Chapter 7 teams: stages 7-10 to 7-80

Chapter 7 opens with a fresh board, so don't try to patch the 6-80 team. The centre lane is the anchor this time. Turtuff at the front throws its piercing shell and covers allies with a Shell Shield, Rubblet's beam backs it up, Cheerling heals and boosts both of them from the third row, and Humbug's dung balls linger on whatever they hit, wearing down the enemies stuck in front of that wall.

Lane 2 counts as the aggressive one. Pyrohound's fire pillar leads, Tindercub right behind can dash in to finish targets or retreat to meditate when it's in danger, and Ignisnap keeps burning from the back. A clear here used Pyropup, Pyrohound's unevolved form, in lane 2, and another swapped Tindercub for Joeyo.

Electroar knocks enemies back in lane 4 so Zapooch and Sparkdoe can work from behind; Clawzor has also replaced Electroar. Lane 1 acts as the penguin with Frostpaw far behind it, slowing whatever the shield is holding up. Sackling and Stalkerix front lane 5 ahead of Frugatoad.

7-20 flips the usual order. Several lanes put their damage up front and their guardians at the back: Frostpaw leads lane 2 while Electroar guards its rear, Cactobud leads lane 3 while Stalkerix waits at the back, and Cheerling, of all units, heads lane 4 with Pyrohound two rows behind. The whole board sits in the back rows, so those front units have room, and the guardians behind them catch whatever slips through.

Cheerling's cell is the one people change most. Clears here have put Waddledo, Frugagon or Kitjitsu in place of it, which suggests lane 4 mainly needs something durable or dangerous in front of Ignisnap, not necessarily a support.

Lane 1 works as a slow trap: Swaystroll's ice shield in front, Dewgrub's water bombs slowing and sometimes putting enemies to sleep, and Clawzor's claw leaving them Shredded from the back. Lane 5 works the same way with Droppit's mist behind Turtuff and Sackling. Sparkdoe sits between Frostpaw and Electroar, piercing and paralysing down lane 2. Ospisces and Nekowatt have also replaced Swaystroll and Electroar in one clear.

Cheerling earns its place on 7-30. One player said everything fell apart without it, and the reply pointed at the other weak spot: missing T2 units on the right lane. In Lineup 1, Cheerling sits between Waddledo and Ignisnap in lane 2, healing and boosting the penguin so its shield lasts and pushing Ignisnap's burn harder. If you can't field it, clears here have used Cheerlet, its evolved form, or Firecoil, whose flame ring also heals and boosts attack, in its place.

The right lane is lane 5: Snoozebo, Cobbledon and Rockhog, all T2 forms. Snoozebo heals itself as it fires thorns, Cobbledon's beams split across targets, and Rockhog's mud slows. Under-evolved, that lane is the first to give way, so that's where upgrades should go first. Rockfu has been swapped in for Snoozebo in one clear.

Lane 3 works as a lightning stall, Electroar knocking back while Voltkit and Voltfawn hit and paralyse. Sackling, Boldclaw and Frostpaw slow lane 1 down, and Goonbug dashes in invincible from the middle of lane 4.

On 7-40, lane 3 is the wall, and it's built in layers. Sackling takes the first hits and keeps regenerating its Liquid Shield, Turtuff behind it spins a piercing shell and hands out Shell Shields, and Punchimp's hip wiggle chips at everything nearby, sometimes with a clone helping. Frugagon at the back is the reward for holding: its fruit explodes often and slows, so the longer the wall stands, the more of the wave it softens.

Swaystroll's is the cell people change most. Several clears put Ospisces in lane 1 instead, trading the ice-shield tank for waves that pull enemies into a whirlpool in front of Frostpaw.

Lane 4 is the support pocket. Electroar knocks back, Cheerling heals and boosts, and Sparkdoe's lance pierces from behind both. In lane 5, Pyrohound fronts for Kitjitsu and Cluckeroo; Goonbug has replaced Kitjitsu, and Cactobud or Frugatoad have taken Cluckeroo's place in other clears. Next to 7-30, the obvious change is lane 1, which opens with Swaystroll rather than Sackling.

7-50 is a stage where the same units can win one run and lose the next; one player said exactly that about their clear, and another said they had to swap in Bubbit and a T3 crab to make it stick. Lineup 1 uses neither, so treat those as upgrades for lanes that keep breaking, not requirements.

Lane 1 is where the consistency comes from. Capypapa heals Swaystroll from right behind, so the penguin keeps its ice shield and charges up longer before the burst, while Frostpaw slows from the back. One clear swapped Capypapa for Voltling, which trades that healing for paralysis.

Lane 4 is deliberately thin, just Electroar and Sparkdoe with a gap between them. Electroar's knockback keeps enemies off Sparkdoe while the lance pierces down the lane.

Most of the board carries over from 7-40, with Snoozebo leading lane 5 ahead of Stalkerix, Frugagon and Cluckeroo. Pyrohound, Cheerling and Ignisnap stack lane 2 with fire and buffs, and Cobbledon, Turtuff and Punchimp hold lane 3 the way the wall did before.

Don't look for a cheap fill-in for Cheerling on 7-60. One player tried Rubblet in place of Cheerling and reported that it simply didn't work, which makes sense: Rubblet is a beam guardian with no healing or buffs at all. Cheerlet, the evolved Cheerling, is the replacement other clears have actually used here.

Lineup 1 builds its support hub in lane 3. Ospisces at the front pulls enemies together with its waves and whirlpool, Cheerling behind it heals and boosts attack and defence, and Capypapa at the back peels oranges to heal whoever is hurting. That keeps the middle of the board stable while the side lanes do the killing.

Buddi is the new piece. It shines sunlight from the middle of lane 1, healing Stalkerix in front and giving it Sunshine: ATK Boost, while Frugagon's exploding fruit slows from behind. Cluckeroo has been used instead of Buddi, and Sackling or Pearpair in place of Stalkerix.

Lane 2 counts as the fire stack again, Pyrohound, Ignisnap and Embertail's mines. Electroar fronts Sparkdoe and Frostpaw in lane 4, and Cobbledon, Turtuff and Punchimp hold lane 5.

7-70 ends in a damage race with the boss, and plenty of clears just made it, one with four seconds left on the clock. If yours times out with a sliver of HP left, the fix players keep coming back to is food: feed your units before rearranging anything. One player fed the deer and got very close.

Lineup 1 is built around lightning pressure. Then there's lane 3, the core: Zappur knocks enemies back at the front, Rockfu swings its club behind it and sometimes summons a clone, Zapuni's shock wave splashes, and Boltskipper binds from the back. Lane 5 adds Zapooch's chained strikes, Voltkit and Sparkdoe's piercing lance.

Bubbit is the piece worth protecting. Its thick mist in lane 2 slows enemies and makes them Fragile, so everything else on the board hits harder, and Waddledo in front shields it while Fluffle's clouds work from behind.

One suggestion for more damage is moving the monkey into the middle and putting a unicorn or Boltskipper in the far-left lane, and a clear without the T3 frog or T2 turtle exists too. Pearpair, Cheerling and Ignisnap fill lane 4; Kitjitsu has replaced Pearpair.

The trouble on 7-80 is an electric zobo that keeps slipping through. One player's fix was swapping Rockzilla into lane 5 to kill it, and another said that doubling up the first lane almost holds, though one zobo can leak. So whatever you change, make sure the outer lanes have enough damage to finish it.

Lineup 1 handles it with an unusual mix of healers at the front. For this stage, Capypapa leads lane 2, healing from the second row while Frostpaw and Pyrohound do the damage behind it. As recorded, Cheerlet leads lane 4 the same way, with Sparkdoe piercing behind and Electroar knocking back from the rear; Gibber has been used in place of Cheerlet there.

Consider lane 3, the deepest stack: Snoozebo fires thorns and heals itself up front, Cluckeroo heals behind, Frugagon's fruit explodes and slows, and Stalkerix strikes from the back. Lane 1 lines up Turtuff shielding Embertail's mines and Cobbledon's split beams.

Lane 5 ends up being the thin one, Boldclaw's slowing bubbles in front and Swaystroll at the very back, which is exactly where the Rockzilla swap comes in. Sparkit and Firecoil have also been swapped in for Swaystroll.