"It all started a long time ago, in a world that was completely made-up: A fantasy Piggy Island, with silly costumes were fashionable and weapons were... How to put it, a bit different..."
Angry Birds Epic is a Turn-Based Tactics RPG take on Angry Birds. It was soft-launched in Canada, Australia and New Zealand on March 17, 2014, and was released internationally on June 12, 2014.
As usual, King Pig orders his minion pigs to steal the birds' eggs. But this time, with the help of Wizpig (Chef Pig's alter-ego) & Prince Porky (Ross' alter-ego), they're taking them to various locations across Piggy Island, which leaves the birds in hot pursuit and battling pigs with all kinds of special abilities along the way.
This game provides examples of:
- Absurdly High Level Cap: You can finish the game with levels in the late teens (around 16 to 20), but the cap itself is balanced for the postgame Chronicle Cave and keeps rising as more Cave levels are released (25 to 29 to 37 to 41 to 45 to 50 to 100, and the soft release originally didn't even have a cap).
- Allegedly Free Game: Golden coins are primarily purchased with real money, though they can be obtained for free. They're needed to get strong items, including Mighty Eagle's Favourite Dish, which will One-Hit Kill any pigs on the enemy team.
- Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: In early versions of the game, the daily Golden Pig is fought on top of a golden cloud full of golden pigs, candy and coins. Averted as the daily Golden Pig is now found within ordinary levels instead. It returned during the campaign dungeons where you can fight them if you managed to collect enough stars in the campaign.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- For those that are going the solo route (ie, not using the game's multiplayer features), the game provides a few simulated "friends" that play the game alongside you, complete with giving you the same bonuses you'd get if the "friend" used a feature that benefits you and vice versa with you using a feature that benefits them. It's also possible to challenge their teams in the Player Versus Player feature of the game (although an update removed said feature).
- An update made both pigs with the Dodge ability and the Ironclad ability easier to deal with so they will take damage instead of outright ignoring them. Now, pigs with the Dodge ability has a cap put on the maximum damage they can take while Ironclad Pigs will only take 50% of the damage below a certain threshold.
- Another update made the Castle levels easier when replaying them. Instead of being at your level, the Castle levels are set to their own level. This is useful if you need to replay said level.
- Anvil on Head: Defied, early in the game, a rouge pig is seen with the magic anvil (used for crafting when unlocked) above the entrance to the cave Chuck is imprisoned in. Fortunately, he is unaware of his position and doesn't drop it on Red and stays there until you fight him.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: There are five potential party members, but you're only able to use three in battles. Some stages may occasionally increase it to four, but it's rare and usually only occurs in certain Chronicle Caves levels and Events.
- Bamboo Technology: Weapons are crafted from seashells, coral, rocks, and bits of crate washed up onshore. They look like they're held together with bubblegum and asking really nicely.
- Big Bad: King Pig, though he gets betrayed by Wizpig.
- Boss Remix: The Boss theme is a remix of the main Angry Birds theme.
- Brutal Bonus Level: Chronicle Cave is a massive step up in difficulty from the campaign. In addition to the tough enemy pigs, every floor has a unique effect that benefits the pigs. Additionally, unless you have friends that can loan you birds, you can only play a maximum of 3 times per day for free without coming in seriously crippled.
- Co-Dragons: Prince Porky and Wizpig are the two highest-ranking pigs, serving directly underneath King Pig. That is, until Wizpig betrays the king and takes over as the Big Bad.
- Combat Medic: Matilda's classes are focused on healing, though she still has ways to attack.
- Crossover: With Puzzle & Dragons and Sonic Dash, as both games held Angry Birds Epic events concurrent with Epic holding their own event based on the other game.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: Many of the bosses fight just like regular enemies, but have inflated HP and attack power. Some, like the Howler, require more strategy to beat, but others are straightforward stat checks. In particular, the Sword Spirit works like this due to denying the use of additional party members or potions — if you can't win, Level Grinding is the only option.
- Duel Boss: The Sword Spirit boss only allows you to take one bird into battle, and you can’t use potions.
- Easy-Mode Mockery: In earlier versions, the difficulty scale had a baby pig on the green part (left), indicating that the following level would be very easy because the selected birds were so strong.
- Edible Bludgeon: Some of the Brutes fight with a wheel of cheese attached to a stick.
- Extra Turn: One of Chuck's set allows him to have a chance of another action. In Player Vs Player, one of the emblems allow all birds to have a chance of having this status.
- Flunky Boss: Several of the bosses fight alongside flunkies. For example, Prince Porky calls other pigs and bombs to assist him, the Howler summons other ghost pigs, and Wizpig has two strong zombies alongside him in his final encounter.
- Gameplay Automation: The lower right button of the screen allows you to relinquish control of your birds to the AI. This isn't possible in the Player Vs Player arena.
- The Goomba: Ordinary Stick Pigs serve as this. They're weaker than their brethren, and, in the case of certain subtypes, have an "attack" where they trip and fall, not hurting anything. Rogues also have this attack, except instead of tripping, they sneer annoyingly.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- In the final battle against Wizpig, Prince Porky joins the birds on the second wave in retaliation for Wizpig's betrayal immediately prior in the plot. In Chronicle Cave, he can be chosen as an ally.
- Pigiana Jones can be chosen as an ally in Chronicle Cave too.
- Herd-Hitting Attack: Chuck's lightning attacks hit all the pigs at once. Bomb's rage chili ability also deals heavy damage to all enemies, as does Prince Porky's.
- HP to 1: Wizpig cannot be finished off by a bird in his Final Boss fight, and instead will survive the hit with one hit point. You must deal the finishing blow with Prince Porky.
- Instrument of Murder: Several of Matilda's weapons are harps that she uses to bludgeon enemies with. Then there's the Doom set's weapon, a Sinister Scythe with harp strings tied to it.
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Bamboo Forest is primarily based on Feudal Japan (with the bulk of enemies being Ninja and Shogun pigs), but also has some Chinese-themed enemies (such as the Mandarin pig).
- Jack of All Trades: The Blues can do a bit of everything, ranging from the Trickster's high damage/buffing to the Rogue's poison/counterattacking.
- Job System: Red gets Fighter classes, Chuck gets Wizard classes, the Blues get Rogues, Matilda gets Cleric classes, and Bomb gets Pirates. Classes are changed through the bird's Cool Helmets.
- Kill It with Water:
- The Rainbird, one of Chuck's classes, attacks by raining down acid rain on every enemy.
- Inverted with Chronicle Cave's Healing Waters, as it will heal pigs.
- King Mook: The majority of bosses and mini-bosses in the game are simply larger and stronger versions of normal enemies, sometimes with different names and slightly different moves to set them apart. One of them, Captain Red Beard (basically a stronger version of Pirate Captain), has two looks. He looks completely different and/or is larger. The final boss of Chronicle Cave 25 takes this trope up to eleven—not only does the Alphapig have over a million HP, but he's also essentially a stronger version of the Stick Pig. The very first enemy in the game.
- Knight in Shining Armor: All of Red's classes have this theme: Knight, Guardian, Samurai, Avenger, and Paladin.
- Leaked Experience:
- Levels are gained collectively, not individually.
- Averted with the Mastery system. Only the classes present in any given battle can earn Mastery from that battle, so you can end up with a specific bird (or more like a specific class) being a Mastery level or two higher than all the others.
- Life Drain: The source of most healing effects; usually 10-20% of damage dealt.
- Limit Break: The Rage Chili. It builds up as you deal and take damage. When it is full, one bird can use their Rage Skill.
- Make My Monster Grow: One of the Prince Porky fights has Wizpig show up to cast a growing spell on him, making him stronger.
- Mecha-Mooks: Drone Pigs, flying robotic pigs packing a variety of strong weapons, appear during special events, as well as occasionally in Chronicle Cave.
- Metal Slime:
- The Golden Pig shows up in a random level once per day. It hits fairly hard and can drain your Rage Chili, but drops one Snoutling every time it’s hit, and drops a Gold Snoutling when defeated.
- The Wealthy Rogue, a Rogue pig holding a Thief Bag full of Snoutlings. It drops a Snoutling every time it's hit and drops a huge pile of them when defeated, but will run away if not defeated in 3 turns.
- Mighty Glacier: Brutes (including their variants). They can withstand a lot of damage, but luckily, it takes 2-3 turns for them to unleash their devastating attack. This can be delayed if they're stunned, however, or had their charge time delayed with the Treasure Hunter or Chuck's Reset Set.
- Nerf Arm: Some pigs are armed with feathers tied to sticks. They prevent the Rage Chili from charging up.
- No Animals Were Harmed: The gameplay trailer ends with the narrator stating "no birds or pigs were harmed during the filming of this trailer."
- No Item Use for You: Sword Spirit's passive ability, Duel of Honor, prevents the use of potions.
- No Man of Woman Born: Demonic Wizpig's ability prevents any bird from finishing him off. However, it says nothing about pigs, which lets Prince Porky (post-Heel–Face Turn) take him down.
- No-Sell: Demonic Wizpig won't take any more damage from birds (except from Prince Porky or Mighty Eagle's favorite dish) if he has 1 HP left.
- Obvious Rule Patch: Before an update, Demonic Wizpig's ability only prevented the birds' direct damage from defeating him, meaning he could be defeated by the passive damage of Druid, Rainbird, or Rogues.
- One-Hit Kill: Mighty Eagle's Favorite Dish. It is placed in the middle of the pig's side when given to any bird, summoning Mighty Eagle and hitting every pig. He's the only bird that can kill Demonic Wizpig.note
- One-Winged Angel: Wizpig transforms into a larger, demonic version of himself for the final battle.
- Out-of-Genre Experience: Epic is an RPG instead of an Artillery Game.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: The Blues' Classes are distinguished by being shoddy pig costumes... except for their Epic-tier class, which is a Conspicuous Trenchcoat and fedora ensemble.
- Play Every Day: The Golden Pig battles appear once per day. Replaced in an update with the Daily Streak calendar.
- Pirate: Bomb's classes: Pirate, Cannoneer, Capt'n and Seadog. The only ones that don't quite fit are Berserker and Frost Savage. However, they both resemble Viking headgear. Vikings were pirates so it still counts.
- Power-Up Letdown: The gambling mechanics for obtaining loot have a chance to give you an item that is about the same as one you currently have equipped, or even give you a worse one.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Averted in the case of King Pig. While he has a passive ability that increases his allies' attack power and an attack that can disable a bird's Rage Skill for two turns, he's an incredible pushover (the Rage disabling attack, for instance, does a negligible amount of damage), and is only a threat because he's fought alongside Wizpig and Prince Porky, the latter of which better fits this trope.
- Rearrange the Song: The theme song is a medieval-sounding horn-and-fife version of the original game's theme.
- Royal Brat: Prince Porky is implied to be this, with his sneering laugh and tendency to throw a fit when Red’s party accomplishes something.
- Shout-Out:
- The Foreman has a red hat and a pipe with a green mushroom on it for a weapon. Does he look familiar?
- The Candy Bomb and Candy Chain (one of Bomb's epic sets) have all the candies from Candy Crush Saga.
- Chef Pig's name in this game is Wizpig.
- Pigiana Jones.
- The Dark Knight from Trick or Treat Castle sports a Darth Vader helmet.
- Matilda's Cleric class is designed to resemble the White Mage.
- Some of the optional bosses in Chronicle Cave include the Knight of the Living Dead, Lawrence, Pork Da Silva, and Winter Soldier (who has an attack called "Winter Is Coming").
- Sinister Scythe: Matilda, of all birds, gets one as part of the Doom set.
- Skippable Boss: There are several bosses who are not on the main path, meaning they do not need to be fought to complete the story.
- Pigiana Jones/Adventurer Pig during the middle of the game (to be exact, Slingshot Woods).
- Cactus Knight Captain on Desert Island.
- Smash Mook: The Brute family of pigs have very high HP and a devastating (albeit slow) attack, but nothing else. Some of the later ones do have a passive ability, but none of them can do anything but smash.
- Spam Attack: Chuck's Limit Break makes the entire party attack random enemies 5 times.
- Squishy Wizard: Chuck tends to have the least HP of the birds. He's also a literal wizard in this game, having several spellcaster classes to choose from.
- Status-Buff Dispel: The Blues' Trickster class can dispel status buffs from pigs, and status debuffs from your birds.
- Status Effects: Poison, Ivy, Stun, Attack Reduction.
- Superboss:
- The tenth level of each cave in Chronicle Cave contains a super-strong boss pig.
- If you have obtained the submarine, tap on the whirlpool. It brings up the maelstrom stage, in which you get to fight a level 40 Poseidon Pig, once the strongest enemy in the game.
- The Straight and Arrow Path: The Blues use a Bow and Arrow as some of their weapons.
- Totem Pole Trench: The Blues control as a single character, despite being three birds wearing one costume. Amusingly enough, one of their classes even has them wearing a trench coat.
- Token Heroic Orc:
- Piggy Mc'Cool, a pig who is the merchant of the game who is disguised as a bird. He can also join the party in the daily dungeon levels.
- Another is Professor Pig, a Mad Scientist who runs a potions shop.
- Mc'Cool, Prince Porky, and Pigiana Jones can all fight with the party in the post-game Chronicle Cave.
- Turns Red: Demonic Wizpig in the final level before the Chronicle Caves.
- Underground Monkey: The Brutes, the Foreman Pigs, the Knight Pigs, the Shamans, and the Wizard Pigs have variants for nearly every type of pig within the game, to the point where it borders on the Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot trope. However, they're not the only types of pigs that have variants to them; ordinary pigs, the bombs, the Pigmies, the ghost pigs, the zombie pigs, the ninja pigs, and in the 3.2.0 update, Pirate pigs, have several variants as well.
- Un Evil Laugh: Rogue pigs have an “attack” where they laugh stupidly at the birds, to no effect at all.
- Uniformity Exception:
- Piggy Mc'Cool, the game's merchant, wears the exact same Paper-Thin Disguise he wore within Angry Birds Toons, presumably to invoke this trope in order to tell the other birds who he is (so that they don't attack him on sight).
- Freckled Pig/Ross, in his Prince Porky persona, has an even bigger discernible appearance within this game now that he's wearing a wig and a hat.
- Pigiana Jones (AKA the Adventurer Pig and later on Swashbuckler Pig) is technically a Pirate pig who wears a fedora instead of a pirate hat and wields a whip instead of a pirate weapon.
- Wizpig is basically Chef Pig with a wizard hat and magic wand.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: The Howler, summoned by Wizpig as a gatekeeper to the Star Reef, really makes sure that you know how to deal with undead pigs and exploit your enemies’ weaknesses. The boss has lots of HP, a powerful Damage Over Time attack which only Chuck or the Blues can reduce the damage of at this point of the game, and can summon ghostly reinforcements, forcing you to balance between wearing the enemies down and keeping your birds alive. You’ll also need to knock out the boss and all of its minions within 2 turns of each other, or else they’ll revive with full HP. Undead pigs have appeared before, but this is the first time a boss makes sure that you're paying attention to the pigs' special abilities and the state of the battle.
- Wolfpack Boss: King Pig is fought alongside Prince Porky and Wizpig, so the birds and pigs are evenly matched in terms of numbers.
