Special credit and thanks to Splintercards.com and Splinterlands.com for wording and images for the Abilities covered in this article
The Newb's Guide to Splinterlands Abilities
Splinterlands is a game that's both entertaining and challenging. It's made even more difficult by the game's seemingly infinite number of abilities that your Summoners and Monsters bring into the fight.
It's difficult to keep track of them all, remember how they all work, and pick the perfect abilities that will help you score the win and earn some sweet DEC... especially while you're on the edge of your seat picking your line-up.
Well fret no more! This article groups the current 62 Spliniterlands abilities into 14 categories based on what type of ability they are or how they function in combat (e.g., damage, healing, buffs). By organizing these abilities into categories we can more easily remember what each one does and put them to use effectively during battle!
Without further adieu, enjoy, and Good Luck!
Quick Note: Before you continue into the list and start mastering Abilities in Splinterlands, you may consider bookmarking this page for future reference. I plan to keep this article up to date as new abilities are announced/released. Also, consider sharing it with a friend who may find value in this helpful list.
Stat Buffing Abilities
These abilities increase key stats on all your friendly monster cards in play.
| Symbol | Ability Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Protect | Increase all friendly Armor +2 |
 | Inspire | Increase all friendly melee attack +1 |
 | Strengthen | Increase all friendly health +1 |
 | Swiftness | Increase all friendly speed +1 |
Stat Debuffing Abilities
Like the Stat Buffing Abilities but the Opposite. These abilities will debuff your enemy reducing key stats on their monster's cards.
| Symbol | Ability Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Rust | Reduce all enemy Armor -1 |
 | Slow | Reduce all enemy Speed -1 |
 | Weaken | Reduce all enemy Health -1 |
 | Blind | Increase chance to for enemy melee & ranged attacks to miss, 15% Chance to Evade |
Reduce Attack Power
This specific subset of the stat debuffing abilities will reduce the power of specific attack stats on your enemy's cards.
| Symbol | Ability Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Demoralize | Reduce all enemy melee attack -1 |
 | Headwinds | Reduce all enemy ranged attack -1 |
 | Silence | Reduce all enemy magic attack -1 |
Attack Effect Modifiers
These abilities all play around with the effects that your monsters' attacks will have.
Debuffing Effects on Hit
These attack effect abilities will apply a debuff effect on the enemy monster's whenever you successfully land a hit.
| Symbol | Ability Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Affliction | Each hit, 50% chance to remove ability to heal |
 | Halving | Each hit, reduces target’s attack in half |
 | Cripple | Each hit, monster loses 1 max health |
 | Dispel | Each hit, removes all positive status effects |
 | Snare | Each hit against Flying, removes flying ability and cannot miss |
 | Stun | Each hit, 50% chance to stun which skips targets next turn |
| Extra Damage | ||
 | Blast | Additional damage to adjacent monsters on hit |
 | Poison | Each hit, 50% chance to poison which deals automatic damage at the beginning of each round after poisoned, not affected by shield or void |
Buffed Attacks
These attack effect abilities increase the effectiveness of your attacks against tough opponents and help keep your monsters alive.
| Symbol | Ability Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Double Strike | Monster attacks twice each round |
 | True Strike | Cannot Miss |
| Deal with Armor | ||
 | Piercing | Attacks hit armor and health in one hit when total damage is greater than total armor |
 | Shatter | Destroys enemy armor on hit |
| Healing Attacks | ||
 | Life Leach | Health Increases on each hit in proportion to damage dealt |
Circumstantial Effects
These abilities only come into play in certain situations depending on enemy or friendly conditions present.
| Symbol | Ability Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Knock Out | 2x damage when enemy is stunned |
 | Oppress | 2x damage when attacking an enemy that has no attacks |
 | Deathblow | 2x damage if the target is the only Monster left on the enemy team |
 | Trample | When a Monster with Trample hits and kills its target, it will perform another attack on the next Monster on the enemy Team |
 | Bloodlust | Every time it defeats an opponent, it gets +1 to all stats, In the Reverse Speed ruleset, -1 to Speed |
 | Enrage | Increased melee attack and speed when damaged |
 | Redemption | 1 damage to all enemy monsters on death |
 | Last Stand | Gains increased stats if it's the only Monster on the team alive. Multiplier x1.5 rounded up. |
Attack Position Modifiers
These abilities help you use cards outside of the normal placement requirements for Melee or Ranged attacks.
| Symbol | Ability Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Close Range | Ranged can attack from any position |
 | Opportunity | Target enemy with lowest health from any position |
 | Sneak | Target monster in last position |
 | Snipe | Target monster with ranged, magic, or no attack that isn’t in first position |
 | Reach | Melee monster can attack from second position with this ability |
Draw/Repel Attacks
Sometimes it's useful to force the enemy to concentrate their attack in one place or have them ignore a monster entirely - these abilities will help you do so.
| Symbol | Ability Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Taunt | Must attack this monster if able to |
 | Camouflage | This Monster cannot be targeted for attacks unless it's in the first position |
Revenge Abilities
Revenge is a dish best served with a severe beating. These abilities will help you punish any monsters that have the nerve to hurt your team.
| Symbol | Ability Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Return Fire | If hit by ranged, will return reduced damage back |
 | Magic Reflect | If hit by magic, will return reduced damage back |
 | Thorns | If hit by melee, will return damage back |
 | Amplify | Increases Magic Reflect, Return Fire, and Thorns damage to all enemy monsters by 1 |
 | Retaliate | If hit by melee, 50% chance to revenge attack, possible to chain |
Defense Abilities
The following abilities tend to lean more toward a defensive play style. They help your monsters avoid taking too much damage or recover when they get hit.
Evasion Abilities
Your monsters will be able to slip by your opponents when they come swinging thanks to these abilities. Your monsters will be able to avoid being struck by an enemy attack and continue fighting another day.
| Symbol | Ability Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Dodge | Increased chance of evading melee or ranged attacks, +25% |
 | Flying | Increased chance of evading melee or ranged attacks from non flying monsters, +25% |
 | Phase | Magic attacks can miss this Monster (using the same hit/miss calculation as for Melee and Ranged attacks) |
| Blind | Increase chance to for enemy melee & ranged attacks to miss, 15% Chance to Evade |
Damage Reduction Abilities
Can't avoid getting hit? No worries. These abilities will help your monsters take a punch but remove the sting by reducing the damage they receive.
| Symbol | Ability Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Shield | Melee & Ranged reduced damage, Damage is Halved (rounded up) except attack 1 which deals 0 damage, cancels redemption damage |
 | Void | Reduce magic damage, Damage is Halved (rounded up) except attack 1 which deals 0 damage |
 | Void Armor | Magic hits armor before health |
 | Divine Shield | first attack ignored |
 | Forcefield | This Monster takes only 1 damage from attacks with power 5+ |
Healing Abilities
Now, at the end of it all, sometimes you're left with a mess that just needs to be fixed. That's where healing abilities come in. These abilities will fix your monsters right up and get them all shiny and new so they can keep fighting for you.
| Symbol | Ability Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Heal | Restores a portion of the Monster's health each round, Restores 1/3 of the max health, rounded up. Affliction & Stun prevent healing. |
 | Tank Heal | Restores a portion of the Monster in the first position's health each round, Restores 1/3 of the max health, rounded up |
 | Triage | Heals the friendly back-line Monster that has taken the most damage. Heal is max health divided by 3, rounded down. Minimum is 2. |
 | Scavenger | Gains 1 max health each time any monster dies. |
| Life Leach | Monster's health increases each time it damages an enemy Monster's health in proportion to the damage dealt. |
 | Resurrect | When a friendly Monster dies it is brought back to life with 1 Health. This ability can only trigger once per battle. Doesn't work on self. Armor is brought back to original amount. |
 | Repair | Restores some armor to the friendly Monster whose armor has taken the most damage. |
 | Cleanse | Removes all negative effects on the Monster in the first position on the friendly team. |
Wrap-Up
As you can see, the Splinterlands game has a number of abilities that are difficult to keep track of and remember. By organizing these abilities into categories we can more easily remember what each one does and put them to use effectively during battle! This article is up-to date with all new releases so bookmark it for future reference or share this page with friends who may find value in this helpful list.
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Nice summary of game abilities, maybe you can put a table to show the responses to each ability.
That’s a great idea! Thanks :)
!LUV this suggestion btw :)
Lovely post! Good work ^^
I got a question though, I'm unsure about it and I haven't rented a card to test it out yet.
The cleanse ability, it says it removes every debuff from the monster on the first position. Does that include summoner debuffs? like, If someone uses the death summoner that reduces -1 melee damage, and I got cleanse, will it cleanse my tank's debuff from that summoner?
To my knowledge summoner buffs and debuffs (edit:stupid phone) cannot be removed at all. (Actually - that's not true. Take Mimosa for instance. Her range debuff cannot be cleansed, but her affliction can I think. I need to look into it more.)
Thanks for answering so quickly. hmm. so. The Herbalist from the life splinter would only heal something like poison/affliction or the rest of the general debuffs from monsters, right? slow, etc?
Yes. Max has it laid out fairly clearly. Anything in the buffs/debuffs can be dispelled/cleansed, but the -1 from Zintar seems to be more applied to the arena than the monsters. Also ones like Enrage and Last Stand cannot be Dispelled.
Thanks as always for your help and expertise !LUV
I didn't know enrage and last stand could not be dispelled lol. thanks!
!LUV the question!
I think the way that dispel and cleanse work is that any effect that sits on top of the card (in the row off status effects) can be cleansed or dispelled
But I think status effects that don’t sit up there can’t be cleansed/dispelled
<><
@draicor, you've been given LUV from @iviaxpow3r.
Check the LUV in your H-E wallet. (1/1)
Oh ok ok, I get it now, thanks man
That’s a good question, I’m not positive actually. @almightymelon do you know the answer to this one?
Thanks for sharing! - @alokkumar121
This Guide to Splinterlands for newbies is very good. Thanks for sharing
Thanks @alokkumar121 @splinterlands !
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