Super Auto Pets has been popping off lately! It's not the absolute top free-to-play game right now, but it's not far off. For those who don’t know, SAP is an auto-battler (a genre inspired by auto chess) where players matchmake into an arena queue, building up a team of five different emoji-like Pets with unique abilities in order to get to ten wins. It’s a lot of fun, and some content creators online have played a large part in bringing this free-to-play indie game into the spotlight.
But, it’s a small indie game, and there are a number of obvious fixes it needs that will likely pop up in future patches. So, let’s go over some of the most requested (and most obvious) fixes now.
8 The Server Issues (Though It's Understandable)
Most SAP players probably don’t know this, but Team Wood Games, the developers of Super Auto Pets, is made up of two people. This was obviously made to be a fun game enjoyed by a niche group that has grown way outside of what the two developers likely expected.
Because of that, there have been a lot of server issues for both Versus and Arena ever since the game started getting a massive jump in its player base. It’s clear that this will eventually get fixed, but this isn’t some AAA studio that can just get more server space set up in a flash. Then again, some AAA games that promised dedicated servers don't even have them, so it's not just an "indie" issue.
7 Timer & Spectate Options For Versus
Originally, this entry was meant to point out that SAP needed some custom rules added to the Versus Mode. But, as of November 22nd, 2021, those custom rules have been added! Players can now set the starting lives, the turn timer, and more in the settings for their private lobby.
But...there’s still no spectate option. Once someone is out of lives in the Versus Mode, they’re booted to the main menu. It’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but especially for content creators playing together, this can be a bit of a speed bump.
6 Less Chance Of Instantly Fighting The Same Person As Last Match
It’s a bit hard to tell if this has been happening since the game’s release, or if some patch somehow caused it, but there’s a lot of unintentional instant rematching going on in SAP. Basically, what this means is that a player is enjoying a run in Arena, goes against a team that stomps them, goes back and buys a few Pets or gets some Food from the shop, and is then matched with the exact same person again.
Again, it isn’t some huge issue, but it does sort of ruin the fun of a run when a player has to go against the exact same irritating "meta" build twice in a row.
5 More Things To Spend Reward Points On
Up next is less of a fix and more of a much-needed feature. As SAP currently is, there’s not nearly enough to spend the points on. To be fair, fine-tuning rewards in any game can be tough on developers. Players are addicted to this game, and sinking 60+ hours into it is becoming more and more common and a group of friends all slowly warm up to the game individually.
And, while the 5000 point backgrounds and golden feces hat are cheeky, it’s not quite enough. Whether it’s more hats, more backgrounds, or even something brand new like different breeds of animals that function like skins, there needs to be more to spend these points on. The system for customization also needs to be well-thought-out, as Halo Infinite fans are finding out now.
4 Fun Modifiers For Arena & Versus
It’s hard for developers to figure out if they should add more modes into their multiplayer game or not, much harder than the average player would likely expect. Even when developers add a casual and ranked queue for their games, they’re unintentionally splitting their player base between the two modes. And, when the player base starts to fall, it really becomes noticeable, like with New World.
Even gigantic games such as League of Legends don’t try and introduce too many new modes as it reduces the overall pool of players into these smaller groups and reduces the lifespan of the game overall.
Still, SAP would do well with a Ranked Queue or some rotating fun alternative Arena Mode. Something like a rotating modifier system that would include things like Double Money, Only Farm Animals, Only Fish, and so on.
3 An “Undo” Button
While it may be a contentious thing to ask Team Wood Games to “fix”, adding an undo button would save players a lot of grief. There’s a portion of the player base out there that would say that punishing the player for buying or selling a Pet without thinking is part of the game, and there’s an argument to be made there.
But, since SAP is currently suffering from moderate desync issues, a one or two-step Undo button would go a long way to making sure players didn’t feel cheated by a desync that undid their lineup adjustment.
2 More Stuff To Aim For Similar To The Stickers
If there’s some hyper-specific way to play a game, it’s likely already been done by some diehard, especially if achievements are involved, as they usually are. There’s always a certain subset of gamers that love playing the least popular way or trying some obviously absurd comp. And, in SAP, the way Team Wood Games incentivizes players to try new things is with the sticker system.
This system gives players a sticker for each Pet they get to level three at least once, and it even gives them an additional little mark on their sticker if they’ve achieved a ten-win while using that animal. But, as seen with the players running level three Honey Bee’s or 50/50 Sloths, that still isn’t quite enough.
Including more achievements that push players towards fun builds would go a long way towards encountering fewer “meta” builds in a run too. If there’s an achievement for running a team with four Crabs and getting ten wins, it’ll be sure to stop and entice at least one player who always runs Turkey+Fly into trying something different.
1 A Way To See Achievements In-Game
Last up, there also needs to be an option to see what animals players have both gotten to level three and have won with at level three, in the pause menu. Obviously, players can just take a screenshot of their Achievements screen to get around this, but the option should still be in the game nonetheless.
It happens so often – a player looks at what animals they want to aim for getting to level three, starts up an arena game to try and get one or two of them knocked out, and then immediately forgets which animals they've maxed leveled or not.
Because SAP is a game where players need to adjust their build on the fly, it's very difficult to actually go for one specific level three animal. But, if players could just pause and check their achievement screen mid-game, this would be so much easier.
Super Auto Pets is available now and free-to-play on both PC and Android Devices.