June Quick Poll #1: Esports fans, tell us how you browse roster shuffles and off-seasons (and what frustrates you about it!)
Kunkka
From Liquipedia Dota 2 Wiki
Kunkka
| Grants the following bonuses per level: | |
| +79.2HP and +0.36HP regeneration +3.6 Main Attack Damage | |
| +0.27 armor and 1.6 attack speed | |
| +21.6MP and +0.09MP regeneration +0.1% base magic resistance | |
Show/Hide Tooltips
Instant Projectile Speed
| ||
100 (114)
(1.7 BAT) | ||
0.4 + 0.3
| ||
0.6
| ||
Default
Gib Type | ||
2011-10-06
Released | ||
2008-10-07
(6.55) | ||
Competitive Span
2011-10-06 — Present | ||
Version Control This article is mostly accurate for 7.41c, the last version this hero was changed in. New interactions that emerged in following patches may have not yet been accounted for. |
Show/Hide Tooltips
| Disrupts enemy positioning and disables them. | |
|---|---|
| It is said that none survived the battle at the Trembling Isle, save perhaps, the Admiral of the Claddish fleet. Man or phantom, Kunkka's presence on the battlefield is duly felt by all. Armed with the legendary Tidebringer, the Admiral strikes with a single blow at all who stand before him. A veteran of innumerable naval engagements, Kunkka times his skills with Planned Precision, predicting Tidal Waves and catching opponents in a rising Torrent, disrupting the battlefield with a Storm of Geysers, or summoning the ephemeral Ghostly Shipwreck to dash them upon the rocks. Should his aim prove true, he and his allies will have no trouble cleaning up whatever is left. | |
| Roles: | |
| Adjectives | Aquatic, Bearded, Undead, Nose Legs ( 2 ) |
Bio
[edit]Step lively now, your Admiral is on board!▶️Kunkka, the Admiral
Alias:
Admiral
Lore:
As The Admiral of the mighty Claddish Navy, Kunkka was charged with protecting the isles of his homeland when the demons of the Cataract made a concerted grab at the lands of men. After years of small sorties, and increasingly bold and devastating attacks, the demon fleet flung all its carnivorous ships at the Trembling Isle. Desperate, the Suicide-Mages of Cladd committed their ultimate rite, summoning a host of ancestral spirits to protect the fleet. Against the demons, this was just barely enough to turn the tide.
As Kunkka watched the demons take his ships down one by one, he had the satisfaction of wearing away their fleet with his ancestral magic. But at the battle's peak, something in the clash of demons, men and atavistic spirits must have stirred a fourth power that had been slumbering in the depths. The waves rose up in towering spouts around the few remaining ships, and Maelrawn the Tentacular appeared amid the fray. His tendrils wove among the ships, drawing demon and human craft together, churning the water and wind into a raging chaos.
What happened in the crucible of that storm, none may truly say. The Cataract roars off into the void, deserted by its former denizens. Kunkka is now The Admiral of but one ship, a ghostly rig which endlessly replays the final seconds of its destruction. Whether he died in that crash is anyone's guess. Not even Tidehunter, who summoned Maelrawn, knows for sure.
As Kunkka watched the demons take his ships down one by one, he had the satisfaction of wearing away their fleet with his ancestral magic. But at the battle's peak, something in the clash of demons, men and atavistic spirits must have stirred a fourth power that had been slumbering in the depths. The waves rose up in towering spouts around the few remaining ships, and Maelrawn the Tentacular appeared amid the fray. His tendrils wove among the ships, drawing demon and human craft together, churning the water and wind into a raging chaos.
What happened in the crucible of that storm, none may truly say. The Cataract roars off into the void, deserted by its former denizens. Kunkka is now The Admiral of but one ship, a ghostly rig which endlessly replays the final seconds of its destruction. Whether he died in that crash is anyone's guess. Not even Tidehunter, who summoned Maelrawn, knows for sure.
Voice:
Upgrades
[edit]Aghanim's
[edit]Grants the Tidal Wave ability.
Calls upon a tidal wave from behind Kunkka that deals damage, disarms, and drags enemy units along it.
Calls upon a tidal wave from behind Kunkka that deals damage, disarms, and drags enemy units along it.
Talents
[edit]| +25% Tidebringer Armor Piercing | 25 | +100 |
|---|---|---|
| +80% Tidebringer Cleave | 20 | -4s Torrent Cooldown |
| +75 Tidebringer Damage | 15 | x1.25 Torrent Damage/Stun Duration |
| +1s Tidebringer 60% Move Speed Slow | 10 | +1s Admiral's Rum Rum Timer/Hangover Duration |
| ▃ ▃ ▃ ▃ ▃ ▃ ▃ +2 All | ||
Admiral's Rum
[edit]Douses himself with the Admiral's signature rum upon taking additional player-based damage instances when reaching a certain health threshold.
The Rum buff grants bonus movement speed and damage reduction for a period of time.
The Rum buff grants bonus movement speed and damage reduction for a period of time.
Health Threshold: 65%
Move Speed Bonus: 7.75%
Innate Properties
The higher the Admiral's level, the greater the movement speed bonus, and the lower the ability cooldown.
The higher the Admiral's level, the greater the movement speed bonus, and the lower the ability cooldown.
Innate Properties
The Admiral's Rum applied by the Ghostship is more effective.
The Admiral's Rum applied by the Ghostship is more effective.
Move Speed Factor: 2
Damage Reduction Factor: 2
Rum Buff Duration Factor: 2
Deleterious to landlubbers, no one holds their rum like a sailor.
Hero Model
[edit]Details
Tap on the
innate abilities for more details.
Abilities
[edit]Torrent
[edit]Cast Animation: 0.4 + 0
Cast Range:
1300
Effect Delay: 1.6
The rising torrent also applies the damage and movement speed slow are to all enemies within the radius throughout its duration.
Move Speed Slow: 40%
Slow Duration per Instance: 1/2/3/4
Innate Properties
Kunkka does not need to face the area-targeted location to cast this ability within the ability's cast range.
Kunkka does not need to face the area-targeted location to cast this ability within the ability's cast range.
An ancestral rush of water explodes from the center of the world, called upon by the Admiral.
Tidebringer
[edit]Cast Animation: 0.4 + 0.3
Cast Range:
150
Talent Upgrade
A successful Tidebringer attack now movement speed slow to all affected enemy units.
A successful Tidebringer attack now movement speed slow to all affected enemy units.
Move Speed Slow: 60%
Slow Duration: 1
Talent Upgrade
The Tidebringer attack now ignores a certain amount of the armor damage factor.
Only affects the Tidebringer damage instance.
The Tidebringer attack now ignores a certain amount of the armor damage factor.
Only affects the Tidebringer damage instance.
Armor Piercing Bonus: 25%
A lost Claddish soul inhabits Kunkka's trusty Tidebringer, empowering it to destroy demons of the Cataract.
X Marks the Spot
[edit]Unit
Affects
Heroes
Marks the unit-targeted hero's current position with an X, and returns it to the X after several seconds.
Cast Animation: 0.2 + 0
Cast Range:
550/700/850/1000
Enemy Duration: 3
X Marks the Spot is more effective while targeting an ally.
Ally Duration: 6
The Admiral's set of arcane abilities includes some that can be used for battle as well as entertainment.
Return
[edit]No
Affects
Heroes
Cast Animation: 0.2 + 0
Tidal Wave
[edit]Calls upon a tidal wave from behind Kunkka that deals damage, disarms, and drags enemy units along it.
Cast Animation: 0.2 + 1
Cast Range:
1050
Damage: 180
Knock Distance: 600
Knock Duration: 1
Disarm Duration: 1
A good sailor knows the timing of the tides like the back of his hand.
Ghostship
[edit]Summons a ghostly ship that sails through the battle before smashing apart, damaging and stunning all enemies caught near the wreckage.
Cast Animation: 0.3 + 0
Cast Range:
1000
Travel Distance: 2000
Ship Spawn Interval: 3.5
Impact Damage: 350/475/600
Stun Duration: 1.2
Innate Properties
The Admiral's Rum applied by Ghostship is more effective.
The Admiral's Rum applied by Ghostship is more effective.
Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade
Summons a fleet of Ghost ships on a 2.5 second interval. Each ship now also fires waves of cannonballs from the port and starboard side dealing part of Ghostship's damage as they pass through enemies.
Summons a fleet of Ghost ships on a 2.5 second interval. Each ship now also fires waves of cannonballs from the port and starboard side dealing part of Ghostship's damage as they pass through enemies.
Ship Interval: 2.5
Cannonball Volley Waves: 3
Volley Ghostship Damage Ratio: 40%
Projectile Radius: 100
Projectile Speed: 1400
The final ship of the Claddish Navy is nothing but a phantom, but it is all too real to the enemies of the Admiral.
Recent Matches
[edit]Main Article: Kunkka/Matches
| Date | Tier | Tournament | Picks | Score | vs. Picks | Patch | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 6, 2026 - 17:00 CEST | Tier 3 | EPL Season 38 - June 6 | 1 : 0 | 7.41c | |||||||
| June 6, 2026 - 12:30 CEST | Tier 1 | BLAST SLAM VII - Playoffs | 0 : 1 | 7.41 | |||||||
| June 5, 2026 - 20:00 CEST | Tier 3 | EPL Season 38 - June 5 | 1 : 0 | 7.41c | |||||||
| June 2, 2026 - 20:00 PET | Qualifier | EWC 2026 SA CQ | 1 : 0 | 7.41 | |||||||
| June 1, 2026 - 20:00 EEST | Qualifier | EWC 2026 EEU CQ | 0 : 1 | 7.41 | |||||||
Recent Changes
[edit]Description
- Reduced Admiral's Rum cooldown from 60.5 to 50.5.
- Admiral's Rum
- The ability no longer passively procs if the buff is applied via Ghostship ,
- Reapplying the buff refreshes its duration and no longer stacks.
- Reduced damage reduction from 20% to 18%.
- Rescaled movement speed bonus from 10% on each level to 7.75% + (0.25% * HeroLvl) .
- Reduced damage timer from 6 to 5.
- Reduced rum buff duration from 6 to 5.
- Rescaled cooldown from 60 on each level to 60.5 - (0.5 * HeroLvl) .
- Ghostship
- Now applies a 2 ability factor to the incoming damage reduction, movement speed bonus, and buff duration.
- REMOVED the Tidebringer
High Tide ability component.
- REMOVED the X Marks the Spot
Grog Blossom ability component.
Talents:
- LVL 10 U -15s Admiral's Rum cooldown ➜ 60% Tidebringer movement speed slow. [?]
- LVL 10 U +30 attack damage ➜ +1s Admiral's Rum buff duration.
- LVL 15 +70 Tidebringer damage increased from to +75.
- LVL 20 +15% Admiral's Rum damage delayed ➜ +80% Tidebringer cleave.
- LVL 25 +130% Tidebringer cleave ➜ +25% Tidebringer armor piercing.
Talents:
- LVL 25 +120% Tidebringer cleave damage increased to +130%.
Dota Plus Progress
[edit]Main Article: Hero Challenges
Relics track a hero's actions and statistics, and display in-game notifications when a milestone is reached. They are only available to Dota Plus subscribers.
| Kunkka's Relics | Voice Lines | |
|---|---|---|
Bronze |
||
Silver |
||
Gold |
||
Platinum |
| |
Master |
| |
Grandmaster |
| |
Equipment
[edit]Trivia
[edit]- Kunkka's rivalry responses towards Slardar, Death Prophet, and Doom, and his allied responses for Windranger and Ancient Apparition, all come from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".
- His battle begin line ▶️ "Rough seas ahead, crew. Strap me to the mizzen when I give the word." is likely a reference to The Odyssey, where Odysseus commands his crew to strap him to the mast so he could hear the Sirens sing.
- Jon St. John, Kunkka's voice actor, originally suggested to Valve to base Kunkka's voice on the voice he used for Varian Wrynn from World of Warcraft.
- The final voice is based on a "bad impression" of Captain Picard, a character from the Star Trek universe.[1]
- In Deadlock, Viscous's Bubble Punch ability may be inspired by Kunkka's Torrent, both knocking enemies up in an area after a delay, damaging and disabling them.
- Warcraft 3 similarities:
- In DotA, Kunkka uses the model of Admiral Proudmoore, a campaign-only variant of the Paladin hero, without any abilities.
- Kunkka is named Daelin Broudmoore as well, but this was changed in Dota 2 to avoid copyright issues with "Blizzard Entertainment".
- The name Kunkka is in honour of the artist who created numerous loading screen artwork for DotA and Dota 2.[2]
- The artist also participated in the creation of several cosmetic sets, including Kunkka's Bestowments of the Divine Anchor set, and the Chains of the Black Death set.
- In Kunkka's DotA biography, it is stated that some people called him "Jacksparrow," though this name did not appear in-game. Jack Sparrow is the name of the main character in the Pirates of the Carribean movie franchise.
- Kunkka has a 3/9 chance to spawn in with the name "Kunkka".
- Kunkka has a 1/9 chance to spawn in with the name "CoCo". It is unknown what this is a refering to.
- Kunkka has a 1/9 chance to spawn in with the name "Captain Obvious", a common slang word for a Lapalissade.
- In DotA, Kunkka uses the model of Admiral Proudmoore, a campaign-only variant of the Paladin hero, without any abilities.
Gallery
[edit]- Kunkka on Ringmaster's teaser trailer.
- Bone Harvest sprite - alive