Clash of Critters gives you far more Tatari than you can invest in. This guide is about spending Candy, Pinballs and evolution materials in the right order. It's built from Farlight's patch notes and the shared advice of community creators, reworded — see the Tier List page for how individual lines are ranked.
Starting out
There's no meaningful reroll — progress is tied to your account from the first login, and the strong early Tatari come from normal play rather than a lucky opening pull. Just clear the tutorial (it also unlocks the code redemption screen) and play through the first chapters.
Redeem the standing codes on the Codes page before you do anything else — they're free Pinballs and Tatari Capsules.
Don't spend Pinballs impulsively. They're your main currency for everything, and the Pinball Machine's event rewards rotate, so it's usually worth waiting for an event whose rewards you actually need.
What to evolve first
"Priority" and "overall power" are different questions. A line can be very strong but a low priority because it's hard to evolve, and a line can be a high priority because it's cheap and carries you early. This is the priority order most creators converge on for a new account:
- Waveflutter (Dewgrub) to Tier 3 — it does almost nothing below T3, and above it, it locks down the whole front with Sleep/Slow.
- Cheerspring (Cheerling) — your only real all-purpose healer/buffer; needed in every mode.
- Tideon (Droppit) — three-lane Slow + Fragile makes everything else on your team hit harder.
- Rockwu (Punchimp) — main damage, and one unit covers three lanes.
- One tank you can rely on — Glideflip (Waddledo / "penguin") carries the campaign; Serrabloom (Manteeny) can solo a Rock lane with a healer.
- Then branch by the mode you care about: Cribbler ("crab") for Goldrush, Ignitoad (Poakie) for Horde, Dojo specialists for the Badge Dojo.
Pinballs, Candy and stars
Candy raises a Tatari's level. Duplicate Tatari raise its star level, which is a large stat jump — the Release Podium lets you release duplicates of a maxed Tatari for a gift.
Feeding a Tatari raises its feed meter, which is a separate permanent bonus on top of level and stars. Along with star level and Dojo badges, feed level often matters more than pushing one extra evolution tier — sort those out before you rush a T4.
Pinballs come from Pinball Trees at Camp, clearing stages, events, Horde Invasion daily quests and optional purchases. Elemental and event currencies from the machine (energy drinks, fertiliser, cakes, fishing rods and so on) are what several evolution trials ask for, which is why timing matters.
Evolution trials
Each evolution needs the Tatari at a star threshold plus its evolution trial — a specific in-game task shown on that Tatari's page. Once you own enough Gold or Red Tatari you can preview the higher-tier trials in advance, so you can line up the event currency you'll need.
Trials that require a specific event show whether that event is currently running — start those while the event is live. The Trials list has a "HOT" label marking the popular ones.
A T4 evolution's main payoff is its Aura — a passive buff applied to your whole team while that Tatari is on the field. The Rock Aura and the Lightning attack-speed Aura are the most valuable, especially in Goldrush.
The Badge Dojo
The Badge Dojo is a tower challenge run separately per element. Clearing floors earns badges that buff every Tatari of that element, account-wide — a Drop Badge (+10% to all stats of that element), an HP badge (+20% HP) and an ATK badge (+20% ATK) per element.
Because a badge lifts a whole element, push the Dojo of the element your main team already uses before spreading investment around. Your total badge count also sets a Trainer Title (Novice through Supreme).
Dojo floors gate on how many evolved Tatari of that element you own (7 of the element for floor 1, rising to multiple Rainbow-rarity evolutions for the top floors), so the Dojo and your evolution plan feed each other.
| Dojo floor | Unlock (per element) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Own 7 Tatari of the element |
| 2 | 5 Gold-rarity evolutions |
| 3 | 1 Red-rarity evolution |
| 4 | 3 Red-rarity evolutions |
| 5 | 6 Red-rarity evolutions |
| 6 | 1 Rainbow-rarity evolution |
| 7 | 3 Rainbow-rarity evolutions |
Element coverage
The element cycle is Lightning → Water → Fire → Grass → Rock → Lightning. Hitting the element you counter deals 200% damage; being hit by your counter, you take 200%.
Don't build a single-element roster. Later campaign stages, Boss Challenge and Horde waves mix elements within one fight, so you want a main team plus at least a tank and a DPS in each other element to avoid bad lanes.
During deployment the game flags each lane green or red based on this — use those flags to decide which Tatari goes where.
What to do each day
Log in for the Horde Invasion daily quests (they replaced the old per-battle Pinball rewards). The new seasonal Horde format has a difficulty selector — clear one difficulty to unlock the next, and your best single-run kill count sets your season ranking.
Run Island Goldrush for its currency and league rewards, and whichever team event is live (Fishing Contest, Cozy Farm, Zobo Shooter). Trial quests now show a schedule of team events for the next two weeks so you can plan.
Keep your Pinball Trees collected and your Auto Feeder stocked once you've unlocked it.