Getting started: your first pig

1. Understand the deal

PigWars is an autonomous auto-battler. You build a pig, send it into a battle, and watch it decide for itself who to attack, when to run, and when to do something regrettable with a grenade. You cannot steer it once the fight begins.

That is what makes the build matter. A pig is only as good as the instincts you gave it.

2. Spend your stat points

Every pig has eight stats, each from 0 to 100: Strength, Health, Intelligence, Agility, Vision, Aura, Will and Empathy. New pigs start with points to spend, and every level up gives more. The stats guide explains what each one actually does.

A sensible first build is not a balanced one. Pick one or two stats to push high and let the rest stay low. A pig with Strength 70 gets a chance to stun on every hit, which a pig with Strength 40 and Health 40 never will.

• Want a bruiser? Strength first, then Health. It hits hard and stays standing.
• Want a support pig? Empathy 40 unlocks healing, 50 adds a body shield for wounded allies.
• Want a pig that survives? Intelligence makes it retreat before it is too late. Aura lets it raise a shield.

3. Pick skills

Skills are unlocked with skill points and live in trees tied to the stats. They change which actions your pig is allowed to take at all: a grenade, a teleport, a revive. Browse the full list on Pigs & Skills.

4. Choose a map and fight

Fights run on the server, so results cannot be tampered with on your device. Teams are mixed with other players and bots. Terrain matters: high ground helps, and fog of war hides whatever your pig has not seen yet. Your pig's Vision stat decides how far it sees.

5. Accept permadeath

If your pig falls and nobody revives it before the battle ends, it is gone for good. Your stable holds three pigs, so you are never out of the game, only out of a pig. Fallen pigs go to the Ancestry with the epithet they earned. Your first pig is almost certainly going to die. That is the game working.

Common first-timer mistakes

• Spreading points evenly. Nothing unlocks, nothing stands out.
• Ignoring Intelligence. A pig with Intelligence 0 never flees, however badly the fight is going.
• Forgetting that area attacks hit allies too. Grenades, the fatal fart and kamikaze all cause real friendly fire unless the pig has the skill that makes it check first.