Sheep Tag Online items and upgrades

• Iron Claws
• Potion of Strength
• Frenzy
• Swift Paws
• Watcher Ward
• A buy order
• Long Reach
• Snares and Watchtowers
• Farm upgrades and refunds

Iron Claws, level by level

Each level adds 30 to every bite a wolf takes out of a farm. The first costs 40 gold and each one after costs 10 more, so all 5 come to 300 gold, and the last one alone is 80. A Wolf with all five bites for 255, a Shepherd for 300.

Bites are for a Wolf in the default 5 against 2. A smaller pack bites harder: fewer wolves bite harder.

Read the Brick House column, not the price column. A level that takes a bite off every Brick House is worth it. A level that only moves the Big Barn number, late and expensive, often isn't. Claws also make Huff and Puff hit harder, since it is 1.5 of your bite.

Potion of Strength

25 gold. Your next bite breaks the farm you bite, all at once, whatever it is: a Brick House with 510 health, a Big Barn with 1400. You can carry one at a time and buy another once it is used.

• It is the answer to the all-Brick fort. A sheep that walls in with nothing but Brick Houses makes you chew 5 bites a house. A potion makes it one.
• It goes on the very next farm you bite. Walk past the Hay Blocks and the Straw Houses, and bite the wall you actually need gone. Huff and Puff doesn't use it up.
• Buy it when you see the wall, not before. It costs 15 gold less than the first level of Iron Claws, and claws help on every bite for the rest of the round.

Frenzy

45 gold for the first level, 15 more for each one after, up to 3 (180 gold for all of them). Each level takes 0.1 seconds off the wait between bites on a farm, so a wolf with all 3 bites every 0.5 seconds.

• Claws and Frenzy stack. Claws make each bite bigger, so a level only helps where it saves a whole bite. Frenzy makes every bite come sooner, so it helps on every farm, every time.
• It is the item for big walls. A bare wolf chews a Brick House in 3.2 seconds and a Big Barn in 10.4. With all 3 levels that drops to 2 and 6.5.
• It only speeds up bites on farms. Catching a sheep is the same as before.

Swift Paws

80 gold each, up to 2. Each adds 0.6 tiles a second, so a Wolf with all 2 runs at 5.2. That outruns any sheep, even a sheared one running with its flock.

Swift Paws are the item for a wolf whose problem is catching sheep, not breaking walls. If sheep keep reaching their door one step ahead of you, buy Paws. If they are sitting in forts you can't break, buy Claws.

Watcher Ward

Not in the shop but paid in gold: F places one for 25 gold, up to 14 tiles away. It sees 10 tiles round it for 120 seconds and shows hidden Shadow Sheds. Abilities has where to put one.

A buy order that works

1. In the den: the first level of Iron Claws. You have exactly 50 gold when the den opens.
2. The first Brick wall in your way: a Potion of Strength.
3. Then: the second level of Iron Claws.
4. If sheep keep outrunning you: one Swift Paws.
5. A ward on the fort you keep losing track of.
6. Late: the rest of the claws, and a potion every time you find a wall worth one.

As the Shepherd, skip Swift Paws. He is a breaker, not a runner: put his gold in claws and potions and let the Wolf do the chasing.

Long Reach, the sheep's one item

20 gold, once, with Z. Without it your sheep has to walk up to a spot to build there. With it you build and upgrade from up to 5 tiles away.

It is worth it as soon as you have the gold to spare, and most of all on a phone. It means you can patch a wall from inside your fort without stepping out to the gap a wolf is standing in.

Snares and Watchtowers: the sheep's other gold

Two more things cost a sheep gold. A Snare (R, 10 gold) drops a hidden trap at your feet that holds the first wolf on it for 1.25 seconds; you can have 2 set, 10 seconds apart. A Watchtower (F, 12 gold, 150 health) lets your flock see 15 tiles round it and rings a bell when a wolf comes into view; 2 a sheep.

Both are cheap next to a wall, so they are easy to overspend on. A snare is worth its gold when a wolf is about to chase you or you are about to go in for a rescue, not dropped at random. One tower on the den side of your fort is plenty. Abilities has how to lay a snare.

Farm upgrades and refunds

Two farms upgrade in place with U: Straw House to Stick House to Brick House, and Windmill to Grain Mill. An upgrade costs the new farm's full price and keeps any damage already taken, so a Straw House taken all the way to brick costs 29 gold against 18 for a Brick House built outright. Upgrade the wall that is already in the right place. Build brick from the start everywhere else.

Knocking down your own farm with X gives you half of everything you paid into it back, upgrades included. A farm the wolves break, or one you lose when you are tagged, gives back nothing.

Every farm with its health and bites, and when to upgrade: the farm guide.