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There was a big new update to the game as of May 10, 2022, which changed a lot of things and tweaked many different animals. While I think most of the advice in this guide is still good, please factor in any buffs, nerfs, and new features.

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Having trouble? You've come to the right place.

I've seen some negative reviews for this game with complaints that it's difficult to curate a good team. I disagree. I estimate that I get 10 wins more than half the time, and at least 6 or 7 wins the vast majority of the time. Do I sometimes never get anything good going? Yeah, sure. But it's rare.

In this guide I will discuss some tips, early game strategies, and late game formations that are usually successful.

- Don't sweat defeats. You are going to lose some hearts. In fact, you should lose some hearts. Your health is a resource. Taking a few losses for the sake of building a late-game team is fine. I cannot tell you how many times I've gotten 10 wins (arena) or 1st place (versus) with one life left.

- Take your time. There is no time limit in the shop. Consider the whole list of purchases before making any move. (Exception: Versus Mode)

- It may be better to keep multiple copies of animals on your team rather than combining or leveling them right away. Three Crickets and two Horses are much better than a Level 2 cricket and a half-leveled Horse.

- Whenever you level up an animal, a new animal of (your tier + 1) is offered in the shop. This can allow you to pick up a powerful animal one or two turns before you would ordinarily be offered it. If you're very lucky, the animal could match with the strategy you were building anyway, and give you a big boost. Consider changing your strategy if you get offered an early key animal like Hippo or Turkey.

- Make use of the shop. Except for the animals that give permanent buffs each turn (Monkey, Giraffe), the shop is the only way to make your team stronger. Buy animals and food that will last a long time.

- Give food only to animals you intend to keep long-term. Let's take the Ant for example. Ants are pretty strong in the early game, but their ability is meaningless on Turn 10. Should you give an Ant an apple or honey? Usually not, because you'll want to sell the Ant to make room for something else.

- Some animals are front-loaded in power (like Tiger) and some need to be leveled up once or twice to reach full potential (like Seal). Some animals have a great level 2 upgrade, but their level 3 upgrade usually arrives too late to mean anything (like Horse). Try to consider this when building your team.

- Chocolate is almost always a buy, unless literally none of your animals will benefit from leveling up.

- Keep an eye on your remaining wins and losses. If you have 1 or 2 battles remaining, don't start making long-term investments like buying Monkeys or partial level ups. This is the time to give out last-second buffs or food (steak, melons) to animals who don't have them yet. Also consider selling any "investment"-type animals you do have in exchange for a Scorpion or Tiger, as they can be very effective at Level 1 with no buffs.

- One of the best uses of Sleeping Pill is on Turtle. Spending 4 gold to get permanent Melon Armor on something can be very powerful, and then the Turtle's spot is available for another animal.

Your first two turns are very important. Messing them up puts you at a disadvantage for the whole match.

There are two priorities at Tier 1:

• 1. Don't Lose.
  
• 2. Set up your Tier 2 purchases.

Ant, Fish, and Otter are the best Don't Lose choices. They are pretty much auto-buys on Turns 1 and 2.

Pig is not bad. The 3 damage helps to secure draws, and you get a better refund on sale.

Don't buy Horse unless you are offered literally only Horses and Crickets in the shop.

Every other animal is fine.

Don't buy Cupcakes.

Only buy an Apple or Honey as a last resort.

You should be buying at least 3 things on Turns 1 and 2. Don't reroll yourself out of a purchase.

Tiers 1 through 3 have mostly animals that are not great in the lategame. Your general goal is to get your team's stats as high as possible by whatever means necessary. Try to buff just one animal so you don't have to feel bad about selling the others.

Some general goals:

• Prioritize leveling Fish, Otter, or Swan to level 3.
  
  
• If you buy and level an Otter at the same time, its buff will match what it leveled into. You should be getting +1, +1, +2, +2, +2, +3 out of six Otters purchased.
  
  
• Use Sleeping Pill on Flamingo or Turtle.
  
  
• Buy a Badger and place it at the rear of your team.
  
  
• Always buy and then sell Snail if you lost your previous battle.
  
  
• If you have another animal with 9+ health, buying Crab and giving it a Meat Bone is pretty good.
  
  
• If none of the above are working out, it's better to buy Salad than to reroll endlessly.

Once you reach Tier 4, the really good animals start becoming available in the shop and you'll want to start selling off your team.

If your team is really strong on Turn 7, prioritize buying Canned Food, but also grab whatever gets you started on one of the endgame strategies -- Hippo for Tank-based strategies, Deer for Token Spam.

This is Token Spam as an endgame strategy starting from Tier 4. Do not use Horse, Cricket, Spider, or Dog. Also don't use Shark.

On Tiers 1-3, get as much stats into your team as possible. Don't worry about long-term investment; you're going to sell your whole team. Once you reach tier 4, buy up all the Canned Food you see, as much as you think you can get away with without getting a Game Over.

While or after you're buying Canned Foods, replace your team with:

• Three Tokeners (Deer + Extra Life is best, but Rooster, Sheep, or Parrot are fine)
  
• Two buffers (Turkey, plus Tiger, Parrot, or 2nd Turkey).

Remember that any Turkeys in your team will permanently buff any animals bought into an empty slot.

If you go the Canned Food route, don't use Whale because the swallowed animal will (temporarily) lose its Canned Food buffed stats.

These are your formations:

Tiger/Turkey - Turkey - Tokener - Tokener - Tokener - The Tokeners are Deer, Rooster, or Sheep. Deer is best, especially with Extra Life in slot 2 or 3. Parrot can be placed in slots 2, 3, or 5 as needed, but it can't make proper use of Extra Life.

Fly - Tiger/Turkey - Turkey - Sheep / Whale / Level 2 Rooster - Tokener - This is how you might use Fly and/or Whale. However, they are both a bit weak and this is a desperation move more than anything.

If you reach Turn 11 without seeing a Turkey, consider going Double Dragon strategy instead.


Deer + Canned Food + Extra Lives = Winning.


Parrots have a hard time fitting into most builds, but they are great in Token Spam because you can move them behind a Tokener or Turkey, or both.

Token Spam works, but raw stats are king after the December 2021 patch, and you want animals that synergize from having high stats.

During Tiers 1 through 3, buy as many Swans as possible. Also useful are Fish and Otters. Get one of these to Level 3 if possible. Give your Swan a Meat Bone or Melon Armor from Turtle + Sleeping Pill.

If you got one of those to Level 3, buy a Bison or two by Turn 8.

If no Bison, get a Hippo (Tier 4) or a Rhino (Tier 5).

At Tier 5, buff the Tank using Monkey, Cow, or Seal. If you don't see these, use a few Pears. Always use any Chocolate on your Tank, Monkeys, or Seal.

At Tier 6, your next play is dependent on what you have so far.

• If you got a Seal, transition into Seal + Cat strategy.
  
• If you never got any Monkeys or Seals, transition into Double Dragon strategy.
  
• If you got 2+ Monkeys, just hang onto those and buy food or Snake if you have the room.
  
• Melon Armor on anything with high stats is a good idea.

Once your team is highly buffed, swap out any weaklings for Scorpions.

This is pretty much the dream right here. Level 3 Swan --> Bison --> Monkey --> Seal. Once you have three animals buffed to almost 50/50, Monkey becomes redundant and Scorpions are better.

Regardless of whether you were able to Buff That Tank, look to get a Seal at tier 5 and get it to level 2. Follow up with a Cat or two at Tier 6 (multiple cats are additive). Buy up all the Pears and Sushi you see, and your team will soon have plenty of stats. Tier 6 animals like Leopard or Boar might help.

The strength of this is in how early it gets going. It's not impossible to get a level 2 Seal by turn 10 or 11 (Chocolate helps), and then the stat train starts rolling. Cat is just a little extra synergy.

Once you have at least Level 2 Seal, always buy foods like Pear, Sushi, or Pizza. Do consider upgrading your animals to at least Level 2 if you get the chance.

Seal + Cat + Melon Armor wins games.


Seal + Whatever Random Junk I Could Buy also sometimes wins games.

If you're still alive at turn 11 and have no other plan in mind, it's time to go Double Dragon.

Get two animals that synergize with high stats, then two Dragons, then have one space free for buying and selling Tier 1 animals. Even though the Dragons don't buff themselves after the February 2022 nerf, they will buff each other. Add Melon Armor to everyone.

For the two battling animals, look for Hippo, Rhino, Boar, Gorilla, Leopard, or Deer. Also useful are Parrot or Tiger.

The Tier 1 animal can be placed up front to absorb Scorpion strikes or to make room for the Deer + Extra Life combo, or in back as a last-ditch survivor. In Versus mode, watch what your opponent is doing and respond accordingly. In Arena mode, it's a bit of a toss-up.




This one is after the February patch.

Where's the fun in following an inflexible strategy every game?

If the shops end up offering something weird, it's better to go with the flow than to try rerolling for one specific thing.

When life gives you scorpions...


Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

This is a very hard endgame team to safely achieve, but I'm putting it here to make a point.

If your team is very strong by turn 7, focus on buying Canned Food and Monkeys. At Tier 6, start swapping your team out with Leopards and a Tiger. I hardly need to say that a buffed and leveled Leopard with a Tiger behind it will tear apart most opposing teams before the fight even starts.

The screen below is from an extremely lucky Fish + 6x Otter + Crabs opening. While the Fish stayed to the end, I sold the Crabs. No matter how strong your low-tier animals seem to be on turns 1 through 10, you need to be willing to let them go.

Don't use Elephant.

Some tips for Versus:

• Because each player starts with 15 lives instead of 10, the average number of turns will be greater than in Arena. You need to survive the early turns, yes, but look toward getting a long-term strategy in place.
  
  
• Stats win. Once you reach tiers 5 and 6, the most effective pickups are Seal, Cat, or Dragon, then using their ability to buff your team. Token Spam can also work, but I recommend starting it from Tier 4 (Rooster, Deer) and nabbing a few Canned Foods as well. Don't bother with Horse, Cricket, or Spider. Sheep is very borderline.
  
  
• Take a glance at your opponents' teams periodically and look for any common features you can exploit. If you see a lot of Token Spam, then picking up a Hippo would be a fantastic counter.
  
  
• When down to the final 2 or 3, keep an eye on your opponent's team. You may be able to rearrange your team or buy a Scorpion / Food Item to exploit a vulnerability. Sometimes the result will be very different depending on whether your team is ordered strongest-to-weakest or weakest-to-strongest.

These animals usually don't fit into a core team strategy, but they can be bought under certain circumstances.

Tier 2 Crab - If you somehow managed to get another animal to a large health value by turn 3 or 4, buy the Crab and give it a Meat Bone. Its stats could be effectively 8/12 or so and earn you a couple extra Canned Foods. However, this is a rare scenario.

Tier 2 Rat - The stats are unusually high for a tier 2 unit. Buy it if you are in dire need of a quick power boost.

Tier 3 Badger - Put it at the rear of your team, and its ability will affect only the opponent. Can help to convert defeats into draws. Buy no later than turn 6 though.

Tier 3 Snail - After losing a battle, buy and then sell. It's usually worth it.

Tier 4 Dolphin - Unusually high stats for Tier 4. Decent as a pure stat play if you are taking too many losses and need to stop the bleeding.

Tier 4 Penguin - Interesting if your other four animals are at least Level 2.

Tier 5 Cow - If you have an extra slot on your team, buying and selling the Cow is a good buff for only 2 gold. Be careful about leveling up a Cow with a purchase. The animal added to the shop may take the place of one of the milk glasses. I prefer to buy and sell.

Tier 5 Crocodile - Very similar to Dolphin. Can buy for the same reason.

Unfortunately, some animals are rather underpowered. Think very carefully before buying these.

Tier 2 Dodo - Used to be awesome, then still good. Now it's been nerfed into extinction.

Tier 2 Elephant - Newbie trap. Seems like it could be good if comboed with Blowfish, Camel, or Peacock. Don't do it. It's a trick. (It's okay in slot 5 as a pure stat play on turn 3, but quickly becomes irrelevant.)

Tier 2 Hedgehog - This has no use in the current meta because early-game Token Spam is so weak. You can make a goofy Hedgehog/Blowfish team if you like losing.

Tier 2 Peacock - For some reason this got badly nerfed despite not being that great in the first place. Needs too much investment for too little effect.

Tier 2 Shrimp - Ridiculous ability.

Tier 3 Dog - This used to be quite good at Tier 2, but now it arrives way too late to be usable 99 times out of 100.

Tier 3 Rabbit - I'd rather have Giraffe or wait for Monkey.

Tier 4 Skunk - I think I've bought this... one time? It was probably an accident.

Tier 4 Worm - Arrives too late. Buff is too small without investing levels. I'd rather buy Canned Food and get a Rhino two turns later.

Tier 5 Shark - All attack and no health means you will regret taking this 9 times out of 10. It's a token spam support animal that is far worse than Turkey, Parrot, or Tiger.