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This picture right here. I've been sent this more times than I can count.
And since my sub count has been spiking lately, I have no issues being a crowd pleaser.
So here it is: Tier Zoo's guide to winning the most famous battle puzzle of 2018.
The puzzle goes that you can choose two groups of animals from the options on this list.
Real quick, that's a choice between:
50 golden eagles, 10 saltwater crocodiles,
3 brown bears, 7 bull cattle, 1 human, 15 gray wolves,
10,000 rats, 5 lowland gorillas, and 4 African lions.
To start, let's take a look at the stats of each contender in the fight.
So eagles easily have the highest mobility out of all the options here,
as they're the only option with the ability to fly.
With mid-to-high damage and intelligence coupled with
the second highest group size on the list, they're looking pretty viable.
Next we have the saltwater crocodile.
It's got the highest power stat of any animal on this list and could easily one-shot anything it can get its jaws on.
But, it also has the lowest mobility of any option here - at least on land anyway.
Next up we have the bear. None of its stats are the
highest of their respective category, but combined
they do easily have the highest base stat total.
But they also have the second lowest group size of all the options.
Next we have the bulls. Bulls have
the highest HP and defense of any option on this list
and their power and mobility stats are nothing to scoff at either.
Next we have the human.
The human has the highest intelligence stat of any of the options on this list, allowing it to use equipment.
In the photo, it appears to be armed with a rifle - meaning that it's the only option with a ranged attack.
While normally, a human's base power stat is pretty weak, with a rifle it jumps up to tie with the crocodile,
which can one shot any of the other contenders.
Next up we've got the wolves: excellent mobility plus decent intelligence and power, but low defense and HP.
Notably also has the third highest group size.
Next up, we have the rats: the lowest base stat total by far, but also the highest group size,
beating the next highest by three orders of magnitude.
Next we've got the gorillas: very comparable to bears
except with slightly lower stats and a slightly larger group size.
And last we have the lions: very high damage output, plus the highest stealth of all the options available.
Pretty low group size, but a powerful contender nonetheless.
Alright, so now I'm gonna rank them on the tier list as whether or not I see them as good choices.
Keep in mind this is specifically ranking them as to how useful they'd be defending you in this situation
as well as how important it is that they aren't part of the opposition.
The bottom tier picks are going to be the gorillas and the bulls.
The gorillas are strong, but every other option that has strength as its main factor is actually stronger.
Gorillas are not gonna win in a one-on-one fight with bears, bulls or crocodiles.
They could potentially hold their own against lions if they are able to see them coming before it's too late,
but lions are stealthy and I highly doubt they'd have trouble ambushing gorillas.
But more importantly, gorillas don't really offer any unique advantages on defense.
Strong as they are, defending against an armada of other animals requires strategy,
and five gorillas just don't seem that useful for that.
The cattle have a similar problem.
Honestly, the cattle's biggest strength is that it's an unstoppable solid wall of mass.
It would be really useful for reaching a defensive wall.
If we were to flip the script and say: 'Choose two and send them on a mission to eliminate the VIP',
cattle would be a lot higher on the tier list.
In D tier, I'm placing the bear.
Honestly, if this list only had one of everything, I think I'd pick the bear.
It's the best jack-of-all-trades option, but the low group size is really holding it back.
In C tier, I'm going to place all the builds which would be better or worse
depending on the environment the battle takes place in.
If there's cover to hide in like bushes or tall grass, lions would be a huge threat,
they could potentially take out larger threats before they even have a chance
to reach the VIP and Crocodiles could do the same.
If I were allowed to choose the starting location for everything in this situation, I would choose an island.
Then all of the aggressors would be forced
to swim to me, leaving them hilariously wide open to be instant-killed by crocodiles.
But if the situation is a level playing field like a simple wide open grassland,
neither of these builds really have much of a purpose.
In B tier, I'm placing the pack of wolves.
Wolves and dogs are excellent at crowd control and
could reasonably be tasked with diverting charging animals away from the VIP.
While they do have low HP, they could easily dodge
attacks from the other builds on the list, except for maybe the lion, but
I think their numbers would be enough to deter them.
Wolves are also much more trainable than the other options on this list,
so I'm not exactly sure how much control over the other animals is expected, but if
it's contingent on their ability to understand commands,
wolves are definitely standouts in that regard.
Okay, so in A tier I'm gonna do something a bit controversial and actually place the human here.
The human is alone and armed only with a bolt-action rifle, meaning
defending against multiple targets is extremely difficult.
It would almost certainly lose if put in a fight with any of the other options on this list.
But it's more important to note that the human does not need to win against any of the other animals.
All it needs to do is land a clean shot on the VIP,
which it can feasibly do from nearly a kilometer away.
And so, if the VIP does not choose the human as one of its defenders, they need a way to deal with them.
Initially, I thought that was impossible and was gonna place them at top tier.
But after thinking it through further,
the human actually does have some hard counters.
That's why I think the top tier choices are going to be the ones that can deal with the sniper effectively
while also serving other purposes, and the best option for this is the eagles.
The eagles could circle the battlefield looking for the sniper, and due to their excellent eyesight, they
could almost certainly see him before he sees the VIP.
Then they could easily go for the eyes and make it so the sniper can't aim accurately,
effectively making him a total non-threat.
They could then easily harass the rest of the
attacking army, attempting to blind them and make them unable to complete their mission.
Obviously the top choice is the rats.
If you don't pick this as one of your two,
you're gonna get overrun immediately.
Choosing the rats and eagles means you have over 200 rats to pit against every other combatant,
which is more than enough to win the fight.
Strong as bears are, 200 rats will still be able to take them down,
especially if they've had their vision damaged by eagles.
So, there you have it.
Rats and eagles is the correct choice.
You can all stop sending me this meme on Twitter now.
But picking the right options is difficult without a guide who knows their stuff.
This is true for animal deathmatch puzzles,
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