Kraken

Useful Info

Krakens are enormous octopuses found in the Shoals. Although they can only move through deep water, they reach out toward you with up to 4 tentacles. Their damage output is tremendous, especially if you allow more than one tentacle to reach you at once. Keep your distance and take advantage of their inability to follow you very far on land. If you encounter them while in shallow water or flying over deep water, escape may prove difficult; their tentacles move faster than any base species.

Unlike every other undead version of a monster, krakens keep their tentacle-spawning ability even when undead.

Tips & Tricks

• Unless you are built for nothing but melee combat, avoid engaging the tentacles directly. Ranged attacks will keep you from becoming splattered on the beach.
• Damage dealt to the tentacles counts toward killing the kraken, which is nice since they often make approaching the body itself difficult. Just remember that it will flee when severely injured, so you may need some long-range attacks to finish it off.
• A kraken's tentacles can extend multiple squares out of the water. This means that if a kraken's head is in line of sight, it can probably reach you.
• Krakens lack poison resistance, so they can be whittled down with Olgreb's Toxic Radiance. Freezing Cloud can also help.
• A scroll of poison can kill a kraken in just a few turns. Try to read the scroll before the kraken deploys its tentacles, so you get the maximum number of clouds.
• Area-of-effect spells, like bolt spells or Fireball, can deal high damage to krakens by hitting multiple tentacles at once.
• Disabling the kraken's main body with paralysis or petrification will not stop its tentacles from moving, though it might give you enough time to escape their reach.

History

• Prior to 0.32, krakens were more susceptible to area of effect attacks hitting their tentacle segments multiple times.