HH Gaming’s Nightmare Hydra Teams!

The Hydra Clan Boss is one of the most creative game modes in Raid: Shadow Legends, with many champion combinations capable of defeating the mighty serpents. With Hydra Clash and personal rewards in play, optimizing your teams is key to maximizing rewards and getting the best results. The recent rebalance has also pushed players to explore new strategies and team setups.

In this article, we’ll highlight the Nightmare Hydra teams used by the HH Gaming crew and explain why these setups are so effective against the Hydra!

Hell Hades previously built a team around Wixwell and Yannica, but with the rebalance and changes to how Taunt works in Hydra, he has shifted focus to a new team featuring Teox and Ieyasu. This team covers many fundamentals needed to counter Hydra’s mechanics, including Ally Attacks, crucial buffs and debuffs, and enough damage to secure high scores for Clash points. Let’s dive into why these champions are so effective!

LAZARIUS

Lazarius, in his base form, plays a key role in preventing buffs from being placed on the Hydra while also boosting damage and team survivability with Increase Attack and Strengthen. His Turn Meter fills help cycle turns faster, Block Debuffs prevents negative effects from slipping through, and extending buff durations ensures they stay active longer. His passive allows him to self apply Perfect Veil, making him immune to the Head of Torment’s fear control, while also providing clutch revives when allies go down.

LADY MIKAGE

Lady Mikage, in her base form, pairs perfectly with Ieyasu to maximize damage output. Her A1 allows her to team up with a Shadowkin ally, adding extra hits, while also providing Increase Attack and Crit Damage to further boost damage. Her Ally Attack is useful for freeing allies from digestion and creating more damage opportunities overall. Meanwhile, her A2 helps extend buff durations while shortening debuff durations. Additionally, her passive automatically cleanses Ieyasu every turn, as he is the ally with the highest attack, keeping him free from harmful effects.

IEYASU & TEOX

Ieyasu and Teox are the damage dealers in the team, contributing a combined 340M damage over the course of the run. By stacking debuffs on the Hydra, both champions scale their damage through their A2 abilities. Teox also provides a team up mechanic similar to Mikage, allowing Ieyasu to land additional attacks. With two fellow Lizardmen in the squad, Teox unlocks faction unity bonuses, helping sustain the team and triggering counterattacks when allies are hit while under debuffs. If you have either of these champions, they can be a valuable addition to your Hydra lineup!

KRISK THE AGELESS

Krisk remains one of the best supportive legendaries for Hydra, valued for his strong debuffs and team utility. With a 3 turn cooldown Provoke, he helps control the Head of Decay by preventing cleanses while also providing Increase Speed to the team. His Ally Protection and Continuous Heals keep the team sustained, while his A1 applies Decrease Speed to slow down the Hydra heads.

Additionally, his passive automatically places Decrease Attack and Decrease Defence on enemies that hit him. Hell Hades has him built in a Cursed set to ensure Hex is applied through his AOE attacks, further enhancing the team’s damage potential.

LYDIA THE DEATHSIREN

Last but not least, Lydia serves as the primary Decrease Defence and Weaken champion while also providing Increase Speed and Strengthen. These buffs are essential for boosting damage and team survivability. With the recent rebalance causing Hydra heads to respawn more frequently, having a secondary way to apply Block Buffs adds extra control over heads who spawn back.

Saph is always looking to push his roster to the limit by experimenting with new team compositions. Right now, he’s running a team without Block Buffs – a bold strategy considering he’s taking on the hardest Hydra difficulty. Let’s break down how he makes it work, the champions he’s using, and why their synergy is so effective!

SULFURYION

This powerful Lizardman bypasses the Poison Cloud mechanic by applying HP Burns, ensuring allies can land hits without weak hits. Sulfuryion provides revives, heals, and shields while his Turn Meter boosts help the team cycle turns faster. On top of that, he can activate HP Burns for instant damage to help free allies from digestion, as an example.

EOSTRID DREAMSONG

Eostrid was one of the most underrated Fusion champions at release, but she has since become a staple for Hydra teams. Her kit combines Increase Speed, Increase Attack, and Turn Meter boosts while also applying Weaken and Decrease Speed on enemies – covering multiple roles that typically require several champions. These abilities help control the fight’s pace and work great with Michinaki, who applies Decrease Defence to further boost the damage output.

MARIUS & MICHINAKI

These two champions are the core damage dealers in Saph’s team – and for good reason! Marius provides Increase Accuracy and Increase Defence to the team, then grants himself an Extra Turn before unleashing a triple hit Enemy Max HP nuke. With all the speed manipulation and Turn Meter boosts around him, he cycles back to this attack quickly, allowing him to repeatedly take down Hydra heads.

Michinaki, on the other hand, brings Hex to the team, removes buffs [since no Block Buffs is active in this setup], applies Decrease Defence and HP Burn, and deals strong damage himself, making him a crucial part of the team’s strategy.

INQUISITOR SHAMAEL

Inquisitor has been, and likely always will be, the best solution for countering the Head of Torment. His passive instantly removes Fear and True Fear debuffs from allies while boosting the leader’s Turn Meter by 15%. In Saph’s team, this boost goes to Marius, allowing him to cycle turns faster and unleash more Enemy Max HP nukes.

Beyond his utility, Inquisitor is also a strong damage dealer, capable of putting up impressive numbers over the course of a run. And if he goes down, Sulfuryion is there to bring him back!

LADY MIKAGE

Lady Mikage fits perfectly into this team, with her Shadowkin synergy allowing Michinaki to gain extra team up attacks through her A1. She also provides Ally Attack, helping to free allies from digestion faster while increasing overall damage output. Additionally, Mikage extends buff durations and shortens debuff durations, ensuring positive effects last longer while removing negative effects more quickly.

YST’s team was built before the rebalance and continues to perform well afterward. This comes down to a strong combination of champions that counter all the Hydra’s mechanics while dealing high damage for Clash points. The team features two damage dealers alongside powerful support champions who keep the team going, even if things go wrong.

FIRROL THE BARKHORN

This Sylvan Watcher is one to watch out for… pun intended! The number of effects he brings in a single kit is unmatched by most, making him an excellent choice for Hydra teams. His A3 provides Perfect Veil and Increase Resistance to allies, countering the Head of Torment while helping teammates resist debuffs with fewer stats. On top of that, he applies Decrease Accuracy and Block Buffs to enemies.

His passive grants allies extra Accuracy and Resistance while also increasing ally damage by 20% when they have four or more buffs active, a bonus that becomes even stronger when built with a 9 piece Protection set. Lastly, his A1 applies Decrease Speed, offering a reliable backup when your AOE option gets resisted due to affinity matchups.

HARIMA

YST was fortunate enough to pull a 6-star blessing on Harima and chose Crushing Rend, allowing her to ignore a percentage of Defence with each hit. This significantly boosted her damage output, though she remained a key part of the team even without it. Her A2 not only decreases a target’s Defence but also increases her own by up to 100%, enhancing both her damage and sustain as the fight progresses.

With strong multipliers on both her AOE and single target attacks, Harima brings solid damage while also providing utility. Her Decrease Attack helps reduce incoming damage, and her Provoke serves as a backup to assist Galleus in case he 3% resists or weak hits against a negative affinity.

SENNA AMBERHEART

This Dwarf flew under the radar at release, but once players realized how impactful her Turn Meter fills are, she quickly became a highly sought after champion. Her passive grants a 5% Turn Meter boost to all allies whenever a Continuous Heal activates. With her A2, she places two Continuous Heals on the team, along with an Increase Speed buff and an additional Turn Meter fill. The level of speed manipulation she provides is unmatched, allowing allies to take significantly more turns than they would without her.

When an ally falls, her revive ability comes in clutch, and since she ally attacks with them upon revival, she adds instant damage in the same turn. Additionally, her A1 activates Continuous Heals on each ally, further enabling her passive for even more Turn Meter gains. She’s built with a 9 piece Protection set to amplify team damage by stacking multiple buffs.

GALLEUS BLOODCREST

This Mythical champion is often considered one of the weakest and could likely use a buff. However, in his base form, Galleus can be a strong option for a Hydra team. His A2 places a two turn Provoke on bosses, making him an excellent counter to the Head of Decay. This same ability also grants him Unkillable and Counterattack, allowing him to serve as a potential Mischief tank while enabling his A1 to deal Enemy Max HP damage when counterattacking.

Beyond his control and damage potential, Galleus also provides valuable support by fully restoring destroyed HP, placing Revive on Death, and applying Increase Defence to keep the team alive, and to enhance Harima’s damage.

LYDIA THE DEATHSIREN

Lydia plays a key role as the main Decrease Defence and Weaken champion while also bringing Increase Speed and Strengthen to the team. These buffs are crucial for both maximizing damage and sustaining the team. With the Hydra rebalance leading to more frequent head respawns, having an additional source of Block Buffs helps maintain control over heads that spawn back!

THOR FAEHAMMER

Last but not least, Thor is here to bring the thunder to the Hydra heads! His Sky Rupture passive builds Thunder Counters, triggering an AOE attack once it reaches ten while scaling his damage by 3% with each stack. Over the course of the fight, this significantly boosts his overall damage output. On top of that, he self buffs with Increase Attack and Crit Damage.

YST chose him primarily for his reliability as a Decrease Speed champion who also brings solid damage. His skills have strong multipliers, making him a great fit for the team. He’s equipped with the Nature’s Wrath blessing, allowing him to scale his damage based on the number of debuffs he places [up to 15% with a five star soul]. And of course, watching his A1 repeat attacks never gets old!

Nub Raids has added the new fusion champion, The Mad Hatter, to his squad, which is on the verge of reaching 1 billion damage on Nightmare! Alongside him, he has brought in powerful DPS champions to take down the Hydra heads, as well as support options to counter the boss’s mechanics and maintain control throughout the fight.

LAZARIUS

Lazarius, in his base form, serves as Nub Raids’ Block Buffs champion while also boosting both damage and sustain with Increase Attack and Strengthen. His Turn Meter boosts allow the team to cycle turns faster, Block Debuffs prevents harmful effects from being placed, and extending buff durations keeps buffs active for longer. His passive grants him Perfect Veil, shielding him from the Head of Torment’s fear mechanics, while also providing timely revives to bring fallen allies back into the fight.

THE MAD HATTER

A touch of madness sweeps through the Hydra’s lair as the Mad Hatter unleashes his abilities to bring down the mighty serpents. His A2 applies both Weaken and Hex to all enemies while also teaming up with the ally who has the highest Crit Damage – in this case, Ninja. With support from both Hatter and Mikage, Ninja’s damage skyrockets over the course of the fight.

Beyond his offensive utility, the Mad Hatter brings strong utility, providing heals through his passive, extending buffs, reducing debuff durations, and offering Turn Meter boosts.

NINJA & MARIUS

This duo acts as an unstoppable force in Nub’s team, delivering an insane amount of damage throughout the fight. Ninja alone surpassed 450 million damage thanks to his strong multipliers, consistent HP Burn placement and detonations, and synergy with Mikage and Hatter for team up attacks. His passive allows him to stack his attack & Crit Damage, while the Nature’s Wrath blessing further enhances his damage.

Marius provides crucial support with Increase Defence and Increase Accuracy, while also granting himself an extra turn before unleashing a triple hit Enemy Max HP nuke. With allies providing Speed and Turn Meter manipulation, he cycles back to this attack quickly, helping to take down Hydra heads faster.

KRISK THE AGELESS

As mentioned in Hell Hades’ team, Krisk provides a combination of debuffs and support that help carry the team. His three turn cooldown Provoke prevents the Head of Decay from cleansing buffs while also boosting the team’s speed with Increase Speed. His Ally Protection and Continuous Heals ensures allies stay protected, while his A1 applies Decrease Speed to slow the Hydra heads. Additionally, Krisk’s passive applies Decrease Attack and Decrease Defence to enemies that hit him.

LADY MIKAGE

Mikage has made her mark in Saph’s, Hell Hades’, and now Nub Raids’ teams, proving her versatility across different compositions. Rather than repeating all her strengths, her A1 synergy with Shadowkin allies plays a key role in boosting Ninja’s damage in this setup. Increase Attack and Crit Damage further amplify the team’s output, while the Ally Attack adds even more damage potential throughout the fight. She also provides consistent cleanses on the highest Attack ally, reduces enemy buff durations, and extends ally buffs to keep them active longer.