Clash of Critters Elements & Counters Explained

The counter wheel

All other match-ups are 100%. A handful of Zobos have no element (Ordinary Zobo, Two-Headed Zobo) and take neutral damage from everything.

Reading it in battle

Before you press Battle, tap the Zobo-head button: it lists each wave’s elements, density and Zobo types. As you drag Tatari into lanes, the UI shows a red or green thumb and the lane lights up “Yes!” or “No!”. A lane full of green thumbs is roughly worth a full tier of Tatari — this is why copied low-tier formations clear stages that higher-tier mismatched teams fail.

Element, role and rarity are separate axes

Element is one of three tags on every Tatari (the others are role — DPS/Tank/Guardian/Support/Healer/Specialist — and rarity — Blue, Purple, Gold, Red, Rainbow). The Tatari database has 224 entries split almost evenly: 47 Fire, 42 Water, 46 Grass, 42 Rock, 47 Lightning. Per-element pages rank every line: Fire, Water, Grass, Rock, Lightning.

Where element matters beyond chapters

• Badge Dojo is organised by element: each dojo is a 5v5 ladder whose X-10 master awards a badge that buffs every Tatari of that element (+10% all stats, +20% HP, +20% ATK). Dojo 1 unlocks at 7 Tatari of the element. See Badge Dojo.
• Horde Invasion bosses rotate by element through 35 waves (Goonch Water → Tipsy Fire → Shaman Grass → Roadhog Rock → Popstar Lightning …); bringing all five elements is the baseline. See the Horde guide.
• Boss Challenge has a fixed element per boss (Frankenfish Water, Pop Star Lightning, Road Bully Rock, Tipsy Fire, Dean Grass), so the counter Tatari rank highest. See Boss Challenge.
• Evolution trials for T3 are element-specific: Water (2,000 rods/skateboards), Fire (2,000 skateboards or 2,000 fertilizer), Grass (20,000 pinballs), Rock (5,000 Energy Drinks), Lightning (70 treasure tiles or 2,000 fertilizer). See evolution.
• Element auras: many Tier 4 forms carry “Aura: Fire/Water/Grass/Rock” that buffs allies of that element while on the field — a reason to keep lanes mono-element at high level.

Which element to build first

Lightning has the most official guidance (Farlight published a full Lightning Tatari guide: Cheerling, Zappur, Voltfawn) and Lightning counters the Water bosses that open Horde rotations; Fire counters the many Grass bosses (Shaman, Garden, Manager, Botanical). In practice build one strong line per element so every lane can be a counter lane — the tier list marks the safe project in each.