Cookie Run: Kingdom Squad Composition Guide: Tips & Strategies to Assemble the Best Team

In Cookie Run: Kingdom, combat plays as big a part as managing your kingdom. Fighting is how you both progress the story and earn Crystals. This new guide assumes you’ve not only read our Cookie Run: Kingdom beginner’s guide, but also that you’ve played this game before and finished at least a couple of chapters, and gotten enough Rare and Epic cookies to replace your Starter Squad and Common cookies.

Combat in Cookie Run: Kingdom consists of picking a team of five cookies, each with a single skill. You have to time these skills well in PVE. Even with a good team build, a skill being timed poorly then interrupted by say, an enemy’s stun, can turn a fight right around for the worse. As for Arena PVP (fighting player-made teams), all you can do is make the best team you can think of. Not to mention praying the AI doesn’t screw it up!

Like many gacha games such as Azur Lane, Arknights and Guardian Tales, making a solid team is important. They need to be able to support each other, and be well-equipped to deal with their enemies.

Our comprehensive Cookie Run: Kingdom squad composition guide is meant primarily to give you an idea on how to build a proper team, and what cookies to aim for. None of these are hard and fast rules, as in the end, it is up to you to decide what kind of team you want.

So without further ado, let’s delve into our Cookie Run: Kingdom squad composition guide and see how you can build a strong team!

The Standard

One thing you’ll notice with the majority of these teams is a fairly repetitive layout: Two frontliners, one or two damage dealers, one or two debuffers, and the mandatory healer or support. There’s a reason for this. Even the Starter Squad you get early in the game, detailed in our beginner’s guide, follows this layout and lasts surprisingly long.

Related: Cookie Run: Kingdom Tier List: A Complete Ranked List of Cookies

They only run out of steam in chapter 3 in spite of being mostly Commons. Turns out, you always need some bulk to get through the often long levels in PVE, or survive the initial auto-piloted skill spam barrage in Arena PVP.

Long Battles Need Long-Lived Fighters

Cookie Run: Kingdom happily punishes an imbalanced team, especially one that skews towards nothing but unsupported glass cannons. A team of squishy mids and rear damage dealers without protection or healing will often annihilate the first couple of waves only to get whittled down midway or toward the end.

The PVE of this game is often a mad rush through a fairly long level, with several waves getting in your way. Having a balanced team is so important, that it would be preferable to have a pair of Rare tier tanks to protect your Epic tier damage dealers, than to have nothing but Epic-tier damage dealers.

This makes longevity important, so you always need something to weaken enemy attacks, heal your squad or protect the damage dealers. As for PVP, the protection offered by having at least one frontliner and healer in the team is often worth more than adding another squishy damage dealer at the cost of no protection.

Frontliners Are Important

Often, but not always, what decides whether a team is offensively or defensively oriented isn’t the presence of more damage dealers, since a team without damage dealers is typically an exception rather than the norm. It depends on the choice of frontliners you bring.

Dark Choco and his dad Dark Cacao are sturdy debuffers often found in the shorter battles of Arena PVP with Dark Choco Cookie being practically mandatory in fights vs large bosses thanks to his skill applying his defense debuff three times on enemies with big hitboxes.

Yam, Madeleine and Avocado are right in the middle with their AOE attacks that hit decently hard, but not as hard as a dedicated damage dealer’s skill. Milk, Strawberry Crepe and Hollyberry Cookie are defensive walls, built to take unwanted attention away from harder-hitting but soft cookies like Espresso or Poison Mushroom.

The O.P. Scroll

We will also assume you have at least the Old Pilgrim’s Scroll treasure, as it is frankly insanely powerful even when compared to other Epic tier treasures. It gives a whopping passive 30% ATK boost to your team, at only level 1. You’d think that makes it only good for glass cannon cookies like Espresso, but Healers’ basic healing and skill healing often scale with their ATK stat too! This increases your squad’s survivability.

Toppings, So Your Cookies Don’t Taste Bland

As for taking toppings into account, having 5 of the same toppings is more reliable than having different kinds of toppings inside a cookie. Having a set of the same toppings gives a set bonus. When we make a list of what toppings to give your cookies, pick one kind of topping per cookie, not all of them.

Related: Cookie Run: Kingdom Progression and Battle Guide: Everything You Need to Know

Now with that in mind, here are some squad compositions that we have come up with, or come up against in the field and have proven interesting.

TEAMS AS OF 5/11/2022

SQUAD 1: LOCAL OLD COOKIE TOO ANGRY TO DIE

FRONT: TEA KNIGHT COOKIE, SOLID ALMONDS
4 FREE SLOTS: LOW LEVEL COOKIES

WARNING: Bring Insignia of the Tea Leaf Order treasure

This team is a very simple, direct counter against Gingerscam cheese compositions. Gingerbrave-Almond-Tiger Lily- Double Attacker teams typically rely on their ability to utterly obliterate normal common sense teams with a single shot, but often fall apart soon afterward if it fails since they have basically zero tankiness. Tea Knight with his Insignia treasure pretty much guarantees this as long as he’s of roughly equal level with the enemy cheeseball and has the Old Pilgrim’s Scroll.

Just note that this is made specifically for smashing Gingerbrave teams: This team works relatively poorly against normal teams, especially bulkier ones with very strong front cookies and healer/supports like Hollyberry or Cotton Cookie. All the enemy needs to do is last the final 6 seconds of Tea Knight’s rampage, and keep him away from the squad’s damage dealer. This also likely works very poorly against Clotted Cream Cookie, who has a good chance of sniping Tea Knight first anyway!

FRONT: TEA KNIGHT COOKIE, SOLID ALMONDS

Tea Knight gets angrier and angrier as his own team dies. In fact, he gets so utterly mad that he gains the sheer power to wipe a team alone by beating them all to a fine flour dust with his axe. While it’s tempting to give him Raspberries to boost his damage power, what he already has is usually enough to kill the enemy team if he’s sufficiently angry and Almonds will help him survive the initial barrage from the enemy, and delay activation of his Insignia treasure for as long as cookiely possible.

4 LOW LEVEL COOKIES, SWIFT CHOCOS IF YOU CAN SPARE THEM

Yep, you guessed it, these guys are just here as cannon fodder. Tea Knight oddly enough works poorly with a stronger team, since his HP and DEF is pretty low compared to other Charge Cookies, and Front Cookies in general. Tea Knight tends to die first in a normal team, which sucks since he’s at his most utterly murderous if he dies last. This is why you bring low level cookies with him, so THEY’RE guaranteed to die first, and not Tea Knight!

That being said, your choice of cookies could still help Tea Knight on his rampage, with healing cookies helping him last longer so he doesn’t waste his 6 second death shield from the Insignia treasure, or that low-level speed comp you have baking in your back burner making him swing his axe faster if they last long enough to fire their skills once. For fun, pick the most adorable of your low level cookies so your opponent feels bad for beating the tar out of them.

SQUAD 2: ARMORED WARFARE

FRONT 1: WILDBERRY COOKIE
FRONT 2: CARAMEL ARROW COOKIE
FRONT 3: MADELEINE COOKIE
FRONT 4: DARK CACAO COOKIE (Perhaps DARK CHOCO if the Gacha hates you and won’t give you his dad)
SOLID ALMONDS
SUPPORT/HEALER: COTTON COOKIE/POMEGRENATE COOKIE/PARFAIT COOKIE/HERB COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOLATES/SOLID ALMONDS

Make no mistake, this team isn’t just about bulky beefiness. With Wildberry’s arrival along with Caramel Arrow Cookie, there are now enough hard-hitting front cookies to make up for the lack of a proper damage dealer, if you stack all of them at once!

FRONT 1 and 2: WILDBERRY AND CARAMEL ARROW COOKIE

Caramel Arrow and Wildberry Cookie are your damage dealers. Caramel Arrow, being a weird Ranger Front, is the hardest hitting of all Front cookies, and fires a powerful barrage of arrows while ignoring most disables (Except Clotted Cream’s Light Cage) while her skill is active.

Wildberry Cookie has a skill that hits harder the more hits he takes, and his position in front even compared to most other Front cookies ensure he gets hit quite often.

FRONT 3 and 4: MADELEINE AND DARK CACAO COOKIE, SOLID ALMONDS

While Caramel Arrow and Wildberry have powerful damage, Madeleine and Dark Cacao are your source of AOE. Madeleine Cookie’s skill lets him throw out sword waves that hit the entire enemy team.

Dark Cacao Cookie’s basic attack has such an insane width and range that it hits the entire enemy team without the need to cram them together first, and his skill dumps a fat load of debuffs on the enemy.

HEALING SUPPORT: POMEGRENATE COOKIE/ COTTON COOKIE/ PARFAIT COOKIE/ HERB COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOLATES

Your choice of support depends on what you want most out of this team. Pomegrenate Cookie is the usual choice, because that 30% ATK mixed with the Old Pilgrim Scroll helps this team match up against teams with true damage dealers in them while still keeping bulkiness, and her little bit of healing is good enough since the team she’s healing is already very hard to kill in the first place. Cotton Cookie is a different way to add some bite to the team, as her sheep can add both survivability and damage, along with her stun and surprisingly good healing ability.

Both Parfait and Herb are there as purely defensive options: They both have good healing and some way to mitigate debuffs (Parfait gives debuff resistance, and Herb can clean out debuffs on skill cast), important in an era where Eclair Cookie and his powerful, long lasting debuff is absolutely everywhere! Speaking of Eclair, the writer would have suggested them except they have no healing ability at all, only a shield on kill.

SQUAD 3: RASPBERRY SUFFERS

FRONT 1/ BAIT: RASPBERRY COOKIE, SEARING RASPBERRIES
ATTACKER: SORBET SHARK, SWIFT CHOCOLATES
FRONT 2: HOLLYBERRY COOKIE/ STRAWBERRY CREPE COOKIE/COCOA COOKIE, SOLID ALMONDS
OFFENSIVE SUPPORT: ECLAIR COOKIE/ COTTON COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOLATES
HEALER: PURE VANILLA COOKIE/ HERB COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOLATES

Stuck in Raspberry Cookie’s bossfight in Story Mode? This could be a solution for you. This mostly revolves around using Raspberry Cookie as bait for her boss equivalent’s attacks, since a fully ATK boosted Raspberry Cookie can just beat out a no ATK boost Sorbet Shark’s attack power. Sorbet Shark is specific because they’re one of the fastest ways to kill the boss version of Raspberry Cookie without bringing any DEF-reducing cookies or items.

FRONT 1/BAIT: RASPBERRY COOKIE, SEARING RASPBERRIES (To spoof the enemy Raspberry’s radar)

The enemy Raspberry Cookie boss targets your cookies based on their ATK stats, so she has this horrendous habit of stabbing your damage dealers out of the fight very early. This leaves your tanks and healers poking at her fruitlessly until she snipes them down too or the timer runs out.

Your own Raspberry Cookie can help you get around this thanks to her unusually high ATK: If your Raspberry Cookie is fully ATK boosted, she has an ever so slightly higher ATK stat than a certain cookie who doesn’t need an ATK boost to kill the enemy Raspberry: Sorbet Shark.

Your Raspberry suffers so the enemy Raspberry suffers too! While she’s not as tough as most other front cookies, she’s still far bulkier than true damage dealers, and can last long enough to let Sorbet Shark do their job if she’s got good healers and supports backing her up.

As a bonus, she lowers the enemy Raspberry’s attacks, making it even harder for her to get to your little baby shark. Really, any modern high-ATK Front Cookie with Raspberry toppings can fit for this role, but Raspberry is in the writer’s opinion, the funniest choice.

ATTACKER: SORBET SHARK COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOLATES

Sorbet Shark is practically baked for this bossfight thanks to their anti-Cookie true damage attack: With an attack based off the enemy’s HP and maxing out at a very high 300k damage (Not quite the 30% of the boss Raspberry’s HP as advertised, but still a good chunk especially if they have Swift Chocos to spam it), they do extremely heavy damage to cookie enemies even if their ATK is not boosted.

This means your own Raspberry-topped Raspberry can be used as bait to protect the little shark pirate provided they are of equal level. This attack is also powerful enough to help clear out the annoying projectile-throwing cookie enemies in the area before the boss proper.

FRONT 2: HOLLYBERRY COOKIE/ STRAWBERRY CREPE COOKIE/COCOA COOKIE, SOLID ALMONDS

The second front cookie is mostly there just to help protect Sorbet Shark, just like Raspberry Cookie is doing. Hollyberry and Strawberry Crepe can help mitigate the damage your Raspberry eats with their skills, and Cocoa Cookie’s healing helps with that, and also helps with the earlier parts of the level to prevent Cutpurse cookies from stunning your team.

SUPPORT: ECLAIR COOKIE/COTTON COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOLATES

Cotton and Eclair are useful for both getting through the level and the bossfight proper. Eclair’s debuff and hard-hitting attack can assist Sorbet Shark with the fight and help clear out the earlier parts of the level, while still having an ATK stat low enough to fly under the boss’s radar. Cotton Cookie’s stun and sheep help against the enemy cookies, and her healing adds to Raspberry’s survivability.

HEALER: PURE VANILLA COOKIE/ HERB COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOLATES

Again, this entire battle plan revolves around making Raspberry Cookie survive as long as possible, so a healer is important. Pure Vanilla and Herb are the primary choices, but you can also bring one of the support healers like Pomegrenate and Parfait for this slot. Pure Vanilla’s shield is ideal for this though, as Herb doesn’t have much in the way of debuffs to clean out other than the stun from before the fight, for which the solution is murder anyway.

SQUAD 4: HISTORY LESSON

FRONT ATTACKER: CARAMEL ARROW COOKIE, SEARING RASPBERRIES+JUICY APPLE JELLIES OR BOUNCY CARAMELS OR SOLID ALMONDS/ WILDBERRY COOKIE, SOLID ALMONDS
FRONT 2/ATTACKER 1: HOLLYBERRY COOKIE/STRAWBERRY CREPE COOKIE, SOLID ALMONDS/ ANY LEGENDARY ATTACKER/SORBET SHARK COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOLATES/SEARING RASPBERRIES/SOLID ALMONDS
SUPPORT: ECLAIR COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOLATES
SUPPORT 2: COTTON COOKIE/POMEGRENATE COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOLATES
ATTACKER 2/ HEALER: ANY LEGENDARY ATTACKER, SWIFT CHOCOLATES/SEARING RASPBERRIES/SOLID ALMOND MIX, PURE VANILLA COOKIE/ HERB COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOLATES

If the modern 4-tank team mentioned above is currently running rampant all over Master and Grandmaster in the Pure Vanilla server, then this sort of team (or at least something fairly similar) is what you’re more likely to expect from the tiers below Master, as it’s effective not only in PVP, but PVE as well. Which is typically one’s usual first priority anyway. It follows the old standard layout, just with different cookies.

FRONT ATTACKER: CARAMEL ARROW COOKIE, SEARING RASPBERRIES+JUICY APPLE JELLIES OR BOUNCY CARAMELS OR SOLID ALMONDS/ WILDBERRY COOKIE, SOLID ALMONDS:

Both Caramel Arrow and Wildberry Cookie hit hard in spite of their Front Cookie status, with highly damaging skills and above average ATK stats for their positioning. Caramel Arrow typically hits harder as a Ranger, while Wildberry makes a superior tank thanks to their higher bulkiness as a Defense cookie, while still having above average ATK for a front cookie and a highly damaging skill.

FRONT 2/ATTACKER 1: HOLLYBERRY COOKIE/STRAWBERRY CREPE COOKIE, SOLID ALMONDS/ ANY LEGENDARY ATTACKER, SWIFT CHOCOLATES/SEARING RASPBERRIES/SOLID ALMOND MIX:

You can either bring 2 fronts and a single main attacker, or a single main front and 2 attackers. You’ll typically expect Hollyberry or one of the Legendaries (Frost Queen or Sea Fairy) in the second slot, especially in the Pure Vanilla Server where a lot of the older players fight. You also have the option of bringing both Caramel Arrow and Wildberry for the first two slots.

SUPPORT: ECLAIR COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOLATES

Eclair is one of the more powerful supports added in the game, typically acting as both an enabler for your main damage dealer, and as a secondary damage dealer himself. Eclair hits hard and his Weakness debuff makes everything else hit his victims harder. Just watch out for Herb Cookie.

SUPPORT 2: COTTON COOKIE/POMEGRENATE COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOLATES

Cotton Cookie is a lot more dangerous than her adorable looks imply, with her sheep capable of doing surprising amounts of damage, a very annoying stun, and a good amount of healing power all in a single package. That being said, more modern teams may bring the older Pomegranate Cookie, ironically enough.

Pomegranate’s recent skill buff which added 10% to her old 20% ATK buff skill pairs well with Eclair’s skill, and unlike Eclair’s debuff, cannot be removed by Herb Cookie since it’s applied to YOUR cookies! The writer would have suggested ditching Eclair for Pomegranate too if Herb Cookie’s on the enemy team, except Eclair’s attack hits hard enough on its own to be worth keeping even then.

 ATTACKER 2/ HEALER: ANY LEGENDARY ATTACKER, SWIFT CHOCOLATES/SEARING RASPBERRIES/SOLID ALMOND, PURE VANILLA COOKIE/ HERB COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOLATES:

The final slot is pretty free, either you bring one of the Legendary nukers to annihilate the enemy in conjunction with Eclair, or another healer. While Pure Vanilla Cookie is great to bring in PVE, Herb might be your choice for PVP to deal with all the Eclairs currently ruining your life and sanity by cleaning out his rather deadly debuff. Herb can also make it harder for Dark Cacao to give you a headache with his debuff spamming skill.

SQUAD 5: SORBET SHARK ATGM

ATTACKER: SORBET SHARK COOKIE
FRONT: WILDBERRY COOKIE
SUPPORT 1: ECLAIR COOKIE
SUUPORT 2: POMEGRANATE COOKIE
HEALER/SUPPORT: HERB COOKIE/PARFAIT COOKIE

ALL ALMONDS [Objective is to hit the one minute mark for the firepower boost]

A team used by the Youtuber HyRoolLegend specifically to destroy the new 4-tank teams in high rank PVP matches, relying on three supports not only keeping Sorbet and Wildberry alive through shields and healing, but also massively buffing their killing power to get through all that enemy muscle. Sorbet Shark is important since unlike the Legendary attackers, Sorbet ignores defense and deals percentage damage with their true-damage attack, which makes them perfect for demolishing tanks.

ATTACKER: SORBET SHARK COOKIE, SOLID ALMONDS

This little shark needs no introduction, since they’re old enough that everyone likely has them. Their attack does damage based on the enemy’s HP and ignores defense, maxing out at 300k damage in a single blow. It can kill squishy cookies just fine, but it was made for sending tanks to the scrapper. The only reason they got outshone by the Legendary attackers was because of Sorbet Shark’s narrow attack and lack of a disable, and the importance of hitting the enemy midline in a normal team before 4 tanks were used this often.

FRONT: WILDBERRY COOKIE, SOLID ALMONDS

You’re fighting tanks so you want as much damage as you can, but you also want to keep those bulky benchpressing beefcakes from grabbing Sorbet Shark and throwing the tiny little pirate back into the Soda Ocean. Caramel Arrow has the damage, but not the bulk, Hollyberry has the bulk but not the damage, and Wildberry Cookie has enough of both.

Since he’s the only front, he’s also gonna hit a lot harder since the majority of attacks will hit him first. If you don’t have Wildberry though, pick bulk over damage: Your main source of damage is Sorbet Shark and Eclair, so without Wildberry, grab someone like Hollyberry or Strawberry Crepe.

SUPPORT 1: ECLAIR COOKIE, SOLID ALMONDS/SWIFT CHOCOLATES

Eclair is a rather deadly Support with the ability to make enemies take extra damage using a long-duration stacking debuff, along with his skill’s surprisingly high damage percentage. He adds a tiny bit of bulk with his shield which triggers on kill, though since your opponent has Dark Cacao and his shield-wrecking Zap debuff, it won’t do much unless Cacao goes down first through sheer luck.

SUPPORT 2: POMEGRANATE COOKIE, SOLID ALMONDS/SWIFT CHOCOLATES

Pomegranate Cookie’s recent buff increased her skill’s ATK buff to be roughly on par with an extra Old Pilgrim’s Scroll. This paired with Eclair’s debuff will make Sorbet Shark bite that much harder. Pomegranate also contributes to healing the team, and you need as much healing as you can get to keep Sorbet Shark from being benchpressed before the one minute PVP ATK buff.

SUPPORT 3/ HEALER: PARFAIT COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOLATES/SOLID ALMONDS

Parfait Cookie not only has the healing of a newer-generation Support, she also has the ability to increase both Defense, which you need to keep Sorbet Shark from being shoved into Davy Jones’ Locker by those mean, mean jocks on the enemy team, and Debuff Resistance by 40% with her music. This is important since Dark Cacao slams a ton of debuffs into your team, and Caramel Arrow’s exploding arrow stacks count as a debuff.

Failing Parfait, Herb Cookie is another possible choice, because he can clean debuffs out on spell cast. That being said, PVP auto-combat means you have to be lucky or a genius mind-reader with Swift Chocolate/Substat-based cooldown manipulation to time it right.

OLD TEAMS (FOR HISTORICAL RECORD)

Squad 1: Balanced Defense

FRONT 1: DEF/DR Purple Yam Cookie
FRONT 2:DEF/DR Knight/Milk Cookie
DAMAGE 1: ATK Espresso Cookie
SUPPORT 1: CD/HP Licorice Cookie
HEALER 1: CD Custard Cookie III/ CD/ATK Herb Cookie

This squad focuses on survivability. The two front cookies Purple Yam and Milk Cookie focus on keeping bad guys away from Espresso. Espresso is there to send the enemy to heck with his Grinder vortex. Licorice is there to summon mooks up front to take the heat for everyone else. Custard or Herb are there to keep the party healed and alive.

FRONT 1: PURPLE YAM COOKIE, HARD WALNUTS/ SOLID ALMONDS – Yam’s job is simply to push melee enemies away from your squishy, highly chewable damage dealing cookies. With the decent duration of his spin attack, it should be enough to keep Espresso protected for the last few seconds of their skill cooldown. On top of that, he’s also a chunky buff guy with loads of HP.

FRONT 2: KNIGHT/MILK COOKIE, HARD WALNUTS/ SOLID ALMONDS – Milk Cookie’s ability not only raises his defense, but also makes him jump towards the enemy. He also taunts the enemy when doing it. If the enemy’s busy fighting him, then they aren’t busy killing Espresso.

If you don’t have Milk Cookie, pull out Knight Cookie. While his skill doesn’t increase his defense, he still has a taunt. He needs to be careful with it later on though. But better for Knight to take the heat than Espresso or Licorice!

DAMAGE 1: ESPRESSO COOKIE, ALL SLOTS SEARING RASPBERRIES – Espresso Cookie is your primary wave annihilator, with a skill that does a lot of damage and pulls enemies into each other. If this somehow doesn’t kill the enemy wave, then Purple Yam’s spin will likely finish the badly injured survivors off. If Espresso Cookie dies first or at all in a bad run, that means you’re underleveled, or didn’t call Milk Cookie enough.

SUPPORT 1: LICORICE COOKIE, HEALTHY PEANUTS/SWIFT CHOCOLATES – Licorice Cookie’s here not as a damage dealer, but to send a mob of monsters up front to take hits. The Healthy Peanuts aren’t for him. It’s for his mooks to last longer. If you don’t have 5 Healthy Peanuts, give him 5 Swift Chocolates instead so he can call on his mooks more often. He also raises your team’s DEF and hits the enemy with a lightning bolt. Overall, a powerful if squishy cookie.

HEALER 1: CUSTARD COOKIE III/ HERB COOKIE, ALL SLOTS SWIFT CHOCOLATE – Along with Licorice Cookie, Custard Cookie III’s job is to increase the survivability of your cookies at the start of a wave. He does this by giving a shield and a chunky heal to the two cookies on your team closest to dying. If your front cookies are doing their job and taking the blows, they’ll get those shields. As for Herb Cookie, while he doesn’t provide a shield, he heals the entire party with his skill and cleans out any debuffs, as opposed to only healing and shielding two cookies.

Squad 2: Balanced Agression

FRONT 1: DR Dark Choco
Front 2: DR/ATK Princess Cookie
DAMAGE 3: ATK Espresso Cookie
DAMAGE 2: ATK Rye Cookie/ ATK Vampire Cookie/ ATK Tiger Lily Cookie
SUPPORT: CD Custard Cookie III/ CD Herb Cookie CD Sparkling Cookie/ CD Pomegrenate Cookie

A very similar squad to the first, but this time skewed towards killing things faster. You’ll see some fairly similar squads like this often in PVP. It’s easy to see why it’s popular. It still follows the reliable two tanks in front sort of team. This time though, the tanks give your whole team more bite by reducing the enemy’s defense. This way, you’re not relying entirely on Espresso to deal heavy damage.

FRONT 1: DARK CHOCO COOKIE, SOLID ALMONDS – Dark Choco Cookie ‘s ability is an AOE sword slam and lightning strike that can lower the enemy’s defense. This opens the enemy up to the damage dealing cookies out back. Give him some Almonds as he still has to protect the highly chewable nerds taking cover behind his massive cape.

FRONT 2: PRINCESS COOKIE, SOLID ALMONDS/SEARING RASPBERRIES – Princess Cookie, much like Dark Choco Cookie, can do wide swing with her staff that lowers the enemy’s defense. Pairing her with Dark Choco Cookie is a good way to bring the pain. Give her some Almonds so the squishy dorks in the mid and rear can hide behind her big poofy skirt. That or you can take advantage of her skill’s 353.7% damage with a pile of Raspberries.

KILLING 1: ESPRESSO COOKIE, SEARING RASPBERRIES – He does the same job here as up in the first squad comp: Murdering everything in a wave. This time, he’ll do it more reliably, since Dark Choco Cookie and Princess Cookie both lower the enemy’s DEF. The downside of course, there is nobody with a taunt in this squad composition so Espresso might take more hits than normal. Of course, the enemy can’t touch him if they’re all dead!

DAMAGE 2: RYE COOKIE/ VAMPIRE COOKIE/ CHERRY COOKIE/ TIGER LILY COOKIE , SEARING RASPBERRIES/ – For your fourth cookie, you have a pretty wide variety you can pick from. If you want more killing power, you could get Rye Cookie for more sustained damage. You could also grab Vampire Cookie to snipe dangerous rear enemies and bosses especially in short Bounty levels and PVP. If you want to last a bit longer, get Tiger Lily Cookie or Cherry Cookie for their stuns.

SUPPORT: CUSTARD COOKIE III/HERB COOKIE/ SPARKLING COOKIE/ POMEGRENATE COOKIE,SWIFT CHOCOLATE – Custard Cookie III is always a reliable healer to bring if you aren’t sure who to use or don’t have Herb Cookie. But if you want to kill the enemy faster, you can bring Sparkling Cookie whose healing increases your crit chance, or Pomegrenate Cookie who ramps up everyone’s ATK power.

Squad 3: A Massive Case Of Indigestion

FRONT 1: Tank Dark Choco Cookie
FRONT 2: Tank Milk Cookie/ Princess Cookie
DEBUFF 1: CD Onion Cookie/ ATK Cherry Cookie/ ATK Tiger Lily Cookie
DEBUFF 2: CD/ATK Snow Sugar Cookie/ ATK Cherry Cookie/ ATK Tiger Lily Cookie
HEALER/SUPPORT: CD Custard Cookie III/ CD Pomegrenate Cookie

For obvious reasons, dumping enemies full of debuffs can turn a bad fight around. A big pile of debuffs can often even the odds against enemies with a higher power rating than your own team. Of course, bringing this squad to PVP against an enemy team with Herb Cookie or Clover Cookie (a pair of debuff cleaners) in their team might spell disaster, so don’t.

FRONT 1: DARK CHOCO COOKIE, HARD WALNUTS/ SOLID ALMONDS/HEALTHY PEANUTS – A tanky, sturdy dark knight who can reduce the enemy’s defensive strength. There’s a reason he appears so often in these lists, he’s a highly effective cookie in general. It’s hard to go wrong with this guy, especially in a build centered around cramming the enemy full of debuffs.

FRONT 2: MILK COOKIE/ PRINCESS COOKIE, HARD WALNUTS/ SOLID ALMONDS/HEALTHY PEANUTS – Watching a bunch of wimpified enemies try and put a dent through Milk Cookie’s shield after he taunts them is always good fun. It’s also very useful, as the other cookies in this team are pretty soft. That being said, if you want to end the enemy’s misery more quickly but a bit less safely, bring Princess Cookie with Dark Choco Cookie to give them another DEF Down.

DEBUFFER 1: ONION COOKIE, ALL SLOTS SWIFT CHOCOLATE/ CHERRY COOKIE/ TIGER LILY COOKIE, ALL SLOTS SEARING RASPBERRIES – Poor Onion Cookie is so scared of the enemy, her ghostly shrieking wail can scare the enemy right back. She can give an enemy wave an ATK Down debuff, making their attacks against the two chunky dudes in front even more pitiful. Or you can get Cherry Cookie or Tiger Lily Cookie to stop them attacking outright by nuking them into a stupor.

DEBUFFER 2: SNOW SUGAR COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOLATE/ SEARING RASPBERRIES/ CHERRY COOKIE/TIGER LILY COOKIE, ALL SLOTS SEARING RASPBERRIES – Snow Sugar Cookie’s Snow King can slow down the enemy’s attacking speed for a rather long time. As with the previous slot, you can call in Cherry Cookie or Tiger Lily Cookie instead to knock everyone on their butts with a stun.

SUPPORT 1: CUSTARD COOKIE III/ HERB COOKIE/ POMEGRANATE COOKIE, ALL SLOTS SWIFT CHOCOLATE – As is usual, Custard Cookie III and Herb Cookie are the safe choice as they are dedicated healers. Pomegranate Cookie on the other hand is the spicier choice, giving an attack buff to your team as well as a slower but less picky area heal. They might need that attack buff since they lack dedicated damage dealers like Espresso or Rye Cookie.

Squad 4: The First And Oldest Meta

TACTICAL: DEF/DR Milk Cookie/ Strawberry Crepe Cookie/ Espressolike
FRONT 2: ATK/CRIT Dark Choco Cookie
DAMAGE 1: ATK Espressolike
DAMAGE 2: HP/CD Licorice Cookie
REAR SUPPORT: CD/ATK Herb Cookie, CD Pomegranate Cookie/Pure Vanilla Cookie

This used to be the most meta of meta teams, and we’re keeping it listed here for the sake of posterity. It is still pretty effective in PVP and PVE, and these cookies generally play to each others’ strengths. Your typical modern team may take after this, usually replacing Milk or Espresso with an equivalent cookie like Black Raisin or Strawberry Crepe. We’ve edited this to take newer cookies into account.

TACTICAL: MILK COOKIE/STRAWBERRY CREPE COOKIE, HARD WALNUTS/ SOLID ALMONDS/ ESPRESSOLIKE, RASPBERRIES – Milk Cookie and Strawberry Crepe Cookie are two of the tankiest cookies in the game at the moment, with Milk Cookie’s taunt and massive damage resistance boost, and Strawberry Crepe’s AOE attack and DEF boost to the two squishiest cookies in the team. If you want more firepower, you can put Espresso, Mango, Latte, Black Raisin or Squid Ink here too.

FRONT 2: DARK CHOCO COOKIE, ALMONDS – Another one of the PVP meta cookies, his DEF Down and ability to interrupt skill casts can turn a fight around if the AI decides to be smart. And if not, he’ll just as happily beat enemies down with his sword and bulk.

DAMAGE 1: ESPRESSOLIKE, SEARING RASPBERRIES – Espresso Cookie’s ability to outright delete an enemy wave is incredibly powerful. His skill can also severely hurt a PVP party in one or two casts. That’s why he often pops up in these lists. Just make sure Milk Cookie does his job and keeps Espresso’s butt out of trouble. Espresso has all the toughness of a chocolate chip cookie dunked in hot coffee. There’s a reason we call the best AOE damage cookies Espressolikes; Espresso’s the first of them, and the standard by which all of them are judged.

DAMAGE 2: LICORICE COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOLATES – This guy’s not only pretty deadly, he can also increase the survivability of your team. His mooks do double duty providing extra damage and taking the hits for your cookies. Not to mention the skill itself zaps the enemy with black lightning and raises your team’s defense.

REAR SUPPORT: HERB COOKIE,  SWIFT CHOCOLATES/SEARING RASPBERRIES, POMEGRANATE/PURE VANILLA COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOS – Herb’s ability to heal the whole team rather than just two really badly injured guys is useful for keeping a team of mostly squishy cookies alive. There is also his ability to clean out debuffs, so your Cookies stay at maximum killing power no matter what. Give him Raspberries for a more effective heal, or Swift Chocolates so he can heal and clean out debuffs more often. If you have them, Pure Vanilla makes a strong healer thanks to his shield, or Pomegranate if you want to sacrifice some healing for firepower.

Squad 5: Gingerscam

FRONT: CD/ATK/DR Gingerbrave
REAR: CD Almond Cookie
AREA ATTACK: ATK Sea Fairy Cookie/ Black Raisin Cookie
STUN: CD Tiger Lily Cookie/Cherry Cookie
TACTICAL: CD Pure Vanilla Cookie/ Another Damage Dealer

This is a deceptively deadly team with a focus on sheer damage and stopping you from fighting back. People call it Gingerscam because they feel like they just got scammed when their team dies fighting this. Gingerbrave, while having armor equivalent to soggy tissue paper, will constantly interrupt attacks with his skill, allowing the others to do their grim work. Usually, you’ll be able to kill the enemy in two skill bursts with this team, but if it lasts longer than that then you’re in trouble. You may want to hide Almond Cookie or your damage dealer to throw them off.

FRONT 1: GINGERBRAVE, SWIFT CHOCOS/RASPBERRIES/ALMONDS – Gingerbrave works both as a lure and to make the enemy more vulnerable. His presence screams weak team to the enemy looking in their Arena screen, but their ability not only has a tiny 8 second cooldown, it also exposes the mid while making the entire enemy team more vulnerable to area attacks. His constant skill spam also ensures the enemy gets their attacks interrupted.

REAR 1: ALMOND COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOS – Almond’s handcuff chains multiply an attack against a single target to wards the whole enemy team, making him dangerous when paired with Sea Fairy’s multitarget attack or Black Raisin’s slashes.

DAMAGE DEALER: SEA FAIRY COOKIE/ BLACK RAISIN COOKIE, RASPBERRIES – Between the two choices, Sea Fairy is the better one since this composition heavily relies on stun, though if she’s not around Black Raisin is another good choice thanks to her damage. Either way, Almond causes the damage to really clean up the enemy hard. You can bring both at the cost of a healer or support.

STUN: TIGER LILY COOKIE/ CHERRY COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOS – Tiger Lily is the preferable choice between the two since she’s just flat out stronger, though Cherry Cookie will do fine as a stun dealer. Their AOE stuns along with Sea Fairy’s will prevent the enemy from fighting back against this team, which is important since this is a case of “Either they die in two seconds, or I do!”. After all, Gingerbrave can’t be expected to hold the line for very long.

TACTICAL: PURE VANILLA COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOS/ ANOTHER DAMAGE DEALER – Healers are optional since again, this is a kill fast, die fast build. That being said, sometimes you just need to last long enough for Sea Fairy to throw a third attack at the enemy. That or you can bring another damage dealer for this slot, bringing both Sea Fairy and Black Raisin can be very deadly.

Squad 6: Precision Strike

PRECISION 1: ATK Vampire/Adventurer
PRECISION 2: ATK Raspberry
PRECISION 3: ATK/CD Red Velvet/ ATK Adventurer
AREA ATTACK: ATK Any Espressolike/ CD Licorice Cookie
HEALER: CD Pure Vanilla Cookie/ CD/ATK Herb Cookie

This team is another offensively oriented team. Thankfully, there have been a few updates to the game with more killing-oriented front cookies still sturdy enough to do tank work. The two strongest killfronts are both precision damage dealers, and being able to delete specific targets like healers and damage dealers can turn a battle into a massacre pretty quickly.

While this is a relatively all-or-nothing team for PVP (Your fronts not being AOE utility tanks like Dark Choco, Moon Rabbit or Strawberry Crepe can give you problems if you somehow fail to kill your intended targets), this team excels with bossfights and the Guild Raid, able to rack up alarming amounts of damage as long as Pure Vanilla keeps them alive.

PRECISION 1: VAMPIRE/ADVENTURER COOKIE, RASPBERRIES – The most obvious choice most people have for precision attack, Vampire Cookie aims for whoever is in the rearmost position, usually the enemy healer. His faster cooldown compared to Red Velvet makes the two of them together a good way to guarantee a violation of the Geneva Convention, with Vampire striking first and, if the enemy healer survives, Red Velvet finishing them off. Or stunning them and letting the rest of your cookies kill them. Adventurer Cookie is who you get if you don’t have Vampire Cookie since he’s the most similar rare option.

PRECISION 2: RASPBERRY COOKIE, RASPBERRIES – Raspberry Cookie is one of the two killfronts, with a skill that targets whoever has the highest ATK on the enemy team. For a front cookie, she has relatively poor tanking stats but that won’t matter if the enemy’s primary damage dealer dies quickly.

PRECISION 3/TANK: RED VELVET/ADVENTURER COOKIE, RASPBERRIES/ STRAWBERRY CREPE/ DARK CHOCO, ALMONDS – Another killfront, Red Velvet has a skill that damages a rear target severely while dragging them to the front, stunning them and rendering them vulnerable to everyone’s basic attacks. This is a great way to secure any of Vampire’s whiffs, and if Vampire DOES kill his target, Red takes another one out of commission for several painful seconds if he doesn’t kill them outright too. You can either use Adventurer Cookie to fill in for Red Velvet if you don’t have him yet, or a choice between Dark Choco, Strawberry Crepe or Moon Rabbit Cookie if you want to sacrifice damage for utility.

AREA ATTACK: ESPRESSOLIKE, RASPBERRIES/ LICORICE COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOS – Espresso, Squid Ink, Mango, Latte and Black Raisin Cookie can be used for general area damage thanks to their powerful AOE skills. Mango in particular may give the other precision strike cookies that extra little bite to turn a near-kill into a confirmed kill. That being said, Red Velvet and Raspberry aren’t quite as hard to kill compared to the likes of Dark Choco and Strawberry Crepe, so you might want instead to bring Licorice Cookie.

His skill does decent AOE damage, but it’s his squad DEF buff of 20% mixed with his extra mooks taking hits for your fronts that you’re getting him for. Licorice works especially well if you’re lucky and have Pure Vanilla, since he can shield Licorice’s mooks, extending their life expectancy along with that of your fronts.

HEALER: PURE VANILLA/HERB COOKIE, RASPBERRIES/SWIFT CHOCOS – If you have Pure Vanilla, use them since that shield makes up for your front’s relatively lackluster tanking ability. If not, Herb is just a plain good healer and that AOE heal over time can act as a pseudo-shield, regenerating damage taken.

Squad 7: Lilac’s Machinegun Team

SUPPORT 1: CD Lilac Cookie
SUPPORT 2: CD Mint Choco Cookie
MACHINEGUNNER: CD/ATK Pastry Cookie
FRONT: ATK/DR Madeleine Cookie/Werewolf Cookie, DR Strawberry Crepe
HEALER: Pure Vanilla Cookie/ Herb Cookie/ Custard Cookie III, Swift Chocos/Raspberries
NOTE: Use Librarian’s Robes for more ATK SPD

Lilac and Mint Choco’s skill works for a very specific set of cookies, particularly those with skills that change their basic attack somehow. That’s because they buff the typically rather bleh ATK SPD stat. On most other cookies that have more typical skills, this doesn’t help much, but for Pastry Cookie, Madeleine Cookie and Werewolf Cookie, ATK SPD is actually useful for their skills. Mixed with Lilac’s ability to buff ATK based on ATK SPD, suddenly these usually rather lackluster cookies pour out some hefty damage. Madeleine’s skill doesn’t look so cowardly when he starts spamming sword waves like a sugar-addled hyperactive toddler swings a toy blade.

SUPPORT 1: LILAC COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOS – This guy’s skill buffs damage based on ATK SPD buffs received by other cookies. A bit weak on his own like his allies here, Lilac ironically made a ton of other usually ignored cookies much more viable. Having Mint Choco go first then Lilac is a great way to turn Pastry Cookie into a war crime.

SUPPORT 2: MINT CHOCO COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOS/ SONIC COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOS/RASPBERRIES – Usually passed over for Pomegrenate Cookie, Mint Choco finds himself good friends with Lilac since he piles extra ATK based on Mint Choco’s ATK SPD buffs. Sonic Cookie works as a more aggressive substitute, since while his skill provides a lesser buff, he has a rather rapid autoattack and a more damaging skill paired with an Ambush cookie’s superior ATK stat.

MACHINEGUNNER: PASTRY COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOS/RASPBERRIES – Pastry Cookie is okay in most comps. But with Lilac and Mint Choco, she turns into a whole war-in-a-cookie, turning the spot in between the enemy and your frontline into no-cookie’s-land with a hail of magical crossbow bolts.

FRONT: MADELEINE/WEREWOLF/STRAWBERRY CREPE COOKIE, ALMONDS/RASPBERRIES – Madeleine and Werewolf are normally poor choices for front cookies, because Madeleine’s skill makes him move to Mid and Werewolf is just a bit weak in general, with his skill not having enough DPS to make up for its lack of utility compared to other fronts. Bringing Mint Choco and Lilac turns both of them into rather nasty damage dealers,, with Werewolf’s double slashes suddenly turning into a woodchipper and Madeleine’s AOE sword waves   shredding the enemy like a typhoon. If you prefer a tankier choice to protect Pastry and her ammo delivery boys, Strawberry Crepe is a good idea thanks to their defense buff and wide-swinging, quick basic attack.

HEALER: Pure Vanilla Cookie/Herb Cookie/Custard Cookie III – As usual, bring a healer for obvious reasons. Pure Vanilla with swift chocos to spam his shield, Herb with either Swift Chocos or Raspberries to make the most of his heal, or Custard Cookie III if you don’t have either of them.

Squad 8: The Gacha Smiles Upon Thee…Again

DAMAGE 1: ATK/CD Sea Fairy Cookie
DAMAGE 2: ATK Sorbet Shark Cookie
FRONT: DEF/DMG REDUCTION Dark Choco Cookie/Strawberry Crepe Cookie/Moon Rabbit Cookie
HEALER: CD Pure Vanilla Cookie
TACTICAL: ATK Vampire Cookie/ATK Espressolike/CD Licorice Cookie/CD Pomegrenate Cookie/CD Mango Cookie/ Second Front Cookie/CD Parfait Cookie

If you have this team, you’re in it for keeps. Sorbet Shark and Sea Fairy are the two nastiest damage dealers currently available in PVE and PVP, and they tend to rip everything open as soon as their skills are ready. Sorbet Shark has an attack that ignores defense, and Sea Fairy is a hard-hitting nuker with a stun to make sure the enemy doesn’t get back up. Everyone else is there mostly to keep those two alive or powered up, or in the case of Vampire Cookie, get rid of the enemy healer.

DAMAGE 1: SEA FAIRY COOKIE, RASPBERRIES/SWIFT CHOCOS – Currently the most meta-bustingly deadly cookie in the entire game as of this writing, Sea Fairy’s skill can typically cripple a whole team extremely early, with her disgusting damage mixed with the stun preventing the healer from popping their own skill on time to mitigate the damage. On top of this, she can be pretty deadly in lategame PVE, usually only suffering (A tiny, tiny bit anyway) against huge mobs of weaklings rather than the more common teams of a few heavies that tend to pop out in lategame chapters.

DAMAGE 2: SORBET SHARK COOKIE, RASPBERRIES – This adorable little pirate comes with a sharp bite! Their skill hits the frontmost targets with a high damaging blow followed by a defense-ignoring percentage damage attack, usually dealing far more damage to tanks. They excel in killing the front and leaving the mid open, though be wary of the enemy Licorice Cookie as his mooks can make it harder for Sorbet Shark to hit their intended targets. Especially if that Licorice Cookie is backed up by a Pure Vanilla Cookie.

FRONT: DARK CHOCO COOKIE/ STRAWBERRY CREPE COOKIE/MOON RABBIT COOKIE, ALMONDS – Too bad you can only pick at most two of them, as these three are the best fronts in the game at the moment. Moon Rabbit Cookie excels in PVP thanks to her ability to heal the team massively on a cookie kill, pretty much removing any hope of the enemy having a comeback if their healer was the one that went down. Even if your own team was badly hurt in the process.

As for PVE, they heal much less per kill, but excel in Chapter 12 since her skill also counts non-playable cookie kills (Cookie assassins, meddlers, and the other Princess contest competitors) for the super-heal. Dark Choco is an old standby for both PVE and PVP for their DEF-reducing AOE attack, which doesn’t need too much Charge powder to be effective. Strawberry Crepe is a more defensive option, with a 50% DEF increase towards the two squishiest cookies, your main damage dealers.

HEALER: PURE VANILLA COOKIE, SWIFT CHOCOS – As usual, bring a good healer. Since the name of the team is “The Gacha Smiles Upon Thee”, we might as well just list Pure Vanilla since they’re the rarest and most powerful healer in the game thanks to their shield ability, and thus capable of giving the enemy sheer envy-induced salt.

TACTICAL: VARIED – This is a free slot, and the ones we suggested above are just that, suggestions based on a tactic that can be used. If you want some precise damage to kill the healer either before of after Sea Fairy pops her first nuclear shower, Vampire’s the choice. If you just want even more damage, bring someone like Espresso, Latte, Squid Ink or Black Raisin Cookie, especially if you find yourself fighting huge mobs like the ones occasionally popping out in Chapter 10, or in earlygame.

Licorice Cookie could be useful if the enemy is using a similar team so he can block Sorbet Shark’s attack with his mooks, or to increase PVE survivability. Pomegrenate or Mango Cookie can be used to raise everyone’s ATK stat for more murder. If you see a Gingerscam team, you might want Parfait Cookie to prevent stuns and allow your team to nuke the enemy right back and survive the extremely important first couple of seconds. Failing all that, you can bring an extra Front cookie to support whoever of the three you picked first.

If you guys have any tasty suggestions for team compositions, put them in the comment section below. Not only will they be helpful for the readers, it might get them excited to fight those teams in Arena PVP too!