Contents
Intro: The Giant Octopus in Onmyoji
There are quite a few PVE Bosses in Onmyoji and Kraken is the first one that players encounter. Whenever you complete a dungeon exploration, there is a chance that a Kraken appears upon exiting.
This boss is a giant Octopus sitting on top of a ship, and it will spawn in the middle of the map. In fact, the game’s camera will automatically bring you there so you won’t miss it. Kraken costs 30 AP (previously named energy) to enter and rewards include Coins, EXP, and even high-level Souls (previous named Ontama).
This battle requires you to team up with at least one other player.
So the question now is, how do you maximize the rewards for this raid? If you have cleared the Kraken a couple of times, you may have noticed your rewards vary quite differently. Assuming all your buffs are the same, you may get EXP ranging from 6k to 14k. What is the underlying reason for this difference?
The key is this boss’ passive ability – “Cowardly Dive”. When the boss’ HP dipped to 40% and below, you will notice that the Kraken will go hiding into the ship. This will last for 2 turns before he shows up again. If you managed to kill it before it re-appears, you will get the maximum possible rewards from the raid. If not, and as you drag on more turns after it reappears, the rewards will gradually diminish to a rather insignificant level.
Before:
Kraken – before hiding
After:
Kraken in hiding
This becomes rather tough to control if you join public teams when the players do not understand the mechanics. If all orbs are spent on support skills, then you are left with no orbs for the DPS to clear the boss within 2 turns!
Skills
| Skill Name | Orbs | Description |
| Tentacle Attack | 0 | ST 100% attack damage |
| Cowardly Dive | 0 | When Kraken’s HP is less than 40%, it dives under the ship for 2 turns. The more damage you do during this time, the more reward at the end of the battle. |
| Water Gush | 0 | AOE 120% attack damage |
| Ink Spurt | 2 | AOE 20% chance to add Ink mark to targets. Marked units are revived and controlled by Kraken when they die. Kraken also receives a 40% attack buff. |
Recommended DPS and team
Personally, I prefer to use Seimei (Shield + Star), one Ubume with fodders. This allows you to get a high amount of EXP bonus for all your fodders. However, you can only do this if your Ubume has a strong Seductress Soul set. Reason for using Ubume is because she has a 30% chance to attack when team members use a normal attack. Increasing your chance to finish Kraken quickly. Some players prefer no fodders in this fight so please respect others when you team up.
Game Flow
- At max level with Lv40 Dragon, your Seimei’s turn will be before the Kraken and so cast your Shield skill to block off the initial attack.
- If you have an [Azure Basan] Soul set on one of the fodders, start your Ubume’s attack with her special skill. If not, use a normal attack first to save up on the Orb.
- At the next Seimei’s turn, use the Star skill to buff your Ubume.
- Keep the Star buff whenever possible.
- Usually, you will be able to clear the Kraken’s remaining 40% HP with 2 special skills from Ubume
Other DPS recommendations
Ootengu – His special skill is a 4 hit attack which has the same chance of triggering [Seductress]. However, Ubume has also a 4 hit attack and the final hit has an additional damage bonus. So I would still prefer Ubume
Blade – Her special skill features a 6-hit attack, which far outplays Ubume’s 4-hit attack. The only downside is she doesn’t assist attack, but that is not a significant weakness.
Inugami – His special skill hits 5 times, but the damage gets diminished upon additional attack. The advantage over Ubume is the Protection skill that Inugami counter attacks the Kraken when the fodders are attacked, and also 1 additional chance of triggering [Seductress].
Youko / Yaksha – Their special skills are too luck dependent. Skip them unless you only have them at 6 stars.
Arakawa Lord / Hakuro / Aobozu – Usually these Shikigamis are equipped with the [Shadow] Soul, and hence when the boss reaches at HP lower than 70%, they are unable to bring out their best DPS potential. If you want to OHKO the 40% HP, you will need other Shikigamis like Maestro, Ushi no Toki (with another [Shadow] Soul). In that case, you have no room for fodders.
Shuten Doji – You have to get your Madness buff up as high as possible before the boss reaches 40% HP. Too time-consuming but use it if you have no other better Shikigamis
Susabi – The ability to cast an 8-hit attack makes him so formidable in triggering the [Seductress] effect, but it requires 8 Orbs. This is too troublesome for efficiency.
Itsumade – She has the ability to trigger 4 hits on the normal attack, while her special skill can trigger multiple hits as well. This is dependent on the number of feathers she has at her turn. A feasible unit, but probably not as stable as Ubume.
Gameplay Ethics
To co-op this boss, each participating player gets to place an equal number of shikigamis in the battle. The only difference is the player who found the boss will place the main character.
When you join public raids, if you are not the one commencing on the raid, you are allowed to place 3 Shikigamis for battle and the other player 2. As the other player has sacrificed his chance of placing a Shikigami, the courtesy is that you use your best DPS Shikigami for the fight. And if the DPS Shikigami is strong enough, both of you can place the other slots with fodders.
To help friends, you can invite them into the Raid. If you do these often enough, your friends will remember you and do the same to you!
And to help newbies, you can invite them to your raid and enter the battle. Place all your DPS characters with Zashiki, then leave the room. In that way, you won’t consume your chance of completing the Raid and you can still do a solo run while the newbies benefit from training their fodders! By not finishing the Raid, you can start another one before the Boss disappears
Frequency
If you join public raids or friend invites, there is a one-hour cooldown before you can join another one. However, there is no cooldown for the ones you discovered yourself.
AP Efficiency (TBD)
Assume the following scenario:
- Highest level exploration dungeon to date (Level 23) – Hard Mode
- Double EXP buff monster only
- 1 DPS Shikigami with 2 fodders and 2 fodders at the spectators section
You get about 1.6k EXP on the 2 fodders in this battle and 1k EXP on the 2 fodders at the spectators area per battle. 30 energy is equivalent to 10 battles, and 10 times of 5.2k EXP is 52k. Compared to the Kraken, that’s about 4k EXP less.
If you clear only Double EXP monsters, you are losing out on the coin bonus. Each battle gives you 600+ coin and 10 battles equate to 6k. The Kraken Raid gives you near 10k if you clear it in the correct way.
Still not convinced? Normal dungeon exploration gives you maximum 4-star Souls but the Kraken can reward you with 5 and 6 stars! Time spent to clear the Kraken vs 10 dungeon battles? The Kraken requires much less time to complete!
And did you forget that that is assuming you can clear the highest level exploration dungeon? Not everybody can clear it fast and efficiently unless you have an Ibaraki Doji with 100% Crit and 270% Critical Damage bonus and above. This will then let you one hit kill all mob waves for the fastest training speed.
But of course, if you still require the AP to clear your bounty quests, skip them but usually AP is more than sufficient in casual gameplay!