Splinterlands is a very methodical game, there is a lot of mathematics behind its coding that determines how card stats will enhance or affect your gameplay.
If you intend to join the Splinterlands game, this guide will help you understand basic attack types, hit accuracy, and evasion chances in the game. So, let us start with the attack types first.
ATTACK TYPES
There are 3 types of attacks in Splinterlands and each attack behave differently in the game. These attacks are described in the game as 1) Melee Attack, 2) Ranged Attack, and 3) Magic Attack.
The above table represents each attack's icon or signage which can be seen on any card that has the respective type of attack capability.
If a card has any type of attack, it will appear above the speed icon and damage can be seen in the figure on top of it as shown in the above card.
1) Melee Attack
It is a close-range attack and is denoted by a 'circular sawblade' icon. Normally, a melee attack card can only be placed in 1st position, but if a card possesses stealth abilities such as Sneak or Opportunity, that can perform an attack from any backline position also.
Melee attacks do not penetrate through armor rather they break away the armor first and then the monster's health can be damaged.
2) Ranged Attack
This is a long-range attack and is denoted on a card by an 'arrow/target' icon. This attack type can be performed from any backline position, but if a card possesses "Close Ranged" ability then that card may be used in 1st position as well.
Ranged attacks also cannot penetrate through armor and require breaking away the armor of the enemy's monster to damage the health.
3) Magic Attack
This attack is denoted by a purple thunderstorm icon, this is a unique attack and directly affects the health of the attacked card. Because of its magical properties, it also penetrates through the armor. This type of attack can be used from any position.
Void:
Void is an ability that reduces the magic damage to half, if the damage is 1, the monster will receive no damage, if the damage is 2 or more it will be halved as round figure damage.
Void Armor:
If a card possesses 'Void Armor' ability, a magic attack cannot damage the Health first rather it has to destroy the Void armor of that monster and then damage the health.
HIT ACCURACY AND EVASION CHANCES
In Splinterlands, all attacks possess 100% accuracy, but certain factors reduce the accuracy and make a probability ratio of hit or miss the attack.
Similarly, monsters having certain abilities and higher speed increase the chances of a unit dodging an attack type.
Melee and Ranged Attacks Accuracy
The accuracy of Melee and Ranged attacks depends on certain factors known as accuracy modifier variables. If any monster possesses that variable, there may be some chances that the opponent might miss an attack on that monster, in other words, these variables help a unit dodge that attack and causes the opponent to miss its attack round. Let's find out what these variables are and how they affect accuracy.
Speed Differential:
It is the difference in Speed between 2 monsters, and each differential point provides a 10% reduction in the accuracy of the attacking card.
For example, when Card A with 2 Speed hits Card B with 3 Speed, Card A receives -10% accuracy, while Card B gets an evasion chance of 10%.
In this battle, Tenyii Striker hits Windeku with a -10% accuracy or Windeku with 3 Speed having a 10% evasion chance, here Windeku evades Tenyii's attack because of a 10% speed differential.
The calculation is pretty simple, to measure the accuracy,
Windeku (3 Speed) - Tenyii (2 Speed) = 1 Point
1 Point = 10% Reduced Accuracy.
Speed Differential does not affect the accuracy of magic attacks.
Flying:
Monsters with flying ability receive a 25% evasion chance. In the above example, if Windeku somehow gets flying ability, his evasion chance will increase to 10%+25% = 35%.
Flying ability does not affect the accuracy of magic attacks.
Blind:
If any Melee and Ranged monster are blinded by the 'Blind' ability, it will lose 15% of attack accuracy. In our case shown above, if Tenyii is blinded, then he will have 15%+10% = 25% less accuracy against Windeku.
Blind does not affect the accuracy of magic attacks.
Dodge:
Monster with "Dodge" ability gets a 25% evasion chance against melee and ranged attacks. The attacking card will lose 25% accuracy when hitting a monster with Dodge ability.
Phase:
The monster with "Phase" ability may evade magic attacks or reduce the opponent's magic attack accuracy with the same calculation as mentioned above for melee and ranged attacks.
True Strike:
A monster with "True Strike" does not miss any attack, all attacks are guaranteed to hit enemy monsters. Speed differential, flying, blind, dodge, or phase abilities do not affect the accuracy of a card with this ability, a monster with a true strike always hit its target.
Snare:
Snare ability is used to remove Flying ability of a monster, once hit with a snare attack, the monster will lose the 25% evasion bonus given by Flying. It helps effectively hit a flying monster after removing flying, but even after the removal of Flying, the monster may have a higher speed than the attacker and some evasion bonus may persist.
Aim True Ruleset:
This is a battle rule where all monsters get "True Strike", and every monster can always hit its target. Therefore above-mentioned abilities and speed differential do not provide any evasion chances.
Ability vs Ability:
It is to be noted that if some monsters in the battle possess Flying, Blind, and Dodge abilities on both sides, suppose a monster flying attacks another flying monster, then the attack's accuracy will be determined by their speed, and in case the speed is also same then both monster's will have 100% hit accuracy.
CONCLUSION
Understanding attack types in Splinterlands is a very important aspect of the game because if you don't know the types of attacks in this game, your opponent will have always an upper hand over you.
If a player does not know how to block a magic attack, he might have a lot of disadvantages in the game. Attack types provide us with ideas about the protection strategy we need to implement during preparing for the battle.
Hit accuracy and evasion are game changers, if a player uses nice speedy cards, he will have a good advantage against low-speed cards. Similarly, when a player fights against magic units, he should look for Phase ability to enable evasion and accuracy reduction capabilities.
I hope this compact guide will give you a good knowledge about card attack types, accuracy, and evasion. Please, don't forget to leave your valuable feedback.
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