be found here: https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_9bce690222c99a1c7928d528958eb227
Closing Thoughts
Five Alive Modifier may look simple but it changes the whole flow of battle. With only five units, some ability can become more important than usual since they can activate faster. Usually, Five Alive Modifier is not really felt but you would want the last unit when you're in high mana battles and you have extra 40 mana or so you can use but can't because only 5 units can be used.