| 1 | [[quoteright:240:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jinejbeq_400x400.jpg]] |
| 2 | |
| 3 | ''[=TierZoo=]'' is a Website/YouTube channel about biology (specifically zoology) wrapped up in the guise of gaming culture. Specifically, treating nature like an MMO known as ''VideoGame/{{Outside}}''. Biology vocabulary is swapped for gaming lingo such as "new players" for "juveniles" and "playerbase" for the total number of individual creatures. Most videos take the format of ranking animals in CharacterTiers, comparing the different "builds" of animals (typically a "genus" or closely related group of genera within a family) within a guild (roughly "family") or class (sometimes corresponding to taxonomic "class" but sometimes to "order" or less commonly to "phylum") to each other. Other videos focus on a specific build, expansion (eon/epoch), server (habitat/ecoregion/continent), strategy, or characteristic. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | Check them out [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHsRtomD4twRf5WVHHk-cMw here.]] Keep notice that they do include a lot of footage of animals killing each other, but rarely in a graphic fashion and for educational purposes. Also check out the Reddit community [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Tierzoo/ here.]] |
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| 7 | ---- |
| 8 | |
| 9 | !!''[=TierZoo=]'' provides examples of: |
| 10 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 11 | [[folder:Tropes A - C]] |
| 12 | * AchillesHeel: |
| 13 | ** In the Ice Age Tier List, the Mammoth was placed in A-Tier but not S-Tier because it was extremely powerful and had great matchups against everything… except [[HumanityIsSuperior early humans]] which it had an ''abysmal'' matchup against, even moreso than other animals due to the humans' ranged weaponry, faster speed, and the fact that its huge size and thus experience points in the form of meat made it a prime target for humans. |
| 14 | ** Ankylosaurs were considered A-Tier dinosaurs but not S-tier because of this. They had insane amounts of defence thanks to their armor and also had respectable attack thanks to their tail club. However, they had a glaring weakness to [[FlippingHelpless being flipped over]], which exposed their vulnerable neck and underside while making them unable to fight back. They would be considered S-Tier if they were reintroduced in the modern day, mainly because most modern-day predators would not be strong enough to flip them over. |
| 15 | ** The crocodilians' main weakness is their reliance on water and need for focus to score kills with their Death Roll, meaning that players who know how to avoid deep water or travel in a cooperative herd can avoid or interrupt their deadly attacks. |
| 16 | ** The dragonfly is a LightningBruiser in the air, with especially great air speed, mobility and 360-degree vision. Their weaknesses that prevent them from being S-tier are that they often accidentally fly into traps like spiderwebs and other players, and [[CripplingOverspecialization they cannot walk]], meaning that they have to use their energy-expensive flight to reposition themselves. |
| 17 | ** While both termites and hymenopterans have the powerful Eusocial ability allowing them to beat out even the MasterOfAll beetles in the S-rank spot, the former were ranked lower because their abdomens were unprotected unlike the latter, who ''did'' have rear-facing weaponry in the form of stingers. |
| 18 | ** Mantis Shrimp have a ''very'' powerful forelimb attack which puts them at the highest-tier spot for crustaceans, but their small fins and legs give them poor mobility and their pleons/tails provide such a glaring weakspot from the back that they fall short of S-tier. |
| 19 | * {{Acrofatic}}: Hippopotamuses have a fat, bulky physique but also have enough muscle to move fast. Thanks to their density, they sink underwater and this allows them to [[WalkDontSwim run on the riverbed at fast speed]]. |
| 20 | * AllLowercaseLetters: The "in-game chat" between animals is generally portrayed as VideoGame/RuneScape-style yellow text that's entirely in lowercase. |
| 21 | * AnimalIsTheNewMan: |
| 22 | ** Discussed in the "What if humans were nerfed?" video. It's speculated that should humans lose their viability in the meta, parrots and elephants would be the most likely non-simian candidates to unlock a society playstyle. This is due to their long lifespans, high intelligence, ability to grasp objects, and having diets that would benefit from adopting agriculture. The reasoning for parrots was re-iterated in "The Bird Tier List", where it was placed as S-Rank partially for these reasons. |
| 23 | ** In "Pigs used to be Overpowered", [=TierZoo=] also mentions that pigs would dominate many servers thanks to their high intelligence, fat armor, and their ability to find underground food easily. |
| 24 | ** In "The Dinosaur Tier List," the A-tier Troodon was speculated to have specced into enough intelligence to become a human-like top tier had it not been banned in the K-T balance patch. |
| 25 | * AnimalReligion: In a crossover [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzQHT26FXJI&t=782s episode]] with the [=YouTuber=] Genetically Modified Skeptic, [=TierZoo=] states some builds other than humans might have unlocked the faith skill tree - the example he uses is elephant players gathering around their dead faction members, which might be ceremonial mourning. |
| 26 | * AntiMetagameCharacter: Invoked by Anteaters in the context of the "game". Like their name suggests, they have a [[WeaponOfXSlaying superb matchup]] against the S-ranked insect builds of ants and termites. However, Giant Anteaters are still high-ranked at A-tier, while Tamanduas are B-Tier and Pygmy Anteaters all the way down at D-tier. |
| 27 | * AntiStructure: The Rodent Tier List mentions that rodents have a bite attack that is especially effective at wearing down structures. |
| 28 | * AntlionMonster: "The Ultimate Camping Build" features the actual antlion larva, which uses a pit trap to easily catch prey. However, this is only the larvae, the adult is a lot wimpier. |
| 29 | * AprilFoolsDay: |
| 30 | ** The creator released an entire video about [[CryptidEpisode Cryptid tier listing]] as an April Fool's joke. Mind you, this one was actually very well thought out and with detailed reasonings for the tiering of cryptids. |
| 31 | ** For the following April Fools, the creator did a goat (and other Caprines) tier list that was again, surprisingly well-thought out for an April Fool's joke. Turns out that goats are pretty badass. |
| 32 | * ArmorPiercingAttack: |
| 33 | ** The Jaguar's bite is stated to pierce armor, allowing it to kill prey by biting them on the back of the head. |
| 34 | ** The Pufferfish's teeth are stated to be able to easily crush shells on snails, crabs and clams, allowing them to have a great matchup against said animals while giving the pufferfish more food options. |
| 35 | ** The Mantis Shrimp is outright stated to be a "tank buster" build thanks to its extremely powerful punches capable of cracking shells. |
| 36 | * ArtEvolution: Starting from the Deep Sea Meta, [=TierZoo=] has commissioned new animations in the analysis segments of the animals. |
| 37 | * TheArtifact: The general tier list still shown routinely in the videos has several aspects which later videos or WordOfGod have retconned, including swans and starfish being listed as low-tier, and whales being listed as mid-tier. |
| 38 | * AwesomeButImpractical: VERY frequently points out that some animals' seemingly cool abilities can actually be situational at best and detrimental at worst, to the point where [[AwesomeButImpractical/TierZoo it gets its own page]]. |
| 39 | * BadassDecay: {{Invoked|Trope}} and {{Discussed|Trope}} on several occasions. |
| 40 | ** The Opabinia build, a B-tier Cambrian build in Outside's beta game, received this treatment as the meta continued to progress in complexity. While equipped with 360-degree compound vision, a trunk for tether grabs, and fins enabling advanced propulsion, they were quite lacking in the defense department; Opabinia mains gradually exchanged these traits for very advanced, if ''[[AwesomeButImpractical completely unnecessary]]'' defensive abilities, becoming the F-tier tardigrade build. |
| 41 | ** Sloth builds - back during the Ice Age, sloths had powerful builds like the S-tier Giant Sloth, which had monstrous stats and were virtually unassailable by predators due to their incredible strength, defense, HP, and natural weapons. However, early Humans, being even more overpowered, [[TallPoppySyndrome destroyed the high-tier Ground Sloth builds]], leaving only the pathetic F-tier Tree Sloths. |
| 42 | ** {{Downplayed|Trope}} by bears - while modern bears remain incredibly badass, the Ice Age saw the appearance of the Cave Bear, a colossal S-tier monster that outmatched any modern bear in raw stats. Unlike Mammoths and Ground Sloths, whose demise is easily explained by the rising dominance of Humans in the meta, the decline of the giant Cave Bear in favor of the smaller modern bears is not currently explained and is not believed to be a result of direct Human actions. (The best theory we have is that changes in the overworld made it harder for them to find suitable vacant caves to serve as their home bases. Humans are implicated in this theory, as they were competing with the bears for the same caves, but PVP with Humans did not directly cause the demise of cave bears as a build.) |
| 43 | ** Pigs play with this. The Entelodonts, aka "Hell Pigs" were boar-like Miocene omnivores that were S-ranked beasts that could easily kill prey thanks to having higher mobility and attack power than normal pigs, and were subsequently nerfed by the devs. However, Entelodonts were actually more closely related to the hippopotamus than actual pigs. Domesticated pigs that are used as livestock are actually the same species as wild boars, and pigs that do escape can [[TookALevelInBadass revert to a feral self similar to a wild boar]]. |
| 44 | ** The Antlion and Lacewing play this straight during their life cycle. As larvae, they are absolute killing machines that can easily take down prey, set up a hard-to-detect pit trap in the former, and use the bodies of its prey as armor in the latter. As adults, they have some of the lowest stats of any insect, are weak and flimsy, and cannot even fly proficiently. |
| 45 | ** Scorpions were considered very deadly builds in the past, but are [[SoLastSeason much weaker in the modern day]] to the point of being considered D-Tier thanks to having terrible matchups against several animal species. Many intelligent, agile, armored, or simply far larger animals like birds, lizards and mongooses exist, with the last being a HopelessBossFight thanks to their venom immunity, and a scorpion's claws+venom stinger combo is far easier to disrupt or avoid by most modern animals. |
| 46 | * BadassOnPaper: Centipedes predate the dinosaurs, are one of the first players to have taken the Air Breathing perk, are venomous, and have high stats all around, with only their Intelligence kept low as a DumpStat. This sounds like this would make them high tier. However, their poor senses and Intelligence make them easy to elude despite their speediness, their long hitbox makes them vulnerable despite their durable exoskeleton, and their slow attacks make them easy to dodge. These weaknesses all combine to make centipedes an F-tier class. |
| 47 | * BearsAreBadNews: Played straight or {{subverted|trope}} depending on the type of bear. |
| 48 | ** Played very straight by powerful generalist bears like Brown Bears, Kodiaks, and Black Bears. |
| 49 | ** {{Exaggerated|Trope}} by the Ice Age Cave Bear, which was even bigger and stronger than modern bears - while Black Bears make S-tier on versatility and intelligence, the Cave Bear made S-tier on overwhelming power, defense, and hitpoints - and datamining suggests that unlike other large Ice Age builds, their decline was not a result of Humans arriving on the scene. |
| 50 | ** Subverted by most specialized bears, with only the very strong Polar Bear making it outside of the very low tiers, and even it is hampered by lacking the useful Hibernate ability and having to contend with the unforgiving Arctic server, including months-long Arctic nights. In the worst place is the Panda Bear, which has specialized extremely heavily into eating bamboo even though it provides them almost no energy or XP. |
| 51 | * BeginWithAFinisher: A falcon's first attack is its most powerful, as it relies on the momentum from a high-speed dive to deal lethal damage. Should this miss or the prey survive, all subsequent attacks are far weaker thanks to the falcon's relatively small size, making it also a DeathOrGloryAttack. |
| 52 | * BewareMyStingerTail: The thagomizers and tail clubs of armored dinosaurs like ''Stegosaurus'' and ''Ankylosaurus'' would be [[invoked]]GameBreaker weapons in a modern day context, as most mammalian predators rely on attacking from behind which would put a tail weapon right in their faces. This along with their armor placed these dinosaurs at a hypothetical S-tier in the "Should Dinosaurs Be Unbanned?" video. |
| 53 | * BigCreepyCrawlies: Comes up when discussing the Carboniferous period. According to the video, the devs had the possible idea of buffing vertebrate builds, and hence decided to add high amounts of vegetation. This had an unintended "glitch"/side-effect--due to the increased vegetation, there was increased oxygen. Thanks to their Hemolyph ability that allows them to take in oxygen through breathing holes, the increased oxygen allowed arthropods to grow to huge sizes and dominate the Carboniferous meta. |
| 54 | * BiggerIsBetter: |
| 55 | ** While tarantulas have venom, it's weak compared to most other spiders. Instead, they use their sheer size (for a spider) brute force, and longer fangs to take down animals that most other spiders can't. |
| 56 | ** The larger an animal is, the higher its HP stat, and the animals with the highest HP stat are Baleen whales which include the largest animal ever in the Blue Whale. |
| 57 | ** Sauropods were considered the only S-Tier dinosaur for their time periods, as their massive size gave them the highest HP of all land animals, give them a TailSlap with ''massive'' range, allowed them to use the [[OneHitKill most powerful attack in the game]] via their [[GiantFootOfStomping stomp]] thanks to their sheer weight, and finally their height made them great at detecting and avoiding stealth attacks. |
| 58 | ** Elephants. Their huge size gives them incredible health, defense, attack, and intimidation factor. |
| 59 | ** Giraffes have legs so long that most predators cannot get a good hit on their bodies or necks. This gives them surprisingly good matchups against most African wildlife and puts them at a solid A-tier spot. |
| 60 | ** Coconut Crabs are Hermit Crab builds that grow so big they forgo the need to wear a shell, due to their huge size and power dissuading most crab-eating predators like birds, even potentially turning the tables against them. |
| 61 | ** Averted by Ostriches and many other ratites, which are considered F-Tier because they have rather low stats for their size, and their inability to fly means that they have to lay eggs on the ground, which are hard to protect. |
| 62 | * BilingualBonus: "Tier" is German for "animal", which makes ''Tier Zoo'' a MultipleReferencePun. |
| 63 | * BioluminescenceIsCool: Only if used as defensive, mate attraction or luring measures in the Abyssal server. Otherwise, you're [[TooDumbToLive just painting yourself as a highly visible target]]. |
| 64 | * BlessedWithSuck: |
| 65 | ** The Chupacabra and the Jackalope are considered to be low-tier cryptids because they're animals whose condition is brought about by a life-threatening disease. For the former, it's mange that makes them appear intimidating, but also causes them to go insane. For the latter, it's the Shope Papilloma Virus that essentially causes tumours on their face and therefore cutting their lifespan by a lot. |
| 66 | ** Tail Autotomy among lizards. Being able to sacrifice the tail as an EscapeBattleTechnique may seem like a lifesaver, but ItOnlyWorksOnce unless the tail can be regenerated, gives a MaximumHPReduction, and permanently disables the ability to TailSlap. Tellingly, the two S-ranked lizards in the Monitor and Komodo Dragon had a high rank partly because they ''lacked'' tail autotomy. |
| 67 | * BloodsuckingBats: Vampire bats are discussed as part of the "Are Bats OP?" episode. In general, their hematophagous capabilities are considered AwesomeButImpractical, due to lacking the RequiredSecondaryPowers of a high enough stealth stat to avoid being detected by a conscious victim. It was theorized that vampire bats were more efficient during the Ice Age, where several giant mammals had a harder time detecting them due to the size difference. |
| 68 | * BoringButPractical: |
| 69 | ** The Cane Toad. Instead of putting [[CripplingOverspecialization too many points into poison and aesthetics]], it foregoes aesthetics and puts points into more practical capabilities--just enough toxins to kill a cat, larger size, gobbling, hunting, thick skin for far better defence, and fast maturity. This allows it to be ''S-ranked'' while most other amphibians are ''F-ranked'', and contributes to its invasiveness all over the Australia server. |
| 70 | ** Likewise, the bullfrog is a frog build with higher power and bulk that eschews special abilities, which makes them very viable as frogs thanks to increased survivability. |
| 71 | ** In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX7-PZSzhmY Lizard Moveset Guide]], the highest ranked lizard was the Monitor Lizard, eschewing special abilities (i.e. color change, [[BloodyMurder eye blood squirt]], [[WalkOnWater walking on water]], walking on [[WallCrawl walls]] and [[CeilingCling ceilings]]) for having high stats. The end result was something more efficient in [[LightningBruiser power, speed, and durability]] than the other lizards. Subverted with the Komodo Dragon discussed in the video on dinosaurs--while it has even greater power, speed and durability, it also comes with special abilities too like a deadly bite, anti-bacterial blood, and pack hunting. |
| 72 | ** Builds like the Great White Shark, Kodiak Bear, Gorilla, Orca, and Black Mamba which get into S tier by just taking their base class, and raising the stats as high as they can go without incurring some form of penalty, ignoring almost all unique skills in favor of just being generally better at being their specific class. |
| 73 | ** The Baleen whale build, which can be summed up as [[CripplingOverspecialization replace teeth with Baleen only good for farming krill]], then [[{{Whoring}} put every point you can into health]]. Effective, safe, and has a crazy KDA, but very boring to play. |
| 74 | ** Sponges have the simplest game plan of any animal, having no brain, no ability to move on their own, no camouflage, and no attacks of any kind. However, they are still fairly effective B-tier builds because any player who tries to eat them would get injured by their spicules and, in some cases, by their poisons. |
| 75 | ** The Bass compared to most fish builds. It doesn't have wings, poisonous spines or any other special features. Instead, it has a lot of bulk, big jaws and a generalist diet which allows it to deplete freshwater habitats and even eat Alligator hatchlings. |
| 76 | ** One of the traits that make the humans such a game breaker is their Marathon Pro ability, which allows them to regenerate stamina even while they run. It's not anywhere as flashy as pure speed would be, but it does mean they can overtake faster players through pure attrition. A human will never outrun an antelope, but it will catch up once the latter exhausts all its stamina reserves. |
| 77 | ** The Ruminant ability allows an animal to gain exp from eating grass. [=TierZoo=] states that it sounds like a boring ability, but is extremely useful since grass is almost everywhere, which means the ruminant player doesn't need to search or forage for food. This in turn means the player doesn't have to invest in abilities to forage, and simply reinvest those points into other stats -- and in the case of bovines, allows them to have high attack and health stats. |
| 78 | * BrokeTheRatingScale: The Abyssal server is so weird that Tier Zoo can't even make a traditional tier list for it. This is because much of it is unexplored and as such, nobody really has good information of what it's like down there. |
| 79 | -->"But nothing comes close to how different the Abyssal server is. It's so different that I actually can't even make a traditional tier list for us. Why? Well, because nobody knows what the Meta really looks like down there." |
| 80 | * BulletTime: Flies have such ridiculous reaction time that they're essentially playing the entire game in slow motion, which makes them a surprisingly effective build, with the robber fly in particular being S-tier. |
| 81 | %%ZCE * TheBully: The Baleen Whale is considered this for going after krill. |
| 82 | %% --> '''Tierzoo''': "There's something about the largest builds in the game having a game plan centered entirely around winning against the smallest players in the game that doesn't sit right with me." |
| 83 | * CatsAreMean: The Cats vs. Dogs episode explains that cats are actually more an assassin and not exactly a support class (the support ability comes from ''Toxoplasma''), and outside cat builds in particular have an absurdly high kill rate as well as being known to grief smaller classes such as birds and mice--up to 3.7 billion birds and 20 billion mice a year, in fact. |
| 84 | * CharacterTiers: [[invoked]] The central premise of the channel is placing animals in tier lists. |
| 85 | * ChestMonster: Snapping turtles, specifically the alligator snapping turtle, has the rare Lure ability that allows it to act like this. By wiggling the worm-like appendage on its tongue to look like loot, it can trick other players into swimming into its waiting jaws where it will snap them up and eat them. |
| 86 | * ChildEater: |
| 87 | ** Despite the ''Dimetrodon'''s use of parental care in its playstyle, the strategy was not nuanced enough for the hatched young to avoid aggroing their own contemporaries, who team kill them as a result. |
| 88 | ** Despite its delayed starvation and dehydration rate, the D-tier ''Coelophysis'' build was forced to team kill the weaker players once sources of XP became scarce. |
| 89 | * CleverCrows: Corvids were considered S-tier animals in the city meta and out of all birds in general, thanks to having the high intelligence to get various loots and interactions while also sporting high mobility. A later video explained how they use their intelligence, aside from using the environment to their advantage, they can also manipulate other players by pecking them to attract their attention or even [[LetsYouAndHimFight get them riled up enough to attack another opponent]]. |
| 90 | * CockroachesWillRuleTheEarth: Subverted in the video discussing what would happen if humans were nerfed. Cockroaches would be quickly forced to retreat to the tropics, as they would no longer have access to the heated houses they depend on to survive the winter in temperate and colder latitudes. Likewise, rats would also experience a sharp decline without access to human food stores or the ability to retreat into houses to avoid predators. |
| 91 | * ComedicSociopathy: Acidifying the Ocean is described as being a "classic prank". |
| 92 | * ComplacentGamingSyndrome: [[invoked]] |
| 93 | ** Neanderthals fell into a complacent strategy of relying on their superior stats to engage in melee combat with large creatures using their spears and other crafted items, while the Sapiens branch of humanity wasn't able to do so and instead further advanced the meta by inventing better tools like the atl-atl spear thrower and working in larger groups, which meant that when they met each other again, Sapiens wiped the floor with Neanderthals despite being completely outmatched on paper. |
| 94 | ** In theory, there's a truly staggering variety of builds in this game. But as the insect tier list states, in practice, 25% of these are variations of the beetle, due to said class being a LightningBruiser bordering on MasterOfAll. |
| 95 | * CompositeCharacter: The "cave bear" described in "The Ice Age Tier List" was actually given traits of both its real-life counterpart and another giant bear species, the short-faced bear, combining the former's herbivory with the latter's scavenging and fighting prowess. |
| 96 | * ContinuitySnarl: He has a tendency to change up the mechanics of the fictional game of ''Outside'' to make whatever organism or clade he's currently discussing easier to talk about in that fictional context. For example, in early videos he operates on the idea that plants are a property of server environmental mechanics, but suddenly they become player builds in their own right in the ''The Tree Tier List'' video. |
| 97 | * CounterAttack: |
| 98 | ** Poison tends to act this way, as the user needs to take a sufficiently powerful hit/bite in order for it to take effect. Since many poisonous animals tend to be flimsy, this becomes AwesomeButImpractical. |
| 99 | ** The Porcupine's Quills ability causes those who use melee attacks on it to get spikes lodged in them. |
| 100 | * CrazyPrepared: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] by the tardigrade video. it specced so many evolution points into protection against things it should never expect to face (such as meteors and ionizing radiation) that it didn't have any left for defenses against dangers that everyone faces on a regular basis, like, you know, ''predators'' . |
| 101 | ** Humans, of course. Human top-end gear breaks every scale in the game and even covers their bad match-ups like eusocial insects. |
| 102 | * CripplingOverspecialization: Has its own page [[CripplingOverspecialization/TierZoo here]]. |
| 103 | * CriticalHitClass: Dromaeosaurs had a sickle claw that allowed them to deal massive slash and pierce damage, potentially one-shotting prey via SlashedThroat. If they were reintroduced in the modern day they would hold a similar niche to foxes and coyotes, but unlike canines that would wear prey down via flanking, dromaeosaurs would kill much more quickly thanks to their huge critical damage. |
| 104 | %%ZCE ** Animals that go for the neck to bleed their prey to death are considered this. |
| 105 | * CrutchCharacter: Most Neuropterans, including Antlions and lacewings, have a ''very powerful'' larval stage but their adult stage is weak and flimsy, serving only to complete the quest of reproduction. Mantidflies however avert this, having a powerful adult stage as well. |
| 106 | * CryptidEpisode: On 2018's AprilFoolsDay, a Cryptid Tier List video was released. It was actually pretty well done for an April Fool's joke, explaining reasons as to why certain cryptid builds were unviable due to being diseased animals (Chupacabra and Jackalope) and others being high-ranked due to essentially being living prehistoric reptiles (Loch Ness Monster and Mokèlé-mbèmbé) |
| 107 | [[/folder]] |
| 108 | |
| 109 | [[folder:Tropes D - F]] |
| 110 | * DamageOverTime: |
| 111 | ** Attacks that cause bleeding deal damage over time via a "Bleeding" status, which will wear a victim down fast. |
| 112 | ** Most forms of poison and venom cause a status effect that deals heavy damage over time. |
| 113 | ** The Bombardier Beetle's "Spray" deals damage over time as the hot, caustic fluid it fires gets onto its opponent and burns them. |
| 114 | ** Porcupines have the Quills ability which causes animals that attack them to get the "Quilled" status effect, this not only deals damage over time but also increases in intensity should the attacker [[TooDumbToLive unwisely continue their assault]]. |
| 115 | * DarkHorseVictory: |
| 116 | ** The secretary bird was outright stated to be a 'dark horse' when it was placed as S-tier in the Raptor Tier List, not because of sheer power but because its ability to hard-counter some high-tier builds like cobras, as well as the fact that it hasn't given up its flight ability and can avoid competition more easily, allows it to survive the brutally competitive environment of the African savanna metagame. |
| 117 | ** Besides the domestic dog, the other S-tier in the Dog Tier List was the African Painted Hound, not the Wolf which was considered an A-Rank {{Skill Gate Character|s}}. Like the Secretary Bird, it was capable of surviving the African Savannah thanks to higher stealth, attack and speed than wolves, while also having a better hunting strategy based around [[LeakedExperience propping the weaker members]] than giving the best loot to the best members. |
| 118 | ** The Shark Tier List placed the [[ThreateningShark great white]] in S-tier, for obvious reasons, but also listed the hammerhead build in the same tier, not because they match the great white in terms of power, but their head shape and eye positioning gives them SuperSenses in the form of panoramic ''and'' binocular vision and unparalleled electro-reception, giving them incredible prey-scouting abilities and almost unavoidable strike accuracy. It certainly doesn't hurt, though, that the great hammerhead is around the same size as the great white with a Power stat to match. |
| 119 | ** The "Are Honey Badgers OP?" episode was essentially a Mustelid Tier List, and the S-ranked mustelid was neither the Honey Badger nor the Wolverine, but the Otter. Thanks to their high intelligence, tool use and group hunting, they were able to take on challenges they couldn't do alone while being able to use rocks to break open clams for an alternate food source. |
| 120 | ** The Ice Age Tier List had two S-tiers. One was the giant ground sloth which many people expected, the other of which was the less-expected cave bear, due to its [[LightningBruiser extremely high stats across the board]], varied diet, excellent PVP capabilities, and being one of the few builds humans did not pose a serious threat to. |
| 121 | ** In "Top 3 Underrated animals", the Robber Fly was considered this as compared to other aerial insect predators. It was stated to be outright "overshadowed by other more charismatic builds despite being able to beat any of them one-on-one", and was deemed S-rank for being able to take down similar-sized adversaries in mid-air with extreme accuracy and precision, due to its long grab range and insanely good air control. |
| 122 | ** In the Dinosaur Tier list, the only S-ranked dinosaur class was neither the more famous carnivores like Tyrannosaurus Rex and Dromeosaurs nor the herbivores with {{Natural Weapon}}s like Stegosaurus, Triceratops and Ankylosaurs, but the 'weapon'-less Sauropods. Thanks to their massive size and weight being a great weapon and lookout tool and their herd tactics allowing much greater survival, Sauropods were deemed as kings of the meta over any of those. |
| 123 | ** In the Cat Tier List, the S-ranked cat was neither the Lion nor the Tiger, but the smaller and comparatively weaker Jaguar. This was due to its being the only cat able to OneHitKill any other animal on its server (lions and tigers are both hard-countered by elephants and some other large herbivores), and being able to dominate on land, in water, ''and'' in the trees, while other cats can only hunt in at most two of the three. |
| 124 | ** Pufferfish in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' tier list, with excellent defenses ''and'' armor piercing capabilities despite being an unassuming species ''and'' a relatively low-key character in the show being used to pick species. |
| 125 | ** In the Bird Tier List, the falcon took the second highest spot of B-rank, with the strongest B-tier being ''songbirds'' of all things. Thanks to their surprising agility and gregariousness, they were actually considered an effective B-Tier build for their size. |
| 126 | --->"This might seem like an odd inclusion to cap off B-Tier, but songbirds are a highly efficient build for their size and do deserve recognition on this tier list." |
| 127 | ** Likewise, out of A-Rank, the hawks and eagles were only the second highest spot, and the top A-ranked bird was the rather unexpected Pelican. |
| 128 | ** In the Insect Tier List, Mantises, a fearsome and charismatic predator with one of the highest physical power stats in the Insect faction, were placed at the bottom of A-Tier. Right above them are True Flies, a build generally regarded as weak by the common playerbase, thanks to their impressive aerial mobility allowing them to be very effective scavengers due to their massive evasive skills, or a powerful predator, much like the dragonfly. |
| 129 | * DavidVsGoliath: The Ice Age split of humanity into the Sapiens and Neanderthals "guilds" set this up as Neanderthals were bigger and stronger than Sapiens while being as smart or close to it, but lost out to the smaller and weaker Sapiens. Much like in the biblical story, the smaller Sapiens, the David, had specialized into ranged weapons like the atlatl to compensate for their weakness in close combat and were able to defeat Neanderthals from further than either Sapiens or Neanderthals could throw spears with their unaided arms. On the other hand, the tougher Neanderthals, the Goliath, didn't bother inventing atlatls, because while they had the mental capability to invent such tools, their superior strength and durability meant they didn't really need to and engaging in melee combat with other animals worked out just fine for them. This advantage in ranged combat, combined with Sapiens's tendence to form larger groups, meant that they were able to beat Neanderthals in combat, eat Neanderthals' prey and turn their larger, more loot-hungry bodies against them, or force them to join the Sapiens, eventually wiping out the Neanderthal guild and establishing the Sapiens guild of humanity as the dominant force in ''Outside''. |
| 130 | * DeadlyEuphemism: Dying is often referred to as a GameOver. Species going extinct is often referred to as them being nerfed into non-viability, or in the case of dinosaurs, banned. Similarly, the Permian Extinction is described as a mass RageQuit over balance changes. In the same vein, cannibalism is referred to as team killing. The [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic Corona Virus]] was referred to as "The huge nerfs humans had to deal with in 2020" in the ''Are Bats OP?'' episode. |
| 131 | * DeathOrGloryAttack: The Falcon's dive is stated to be this, being capable of dealing massive damage thanks to the incredible speed and high momentum. However, it has to build up speed first to [[BeginWithAFinisher perform this opening attack]], and if this first attack doesn't connect it will struggle to win fights. It's still a highly efficient method of killing prey, which is why the Falcon is B-Tier. |
| 132 | * DifficultButAwesome: |
| 133 | ** The human build, for most of the game, were massive {{Fragile Speedster}}s compared to other builds, only really having a maxed Intelligence, and the Sweat ability, in a sea of disadvantages. As the meta expanded, and humans used their high Intelligence to invent greater and greater things, they eventually became the end all be all top tier of Outside. |
| 134 | ** Raccoons in the city meta are noted to have a low skill floor but a high skill ceiling, despite being an A-tier city build having all the tools it has to survive. This is shown by their average lifespan of 2 years despite having a maximum of 20. |
| 135 | ** The crocodilians' Death Roll attack is one of the most powerful moves in the whole game. Its downside is that it requires unbroken concentration on a single target, meaning that it's easily interrupted and countered by any other nearby party member. But if they DO manage to pull it off, it can inflict enough damage to OneHitKill even the tankiest player on the server. |
| 136 | * DrawAggro: Crows are noted to have a weak-damage peck that they use to not deal damage, but to goad other targets into either attacking them (and thus getting distracted from an objective like food), or even [[LetsYouAndHimFight manipulate a target into attacking another]]. |
| 137 | * TheDreaded: Most builds avoid confrontations with the human build, for good reasons. But the kind of build that's utterly indifferent to their reputation is also exactly the one the Humans have the worst matchup with and thus the Dreaded for them: flight-capable stinging eusocial insects. |
| 138 | * DumbDinos: ZigZagged. Most dinosaurs had average animal intelligence with some like dromaeosaurs and ''Troodon'' having intelligence on the higher end, but certain dinosaurs such as Stegosaurus and Triceratops were noted to have low intelligence. |
| 139 | * DumbMuscle: |
| 140 | ** Bovines have huge amounts of health and high attack, but have low enough intelligence to be easily intimidated, distracted, or tricked into a trap, although it's just enough to allow herding behavior. |
| 141 | ** Rhinoceroses have LightningBruiser physical stats, but their low intelligence and poor eyesight cause major setbacks for them, especially when these shortcomings make them easy to kite/lure and often causes them to [[FriendOrFoe accidentally attack their own teammates]]. |
| 142 | * EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: |
| 143 | ** [[https://youtu.be/7h1kDYFMCVA?si=5lpmAXG2zDCcW0Iw When Earth was in beta]] points out the ways in which the Cambrian metagame was vastly different from subsequent updates: mobility, intelligence and stealth were hardly important, all gameplay took place in the oceans, vertebrates barely existed and strategies were relatively simple. The "early access" alpha version was ''even weirder'', being closer to a chemistry simulator than the open world survival game it quickly turned into starting with the Cambrian explosion. |
| 144 | ** Concerning the channel itself, the early videos use two different styles for the stat meters. The first one is [[StylisticSuck intentionally poor-looking]], while the second resembles the first more, but has smaller icons and represents a few stats with different images, like a stealth plane for Stealth. |
| 145 | ** Graphic depictions of animal inuries were more commonplace in earlier videos. Such injures present in wildlife footage are now [[{{Pixellation}} blurred out]] or cut entirely and instead shown in a director's cut version of the video on a different platform. An example of the latter is the shrike being cut from the normal "Bird Tier List" video due to [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice how it hunts prey]]. |
| 146 | * EdutainmentShow: A lot of [[ShownTheirWork very legitimate information about animals]] is given under the pretense of discussing the traits of characters in a massive online game called ''Outside''. |
| 147 | * ElementalPowers: The "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGlnYdhYgpA Elemental Type Moves]]" video showcases three animals that use elemental attacks: fire for the bombardier beetle's spray, water for the archerfish's water gun, and lightning for the electric eel's shock. |
| 148 | * ElephantInTheLivingRoom: Every time humans are mentioned, their nature as a [[invoked]]GameBreaker is also brought up, but he doesn't talk about how humans need to be nerfed that much-- whereas someone analyzing an actual game in this manner would be pestering the devs to no end to do such a thing-- likely due to the real life [[ApocalypseHow implications]] such a thing would have. |
| 149 | * EmoteCommand: In "Lizard Moveset Guide", [=TierZoo=] refers to the chameleon's color change ability as an emote, since they change colors based on their mood rather than for camouflage (and bemoans this as a waste of what could have been one of the most powerful stealth abilities in the game). |
| 150 | * EquipmentBasedProgression: Playing as a Hermit Crab amounts to this, as most hermit crabs have pitiful stats around the board. However, they can obtain much better Defence and Stealth by finding a shell, and even gain a decent-to-good Attack stat if they find a sea anemone to [[EquippableAlly place on top of it]]. |
| 151 | * FireIceLightning: Well, Fire, Water, and Lightning. These three elemental attacks are shown in the "Elemental Type Moves" video--the "Fire Blast" used by the Bombardier Beetle, the "Water Gun" used by the Archerfish, and "Discharge" used by the Electric Eel. |
| 152 | * FishOutOfTemporalWater: In "Should Dinosaurs Be Unbanned?", [=TierZoo=] rated dinosaurs on how well they would perform in the hypothetical scenario where they were brought back from extinction into the modern day. While some dinosaurs such as sauropods, ceratopsians and ''Tyrannosaurus Rex'' would be [[SoLastSeason unable to cope as well with the change in meta]], others such as ankylosaurs, stegosaurs and dromaeosaurs would fare even better. |
| 153 | * {{Flight}}: A trait discussed in the "Are Flying Builds OP?" episode. Flight was concluded to be a [[invoked]]GameBreaker as it gave several advantages in offense, defense, and utility, with a few disadvantages. |
| 154 | * FlippingHelpless: The weakness of the Ankylosaurs. Despite having very high defensive stats and a club tail for crippling attackers, Ankylosaurs were completely helpless if they were flipped over, and this AchillesHeel was a glaring counterplay that prevented it from being S-Tier. |
| 155 | * FollowTheLeader: An InUniverse example. The glyptodont build was a B-tier Ice Age build mimicking the Ankylosaurus, although nowhere near as powerful or effective at area denial; they do have the similar moves [[UseYourHead Skull Bash]] and [[BewareMyStingerTail Club]] [[TailSlap Smash]] going for them. Likewise, the chalicothere was seen as a lower-tier imitation of the giant ground sloth, although in reality the latter appeared later than the former. In general, any instance of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_evolution convergent evolution]] can be taken as an example of this trope. |
| 156 | * FormulaBreakingEpisode: |
| 157 | ** Tier Zoo did a ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLL4yPpTCBA tree tier list]]'', which is the first time the tier list doesn't involve animals directly. |
| 158 | ** [[https://youtu.be/g8cqWwIwXsc?si=gFg0XiLzaoUiufAt The raptor vs sabertooth video]] talks about the animals directly, without the video game framing and terminology. |
| 159 | * FragileSpeedster: |
| 160 | ** Cheetahs are considered this. They're one of the fastest land animals but they lack strength, endurance, and stamina. This meant that they have bad matchups against a lot of the other animals in the server, and the low stamina is also a big problem for a build based on speed. |
| 161 | ** The jumping spider sacrifices attack and defense for extremely high mobility and accuracy, making it DifficultButAwesome. |
| 162 | ** Horses. They are very fast with great amounts of stamina, making them near-perfect mounts for humans. However, while their Defence stat is average, their HP stat is surprisingly low because it is very hard for them to heal from a broken leg, and it's mentioned that it's pretty much GameOver if that happens. A later video also explained that horses have surprisingly high attacking power, making them a GlassCannon too. |
| 163 | ** The A-tier Haikouichthys build from the Cambrian beta game. A highly mobile fish build (and the ''first'' fish build released in the game) it lacked in many other stats, including health, but it was swift enough to dodge attacks from other builds like the top-tier Anomalocaris. In addition, it had the first "lens"-type eyes, which made detecting other players more effective than with their arthropod competitors' compound eyes. |
| 164 | ** Pigeons in the city Meta were considered this thanks to high mobility but their small size and hence low durability made them easily bodied by several city builds. As such, they were only D-tier. |
| 165 | ** Bats. They are surprisingly fast (with one species having the fastest speed in level flight) but have very low attack, defence, and HP stats, making them easily killed if they're attacked by a larger animal. |
| 166 | ** Falcons. Their main damage comes from the momentum of a dive, allowing them to deal incredible damage. However, if the opponent survives, all subsequent attacks are much weaker thanks to the falcon's rather small size. |
| 167 | ** Pronghorns are fast but fragile and have ''much'' better stamina unlike Cheetahs. Their speed allows them to outrun just about every predator in their habitat. However, they're highly vulnerable to obstacles like barbed-wire fences or less open terrain like woodlands. |
| 168 | * FullBoarAction: {{Discussed|Trope}} in "Pigs Used to be Overpowered" - boars and warthogs are powerful and versatile tanks with remarkable strength and intelligence, making them a solid A-tier. However, it is subverted by the highest-ranking "hog", the pre-Ice Age "hell pig", which was not actually a true pig, but rather, a relative of the hippo. |
| 169 | [[/folder]] |
| 170 | |
| 171 | [[folder:Tropes G - J]] |
| 172 | * [[invoked]]GameBreaker: In the game of ''Outside'' that [=TierZoo=] discusses, there are [[GameBreaker/TierZoo quite a few examples]]. |
| 173 | * GeniusBruiser: |
| 174 | ** Pigs have a rather balanced stat spread that borders on LightningBruiser and are surprisingly durable. Their highest stat, however, is their Intelligence. |
| 175 | ** Elephants are bulky, very powerful, ''and'' have high intelligence with the long lifespan and high dexterity via their trunks to make good use of said intelligence. |
| 176 | ** What separates Corvid builds from other similarly-built birds of prey are their high intelligence allowing them to, among other benefits, create large networks with other corvids to scout out larger areas for points of interest. |
| 177 | ** The overall second best build, the Orcas, not only have high physical stats all around, but also have one of the highest intelligence stat in the game, which allows them to form effective social structures or to abuse the physics engine for their own gain, and it gives them enough foresight to ''not'' [[BullyingADragon provoke the number one build]], the Humans. |
| 178 | * GenreBusting: ''Outside'' appears to combine elements from many video game genres. It's alternatingly described as an {{MMORPG}}, ActionRPG, SurvivalSandbox, and FightingGame, and elements of a few other genres may occasionally be found. |
| 179 | * GentleGiantSauropod: Played with. While sauropods were usually ignored by most smaller carnivores thanks to their massive size, it was mentioned that they were also downright deadly in a fight thanks to having an insanely large attack range with their tail, as well as a OneHitKill with their stomp. |
| 180 | * GiantFootOfStomping: Sauropods were noted to have the most powerful attack in the entire game via their stomp thanks to their massive size and weight, knocking the target down and was explicitly mentioned to [[OneHitKill deal lethal damage]]. |
| 181 | * GlassCannon: |
| 182 | ** Pit vipers and Sydney funnel-web spiders have very low defence, but one of the strongest venom-type attacks in the game. |
| 183 | ** [[RaptorAttack Dromaeosaurs]]. Their health is low thanks to their small size but they can output very powerful burst damage from CriticalHit via SlashedThroat, ''and'' they also hunt in packs. They were considered an A-tier dinosaur precisely for this -- while they could take down prey in groups with their high DPS, one hit was all it took to body them. |
| 184 | ** Again, humans--pathetic defense, below average hit points, but even with primitive technology have amazing match-ups against many animals despite that. By persistence hunting, which basically means using their superior stamina to chase an animal until it's too exhausted to escape, then killing it, humans can prolong an engagement until their prey just drops, then spear it to death. |
| 185 | ** Squid have high attack power owing to their piercing beak, but at the cost of low defence and HP, meaning that if a predator manages to land a hit on them, it's almost always Game Over. |
| 186 | ** Equines are a cross between this and FragileSpeedster, having high speed but also a fast and surprisingly powerful kick attack. Their health however is low, as a broken leg pretty much spells doom for them. |
| 187 | * GoalOrientedEvolution: Animals are commonly described as having "used their evolution points toward" or "opted for" various traits, which reinforces the misconception that evolution is goal based. {{Justified|Trope}} as, in the context of the videos, evolution is the process of creating builds for the game. |
| 188 | * GoneHorriblyWrong: |
| 189 | ** The devs attempted to buff vertebrates in the Carboniferous period by increasing vegetation, so that they would have more food to eat and reproduce. This also increased oxygen levels, causing [[BigCreepyCrawlies arthropods to grow to large sizes]] and dominate the meta instead. |
| 190 | ** The same can be said of the attempt to nerf the archosaur faction (consisting of dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and crocodilians) at the end of the Triassic period, with levels of volcanism that were not as intense as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event The Great Dying patch]] to avoid losing the majority of the playerbase. Rather than making the meta more diverse, though, it only gave the archosaurs a stronger hold on the high-tier positions, which they maintained until the end of Patch 1.2.3 (the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction). |
| 191 | * GoodBadBugs: An invoked example, where few builds have figured out how to use certain skills and abilities in [[NotTheIntendedUse unintended ways]] that can provide enhanced mobility or even break the "game engine" to their benefit. For example, the cuttlefish can cycle its camouflage to overload other players' sensors and cause them to crash, while the pistol shrimp has put so many points in claw attack that a single strike, while underwater, generates an overpowered, ranged sonic shock burst. |
| 192 | * GoodThingYouCanHeal: Ogre spiders have a passive regeneration ability, which is good because their lack of irises means their eyes get burned out everyday in the sunlight, rendering them blind during that time. |
| 193 | * GreenAesop: |
| 194 | ** "Earth's Next Balance Patch" talks about climate change and how it affects various species. Of course, this is Tierzoo, so it's presented in the style of a ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' announcement video. |
| 195 | ** "The Tree Tier List" seeks to raise awareness of how important trees are in the metagame while raising funds for [=#TeamTrees=], a charity that aims to plant over 20 million trees. |
| 196 | ** "Are Hermit Crabs OP?" ends on the note that human pollution is greatly harming the hermit crab build, and is a fundraiser for [=#TeamSeas=], a charity which seeks to remove garbage from the ocean. |
| 197 | * {{Griefer}}: Several classes are capable of griefing and trolling other classes with greater ease. |
| 198 | ** Bull Sharks are capable of moving to freshwater areas, allowing them to easily grief the freshwater fish players that aren't adapted against sharks. |
| 199 | ** House Cats, due to easy camping options with little to no competition, get away with far more kills on defenseless small characters than they need to, as noted under CatsAreMean. |
| 200 | ** The episode on the Watering Hole "map" puts both crocodiles and hippos there, being able to camp, tank, and kill/intimidate other classes easily. |
| 201 | ** Squirrels have a uniquely strong matchup against humans thanks to being capable of chewing wires to cut them, as well as entering power plants with ease via burrowing. Put two and two together and you get a build that is capable of griefing even man. |
| 202 | * GroinAttack: |
| 203 | ** While the narrator talks about the hyena's powerful bite force in "Top 3 Underrated Animals," we're treated to a shot of a hyena biting at a water buffalo's testicles. Ouch. |
| 204 | ** In "Are Rhinos OP?", it's repeatedly pointed out that the rhino's perineum (the area between the anus and genitals) is its weak spot, and several video clips show it being attacked right there. |
| 205 | * HalloweenEpisode: For Halloween, [=TierZoo=] has sometimes released episodes dealing with notoriously scary animals: [[SpidersAreScary spiders]] in 2017 (including a unique intro clip with different music), and [[SnakesAreSinister snakes]] in 2021. |
| 206 | * HerdHittingAttack: Billfish (Swordfish, Marlin, Sailfish) are stated to have slashing and piercing attacks that can hit multiple targets, allowing them to decimate shoals of fish with ease. |
| 207 | * HeroicSacrifice: In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egc58fSUqrA "The Most Underrated Dinosaur"]], [=TierZoo=] shows a replay of a ''Deinocheirus'' playthrough. The climax involves a ''Tarbosaurus'' trying to attack a group of ''Deinocheirus'' players early in their playthrough just before they've leveled up enough to become self-sufficient, with [=TierZoo=] as the adult ''Deinocheirus'' [[EscortMission assisting them]]. [=TierZoo=]'s character fights off the ''Tarbosaurus'', but is mortally wounded in the fight and dies just after the other ''Deinocheirus'' players gain the necessary XP to level up from watching the fight. In the "game" itself, the lower level teammates [[MamaBear are his character's offspring]]. |
| 208 | * HistoryRepeats: |
| 209 | ** Due to its success in the marine server, [=TierZoo=] expects the marine iguana to follow the path of the ancestors of the OP ''Mosasaurus''. |
| 210 | ** The Giraffe is noted to follow in the footsteps of tall treetop grazing animals, a successful build over several time periods -- such as the giant long-necked rhinoceros in the oligocene, and sauropods in the mesozoic. |
| 211 | * HitboxDissonance: |
| 212 | ** The "Spacing" builds take advantage of this to do damage with horns and/or an EpicFlail of a tail while the player remains (relatively) safe. Grappler builds get around this by actually grabbing onto the head or tail, preventing them from moving said heavy parts around effectively. |
| 213 | ** Giraffes have long legs and a long neck which keeps their body and head away from the reach of most African Savannah predators, giving them surprisingly good matchups. |
| 214 | * HornAttack: The episode "Are Horns OP" talks about horns and antlers. Horns are more useful in combat than antlers, which primarily serve as temporary weapons for competition in the mating season. While horns are somewhat effective against frontal attacks, they're inaccurate and leave the user's head open on a miss, and also falter if the user is swarmed from multiple sides. In general, horns are AwesomeButImpractical and usually only useful for a last-resort attack, with most horned builds speccing primarily into speed to escape predators, only using horns if the predator catches up to them -- and even then, kicking with feet tends to be just as effective. |
| 215 | * HumanityIsSuperior: Humans are by far the most powerful build in the game, thanks to their superior intelligence allowing them to build inventions to bypass any shortcomings, while having one of the best social structures([[TakeThat second only to eusocial insects]])--and ''even without'' said intelligence or inventions, they'd ''still'' be considered a [[invoked]]GameBreaker thanks to having one of the best stamina regeneration of animals, the best throwing ability in the animal kingdom, and the ability to obtain more exp from various food thanks to the right gut flora. That said, their weakness is their low defence and hence vulnerability to flying eusocial stinging insects, but their inventiveness and capability of teaching does remedy that. |
| 216 | * IdleGame: |
| 217 | ** Playing as a sponge is effectively this, as sponges lack any mobility, stealth, attack, or intelligence, all they do is automatically filter-feed and grow. Despite this, they have a spot in B-tier due to being worth negative experience, and as such are NotWorthKilling. |
| 218 | ** [=TierZoo=] explicitly likens barnacles to idle games, due to sticking on a surface and filter-feeding. They're stuck in F-tier due to being entirely luck-based depending on what they manage to stick onto, since they can't move away from their surface once they latch onto one, and despite their extremely high defense they are vulnerable to the multitude of [[ArmorPiercingAttack armor-piercing]] builds. |
| 219 | * ImprovisedArmor: Lacewing larvae have the ability to stick the dead bodies of their prey onto their back as makeshift armor, turning their otherwise low defense into an armor capable of repelling even ant swarms. |
| 220 | * InescapableNet: In the Spider Tier List, the Ogre Spider is described as using its webbing in a unique way compared to other spiders: instead of camping and hoping prey walks into its web, it lurks in high places and throws its web like a net onto a target. |
| 221 | * InsistentTerminology: He tends to replace biological terms with video game terms. For example: |
| 222 | ** Being born is respawning. |
| 223 | ** Nutrition is XP. |
| 224 | ** Habitats are servers. |
| 225 | ** Species are builds. |
| 226 | ** Age is level. |
| 227 | ** Food is loot. |
| 228 | ** An individual's death is a game over. |
| 229 | ** Extinction events due to natural disasters are balance patches. |
| 230 | ** Extinction events due to animals being out-competed or preyed upon are players mass-quitting. |
| 231 | ** Cannibalism is team-killing. |
| 232 | ** A non-biological example would be referring to scientists as data miners. |
| 233 | * InstantDeathRadius: Herbivorous dinosaurs with a tail-based defence often had one, due to their mid-ranged {{Beware My Stinger|Tail}} TailSlap attack being capable of inflicting lethal wounds. Sauropods in particular had a massive range with their very long and heavy tails, which, while less damaging than ankylosaur or stegosaur tails was enough to cause knockdown, and getting even closer to their front was an even bigger death sentence as they could use their GiantFootOfStomping for a OneHitKill. |
| 234 | * InstantWinCondition: The "Pick Two Animal Groups. They will defend you. The rest are coming to kill you." scenario has two examples. For the enemy side, they win if they manage to kill the VIP. This is a problem if the human with the rifle is not picked as he only needs to [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou shoot the VIP]] and not the defending animals, and if the VIP doesn't pick the rats they will be overrun. For the player's side, picking the rats ensures a ForegoneVictory against almost all the other animals with the exception of the human shooting the VIP--but even that is covered by the other top choice in the eagles. |
| 235 | * IntroducedSpeciesCalamity: Invasive species builds tend to be very high on the tier list, precisely due to their build's survival capabilities allowing them to dominate and proliferate in the environment they were introduced into. |
| 236 | * {{Irony}}: The Cookie-cutter shark build is stated to be the least orthodox shark build, in other words, it's the ''least'' cookie-cutter build of sharks. |
| 237 | * ItemCaddy: Some builds have unlocked the Tool Use ability, which lets them pick up items to unlock special abilities or boost their stats. |
| 238 | ** Humans have become a [[invoked]] GameBreaker in part because their Tool Use, combined with ItemCrafting, can potentially turn them into a MasterOfAll. |
| 239 | ** Hermit crabs have pathetically low stats by default... however, they have the special ability to equip shells dropped by defeated mollusk players, massively boosting their defense and stealth. They can also equip special accessories onto that shell to gain even more abilities (for example, attaching anemones to get a poison-based CounterAttack). [[GreenAesop Unfortunately]], the current balance patch means that the highest-ranked snail shells drop at a much lower rate due to pollution making snails unviable in the metagame, while JokeItem plastic shells created by human players dilute the pool of available items. |
| 240 | * ItemCrafting: An ability of a handful of high intelligence builds, most prominently humans. Even at low levels, it is considered extremely powerful, and at the advanced levels humans have in it, it's a complete [[invoked]] GameBreaker. |
| 241 | * JackOfAllStats: |
| 242 | ** Pigs are noted to be quite balanced statwise (bordering LightningBruiser) for a tank build, with Intelligence as their highest stat, and their durability comes from an ability in their thickened skin and layer of fat. This along with other abilities give the two prominent ones (Boars and Warthogs) a solid high A-tier in the meta. |
| 243 | ** Rats are described as "the ultimate jack-of-all trades for the lightweight meta". |
| 244 | ** Orangutans are this in comparison to the other apes. They're fast, but not as fast as chimpanzees. They're strong, but not as strong as gorillas. And they're highly intelligent, but nowhere near as intelligent as humans. According to [=TierZoo=], [[SkillGateCharacters this makes them a great beginner class.]] |
| 245 | ** Iguanas. All of their stats are higher than a typical lizard, but still only mid-range overall. Despite this, their abilities are adequate enough to help their survival, thus earning them a spot in B-tier. In "The Lizard Tier List", it was even described to be "arguably the best representative of the lizard build as a whole, as it essentially has all the main weaknesses and strengths of its class". |
| 246 | ** Owls are considered this among bird builds. While their ability to fly silently makes them primarily excel in stealth, it's noted that all of its other stats are solid, with its only major weakness being that its lack of waterproof feathers can result in hindered flight when wet. Despite this, its stats are enough to place it firmly in A-tier. |
| 247 | ** The largest of the "Felinae" cat builds, the Cougar, is placed in C-tier. All their stats are solid but not high enough to reliable hunt other players in or above their own weight class. The "Panthera" cat builds can do this and are thus all placed in higher tiers. |
| 248 | * JokeCharacter: |
| 249 | ** Surprisingly, the supposedly NighInvulnerable Water Bear is considered among the worst builds in the game. It's stated that it sacrificed all its stats for speccing huge amounts of points in heat, cold, vacuum, radiation and pressure resistances… without taking the extremophile trait, meaning that it has to go into "hibernation mode" if in extreme conditions. All this, and the fact that it ''doesn't'' have resistance to physical damage which most players use makes it considered a bottom-tier character. |
| 250 | ** Modern-day Sloths are considered ''the worst build in the game''. Any hostile encounter is practically a death sentence since they are extremely slow and have almost no attacking power. Their stealth ability is poor and only works when they're stationary in tree foliage. They need to descend to the ground in order to defecate, which makes them vulnerable to predators. Finally, they specced into gut bacteria to allow them a nutrient-poor diet of leaves, and said bacteria die if temperatures drop low, causing the sloth to starve to death. Harpy eagles even intentionally leave sloths alive so that their fledglings can use them as target practice. ''However'', being a JokeCharacter did give them an advantage against humans as compared to the huge prehistoric sloths--since humans took no interest to smaller arboreal animals, [[TallPoppySyndrome they didn't bother to hunt these low-tier sloths while the huge prehistoric sloths were hunted to extinction]]. |
| 251 | ** Domestic sheep. Their intelligence stat is abysmal to the point where they can be defeated by bramble bushes. |
| 252 | --->"If you're a herbivore player and [[EpicFail you get beat by your prey]], you should probably choose a new main." |
| 253 | ** Fainting goats, a goat class that traded the usual goat defensive moves for the ability to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin faint when in danger]]. As you can imagine, this isn't very effective. |
| 254 | ** Underwater squirrels in his ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' species review. Specializing in razor sharp ever growing teeth and spending most of your time with a glass dome between your face and the world around you are not a useful combination. |
| 255 | [[/folder]] |
| 256 | |
| 257 | [[folder:Tropes K - M]] |
| 258 | * {{Kevlard}}: |
| 259 | ** Almost literally with pigs, who have a layer of skin and a layer of fat that are thick enough to provide protection from snake fangs, giving them a good matchup against snakes. This is the same fat humans use to make lard. |
| 260 | ** Subverted by Hippopotamuses. They are fat, but their durability comes from having a 2 inch layer of ''skin'' that protects them from most biting and slashing attacks. This makes attacks from things like lions and crocodiles hilariously ineffective. |
| 261 | * KillerRabbit: |
| 262 | ** Several of the species in the S-tier qualify, such as house cats, bees, dogs, etc., though in many cases this is less because of sheer power in comparison with other S-listers like [[HumanityIsSuperior humans]], but more akin to adaptability and the ability to remain viable in comparison to other player builds native to the servers they inhabit. |
| 263 | ** The Robber fly was considered an underrated S-tier insect thanks to being able to catch its prey mid-flight with superior accuracy and precision and long grab range. |
| 264 | ** Humans, the [[invoked]]GameBreaker can take on many animals, but the animal type they have the worst matchup with is [[ScaryStingingSwarm flight-capable stinging eusocial insects]] thanks to the human's extremely low defense due to not having any fur, and the insects' superior mobility and tendency to ZergRush. |
| 265 | * LastNoteNightmare: At the end of the Cat Tier List video, the narrator thinks he forgot a type of cat. A picture of a house cat with a tag saying "Hello, I am a: '''SUPPORT'''" appears. the image quickly flashes to the negative, with the cat getting blank white eyes, and their tag now saying "Hello, I am a: '''SERIAL KILLER'''". The Narrator says he'll talk about that in a later video.[[note]]Specifically, in the "Cat Vs. Dog--Best Support Class" video, he explains that cats aren't a support class at all, but an assassin class that exploited an infectious disease they carried, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis Toxoplasmosis]], to get humans to provide them with home security, which lets them [[CatsAreMean slaughter millions of defenseless rodent and bird players annually with impunity]].[[/note]] |
| 266 | * LeakedExperience: The African Painted Hound is known to give experience points (food) to the weaker members of the pack first instead of the strongest, allowing them to overcome CantCatchUp and UnstableEquilibrium. This is one of the reasons why they are S-Tier. |
| 267 | * LethalHarmlessPowers: Most flies use their modified vestigal wings called halteres to give themselves balance, positioning and precise control in the air, allowing them to easily escape attacks or land on hard-to-reach places. The Robber Fly instead uses this ''offensively'' allowing it to catch and take down prey in mid-air with high accuracy and precision. This landed it a spot in S-tier as one of the best, if not the best, solo insect class. |
| 268 | * LethalJokeCharacter: |
| 269 | ** Snail builds are by and large considered F-tier thanks to their pathetic mobility stat and laughable defense that can't even fend off a predator from a larger weight class. Among them, the cone snail is no different... save for the fact that it has the ability to fire off venomous harpoons. These do an amazing amount of damage, enough to OneHitKill many other players in the reef servers and even penetrate human diver suits. This one skill is enough to propel the cone snail to A-tier. |
| 270 | ** Sponges have some of the worst stats in the game -- ''zero'' mobility, attack, intelligence and stealth, with meager HP and average defence. One might think that they're easy pickings for predators, but their spicules cause ''[[LevelDrain negative exp gain]]'' to most predators that attempt to eat them, and some sponges have a AreaOfEffect toxic debuff around them. This makes sponges NotWorthKilling, and combined with their [[IdleGame incredible ease of gameplay]] allows them to succeed in the reef meta at a solid upper B-tier. |
| 271 | ** While most flightless birds sit at the bottom of the Bird Tier List, penguins manage to sneak into the top of C-tier since their flippers and cold resistance make their lack of flight trivial in favor of aquatic mobility that gives them a major advantage against fish. However, it's stated that the lack of a consistent land predator in the Antarctic server is also a major reason of this advantage, and they are still easy pickings for larger aquatic predators in the region. |
| 272 | ** Shrimp as a whole are considered F-tier animals, due to having weak legs, small claws, and no eyestalks, which prevents them from digging into the sand, all as a tradeoff for better water mobility... which is about as good as a seahorse's. The Pistol Shrimp averts this thanks to its powerful cavitation bubble ability and is mentioned to merit higher placement. |
| 273 | * LetsYouAndHimFight: Thanks to their high intelligence, Crows know how to peck targets to provoke and manipulate them into attacking other threats. This even allows them to turn the tables against some normally-poor matchups like cats, making the cats fight each other. |
| 274 | * LightningBruiser: |
| 275 | ** The Allosaurus build was a C-tier dinosaur that was relatively balanced stat-wise, with its bite attack dealing damage comparable to a modern lion. In spite of this, Allosaurus proved to be a dangerous opponent due to its high mobility, devastating head swipe attack, and tendency to hunt in packs. |
| 276 | ** Bears. Lots of bulk and power, surprisingly high mobility, and a very deadly weapon in the form of claws. Unless you can fly or are/are aided by a tool-using human, pray one never sees you as prey. The Cave Bear from the Ice Age takes it up to eleven -- powerful, durable, and fast enough to take on even the most powerful builds, to the point that early humans did not pose a threat to it. |
| 277 | ** Hippos. They are extremely tanky due to high HP and thick skin, have very high attacking power with their bites, and also have surprisingly high mobility in and out of the water. Tier Zoo considered them S-Tier thanks to this and their abilities. |
| 278 | ** Billfish such as Swordfish, Marlin, and Sailfish. These are the fastest animals in the ocean and have powerful piercing and slashing attacks that can deal serious damage to shoals of smaller fish. Their defense and HP aren't too shabby either. |
| 279 | ** Black Mambas can move very quickly, have a fast-acting and very potent venom, and sport high HP and Defense for a venomous snake build, which are otherwise quite fragile. This is coupled with an extremely aggressive and fast-paced playstyle, which allows Black Mambas to dominate easily and are thus considered the top S-Ranked snakes. |
| 280 | ** Beetles. The hard shells on their wings makes them incredibly durable, they are often armed with powerful mandibles that make them fearsome opponents in a close-range fight, some are even armed with medium-ranged chemical spray attacks, they are gifted with the fastest land speed of all terrestrial insects even though they look like they should be lumbering and slow, ''and'' they can fly. |
| 281 | ** Rhinoceroses are very strong, have thick hide for durability, and can move quickly while charging. However, they're also DumbMuscle with poor eyesight, which causes them to accidentally attack their allies when they [[FriendOrFoe can't distinguish friend from foe]]. |
| 282 | * LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Humans are a prime example of the "wizard" class--they have a good lifespan combined with the best intelligence of all animals, allowing them to overcome their stat shortcomings and make them better than even the other S-tier animals via the inventions they build. |
| 283 | * LivingDinosaurs: In the CryptidEpisode, the Loch Ness Monster and Mokèlé-mbèmbé are speculated to be these, the former being a Plesiosaur, and the latter being a sauropod with dwarfism (which allowed it to survive the dinosaur extinction). Both were considered high-tier Cryptids due to being able to survive in their environment thanks to their size and easy access to food.[[labelnote:note]]Of course, it's generally accepted that evidence of non-avian dinosaurs would have been far more common if they really did exist. Incidentally, the largest of the only living dinosaurs today, ratite birds like ostriches and emus, were bought up as options in the earlier video "Is It Possible To Play As A Dinosaur?"… and promptly brushed off due to completely lacking the requisite standard theropod weaponry (teeth and grasping clawed arms).[[/labelnote]] |
| 284 | * LongLived: Termite Queens are considered this compared to ''every other insect in the game''. While most insects live for less than a year to a few years, a termite queen has a lifespan comparable to that of a human's or elephant's. This allows her to build up some of the most powerful armies and structures in the game. |
| 285 | * LongRangeFighter: Not many animals in the "game" have ranged attacks, with the exception of the Electric Eel, Archerfish, Bombardier Beetle, Spitting Cobra, Spitting Spider, Velvet Worm, and primates, most notably Humans. |
| 286 | * LowTierLetdown: InUniverse: |
| 287 | ** Tardigrades are often touted to have resistances to several deadly sources like vacuum, ionizing radiation, and a few others. However, this requires them to go into a hibernation state, and more importantly they lack the most crucial damage resistance of all -- physical damage, which almost everything and everyone uses. This huge weakness makes Tardigrades a bottom-tier pick. |
| 288 | ** New players get hyped when they see the cheetah's high top speed and synergistic abilities, but quickly realize that they're only good for chasing things down (they're not even good at taking down a target nor defending their prize) and have dreadful matchups against most competent builds in Africa. |
| 289 | ** Black widow and brown recluse spiders are infamous for their deadly bites that potentially inflict necrosis, giving them massive clout among spider builds. However, this is caused by bacterial infection instead of the bite itself (which isn't lethal to most heavier builds), leaving players with nothing but an decent-at-best spider build that's generally outclassed. |
| 290 | * MagikarpPower: Sauropods benefited greatly from having the highest base-stat total of any land build once they reached later levels, but they were also extraordinarily outclassed in the early-to-mid game. Their low mobility, lack of adequate defense, and [[AchillesHeel extremely vulnerable neck]] meant they had almost no favorable match-ups to start off with. As such, very few were able to actually reach their class's full potential; but their eventual size made them practically unstoppable once they did. |
| 291 | * MamaBear: Protective parenting is a team strategy that greatly helps survival. Players are vulnerable at the start of the game, and having a ''very'' protective mother can greatly enhance the survival of new players. ''Dimetrodon'' was considered a top-tier Permian build because of its protective mothers, since much of the meta involved raiding nests. Mammals became a dominant species because of having protective mothers, a behaviour passed down from the Synapsid builds like ''Dimetrodon''. It's also noted that mammals get a "rage" powerup when defending their young, and that challenging an enraged mother is a ''very'' bad idea. |
| 292 | * MasterOfAll: |
| 293 | ** Humans. Sure, they may lack strength, durability, speed or stealth compared to other animals, but thanks to having the ''best'' intelligence in the "game" bar none, they can invent and build things that give them far greater stats in those areas (with the exception of health). |
| 294 | ** While they don't compare to humans, bears tend to be this due to their high base stats in everything, being omnivores, and possessing solid abilities. |
| 295 | ** Hippopotamuses have high stats across the board with their lowest stats being average intelligence and stealth (which in the latter case is very high for such a large build), have very powerful abilities with little to no drawbacks. Tier Zoo considers them S-Rank. |
| 296 | ** Orcas are another example, possessing extremely high power, intelligence, defence and HP while also having solid mobility and stealth. They are considered the second best build in the game because of this, surpassed only by humans. |
| 297 | ** Most of the big cats qualify. Tigers, despite not having any unique special abilities, rank in high A-tier due to being this, having very high stats across the board. Lions are even more so, possessing similar stats to the tiger plus being able to hunt in packs. The best of all is the Jaguar, which not only has very high stats across the board, but also has great eyesight allowing it to see through almost all forms of camouflage, and is just as capable of hunting in the trees or the water as on the ground. |
| 298 | ** Gorillas, the second highest-ranked primate after humans, have very high stats across the board (aside from stealth) along with a strong social structure, making them basically untouchable so long as they stay with the group. |
| 299 | ** Beetles are speedy on land, capable of flight, have a tough outer shell in their wings on top of their natural exoskeleton that makes them more durable than other insects, are incredibly strong, good in a fight, and can possess devastating chemical attacks. They are outright described as "an amalgamation of what makes the insect faction so powerful." |
| 300 | * MasterOfNone: |
| 301 | ** No seal or sea lion build ranks above B-tier, as splitting their evolution points between aquatic and land-based survival abilities has prevented them from mastering either environment. They are completely dominated by sharks and orcas in water, and are cripplingly vulnerable when on land. The only pinniped build to overcome this and rise to top tier is the walrus, due to being so massive that no land predator can pose a serious threat while actually having a strong weapon in their tusks. |
| 302 | ** The Spinosaurus, a D-tier dinosaur build, faces a similar problem as its investment into aquatic abilities like swimming and electroreception cost it the necessary stats to hold its own on land, resulting in it getting bodied against other land carnivore builds in the area, and outran by most herbivores. |
| 303 | ** Seahorses. They're the slowest fish in the sea, lack any offensive capabilities, and while they have above-average defense for their size, their small size and slow speed means they'll still be pushed around often. |
| 304 | ** The D-tier Tiger Keelback is one of the very few animals that is both venomous ''and'' poisonous, but their venom and poison aren't all that potent and they still have the weaknesses of most colubrid snakes. |
| 305 | * MaximumHPReduction: The Tail Autotomy ability of the lizard family to give a permanent reduction in max HP unless a new tail can be fully regrown. Because of this and other factors, it was considered it a detrimental ability, with the two S-Tier lizards in the Monitor and Komodo Dragon being ranked high partly because they ''lack'' it. |
| 306 | * MechanicallyUnusualClass: Humans don't have claws, fur, and other things that other builds spec into. That said, they're a class that's heavily based around the Tool Use skill, and they make up for any shortcomings with inventions created because of their maxed Intelligence. |
| 307 | * TheMedic: Cleaner wrasse specialize in cleaning parasites off other fish, removing their debuffs. This allows them to even gain the hospitality of larger predator builds like sharks. |
| 308 | * MessyPig: Pigs use their nose to dig up mud and wallow in it in order to gain a heat resistance buff, making them less susceptible to overheating in the sun. |
| 309 | * MightyGlacier: Most animals of this classes are solid A-tier. However, they are vulnerable against Intelligence-based builds and herd tactics. |
| 310 | ** Naturally, turtles are this, with tough shells and strong bites. Those who fail in these criteria are low-tier. |
| 311 | ** Constrictor snakes can win a 1-on-1 fight with pretty much anything, but at the cost of severely reduced mobility. |
| 312 | ** Walruses are exemplary examples of this, being sluggish, but so durable they can tank Polar Bears, and their tusks can ward off the same. They're less sluggish in water, but that still doesn't help them in matchups against the [[invoked]]GameBreaker Orcas. |
| 313 | ** ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' was considered this. It was noted to be not particularly fast outside short bursts of speed. If it was re-introduced in the current-day meta, it would have extremely high attack damage, but its large size made it slower than several modern-day animals. As such, [[CripplingOverspecialization the only animals it could reliably kill would be elephants]]. |
| 314 | ** Most snails are placed in F-Tier thanks to only having good defence (for their size), the worst speed in the meta, and nothing else. The Cone Snail however has an extremely high attack stat to go with it thanks to a ''very lethal'' venom harpoon that can even pierce human protection, and is a solid A-Tier because of it. |
| 315 | ** Elephants have high stats in almost everything, including attack, defense, health, and intelligence, but have a relatively low speed and stealth stat. |
| 316 | ** Downplayed by Komodo Dragons. They have powerful tail slaps, claw slashes, and a deadly and powerful venomous bite, but their speed is described to be "while solid, isn't broken by any means". This however isn't too big of an issue, as the Komodo Dragon is also a ScarilyCompetentTracker. |
| 317 | ** Giant anteaters are a very bizarre example. While they lack any sort of meaningful armor or defensive abilities, they simply boast an absurdly high HP stat. This is backed up by massive claws and powerful forearms that give it a surprisingly strong attack, though these cumbersome claws alongside a low metabolism cut into its agility significantly. Despite this, the fact that it can defend itself from a [[MasterOfAll jaguar]] ambush is nothing to laugh at. |
| 318 | ** Mantis Shrimps play with this. The speed of their punches is extremely fast, but their short legs and fins give them slow mobility. This usually means they're forced to hunt mostly stationary builds like shelled molluscs. |
| 319 | * MightyRoar: An ability that's used by big cats and other larger species for VictoryThroughIntimidation and thus doing a huge number on enemy resolve. |
| 320 | * MokeleMbembe: Mokeles are covered in an AprilFoolsDay video on cryptids. The narrator considers them an S-tier animal, and speculates that they're dinosaur players who managed to avoid the sweeping bans (that is, [[ColonyDrop the meteor that killed the dinosaurs]]) at the end of the Cretaceous period. |
| 321 | * MovesetClone: In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiuFj-R7Et0 The Rodent Tier List]]", a number of the rodents have an [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Echo Fighter]] counterpart, such as the mouse to the rat. |
| 322 | [[/folder]] |
| 323 | |
| 324 | [[folder:Tropes N - R]] |
| 325 | * NecessaryDrawback: Sails. These helped reptiles appear larger and hence more intimidating, prevented the owner from being grabbed from the back, and also collected heat faster in the day which was vital for their stamina thanks to their cold-blooded nature. However, it did come with the price of a huge stealth decrease as well as giving them a larger hitbox, which is why sails weren't seen as often in the Mesozoic era. |
| 326 | * NeverSmileAtACrocodile: Crocodilians are S-tier for a number of reasons. One, they have high stats across the board, with their lowest one (Defense) coming out as average. Two, they have the strongest bite in the game, which is capable of one-shotting most low-to-mid HP targets as well as crushing the armor of more tanky builds like turtles and armadillos. Three, their conical teeth make them superb grapplers, which allows them to take down even more durable players via the Death Roll, one of the most powerful attacks in the game. And four, crocodilians have been able to survive through millions of years and multiple balance patches with minimal changes applied to their general build and strategy, proving just how effective they are in the meta. |
| 327 | * NobleBirdOfPrey: Almost every single bird of prey is ''at least'' B-tier, with the Eagles, Hawks and Falcons all in A. [[DarkHorseVictory Surprisingly]], the secretary bird was listed as an S-rank for being able to counter high-tier builds like cobras and generally perform excellently in the difficult server that is the African Savannah. The "Best Support Class" video also highlighted birds of prey as the best [[AttackAnimal battle summon]], with the sport of falconry being specifically tailored to taking down fast and evasive bird players. Combining this with an ally dog player's [[TheyHaveTheScent acute smell ability]] only adds to the potential of the team as a whole, flushing out prey so the raptor can better intercept it. |
| 328 | * NoExportForYou: [[invoked]]The Abyssal server is region-locked, which is why no outsiders can play in it. [=TierZoo=] himself can't set up a proper tier list for the deep sea meta because even he doesn't know enough about it to make a proper call on what builds work best. |
| 329 | * TheNoseKnows: |
| 330 | ** Pigs have an excellent sense of smell which helps them detect underground food. This is paired up with a shovel-like nose that helps them dig said food up easily. |
| 331 | ** Komodo Dragon have a powerful sense of smell to the point where the only way to really flee from [[ScarilyCompetentTracker being tracked down by one]] is to ''leave the island server entirely''. |
| 332 | * NotTheIntendedUse: The episode "Abusing the Game's Physics Engine" is all about this--usage of skills in a creative way that the developers didn't intend certain builds to, causing ways to "exploit the physics engine": |
| 333 | ** The Trap Jaw ant's bite is a powerful weapon, but it doesn't have much in terms of mobility as it lacks powerful legs or wings (for most of the time). However, by using its trap jaw bite on the ground, it's capable of propelling itself a great distance. |
| 334 | ** Many beetles have a headbutt ability, but the Click Beetle's headbutt ability can be used without a target, the force of which can propel it into the air. |
| 335 | ** The Cuttlefish's color changing ability can not only be used for its primary purpose in camouflage, but it can also be used as hypnosis via undulating its color rapidly, causing other players to "crash" via "messing with their graphics engine". |
| 336 | ** Most Crustacean builds have a [[PowerPincers powerful pincer grab]], but their abysmal intelligence means that most of them would be unable to develop ranged combat. Unless it's the Pistol Shrimp, who specced so much into grab speed that it can create a shockwave by targeting the water in front of it. |
| 337 | * NotWorthKilling: Sponges are mentioned to be not worth the effort for a predator to feed on despite being immobile sitting ducks and thus easy prey. Their spicules cause negative experience gain by acting like glass shards, and some sponges have a toxic area debuff to harm predators. While some builds like turtles are resistant to these two effects, they are much better off eating higher-value targets like jellyfish, snails, and seaweed. |
| 338 | * OneHitKill: |
| 339 | ** The Crocodile's [[SpectacularSpinning Death Roll]] ability is aptly described as an instant kill. It's further expanded on in a later video -- it's practically a death sentence when successfully pulled off, but requires unbroken concentration and can thus be interrupted by an ally of the victim. |
| 340 | ** The Brazilian Wandering Spider's venom was mentioned to be potent enough to one-shot nearly anything, from mid-tiers like lizards to top-tiers like apes. The fact that they inject more venom in one bite than any other spider also helps. |
| 341 | ** The Sauropod build's GiantFootOfStomping was mentioned to deal lethal damage and described as "literally the most devastating move in the game". |
| 342 | ** The Poison Dart Frog's poison is stated to be able to drop any player's HP to zero relatively quickly after biting the frog. The main trouble is that it [[CounterAttack requires the frog to be attacked]] in order for it to work -- and the frog is even more fragile than other frogs thanks to its tiny size. |
| 343 | ** The big cats go for the throat of their prey to slowly choke them to death. Except the Jaguar, which has the most powerful bite of all the cats relative to their size and can utilise this to crush the neck or skull of their prey, instantly paralysing them or outright causing a Game Over. |
| 344 | * OneStatToRuleThemAll: Intelligence, which allows for both group tactics and wisdom accumulation. This is doubly true in the city meta, where intelligence is mentioned to be far more important than stats like power and HP. Humans in particular abuse their maxed-out intelligence to simply craft items that give them extremely high stats in ''everything'' except Health. The Dinosaur Tier list puts the intelligence-based ''Troodon'' in A-Rank among several other very effective builds. In "The Bird Tier List", two of the S-ranked birds were the intelligence-based builds in the Parrots and Corvids. |
| 345 | * OpenSecret: Everyone knows that ''VideoGame/{{Outside}}'' is just RealLife, but everyone from the uploader to the comments section will always talk about it as if it's a real video game [[RuleOfFun because it's more fun that way.]] |
| 346 | * OutOfTheFryingPan: Flying Fish were considered D-Tier because their ability to jump out of the water and "fly" allowed them to escape water-borne predators... [[MortonsFork and become easy meals for airborne ones]]. Furthermore, even if they avoided the air predators, they would then land back into the water and get caught by the aquatic ones. Either way, their leaping ability only served to make them even more vulnerable. |
| 347 | * OutsideContextProblem: |
| 348 | ** One of the advantages of the Australia server is the matchup inexperience that non-native server players will have. While most players in other servers would be able to roughly distinguish the designs of predators and "harmless" animals, Australia contains many weird and ConfusionFu creatures like the platypus that would be a headache for outside-server players to understand. |
| 349 | ---> "The relative abundance of jank makes Australia a really unforgiving place for newbies." |
| 350 | ** The Deep Sea Meta is also considered as one for any outsider trying to join it. Most build types tend to be marginally similar among different servers, with the exception of the deep sea where everything is… weird, and more importantly, unexplored/not well-analyzed. It's ''so'' different that [=TierZoo=] ''cannot make a conventional Tier List for it!'' |
| 351 | * OvershadowedByAwesome: This is the reason why the African Cape Buffalo is only A-Tier despite being one of the most dangerous animals in the Savannah. While it is powerful, it's overshadowed by the Wildebeest (an antelope build) which may not be as bulky but is much faster, allowing it to avoid the deadly attacks and ambushes much more often compared to the Cape Buffalo. |
| 352 | * PainfulPointyPufferfish: One reason why Puffer Fish were deemed to be S-tier inhabitants of the Coral Reef meta is due to being able to inflate and hurt attackers with spines, plus their round size when inflated makes it hard to get a bite on them. |
| 353 | * PantheraAwesome: All big cats, which are also called "panthers", are B-tier or higher, with the jaguar being S-tier. Averted by the cougar, lynx, and cheetah, however, all of whom are mid-to-low tier and are technically small cats despite their size, and thus not panthers. Played straight with the A-tier sabertooth in "The Ice Age Tier List," which had a high power stat that was surprisingly more due to its muscular forelimbs than its brittle fangs. |
| 354 | * PaperTiger: The brown recluse and black widow are two of [[TheDreaded the most feared spiders in the game]] due to their venomous bites, the former of which is often reported to cause necrosis. However, [=TierZoo=] argues that neither of their bites are anywhere near as potent as rumored, and their small webs make their camping strategy weak compared to other spider players. This combined with their unimpressive stats rank black widows and brown recluses as F-tier spiders who get by entirely on their overstated reputations. |
| 355 | * PersonalSpaceInvader: Dromaeosaurs had a sickle claw which not only functioned as a CriticalHit weapon, but also allowed them to hook onto bigger dinosaurs by using their pounce attack. |
| 356 | * PintSizedPowerhouse: Beetles are mentioned to be some of the strongest animals proportionate to body size, packing enough muscle to move objects ''far'' above their weight class. |
| 357 | * PlayingWithFire: |
| 358 | ** The bombardier beetle's chemical spray is called "[[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Fire Blast]]" in the "Elemental Type Moves" video, since it actually heats up to near the boiling point of water when its constituent chemicals are mixed and ejected. |
| 359 | ** At the end of the Raptor Tier List video, [=TierZoo=] notes that some Australian raptor players have actually adopted the strategy of [[https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/australian-raptors-start-fires-to-flush-out-prey dropping firebrands into scrubland]], starting fires that can burn cover and flush out prey. |
| 360 | * PointBuildSystem: Various abilities animals may have like cling pads or venom are described as being acquired based on the spending of "evolution points" and lower-tier animals will be criticized for inefficient expenditure of their evolution points leaving them with capabilities ill-suited to their environment or spending too much energy continuing to specialize further in an ability long past the point of diminishing returns. |
| 361 | * PoisonousPerson: Both venom and poison are two different categories of toxins used against attackers or prey. In general, venom is ''far'' more useful than poison, since poison requires that the animal has to take a sufficiently strong hit in order for it to affect while venom is injected upon attack. The Tiger Keelback snake is noted to be both venomous ''and'' poisonous, but [[MasterOfNone neither its venom nor poison are very potent.]] |
| 362 | * PowerCreep: |
| 363 | ** During the 1.2 patch era (the Mesozoic Era), more and more powerful dinosaurs kept being added until it got completely out of hand, forcing the devs to issue a heavy-handed patch that banned nearly all terrestrial megafauna and all but a few dinosaurs, and gave mammals a chance in the meta. |
| 364 | ** In general, over the course of the game, and especially the 1.3 patch era (the Cenozoic), higher and higher intelligence builds have become possible, allowing for more and more sophisticated group strategies, tool use, and ItemCrafting, leading to extremely powerful builds like Orcas, Wolves, Black Bears, Otters, Parrots, Octopi, Crows, Pigs, Elephants, Chimps, and Humans, which have managed to hit levels of dominance exceeding even dinosaurs at their peak. |
| 365 | ** This trope is part of the reason cited for why scorpions are a D-tier animal. They had great matchups when they were first introduced, but animals added in later updates are better able to counter their build. |
| 366 | * PunnyName: An accidental one at that — "Tier" means "Animal" [[BilingualBonus in German]]. Meaning that this could be seen as Animal Zoo in German. |
| 367 | * QuantityVersusQuality: In general, quantity tends to win out, as real life averts the ConservationOfNinjutsu: |
| 368 | ** Pack hunting and eusocialism are traits that tend to make several animals higher tiers. |
| 369 | ** In "The Optimal Team Composition", the biggest threat/most useful ally is the SwarmOfRats. '''''10000''''' of them, which is enough to overrun all the other animals on the list. The 50 eagles are the other most useful pick as their numbers help them at playing support. |
| 370 | * RascallyRaccoon: In "The City Animal Tier List", Raccoons are noted to have a reputation for making some of the best thieving builds in the game, thanks to being able to detect, reach and open several food-containing containers. |
| 371 | * RedemptionDemotion: In "The Optimal Team Composition", the human counts as this. When they're an ally, they're actually rather weak as their objective is to neutralize all the animals attacking the VIP. While their rifle is capable of one-shotting an animal, their ammunition is limited, their attack has a reload time, and thus the number of enemy animals will easily overrun them. When they're an enemy, they're the second-most dangerous threat after the rats since their objective is to kill the VIP, which they can easily do by sniping the VIP from afar while ignoring the animals protecting the VIP, making limited ammunition a non-issue. As such, if the human is not chosen, it is imperative that the VIP have an ally who can spot him quickly and hinder his shooting capability which the Eagles would be capable of doing. |
| 372 | * {{Reincarnation}}: Implied. He refers to being born as respawning. |
| 373 | * TheRemake: |
| 374 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlRsmijwHMk The Frog Tier List]] is a remake of [=TierZoo=]'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuoVk-g319s earliest video]], giving a more in-depth reason for frogs being weak and also placing various frogs into different tiers. |
| 375 | ** Likewise, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPZP-yC6j70 The Lizard Tier List]] is a remake of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX7-PZSzhmY The Lizard Moveset Guide]], giving more in-depth reasons for the tierings of lizards. It also mixes in the Komodo Dragon's mini-analysis from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwx8hP_nIn0 Is it possible to play as a Dinosaur?]]. |
| 376 | * RequiredSecondaryPowers: |
| 377 | ** High Intelligence is greatly undermined if the animal doesn't have high dexterity to actually move objects around properly, since dexterity and precision is needed to craft tools. Likewise, potential is wasted if an animal has high Intelligence but a short lifespan, since they would not be able to accumulate enough wisdom to learn skills effectively before they die of old age. |
| 378 | ** Conversely, a long lifespan without intelligence isn't very useful either, as it hampers the ability to gather and pass on wisdom during said lifespan, thus resulting, for example, in young and old crabs alike continuing to fall for the same tricks and traps. |
| 379 | ** A hematophagous build requires a high Stealth stat to avoid being detected by the victim. This is the main reason why [=TierZoo=] considers the female mosquito and the tick to be more effective than the Vampire Bat when it comes to sucking blood, as the bat can be easily detected by a conscious victim. |
| 380 | ** Despite having the offensive tools to break open ant/termite nests and consume swarms of the residents within, anteaters ''don't'' have the defensive abilities to avoid taking damage from the ants' acid, bites and stings. This normally isn't an issue as anteaters have surprisingly high health, but it does mean that they cannot feed for extended durations. |
| 381 | * RhinoRampage: As noted in AwesomeButImpractical, this is subverted with modern-day rhinos, which are listed in D-tier because of their poor intelligence and vision despite otherwise high stats, but was played much straighter by the extinct woolly rhino, which was big and strong enough to play as a serviceable tank in spite of these flaws. |
| 382 | * RocketTagGameplay: Australia is described to have this, since there are ''several'' venomous species that can kill in a single strike and not many herbivorous tanks due to lack of abundant vegetation. |
| 383 | * RocksFallEveryoneDies: The extinction of the dinosaurs itself is '''not''' this trope, which is when the game master decides to kill everyone, but several videos referencing it state that in the context of the ''Outside'' meta, ''that's exactly what happened''. Specifically, the SerialEscalation of the dinosaurs' overall [[invoked]]GameBreaker status reached its peak during the Late Cretaceous, and the developers realized that there was only one way to restore balance to the metagame: implementing a balance patch that would render the top-tier dinosaur builds unviable. |
| 384 | * RPGMechanicsVerse: Applies this to RealLife. |
| 385 | * RunningGag: The text "I've made a terrible mistake", "Mike I swear to god", "Swiggity swooty", and "Yeet" pop up as a joke repeatedly. |
| 386 | [[/folder]] |
| 387 | |
| 388 | [[folder:Tropes S]] |
| 389 | * SacredHospitality: Cleaner wrasse rely on their reputation as TheMedic to protect themselves, and even larger fish will not attack them for their parasite-removal services... most of the time. [=TierZoo=] notes that betrayals during cleansing sessions are rare, but the risk still exists. |
| 390 | * SapientCetaceans: Discussed and averted. Firstly, dolphins lack grasping digits to manipulate and craft objects, and even if they did they would be unable to create fire that is necessary for advancement due to living in an aquatic environment. |
| 391 | * ScarilyCompetentTracker: The Komodo Dragon is described as such. While their speed is solid but not broken, their [[TheNoseKnows incredible sense of smell]] means that the distance an animal needs to flee to avoid being tracked down is ''to leave the island server entirely''. |
| 392 | * ScaryScorpions: Subverted. Scorpions are considered a D-tier build thanks to having terrible matchups against several modern-day animals, [[SoLastSeason compared to the past where they had few bad matchups]]. While their claws can catch prey and hold them in place for a venom stinger, it's ineffective against most larger animals, and many animals like mongooses and birds are agile and fast enough to go for their tail and damage it, instantly neutralizing any threat they pose. |
| 393 | * ScaryStingingSwarm: |
| 394 | ** The weakness of the otherwise [[invoked]]GameBreaker humans is flight-capable eusocial stinging insects such as bees, wasps, and hornets. Thanks to having no fur, humans have ''[[SquishyWizard terrible defense]]'' if not wearing the proper equipment, and the bees' mobility and fast speed via flight plus ZergRush tactics allows them to give several painful stings to the human which will destroy the human's resolve causing them to flee--or even worse, cause anaphylactic shock that can kill the human. |
| 395 | ** Yellow jackets in particular are mentioned in the video "Are Insects Getting Banned?" as one of the best generalists for its weight class, with powerful stats relative to its size, making it effective against other builds alone or in swarms. In addition, yellow jackets would benefit from the increasing level of trash in the overworld due to their ability to make bases pretty much anywhere. |
| 396 | * SeaMonster: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] with the Mosasaurus, a top-tier marine build in the Cretaceous meta. One of the few varieties of lizard players, which were mostly unfavored in the archosaur matchup, to achieve top-tier status, they were a part of the monitor lizard guild, already S-tier in the modern metagame due to their high base stats. To avoid predators, these monitor players took to waters too shallow for other builds like sharks or other fish to access, and quickly developed increased mobility in the water and the ability to give birth to live young, the latter nullifying other reptiles' vulnerability to spawn-killing. Their success in the marine server allowed them to perfect their aquatic mobility and live birth perks, as well as to spec points into gigantism and their bite attack, enough to shatter even an ammonite's armor. Their size also allowed them to become expert surface hunters that can tackle even the strongest dinosaur builds and punish any pterosaur careless enough to roost near the water's surface, exploiting the vast amount of advantages to hunting builds above the surface, including a stealth bonus from the water's reflection. [[StatusQuoIsGod Then they were banned along with the dinosaurs in the K-T balance patch]]. |
| 397 | * SequelHook: At the end of the cat tier list video, TierZoo mentions having forgotten something, then a domestic cat appears on screen, and TierZoo states that they're getting their own video; sure enough, the cat vs dog video came out shortly afterwards, explaining how cats take advantage of ''Toxoplasma gondii'' to secure a top tier spot. |
| 398 | * ShoutOut: [=TierZoo=] frequently makes references to competitive video games such as ''{{Franchise/Pokemon}}'', ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'', ''Franchise/StreetFighter'', and ''{{VideoGame/Overwatch}}''. |
| 399 | ** "Are Dolphins OP? The Whale Tier List" opens with an orca emerging from nowhere and giving a BadassBoast in the form of "[[Memes/FistOfTheNorthStar Omae wa mou shinderu]]". |
| 400 | ** The "Elemental Type Moves" episode has several references to ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', including the names of the elemental moves (Discharge, Water Gun, and Fire Blast). |
| 401 | ** The scream VFX from ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'' is used in a few videos, namely the one on antlions. |
| 402 | ** Footage from ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'', and the ''Battlefield'' theme from ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' and the music used on the ''VideoGame/{{Kirby}}'' stage from ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros64'' are used whenever [=PvP=] is being discussed. There's also references to ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' in "[[MovesetClone Echo Fighters]]" such as the mouse to the rat. |
| 403 | ** One clip involving tigers fighting wolves uses footage from ''Film/TheJungleBook2016''. |
| 404 | ** "Are Insects Getting Banned?" opens with [[Memes/AvengersInfinityWar Thanos snapping his fingers, and various insects being turned to dust]]. |
| 405 | ** The lifebars and damage numbers during [=PVP=] are from ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}''. In-game chat is also displayed Runescape-style, and much of the more generic background music is from its soundtrack. |
| 406 | ** The "rat mains" shown in the "Rodent Tier List" video are actually the main characters of ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'' and ''Film/{{Stuart Little}}''. |
| 407 | ** The Shark Tier List opens with "[[Franchise/TheFairlyOddParents My Shiny Teeth and Me]]". |
| 408 | ** The series is [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Tierzoo/comments/8rhjd9/i_am_patch_creator_of_tierzoo_ama/e0rfnu3/ partly inspired]] by Creator/AnimalPlanet's ''Series/TheMostExtreme'', and sometimes uses its green static transition effect. The theme from ''Series/{{Eyewitness}}'' is also used. |
| 409 | ** The UI from ''VideoGame/DontStarve'' can be momentarily seen in the "Are Insects Getting Banned?" episode. |
| 410 | ** The cleaner wrasse in "The Fish Tier List" gets a task list resembling the ''VideoGame/AmongUs'' task list. |
| 411 | ** The intro to "The Primate Tier List" parodies the intro of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''. |
| 412 | ** "The Crustacean Tier List": |
| 413 | *** A copepod is seen saying, "[[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants Holographic meatloaf again?]] My favorite!" |
| 414 | *** One video shows a human trying to hit a crab with the stick, with the crab saying, [[Literature/ThePrincessBride "You killed my father. Prepare to die!"]] |
| 415 | * SkillGateCharacters: |
| 416 | ** Both birds of prey and wolves are explicitly mentioned as gatekeepers to the higher tiers, and most are solidly placed in A-tier for the most part. They're easy to play as and can perform very well, but there are holes in their build and/or strategy that can be exploited by top-tier builds. Wolves for example need to intimidate a target into fleeing, and if the target consistently stands its ground or counterattacks instead the pack typically has to abort the attack. Being able to counter them reliably will often put a build in a high to top tier. |
| 417 | -->'''[=TierZoo=]:''' ''Even though wolves have a pretty solid offensive strategy, players with good fundamentals and matchup experience will be able to thwart their plans most of the time, and wolves, much like birds of prey, function as the gatekeepers to the higher tiers and are placed solidly in A-tier.'' |
| 418 | ** Crustaceans are mentioned to be beginner-friendly thanks to having strong exoskeletal defense ''and'' a HealingFactor that can allow them to replace lost limbs. This allows them to make mistakes and still progress through their playthrough relatively unhindered. However, due to having a rather middling stat spread, they struggle against high-tier builds. Most of them are thus stuck at C/D tier, with only Hermit Crabs (including Coconut Crabs), Copepods, and Mantis Shrimp escaping to B and A tier. |
| 419 | * SlipperyAsAnEel: Moray eels stand out for their amazing spread of stats and abilities. They can swim surprisingly fast despite their lack of pectoral fins. Their skill at navigating through narrow crevices few other fish can venture into combined with their bright coloration make them fantastic ambush predators. The mucus membrane covering their skin protects them from predator attacks and other hazards on the reef, making them more durable than they look, and when coupled with their powerful bite, it allows them to ignore [[TheSpiny the poisonous spines of the lionfish]] and eat them with impunity, something no other fish can do. Finally, eels have enough intelligence to form basic hunting teams with groupers of all things, making them slippery in the metaphorical sense as well. All these traits combine to make moray eels one of the highest ranking fish builds in the game. |
| 420 | * SmallTaxonomyPools: Zig-zagged. While many featured animals are already common/iconic, some more obscure species like the tiger keelback (a D-tier, MasterOfNone snake build) are discussed as well. |
| 421 | * SmarterThanYouLook: Despite having a [[MessyPig rather messy nature of digging up dirt and wallowing in the mud]], pigs are a lot more intelligent than they appear, with Intelligence as their highest stat in an otherwise JackOfAllStats build. |
| 422 | * SoLastSeason: |
| 423 | ** In "Should Dinosaurs be Unbanned?", [=TierZoo=] discusses how well dinosaurs would fare in the current meta. Many of them would suffer this trope and be considered C-F tier thanks to the difference in animals between the Mesozoic and modern day doing no favours for them. |
| 424 | *** Hadrosaurs were considered bottom tier since their main ability was to signal other dinosaurs of incoming danger, as most Mesozoic predators were big and lacked stealth. Several animals in the current day use stealth capability to hunt meaning that the hadrosaurs would not get a chance to signal for help. |
| 425 | *** During the Cretaceous, Triceratops and other herbivores with front-facing defences were useful at defending against predators that mainly tried to take them head-on. This would not be effective in the modern-day since several predators use pack-hunting and flanking tactics to bypass this. |
| 426 | *** Sauropods have an extremely powerful late-game stage that many animals would not even dare to bother attacking. However, their early-game stage was especially vulnerable to getting killed, and in the current meta there are several animals that would be able to take a young sauropod down. [=TierZoo=] ranks them at either S--or F--tier depending on whether any could survive to the late-game. |
| 427 | *** Dinosaurs with a [[TailSlap tail-based defence]] such as ''Stegosaurus'' and ''Ankylosaurus'' subvert this. They're considered S-rank for the current day meta as a tail defence was a very powerful and effective mid-range deterrent against flanking predators. Furthermore, the armor on their backs would protect against assassin builds trying to get an attack via the top. In fact, Ankylosaurs are an inversion, as they were only considered A-Rank in the Cretaceous due their weakness to [[FlippingHelpless being flipped over]], which most modern-day predators cannot pull off. |
| 428 | *** ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' was only considered a C-tier because of this. In the Cretaceous, its high attack build was necessary at taking down other dinosaurs. In the modern day, it would [[CripplingOverspecialization only be useful against elephants]] since most other modern-day animals were fast enough to outspeed it. |
| 429 | *** Dromaeosaurs subvert this and because of that were considered S-rank predator choices. They wouldn't need to adjust their playstyle much as several of their prey types still exist (such as small mammals). Dromaeosaurs would fill a similar pack hunter niche to foxes and coyotes, but fare better since most canines have to grind down an opponent they hold onto while raptors could deal a fast, deadly CriticalHit [[SlashedThroat to the prey's neck]]. They're another inversion that would be even more effective than their A-tier placement in the Cretaceous, due to more smaller animals they could quickly kill and fewer larger animals that could kill them. |
| 430 | ** Rhinos. The woolly rhino was B-tier during the Ice Age patch when the meta was centered around combat stats due to their massive, powerful horns and great defence. However, with the shifts in the meta that have been caused by the spread of humans leading to a meta centered more around intelligence- and mobility-based builds, the rhinos have dropped to D-tier due to their low intelligence and poor eyesight leading them to frequently pick completely unnecessary fights and put themselves in danger in the process. |
| 431 | ** Scorpions were considered very effective builds in the past, where their armor, along with their grab attack and venom stinger combo was extremely effective against most animals back then thanks to a lack of agile, powerful, heavily armored, or venom-resistant builds. However, in the present, things ''really'' fell apart. Their stinger is PowerfulButInaccurate, requiring the scorpion to get a grab on the target which is generally ineffective against larger targets, and is ''not'' a [[HitboxDissonance disjointed hitbox]] meaning that several builds can grab them by the tail. While Scorpions are effective against similar-sized animals like insects and spiders, most larger modern animals ''destroy'' them[[note]]Mongooses are fast and nigh-immune to their toxins, beetles have armor that claws can't penetrate, lizards can deal hefty damage past their armor, birds are agile enough to avoid stingers and attack it, and ants simply swarm them to death[[/note]]. All these weaknesses meant that scorpions sit at D-tier, a far cry from their early days. |
| 432 | ** Myriapods, like scorpions, were considered effective builds in the past due to the then-unique niche of air breathing and their fast speed in the Silurian period. However, as they've mostly stayed the same throughout the millennia, the ever-changing meta has ''not'' been kind to either. Both of them lack good eyesight unlike most arthropods, and their long bodies allow several builds with disjointed hitboxes to easily catch and kill them. Centipedes have it very rough, with their telegraphed and predictable attacks allowing prey to easily see them coming and escape. It's for these reasons that centipedes are considered at F-tier, even lower than scorpions, and millipedes are considered D-tier. |
| 433 | * SpidersAreScary: The reason why spiders were considered a poor choice for a human support class. Arachnophobia is a very real thing, and having a spider as a companion would cause a charisma debuff towards other humans. |
| 434 | * TheSpiny: |
| 435 | ** Porcupines. Their Quill ability deals damage to players who make contact with them. The quills also embed into the attacker, causing them to deal higher and higher damage as the opponent keeps attacking the quills. |
| 436 | ** Lionfish have venomous spines with their spread-out fins, making them very unappetizing to eat and contributes to their invasive nature. One of the very few predators that can bypass this is the moray eel. |
| 437 | ** To a lesser extent, the Hallucigenia build from the game's early beta stage. A C-tier Cambrian build, it foregoes opting for a tough exoskeleton in favor of defensive spikes. Unfortunately, the Hallucigenia is not nearly mobile or large enough to be considered a serious threat by other players. |
| 438 | * SquishyWizard: Humans are considered these thanks to having high intelligence, tool use, teaching, learning and inventive skills, but they sacrifice their defence by not having thick fur and as such have one of the lowest defenses among all animals. |
| 439 | * StealthExpert: Several animals with a high Stealth stat are capable of being these. The animal with the highest Stealth ability is appropriately enough the cuttlefish as it's capable of changing its color to blend in very well. |
| 440 | * StealthyCephalopod: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuG1UklHwco "Optimizing Stealth Builds"]] explains various strategies used by stealth players. Cephalopods are noted to have the highest stealth stat in the game thanks to their ability to change not only their color, but also their shape and texture to match any environment in the ocean. |
| 441 | * StoneWall: |
| 442 | ** Geese have a build like this, having abysmal offensive capability but surprisingly good health and mobility which makes them annoying to take down. They pair this with an intimidation build to troll their opponents. This however makes them rather poor in a city meta, where they are only D-tier because their only threat is in their intimidation, and most builds who can resist it will easily beat them. |
| 443 | ** Porcupines. Their build has an abysmally low attack stat, low HP, poor stealth and slow mobility. However, their defense stat is sky-high thanks to their Quills ability that hurts melee attackers and causes damage over time. |
| 444 | ** Surprisingly, the video on turtles shows them as [[ZigZaggedTrope zig-zagging]] this. While there are a few turtles that play into the stereotype of being tough but slow, such as the tortoise, several of the turtles shown either [[GracefulInTheirElement have great aquatic mobility]] or can deliver sizeable damage with their bite. |
| 445 | ** Baleen whales have ''the'' highest HP stat in the game thanks to their massive size, but their main weapon in their baleen is only good at killing krill and is ineffective against anything larger. [[DownplayedTrope That said,]] they do have a decent attack stat, since a TailSlap from a whale is still very painful. |
| 446 | * SuperScream: Parrots are noted to have the "Syrinx Shriek" ability, an extremely loud cry that is used in intimidation. It's particularly useful in breaking an enemy's resolve to achieve a VictoryThroughIntimidation -- especially when more than one parrot joins in. [[note]]TruthInTelevision: Parrot owners may attest that a bird screaming at the top of its lungs can actually be physically painful to listen to.[[/note]] |
| 447 | * SupportPartyMember: In "The Optimal Team Composition" [[note]]"Pick Two. They will defend you. The rest are coming to kill you." where the choices are 10 crocodiles, 3 bears, 7 bulls, 1 human with a rifle, 5 gorillas, 4 lions, 15 wolves, 50 eagles and 10000 rats[[/note]], the 50 eagles are noted to be this and are a top choice for picking. They may not have high attacking power compared to the other animals, but they have great eyesight and mobility for seeking out the threats such as the rifle-armed human, and can use their talons to blind the other animals so they can't effectively attack the VIP while making them easy pickings for the SwarmOfRats. |
| 448 | * SwansASwimming: Near the end of the "Are Geese OP" video, Tier Zoo outright states that swans are essentially geese but with everything that makes geese scary turned up to eleven, with similar territorial aggressiveness, intimidation factor and [[LightningBruiser a strong attack stat alongside good defence and speed]]. They also have one of the best aesthetics values of all animals. |
| 449 | * SwarmOfRats: In "The Optimal Team Composition", which discusses [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pick_two_they_will_defend_you.png this meme]], one of the choices is '''''10000''''' rats. They're pretty much ''the'' top choice to pick, since the VIP will be overrun if they aren't picked, while the entire ZergRush is very capable of taking down ''all the other animals on the list'' via DeathOfAThousandCuts with the possible exception of the flying eagles--not that it matters since the eagles are the ''other'' top choice. Of note, picking the rats and eagles means that you have 200+ rats against every other animal--which is [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill considered overkill]], even against a bear or crocodile. |
| 450 | [[/folder]] |
| 451 | |
| 452 | [[folder:Tropes T - W]] |
| 453 | * TacticalRockPaperScissors: In "The 4 Animal Combat Styles", [=TierZoo=] discusses which styles beat each other. |
| 454 | ** Grappler builds beat Spacing (zoner) builds because the MightyGlacier Spacer builds rely on using their horns or tail to attack for heavy damage, and once they're caught in a grab, it becomes hard to move those heavy parts around. |
| 455 | ** Spacing builds beat Rushdown builds as many Rushdown builds tend to be GlassCannon or FragileSpeedster types, which means one powerful hit from a MightyGlacier Spacing build will usually spell the end of a Rushdown build. |
| 456 | ** Rushdown builds beat Projectile builds as they can often get in close quickly and attack the LongRangeFighter Projectile build before the projectile can take good effect. |
| 457 | ** Projectile builds beat Grappler builds as the Grappler build needs to get close and find the right opportunity to perform their GrappleMove--and a ranged attack can hit the Grappler as they're attempting to do so. |
| 458 | * TailSlap: |
| 459 | ** Sauropods are noted to have a very long-range tail slap attack due to naturally long tails. This among other factors made them hard to attack, contributing to their S-tier status. |
| 460 | ** The iguana's Tail Whip attack has fast startup and a chance to inflict a stun on its target, but it also suffers from low damage and slow recovery, leaving the user open to a counter-attack if it misses. Despite these weaknesses, it's considered one of the iguana's best attacks, and part of the reason why [=TierZoo=] suggests avoiding using the Autotomy ability as much as possible, since it results in Tail Whip permanently becoming unusable. |
| 461 | * TakeThat: |
| 462 | ** In the Spider Tier List, the toxicity levels chart places [[VideoGame/{{Overwatch}} competitive Hanzo mains]] as being in between a black widow and rattlesnake in terms of toxicity, while ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' players are just below ''Clostridium botulinum'', making them the second most toxic thing on the list. |
| 463 | ** In the Primate Tier List: |
| 464 | *** [[Creator/ElectronicArts EA]] and Ajit Pai are considered lower intellect compared to crabs. |
| 465 | *** Within the same video, humans' social structure is said to be second to that of eusocial insects. |
| 466 | ** In "Are Elephants OP?", [=TierZoo=] considers anti-vaxxers to have far lower intelligence than even crustaceans. |
| 467 | * TakesOneToKillOne: |
| 468 | ** One of the biggest dangers to the hippopotamus is another hippopotamus, as their sharp teeth deal stabbing damage which bypasses their thick skin. |
| 469 | ** The only Cambrian build that can defeat ''Anomalocaris'' in a direct fight is another ''Anomalocaris'', because they're too big for anything else to take on and their attacks are strong enough to pierce each other's armor. |
| 470 | * TallPoppySyndrome: Comes up when discussing why the extremely powerful Giant Ground Sloth build went extinct whereas the modern-day sloths (which are ''the'' lowest-tier animal) did not. Giant Ground Sloths were hunted to extinction by humans thanks to their huge size, low stealth and vulnerability to projectiles, whereas humans didn't bother to hunt the arboreal sloths since these sloths didn't give much exp and humans were not adept in arboreal zones. |
| 471 | -->"Sometimes it pays to be low-tier, since being a powerhouse kind of puts a target on your head." |
| 472 | * ThatOneLevel: InUniverse, there a a few examples: |
| 473 | ** The African Savannah is consistently referred to as one of the most brutally competitive and dangerous servers--to the point that both the Secretary Bird and the African Wild Dog are S-Tier mainly because they excel at thriving in it. |
| 474 | ** The Arctic Server, which constantly deals cold damage to everyone in it, and has the Polar Night world event that removes sunlight for photosynthesis and solar heating entirely for months at a time. |
| 475 | ** The Deep Sea Meta on the Abyssal Server is stated to have "by far, the most unorthodox, unintuitive, and unforgiving meta in the entire game". |
| 476 | ** Downplayed by Australia. It's got a reputation as one of the most difficult servers due to the abundance of deadly reptiles and highly venomous creatures, as well as the [[OutsideContextProblem many builds that have no equivalent anywhere else]], but this is softened by the lack of tanks and powerful mammals. |
| 477 | * ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Some frogs have a {{poison|ousperson}}-based CounterAttack powerful enough to inflict a OneHitKill to almost any other build. While this can scare other players out of trying to attack them, a weaker toxin that merely makes them sick would be almost as effective in that regard while costing much fewer Evolution Points to unlock, which would allow them to have a more balanced stat pool (as the BoringButPractical cane toad build shows). |
| 478 | * TookALevelInBadass: |
| 479 | ** The F-tier Irish elk is one of the few builds that actually got buffed after the Ice Age ended, due to their much smaller antlers enabling them to more easily hide in dense forests, decreasing the energy cost for running, and reducing the risk of serious injury if one of the antlers breaks off during a fight. |
| 480 | ** Domestic pigs are mentioned to be able to revert back to a feral state similar to a wild boar if they manage to escape into the wild. |
| 481 | * {{Troll}}: |
| 482 | ** Cougars. They can't roar, ''[[HellIsThatNoise but they try]]''. This sounds like a screaming human female, which is good if a cougar player wants to [[WoundedGazelleGambit mess with humans]]. [[https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/07/100712-cats-mimics-monkeys-prey-science/ It's not limited to cougars as the trolls and humans as the victims, either.]] |
| 483 | ** Geese. Their build has poor attack damage, but they resist intimidation from larger creatures while also having strong intimidation ability to chase others away. By having both HP and mobility as their best stat--should their trolling intimidation attempt fail, they can easily take a hit and fly away. |
| 484 | ** [[https://youtu.be/hrnPE602sYE?si=bsQzQOiU_G3muD3o Are Dolphins OP?]] frames the dynamic between humans and orcas this way. As the two most overpowered builds in the entire game, they know better than to try to directly fight each other, but they still mess with each other every now and then. |
| 485 | --->"Orcas will divert the course of ships, humans will acidify the ocean, you know, classic pranks." |
| 486 | ** Earlier videos had a RunningGag where a player named Mike would go out of their way to screw over a fellow player for no apparent reason other than [[ItAmusedMe for the hell of it]]. The victim said the line "mike i swear to god", then would sometimes let out a BigNo. |
| 487 | * UnstableEquilibrium: Averting this trope is one of the reasons why the African Painted Hound is in S-Tier. Unlike A-Tier wolves who play it straight and give the strongest members the best share of loot, African Painted Hounds prop up the weaker members of the pack first. |
| 488 | * UnusualEuphemism: Archaeology and paleontology are "datamining". |
| 489 | * UseYourHead: Caprines are noted to have the "Cranial Cushion" ability which greatly reduces blunt force trauma to the head, making it a very useful ability in a literal head-on fight. |
| 490 | * VictoryThroughIntimidation: Intimidation is portrayed as a useful way to defeat enemies while minimizing the risk of damage. A strong Intimidation skill can even allow weaker animals to defeat stronger ones. [[FoulWaterfowl Geese]] are given as a specific example of a build that relies heavily on intimidation. Visually, Intimidation is represented by a visual effect from ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon''. |
| 491 | * WalkDontSwim: Not normally possible due to the physics engine, but hippos are capable of pulling it off by exploiting a glitch in the game's water physics. By putting on so much muscle and bulk, they sink to the bottom of the rivers they inhabit, which allows them to move swiftly by walking on the earth beneath the water. This makes hippos one of the best aquatic builds even though they don't invest in any swimming traits or abilities. |
| 492 | * WeakButSkilled: |
| 493 | ** Black Bears are this in comparison to Brown Bears. Most of their stats are slightly scaled back versions of the brown bear's, which has more power. However, their smaller size and thus higher mobility allow them to climb trees easily and therefore have access to more food options. As such, Brown Bears are mainly A-tier, while Black Bears are S-tier. |
| 494 | ** Humans, the biggest [[invoked]]GameBreaker, have mediocre stats for their weight class aside from Intelligence. Average power, terrible defense, below average HP, terrible stealth, and only slightly above-average mobility. Intelligence however is the OneStatToRuleThemAll and humans have the highest in the entire game, allowing them to invent things that can easily offset their shortcomings aside from their low HP. Even ''without'' the intelligence, they'd still be considered this thanks to lack of fur allowing sweating and high stamina, while gut flora allows them to eat various foods without risk for more exp options. |
| 495 | ** When it came to early humans, ''Homo sapiens'' were considered this compared to Neanderthals. While Neanderthals were [[LightningBruiser stronger, tougher and faster]], ''Homo sapiens'' had bigger party sizes when it came to cooperation, and also developed ranged weaponry which could take out prey from afar in contrast to the Neanderthals' close-range strategy. This allowed ''H. sapiens'' to out-compete the Neanderthals for food, and ultimately become the dominant species. |
| 496 | ** Early birds were considered this compared to Pterosaurs. While these birds were "sorely lacking in size and power", they were far more optimized in their niche in forest biomes, eventually dominating the small flying insectivore niche. During the Cretaceous Ban, the birds' smaller size, diet on insects instead of carrion or larger prey, and feather covering all helped them survive, while the Pterosaurs died out due to a lack of food and no cold resistance. |
| 497 | ** Hymenopterans and Termites are individually weaker than most insects on their own. However, their Eusocialism allows the entire nest to cooperate together, building impressive structures and empires, {{Zerg Rush}}ing enemies several times their size with battle tactics, and control territory. This puts them at a higher S-tier spot than the otherwise-MasterOfAll beetles, which [[LightningBruiser excel at strength, offense, defense, speed and can fly]], but lack eusociality. |
| 498 | ** Between the two S-ranked avian intelligence builds, Crows are considered these compared to Parrots. They lack the parrot's syrinx shriek, deal lower damage with their beaks, and are less dexterous with their beaks compared to parrots. However, Crows have the ability to use the city's terrain and features to their own advantage, and most importantly know how to manipulate or goad other players to their advantage, sometimes even gaining them as an ally to use their strengths to cover for the crows' own shortcomings. |
| 499 | * WeaponForIntimidation: The Earwig's cerci at their rear end was made out to be this. While they ''can'' grab soft-bodied bugs with it, it's not great for combat and really more of an intimidation tool that resembles large mandibles. |
| 500 | * WeaponOfXSlaying: The anteater build is specialized at breaking open ant/termite nests and eating the residents within. |
| 501 | * ZergRush: Several animals that are capable of doing this tend to be high tier, especially if they have offense-based ability. |
| 502 | ** Eusocial insects in general use this as their combat strategy. [[ScaryStingingSwarm Bees, Wasps and Hornets]] in particular are even stated to be effective against the [[invoked]]GameBreaker humans. |
| 503 | ** In "The Optimal Team Composition", Tier Zoo discusses the popular question on Reddit. "Pick Two Animal Groups. They will defend you. The rest are coming to kill you." where the choices are 1 human with a rifle, 3 bears, 4 lions, 5 gorillas, 7 bulls, 10 crocodiles, 15 wolves, 50 eagles… and '''''[[SwarmOfRats 10000 rats]]'''''. Naturally Tier Zoo outright states that if you don't pick the rats, they'll overrun you, and if you do pick them their sheer numbers mean that you've [[ForegoneVictory pretty much won]] (with the exception of the [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou human sniping you]], but that's when the eagles come into play). |
| 504 | [[/folder]] |
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