The Planet

I like watching the battles play out but with summoner-fly builds you can usually tell whether you are going to get stomped or do the stomping at first glance so it plays out too long for me XD Except in versus with friends, where I am DEEPLY invested in every single play.

Ooh! I love your parrot-deer combo! WAIT HOLD ON WAS THIS YOUR FIRST WIN?!! Congrats congrats that's awesome!

They've added stats and a hall of fame for victories on PC! I'm very excited about it. Haven't played arena on PC yet though to start building hall of fame.

The big bee is an achievement hunting run, I reckon! Have you done much achievement hunting yet? I haven't but I'd really like to.

corvabird wrote: ↑

Mon 03 Jan, 2022, 10:00 am

I like watching the battles play out but with summoner-fly builds you can usually tell whether you are going to get stomped or do the stomping at first glance so it plays out too long for me XD Except in versus with friends, where I am DEEPLY invested in every single play.

Ooh! I love your parrot-deer combo! WAIT HOLD ON WAS THIS YOUR FIRST WIN?!! Congrats congrats that's awesome!

They've added stats and a hall of fame for victories on PC! I'm very excited about it. Haven't played arena on PC yet though to start building hall of fame.

The big bee is an achievement hunting run, I reckon! Have you done much achievement hunting yet? I haven't but I'd really like to.

PARROT DEER IS THE BEST. Especially levelled up with a mushroom on the deer?? It's like, you like busses? HERE'S INFINITE BUSSES. The splash damage worked really well, too, because especially when combined with the bus summon having splash damage of its own, they "soften up" the next-in-line pets and make it a lot easier to KO the powerful ones on the first exchange.

That was my... third win overall, I think, but by far my most satisfying. 8) Although I haven't gotten another one since. >.> I'm still not good at figuring out when and how to trade out pets and I've been distracted lately by trying to figure out how to make Bomb Squads work, especially late-game. <.<

Turn 13 seems to be the point of no return for me. Hrmm.

I haven't done a lot of achievement hunting yet - I did a little at the beginning with some of my favorite pets, but I'm still trying to learn how to win Arena regularly, haha. xD

I got a notice about the Hall of Fame on the droid app, too, but I haven't looked into how it works yet.

Oh, I mentioned the Bomb Squad in the other thread but not here! That's what I've started calling hedgesplosion-based builds I'm trying to make work.

I've been working with a core of hedgehogs and blowfish and trying out a variety of other pets - elephants, badgers, camels, etc. - but it's really hard to find the right balance that lets you blow up the other team but still win instead of draw.

@senbonzakura I've made Bomb Squad (love this name!) work a few times in Arena and a lot of times in versus, but as with all things SAP it's not consistent and depends on shop and who you play. You could give mine a go?

The end-game set-up is usually (right to left) Flex spot (usually something that scales the team is best, like a penguin, or alternatively a parrot or second skunk) > Skunk (garlic) > Blowfish (garlic) > Hedgehog (1up) and Hedgehog (1up).

Skunk makes the strongest units weak enough to die. 1 hedgehog takes off melon armour, then the others send up a barrage. In early game I take a blowfish and a skunk as soon as I can, and I always make sure there are 2 hedgehogs -- more important than levelling the hedgehog is having 2, and I usually don't prioritise levelling them beyond level 2.

I've seen people make camels work in these squads and that's fun but I haven't gotten a win with a camel in my bomb squad yet. It's really REALLY fun to have more than one blowfish but I prioritise levelling the blowfish up over having more blowfish.

corvabird wrote: ↑

Tue 04 Jan, 2022, 12:38 pm

@senbonzakura I've made Bomb Squad (love this name!) work a few times in Arena and a lot of times in versus, but as with all things SAP it's not consistent and depends on shop and who you play. You could give mine a go?

The end-game set-up is usually (right to left) Flex spot (usually something that scales the team is best, like a penguin, or alternatively a parrot or second skunk) > Skunk (garlic) > Blowfish (garlic) > Hedgehog (1up) and Hedgehog (1up).

Skunk makes the strongest units weak enough to die. 1 hedgehog takes off melon armour, then the others send up a barrage. In early game I take a blowfish and a skunk as soon as I can, and I always make sure there are 2 hedgehogs -- more important than levelling the hedgehog is having 2, and I usually don't prioritise levelling them beyond level 2.

I've seen people make camels work in these squads and that's fun but I haven't gotten a win with a camel in my bomb squad yet. It's really REALLY fun to have more than one blowfish but I prioritise levelling the blowfish up over having more blowfish.

The skunk was a really good tip! I still haven't gotten a win with one yet (in fact, I've only gotten one win since they started tracking wins/replays...) but after your suggestion I've been trying out skunks on summoner teams as well. Since the main goals of a summoner team are attrition and wasting the other team's high attack numbers, cutting down the max HP helps a lot.

I've tried camel+blowfish on a bomb squad too and while it seems like a good idea, I've found that in general it's more effective to put garlic on the blowfish and put something else in that slot than the camel.

My new favorite twist on my shark food team is putting a badger in front of a one-up deer - especially a levelled-up badger. It crushes the next-up pet on the other team and gets the bus out without giving the other opponent a "free" KO, in case they're leading with a hippo or a rhino. Of course, I'm not one to talk, what with my horrible arena win rate... xD;;

@senbonzakura

Yay, a skunk convert! I always say that a skunk fits into any squad but of course I almost never run summoner teams. I can definitely see how they'd fit there as well!

Since I lasted posted I became obsessed with hedgehog squads and now have a lot of very different wins with them. The skunk isn't always necessary -- sometimes I replace the skunk with a seal for wide scaling and make the team buff as well. I've gotten a handful of wins with a camel in front of the blowfish -- it's a good strategy for when I get a blowfish later than planned, because the camel buffs a weak blowfish and keeps it alive. I always put garlic on everything that isn't a hedgehog (except sometimes i put a steak on a skunk). Garlic is essential for hedgehog explosion imo, though I've had to make do without it until late game a few times when the RNG is cruel.

I also like to sometimes put a skunk with a steak on it at the front to do some damage before the first hedgehog hits.

I've come very VERY close multiple times to winning a hedgehog explosion run with no hurt units at all, just a very strong unit (eg bison) at the back and a skunk and scaling unit as well (seal, usually), but it's definitely much less effective. Can't wait until I get the win with it.

Next plan is to run three hedgehogs, and maybe four. I saw someone in a late round running four hedgehogs and a blowfish. It didn't win but it was much later in the game than I expected so it must have been somewhat effective. I want to give it a go!

I do think I have somewhat forgotten how to run my usual buff squads though. I can't see a blowfish, camel, or hedgehog without immediately pivoting. XD

I *LOVE* badger at the front! It's such a great play and SO intimidating. I think run the right way it's better than honey badger honestly. Putting a one-up deer behind it is honestly genius.

corvabird wrote: ↑

Mon 17 Jan, 2022, 10:06 am

I do think I have somewhat forgotten how to run my usual buff squads though. I can't see a blowfish, camel, or hedgehog without immediately pivoting. XD

This is how I get with summoners and it's why I have so much trouble winning. XD So often I'll have a decent bomb or buff team and then I'll be like "ooo a deer" and try to rebuild and lose multiple times before I get it...

corvabird wrote: ↑

Mon 17 Jan, 2022, 10:06 am

I *LOVE* badger at the front! It's such a great play and SO intimidating. I think run the right way it's better than honey badger honestly. Putting a one-up deer behind it is honestly genius.

Right?? Honey badger in the back is really strong in the early game, but for some builds like infinity buses and bomb squads or hedgesplosions, the badger in the front gives you a whole extra attack AND triggers your mechanic.

Garlic is definitely the best for bomb squads but for basically everything else - especially summoners - I've been going hard on hot peppers. It's got a similar "keep the HP down" effect to skunk, and ime it's the best for keeping roos and snakes in check. Hot pepper on a parrot behind a deer is very good.

senbonzakura wrote: ↑

Mon 17 Jan, 2022, 7:34 pm

Garlic is definitely the best for bomb squads but for basically everything else - especially summoners - I've been going hard on hot peppers. It's got a similar "keep the HP down" effect to skunk, and ime it's the best for keeping roos and snakes in check. Hot pepper on a parrot behind a deer is very good.

I love this strat? I've never seen a spicy summoner build but honestly I'm all about it, that makes so much sense! I've seen the odd spicy deer and thought 'that is smart' but didn't think to extrapolate further

corvabird wrote: ↑

Mon 17 Jan, 2022, 9:00 pm

senbonzakura wrote: ↑

Mon 17 Jan, 2022, 7:34 pm

Garlic is definitely the best for bomb squads but for basically everything else - especially summoners - I've been going hard on hot peppers. It's got a similar "keep the HP down" effect to skunk, and ime it's the best for keeping roos and snakes in check. Hot pepper on a parrot behind a deer is very good.

I love this strat? I've never seen a spicy summoner build but honestly I'm all about it, that makes so much sense! I've seen the odd spicy deer and thought 'that is smart' but didn't think to extrapolate further

Oh my god "spicy summoner" sounds so good XD But yeah it works really well! I like the mushroom on the deer better because then you get a free extra bus - which comes with the hot pepper and has better numbers - and then I put the pepper on the parrot because a mushroom on a parrot is basically useless.

Leading with a spicy badger in front of a shroom deer is :chefkiss:

senbonzakura wrote: ↑

Mon 17 Jan, 2022, 9:08 pm

corvabird wrote: ↑

Mon 17 Jan, 2022, 9:00 pm

senbonzakura wrote: ↑

Mon 17 Jan, 2022, 7:34 pm

Garlic is definitely the best for bomb squads but for basically everything else - especially summoners - I've been going hard on hot peppers. It's got a similar "keep the HP down" effect to skunk, and ime it's the best for keeping roos and snakes in check. Hot pepper on a parrot behind a deer is very good.

I love this strat? I've never seen a spicy summoner build but honestly I'm all about it, that makes so much sense! I've seen the odd spicy deer and thought 'that is smart' but didn't think to extrapolate further

Oh my god "spicy summoner" sounds so good XD But yeah it works really well! I like the mushroom on the deer better because then you get a free extra bus - which comes with the hot pepper and has better numbers - and then I put the pepper on the parrot because a mushroom on a parrot is basically useless.

Leading with a spicy badger in front of a shroom deer is :chefkiss:

spicy front badger with deer behind? You've gone TOO FAR XD