King Croaker
King Croaker is one of the six available Dream Realm bosses you will encounter in AFK Journey. In this guide we will go over the boss mechanics and the best characters and teams to use against him.
Boss Mechanics
At the start of the battle, King Croaker will designate the player’s closest character as the “Tank” and will keep attacking that character, pausing to attack the Backline with a Ranged AOE attack from time to time, or to cast his Instakill Bubble on the Closest character. This allows us to choose between two different boss movesets, the Melee Tank Moveset and the Ranged Tank Moveset.
- Choosing a Melee Tank will cause the Boss to use his Melee AOE attack, damaging all Frontline attackers, and attack the Tank directly moderately with basic Melee attacks, along with the rest of his moveset,
- Choosing a Ranged Tank will cause the boss to use only his basic Ranged attack, but he will use it twice as often, while also using the rest of his moveset except for melee attacks, unless the Ranged Tank dies.
Action Summary
King Croaker takes about 30-34 actions in the span of 90 seconds (the full length of the battle - if you survive through all of it that is). Here's a list of all possible actions:
Melee Tank Moveset
- Melee attack on Tank (up to 2 times per cycle)
- Ranged attack (up to 2 times per cycle – only if Melee Tank is far from the boss)
- Ranged AOE attack on area with most enemies, usually Backline (9x)
- Melee AOE knockback + stun attack on Frontline (6x)
- Instakill Bubble cast on Closest character (3x)
Ranged Tank Moveset
- Melee attack (up to 2 times per cycle – only if Ranged Tank is dead.)
- Ranged attack on Tank (up to 4 times per cycle)
- Ranged AOE attack on area with most enemies, usually Backline (9x)
- Melee AOE knockback + stun attack on Frontline (only if Ranged Tank is dead.)
- Instakill Bubble cast on Closest character (3x)
General Information
In all stages of the game, the number 1 choice of tank here will be
You will want constant healing, especially for your Backline in order to deal with the Ranged AOE attacks, which will quickly wipe out your entire Backline in the early stages of the game. This stage does not feature skill channeling interruption, so
What’s the meta team?
Realistically speaking, your meta team will depend on your specific box, and your account focus, so use your highest rarity DPS carry characters, along with whoever can best boost their damage. Try running Dual carry, as currently there is no way to boost a Hypercarry’s damage high enough to make it worth running only one. Keep faction bonus in mind but don’t run suboptimal characters just to force it.
Still, below you can find a few example teams. Big thanks to
Team #1 - Safe
Character information:
- Thoran acts as the tank, debuffer and secondary damage dealer. He is a must have to counter the insta-kill mechanic,
- Smokey & Meerky acts as healer and buffer,
- Koko acts as shielder and buffer/debuffer - her shields are really important to survive against the boss as Smokey alone won't be able to keep the team alive,
- Reinier acts as buffer and debuffer (Mythic+ required),
- Cassadee the best alternative to Reinier on this team - her damage output combined with more MDEF shred are great (+10 EX required),
- Satrana appeared out of nowhere thanks to the Magic damage meta. Her buffs help the team with dealing more damage and she can also deal decent damage herself,
- Odie is the main carry of this team,
- Artifacts:
- Haste is really important here, making the Artifact the primary choice,Starshard Spell
- if you will use Cassadee or Satrana instead of Reinier, this is the Artifact you should use,Crescent Spell
- another alternative, but more RNG based.Evocation Spell
Here's the damage the team managed to do:
Team #2 - Risky
This team has currently issues staying alive even at around 220 seasonal level and is very RNG-heavy, but if everything goes your way, the damage potential is the highest. Most likely this will be the best team once we level up further. Credits to Anna from AFK Analytica for coming up with this composition.
Character information:
- Thoran acts as the tank, debuffer and secondary damage dealer. He is a must have to counter the insta-kill mechanic,
- Smokey & Meerky acts as healer and buffer,
- Cassadee her damage output combined with more MDEF shred are great (+10 EX required),
- Reinier acts as buffer and debuffer (Mythic+ required),
- Odie is the main carry of this team.
- Artifacts:
- is needed to keep the team alive.Lightheal Spell
Character info
This section will be updated soon with Seasonal information, so we moved it at the bottom of the guide for the time being!
Melee Tank
Best in slot
- Thoran (doubles as debuffer)
Viable alternatives
You can technically run any regular tank here, but then they’ll also be forced to eat the Instakill Bubble attacks which will quickly cut down on your team dps potential.
Ranged Tank
Best in slot
- Smokey & Meerky (doubles as buffer)
Viable alternatives
- Hewynn
- Any ranged character who can keep themselves alive throughout the fight.
Debuffer
Anyone who inflicts debuffs that decrease enemy defenses or increase enemy damage taken. There are other debuffs too, but we’ll focus on those that directly contribute to team damage output the most.
Best in slot
- Reinier (+25% Damage Taken at [Mythic+])
- Kruger (40% Phys DEF, +40% Phys Damage Taken – Melee debuffer, but too good to pass on. Can usually avoid drawing aggro but be careful that he doesn’t eat the Instakill Bubble)
- Thoran (+17% Damage Taken – doubles as Bubble Tech)
Viable alternatives
Honorable mentions
Not 100% uptime, low debuff value/not the best option or poor faction bonus synergy.
Buffer
Anyone who provides buffs that increase team damage output. We’ll focus on offensive buffs, defensive buffs are less important if you can already stay alive.
Best in slot
- Smokey & Meerky (20% ATK, 30 Haste – doubles as Ranged Tank)
Viable alternatives
- Lyca (40 ATK SPD, teamwide 50% uptime - Decent with Odie to help build up his damage)
- Rowan (320 Energy, uptime tied to ultimate – doubles as healer - decent with carries such as Odie or Marilee who deal damage with their ultimate, not so good with Cecia)
- Cassadee (Her buff acts as a Follow-up attack, high single target uptime, teamwide uptime tied to ultimate)
- Damian (40 Haste at Mythic+ – doubles as healer)
- Koko (10% ATK to team, 10% ATK to single ally)
Honorable mentions
Healer
DPS Carry
Bubble Tech
Best in slot
- Thoran is the only one who can bypass the Instakill Bubble.
Avoid Melee characters in other roles to avoid interfering with Bubble Tech role!