AFK Journey features four Dream Realm bosses to encounter, and King Croaker is one of them. In this guide, we will discuss the King Croarker mechanics and the best heroes and teams to use against him to get to the highest damage.
Best Teams for King Croaker
The optimal meta team for your gameplay will largely depend on the specific heroes you have available and your account’s focus. It’s recommended to use your highest rarity DPS carry characters, complemented by those who can best enhance their damage output. Employing Dual or Triple carry setups is advisable as currently, no single carry can achieve sufficiently high damage boosts alone.
While keeping faction bonuses in mind, avoid using suboptimal characters just to meet these criteria.
Team #1 – Dual Carry with Melee Tank
Thoran 
Smokey & Meerky 
Marilee 
Odie 
Kruger
- DPS Carries: Marilee and Odie act as the main damage dealers.
- Bubble Tech/Melee Tank: Thoran serves dual roles, handling both the critical Bubble Tech and tanking duties.
- Debuffer: Kruger is typically used, but for optimal results, consider using
Reinier as his debuffs better enhance Odie’s magic damage and Marilee’s true damage attacks. - Artifact:
Starshard Spell, enhancing the overall effectiveness of the team.
Team #2 – Dual Carry with Ranged Tank
Thoran Smokey & Meerky Reinier Odie 
Rhys
- This setup features Reinier as a key component, ideal for teams focusing on maximizing True Damage and Magic Damage outputs. This configuration ranks highly in dream realm leaderboards but requires characters to be at least Mythic+ to fully utilize Reinier’s debuffs.
- Artifact: Starshard Spell.
These teams illustrate how strategic character selection and placement can significantly impact your performance, tailored to the unique strengths and requirements of your heroes.
King Croaker Mechanics
At the beginning of combat, King Croaker identifies the nearest hero as the “Tank” and focuses his attacks on them.
Throughout the battle, he alternates between targeting this Tank and launching Ranged AOE attacks on the backline, or deploying his lethal Instakill Bubble on the nearest character.
This strategy splits his approach into two distinct boss movesets: the Melee Tank Moveset and the Ranged Tank Moveset.
Selecting a Melee Tank prompts King Croaker to unleash his Melee AOE attack, which impacts all frontline attackers. He will also engage the Tank with regular Melee attacks as part of his overall strategy.
On the other hand, opting for a Ranged Tank changes the boss’s tactic to primarily using his basic Ranged attack, doubling its frequency. He maintains the rest of his moveset but excludes melee attacks, unless the Ranged Tank is defeated.
King Croaker In Action
King Croaker is a dynamic boss in Dream Realm, executing approximately 30-34 actions within a 90-second battle, provided players can withstand the entire duration. Here are the details of his potential actions under two different boss movesets:
Melee Tank Moveset:
- Melee Attack on Tank: Occurs up to 2 times each cycle.
- Ranged Attack: Targets if the Melee Tank is distant from the boss, up to 2 times per cycle.
- Ranged AOE Attack: Focuses on the area with the most enemies, typically the Backline, happening 9 times.
- Melee AOE Knockback + Stun Attack: Targets the Frontline, executed 6 times.
- Instakill Bubble: Cast on the closest character, repeated 3 times.
Ranged Tank Moveset:
- Melee Attack: Only if the Ranged Tank is defeated, up to 2 times per cycle.
- Ranged Attack on Tank: Can happen up to 4 times each cycle.
- Ranged AOE Attack: Similar to the Melee setup, this targets the area with the most enemies, usually the Backline, occurring 9 times.
- Melee AOE Knockback + Stun Attack: This is only used if the Ranged Tank has been defeated.
- Instakill Bubble: Also cast on the closest character, occurring 3 times.
Each set of actions requires players to adapt their strategies accordingly to manage the onslaught and optimize their chances of surviving King Croaker’s rigorous challenges.
General Strategy for King Croaker
In all stages of the game, the top choice for a tank is Thoran. With his Exclusive Weapon at Mythic rarity, Thoran is uniquely capable of surviving the Instakill Bubble attacks from bosses, a critical ability that allows him to effectively neutralize this otherwise devastating boss mechanic.
Consistent healing is crucial, particularly for protecting your Backline against Ranged AOE attacks that can swiftly decimate your team in the early stages of the game.
Since this stage does not disrupt skill channeling, Smokey & Meerky emerge as essential characters. They excel in this environment by continuously buffing the team and providing robust healing to the Backline, ensuring your squad can endure through the fight with minimal disruption.
King Coroaker Best Team Setup
Team Roles for Tackling the Boss
When setting up your team to face this boss, you’ll need to carefully select characters to fill specific roles. Here’s what you should consider:
- Melee Tank/Ranged Tank: Choose one based on your strategy and the boss’s moveset preferences. This character will bear the brunt of direct attacks.
- Bubble Tech: This role is crucial for managing and countering the Instakill Bubble attacks. Ensure this character can either neutralize or mitigate these effects.
- DPS Carry: Your main damage dealer, crucial for quickly reducing the boss’s health.
- Buffer: A character that enhances the team’s abilities through boosts to stats like attack, defense, or speed.
- Debuffer: Important for weakening the boss, making it more susceptible to damage or reducing its effectiveness in battle.
- Healer: Vital for sustaining your team’s health throughout the encounter, especially critical for maintaining your backline against AOE attacks.
Faction Bonuses: Keep in mind the faction bonuses when assembling your team. Having at least three characters from the same faction can provide significant advantages, enhancing the team’s overall effectiveness.
When constructing your team, try to find the best heroes who can perform multiple roles, which allows for more flexibility in strategy and team composition. This approach not only optimizes each team slot but also enhances the synergy among your characters, leading to a more resilient and powerful lineup against the boss.
MELEE Tank
- Thoran: Ideal for both tanking and debuffing. His EX Weapon at Mythic rarity allows him to survive the Instakill Bubble attacks, a unique capability that preserves your team’s DPS potential.
- Any standard tank can serve as a melee tank, but without Thoran’s special ability, they will be more vulnerable to Instakill Bubble attacks, likely reducing your team’s overall effectiveness.
Ranged Tank
- Smokey & Meerky: They are not only effective as a ranged tank but also double as a buffer, enhancing the team’s overall capabilities.
Hewynn: A solid option for a ranged tank.- Other viable ranged characters should have strong survival skills to last through the battle.
Buffer
Focus on characters that provide offensive buffs to increase team damage output, as defensive buffs are less crucial for teams that can maintain high survivability.
- Smokey & Meerky – Offers 20% ATK and 30 Haste, doubles as a ranged tank.
Lyca – Provides 40 ATK SPD with a teamwide 50% uptime, effective with damage builders like Odie.
Rowan – Grants 320 Energy, best with ultimate-reliant heroes, also serves as a healer.
Cassadee – Buff acts as a follow-up attack, offers high single target and teamwide uptime tied to ultimate.
Damian – Provides 40 Haste at Mythic+ level and doubles as a healer.
Koko – Increases team ATK by 10% and an additional 10% to a single ally.
Fay – Adds 14% ATK and 15 ATK SPD, uptime tied to ultimate, also doubles as a healer.- Hewynn – Provides 30 Haste at Supreme+ level, uptime tied to healing skill, also serves as a healer.
Parisa – Boosts 30 ATK SPD and +30% Normal Attack Damage to a single target.- Reinier – Offers a 4% ATK increase.
Healer
Choose healers who not only ensure your team’s survival but also contribute to increasing team damage output. Smokey & Meerky are particularly effective as they provide uninterrupted healing in this boss fight, making them a reliable and robust choice.
- Smokey & Meerky – Top choice for healing while enhancing team damage, effective as they don’t get interrupted by this boss.
- Hewynn – A reliable alternative who also offers additional buffs.
- Damian – Provides healing and increases team haste.
- Rowan – Effective healer with energy boosting capabilities.
- Koko – Heals and provides an attack boost to the team.
- Fay – Also a good healer with added attack and speed buffs.
Debuffer
Focus on debuffers who reduce enemy defenses or amplify the damage enemies take. These types of debuffs are most valuable as they significantly boost your team’s damage output.
- Reinier – Increases enemy damage taken by 25% at Mythic+ level, making him the best choice for maximizing damage output.
- Kruger – Reduces physical defense by 40% and increases physical damage taken by 40%. He’s primarily a melee debuffer and exceptionally effective, although care must be taken to prevent him from being targeted by the Instakill Bubble.
- Thoran – Enhances enemy damage taken by 17% and also serves as Bubble Tech, providing dual utility.
- Lyca – Can decrease physical defense by up to 37%.
- Koko – Increases damage taken by enemies by 10%.
These options offer debuffs but with limitations such as lower uptime, less impact, or poor synergy with faction bonuses:
Carolina
Walker
Bubble Tech
The Bubble Tech role is crucial for managing the deadly Instakill Bubble attack from the boss. Choosing the right character for this role can significantly impact your team’s survival and effectiveness.
Thoran – The premier choice for Bubble Tech as he is uniquely capable of bypassing the Instakill Bubble, making him indispensable for this role.
Note: It’s important to avoid using melee characters in other roles that could interfere with Thoran’s responsibilities as Bubble Tech. Keeping him free from competition for the boss’s attention ensures he can effectively manage this critical task.
