Most surprising placement is the Buffalo imo. You usually buy at least 2 pets per turn, so at worst it's a Bison *without* the level 3 pet requirement, and if you *do* build a pet-buying team, it's much better than a Bison!
yeah no buffalo is such an easy run saviour if you haven't had good rolls up til that point. Also not to mention if you get an early buffalo on turn 5 it's soooo much better than bison. Crazy how much he undervalues it. Badger should also defs have been in A, like it literally is "Always a good option" unless you're at like turn 10. I'd also put snake in A for sure, level 2 snake is still ridiculous especially with deers or melon armour guaranteeing 2 or 3 procs. Like it's one of the units that makes tigers so good so I feel like it should be placed on par with tiger. I would've put the fly as well in A, it's such a good unit just to beef up the team when tier 6s first come around, like it's a 5/5 that summons 3 other 5/5s. So it's an easy 20/20 of stats for 3 gold, super underrated, not to mention combo potential with tigers and snakes (fly snake and unit in front of snake with melon guarantees 3 procs, with tiger that's 6 procs) AND really good scaling at level 2.
Watching tier 3 llama runs where you swap out the fifth slot made me try for the buffalo & got a win, so Ludwig's def underestimating the power of the unit. However it's best when you get it to tier 2 quickly. Works w/🐔, 🐉, any unit that gets you gold to buy more pets with (🐐, 🦢) easy buy and sell units (🐖, 🐌, 🐄). Kinda hoping to experiment w/ it more
I think hippo should move up a tier, you can get it early on, starts out pretty strong, and fits into scaling builds amazingly, while dominating summons, I recognize it isn't the ultimate pet but it is very good and balanced, that concludes my speech
Imo its a real feast or famine using hippo. You need to invest alot into it and if it doesnt kill youre in deep shit. But on the other hand it can really shred
@@kyleravensbergen385 however the problem is hippo is only good if he has high stats already or is atleast lvl 2. +2/+2 wont do much for you. and on tier 4 there are just too few buffers. boar isn't even s or a tier for me.
Because summon is uncommon nowadays hippo is essentially a vanilla pet that starts off with stats that are likely worse than what you have if you are building correctly. Like others have said you need to invest everything into it and it has no scaling upside unlike other pets that come in tier 4 or earlier. Chiefly the premiere options of rooster, bison, ox, badger and dodo of which you will likely always have one copy of one of them. Even a Swan is better to invest food into as it will stay on the board until the end game and will not cause you to sink or swim, allowing you to remain flexible. Although I would not recommend investing food into a swan unless it is already large and/or has melon armor (aside from giving it meat bone which is a pretty standard play). Imo from an experienced player POV hippo has extremely few use cases. Even if you reveal it on turn 5, the tempo gained in exchange for 2 gold can often be better spent on other things. On top of all the other downsides the hippo clogs up your slots and makes playing turtle, snail, etc. very awkward.
@@zl1ck371 I mean, compare the complexity of League of Legends system to this... Of course it's simple to balance, you can borderline solve the game mathematically. It's more surprising that there are any OP characters
@@GEM4sta An auto battler can be pretty hard to balance since theres millions even billions variations of different team and out of all possible team combinations theres always gonna be few that'll have higher winrates than others. Take TFT for example there'll always be two or three comps that people will abuse, because they're OP.
@@youngjiang1168I don’t think the person was saying autobattlers are simple, just SAP itself is, which is true. TFT has a much more in-depth item system, synergies with all the different traits, and strategical positioning and all the different set gimmicks. While achieving good balance in a game is still a nice achievement, SAP has a lot less variables to work with to do so.
I think Croc is just as good as Dolphin if not better specifically for killing the targets you named. Nothing is more satisfying than your croc sniping a Badger and just ruining that guys day. If people are running a turkey build their often gonna have a summoner with less hp than the turkey that the dolphin will hit instead.
@@sethgiap5060 I mean if dolphin isn’t hitting a scorpion it’s also probably hitting a scaler or deer. But also you almost NEVER see a big unit in the back
@@sethgiap5060 croc being the only sniper to hit a certain slot is very good. With the honey badger meta a level two croc usually will give the badger killing what ever is ahead. Also good for spawners. It’s a good mid game unit
@@sethgiap5060 I'd disagree with that, level 2 crock will almost always kill the back unit unless they've had dragon in for a while. Rarely do I see the tanky unit at the back
ludwig will really be like "idk why u guys say u lose at sap so much, its not that hard" and then also can rattle off every pet's stats and abilities and their use in the game without reference.
@@ZeldavsMusic I doubt he would need the wiki up, he's got way more hours than me (I have 70) I can rattle off all the abilities, and I know the ballpark of stats for everything.
@@garrettowner6006 goat is a freakin tier 5. Swan shows up on round 2 and there's no condition to its effect, you get straight up extra gold. That being said, buffalo is like A tier for me
@@GodInHisPrime goat is a level 3 swan more or less tho… I’m not saying it’s a or s tier, but to put it in the unplayable tier is awful… a level 3 goat can literally yield you 19 total gold, and if you sell the animals literally more than doubled your starting gold… level three swan gives you one extra animal… ppl overrate the swan and underrate the goat
@@garrettowner6006 I guess I haven’t taken the goat enough, but surely swan is better. You can take advantage of swan in ANY build, not just a cycle build. And when it shows up it’s a decently strong unit stats wise, whereas the goat is basically a dead unit for a tier 5.
@@GodInHisPrime I just think swan is like b tier at best, and goat is high c tier… more upside, less use cases… the swan just doesn’t give as much value as other base support units… like no one can ever convince me a swan is better than a penguin, monkey, poodle, bat… it’s just mid
I'd have to agree with everyone else on the Buffalo here. I think you're overlooking the differences in the dog/buffalo mechanics when you're comparing them aswell. Dog needs a space to get the buff because the ability triggers on 'summon' while buffalo just needs a pet to be 'bought'. You can also get it on turn 5 if you've planned to level something up for that turn, so yeah it's just a wayyyyyy better dog.
Hard disagree. There is a major difference in the time when you get each of them. Early dog makes it very slightly usable since you will be buying more and will have space open, but Buffalo comes way too late for its terrible buffs. Like he said, 1 1 in tier 4 is just terrible when you could just easily get a bison instead. Plus, there is a much wider pool of animals to get in tier 4 so just getting more to upgrade can even take a while.
Ludwig coming from someone normal not a CEO from super auto pets... What animal would you like to see added to this game. I personally think a chameleon could be interesting which would introduce a new concept of stealing your rivals abilities.
@@invin_2940 yeah not to mention he's assuming you get level 3 skunk which is very rare and generally a bad idea as decreasing by 66% means they should die late game to any of your big units in one hit.
Sloth has been ROBBED! Absolutely cumstered, you should be ashamed of yourself for forgetting such a godlike creature. The absolute content buff it gives is amazing. Literally tons of clout for just 3 gold 🦥 Also: whale gang + L + ratio 🐋
Will you do a food teir list next? Also if you do would you also include what each does as reference for those who may not be super familiar! Thank you love the videos and streams.
Buffalo in the last tier (below the Dog lol) is the biggest L take I've seen from Lud when it comes to SAP. Getting it on turn 5 is almost easy 10 wins in my experience. Goat thing isn't a bug either btw. It says friend bought, so it has to be a different unit than itself. Hippo low because of base stats, but Gorilla that high when it's 2 tiers later? (The coconut armor sound is amazing though)
It's true. Buffalo > Bison IMO. Bison very often takes too long to scale and requires you to keep what is likely a pretty useless unit just because it's level 3. A buffalo can be scaled super fast if you want it to and it synergizes with dragon super well and chicken.
Nice list & content!! :) I agree with the majority of the list but have some thoughts: Early Dog & Buffalo (optional Shrimp) is a nice synergised perma gain that gives you 2 ~20/20 to 30/30's by mid game allowing easier transitions into other strategies, and a quick 50/50 with the help of T-Rex or another late game buffer, try it next time you get offered early dog/buffalo, tier 2 dog is kinda needed though. Bat tier 3 is one of the best end-game pets, tier 2 is also great for most of the game and can easily win rounds on it's own by removing melon or garlic from the right unit, it's weak so maybe high B but personally think it's A. I think blue bird and giraffe's scaling are too slow that they should be B tier but it's debatable. Mammoth is C imo, maybe B, compare it to T-Rex which gives you 2/1 every turn and takes the same space as Mammoth, but Mammoth also requires a pill to give it's buff permanently and then you also have to buy something to fill it's slot, whereas T-Rex is a scaling unit you can put steak on etc. Mammoth has it's place but really for a 4 squad build or similar.
A lot of my wins in PTW were with the Buffalo. Fantastic in combination with Dragon and Llama. And the Croc sniped flies, turkeys and sharks for me which gave me the win. Wouldn't rank it much higher but it deserves some respect. otherwise I mostly agree
Buffalo is really good with chicken or dragon builds. You have to be doing a buy/sell and it's dope. Also it triggers even if you place a pet on top of another. Dog only triggers if you place in an empty slot. It's a situational pet but can be good in tandem with others. Caterpillar is amazing for 2 reasons. Easiest way to ensure you will ALWAYS have level 3 to buff the bison and I lose to them all the time unless I run a dolphin which is meh against anything other than scorpion and butterfly
@@psychedelicbee5039 oof dog is a trap! It used to be better because it showed up a tier earlier but now by the time you get it, it's almost impossible to get it working. They nerfed too hard imo
@@lucaskasssab4543 I'm planning on getting it just not sure when. Kinda wanna get all level 3 units from free to play first, but I also feel like I'm getting a little burnt out doing that
Ludwig, Goat is a “friend bought” unit, it doesn’t work on itself, similar to something like a dog buff or a Buffalo not activating for themselves, but rabbit can give itself health so it may be an oversight, who knows
thanks for doing this, I have screen shotted others who have done this and will screenshot your rankings and save to my desktop for reference. I cant figure this game out, played 30 games and have not won a game. The players I play against are always the best.
i have such a hard time using horses because every time i see one i hear northernlion saying "it's a flesh apple" like that is a statement that will haunt me until the end of my days i think
For the algorithm I will say I think Bat could go up. I think it does alot early to fuck with garlic armor on big units, is middling mid game but if you go for level 3 can make a big difference late game when basically every unit has some sort of food item buff removing melon armor, steaks and mushrooms on 3 units is strong.
croc and squirrel deserve to be up a tier. Croc can snipe turkeys, flys, badgers and mostly everything in the back once level 2. Squirrel fits really well with food builds freezing good foods and buying for cheap is nice, ive had some great squirrel runs but def circumstantial.
I almost feel like you need to make 2 separate lists because with the different packs of pets some pets like the rhino has far more value. in the expansion he is almost not even worth getting because its so hard to scale. but if you get a giraffe and a Monkey in the base pack almost nothing can really deal with it.
I sometimes buy ducks. IMO, they're better than a beaver in many cases. I'm almost never looking for a duck but getting a few, waiting for a lucky store, doing a mass wipe, and buying the store, you can really get some good animals.
The money background is literally Big As OBS overlay or some thing he used it alot for marketing monday. Probably got there when he was using Luds setup
I think the Dog/Buffalo/Scampy/Swan engine is underrated post-nerf. It's not as oppressive as it once was since the Dog comes 1 round later but it still works when you get it on the level-up.
13:40 Think of the buffalo/bison this way: Lvl 1 Bison: feed it twice +2-4, at the end of the round, it still get's +2 +2. Total buffs in a round would be at least +4-6. Lvl 1 buffalo: you want to maximize buying animals. At max (w/o swan, goat) you could buy 4 animals. +4+4 each round. Maybe +2+2 or +3+3 with rolls
Problem with buffalo is that it's so much investment for the scaling of one unit, barring sell buffs like beaver. It limits your options to buy foods because you're locked in all game to buying pets otherwise your buffalo is wasted space. Passive scaling is just so much better because it's free stats vs stats that cost
@@cartersarkela5296 yeah and it locks you into this buy/sell vs food meta. Honestly, you can definitely make it work sometimes, sacrificing stability for a flexible team and rely on the shop for good animal rolls. I think buy/sell is more fun than food meta. There's just a lot more thinking required for food meta.
@@cartersarkela5296 bro dog exist you can get dog with buffalo and also in p2w there is owl where is the same pack as buffalo making there more option for buffalo buy sell, also when you get to tier 5 goat exist making it so u get like at least one more pet buy, not long after tier 5 is tier 6 where dragon exist, do i say more with dragon buffalo dog? no
and ludwig obviously forgot that economy pets works very nicely with buffalo such as swan pig, pig also happens to be tier 1 which means dragon can buff with buying it. He also doesnt know the BEST EVER turn 5 level up is buffalo, NOT EVEN BISON. For the reason being early game gold matters less than late game gold meaning you get to use early gamr gold for buffalo buy. you easily get a 11/11 by turn 6, buffalo also scales shit fast if you get turn 5 buffalo making it so you ca get A FUCKING 50/50 by turn 11.
Turkey can be used without summons as a late game pivoter. +3/+3 on spawn is just huge. Think of it like a permanent horse or just a strictly better lobster. Too many people are attached to their teams to commit tho.
Bison is decent only if you get it early on turn 5. If you have all your gold at the beginning of the turn you could see him get to 7/7 by himself that turn without combos/selling. if you pair him with cow/snail/owl/etc, any buy/sell buffing pets, he's solid mid tier until end game. He's not good to keep, but good to have for a few turns if you get him early. +3, +3 is pretty decent if you have a dragon or something late game though, you can get him to 50/50 for sure.
I think the bat should move up, his biggest reason for mosquito was that it removed melon armor from units late game, and the bat does the same thing but more
My first win involved a level 3 cricket to the end of the game so I'm slightly biased in favor of them. They're good in an early game dedicated summon build.
Catterpillar gives you some nice +1 tier option when it upgrades for free. Also it is basicly free because it goes from lvl1 to lvl 3 for free after which you can sell it. You should just never build a team around the catterpillar, but as an enabler then it is good.
I love this video so much...amazing analysis and I really enjoyed this video so much thank you lud BUT... . . . . I don't think shark and bison should be in D-tier...I've actually won a bunch of games with the shark!
I have to say I actually love peacock ngl, although now that I think about it it might not be as good because you have to scale it manually and when you do that the damage bonus becomes less
So i just started playing and there are alot of animals that i have never seen like the bat, caterpillar, chicken, owl and so on. I play on mobile. Is it something to do with that?
Crocodile is a must with all the summon spam builds in the meta. Wipe out the turkey or fly (or honey badger) at the back and you just ruin the other team. Way higher than C tier.
I like your tier list because I can tell it's your own. Nothing against Stanz, but when I watch him play he very clearly thinks X is good/bad because someone better than him said that - and not for literally any reason other than that (well I guess unless you're counting his confirmation bias). Like he thinks Horse-Cricket is bad too when it literally dominates early rounds - and he now thinks that the old version of Duck was horrible even though on the old patch he said it was good enough to warrant inting 2-3 rounds a game for them. I know people opinions change as they improve, but they should change because of data, not because someone else said so. This is a problem in the LoL community aswell. People will think X,Y, and Z items are good/bad because it's what pros are building - when the reality is 99% of pros don't even know the reasoning behind the buys, they do it because it's what they see other people doing.
Dragon is way too high. It's tier 6, and by that time your team should be decently leveled and synergistic that opening two spots is tough, especially keeping one with a tier 1 animal so it'll be used again to cycle through next round. On top of that the RNG of even getting tier 1s in the shop when you want them, vs using the money to buy food or level a pet, it's just a hard unit to utilize. But I guess when things alone, the value is great since one buy is like several apples/pears or a little more than one sushi/pizza/etc.
