New Players FAQ with Useful Tips
General
How do I improve my Phobies play?
Phobies is a deep strategy game – many of us have been playing for over a year, and are still discovering new strategies and approaches! To learn the ropes as a newbie, here are some recommendations:
- Watch replays of top players. If you click on the “Leaderboards” while looking at your League Progress screen, you can see a listed ranking of all players for Phobies currently. If you click any name on that leaderboard, you will be brought to their Player Summary screen. From here, click on the icon that looks like a film reel in the top-right corner, and you can access a player’s Battle Logs. This screen allows you to watch replays of matches from any player in the game. Watching and observing how high-level players set up their matches will go a long way in improving your game. When selecting matches to watch, it’s typically more beneficial to prioritize matches with similar Stress Levels, or where a player at a Stress Level deficit was the winner. It can also be helpful to watch matches that feature Phobies you own or want to understand better.
- Watch and play chess. It may sound unusual, but Phobies is often called “chess with monsters” by its community. Strong chess players are typically strong Phobies players, and all of the deeper theoretical chess concepts translate well into Phobies.
- Complete the 80 Phobies challenges without outside aid. These are worth struggling through, and each puzzle teaches you an important concept in the game. Using external resources to complete these puzzles isn’t just cheating the puzzles, it’s cheating yourself out of the learning experience!
How do I beat players with higher level Phobies?
For every Phobie level, it gains 3% of its base stats. A Phobie that starts with 1000 health and 100 damage would therefore gain 30 health and 3 damage per level. When facing opponents that are within 1-2 levels of yourself, these stats often go without notice. At 3-4 levels, the cumulative stat gains often add a tangible challenge to your fight. At 5-6 levels, matches can feel very difficult based on stats alone. At 7+ level differences, you may feel as though the match is unwinnable.
These are all common experiences, and it is first worth noting that there is no harm or shame in surrendering a match you do not want to play. You only suffer a small rating loss, and then you can requeue into another match if you would like to play on more even ground.
Second, know that matchmaking is purely based on your rating/rank. Phobies matchmaking does not factor in your stress level to the opponents you will face at all. As a result, while your opponent may be stronger than you, this does not mean they are better than you. If you are consistently facing opponents with stronger Phobies than you, that means you are likely an above average player for your stress level. It also means that while your opponent has a power advantage, you are, through the cumulative judgment of matches you have both had, equally likely to win.
Third: there is no surefire way to beat opponents with higher level Phobies. If there were, surely those tactics would also work against players of even and lower levels! What can help, however, is playing Phobies that enable trickier plays: terrorformers, pullers, trappers, and shovers can all enable plays that are harder for players to keep track of. The trickier you play, the more likely you are to be able to catch your opponent off-guard and come out ahead. After all, if you have lower stats than your opponent, you know you are not likely to win in a straightforward head-on confrontation!
Is it better to play asynchronous matches, or Arena?
Both are great! Asynchronous mode (async) is a lot like playing a series of puzzles. You have to look at each individual decision and figure out what the best play is, and you have an abundance of time to do so. However, since play across asynchronous usually spans multiple matches, it’s easy to forget the history of each match and how you got there. As such, a downside of async is that you lose sight of the “whole picture”, which can be important for learning.
Arena mode provides that “whole picture”, but the time you have to think between moves is curtailed by the turn timer. This means that both players typically will make worse decisions, and the matches will be less deep.
Together, the two modes help players learn different aspects of the game – anyone can benefit from engaging in both. Neither mode is more difficult than the other, but rather accentuate different skillsets.
Is Phobies a Pay to Win (P2W) game?
In the most literal sense, Phobies is a game where players can spend money to advance in levels and collection faster than players who do not spend money.
That said, there are things that strongly curtail this and make Phobies a good experience for a player at any spending level:
- The duplicate cards it takes to level a Phobie increases substantially as you level. As a result, the gap between non-spender and spender is ever closing as both players gain regular in-game resources.
- The starter Phobies the game gives you are generally strong and competitively viable even in high-end play. Phobies is not a game where you are given junk to start out with which you later abandon.
- Stress level Phobies are generally strong and are given out to all players at various stress level landmarks.
- Phobies is a strategically deep game, which means lower level players often beat higher level ones. To demonstrate this, a few of the game’s high-end players have challenged themselves to see how far they can progress in Phobies on new, low-level accounts. A few of those records are provided in the table below, in addition to any noteworthy players who made it particularly far at a low stress level. Names in blue have links to replays for those runs.
Which Phobies do players start the game with?
Players universally start the game with the following Phobies:
- Eratic
- Grave Digger
- Jar Cannon
- Murder Wing
- Razor Mouth
- Sheeping Gas
Additionally, players will receive a series of Phobies where each one is randomly selected between a pair of options:
- Cowbell / Contortio
- Eternal Knight / K-9000
- Gesundheit / Cassowary
- Stabby / BoMangles
- Unbearable / Primate #9
- Staremaster / Heavo
- Alley Gator / Fishtank
Which Phobies are the best?
It is difficult to provide a tier list for Phobies because the game has a large variety of maps which cause some Phobies to shine more on one map than another. Additionally, some Phobies are far more useful in conjunction with others, and some Phobies shine best when used to counter particular opposing Phobies. As such, this question is more complex to answer than one might think. A good answer is: All Phobies are situationally good. Rather than being concerned about which Phobies are the best, it’s a better use of someone’s time to explore when particular Phobies are the best choice. The best Phobies players use the majority of their collections.
Importantly, ultra rare Phobies are not better than other Phobies of other rarities. While many gacha games work on an increasing power level system, where commons are used early on and abandoned later as you get stronger units, this is not the case with Phobies. Some of the most impactful and commonly used Phobies in high-level play. Rarity in Phobies follows the more traditional card game system, where increasing rarity tends to convey card complexity, depth, or uniqueness, rather than power level. You can reach the highest level of play in Phobies with a collection of common and uncommon cards.
Why can’t I use my Phobie’s ability?
Abilities often have two symbols on the bottom of their icon: a lock, and a clock. If there is a lock symbol with a number, that number is the number of turns a summoned Phobie must wait before the ability can be used. The clock symbol’s number communicates how many turns a Phobie must wait to re-use that ability once it has been used.
Is Phobies cross-play?
Right now, Phobies is fully enabled for cross-play between the Steam and Mobile versions. If you have an account on Steam, you can log into the game on Mobile under that same account, and vice versa.
What are the differences between the Steam and Mobile versions?
Without intending to be exhaustive, below are some important differences between the Steam and Mobile versions of Phobies:
Mobile cannot fully zoom out on maps at this time.
- Steam does not have an option to watch advertisements for additional resources.
- Steam does not have the Subscription available for purchase.
- Steam does not have the Offerwall / Tapjoy.
If you purchase the Subscription on Mobile, you will still benefit from it when you play on the Steam version of the game.
What happens to my replays when the game updates?
Game updates that change gameplay create conflicts in replay data. Replays re-apply every action in order to simulate the match. If the game logic code or any data files change, then the replay actions are no longer valid. As a result, replays based on previous gameplay logic are disabled.
For example, in one balance patch, Beauty’s health was reduced to 1800, from 2000. If a player had a match where Beauty takes 1900 damage, then pre-patch that Beauty would have survived, while post-patch that Beauty would have died. Replays being disabled for matches based in outdated gameplay logic is considered a feature, not a bug.
Do balance patches affect Phobies currently in use?
Yes. HP reductions will reduce the maximum HP of your Phobie, which could impact your match outcome, for example.
Why are stress levels (account levels) important?
Stress levels:
- Unlock a new “Stress Phobie” at every multiple of 10.
- Unlock Challenges at level 5.
- Unlock additional Challenges at level 9.
- Starting at stress level 15, every stress level ending in 5 will give a permanent boost to your account: +30% XP earned from games, and +30% XP and upgrade cards from jacks and quests. Your daily XP cap is also increased by a similar amount.
- Unlock events at level 10, which give significant rewards; event rewards also increase every 10 stress levels after that, up through stress level 60.
- Unlock big maps at level 15, which provide an exciting new experience.
For this reason, do not hoard XP and neglect leveling up Phobies, even if you do not use them! Stress levels are an important part of account progress, and most of the Stress Phobie unlocks are considered strong by the community. This means everyone has access to one powerful set of tools as their account progresses.
What are the stress level Phobies?
Stress Level Phobies:
Common
- Level 1: Razor Mouth – 1 Key
Uncommon
- Level 10: Ginsting – 4 Key
- Level 20: Clinico – 3 Key
Rare
- Level 30: Miss Moffat – 5 Key
- Level 40: Snowball – 3 Key
- Level 50: Fowl – 7 Key
- Level 60: Oopsy Baby – 7 Key
Ultra Rare
- Level 70: Yeti – 8 Key
- Level 80: The Glob – 4 Key
- Level 90: Akira – 9 Key
- Level 100: Puff – 6 Key
- Level 110: Jammy Fish – 3 Key
- Level 120: Sasquatch – 5 Key
- Level 130: Subnoxious – 8 Key
- Level 140: Sir Probes-a-lot – 5 Key
Events
What are events?
Events are a recurring feature in Phobies that give players a chance to accumulate extra resources if they play the game in a certain way. The method of point-accumulation can be read at the top of the event.
How often do events occur?
Historically, events occur about once a month. However, this is not guaranteed, and there is no publicly known schedule of future events.
How does the event VIP Pass work?
There are two reward columns to a VIP event. Without the VIP Pass, you will only get rewards from the left column. With the VIP pass, you will get rewards from the left and the right column, as well as the VIP Tickets Prize. The VIP Tickets Prize will range from Level 1 to Level 8 based on how far you make it in the event. If you are a regular player, completing the event and unlocking Level 8 is typical.
Once the event is over, you will get a Tier Prize. The Tier Prize can can range from Tier I to Tier X. If you click on the Events tab while in the event reward screen, you will go to the Rewards screen, which will show each Tier Prize. If you tap on the “i” by the VIP Ticket at the bottom-right of the Event screen, you will be able to see your chances of getting any particular Tier Prize based on your VIP Ticket level.
What happens if I buy the VIP Pass midway into the event?
The event will give you all rewards for event progress as though you bought the pass right at the start. All accumulated points for the event are stored and utilized.
What happens if I hit a stress level benchmark during the event?
The event duplicate packs which have not yet been opened will increase in output to reflect your new stress level bonus.
Resources
What should I level up first?
First, understand that the relationship between Phobie level, and XP required for the next Phobie level, is non-linear:
- Level 1 -> Level 2: 1000 XP
- Level 6 -> Level 7: 9,800 XP
- Level 20 -> Level 21: 71,000 XP
Starting out, do not worry about optimizing your leveling too much – it is fine to level various Phobies and experiment around with your options. You get enough XP in Phobies that leveling a Phobie and then deciding you do not like to use it much will not have any significant long-term consequence on your account’s progress. Also, leveling any Phobie will increase your account’s stress level, which is a good way to grow into those stress level benchmarks that give an additional +30% card duplicate and XP boost. If you run out of XP, the game will offer to let you spend coffee in place of XP – it is not recommended that you use coffee in this way.
My strongest recommendation is to spread your levels out and try new Phobies quite a bit to see how you feel about them. It’s better to develop your own opinions through your own experiences than it is to take the experiences of others as a given for yourself.
All of that said, for new players I would give a general recommendation of leveling priorities as such:
- One “dive” Phobie (Murderwing / Cassowary).
- One 3 range Phobie (Jar Cannon).
- One 1 movement, 2 range Phobie (BoMangles / Stabby).
- One 2 range, 2 movement Phobie (Ginsting).
- One Phobie with lob attack (Unbearable / Heavo).
- Eratic.
- Gravedigger.
- One high key, high-HP Phobie (Alleygator / Fishtank).
- Razor Mouth.
- Sheeping Gas.
This gives you a nice spread of options to cover the various situations that arise in the game. Your starter Phobies given to you by the game are generally strong and have long-lasting value even in high-level play. Also, know that all Stress Level Phobies are solid investments and are used at all levels of play.
Which Tear Packs should I get?
First, you should open each tear pack once. The 1000 tear pack happens during the in-game tutorial, and will give you a new Phobie. The 2000 and 3000 tear packs will each also give you a new Phobie during their initial opening.
After that, we rely on a bit of inference. The new Phobie rates for tear packs are not public knowledge. As such, there is no categorical statement that can be made on what players ought to spend their tears on, currently. However, the community wisdom is that the 3000 tear pack is the best based on anecdotal results.
Which Coffee Packs should I get?
You will get a new Phobie the first time you open each of the three Coffee Packs: Terrifying (300), Horrific (800), and Dreadful (2000). It is unanimously agreed upon in the community that opening each pack once is in your best interest. There is no right order – it’s just a matter of personal preference. The Terrifying will give you a guaranteed Uncommon+, Horrific a guaranteed Rare+, and the Dreadful a guaranteed Ultra Rare.
After this, there are three equally valid approaches to opening Coffee Packs:
- Open Terrifying packs until all Common/Uncommon are obtained, and then switch to Dreadful. This will expand your collection the fastest, but it will be more inclined to lack higher rarity Phobies.
- Open Dreadful packs only. This will slow your collection growth rate, but by the time you have all Common/Uncommon Phobies you will be more likely to have more Phobies of higher rarity than the first approach.
- Open Terrifying packs until you get key Common/Uncommon Phobies you are interested in, and then switch to Dreadful packs. This is an in-between option.
Spending coffee on Horrific packs past the first is not advised, as your probability of getting strong returns is actually lower than investing an equivalent amount of coffee in Dreadful packs. New Phobie acquisition rates from coffee packs are public knowledge and can be viewed here:
What are the resource (coffee, tears, and XP) caps?
Your daily coffee cap is 100 from matches alone. Other sources of coffee do not contribute to the daily coffee cap.
Tears cap when you hit any daily tear value of 1250 or higher.
Your base XP cap as a new player is 5500.
What is the daily double?
The daily double will give you a second full set of jacks to open, doubles your XP cap, and doubles your tear cap. Note that a doubled tear cap does not increase your tear cap to the 2,500 – 3,000 range, but instead gives you two separate independent instances of the 1,250 – 1,500 tear cap. You will work through each cap one after another.
Acquiring the daily triple will repeat this cap-extending process for a second time, giving you a third set of resources to acquire in the day.
Spending
What should I spend money on if I decide to invest in the game?
It depends on your spending budget. To start, consider a few facts:
- Coffee sells at a baseline rate of 2000 for $20 USD.
- Coffee has historically gone on sale for 20% off for various occasions (holidays, etc.)
- Major holidays have historically offered limited deals for 50% off.
So when considering purchasing packs directly, a player will want to consider the urgency of their coffee needs. Alternatively, a player with a lower budget may want to wait for holidays to have a better value for their dollar. It’s a trade-off of value vs. time unless you are coming into the game during a sale.
For any spender at all, the VIP Pass that comes with the game’s Events is absolutely unparalleled in value, giving an effective better than 50% off coffee while also providing a large number of card duplicates and XP to level them up with.
The game’s monthly subscription is also extremely cost-efficient for leveling your account, as the Daily Double it provides for $10 USD a month effectively close to doubles the rate at which your Stress Level increases while you have it active.
How can I get coffee without spending money?
For every match you finish, you will get up to 5 coffee, depending on your performance in the match.
- Each day, you can complete Lippy’s Quest for 10 coffee.
- Each day, you may watch up to 5 advertisements in Vendy’s Shop for 5 coffee each.
- Each week, you will receive an amount of coffee up to 150 as part of the weekly benchmark for the season reward.
If we assume a 50% winrate for a player reaching 42 games a week in Doomsday 2 level of play, this results in an average of 4 * 21 = 84 coffee per week.
If a player completes all of these activities consistently, in a four week period they will receive 2,132 coffee – a little more than 1 Dreadful pack per month. Higher winrates and rankings will make this number higher.
Additionally, the game has an Offerwall through Tapjoy, which you can use to engage in activities in exchange for coffee.
How legitimate are the Offerwall / Tapjoy offerings?
Tapjoy is an independent company that is not directly affiliated with Phobies.
Many players have had success with the Tapjoy offers. Offers are region-dependent, and some offers clearly do not provide reasonable goals. Exercise reflection, restraint, and caution when choosing an offer. The best offers have multiple benchmarks so that you can verify the reward works with little time invested. It’s best to research game-based offerings before investing your time, to better gauge the time to complete and offer.
Any issues with the Offerwall / Tapjoy offerings need to be brought to Tapjoy customer support. The Phobies team cannot provide support for this feature.
To check on your Offerwall / Tapjoy reward status:
- Tap the menu button.
- Tap on “Reward Status”.
- Find your offer in the list, and tap on it to see the Reward Details.
To contact Tapjoy customer support:
- In the Reward Status screen, select the offer of concern and tap “Request Support”.
- Fill out the provided form and attach your proof of completion.
- The Tapjoy team will reach out to you via e-mail.
How do “Exclusive Offer” Phobies work?
Historically, Exclusive Offer Phobies allow a player to directly purchase a new ultra rare Phobie for a limited time. There is usually an additional incentive, such as bonus coffee, included with the deal. Based on the offers the playerbase has seen so far, the Exclusive Offer is statistically cheaper, on average, compared to obtaining the same Phobie from coffee packs. So for someone who wants a full collection, the Exclusive Offer is a money saver.
Once the Exclusive Offer period ends, players are able to obtain the Exclusive Offer Phobie through the regular means, such as card packs and season rewards. As such, players who do not want to spend money on an Exclusive Offer Phobie should not feel excluded – the exclusivity is only temporary.
Finally, Exclusive Offer Phobies are not stronger, on average, than other Phobies in the game. If you purchase an Exclusive Offer Phobie, do not expect that you are “Paying to Win” – you are gaining early access to a Phobie, guaranteed, before the rest of the general population does.
Be the first to comment