Peter Pants Hero Guide by LSV
Learn how to master Crystal Ball with everyone's favorite superhero, Peter Pants!
Peter Pants is one of the wildest Heroes in Storybook Brawl. His Hero Power prevents you from reaching Level 4 and above, which is a huge drawback, but in exchange you are the best Hero at finding Merlin's Hat + Crystal Ball, perhaps the best treasure combo in the game. If you want a completely different experience than other Heroes, Peter Pants is a great Hero to try (and a good one - Pants is routinely one of the best-performing Heroes).
Hero Power
Pants' Hero Power does two things - starts you at level 3 and keeps you there, and gives you a Gingerbread Party every time you would level up. It may seem like the first part is the drawback and the second part is the reward, but it's actually a bit more than that. Because you never hit level 4, it's really easy to triple level 3 characters, making the lack of leveling into a powerful tool when it comes to finding level 3 treasures (like say, Crystal Ball). The extra stats don't hurt, but in practice, getting to turbo level 3's is the real prize.
Hero Gameplan
Pants is one of the most focused Heroes in the game - your gameplan basically always revolves around finding Hat-Ball. As such, you need to prioritize grabbing Level 3 pairs, and tripling as many times as possible until you get the treasures you need. You also want to pick up spell-based characters, like Spell Weaver and Wizard's Familiar, as they make up the bulk of your final comp. In general, if you are giving yourself the best chance to get the spell build going, you are Pantsing correctly.
Early Game
Pants comes out swinging early, thanks to starting at level 3. On turn one, you will buy a level 2 character (and we make it so Pants is guaranteed to see at least one, because the experience of seeing only level 3 characters with 2 gold is too unpleasant). I like starting on Mim, Wizard's Familiar, or Cinder-Ella, though anything with decent stats is fine. Note that you aren't that likely to triple the level 2 character unless it's a Wizard's Familiar, so don't bother investing much into it.
On turn two, you can immediately buy a level 3 character, which gives you a big edge. Here is the ranking for which Level 3 characters to start with as Pan:
S-Tier
A-Tier
B-Tier
C-Tier
D-Tier
Note that Spell Weaver is ultimately the best level 3 character for you, but it's better to start with any of the stat/economy characters in the beginning.
Your goal early is to win fights, pick up pairs, and leverage the early level 3 characters you have into an economy boost.
Mid Game
By the time you hit the mid game, you should have a bunch of pairs, and hopefully some triples. As I've mentioned, your gameplan is to find Crystal Ball and Merlin's Hat as quickly as possible, followed by Forking Rod off of Blind Mouse. There is an important trick to use when you're looking for Hat-Ball - until you have both, you should never skip on a level 3 treasure. Once you take a treasure, you won't be presented with it again, so by taking treasures you don't want, you are making the pool smaller for future treasure selections. Pants tends to tear through treasures quickly, so you will find Hat-Ball eventually, though you are under time pressure. Your opponents will eventually get to levels five and six, and start really popping off, so you need to scale in order to battle them.
You also do need to pay attention to your life total. Thanks to the extra stats Pants gives you, you likely are fine throughout the mid game, but just keep it in mind if you do find yourself losing fights.
Late Game
At this point, you should have found Hat and Ball, and ideally Forking Rod. Blind Mouse becomes a high priority if you don't have Rod yet, as you really do need all three to maximize your build. You should also be buying all the Spell Weavers and Wizard's Familiars as possible, because those make up a big chunk of your final comp. Of course, casting many spells is important, so don't pass up those either.
One way to get to the higher ranks of characters is True Love's Kiss. Because you will see many copies of TLK, try and keep excess upgraded characters on your bench, and ideally cast TLK on the same one until you get a good level 6.
Likewise, Treasure Map can get you access to higher level treasures, and Map + Blind Mouse gets you all the way to six. Plus, sometimes you Kidnap a Lancelot or Hercules and get sick treasures that way.
Once you have the full three spell treasures, you just go nuts on casting spells until the game ends. Hopefully you found some upgraded Scions of the Storm thanks to TLK, but even just an army of giant Spell Weavers and Familiars can do the trick.
Winning Comps
These are real player comps, courtesy of Untapped.gg's Storybook Brawl site!
Treasures
If the rest of this article didn't impress upon you the importance of Hat-Ball, I'm not sure what else I can say. Besides the spell treasures, there's really nothing that you're looking for.
Tips and Tricks
- If you manage to True Love's Kiss or Kidnap into a Soltak Ancient, consider keeping that one around. Your backline is vulnerable, so Soltak can be a huge pickup.
- Don't pick Treasure Map until you already have Hat-Ball, and once you have Map, try to triple Blind Mouse. The level 6 Treasures are way better than 5, so I'd hold out if you can.
- Note that Monster Book is quite poor on Pan - by virtue of staying level 3, your combat spells are limited to Falling Stars and Earthquake, which are not the most exciting.
Putting On Your Pants One Leg At a Time
Pants is a sweet hero, and leads to a different experience than most. He's also really good at making Top 4, since the early/midgame strength carries you a long way. Good luck, and may you find Hat-Ball as quickly as possible!
-LSV