Karkinos

Karkinos the Warmaster is a hero in Kingdom Rush: Frontiers. He is unlocked by paying $2.99 as an in-app purchase, and is not available on Flash. He is unlocked at Emberspike Depths on the Steam version and he starts at level 5.
==Skills==
===Primary===
  IRON PINCER (passive) (2/2/3 
hero points):
: Improves Karkinos' base attack damage by 5/10/20 points.
  BATTLE HARDENED (passive) (2/1/1 hero points):
: If attacked while under 40% health, Karkinos has a 35%/50%/65% chance to become invulnerable for 4 seconds.
  PINCER ATTACK (active, cooldown: 8 seconds) (3/3/3 hero points):
: Shoots a mechanical pincer dealing 15/25/50 to 35/75/100* True Damage to enemies in a line.
:*This ability actually deals about 100-200 true area damage at max level.
  SHOULDER CANNON (active, cooldown: 10 seconds) (2/2/3 hero points):
: Fires a bolt of watery glue that deals 30/45/70 physical area damage and slows enemies by 40%/50%/60% for 4/5/8 seconds.
  BURROW (passive) (1/1/1 hero point):
: Grants Karkinos the ability to move 60%/120%/180% faster under the ground. (base speed: 1.9, burrow speed: 2.7/3.2/4.0)
===Secondary===
* Karkinos can 'burrow' through seawater, but cannot stay on it. He cannot burrow under trees, buildings, mountains, across gaps in cliffs or through any other bodies of water besides those in the Rising Tides campaign.
* Karkinos' 'burrow' nullifies negative effects such as poison.
===Order of Importance===
When all of Karkinos's powers are active, he uses them in this order:
# Shoulder Cannon
# Pincer Attack
== Stats==
Karkinos has a 5% heal rate, taking 20 seconds to fully heal.
Level	HP 	Melee Damage (1.2s) 	Armor 	Respawn
5 	400	10-29 (15-34 / 20-39 / 30-49)	Low (25.5%) 	20s
6 	420	11-32 (16-37 / 21-42 / 31-52)	Low (27.5%) 	20s
7 	440	11-34 (16-39 / 21-44 / 31-54)	Low (29.5%) 	20s
8 	460	12-37 (17-42 / 22-47 / 32-57)	Low (31.5%) 	20s
9 	480	13-40 (18-45 / 23-50 / 33-60)	Low (33.5%) 	20s
10 	500	14-42 (19-47 / 24-52 / 34-62)	Medium (35%)	20s
Numbers in brackets indicate melee damage with Iron Pincer upgraded.
==Tips and Tricks==
* Karkinos is a melee physical hero that specializes in obliterating groups of enemies in chokepoints. He has a decent health bar, good armor, and great base damage, capable of taking quite a lot of hits and return heavy blows. However, Karkinos is not as durable as he seems to be, thus remember to micromanage him when strong enemies come. Karkinos' skills make him very versatile, so you should not be afraid of moving Karkinos, instead, you should always get him to where enemies start clustering, to make the most of his AOE abilities.
* Pincer Attack is Karkinos' strongest skill, serving as a light crowd control method and add to his already high base damage. Strangely, the skill does not show its correct damage output, which, at tier 3, can reach up to 200 points of True Damage. This amount is enough to heavily wound or kill most regular enemies, so try to group foes in front of Karkinos or position him within a mass of enemies, to maximize the killing efficiency of the ability. A choke point of barracks or reinforcements is helpful for grouping enemies together and dealing a small amount of damage so Karkinos can finish them off. Since this ability is solely horizontal, it can be tough to use on vertical stages such as Emberspike Depths and The Sunken Citadel.
** It is recommended to position chokepoints so foes would walk in a horizontal direction, utilizing the most use of the range Pincer Attack can reach.
* Iron Pincer provides Karkinos with a major bonus base damage, allows him to quickly destroy unarmored enemies. It should be upgraded as soon as possible since the extra damage drastically improves Karkinos's power.
* Burrow is a passive skill that massively increase Karkinos' movement speed, exceeding all heroes but Nivus (or Dierdre with Wings of Light), who can teleport instantly. Thanks to this skill, Karkinos' versatility is drastically increased, allowing him to support multiple choke points, catch a wave of enemies, or retreat and come back into the fray at will.
** This is very important because Karkinos' durability is not that great, so with such improved speed, he can quickly hide from stronger foes when low on health, and moving him into battle takes less time.
** Because of Karkinos's frustratingly slow base movement speed, you should upgrade this skill by at least one tier to improve his mobility, which is one of Karkinos's strongest assets when he is fully upgraded.
** With Burrow, Karkinos is one of the few heroes able to move across the water in the three levels of the Rising Tides campaign (Port Tortuga, Storm Atoll, The Sunken Citadel), the others being Dierdre (with Wings of Light), Bonehart, Ashbite and Nivus.
** Karkinos does not instantly burrow when he is commanded to move, he staggers for a moment instead, therefore his movement is not as smooth as that of other heroes.
* Battle Hardened makes up for Karkinos' modest durability by giving him a chance to turn invulnerable briefly when struck at low health. This skill, while useless offensively, enables Karkinos to take significantly more damage and give him a fighting chance versus mighty enemies, such as Saurian Brutes and Bloodshells. Poison is negated by Battle Hardened, because every time the poison ticks is counted as a hit, making activation almost insured. 40% is actually a misread; the bar is approximately 200 health regardless of level, which is possibly a glitch.
** While it is not recommended to use this tactic due to chance that Karkinos may die, posing a problem with his long respawn time, smart tacticians can use Karkinos as a tanker to distract ranged enemies who would otherwise plow through soldiers at ease, such as Savage Hunters, Poukai Riders, Saurian Blazefangs, Saurian Savants, Bluegales. When using this tactic, Karkinos needs to be provided with sufficient support and retreated to heal when necessary.
* Shoulder Cannon is not quite as good as the other available slowing methods, such as the DWAARP, skeletons from a Necromancer Tower, Captain Blackthorne's Release the Kraken skill, etc., due to its moderately long cooldown for a rather short period of slowing and almost nonexistent damage output. Thus, it shouldn't be relied on to slow groups of enemies, instead it should be used instead lone, durable enemies that might cause problems. It also shares the artillery's inaccuracy.
** An alternative use for Shoulder Cannon is to retreat Karkinos slightly whilst defending a chokepoint when this skill is ready. This will trigger the skill to hurt the foes in combat for a generous sum of damage, and slow incoming enemies heading to the battle.
Karkinos' main playstyle is wreaking havoc within dense hordes of enemies. His high damage output is great at killing unarmored foes, however he falls short against well armored, durable ones, such as Saurian Myrmidons, despite his Pincer Attack ignoring armor. He also lacks a good crowd control skill and cannot stand for long against stronger foes, unlike Alric and Grawl. He has to be supported with soldiers and plenty of fire power, preferably Mages to make up for his weakness against armored enemies, and soldiers to group foes, which will make much better use of him.
On a side note, Karkinos' extremely slow heal rate means that sometimes it is better to let him die without retreating him, especially when he is at death's door, because the amount of time he spends behind the line, healing, can be just as long as the period he takes to respawn.
==Quotes==
*"I am Karkinos!"
*"I am made of rage!"
*"Never retreat, never surrender."
*"You want a piece of me?"
==Trivia==
*In Greek mythology, Karkinos (Greek: Καρκίνος) was a giant crab that fought alongside the Hydra, in its battle with Heracles. Though crushed underfoot in battle, it was then lifted to the heavens and became the constellation Cancer.
* Karkinos, Saitam, and Durax are the only heroes to speak their own names.
*Karkinos shares the same sprite model as the Bloodshell. 
*"I am Karkinos" 
** Most likely a reference to the Marvel character Groot, from Guardians of the Galaxy. Groot's catch phrase (and only spoken line) is "I am Groot."
*"Never retreat, never surrender." 
** Similar to a line spoken by King Leonidas in the graphic novel/film 300. The full line is 'Spartans never retreat. Spartans never surrender.'
*"I am made of rage!" 
** A quote made by the character Colossus in Marvel's Astonishing X-Men, under the penmanship of Joss Whedon.
==Gallery==
HeroSkill_Karkinos_5.PNG|Battle Hardened
HeroSkill_Karkinos_3.PNG|Pincer Attack
HeroSkill_Karkinos_4.PNG|Shoulder Cannon
HeroSkill_Karkinos_1.PNG|Burrow (Land)
HeroSkill_Karkinos_2.PNG|Burrow (Sea)
Idle.jpg|"No retreat, never surrender."
Category:Kingdom Rush: Frontiers
Category:Heroes
Category:Premium Heroes
Category:Melee Heroes