Snake Tier List

Snakes are of the most feared classes in the game, with a number of powerful builds and a vast array of uniquely lethal abilities. However, some of these strategies have clearly been more successful than others, so today we'll be going over the snake tier list to see which builds rank highest. But before we get into looking at specific Snake builds, let's do an overview of the basic attributes and special abilities the Snake faction has access to, as well as a rundown of the history of the Snake faction.

But which Snakes should be feared the most? Which snakes are truly top tier? For that, let's get into the tier list.

## Background and History

So, Snakes are one of the newer factions in the game, joining the game's roster during the later part of the Mesozoic Expansion. They began as a niche offshoot of the Lizard faction that was specifically adapted to burrowing gameplay, and in order to best minmax for the most efficient burrowing, this playerbase eventually opted to completely drop the "legs" attribute. This ended up surprisingly a far more successful gambit than anyone could have anticipated as it not only granted Lizards better burrowing ability, but also opened up a whole new bunch of strategies.

While the Snake build first hit the scene during a metagame dominated by Dinosaurs, they didn't become a huge threat in the meta until after the main Dinosaur powerhouses ended up getting banned in the K-T balance patch. During this chaotic post-banwave meta, Snake players experimented with some crazy builds, including the giant Titanoboa build. But while it's size granted it shorted term success, Patrick Lacey thinks the strategies that the Snakes went to specialize are even more effective.

Fast forward to today's meta and Snakes are one of the most successful predator factions in the game, owing this success to a handful of powerful unique abilities. The most obvious of these is slithering, the Snake's unique Mobility option that it gained in exchange for dropping the legs attribute. Although it looks limiting at first glance, since they cannot jump and move more slowly than if they could run, slithering does open up a lot of other options to Snake mains. Instead of jumping over barriers, they can oftentimes find a way to slither through instead. This gives them access to a lot of areas of the map that are normally much more difficult to access, and means things like dens, nests and other player constructed bases are often less effective at keeping Snake players out, which makes them one of the best classes at spawnkilling.

Slithering also allows a comparatively large build to remain very close to the ground and benefit from Stealth bonuses from even the shortest of grass and foilage. Despite not having claws, Snakes make for highly effective climbers, making it very difficult to ever get truly out of reach of a Snake. Slithering tends to be too slow to reliably catch other players, so while they might not have the ability to catch you, they've specced their movement kit to ensure that nowhere is ever safe from them, and if you let your guard down, they'll be poised to capitalize on that. For such a dangerous predator, their basic strikes are quite weak, due to them not dealing much damage on their own and being easily blocked by armor. It's for this reason that Snakes tend to spec into various venom effects to infuse their bites with.

Snake venom can have a variety of status effects, which we'll get into more as we progress through the tier list. In general, venom greatly increases the potential damage a Snake can deal with its bite. Without this, they would be defenseless and completely helpless when caught in the open. Thus, they are one of the most feared classes in the game.

## Tier Placement

### F-tier

So the lower tiers on this list contain members of the Snake faction known as the colubrids. This is the largest group of Snakes and contains almost every Snake build in the game, except for the ones you're actually afraid of.

#### Garter Snake

Starting at the very bottom of this group we have the Garter Snake, one of the weakest Snake builds of all time. Data miners are actually unsure whether or not this build is venomous, but if it is, it has some of the weakest venom in the game, and with no other offensive abilities, the Garter Snake's only favourable matchups are far smaller than it. Because they are so vulnerable, theyclove to attack aquatic targets like tadpoles and small fish despite having no actual abilities that synergize with this nor is it a good swimmer, thus takes considerable risk when swimming into the water. They also waste a ton of their evolution points to evolve toxin resistance against a specific newt build. While not very efficient, this is one of the few favorable matchups.

#### Racer Snake

Next in F-tier we have the Racer Snake. This is a build which puts an above-average amount of Evolution Points into Mobility, making it one of the fastest Snake builds, which is not really saying a lot due to how most Snakes have relatively poor movement speed, but this does give them a much better chance of dashing into cover when under attack. However, this is not enough to make them competitively viable. They are usually still too slow, even with above-average slithering speed to chase down many of their preferred attack targets. They are also worse climbers, which makes them easy to counter by simply climbing out of reach. Most of the time, a Snake's worst matchup is birds of prey, and this has little use against surprise aerial attacks. Due to their lack of practical applications for their signature abilities, they are F-tier according to Tierzoo.

### D-tier

#### Vine Snake

Next on the tier list we have the Vine Snake. Now, there are many highly effective arboreal Snake builds, and this build isn't terrible. It has great Stealth and is an excellent climber. With the lowest defensive stats of any Snake (Health and Defense), this build dies to absolutely any attack. If their Stealth stat fails, they have to resort to intimidation, which is sticking out their brightly colored tongue as a warning. But seeing that this build is quite small, it is ineffective at its job, similar to the Blue-Tongued Lizard, due to their weak venom. While it is not F-tier due to its decent camouflage, but with nothing else going for it, it's stuck in D-tier.

#### Tiger Keelback

Next in D-tier we have the Tiger Keelback. This Snake build breaks the mold when it comes to toxic strategies in Snakes, as rather than dumping all of its Evolution Points into venom, the keelback also allocates some of its resources into poison, meaning they can inflict toxic status effects both when taking and dealing damage. This raises the Tiger Keelback's ranking, but it's still not that great and is not saying much as most Colubrids are considered low-tier. Neither their venom and poison aren't very potent, and it's possible that going all the way into either direction would have been better in the long run. Still, their strategy mitigates the colubrid's main weakness,cthe inability of effectively use their venom. Although many colubrids are venomous, which can be useful because many of them have low Health, most of them are not as effective at injecting their venom as more powerful snake builds. Their fangs, which are located at the back of the mouth, don't actually inject venom. Because their venom is part of their saliva, they need to chew on their targets to deal any damage at all. This makes their individual strikes quite weak and prevents them from using their venom unless they get a solid bite in. While its poison covers this weakness quite well, it is still stuck in D-tier. Additionally, there are many more ways to mitigate the drawbacks of ineffective venom delivery.

### C-tier

#### Boomslang

At the bottom of C tier, we have the Boomslang, the most venomous colubrid build. It is basically just a better Vine Snake, with all of its advantages, but also a devastating bite with extremely overpowered venom for its tier in terms of potency. It has significantly larger rear fangs. They can also open its mouth far wider than most Snakes, making the unfavorable location its fangs a non-issue, allowing them to fight off higher-tier builds like the Chameleon, as well as let it use its potent venom as a defensive threat rather than solely just a hunting tool. Now, obviously this is still far from ideal. Its venom is quite slow acting, making it not that useful when under attack. In his (Tierzoo's) opinion, the Boomslang is a perfect example of a Snake that really just needs one or two more buffs to be a high tier build, but in its current state it just doesn't quite get there.

#### Kingsnake

At the top of C tier we have our last member of the colubrid faction, the Kingsnake. This is a large Snake build with no venom based abilities. Instead, this is the first constrictor build on our list. Constriction is a type of grappling attack that, when properly executed, results in a guranteed KO even on extremely large targets. Its main drawback is that this attack strategy is highly vulnerable to disruption. A constrictor has to survive all counterattacks from its target while attempting to restrain it. So with that said, you'd think it'd be very difficult to use this technique against a venomous Snake, right? Snakes are so flexible that it's very difficult to grapple them without giving them an easy opportunity to bite back. That's where the Kingsnake's second ability, venom resistance, comes in. The ability to ignore all damage from Snake venom makes the Kingsnake's matchup against other members of its guild horribly one-sided. They have high enough accuracy on their attacks that they go for the head, which negates a Snake's counterattack potential even further. This is where its supremacy ends though, as its other matchups are typical of other Snakes and with no venom itself, it doen't pose much of a threat to players it can't reliably immobilize in its coils. All a constrictor has to do in order to increase the effectiveness of its constriction: size.

### B-tier

Boas and pythons are the poster children for this type of strategy, being the only Snake builds that can be properly classified as tanks. While technically these are two different factions, they're functionally extremely similar and both contain specific examples of highly effective tanky Snakes. Despite having no venom, their large teeth and incredibly high physical stats make them more than a match for just about any player that challenges them directly. With thick scales and huge size, it's very difficult to defeat one of these in a 1v1 quickly. Tanking a lot of hits during a fight means that even extremely powerful builds like Tigers are in for an uphill battle if they choose to stand and attack. Well-sttated builds with high Defense and DPS like the Crocodillians are easily overcome with brute strength once a boa or python uses their piercing fangs and powerful coils to trap them in an infinite grab-combo. This strategy is vulnerable to third-party attacks and the immense cost of failed kills. While many constrictors have the size required to challenge other large builds, going after too powerful a target can expend a disproportionate amount of HP compared to other Snakes. As large builds are often more conspicuous, the most successful constrictors willmake good usenof camouflage.

#### Anaconda

Out of the boas, the most powerful build is without a doubt the Anaconda. These are by far the heaviest of any Snake build, and italso makes them the tankiest, with a HP stat that renders most physical attacks almost negligible. While they lose a significant amount of viability on land due to their greatly reduced speed in terrestrial maps, their Mobility and Stealth boosts in aquatic environments make them nearly unbeatable here. They are capable of serious speed when their buoyancy abilities can counteract the limitations of their enormous size, making nearly any unsuspecting player who enters the water an easy target. Their eyes and noses are oriented towards the top of their faces, allowing them to expend minimal energy while camouflages in aquatic vegetation waiting for the opportunity to attack an unsuspecting player through ambush. Despite their formidable base stats amd proficiency in highly specialized forms of gameplay, their specialization to aquatic environments limits their utility and places them squarely in B tier.

#### Burmese Python

Out of the pythons, the most competitive is the Burmese Python, a tanky Snake build that can adapt to many biomes. Compared to other Snakes, which are relatively unviable outside their specific map, Burmese Pythons fit as a jack of all trades playstyle, allowimg them to play in several different biomes at the same time with sufficient Mobility despite their large size. Therefore, they are excellent feneralists, as as with similar generalists, they can cause serious disruption in servers they weren't meant to be spawning. Burmese Pythons have totally destabilized the meta of the Florida Everglades, due mostly to their extremely one-sided matchup against solitary Mammals, and a lack of builds that normally keep them in check with the exception of the Alligator, which is quite capable of defeating them in single combat. However, due to the restriction of the Alligator's dominance in aquatic zones, the other zones are completely under control of the Burmese Pythons, which reduces the amount of players running builds like Rabbits, Raccoons, Foxes and Bobcats. They come in at the top of B-tier due to their versatility, their low speed stat and lack of venom makes builds like Pit Vipers and Elapids more viable.

### A tier

While some lower-tier Snakes can use the venom skill, placement in A tier and higher for Snake builds that choose to dump a majority of Evolution Points into maximizing venom efficiency and delivery methods. Members of the viper class dominate the A-tier as among the most feared builds in the game. They have a variety of special offensive and sensory skills that help compensate for generally low Defense stats. Their lomg, hollow fanga are placed at the front of their mouths and can pierce most armor, allowing them to deliver lethal amounts of venom. One drawback to the flesh-destroying hemotoxins is that they're slow-acting. Most orf them also spec into the infrared heat-sensing ability, which makes them excellent ambush counters for Mammals with Night Vision and compensating for their lack of speed. Some members of the viper faction have tail adaptations to access Intimidation strategies, but these are relatively minor compared to their raw offensive potential and sensory abilities.

#### Gaboon Viper

Coming in at the bottom of A tier are the Gaboon Vipers, combining the highest Defense stat with near-unbeatable Stealth and an incredibly high strike speed. Despite their bulky appearance, Gaboon Vipers are almost impossible to spot during gameplay and are notorious for destroying unsuspected players due to the sheer volume of venom delivery during attack despite their relatively underpowered toxicity. With the longest fangs of any viper, they can deal significant physical piercing damage in addition to toxic effects caused by venom. They remain motionless to conserve energy and are difficult to provoke, instead choosing to resort to Intimidation rather than wasting venom on targets that give no EXP for them. While they are an excellent choice for ambush-based play in jungle maps, its lack of versatility and low aggression means they can be easily outmaneuvered by other better generalist builds.

#### Cottonmouth

Slightly higher in A tier is the Cottonmouth due to the rare ability to use the viper skillset in aquatic servers. As the only aquatic viper in the game, their potent venom and fishhook-shaped fangs make them incrediby effective at farming out Fish and Frog players for easy EXP. At lower levels, this build has the caudal luring ability, allowing it to quickly become competitive early on and shed this ability at higher levels in favor of better camouflage. They are also relatively tanky and use Intimidation tactics to escape combat, allowing them to conserve venom for necessary confrontations. Their dominance in aquatic maps makes them able to occassionally overcome more competitive generalist builds, but this has no effect on gameplay due to being limited by biome.

#### Rattlesnake

Rounding out the A tier is the Rattlesnake. Best suited for deserts and forests, they combine a variety of overpowered special abilities with well-allocated base stats. Rattlesnakes are highly capable builds for ambush-based Stealth play due to their ability to make heat maps of other players, which helps them in tracking down players in low-visibility situations which counters Mammal players with night vision. Instead of risking Health and grappling other players, Rattlesnakes deliver a lethal amount of venom with one quick strike, then use their heat tracking abilities to find their target once it has succumbed to the toxic effects of their venom. Howecer, this can sometimes lead to wasting valuable venom that may take a while to resupply. One major advantage of them is their highly effective rattle Intimidation tactic, which allows them to avoid most confrontations with more powerful challengers without venom or risking serious damage. However, all vipers are glass cannons and tend to lose out against builds with higher Mobility, quicker acting venom or enough HP to tank their attacks but for now, they sit at the top of A tier.

### S-tier

S-tier Snakes overcome some of the weaknesses of venom users by maxing out Mobility and employing highly effective venom delivery techniques. The most competitively viable Snakes spec into heavily neurotoxic venom, granting them the ability to inflict toxic damage and statusneffects far more quickly than most low-tier venom users. Despite having weak base Defense, S-tier Snake are only weak to the few builds with venom resistance or high bite evasion skills.

#### Cobra

Coming up first in S-tier is the Cobra build. With impressive base speed, these Snakes can actively chase down other players rather than having to resort to ambush tactics. Some Cobras can also spec into moderate aquatic and climbing proficiency, allowing for particularly well-rounded play. Although neurotoxic, their fast-acting venom can have other toxic effects that can melt flesh to maximize pain. Even Elephant players, the tankiest land builds in the current game, can be killed from the sheer amount of toxic damage from its venomous bite alone. While all Cobras have forward-placed fangs to maximize venom delivery, spitting cobras can use the only ranged attack in the Snake faction by spraying venom which can permanently blind a target if done correctly with high accuracy from up to 2 meters at the front of their fangs. They have a unique hood modification to advertise this power, intimidating the vast majority of players away from trying to challenge them in the first place. With enough offense to take on a team of attackers at once, it is one of the most feared and competitively viable Snake builds in the game.

#### Sea Snake

Next in S-tier are Sea Snakes. With full aquatic adaptations and special underwater sensory skills, these builds can access hard-to-reach area to demolish even the most competitive Fish builds. While their fangs are relatively small, this works with a particular attack style, as players may not know when they are attacked untill fatal toxic damage sets in due to having deadly venom that deals almost no pain. While they are effective at using trickster tactics to take down enemies independently, Sea Snakes can hunt in groups to maximize their offensive potential andcompensate for their low individual Health. Due to the high skill-floor, inexperienced players may struggle at playing around the Sea Snake's defensive weaknesses. While their playstyle can be hard to master, the Sea Snake's ability to 1v1 eels, this build sits at the top for those who enjoy a challenge.

#### Black Mamba

The final build on the list is the Black Mamba. With incredibly OP base stats including ridiculous damage and speed, the Black Mamba is by far the most competitive Snake in both terrestrial and arboreal combat. They are not only speedy in respect to movement, their lethal venom takes effect very quickly. Their venom can easily decimate enemies of any size due to the high dose delivered in each bite. Black Mamba venom imposes a variety of neurological status effects including respiratory failure and vision loss, making them one of the most feared opponents in direct combat. Their playstyle is extremely aggressive and fast paced which leaves little room for counterplay, especially considering that their Health and Defenses are among the highest of any venom users due to their large size. While not having any unique moves, Black Mambas dominate by using strategies common among Snake players and do so to an exceptionally effective degree. Topping the charts with the highest DPS potential of any Snake and respective defensive skills to boot, the Black Mamba is the undisputed ruler of Snakes.