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Choose a damage direction from the attack and support already available. Compare Physical options such as Claws or Jaws with Carnivore and Muscular Tissue; for poison, first identify an actual application tool such as Poisonous Saliva. An Ability support choice alone is not evidence that the run is already applying poison. Keep a non-poison Ability route open when its attacks solve the current encounter.
Compare three separate questions: which attack reaches the target, which stat or effect improves that attack, and what lets Darwin survive while using it. In the Ability discussion, LeighGriffiths28 describes reaching Extinction 6 with a ranged poison approach while staying away from enemies. That supports examining range and application together; it does not prove that poison is mandatory or that the same selections win every Pressure. Named Ability-route discussion
Read guideChoose a way to apply poison, then build around the openings needed to use it. Compare Spit with Poisonous Saliva, Stinger, and the conditional Pedal Glands route without treating every card as mandatory.
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Read guideKeep the next comparison small. If the attack misses, examine reach, aim or intervening terrain before buying more damage. If it connects but the route fails while approaching, compare the movement or defensive choice being postponed. If poison is the intended plan, identify how it is actually applied before treating an Ability increase as the missing application tool. These are planning checks, not a ranked list of builds. Named Ability-route discussion Official 1.2 notes
For a Body Slam direction, separate size from its damage stat. In the varied-build discussion, PeterM2026 explains that Body Slam scales with maximum HP, not size; other replies connect large size to attack coverage and HP-supporting choices. A larger body therefore does not by itself demonstrate a damage increase. Read the actual HP and attack behaviour before copying a screenshot’s size as the winning ingredient. LeighGriffiths28 and PeterM2026 · route discussion
Thatotherguy6 reports a Pressure 20 win with Leech and Beak without poison. The same reply discusses kiting, food from Burrows and recovery, but gives no full acquisition order. It is a concrete counterexample to treating non-poison Ability as impossible, rather than proof of a guaranteed two-card recipe or a measured comparison against Physical. Named Ability-route discussion
OddDreamsDigital’s higher-Pressure reply rejects the idea that only Pacifist works and says many routes can win. Use that boundary when a promising attack is failing: identify whether the failure is damage delivery or survival before declaring an entire damage family unusable. The developer’s statement supports variety; it does not name one universally strongest combination or equal success rates for every route. OddDreamsDigital · varied high-Pressure routes
The 1.1 notes removed Overwhelm and Sharpen bonuses from damage-over-time attacks such as poison. A direct-attack bonus and a poison plan therefore need separate checks. If a copied build depends on applying those bonuses to every poison tick, that dependency does not match the published correction. This does not say poison is weak; it identifies a particular bonus that cannot justify the expected result. Official 1.1 notes
Version 1.2 changed Spit’s collisions: it no longer collides with cobwebs but does collide with more world elements, including rocks and trees. A ranged route can fail because the projectile meets terrain rather than because its Ability number is too low. Compare the firing lane with the target before repeating an attack from the same blocked position; the change does not make every obstacle transparent. Official 1.2 notes
The same update gives Pedal Glands a poison option through Nemertide: its trail becomes poisonous and amplifies poison damage according to how slowed the enemy is. Thick is a different Specialisation that strengthens the slowing effect. Inspect the acquired branch before assuming a slowing trail already provides this poison interaction. The announcement gives a relationship, not a universal multiplier for every enemy. Official 1.2 notes
No. The cited Leech-and-Beak Pressure 20 report is explicitly without poison. Ability support and a means of applying poison answer different questions; choose the application only if it fits the attacks and openings the run can actually use. Named Ability-route discussion
The cited explanation names maximum HP as the damage scaling. Size and HP can be associated through other choices, but that does not make them interchangeable. Compare the resulting HP value separately from how much area the attack covers. LeighGriffiths28 and PeterM2026 · route discussion
The official 1.1 correction excludes damage-over-time attacks such as poison from their bonuses. Keep that exclusion when comparing a direct attack with its poison contribution; a useful improvement to the attack does not mean the same bonus also applies to every later poison tick. Official 1.1 notes
: Removed repeated summaries and separated attack delivery, supporting stats and poison application. Added named non-poison Ability evidence and dated Overwhelm/Sharpen, Spit and Pedal Glands boundaries.
