Super Auto Pets Starter Pets
Super Auto Pets is what you’d get if Neopets and Pokemon had a baby. On the surface, it’s a deck-building strategy game where you assemble a team of cartoony animals. When you go deeper into the game, you see there’s a great deal of planning required to build a winning team. As expected, this starts in the first few rounds – the perfect opportunity to get off to a hot start!
For the first two turns of a match, you’ll only have access to tier 1 pets. These are, of course, the weakest options in the game, but will be your building block for an unstoppable mid-game squad.
In this tier list, I’ll break down each of the tier 1 pets, including DLC pets, as they stack up to the other options in that category. Some pets work great with others, so I’ll also cover pet synergies in this post. Check out the best pets to purchase from the pool of tier 1 pets in Super Auto Pets!
S-Tier Pets
- Ant: If there’s an Ant in the shop, I’m picking it up everytime. It’s one of the few tier 1 pets that allow you to buff a friendly animal during a match. With multiple Ants in your lineup, you can build a tanky boi at the last position to sweep the opposing team. Additionally, you can gain a permanent buff to one of your pets by using a Sleeping Pill on your Ant outside of battle. Even though the buff goes to a random friend, the Ant is a must-buy if it shows up in your first shop!
A-Tier Pets
- Fish: The Fish is on the very edge of becoming an S-tier pet. It has the highest base health of all tier 1 pets, enabling it to take two hits at the beginning of the game (besides the Pig). This also means it can usually attack twice before fainting in your first battle. The Fish is typically a longer-term play since its ability triggers when you level up. Its buff to the rest of your team’s buff is invaluable and has often allowed me to win a round with 1 health left.
- Mosquito: Super Auto Pets’ first sniping option is the Mosquito. It can one-shot about a third of the tier 1 pets and having two Mosquitos in your lineup frequently puts you in a 4v5. Separately, the Mosquito has decent starting stats within the first available pets. If you are lucky enough to secure a level 2 Mosquito in the first few rounds, it can be a powerful strategy for securing early wins.
- Pig: This lovable round swine is the heavy hitter in the pool of tier 1 pets. It’s one of the few animals that can take out any tier 1 pet without a buff. You’ll want to boost its health with experience, food, or friendly abilities to ensure it doesn’t get sniped at the start of a battle. In the mid-game, a level 2 Pig is a great option for increasing your spending power to purchase stronger pets.
B-Tier Pets
- Cricket: This spawner can be hugely underrated in the early game. It effectively gives you a 6th pet on your team in turn 2 without having to pay for the Honey equipment. It won’t knock out many enemy pets on it’s own, but the Cricket can be a nice closer to get a cheeky victory instead of a draw. Pair this bug with a Horse to increase its efficiency.
- Horse: Speaking of the Horse, this is the ideal pet to have on your team if you intend to go the spawning route. The Horse is a glass cannon that enables spawn-type pets to dish out more damage. In the early turns, it can often be more effective to have two Horses in separate slots vs combining them. Instead of gaining the additional health in one Horse, you get extra buffs to your spawn. In later rounds, the Horse pairs nicely with the sheep (be on the lookout for the future tier list for tier 3 pets).
- Otter: This slippery guy gives you a nice buff at purchase. You get a permanent increase to both attack and health for a friend, but it goes to a random pet. As such, the Otter is a decent support pet when the rest of your squad is already decent. This way, you don’t really have to worry about who gets the buffs.
- Beetle: This is the first DLC pet on the list. Honestly, I wasn’t sold on the value of this bug when I first purchased it. However, after a few experimental lineups, I found that the Beetle can be a great way to prep for the mid-game in Super Auto Pets. You likely won’t get any value out of the Beetle in the first two rounds. However, feeding it in rounds 3 and above can net you a bulky pet that you’ll carry to the end game. In addition to a solid ability, the Beetle is gifted with good base stats.Â
C-Tier Pets
- Bluebird: The Bluebird is the second DLC pet on the list, and I feel it is highly overrated. Increasing the attack power of a pet is great, but it means your hardest hitting animal will likely be the last to act. This is less than ideal. You want your strong pets up front to try to clear out as many pets as possible. Secondly, in the first several rounds of the game, there are several pets who give more impactful buffs.
- Beaver: The Beaver has decent base stats, but the real value is in selling this critter to buff your team. Typically, you’ll want to hold on to your Beavers until after the first few rounds. Then, sell when they have leveled up and you have stronger pets to boost. The ability sends the health buff to a random pet, so try to sell any non-essential pets in your party before getting rid of the Beaver!
- Duck: For me, the Duck is just a Beaver for the shop that does less damage. It’s not going to kill anything in battle and is primarily used to set up future purchases. The saving grace is that the ability buffs the health of all shop pets. This makes the Duck pretty similar to canned food, which is one of my favorite equipment in Super Auto Pets. I rarely pick it up, but it has potential to give you a strong mid-game team.
D-Tier Pets
- Ladybug: The Ladybug is a complete resource drain on your team. It relies on purchasing food to be effective, and the buffs are only temporary. I’d only pick this up in the first turn if the Ladybug is my only option to buy a third pet. This is a rare case of the game cursing me with 2 decent pets and 4 Ladybugs. Spend your money on any other pet.
- Sloth:  Its description says it all: he truly believes in you. The Sloth has no abilities. It has 1 damage and 1 health for base stats. It’s super rare. I saw one in my first 70 or so hours of play (also scary how much I’ve played this week). There’s an achievement for getting it to level 3, and another for winning with one on your team. Neither of these scenarios is very likely to happen.
Super Auto Pets Tier 1 Pets Tier List
The major caveat here is that these are the Super Auto Pets power rankings as of early January 2022. Thankfully, the developers keep a close look at community feedback and in-game data to see how animals perform. Adjustments will be made in the future which could shift animals around the rankings, but here’s where the tier 1 pets stand as of today!
What do you think of this tier list? Would you move any pets around? Join the conversation in the comments section!
