🎅 Buddy: Santa's Challenge – Thoughts & Discussion (2019)

Santa’s Challenge Hero RETURNING: Buddy!

This is deprecated / duplicate topic, which is not getting updated with balance changes.

Please use the following topic to discuss Buddy:

Hero Card


:bar_chart: Stats

Rarity Element Class Mana Speed
:star::star::star::star:
Epic
:leaves: Nature/Green Ranger Average
:crossed_swords:
Attack
:shield:
Defense
:heart:
Health
649 690 1323

:dizzy: Special Skill: Gift Sack

  • Deals 205% damage to the target and nearby enemies
  • Summons an Elf Minion for the caster and nearby allies with 10% HP and 10% attack inherited from the caster
  • The target and nearby enemies get -24% attack for 3 turns
  • The target and nearby enemies get -34% defense for 3 turns

:thought_balloon: What do you think of Buddy?

This thread is for thoughts and discussion on Buddy.

Based on preferences of Forum members expressed recently, please try to stick mainly to Buddy and not wander off topic too much to other heroes.

Some Popular Questions for Discussion

  • Is he worth summoning for?

  • Would you use him on Defense? Offense? War? Quests/Events? Titans?

  • Would you give Buddy Ranger Emblems? Which Talent Grid path would you choose?

  • What do you think of his special?

  • What do you think of his character design?

  • The theme of Santa’s Challenge heroes is Minion Summoners paired with hitting and negative effects (except Mother North, who pairs Minions with healing and reviving). What do you think of this sort of special skill?


:broken_heart: Avoiding Overspending & Heartache :broken_heart:

Or: How many summons are needed to get Buddy?

Special thanks to @Garanwyn for assistance on summoning odds and proofreading for this section.

It’s important to remember that Seasonal Event Heroes have extremely low summoning odds. No amount of summoning will guarantee a Seasonal Event Hero.

On average, in a 10-pull, you have a 27.8% chance of summoning Buddy.

But that statistic can lead our minds astray in exactly how our odds play out as we continue summoning.

Some useful insights:

  • 50 times out of 100, you’ll get Buddy by pull 21 (5,500 gems)
  • 96 times out of 100, you’ll get Buddy by pull 100 (26,000 gems)
  • 99 times out of 100, you’ll get Buddy by pull 140 (36,400 gems)

Putting that in Perspective

  • 50 out of every 100 people won’t get Buddy by the 21st pull
  • If 1 Million players each summoned 21 times, 500,000 of those players wouldn’t get Buddy
  • 4 out of every 100 people won’t get Buddy by the 100th pull
  • If 1 Million players each summoned 100 times, 40,000 of those players wouldn’t get Buddy
  • 1 out of every 100 people won’t get Buddy by the 140th pull
  • If 1 Million players each summoned 140 times, 10,000 of those players wouldn’t get Buddy

More Insights & Reading

I highly recommend reading these two threads for more information and context on summoning odds:

If you’ve read them a million times before, you may consider reading them again before deciding on your budget for summoning. A little time spent deciding on how much money you want to risk on summoning goes a long way to avoiding disappointment, frustration, and regret later. :slight_smile:


:star2: Epic Hero Tokens Can Be Used for Seasonal Summoning

The Seasonal Summons replaces the regular Epic Hero Summons.

Because of that, unlike Challenge Event Summons, the Summoning Portal for Seasonal Events allows using saved up Epic Hero Tokens that can otherwise normally only be used for Epic Hero Summons.

That makes Seasonal Events the only place you can currently use Epic Hero Tokens for a chance at non-Season 1 heroes.

Many people regard the Christmas heroes as the best Season Heroes, and therefore prefer to save their Epic Hero Tokens for December or early January during this Santa’s Challenge Event. For more discussion of this, please see: What is the best Seasonal Summons?

You’ll also have the same chance at the HOTM as usual when using Epic Hero Tokens.

Because Santa’s Challenge 2019 is expected to run from through all of December into the beginning of January, you should have an opportunity to Summon while either HOTM is available.

For information on the December and January HOTM, please see:


:thinking: Wondering About Your Personal Situation?

Feel free to discuss your team and roster here, and ask for advice from other Forum members.

If you’d like more extensive advice on sorting out your particular roster, I recommend creating a new thread in Gameplay Help & Tactics, and posting screenshots of your hero roster, along with your questions.


:bulb: Have an Insight on Buddy’s Game Mechanics?

Click for Info on Creating Player Guides

This thread is a great place to discuss anything and everything related to Buddy.

Once those discussions have yielded notable insights, I encourage others to make reference guides in Player Guides that synopsize specific questions and answers about Buddy.

Topics that are most appropriate for that are ones that players are likely to be searching for or wondering about in the future.

Creating a guide is a good way to make that information findable in the future without having to read through a ton of posts. You can make use of the Forum quote feature to avoid having to rewrite explanations that have already been well written.

Here’s an example of such a post: [GUIDE] How does the Queen of Hearts’ Taunt work with AoE specials, or specials affecting nearby enemies in addition to the target?


:ballot_box: Polls

Do you already have Buddy from a previous Santa’s Challenge?

  • Yes, I have Buddy already from a past Santa’s Challenge
  • No, I tried to get Buddy previously, but didn’t succeed
  • No, I was playing during Santa’s Challenge last year, but didn’t try for Buddy
  • No, I wasn’t playing during the last Santa’s Challenge
0 voters

Do you plan to Summon for Buddy this Santa’s Challenge?

  • Yes, I want to try to get Buddy this Santa’s Challenge
  • No, I already have Buddy, and don’t want to try for another
  • No, I’m not interested in Buddy, or don’t think it’s worth trying with the Summoning odds
0 voters

Overall, what do you think of Buddy’s usefulness?

  • I think Buddy is one of the very best heroes
  • I think Buddy is above average
  • I think Buddy is very average
  • I think Buddy is below average
  • I think Buddy is one of the very worst heroes
0 voters

Be sure to share your detailed thoughts in comments below!

What do you think of Buddy’s design?

  • Buddy is one of my MOST favorite hero designs
  • Buddy is one of my LEAST favorite hero designs
  • I’m indifferent to Buddy’s design, I don’t have strong feelings either way
0 voters

:link: Related Threads You May Be Interested In

Main Thread for Santa’s Challenge 2019: 🎅 Santa's Challenge 2019: Teams, Strategy, FAQs, Discussion, and Links – Christmas Event

Older Threads Discussing Buddy

Other Recent Threads on Santa’s Challenge

The creepy elf… Some may call him a Pedo…

1 Like

If you are interested in seeing an emblemed Buddy, here is one.

I went down the offensive path but did one selection I regret. I may correct this one day.

Now that I realized I made this “mistake,” I may put my mana troop on him as it’s at level 17. We’ll see.

5 Likes

My apologies if this is inappropriate, but here is a maxed talents Buddy:

I love this creepster! And I so look forward to trying for a second one! I will go opposite path than what I did with this one if I do get a second.

(edit to add: I went a combo path with his talent tree. And am unlikely to reset… tears well up in my eyes thinking of doing that to a maxed talent hero.)

6 Likes

I got Buddy this morning. I see above where the grades give him a B but I’ve also seen where some consider him a really legit tank. So where is he really? What’s the best way to use him?

I got lucky and nabbed this creepster on my second draw. He’s bulky and his defense down ability is incredible.

Which way would you take him down the talent tree?

Edit: Here’s a great discussion. Verdict: Defense/health

3 Likes

He may be among the best 4star tanks and can play with the big boys when emblemed

2 Likes

I think B is about right - maybe a B-. His main utility is as a green d down which is lacking in green. If it weren’t for that I doubt I would use him at all.

1 Like

Wow 9 days? Sorry for the necro post but the event still is live, lolz. Anyway I really wanted Buddy, not as much as MN but still, more than Rudolph. So last night (way to late) I spent $5 (way more than I should have) and got the little creep on a single gem draw. Now I’m happy! Once Kingston is finished It’ll be my pleasure to start leveling Buddy.

1 Like

He sets normal att and def down.
Eve deals the elemental version.

He is literally a great buddy when fighting blue titans. With my following team I dealt the most damage per tile up to 8.000, thanks to Buddy and Evelyne of course…gotta love her :heart_eyes:

Zeline+13 - Evelyne - Buddy - Gregorion - Wu Kong

Bye-bye, blue titans.

But there’s no other in green who can set the opponents’ defense down like the ramming pulveriser brothers. That’s what he meant.

Got mine yesterday and took him to +4 on attack and love him

1 Like

Bud has a secret…

Here’s mine emblemed via a full DEF/HP route. Love this guy

6 Likes

“They don’t LOVE me Santa?!!?”

1 Like

Just got Buddy on a draw, any thoughts about him?

He’s an amazing hero. As the only Green D-dropper, I consider him a must-have

2 Likes

With defensive emblems he’s a good tank

1 Like

What are yours? Is it something you don’t understand about his special?