Koala's Battle Guide using the Bite + Wait method [Updated for battle rework]

What opening move do you suggest against Fearless opponents, if there's a negative modifier to both Snarl and Chase?  Is Snarl/Chase worth it anyway, or do you do something else?

The battle system makes SO much more sense now. Gonna test it out later. 

I'm very glad this could help some people out! ♡ I hope you find your battles are more successful now that you're armed with some info! 

@Nika, against a fearless opponent I still snarl the majority of the time! Because you can only get trophies or stats against enemies 5 levels below you or higher, the vast majority of fights I pick I still get -1 low modifiers using stat based moves.

Snarl is the only choice that doesn't have a stat modifier, so against an opponent around my level or higher, I will usually see a -1 speed modifier on chase (on top of the -1 fearless). Focus does not receive a negative modifier for fearless, but I do get a -1 smarts impacting the roll, and snarl receives only the -1 fearless modifier. Since Focus and Snarl both have the same modifier (-1 total) in this situation, I pick snarl because the panicked result is better then focuses if I do succeed. 

The only time I will not snarl is if it's a *group* of fearless animals (in glacier that's only walrus group) because then focus gets a +1, so I focus instead. If there is a fearless *prey* animal out there (there isn't in glacier) I would recommend chase instead for the +2 prey modifier!

That makes sense, thank you!

just started using your bite/bleed + wait method and it's doing wonders! i blew through 10+ enemies at 0% energy and won the majority of them, half of those i won even without using lucky feet. this is a huge game-changer because i used to hold off energy to ensure i had enough to not get a debuff during battles, but now i can dedicate all my energy to grinding essence during the daytime. thank you so much for making this guide :D

I'm so glad that it's helping you!! I'm finding after gathering all this data that I wish I lived in a prey-heavier area, because with +2 to chase on prey animals you could actually guarantee yourself the fight turn 1 if you make the opening move! [You get opening move, use lucky foot, 'chase', automatic success on a prey animal, then once bleeding wait will always be 100% successful because of tired + prey modifiers!] There are just so many opportunities now for people who want to choose the best fights possible for themselves to save on salves/feet/energy, *way* more then there were before the update! 

Just tried this out - it's been an absolute game changer for me! I don't feel like I'm relying on pure luck anymore haha. Thank you for this!

I don't actually have an solid data that I can chuck at you, but from experience the latch crush combo is great against reptiles such as snakes. It seems to succeed more often than not and I almost always manage to continue to hold one. Also, the latch shear combo seems pretty decent against hooved animals, I'm not sure if it's exclusively for singular hooved animals or groups, but I get easy bleeds from that match up and I usually keep the latch on it too. 

I could try recording some data if you'd like. ^^

Sure! I'm working my way through rescouting my biomes to make it to the other areas to gather data on other creatures, but I'll always take data from others before I get there!

All I'd need you to do is battle as you normally do, and then mouse over your dice rolls to see if any modifiers showed up. :) I'm not gathering as in-depth as Grouse House is! No need for stats / level /etc. So if you latch a snake, take a glance and see if it gave you a modifier (like, idk, +1 reptile or something) and if it did, feel free to throw at me both the enemy name and the modifier name and value on which attack and I'll add it in! 

As far as hooved animals go, I do have access to Caribou while in the Glacier and I've not seen a latch or shear modifier on them, however there is a negative modifier to Latch on all group opponents, so if you're seeing good luck with it it's likely because there is *another* modifier cancelling out that -1 on group hooved animals, or you're simply just being lucky with it!. 

The only reason I don't recommend the Latch is because there are more dice rolls involved (which mean potential for failure). A failed bite still deals damage, a failed latch does not. A 4 on a bite is a guaranteed bleed, where as a 4 on a latch will guarantee you the latch itself, but then you need to roll *another* 4 to keep the animal latched as well as another 4 on the sheer or crush to cause the bleed. It's very possible that in other biomes there are animals susceptible to being latched (which I definitely want the data for!) but in the biome I explore in, there is mathematically never a reason to latch over bite. :(