The Cambrian Explosion

The Cambrian Explosion (or patch 1.1.1) was an open beta for the game. It received enormous amounts of attention a very short time. During the Cambrian, the devs hadn't released the terrestrial expansion pack yet, so at the time gameplay took place entirely within the marine biome. There was not much in the way of Mobility, Intelligence, or Stealth yet as those stats were not considered very useful by the player base until more advanced techniques were discovered. However, for the first time in the game, players could directly eliminate one another, using the newly-unlocked upgrades of teeth, digestive tracts, and spines.

The Cambrian meta was dominated by Arthropod builds. Arthropods had two perks that gave them a huge early lead in the story of Earth's meta game. The first was an exoskeleton. Offensive strategies weren't too advanced at the time so all a player needed in order to shrug off most attacks was decent armor. The second thing is that Arthropods were among the first builds to unlock advanced eyes. Most players had simple Light-Sensitive Eyes during the Cambrian, but Compound Eyes granted crucial accuracy bonuses. They were the best eyes in the game until Camera-Style Eyes were unlocked.

The meta during the Cambrian Explosion event advanced so rapidly that the truly low tier builds weren't around long enough to be remembered. These included the Small Shelly Fauna, which appeared when the patch released, as well as the sponge-like archaeocyaths and some holdovers from the last days of development.

## C Tier Builds

### Trilobite

One of the most popular Arthropod builds, as well as guilds, of the time was the Trilobite. It didn't have anything spectacular in terms of abilities, but it was very easy to play, making it a great beginner pick at a time when most players were beginners at the game. Trilobites had a solid Defense stat because of their thick carapace armor that made it very difficult for enemies to effectively deal damage. Players eventually learned how to get past their defenses in the Devonian period, with the advent and explosion of jawed fish. At that point, Trilobites dropped in viability, until the last remaining players abandoned the build shortly before the Triassic expansion. They are placed in low C tier.

### Hallucigenia

   Next up on the tier list is Hallucigenia, one of the few builds that wasn't running a carapace shell as part of it's build. Instead Hallucigenia players opted for a different type of defense, spikes. Spikes are the perfect defense against armored opponents because focusing all of one's force into a single point can often be enough to pierce armor, even when their character is relatively weak otherwise. This is why Pierce-type weapons dominate the Insect meta today. Slash-type and Crush-type weapon would easily be thwarted by Chitin Armor, but piercing damage is extremely effective. Even though this is a great strategy, Hallucigenia wasn't any sort of threat to other players and could be easily ignored due to it's small size and low Mobility. So it's only in high C tier. While this build did eventually fall out of the meta, a non-spiked version of it known as the Velvet Worm is still available today, and this build even has a projectile attack.

## B Tier Builds

### Opabinia

In B tier there is the Opabinia. Opabinia was one of the first grappler builds to find any significant success in the game. This was because the meta at the time was heavily Defense-based, and grapplers are always perfectly suited to dealing damage to a blocking opponent. The key to it's success was it's Trunk, an attribute seen surprisingly few times across all the different expansions so far. Opabinia's Trunk gave it an excellent grab with extended range, making it perfect for grabbing smaller players and preventing their escape in spite of their heavy armour. It also had excellent perception skills because it's had five compound eyes, giving it full 360 degree Vision. With that said, it's defensive capabilities were only average. So it had basically no options if a player from a higher weight class attacked it. Unfortunately, after they suffered heavy losses and started to fall out of the meta, Opabinia mains started to spec into heavier defenses to compensate and just kept doubling down until they sacrificed size, Power, and uniqueness in order to become some of the most resilient yet usless low tiers in the whole game, Tartigrades.

## A Tier Builds

### Haikouichthys

In A tier there is the only Mobility-based build that existed during the Cambrian, Haikouichthys. Haikouichthys was the first vertebrate build that was ever added to the game, and it offered a lot of advantages over it's Arthropod competitors. Instead of Compound Eyes which could see in all directions, Haikouichthys' had the first Camera-Type Eyes which didn't have 360 degree vision, but in exchange were better at focusing, letting them see through camouflage and track targets more effectively. In addition to their eyes, their internal skeleton gave them much more flexibility than builds with an exoskeleton had, allowing them to change directions faster to evade attacks. Haikouichthys was extremely small, putting it barely outside the microscopic weight class. However the potential of this build only improved from here. Vertebrates have been a meta staple in every single expansion after this and it all started here. While they weren't top tier yet, they very quickly gained top tier status after the game released. This build's potential could not be overestimated. Especially considering that a future vertebrate build eventually unlocked the Legs attribute and was able to enter the terrestrial servers.

## S Tier Builds

### Anomalocaris

The Anomalocaris build was the first in the game's history to achieve top tier status. Nothing at the time could match its Power and Defense. It could deflect almost any attack thrown in it because of its armor, while at the same time having a strong enough Power stat to crack most other players armor. If it couldn't crack their armor, it could use it's tendrils to grab or flip its opponent, allowing it to attack their weak point for massive damage. Its only real threat was other Anomalocaris players because they could hit hard enough to crack their armour. Anomalocaris also had the most advanced Compound Eyes of any build at the time, as good as the eyes of present-day dragonflies. This gave them an edge when other players finally started speccing into Stealth abilities. Anomalocaris was such an oppressive force that it ended up getting banned in the game's very first balance patch, which opened up several new niches and allowed Fish, Mollusks, and other Arthropods to diversify their strategies.