secret page about game theory

*preface so i don't have to say it for each tier. if you're shooting for a level up, it's 80% of the time best to do so on odd turns. unless you're already hemmorhaging lives, that is, in which case, you do you. odd turn level ups is the rhythm the game is currently balanced around, so like it or not, that's what you'll have to be playing against regardless.

*preface 2 (again, about how it's best to play within the context of the play patterns and strategies of the current meta). As it has been for a while, the best way to win is to scale. scaling is when your units increase stats each turn. with unicorn pack, there's now ways to scale your time in battle (look for the keyword "permanent" such as on skeleton dog and unicorn), whereas previously you could only do so via shop scaling with chicken. That said! don't be too hasty. a lot of the unit's you'll be buying in the first 7-ish turns of the game you'll want to sell in order to pivot into the better, higher tier units. for example, while giraffe scaling can be good, if you're putting the stats on a bad unit (one you will or should sell), then your likely losing value in the long run as the giraffe only has 1/2 baseline stats. wins or ties are more important in the first half of the game than scaling. but gold is also import -- debatable if this or wins should be the biggest priority. this type of strategy is called "playing for tempo." units that summon other pets or which can temporarily give large boosts to themselves or others are often the best pets for maintaining tempo.

other SAP game theory and meta comments to come in the future... maybe...

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TL;DR key for weekly

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     as with pretty much every pack except maybe some weird non-arena cross-pack situation, the first two turns are essentially solved in terms of strategy. best pets are barghast, bunyip, and cricket, with bluebird and budgie being valid second choice options. since there are some crucial tier 3 units, you want to set up for a level up on turn 3, so aim for buying getting a triple of one or two pets (with the preference being the aforementioned pets).

     On the first turn, try to make sure to have three pets, if you can -- ideally two or three of the same pet, but it can work if you have all different ones. as for positioning, it's like this: place any spawning units at the back (preference being budgie at the furthest back); in the front you ideally want bluebird, but barghast and chipmunk can be good too -- bunyip would be near around the middle. (I can explain this if needed, but this is where the meta for early game is rn).

     For your second turn, aim to get a triple or if that won't work, try to aim for a draw. bunyip is good because since you often have to roll four times on turn two to find enough units to set up for a triple, it will be a 3/5. barghast is good because ailments are good. it can be okay to end turn with a four squad depending on your lineup

*you don't want to buy more than three of a unit, unless you know you will be able to get the level three. there aren't pets this weekly to support scaling turn 1 pets into the late game. with proper play, it seems pretty consistent to be getting 1 or 2 wins the first two turns this weekly.

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     if you were able to set up for a triple, going into turn 3 is pretty easy. combine for the level up and take the best pets. positioning matters, but i always forget, so i have no advide in that department. as for tier threes, okapi or flee are the best options, but pretty much anything outside of barnacle, slime or giraffe are good (for getting a win; there can be cases where these can work too). in the shop, look for frost wolf, spider, and bigfoot -- frost wolf because it's op (ailments are strong and probably the first or second best strategy this week); spider because if you can pill it, it's another way to get early tier threes (and if you high roll skeleton dog, you can scale too -- because of this, it's best to have spider not in the last slot); and bigfoot because it gives you a money advantage and because rolling is a strong mechanic in the first half of the game especially.

     try to make sure you still have five units going into end turn, but if it's necessary or you need to for your gold econ for some reason, you can end with four. you don't really want to be freezing anything in the shop unless it's a duplicate. this is because, as with tier one, you want to set up for a level three going into turn 5 (and really at each of the turn increase intervals) -- there are some great pets at each tier this week and being able to see those at a higher rate will mean you win more. for this reason, avoid buying more than three of a unit unit you can FOR SURE get the level three. So yeah, at end turn, the ideal board has one-two tier three units and one-two tier two units.

     freeze any pills in the shop, otherwise skip everything (unless you're definitely set up for the level up on turn 5, then chocolate cake can be good -- in exactly the case that you also have a faint pet named spider, flea, or skeleton dog).

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     turn five, pretty much the same thing. the main difference with how you're playing the shop, is now food matters slightly more. depending on your units and how much experience they have, it can be a great idea to buy gingerbread cookies. it can still be worth it to freeze pills for spiders, but that gets less and less valuable as the game goes on. at this point, tahr or maybe deer are the best candidates for a pill (i.e., it can still be a good idea to freeze one) -- if these aren't showing up, unfreeze your pill as it won't come into play again until turn 9. while sausage can end up netting you gold, i would say it's not worth it unless you have a pet that you KNOW you will keep until the end of the game (again, it's much better to be cycling through your pets as you move past them than to keep the same squad and aim for level 3's on lower tier units; holding can work out, but the numbers say it's less reliable).

     as with the previous two tiers, prioritize setting up for a level up on turn 7. rerolls are great here because they power up several of your strongest units, such as okapi, bunyip, ouroboros and i guess also olm.

     this is the first spot where what level up pets you take can start being dependent on what you have or what you want to go for with your team. if you don't know or don't want to commit to anything, the safest options are unicorn and tahr, with deer maybe being a close second. poison dart frog (pdf), whale, worm of sand, and, technically, tardigrade can be great picks IF you have units to support them. if you have summons like spider, osprey, slime, budgie, tardigrade, deer, or cricket, what and pdf can be excellent choices. whale can also synergize with faint pets such as bigfoot, flea, and skeleton dog -- in these cases, gingerbread can be very useful as food triggers before pet start of battles, (so you will get the faint effect at a higher level). cockatoo is good IF you have another tier four or a tier three which you know you want to take to the late game. if your level up rewards are cockatoo and trout, for example, it's not worth taking either of them and you should just start rerolling to set up for the level up on turn 7. in most (BUT NOT ALL!) other cases, it's probably best to take one of the tier 4s if you can fit it on your team.

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     turn 7 will basically be the same things that i've been saying. if you were able to get the level up, this is where it matters probably the most out of any of the tiers. pets like crocodile and hamster are super great, especially this early in the game. Absent crocodile, red dragon fills a similar role, though it scales worse into the late game.

     many other pets in this tier can be all stars too depending on what pets you've been picking up on your team so far. for example, vampire bat is a staple for ailment teams. i personally love how it plays, with it sucking the blood from enemies when they get ailments (to reiterate this is one of THE things you want to be doing this weekly). as another example, emu has inherent synergy with pdf and musk ox and can snowball into 10 wins all on its own (but sometimes i keep it for too long and then i lose). unless you have a nutty level 2 or 3 whale, i would say pretty much avoid getting chicken.

     cockatoo is better to buy now. i didn't realize that waffle was in this pack. it could work to freeze waffle and use it to get extra buffs with the cockatoo. but i think that's not a good plan, or it's very high roll and still doesn't do much. the other new food are bad too, i think. maybe donut could be good in some imaginary skeleton dog scenario, but at three gold, there's no shot it's worth it (it literally has no other synergies i'm pretty sure). fortune cookie can work out too. but obviously it's not reliable (and what are you hitting for a lot of damage right now anyways?). previous food comments stay the same

     and, yes, as with before, your best bet is to set up for a level up going into turn 9. around turn 8 or 9 is where early game roll units like bunyip and okapi start falling off.

*(boitata is technically an ailment unit, but it's the worst one available this week -- or in general, which is a bummer because i think it looks and is theoretically so cool).

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     turn 9. level up your pets if you can here. since there's no additional tiers after turn 11, it becomes okay to set up for level ups on even turns from this point. as i said previously, there are some great units in the shop. additionally, this is the point where actually good food becomes buyable in the shop.

     use or save chocolate to level up tier 5 or 6 units, if you can, as they provide the largest benefits for each level. shallot is the most niche of the available food. it can be good to have on an emu or similar unit to protect from donkey pushes -- though it will still be weak to red dragon and crocodile. other than a niche shallot or a gingerbread, (pre tier 6) perks don't do a lot this weekly as they 9 times out of 10 get overwritten by ailments (or just had no in battle effect to begin with).

     if you managed to level up on turn 9 or 10, the pets you want to look out for are ostrich and snake. while it's annoying that this is another ostrich weekly, i didn't mind it as much this time around, and i haven't faced any 50/50 teams so far. snake is like pdf but better and does major work even if you don't hard commit to it like pdf requires you to do. most of the other tier 6 units are great pick ups here too. yeti is bait, though. and unless you giga high roll, don't buy the level-up units. while there is ginger bread in the shop this week and I suppose you *could* jerry rig some kind of squad, there's generally not enough support to make leviathan and/or team spirit work -- despite how strong they are. reindeer is the most generic pick, it also negates ailments, sort of. mammoth, as i said before, is a great pick up with pill and thus also synergizes with whale. while manticore may seem niche, since ailments are so dominant, it can easily be your win condition -- even when your only ailment is phoenix's crisp. at the same time, because ailments and back snipers are available this week, it's helpful to get out of range of their respective thresholds if you can (6 for crisp and 8 for crocodile -- i.e., increase health on emu etc. or reposition to have them not at the back).

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     and then from turn 11 onwards, your number one goal is scaling and then trying to win. the safest best perk combination will be putting pancakes on all of your pets, as they still give their buffs even if they get overwritten by ailments (popcorn etc. just get negated). pizza is nice too. i buy it because i frequently forget to scale enough, but it's not the most reliable stat food (though it's the best one we've got). pay attention to the fact that there are only three stat foods in the shop this week -- pizza, stew, waffle, apple. i've had games where i've max leveled all my units and all that's left is to look for stats in the shop but i didn't realize how scarce the stat foods were at first.

     even at this point, i would say don't try for a level three unless you definitely can make it. it's better to level up more of your team than have one team member fully leveled (it gives more benefit and it takes less experience). still be open to swapping team members, as even now that can make a difference. i had a game where i had to sub out hippocampus for manticore to win.

good luck!

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units with special notes: barnacle, worm of sand, hamster, ostrich

the following units have potentially unique play patterns:

• starting with tier three, the barnacle unit is an extremely niche pick. while it can be crucial in getting free level ups early in the game (and saving you 3-6+ gold in the process), the no-roll restriction is major. because of this, my current thinking is it could work to set up for a barnacle in the future -- like if you have one frozen or on your team that you still roll on the given turn, but roll with the priority being that you will have enough things to buy natively in the shop to spend all your gold next turn. if you succeed, i believe this will be a net positive. on this note, i haven't tested it to confirm, but it seems like free rerolls maybe carry over? i think i had a sausage on one of my units and its reroll carried over on the turn i didn't roll because of barnacle's ability.
• the tier four unit, worm of sand, is deceptively bad and deceptively good. while it technically IS a scaling unit, and can provide nice synergy with your other units, having to consistently roll many times each turn is a major restriction. further, it limits you to around 2 purchases per turn only if you're aiming for even just the +1/+1, which can vastly slow down your tempo and what you're seeing in the shop. i've for some reason been giga lucky every time i've taken it this week, where i have my shop almost entirely frozen and still roll into the pets and perks i need. where it really pays off this week -- and the only reason it's even in the running of being worth it is because it has native synergy with ostrich. ostrich incentivizes you to roll which worm of sand synergizes with -- but this isn't what i mean. rather, ostrich secretly grants you *free* rolls if you successfully get 4 of the same tier units. the unfreeze the shop + reroll that the ostrich's ability does is a free reroll that counts for your roll pets. this is valuable because it means you can potentially still hit 4 rerolls and be able to buy more items in the shop (or hit 8+ rerolls and buy 2ish).
• the tier five unit, hamster, is good for similar reasons as worm of sand's ostrich interaction. when paired with ostrich, it's ability will generate gold on ostrich's free rerolls. what i moreso wanted to mention was that hamster, with being a unit that triggers a limit of x times per turn, can be "trigger reset" as they call it. if you've used up all triggers of a given hamster, you can refresh them by doing such things as: combining it with a different hamster, that still has charges, or which is a lower level (in the case that the spent hamster is level 2) or leveling it up. for example, if you freeze a chocolate in the shop, and have a level 1 hamster with 1 experience and 0 charges left, using the chocolate will give you a level 2 hamster with 4 charges.
• ostrich is notable for the above reasons AND that you can gamble at higher odds if you level up into it on turns 9 or 10. Because there are less units available in the shop pool on these turns (50 units from 5 tiers compared to 60 units from 6 tiers), there's a higher chance you will find 4 units of the same tier. even if you hate the ostrich and it's play pattern, i think it's still worth going for this since it's a bunch of free stats and then you can just sell the ostrich on turn 11 and get back to your normal programming (it's like a bonus injection to keep your time cutting edge -- everyone needs to roid up every now and again,,, or something).