Splinterlands Social Media Challenge!

Recently I've been playing a lot with some AI generation tools, and that has lead me to having trained quite a few LoRAs (Low-rank Adaptation) of Splinterlands characters. I'll start sharing the videos I use to extract frames, which I then use to train the SDXL LoRAs of these characters. Since this week the post is Earth themed, let's have a look at the Blackmoor Wild Elf and how she turned out:

Here's the whole process - I use the picture of the character we have available to generate 3 5s videos using HailuoAI and then 2 5s videos using KlingAI Professional.

HailuoAI Vid 1
HailuoAI Vid 2
HailuoAI Vid 3

KlingAI Vid 1
KlingAI Vid 2

I then extract frames from these videos and use the most suitable ones to train a LoRA of the character. After the LoRA is trained, I then can use it in Stable Diffusion to generate whatever image I want featuring the character.

Another thing that will happen this week is that the new Survival Mode will be launched with the beginning of the new season in one day. Together with that, there will be a leaderboard rework for Modern/Wild ranked play. All DEC on the LBs will be replaced by Glint. The amount of players receiving rewards will be increased to Top 100 and there will be different LBs for the different levels of play. You can check the details regarding Survival Mode and the LB rework here

Let's now have a look at one very fun and also very lucky battle featuring probably the best Gladiator card currently in the game - Quora Towershead.

Now before we get into the stats discussion of Quora, let's have a sneak peek into her LORE.

So Quora's father really wanted a male child to carry on his family name but since all he got was Quora, he tried to press her into becoming a gladiator where she could someday potentially find a powerful fighter to become her husband. She did not really like that idea of a marriage but she did honor her fathers' wishes to join the guild, and that's how her legendary adventure began...

Alright, we've got some idea of who Quora is, after glancing at her lore. Let us have a look at her stats and abilities at different key levels now.

Quora Towershead is an Epic Monster. At level 1 she has 2 Magic Attack, 2 Melee Attack, 3 Speed, 0 Armor and 11 Health and she starts off with Bloodlust (Every time this Monster defeats an opponent, it gets +1 to all stats) and Heal (Restores a portion of the Monster's health each round). Bloodlust is a signature ability for all Gladiator cards, while Heal in combination with her 2 attack types makes her a very formidable weapon.
At level 3 she gains her 3rd ability which makes her even better - I'm sure you did not think this was possible - Immunity (This monster is immune to negative status effects).
At level 5 she gains his 4th ability and final ability - Dispel (When this monster hits an enemy, it clears all positive status effects on that enemy)
Finally, maxed out at level 6 she has 2 Magic Attack, 3 Melee Attack, 3 Speed, 0 Armor and 13 Health. It is worth noting that getting her to max level is a feat of strength of massive proportions since leveling Gladiator cards is really hard. I've been playing the game and doing brawls for more than 2 years now, and my Quora is barely midway through level 3.

Now that we know what the card does (or doesn't do) at the different levels of play, let us have a look at the battle I have chosen to showcase.

<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>BATTLE<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>

The line-up of the Battle and the Ruleset:

The rulesets for this battle are Maneuvers (All units gain reach), Equal Opportunity (All Monsters have the Opportunity (Monsters with the Opportunity ability may attack from any position and will target the enemy Monster with the lowest health) ability) and Taking Sides (Neutral Monsters may not be used in battles) ability. The mana budget is 28 which is a fairly low amount so I will not be able to splurge on chunkier Monsters. Three Elements are available - Water, Earth and Death. I'll, of course, go with the Earth Element.

My Main Tank this battle is the Pelacor Mercenary. This Monster is a great tank, it has Flying (Has an increased chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks from Monsters who do not have the Flying ability) which also makes it immune to Earthquake and Heal (Restores a portion of the Monster's health each round) as well as Retaliate (When hit with a Melee attack, Monsters with Retaliate have a chance of attacking their attacker). The only downfall of the Pelacor Mercenary is that it is susceptible to Magic Damage but that can now be fixed thanks to Immortalis.

Following immediately after is one of the soulbound cards which you can still get out of reward chests - the Fungus Flinger. It is maxed out but even if it wasn't it would still be enough because I am more more interested in its main ability - Martyr (When this Monster dies, adjacent Monsters get +1 to all stats). At this level in addition to Marty it also has Blind so that's a nice added bonus. It has only 4 health so that's generally not too hard to happen, especially in a battle such as this where it is guaranteed to get hit by Blast Damage due to its placement.

If there is a Monster in the game that is an absolute beast from level 1 that is Quora. She is a Gladiator card and used to only be available to be played in Brawls, however with the addition of the soulbound Summoners as well as the Are you not entertained? ruleset, it is now also usable in tourneys and on ladder. She is an Epic Monsters but should have been a Legendary one with her dual-attack Magic/Melee and Bloodlust (every time this Monster defeats an opponent, it gets +1 to all stats), and Heal (restores a portion of the Monster's health each round) abilities at level 1. At max level (which is really hard to achieve) she also has Immunity (this monster is immune to negative status effects) and Dispel (when this monster hits an enemy, it clears all positive status effects on that enemy) - an absolute powerhouse of a Monster.

The 4th place in the line-up goes to the Acid Shooter. It is a great Monster to include in basically every Earth setup when you have a 2 Mana or a bit more remaining and a spot to spare. It has 3 abilities at max level - Scattershot (This Monsters attacks hit a random enemy target), Cripple (Each time an enemy is hit by a Monster with Cripple it loses one max health) and Poison (Attacks have a chance to apply poison, which does automatic damage to the target at the beginning of each round after the poison is applied).

The 5th and final spot for this battle goes to the Fungus Fiend. It is a Monster which is an auto-include wherever you have a free spot in your line-up as it costs 0 Mana. At max level it also has Slow (Reduces the Speed of all enemy Monsters). Slow is always great unless one of the rulesets is Reverse Speed.

It is time for a quick round by round analysis:

As you may have already figured out, since the battle does not have the ruleset allowing me to use a Gladiator card, the Summoner I am going with is Lobb Lowland. He has the Conscript (Allows the use of one additional Gladiator card in battle) ability and also debuffs the whole enemy team, reducing their Speed by 1. The enemy has chosen to go with a standard Kelya play. The battles itself is from the currently active Diamond tourney.

After 1 round of exchanging blows I have lost two Monsters - the Fungus Fiend and the Fungus Flinger. The enemy has obviously sprayed me with a lot of fungicides. None the less Quora does not give up that easily.

Round 3 begins and I have also lost my Acid Shooter on the other hand I have managed to take down the enemy Pelacor Bandit and my Quora has gained additional attack values, speed and health.

Round 4 - my Quora is the only one remaining on the battleboard against the 4 remaining enemy Monsters.

Round 5 - my Quora is obviously in a hard spot even though she will heal first before any incoming damage.

Round 6 - well she's obviously still alive but the enemy Bakjeera won't be soon.

Round 7 - Quora surviving at 1 Health before healing herself. I need the enemy to miss so she can survive though.

Round 8 - well that was lucky.

Round 9 - Quora surviving again at 1 Health and this is going to seal the deal as she will be able to take down the enemy Deeplurker.

Round 10 - all that's left to do for my team is to kill off the last remaining enemy Monster.

Quora is a brokenly powerful Gladiator Monster. Unfortunately there is not much you can do in order to get her at a faster pace. Just do Brawls, open as many Gladiator packs as possible and hope you get lucky. You might even a get a GF Quora, who knows..

Over and Out,

Referral