Collateral Damage Modifier is a very risky Modifier because all units gain Reckless and they hit their own team every time they attack. This changes the whole battle because damage is not only going to the enemy but also to your own units. Reckless damage goes straight to health and ignores armor so even protected units are not safe. In this Modifier, you cannot just stack attack and hope to win. You need a clear plan on how to use the self damage to your advantage.
Modifiers
Collateral Damage - All units have Reckless.
- Painforge works very well in Collateral Damage Modifier because your units are constantly getting hit by Reckless. Every time a unit with Painforge takes damage, its attack increases so your own hits are helping it grow stronger. Instead of just losing health, you are gaining more damage in return. This can make the fight shorter which is important if you do not have heal or units that can heal the team. Do not over rely on this though as you just gain damage and the damage done to your units with Painforge aren't cancelled.
5 Combos You Can Do with Collateral Damage Modifier
| Modifier | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Painforge | +1 power when damaged by Poisoned or Burning, or hit by an ally. |
| - Painforge works very well in Collateral Damage Modifier because your units are constantly getting hit by Reckless. Every time a unit with Painforge takes damage, its attack increases so your own hits are helping it grow stronger. Instead of just losing health, you are gaining more damage in return. This can make the fight shorter which is important if you do not have heal or units that can heal the team. Do not over rely on this though as you just gain damage and the damage done to your units with Painforge aren't cancelled. | ||
 | Bloodline Tribute | When defeated, all allied units of the same bloodline gain +1 health, speed, and armor and +1 power for each shared attack type. |
| - Bloodline Tribute is very strong in Collateral Damage Modifier because some of your units will die from Reckless even without enemy help. When that happens Bloodline Tribute activates and boosts units that share the same attack type. This turns a sacrifice into a power spike for the rest of your lineup. You can even plan which unit is meant to fall first by putting them in between two units so the others gain stats fast. This replaces a lost of unit with another advantage. | ||
 | Enrage | Has increased Melee attack and Speed when damaged |
| - Enrage becomes easier to activate in Collateral Damage Modifier because Reckless damage goes straight to health and ignores armor. Your unit does not need to wait for the enemy to hit it because your own attack can already trigger Enrage. Once activated the unit gains more speed and more melee attack which helps secure kills faster. This is very strong for backline units that can safely attack every round. The higher the speed and melee attack of the unit with Enrage, the more value you can get from this ability. | ||
 | Life Leech | Unit's health increases each time it damages an enemy Unit's health in proportion to the damage dealt |
| - Life Leech is very helpful in Collateral Damage Modifier because recovering health is important when both teams are losing health quickly. As your unit attacks and gains extra health it can offset some of the Reckless damage it receives. Over time, this makes the Life Leech unit harder to kill compared to others. Since armor does not protect against Reckless direct health growth is more valuable. This is a good ability if you don't have Heal or the modifier does not allow units to Heal and get healed. | ||
 | Scavenger | Gains 1 max health each time any Unit dies |
| - Scavenger is very interesting in Collateral Damage Modifier because units die more often due to self damage. Every time any unit dies, your Scavenger unit gains extra health which makes it stronger. This works whether the death comes from enemy attack or your own Reckless damage. In long fights, Scavenger can stack very high and helps the unit to become harder to kill. |
Battle Breakdown
Early Game:
For this lineup I brought 4 Rodentians and 1 Tideborn which gives me 5 Inspire abilities because of Captain Frankie's Bloodline Dominion ability. Janni Rebel also has Flank and Inspire so she helps support Saltwraith Bulkhead who is the main damage dealer of the team. I also shared Captain Frankie's Piercing and True Strike abilities to Saltwraith Bulkhead and Vicious Quilliun to fully use their high attack stats. Overall, this setup is very scary because all melee units gain +6 melee damage which can deal massive hits once they connect.
Mid Game:
With the huge damage output from Captain Frankie and the stacked Inspire bonuses, the enemy lineup could not keep up at all. Their units were going down in one or two turns because the damage gap was too big. Rodentians have low health so I needed to end the fight fast and this build allowed me to do that. I managed to take down 3 enemy units while they were not able to kill even one of mine.
Late Game:
One dangerous part of Reckless is that it ignores armor just like magic attacks. Because of that, Saltwraith Pirate ended up dying from my own team's attacks which was actually planned. He cannot attack from the back since he has no ability that allows melee units to do so but I included him for Bloodline Tribute. When he died, all Rodentians that use melee attacks gained +1 damage which helped recover the lost Inspire bonus. Bloodline Tribute also gave +1 health, speed and armor to other Rodentians even they don't have the same damage type. This made sure the overall damage of my melee Rodentian units stayed high and more even after losing Saltwraith Pirate.
Full Battle can be found here: https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_25dce24b32a44efa57890dd7dce2502d
Closing Thoughts
Collateral Damage Modifier is not just about chaos but about knowing which units to sacrifice and make most of the expected damage. With abilities that can take advantage of getting hit and damaged, you can turn self damage into advantage. You must accept that some units will die but that does not mean you are losing. If you plan wisely, you are just converting the deaths to other value may it be stacks for abilities like Scavenger, or team boost like what happened with Saltwraith Pirate. In Collateral Damage Modifier, every hit matters even if it comes from your own units.