He is the Christmas spin-off of Dark Emperor Nyandam, made to look like Santa on his sleigh. His sleigh-throne is pulled by dark minions with reindeer antlers and red noses. Rather than a glass of coffee jelly, Dark Emperor Santa holds a turkey leg instead.
Santa has the same range as Nyandam, but moves a bit faster and attacks much faster, along with a guaranteed chance to temporarily freeze the player's units. Luckily, he has less than half of Nyandam's health.
Strategy
Due to his low health, Dark Emperor Santa can be easily dispatched with strong anti-Red cats like Swordsman Cat or Bath Cat. Wrestling Cat is a direct counter due to being strong against Red and immune to freeze. Apple Cat can fight fire with fire and freeze him if, well timed. While anti-Aku Cats are far rarer, they also work well due to his Aku trait giving him an additional weakness.
Dark Emperor Santa is a regular enemy in The Battle Cats POP!. His description is: "Created devious magics to break Cats' holiday spirit. Uses cheap materials to keep his Xmas profit margin low."
His Aku trait was given to him in Version 11.3, before which he was only a Red enemy. This may be because his Japanese name, Akuma Ō Santa (悪魔王サンタ, "Devil King Santa"), contains the word Akuma (悪魔, meaning "devil"), which is also the Japanese name of the Aku.
Because of this, he is the only Aku enemy whose body is not mainly that of a dark blue color.
He is also the only Aku enemy who had the Aku trait added retroactively instead of being Aku from the start.
He is currently the only Aku enemy to have a secondary trait.