| “ | Myth unit. Krakens can sink ships or throw soldiers. Good against human soldiers and ships. | ” |
| —In-game description | ||
The Kraken is a Heroic Age naval myth unit in Age of Mythology, available to Norse worshipers of Njord.
Special attacks[]
Throw (Charged, cooldown: 30 seconds): Hurls human soldiers into enemy units or buildings, dealing area damage. (Grabs a human unit close enough to the shoreline and throws them away, dealing 40 hack damage with a ×3 multiplier against myth units and ×0.5 against heroes to them and additional damage to any units or buildings they land on in an Area of Effect of 5).- Capsize (Charged, cooldown: 30 seconds): Wraps its tentacles around an enemy ship, dragging it underwater and destroying it immediately. (Instantly destroys one nearby enemy ship).
Further statistics[]
Specific[]
- Wrath of the Deep (Njord): Upgrades Krakens to Trench Krakens, granting +40% hit points and -25% ability recharge time.
General[]
- Freyr's Gift (Freyr): +10% hit points. (since Retold)
- Thurisaz Rune (Bragi): +10% movement speed and +0.25 regeneration rate. (since Retold)
- Rampage (Hel): -95% training time.
Age bonuses[]
- Mythic Age: +20% hit points, +20% damage.
- Wonder Age: +100% hit points, +100% damage, +20% movement speed.
Relics[]
- Pandora's Box: -20% favor cost.
- Pelt of Argus: +6 Line of Sight.
- Shen of Nekhbet: 2× attack.
- Scales of a Catoblepas: -15% pierce vulnerability.
- Tail of Cerberus: -25% ability recharge time.
- Scales of Echidna: -15% cost except favor.
Strategy[]
Being the only naval myth unit with an instant kill attack, the Kraken is a very valuable addition to the Norse navy. Like most naval myth units, they train from the dock quickly, so they can instantly turn the tides in naval warfare. Their large amount of hit points, speed and armor makes killing them a difficult task. The best way to kill them would be with heroes, assuming they can reach the Kraken, or other naval myth units who are immune to its special attack, including Nereids and groups of Azure Dragons. Aerial units like the Nidhogg, Phoenix, and Vermilion Bird are also great at killing Krakens, as are the two myth units with ranged instant-kill attacks: the Mummy and Medusa. Krakens deal decent damage but have a very slow attack speed, striking about every 4 seconds. They also cost a lot of food, favor and population, deal no bonus damage versus other myth units, and killing one will mean a devastating loss for a player's navy.
In Retold, Krakens can no longer instantly kill enemy human soldiers, but have received significant buffs to their attack power to compensate, making them even deadlier in regular combat, especially against other myth units. Their lowered population cost, along with their availability to all Norse major gods from the Heroic Age onwards, as well as their significantly increased attack damage, makes them an even more desirable addition to the Norse navy. Regardless, they should still be kept away from ranged heroes or powerful ranged myth units like Medusai.
Changelog[]
Age of Mythology[]
- Krakens are only available to worshippers of Njord.
- Krakens cost 25 favor and have a ×0.05 multiplier vs. heroes.
- Krakens have a population cost of 5, 900 hit points, 22 Line of Sight, and deal 15 hack damage and 5 crush damage.
- Krakens' Throw ability instantly kills enemy human units.
- Krakens' Throw and Capsize abilities takes 16 seconds to recharge.
The Titans[]
- With patch 1.01, Krakens have 800 hit points.
Extended Edition[]
- With patch 1.5, Krakens have a ×3 multiplier vs. myth units and ×0.5 vs. heroes.
Tale of the Dragon[]
- Krakens cost 20 favor.
Retold[]
- Krakens can now be trained by all Norse gods.
- Krakens have a population cost of 4, 16 Line of Sight, and deal 54 hack damage and 18 crush damage.
- Krakens' Throw ability no longer instantly kills human units, instead dealing heavy damage to them.
- Krakens' Throw and Capsize abilities takes 30 seconds to recharge.
Kraken (Special)[]
This variant of Kraken is exclusive to the Fall of the Trident campaign and only appears in Omens, its first scenario. It only differs from the Kraken in two ways: it doesn't have the key task after its name in the screen description and can also enter buildings and Transport Ships. While the first thing is probably made for differing them from regular Krakens (special ones are used in that level by Egyptian pirates), being capable to entering buildings and ships is probably there to transport them in the Pirate Ships of that level or was initially meant to do this.
Special Krakens are not normally playable. In the campaign, they only appear in the Omens scenario, only as enemies, and must be killed to win. In standard games, they are not trainable by any civilization. There is also no building or other way to spawn them. The only way to play them is spawning them in the editor maps, where their unit is available and differs from normal Krakens by being called (only in the unit editor) "Kraken - Special". If a spawned special Kraken is killed, it can't be trained again without triggers.
If a Special Kraken gains the Wrath of the Deep upgrade, their skin and their stats will turn to the Trench Kraken one, but their name will not change to "Trench Kraken". Also, their exclusive features will be kept the same, still without the key task after the name in the description and still being able to enter buildings and Transport Ships. This can obviously only be done in custom maps, by spawning Special Krakens and researching that upgrade.
Mythology[]
| “ | Scientific Name – Psychroteuthis pelagii Size – 60,000+ thousand lbs Diet – deep-sea fish and crustaceans A creature from the sea so large that on the surface it was mistaken for a chain of islands, the Kraken is found in Norse mythology. Seamen were often lost when they camped on what they thought was an island, only to be drowned when swam back to the bottom of the sea. It had large tentacles and suckers with which it could seize large ships and drag them down. The Norse believed that the Kraken would rise to the surface during Ragnarok. |
” |
| —In-game help section | ||
Trivia[]
- Even though Krakens are naval myth units, they have also an ability which strikes ground units. This is uncommon for a naval unit.
- The Kraken is the first Myth unit fought by the player in the campaign, excluding the Cyclops in the Tutorial.
- Before the Extended Edition, Krakens could use their ability to sink Leviathans, as they were boats, though there is no animation when a Kraken uses the ability on a Leviathan. In the Extended Edition this no longer works.
- The special abilities of Krakens are based on the classic Kraken appearance in mythology: a giant octopus which sinks a ship using the grip of tentacles and throws humans with them.
- In the editor, there is an environment object called "Kraken bits", which are some remnants of Krakens like tentacles and heads. They do not seem to appear in any campaign scenarios.
Gallery[]
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