Clash of Critters spreads its rewards across a lot of separate modes, and most of them feed each other — the Badge Dojo strengthens the same element your main team already uses, team events hand out the currencies your evolution trials ask for, and Horde daily quests are now your steadiest Pinball income. This guide is about getting value out of each mode without over-investing. It's built from Farlight's patch notes and the shared advice of community creators, reworded; individual Tatari rankings live on the Tier List page.
How the Badge Dojo works
The Badge Dojo is a tower challenge run separately per element, each hosted by that element's master. Clearing a floor earns a Tatari badge that buffs every Tatari of that element you own — account-wide, not just the one you cleared with.
Each element offers three badges: a Drop Badge (+10% to all stats of that element), an HP badge (+20% HP) and an ATK badge (+20% ATK). Your total badge count across all five elements sets a Trainer Title on your profile: Novice (0–4), Advanced (5–14), Elite (15–24), Master (25–34), Supreme (35).
Each Dojo floor gates on how many evolved Tatari of that element you own, so you can't rush ahead of your roster — the Dojo and your evolution plan advance together.
| Dojo floor | Unlock requirement (per element) |
|---|---|
| Dojo 1 | Own 7 Tatari of the element |
| Dojo 2 | 5 Gold-rarity evolutions of the element |
| Dojo 3 | 1 Red-rarity evolution |
| Dojo 4 | 3 Red-rarity evolutions |
| Dojo 5 | 6 Red-rarity evolutions |
| Dojo 6 | 1 Rainbow-rarity evolution |
| Dojo 7 | 3 Rainbow-rarity evolutions |
Which Dojo to push first
Because a badge lifts a whole element at once, push the Dojo of the element your best team already runs before you spread investment around. A +20% ATK badge on the element carrying your account is worth far more than a first badge in an element you barely field.
The floor gates mean every Red or Rainbow evolution you make for your main element also unlocks its next Dojo floor — so the evolutions you'd do anyway pay off twice. Work your main element up to Dojo 3–5, then start a second element's Dojo once that element has the roster for it.
Trainer Title is just a profile marker. Supreme needs all 35 badges, which is a very late-game goal — don't chase it at the cost of concentrating badges where they matter.
Island Goldrush
Island Goldrush is a damage-race mode with its own currency and a league ladder — how far you push in the time limit sets your placement and rewards. Bring your highest-sustained-damage core and the buffs that multiply it.
This is the mode where the top-tier Auras matter most: the Rock Aura (team-wide damage reduction) keeps your board alive longer, and the Lightning Aura (team-wide ATK Speed) is a straight damage multiplier. Field a Rainbow-form aura carrier of your main element here if you have one — see the Economy & Auras guide.
A Goldrush specialist like Cribbler ("crab") earns its slot here even if it's a bench pick elsewhere. Healers and a single damage-reduction aura keep the run going; everything else in the deployment should be damage.
Horde Invasion (seasonal)
Horde Invasion runs as a four-week season with a difficulty selector: clear one difficulty to unlock the next, and your best single-run kill count sets your season ranking. Its daily quests replaced the old per-battle Pinball rewards and are now the most reliable Pinball income in the game — log in for them every day.
Horde is a two-player mode. The reliable spine is a core support (Cheerspring), team-wide crowd control (Waveflutter's Sleep/Slow), a main three-lane DPS (Rockwu), and wide Fragile spreaders (Tideon, Sonarbat) so your damage lands harder on every wave — see the Horde meta core on the Best Teams page. Leave the remaining deployment slots for element coverage against the wave in front of you.
Get Waveflutter to Tier 3 before relying on it — it does almost nothing below that. Only run one of each buff or aura unit; most of those effects don't stack with a second copy.
Boss Challenge & mixed-element fights
Later campaign stages, Boss Challenge and Horde waves mix Zobo elements inside a single fight, so a single-element roster gets punished in bad lanes. Keep at least a tank and a DPS built in every element, on top of your main team.
During deployment the game flags each lane green or red based on the element matchup. Use those flags — put the countering element where the flag is green, and don't force a Tatari into a red lane just because it's your strongest. The Matchups tool covers the full cycle and lists the best ranked Tatari per element.
Team events and their currencies
A team event is always live — Fishing Contest, Cozy Farm, Zobo Shooter, Treasure Hunt, Marathon Party, Snowboard Sprint and others rotate through. Beyond their own rewards, these events are where you earn the currencies several evolution trials ask for: fishing rods, fertiliser, bullet coins, treasure digs, skateboards and the rest.
Trial quests show a schedule of the team events coming up over roughly the next two weeks. Line the trial you're working on up with the event that's about to run — the Evolution Planner flags which lines need a live-event currency, so you can see the clash before you commit Candy and stars to a line you then can't finish.
If no trial needs the current event's currency, just play it for the rewards and Pinballs and save your evolution push for when the right event comes around.
The daily loop
Push campaign for account level and to unlock more Pinball Trees at Camp. When you hit a chapter wall, stop and consolidate — feed level, star level, Dojo badges — rather than forcing one more evolution tier that the fight doesn't need yet.
Each day: clear the Horde Invasion daily quests, run Island Goldrush once for its currency and league progress, play whichever team event is live if it feeds a trial you want, collect your Pinball Trees, and keep the Auto Feeder stocked once you've unlocked it.