Rana

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### Basic information

**Rana** is a faction in Songs of Conquest. It is described as "the oppressed swamp frog people rising up to reclaim their mighty heritage". More info about Rana is yet to be released.

### Magic

Creation  > Destruction  > Arcana

The Rana are considered to be in the running for the most powerful spellcasting faction next to Loth. While Loth arguably has more direct damage options, the Rana can easily compete with their variety of magic builds, and a greater potential for focusing into Destruction magic. Although nothing can match Arleon's early-access of beelining into Order and Chaos with two of their un-improved, upgraded units, the Rana have two units that compete both with Arleon's raw single-essence output, and Loth's Necromancers and Destruction essence generation. These are the Riders of the Swamp and the Chelun Elders. Both can be improved with the Dragon Pyramid to have the coveted three single-essence output that Arleon has without improvements: Destruction and Creation respectively. And Chelun Elders will benefit from their natural extra Arcana essence in addition to their **Charge Essence** ability akin to Necromancers. This allows a wielder to generate a whopping 6 Creation essences and 2 Arcane essences from a single stack of improved Chelun Elders, and twice as much when using the spell Strengthen Essence, if the wielder can find Order essences. This means a properly specialized Rana wielder can easily blanket the enemy with Acid Clouds, then keep units in the clouds with Entangle and Repel. Dimensional Door further supplements this build by giving much-needed mobility to your multiple Chelun Elder stacks. If the wielder is specialized more into Destruction, especially with multiple stacks of Riders of the Swamp improved by the Dragon Pyramid, they will gain the easiest access to the coveted Fireball spell of any other possible build from another faction in the game. If these strategies are mixed, Ice Bolt can help keep your enemies trapped in Acid Cloud as well. As for high tier Dyad spells, aside from the aforementioned Entangle, the Rana have easy access to are the coveted Rupture spell, and easier access than any other faction to the Breath of the Phoenix spell. Some other common Dyad spells for the Rana not mentioned already are Explosive Fungi (great for casting inside Acid Cloud), Destroy Essence, and Ethereal Scales.

### Units

Note that the upgrade cost from a base unit to an upgraded unit is always 150% of the gold difference between the two plus 100% of any non-gold resource difference (thus it will cost more in gold to upgrade a unit than it will to buy the unit already upgraded).

### Strategies

Note that the following are not necessarily high-tier meta builds, only builds that seem to work well based on the way the game is designed.

#### Destruction Build

The Rana are probably the best faction in the game for Destruction Essence farming, even though this strategy takes a bit of time to ramp up. It relies on heavy use of Riders of the Swamp, and it is recommended you go with Itchamo or M'Sugna. Itchamo will result in an easier early game, but if you are willing to wait it out for M'Sugna, she will be far more devastating in this build. You will need to rush the Dragon Pyramid and fully upgrade your Riders of the Swamp for the +1 Destruction Essence, making these the only units in the game with 3 Destruction Essences. Then, split them into as many stacks as possible and level your wielder into Destruction Magic, Channeling, and most importantly, Command for more stacks of Riders. Even stacks of one Rider will feed you 3 Destruction Essence, and they usually go first. Just leave them in your backline and hurl Fireball and Ice Bolt at your enemies, and you'll rarely need to engage in melee. Even if you do, Riders are no pushovers when it comes to a fight.

#### Chelun Build

This build also takes time to ramp up, but is a lot more defensive than the Destruction Build and has much more utility. Fights will last longer, but you may end up losing less troops. Rush Chelun Elders for their massive Creation Essence output with non-negligible Arcana as well. You don't need that many, and can supplement your army with Shamans, Eth'dra, or even Dragons later, who will all contribute to the Essences you will aim for: Arcana and Creation. This build has many sub-varieties, either focusing on the damage of Acid Cloud or the utility of other Creation and Arcana abilities to move your slow, but tanky and strong Cheluns to where they need to be or nail enemy troops to their side of the battlefield with debilitating effects to be whittled down with poison and ranged attacks. M'Sugna is still a good choice here, but other options that will do better early game are R'Lac or Rik-Tap, while others that are great with effort are Sla-Kin and T'Chyra. Your signature spells for this build will be Acid Cloud, Earth Block, Entangle, Dimensional Door, Repel, and Ethereal Scales, with the incidental Arcane Storm here and there if you don't need your Arcana for utility.

* Warrior

## References

1. ↑ https://www.pcgamer.com/songs-of-conquest-is-a-mix-of-heroes-of-might-and-magic-and-total-war/