@beanutbutter I definitely appreciate the hard data! If you wanted to start up some good ol' spreadsheets that would be cool to see. (I do those at my day job, so doing them in my freetime isn't always my favorite, haha.) I didn't keep track of mine so diligently, but when I run Kit/Kit/Jocol/Krane/Grouger the healing isn't enough upkeep and I didn't get further than level 10 in about 3 tries with it, which felt too inconsistent for me to continue using.

I'm having results closer to what you're describing with my Kitx3/Panda/Stork team comp, which has gotten me as high as level 16 at this new harder point of gauntlet (previous record being 18 and much more often, I've only seen 16 the one time in the last week.) Rogues and poison compositions are what wipe teams above level 14, as they do such large amounts of damage which cannot be avoided.

New strategy I'm testing! It's very fun to watch and has gotten me further than the healing composition, all the way to level 18, though I did fail at that level due to hitting an absurdly strong composition (Double Kuzma w/full Rogue buff, first turn stun on my healer due to there being a Kapros) and going in with relatively low backline health.

If you're able to buy the Thrasher this fishing event, I would suggest it to build this comp with!

COIN FLIP BUILD

HIGHEST LEVEL REACHED: Level 18

AVERAGE LEVEL END RUN: 12-14

(Has failed due to RNG as early as 8)

Protector 6, Dueler 2, Tactician 5

2 Kits (2 Frontline)
1 Jocol (Backline)

1 Thrasher (Either Type) (Backline)
1 Icefisher Stork (Backline)

Companion Cost: 175fishing tickets for the Thrasher, Icefisher Stork costs ~8ms or 120k pebbles at time of writing.

NOTE: This is an interesting building I'm testing! It has very high damage and is fun to watch play out. Very RNG-coin-flip dependent, hence the name. Feels like you win/lose depending on if you Jocol can land Blossom Maul. This ability is super finnicky, so half the time it fizzles out due to a dodge miss. However, because the Jocol has such a high crit chance, it can land a 78health full party heal, which is amazing and actually breaks most shields, eliminating one of the ways Blossom Maul often fizzles out. Jocol's also get to use this basically every third turn, so having Coordinate on the field is super useful to give the Jocol more chances to land healing.

Oh hey neat thread. I've been messing around with the gauntlet a bit just cause it's a nice money maker. I've been using kit - kit - jocol - vulpactia x 2 combo and has been consistently reaching level 9, 11 being the highest I've been going so far.

Training the same companion seems to take less time since they count as one unit, so it's easier as a starter build cause you only need to feed 3 wolves. So I've found.

Before this I was running jocol - jocol - kit - furlog deer and hit around level 7 every turn as well. Just thought I'd share the data here.

This thread has been super helpful. I wanted to post my recent result for a team comp suggestion. It does run into some problems with shields unfortunately but it's still quite consistent. I think varani opens up some options for those of us without ks companions

@Mossling Very nice! That's promising. I just got mine and need to cap it to level 10 tonight to test a few compositions. Getting 5 Tactician out is super powerful since it can give damage to the Kits which are otherwise very sound defensively. Hadn't considered two varani, but definitely a smart choice if available.

Absolutely CRUSHED my previous record for Gauntlet yesterday (7.8.2023) though it might have been so late at night it was already 7.9, before the updates landed. Level 18 was the furthest I had survived through before this. I would have gone one further, but I really wanted this screen grab and the low Kit made me nervous.

As I expected, swapping the Varani in for the Stork is a great move. Composition is (2) Kit in the Frontline, (1) Jocol on the backline as your healer, then either Varani and either Thrasher. The Jocol makes a far better healer than the Pandosa which is too unreliable. Double coordinate can lock some opponent team comps out from attacking if the turns happen to fall just right, completely swinging back from rounds that look lost. I will warn that this comp does have some unexpected loses, I think largely to very bad RNG when facing down poison, but everything dies to that so it's nothing you're not getting from other comps.

New companions just dropped and ARE spawning into Gauntlet already. This record was reached before this updated, so I need to see how those might effect the game with their addition. Will report back!

Update 7.10.23: After taking a look at the new (5) Orthrus referral companions, it's no big shift in the meta like the Geck and Snowloons caused. All (5) Orthrus have the exact same stats, synergies, and ability spread as the Holiday Snowcat, which will not disrupt any meta choices by my judgement. The Snowcat (and thus all the Orthus) are decent enough within all companion comps like players face within Gauntlet, but are not particularly good within any player run teams. Siphon Scratch remains unreliable even with two strikes available (these units also don't hit hard enough to do much healing with it) and Festive Feels remains a complete waste of turn healing wise. I might test the Holiday Snowcat more in place of these units, but I don't think any of them are actually viable, so don't feel too much pressure to acquire them for a compositional edge.

I think I found a super beginner friendly build!

10 at lowest, as of current 17 at the highest.
Averages out at level 12-13.

2 kits in front, 1 jocol in the middle, 2 furmus (any) on the back sides.

The intersect x4 in this build, tactician, heal and shield synergy and the jocol's consistent healing really made a difference in maintaining the formation.

Ooh, I was just levelling furmus to try in a jocol build, I'll absolutely try this out!

So here's something interesting.

I'm very new to the Gauntlet and still unfamiliar with a lot of abilities, but it was still surprising when I got owned at lv 2 with a full defensive lv 10 team. Luckily I was paying attention to the round and witnessed what had gone wrong: a Follium had stunned my fastest attackers with Backstab, a Mutterbird was continuously pumping everyone's energy with Motivate, and a Teufel was using that energy to Stomp and stun-lock my entire team until I lost without ever getting a single attack off.

So I got curious if I could somewhat recreate this event from the player's side, and arrived at this:

(Zerda, Jocol, Kit, Grouger, Teufel)

Motivate + Fortify + Stomp, with some help from the Kit's Tactician (1) to boost healing from Blossom Maul.

This was a test run, you can see by the levels. I wasn't expecting the team to make it past lv 6 without casualties, but to my surprise they carried on pretty much full health up until here: bad RNG finally managed to get rid of the companions, basically destroying the team's whole thesis and causing a loss.

Some notes: Intersect doesn't mesh well with Fortify. Since the Kit is protected, the damage it'd take was often 0, so rather than counter it would just nullify enemy attacks a lot of the time. I'm considering swapping it with a Lupin for Assailant (4), but that 10% base dodge and higher defense are doing a LOT of heavy lifting keeping the frontline alive.

Maybe it was a fluke, maybe it's too RNG-dependent, but I think this team has some potential. I'll fiddle around in the near future and work on leveling the backline up all the way.

Edit: ok I was exploring with these guys (minus the Zerda) and they took down a Vespen encounter. A lv 2 and a lv 3 companions in the frontline, the Kit and Jocol in the backline. The Kit was essential to counter the Kuzma's insane Berserker-boosted attacks and the Stomps were essential to stop the Vespen from killing the frontline guys. The Jocol healed faster due to Motivate too. Again, not sure if it's just dumb luck of actual good team synergy. Will report back.