Creature Feature #16: That's no corpser, that's a KRAKEN!

[Elyssar]

Ah, the kraken. Compared to many UO monsters, he is a relative newbie, but he is only "new" as far as age goes. When it comes to a fierce monsters to be reckoned with, the kraken is indeed one to consider!

At home in the water, the kraken can be found in all levels of Dungeon Shame except Level 1, and in the heart of Wind park where two happy krakens spawn at a time. Wary fishermen can also call this fearsome beast to the top of the sea by use of a special fishing net.

However, the krakens of the sea and the krakens in the depths of the dungeons are two different entities. The net krakens have a strange "firebreath" attack. The krakens of the dungeon don't have this feature. Net krakens can also give loot such as MIBs, in addition to thir gold loot (averaging 300), ropes, and level 4 treasure maps.


For a long time, krakens were one of my least favorite creatures. They have dex like mad, and hit as hard as a rabid ogre lord. But when I started to play my baby bard character, I found out they can be quite fun if handled just right (and if you don't get too close!) I was curious to see which would be the victor...a poison elemental or a kraken. One day, the chance to discover the answer presented itself to me in Shame. The two monsters clashed in a battle royale, but the kraken easily defeated the poison elemental, along with numerous water eles, earth eles, and mage lords, before succumbing. The kraken can be a good "pet", but like the pets of all bards, he eventually died.

Do you have a favorite story about krakens? Do you have an experience to serve as a warning to others who wish to hunt krakens? Do you have additional information on krakens? Well if so, post it here!

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[Shanira]

Never ever EVER take on 2 or more kraken (or throw out a fishing net as it was in my case) when your vet isn't top notch. I once did and without Wolfy there to help vet both my dragons would have been toast.

Shanira

Isn't it sad UO is the best the MMORPG industry has to offer?

 

[drpepperguy68]

i was once out doing some fishing nets one day and one of them pulled up 3 kraken i only had 1 fresh mare which about died becasue my vet was only about 65 or so then... so indeed kraken are a monster to be reckoned with and i have yet to get a rope from one and i hate their "firebreath" thing they do at sea always anoyying and they move TREMENDOUSLY fast (dont think i spelled that right) they arnt my favorite monster to hunt just because of the loot they give

~life is like peeing on yourself eveyone can see it run down your leg but only you can feel the warmth~
~~drpepperguy68~~

 

[Switch]

Krakens are good training for kirins/unis. I often take my kirin too shame, and spend an hour killing krakens there. I've gotten 3 ropes so far, so it is pretty profitable. The only problem is that sometimes my kirin cant get close enough to hit the kraken. Not too big of a problem on my bard tamer, but my mage tamer doesn't have peace, and when that happens I have to ebolt to death. very annoying.

btw Elyssar, congrats on the carto gain! almost there!

Socializer 60% Killer 53%
Achiever 46% Explorer 40%

The early bird gets the worm,
but the second mouse gets the cheese

 

[Elyssar]

Ropes are supposed to spawn on something like 0.3% of all krakens (or perhaps it is 3%...) They seem to be a little tiny bit more common than maps...I have gotten 4 ropes off krakens after hunting them about a week, whereas I got about 2 maps (could be 3 I forget...)

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[Crimson Bolt]

Total Number of Krakens Killed = 14
Number of Ropes found = 0
Number of Maps found = 0

Do the krakens in shame carry rope and maps? Or is it just the sea-bound krakens?

'Only the Honorable Truely Live'

 

[Switch]

Krakens in shame definitely carry ropes, not sure about maps. I know that only deep sea krakens carry MIBs.

Socializer 60% Killer 53%
Achiever 46% Explorer 40%

The early bird gets the worm,
but the second mouse gets the cheese

 

[WolfZbane]

Krakens are great for training your pet. Especially the net krakens are excellent for this. A kraken is almost like a dragon, it just misses the ability to fly and is a ****load faster. And, best of all: they don't targetswitch like dragons and deamons do! That makes them a great and tamerfriendly training dummy.

Too bad their loot is so crappy... I mean: only the net krakens are worth the kill: they are the ones that carry MiB's! As ropes aren't being that popular anymore, I expect their price to drop. People still sell them for 50K, but the demand has dropped.

btw. Ely, I heard from another bard that a kraken once killed 2 poison ellies at the same time! It's obvious that they're immune to poison.

 

[Assasin]

No they are certainly not imune to poison, when my fisherman/bard goes net tossing I take a warrior freind along always. I will often throw 2 nets at a time in the hope of getting a few krakens to provoke onto each other but when only one spawns it can take so long to kill it even with GM magery, eval and meditation. They have a tremendous ammount of hit points so what we do is provoke everything onto the kraken and then the warrior will engage it in combat with a DP katana then we sit back and wait for it to drop with me throwing the occasional flamestrike to speed the death op a little. One blade spirit also used to be enough to drop one of these dangerous beasts in shame but havent tried it since they weakened the blades.

Smeade AoP
The Art of Plundering- Cats

 

[Switch]

On atlantic, I can still sell ropes for close to 200k. The lowest I have ever seen it is 90k.

Socializer 60% Killer 53%
Achiever 46% Explorer 40%

The early bird gets the worm,
but the second mouse gets the cheese

 

[Elyssar]

Every kraken has the chance to carry a map and a rope...the last time I got either item...I got them on the same kraken! (Talk about luck...) I've killed probably a few hundred krakens to get the ropes and maps I have. I use my bard to hunt them, and krakens are very lethal against each other. I have noticed that like all creatures, some krakens are uberstrong, and others are uberweak. One kraken I was using as a "pet" killed 2 other krakens before succumbing to a third.

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Total maps consumed so far: 649 /php-bin/shared/images/icons/disgust.gif
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[WolfZbane]

That's Atlantic, on Europa you might get 60K for one, IF you actually sell it. The demand has dropped.

 

[GM Drake]

Krakens are obviously NOT immune to poison, but if you provok it against a poison ellie, the poison ellie will cast 'cure' at the kraken.

 

[Morcar]

Really, how dumb is that.

Why couldn't they do that to us Players, would help alot me thinks.

<center>

</center><center><font color=red>BRITISH</font color=red> <font color=white>IS</font color=white> <font color=blue>BEST</font color=blue></center>

 

[Lo K. Taur]

I have fought a number of krakens with my bard from using a special fishing net. If I am unfortunate enough to only pull up one kraken (which is almost always) I provoke him on the other monsters. He typically kills them in seconds, leaving me with just the 2 of us. I can kill it without the use of a pet, by peacemaking. First you want to mana dump it to lower it's hit points, since the damage of it's breath weapon seems to be related to it's current level of hp's (like a dragon). I save a bit of mana to cure/heal myself but each time he goes agressive (turns grey again), I peacemake. I still occasionally get hit with the breath weapon, but you can do it solo.

Lo K. Taur
GM Treasure Hunter/GM Mage (Chesapeake)

 

[Assasin]

oh yes I can do them solo but peacemake never seems to stop his breath weapon and that can be really nasty at times, it does seem to be proportional to their hit points though. I just like the security of a GM healer/anatomy to keep me healed so I can focus on the kraken

Smeade AoP
The Art of Plundering- Cats

 

[Rafferty]

I recently got my first Dragon and I was considering taking him to kill some Krakens at sea. But from the sound of it, that might not be such a good idea (78 vet.) I suppose I could gate him out if he started getting beat badly.

One question: Will a dragon fly out of a boat to attack something? I doubt it, but figured it was worth asking.

Any other suggestions about Kraken killing with one dragon are welcome. I'm a bard with 64.X provoke and GM music, so that might help.

 

[Switch]

78 vet is fine to kill krakens with a drag. Also depends on your lore, and if that is gm, no problem at all.

Socializer 60% Killer 53%
Achiever 46% Explorer 40%

The early bird gets the worm,
but the second mouse gets the cheese

 

[TrueRagoo]

if you can get 1 or 2 healers and 3 sets of full plate and some bucklers, it can be pretty good for Parry. Krakens arent too tough, never seen one on land though

 

[Assasin]

there is often one running around level 3 shame on land, and beleive me those things are fast, if you fail your provoke you had better start running for your life. I have witnessed these beasts take down warriors in only a few hits, especially ones that have never encountered a kraken on land before, they see this blue corpser thing and think they will be as easy to kill, 5 seconds later and they are running round OOOooOOoooing for a res.

Smeade AoP
The Art of Plundering- Cats

 

[Lady Innana]

I do special fishing nets with my dragon all the time. The dragon handles it well, 2 kracken deal good damage but nothing you can't keep up with. 3 krackens can be a little much. As far as the dragon flying off the boat to attack, i have never had mine do that, i do open the gangplank to allow him to get up close and personal with them. (I prefur the dragon to the WW for this hunt due to the breath weapon, all other times you can't beat a Wyrms passiveness.)

 

[Guest]

A tip for making the net krakens stop casting their nasty blue bubbles - and boy, they hurt. Recall out to another server and back on the boat - they won't cast on you anymore.

I will never forget my first encounter with a kraken - this was before I had started my first tamer. I was in Shame level 2 with my warrior and saw a WW fight against a kraken. Now I think that the tamer didn't have high vet or maybe no vet at all - but the WW lost the fight after a hard battle. I was mighty impressed after that and decided not to come those multi-tentacled buggers too close.

<font color=191970>Carpe diem!</font color=191970>

 

[Lo K. Taur]

Peacemaking can usually stop most of the breath attacks if you time it right. After mana dumping on the kraken to get his hp's down, I peacemake then wait with my hand over the peacemake key again..the split second he turns grey (targeting you again), hit peacemake. The 1st time you peacemake, I've noticed that he may attack you with breath before your timer lets you peace again, but after the 1st peacemaking, you should be ok. This isn't 100%, but I'd bet I avoid about 80-90% of his potential breath attacks that way. Once my mana is up again, I mana dump on him again..continue until he's dead.
(I am referring to net krakens here)

Lo K. Taur
GM Treasure Hunter/GM Mage (Chesapeake)

 

[lord valtie]

well i have read somewhere.. i'm yet to try it.. because usually i'd save my nets from my fisherman. and give them to my tamer so him and a couple of drags made easy work of them.. but if you pull up the net. see the creature.. then recall out.. and immediatly recall back.. this is supposed to disable there use of the water fireball.. =)

 

[Orangebeard]

Well my Fisherman is also my tamer (It's Orangebeard) so he comes with:

GM Magery
GM Medi
GM Fishing
GM Item ID (yes I was this stupid)
99.9 Animal Lore (locked so I get GM Merchant title)
90.x Animal Taming (though have some big pets as gifts)
76.x Vet

The best way to deal with net krakens is to goto Magincia docks and throw nets off there, that way you can pull them back easier for healing if needed.

1v1 a Kraken will beat a dragon.. Just.

Yes the 'pure' loot sucks, but with 1/3 Krakens spawning a MIB from nets that's about 5.3k gold on each of them.

<center>

<a target="_blank" href=http://www.shutton.worldonline.co.uk/ob/>Orangebeard</a>: Europa, Europa Trade, Merchant Moderator and Europa News Reporter</center>

 

[Sielvyn]

I have a GM fisherman character and he did between 30 and 40 nets up to date. To my recent experiences, krackens seem to have a hard time resisting the explosion spell. Any other spell is like a mosquito sting to them. Second, they do not naturally heal, so there is no need to poison them.

Krackens usually give only gold and rarely MIBs or level 2 maps. I have never ever encountered ropes and level 4 maps in their loot. ( Must be extremely rare. )

BTW: Did you know you don't have to be a fisherman to throw a net... /php-bin/shared/images/icons/wink.gif

Have Fun!

 

[Baudolino]

after reading your Feature I decided to try the Kraken.
I went to Shame lvl.2 and directed my mare towards him. With some Flamestrikes from my part we quickly dispatched him.
Now the funny question: he died in the middle of the river, I couldnt loot him. Seems to me that we cannot put a boat in dungeons, so what's the best strategy to force those damn beasts to be polite enough and die near the shore?

 

[DiDi-br]

Nice point baudolino

 

[kaice]

Did a couple of them in Shame/3 with my tamer/bard. I was lucky (?) enough to always have a fresh poison ellie spawn near me, so I was provoking the PE onto the kraken. It took about 2 1/2 PE's do do each of the 2 krakens.