Spirits, the pen and the rescue

• When you are tagged
• What a spirit can do
• How a rescue works
• Is the rescue worth it?
• Running a rescue
• After you are back
• For the wolves
• What the bots do

What happens when you are tagged

• Every farm you built is gone, all at once. Not damaged, gone. Your walls, your Windmills, your door.
• Your gold goes to the flock. It is split evenly among the sheep still free, and you start earning again from zero.
• You become a spirit in the Spirit Pen, the glowing ring in the middle of the map. Spirits sit spread around inside it.
• Every wolf gets paid, the tagger most. What a tag pays has the amounts.

That first point is why a sheep's fort is only as safe as the sheep inside it. When a sheep goes down, the gap it leaves in a shared wall opens at the same moment.

What a spirit can do

• Earn: 0.5 gold a second, half of a free sheep's rate.
• Ping: press G and pick “Help, I'm in the pen”. It is the one ping made for spirits, and your team sees it on the map.
• Watch: you see a few tiles around you, plus everything your team sees.

A spirit can't move or build. So the best thing a spirit can do is bank gold and call for help at the right moment: when a wolf has just left the pen, not while one is sitting on it.

How a rescue works

• Walk into reach. A free sheep within 1.3 tiles of a spirit frees it. Spirits sit inside the ring, so the rescuer has to step into the pen, not just past it.
• One pass can free several. Every spirit you get within reach of comes back, so a run through the middle of a full pen can empty it.
• Nobody can build near the pen. Within 8 tiles of its middle, no farm goes down, so you can't wall a path in. A rescue is a run, never a wall.
• Both teams always see the pen. The wolves know exactly who is waiting, and so do you.

Is the rescue worth it?

My rule: go when the pen holds more than you do, or when the clock says you need the bodies. Stay when you are the last good wall your team has.

• Early in the round, one spirit is a small loss. It still earns, and the wolves get nothing more from it. Losing a second sheep on a bad run is a big loss. Wait for a gap.
• Two or more spirits are worth a real risk. You turn one sheep's run into two or three sheep earning full gold again, each with banked gold to rebuild.
• When you are the last sheep standing, the round is lost the moment you are tagged. A rescue gives the wolves a second target, which is often the only way to last to 0:00.
• In the last minute, the wolves are faster and see less. A rescue is a gamble. It is usually better to hold your walls unless your fort is about to fall anyway.

Running a rescue

1. Shear first if your fleece is ready. 15% faster for 15 seconds is the difference on open ground.
2. Watch for the Howl. A pack that just howled can't again for 60 seconds. That is your window.
3. Come in from the side away from the wolf and cut through the middle, not around the edge.
4. Drop a Snare on the way in. 10 gold with R, a few tiles outside the ring. The wolf guarding the pen chases you out across it and is held for 1.25 seconds. Not inside the ring itself: snares can't go there.
5. Keep Leap for the way out. A Leap carries you 3.4 tiles in one jump, and you will want it when the wolf turns around.
6. Go with a friend. Two sheep coming in from two sides split the wolf. Ping “On my way” so your team knows.

After you are back

A rescued sheep stands up in the pen with no farms and 3 seconds where it can't be tagged. That is not long. Use it to run, not to build: nothing goes down within 8 tiles of the pen's middle anyway.

Head for a teammate's fort if you can, and spend your banked gold there. A sheep that runs back out alone to rebuild its old fort from nothing usually gets tagged again on the way.

For the wolves: guard the pen or not?

A rescued sheep can't be tagged for 3 seconds, so chase the rescuer, not the sheep it just freed. And don't stand in the pen: a wolf parked in the ring is easy to see and easy to run around. Wait off to one side, out of the pen's light, where a rescuer has to come past you.

Guarding pays late in a round, when the pen is full and one or two sheep are left. Early on, a wolf watching the pen is a wolf not breaking walls, and the sheep out in the world get free time to build. The wolf guide has the full argument.

What the bots do

• Bot sheep rescue. They leave by their fort's door and walk to the pen. On Normal and Hard they weigh it first: how many spirits are waiting, how much of the round is left, and whether a wolf is watching. On Hard, two bot sheep can work together, one showing itself on the far side of the pen while the other goes in.
• Bot wolves guard by difficulty. On Easy they never do. On Normal, once 2 spirits are waiting or only two sheep are left, one bot wolf waits about 10 tiles off the pen, out of its light, and jumps on a sheep that comes close. On Hard it starts with a single spirit waiting.