How to defend yourself in Axie Infinity

When fighting in Axie Infinity, the player can play with 3 Axies at the same time. These axes are placed on the board, at the discretion of the player, in the layout that best suits the team.

Typically this team is laid out with the Axie tank in front, and two Axie DPS (high damage) behind, or an Axie DPS and an Axie support / healer behind. The role of the tank is to protect the main attackers from damage caused by the opposing team, long enough to kill the opposing team first.

What do we need in a large tank?

Large tanks are determined by a combination of 4 things:

• Health
• Defense (shield / damage reduction)
• My Healing
• Offensive incapacity

Health

Since the number one job of tanks is to protect large attackers from damage, they must be able to absorb it. The first way to do this is to go through your health reserve.

Usually, Plant or Moon class Axes are chosen as tanks because they have the highest base health pool (43 HP). They are followed by Aquatic Axes and Reptile (39 HP), the Bug and Star Axes (35 HP), the Beast Axes (31 HP) and, finally, the Bird Axes (27 HP).

Each part of the Axis then contributes part of its base statistics. Parts of plants or reptiles each add +3 base HP to the Axis, regardless of its overall class. There are a total of 6 games in each Axie , so one with only parts of plants and / or reptiles would have an additional 18 HP.

Adding all of this together, the maximum base HP an Axie can have is 61 HP. Note that in PvE there is a compound multiple of each level that increases Axis, so at level 20 your health will be much higher than at the start of the game.

Defend

Now that your tank has a high starting HP level, it needs to defend itself. Not all of those HP are very useful if you have an equally powerful attacker on the enemy team who can take them out in one turn! Lucky for us, each part (not counting the eye and ear parts) has an associated card that allows them to attack and defend against the opposing team. For this example, we are looking at the lowest number in the green shield.

If you select a card with a high Defense number, your Axie is protected from that damage amount for that turn. Some notable high defense cards are listed below:

• Red ear, back, reptile class, tusk 130 , adds 15% of this Axie's shield to adjacent teammates.
• Indian star, back, reptilian class, tusk 110 , reflects 20% of damage taken in melee.
• Teal Shel, Horn, Aquatic, 80 Defense , Adds 30% to this Axie's shield when attacking.
• Tiny Dino, Tail, Reptile, 80 Defense , Deals 200% damage after third turn.
• ZigZag, Mouth, Herbe , 80 Defense , Heal this Axis for damage dealt by this card.

My Healing

Now no matter how hard you defend yourself, damage is going to happen. Sometimes the cards you receive do not match the attack of the enemy team and injuries occur. A tank that is capable of self-healing (or sometimes receives help from a Support Axie) will last much longer than one that is not.

Fortunately, the creators of the game took this into account and also created some movements for healing purposes. The zigzag mouth part above is a good example, as it heals the attacking Axia to the same extent as it damages the enemy Axia. Here are a few more examples:

• Rosebud horn grass , 40 defense , heals this Axie for 25% of his max HP.
• Mosquito, Mouth, Insect, 50 Defense , Heal this Axis for damage dealt with this card.
• Herbivorous, Mouth, Herbe , 80 Defense , Heal this Axis for damage this card does to a Grass target.

Offensive incapacity

The job of tanks is to keep damage from reaching your bottom line, right? In some cases, you'll want to block an oppressive enemy. We also have parts / movements for this, here are some examples:

• Hatsune, Tail, Grass, Defense 80 , Deactivate the cards at a distance from the target in the next turn.
• Humorless, Mouth, Grass, 80 Defense , Steal 1 energy from your opponent.

Game Tips

How you play with your tank will largely depend on which enemy you are up against. Experienced players will be able to observe the opposing team to get a feel for the damage potential and plan accordingly. You can base your playstyle on several factors: the position of the turn, the strength of your own team, and the card draw.

The speed of each Axis will determine the order in which they attack and / or defend. When you have the upper hand, it may be worth trying to take out one of the enemy Axies first using more DPS-type cards rather than trying to protect everyone with your tank. However, when the other team starts first, or you know they have a lot of damage, it might be a good idea to protect your frontline and save energy for the next round. In these cases, you might want to protect your team, disable an enemy attacker, or just save your energy for the next turn.