As to be expected from a game that's constantly being updated, there have been many units that started off being mediocre or outright terrible, but have since become way better thanks to the additions of True Forms, Talents, or other such buffs. So many, in fact, that they had to be split into folders by rarity.
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Special Cats
- The cats that can be purchased with Cat Food were quite infamously deemed unusable due to their abysmal stats and mediocre abilities for those that had them, leaving them only really good for early Empire of Cats before they become outclassed by gacha units or even the Normal Cats. As of Update 10.0, however, all 13 of them received Talents, uniquely boosting their stats by 80% rather than 20% to give them a fighting chance, as well as giving their abilities much more variety and allowing them to fill entirely new niches. While a handful, such as Pastry Cat, Zombie Cat, and Mr. didn't get much better, others were given much more relevance:
- Ninja Cat gains anti-Black targeting, a major movement speed increase, and a 20% chance to dodge the attacks of Red and Black enemies, letting it rush to the frontlines alongside other meatshields and wall off said enemy types if it gets lucky. Black enemies also tend to drop lots of cash on defeat, mitigating Ninja Cat's relatively high cost. Combined with the various valuable Cat Combos it's a part of, it can be a rather valuable choice for stages primarily filled with Red and Black enemies.
- Sumo Cat gains three new immunities to Freeze, Slow, and Toxic, giving it a valuable niche against enemies that rely on these effects such as Henry and Gobble. The 80% health boost it gains also gives it more HP at max level than Eraser and Manic Eraser at their respective maxes, better justifying its cost in stages it excels in.
- Cats in a Box gain Massive Damage against Black enemies, which combined with the attack boost skyrockets their damage output and gives them usage as an anti-Black rusher comparable to a mini-Yukimura. They also have a surprising amount of longetivity for their class with an HP boost combined with their existing Weaken effect.
- While most of Boogie Cat's Talents can't save it from its use as a meatshield, its Surge Immunity gives it the distinction of being one of very few meatshields with said immunity, making it invaluable in stages where the main threats are Surge enemies.
- Bondage Cat becomes an anti-Red tank that can keep up with even the likes of Roe Cats thanks to a 40% dodge chance and 30% Freeze chance, giving it an edge against low-range beefy Reds like Bore that it has a solid chance of nullifying with one of said effects.
- Dom Cat, while still suffering from her fragility and Single Target, can deal a stupefying amount of damage against her targets with an increase to her attack power and has a low chance to launch of level 6 Wave Attacks, which will happen more often than the 15% chance would imply thanks to her rapid attacks and low cooldown.
- Kung Fu Cat gains immunity to Wave Attacks, making it a powerful anti-Wave attacker with its stat buffs that also happens to outrange the majority of common Wave enemies, even the infamous Hermit Cat. Its chance of creating Surges outside of its range also gives it the opportunity to snipe enemies in the backline and block off incoming peons.
- Similar to Boogie Cat above, Actress Cat mostly suffers from being directly outclassed by Cyborg Cat, but once you unlock its stat buffs and Surge Immunity, it gains an identity of its own that only becomes more useful as Surge enemies become more common in the late-game.
- Panties Cat gains the ability to slow Metal enemies, which combined with its high range and Area Attack gives it an edge over many other common anti-Metal crowd-controllers; since Metal enemies almost all have incredibly low range, Talented Lollycat safely stands far away from them and doesn't suffer against hordes of Metal Doges as much as most other options do.
- Flower Cat, despite being as tedious-to-get as it is, was practically unusable pre-True Form, due to having the low stats of a crowd-controller and a measly 20% chance to Freeze Black enemies with its Single Target attacks, making it hardly worth the effort to get. As of Update 6.2, however, putting in some extra planning to catch the hyper-specific timing of its Awakening stage gifts you with Bombercat, the single most dominant anti-Black crowd control unit in the early game with the ability to permafreeze every Black unit in its range with just 2 well-timed sends, all thanks to gaining Area Attack and a guaranteed Freeze.
- Bean Cats, the reward for beating Greece in Empire of Cats Ch. 1, are very easy to forget soon after the beginning of the game, being outclassed by nearly every gacha anti-Red crowd controller such as Pirate Cat or Witch Cat. Thankfully, while it may take a bit to obtain the required Behemoth Stone, their True Form added in 12.4 finally breathes new life into the pair with guaranteed Wave attacks to hit multiple foes, Resistance to better handle the powerful low-range Reds they work best against, and Behemoth Slayer to retain a usable niche after Red enemies begin to dwindle. These combined specifically make Bean Cats very good at handling Casaurian Ahirujo, which in turn makes it a great unit for getting more Red Behemoth Stones, such as the ones needed to obtain the Game-Breaker that is Courier Cat.
Rare Cats
- Two units that received very similar buffs with their True Forms in Update 5.5 were Bishop Cat and Mer-Cat. Both are anti-Floating units that start off as terrible short-range Single Target units that fail to do their jobs with any level of efficiency, but upon getting their True Forms became irreplacable powerhouses in their respective fields thanks to gaining higher range and Area Attack. Sanzo Cat is an incredible slow-inducing unit that easily nullifies short-ranged Floating enemies like Bun Bun and the Cyclones and becomes just as valuable against Angels with Talents, while Cameraman Cat is a mid-range attacker so powerful it excels even as a general spammable attacker and slices through the aforementioned Floating enemies like butter.
- Adult Cat, the reward for January's monthly event, is just as horrid as the majority of its fellow monthly rewards in its Normal and Evolved Forms, thanks to its Single Target, crappy stats, and lack of decent niche (being merely strong against Red enemies). When Update 4.6 gave it a True Form, this changed thanks to a massive range boost and Long Distance, letting it fill the role as a rare backline attacker for early 4-Crown stages and no-gacha challenges, as well as gaining the ability to stack up in some stages to decimate long-range enemies and pairing extremely well with Red Riding Mina.
- Before Update 11.5, Killer Cat was very obviously a Joke Character. Identical stats to the basic Cat, but with a 7,500ยข cost, the only things it was actually usable for were grinding for money-based Meow Medals and an admittedly strong Cat Combo in Bad Guys. After the update, its True Form finally gets proper stats and a solid niche as a Surge Immune anti-Floating meatshield with serviceable attack power for its role.
Super Rare Cats
- Apple Cat is a very similar case to Flower Cat above as an anti-Red Freezing unit that suffers from Single Target attacks and a sub-optimal Freeze chance causing it to get outclassed by more spammable Rares like Witch Cat. Come Update 5.7, its True Form iCat gains Area Attack and a guaranteed Freeze to become a top-tier anti-Red crowd controller.
- Gold Cat started off as a completely unremarkable clone of the basic Cat when so many others already existed, and even the unique pool of experience it offers if sold tended to be shafted in favor of the base 15 NP you could get from it and every other Super Rare. After so long in this forgettable state, Update 11.4 would finally gift it Wave Immunity, giving it the distinction of being the cheapest, most spammable Wave Immune meatshield and making it irreplacable in its role in Wave-heavy stages.
- As to be expected of annual event units, Neneko's five holiday variants are mostly stuck as Promotional Powerless Pieces of Garbage with little to differentiate themselves from the already-mediocre original (aside from Sunny Neneko's guaranteed Crits) until they began receiving True Forms throughout various 11.0 updates. While most of them didn't gain particularly useful additions to make them viable, Gloomy Neneko was given Wave Blocker. What lets her stand out from existing Wave Blockers like Octopus Cat is a trait previously shared only by collab Uber Rares and Doom Engine Pandora; her range of 350 outranges the majority of common Wave enemies while remaining close enough to stop the very first part of the Wave from dealing damage, completely neutering the extra attack. While she's much less durable than other Wave Blockers, she's also way cheaper and has about a third of the cooldown of her Uber competitors, rewarding skillful usage with the ability to trivialize Wave-heavy stages.
Uber Rare Cats
Regular
- Baby Cat starts as a very weak unit thanks to its incredibly low range, lack of defensive attributes other than its merely decent health, and unhelpful Knockback and immunity to Freeze. Evolve it into Cats in a Cradle, however, and it gets a sizable range increase that lets it more reliably stand behind meatshields and guaranteed Waves that double its effective DPS and lets it pick off enemies hiding behind the peons.
- Lasvoss has always held the role of a slow-attacking nuker, with gargantuan damage potential that can annihilate most things in its path. Its first two forms, however, are very unweildy to use because of its incredibly low survivability, with merely 34k health at Level 30, 320 range, and Wave Immunity as its only defensive ability aside from crowd control immunities. Thankfully, this problem is greatly alleviated with its True Form in Update 10.4, which doubles its health, adds immunities to Surge and Toxic attacks, and increases the activation point of its Strengthen, making it much easier to land Lasvoss' devastating attacks (which also get a sizable buff in damage) before it goes down. The main caveat is that said True Form is mind-bogglingly expensive, demanding an Elder Catfruit, Gold Catfruit, and 10 Epic Seeds, but if it can be obtained it's definitely worth it for such a major improvement..
- Gravolo was rather disappointing when it first released thanks to co-existing with Cat Machine Mk 3, who outdid it by a vast margin as an anti-Alien tank, and the aforementioned Cats in the Cradle, who outdid it by a vast margin as a short-ranged Wave attacker, leaving Gravolo's niche as merely an effective barrier-breaker. Come its true form as Gravolodon in Update 10.6, and the pixie's good qualities improved by quite a bit, letting its stats compete with its primary rivals and making its waves reach even farther to mass-annihilate hordes of tough barriers, a quality that makes it much more effective against Starred Aliens.
- Similar to the above, Yaminoir was created as an anti-Alien tank with an additional Aku target. On release, unfortunately, its combination of bad health and high range for its role made it terrible at protecting your units even back when anti-Aku alternatives hardly existed, and its Weaken wasn't doing it many favors with its lack of ability to get past Aku shields, leading to it being considered the worst of the Elemental Pixies at the time of release. Once it got its True Form in Update 12.1, though, it was finally able to carve itself a much better role. Its HP was doubled, making it much better at withstanding attacks from its targets, but the real stand-out addition was the rare Wave Shield ability. Yaminora's previously inconveniently high range was now one of its strongest points, as its ability to outrange common Wave attackers and still nullify the Wave before any of its damage can be dealt handed it a role only held by five units beforehand... and not only did it get this role, it outclassed all four of its competitors thanks to its durability outdoing Gloomy Neneko and Tokyo Miku and its dirt-cheap cost and rapid cooldown dwarfing those of its Uber-class rivals, turning it from a piss-poor crowd-controller with bulk into the bane of nearly every Wave enemy's existence. As a bonus, the True Form also grants a medium Resist Up combo with only two units, making it even bulkier against its targets and making it a fantastic support for more standard tanks.
- While never a downright terrible unit, Anubis the Protector at base is very underwhelming as a backliner and faces stiff competition from Ururun Wolf, who outclasses him in nearly every regard. Thankfully, he later recieved two waves of Talents that helped him stand out and become an absolute generalist menace. First came his regular Talents in the same update as his True Form, which offer him a niche as a rare Surge Immune backliner and buffs to his average DPS in the form of the basic Attack Buff and occasional Surges of his own. His Ultra Talents, released in Update 12.6, then brought him even further by completely removing the time between his attacks to take his DPS to a terrifyingly high level, as well as adding a high chance to pierce Shields, comboing well with his Surge Immunity to make him one of the best anti-Aku in the game once fully invested.
- Before Update 12.1, Kuu was considered one of the most middling-at-best Ubers in her set - her stats are pretty high, but these attributes get negated by her glacially slow attack rate, long foreswing that makes her prone to missing attacks, and her targets being some of the most power-crept traits in the game, leaving her rarely worth using over better options. Her Ultra Talents, on the other hand, skyrocket her usage by nearly halving her attack rate, giving her a Relic target, and making her immune to Surge Attacks, letting her excel in significantly more areas and perform very well even as a generalist nuker.
Collab
- Mola King, a unit primarily known for being a god-awful backliner with DPS too low for its Dump Stat-tier health, gained three Talents in Update 12.5 that all increase its usability tenfold. Its attack boost is standard but makes its DPS more worthwhile and goes well with its level 5 Mini-Surge talent, which gives it the opportunity to chip down enemies from an even further distance. The major standout, though, is a chance to dodge attacks from all enemies that maxes out at 80%, turning a unit that dies in one hit to the weakest of enemies into a hilariously abusable wall with a decent chance to go the entire stage without taking a single point of damage on the occasion it even does get hit. While the NP investment is massive to reach its true potential, the reward is oh-so-sweet compared to the awful unit it used to be.
- The 13.1 update gives True Forms to the Metal Slug Defense collab Ubers, all of whom suffered from being a Master of None thanks to their early release. While most of them sadly don't do enough to save the units from mediocrity, JUPITER KING is very much an exception. An unremarkable general attacker with sub-par anti-Alien crowd-control in its Normal and Evolved forms, JUPITER KING's True Form grants it a guaranteed level 1 Surge attack at a very consistent range, effectively doubling its DPS and turning it from okay to outright incredible. Its health also gets a huge buff from 76k to 138k, making it incredibly tanky for a unit with 460 range. As a bonus, it also gains guaranteed Barrier Breaker, which lets it shred through tough Starred Aliens with the help of its Surges.
