The Ice Age

The Ice Age, also known as the Quaternary or Pleistocene Expansion, was a major expansion in the game's history. The expansion started with the Quaternary update (or patch 3.3.1). After the Mesozoic, a lot of niches were left wide open. The resulting power vacuum created many new, janky builds. Most of these builds got nerfed or banned in this update, and newer, more powerful builds were added in to replace them. Some of the most interesting and unique builds of all time were part of the Quaternary meta. As the name implies, glaciers covered huge parts of the Earth with the sea level severely reduced. Early humans were forced to adapt to the colder climate, and they developed new technologies to help them survive.

## F Tier Builds

### Megaloceros

In F tier, there is the Megaloceros (Giant Deer) build. This build holds the record for the most evolution points placed into the Antler skill tree. This over-excessive Antler growth disadvantage heavily outweighed its advantages. Not only were the evolution points wasted, but it had a very high energy cost as movements would cost more stamina and encumbers the player quite easily when carrying heavy antlers. Antlers do break in combat frequently. Although they are quite effective in defending against carnivorous builds, their main purpose was to challenge other males in their alpha male and mating sidequests. If one antler snapped, immense pressure would be placed on the player's neck on the other side that could cause neck injuries and/or loss of balance. Deer have mediocre strength, so they would have to rely on stealth to evade attacks. The deer's retreat strategy was to hide in a nearby forest, but in this case, the antlers slowed down the player and made itself very noticeable. Their enormous hit-box made it very difficult to enter a dense forest.

## D Tier Builds

### Chalicotherium

In D-tier, there is the basic chalicothere, a herbivorous ungulate build, distantly related to horses and rhinoceroses, that specced in tree browsing and forelimb claws, similar to the Giant Ground Sloth. They are significantly worse at combat than the Ground Sloths that copied them and were frequently bodied by predators that the Ground Sloths would have no problem fending off. Despite their inclusion in the Ice Age, chalicothere mains were almost banned before the Ice Age, only surviving in the Asia server until their final ban towards the beginning of the Ice Age, along with their main griefer, the Hell Pigs.

(also, horse mains you got thing going you don't have to copy other builds.)

## C Tier Builds

### Terror Bird

In C-tier, the position belongs to the Terror Bird, specifically Titanis. Terror Birds were an attempt to recreate a theropod dinosaur after non-avian dinosaurs were banned during the Cretaceous-Paleogene Balance Patch. They were quite OP in the early Cenozoic meta, having the best Power and Mobility at the time. They arose multiple times in the Paleocene and Eocene patches, but only remained competitive in the South American server. There, Terror Birds reached a high tier status, like the A tier Phorusrhacos and the S tier Kelenken. However, as the meta progressed towards the Ice Age, mammals finally unlocked better defensive and offensive tools to counter the Terror Bird's playstyle. While their high damage Peck attack was still able to bring down a mammal in a few hits, its damage was completely negated by armor, failing where a pre-ban dinosaur's crushing bite would have had no trouble. More importantly, mammalian carnivore builds, such as the Sabertooth, eventually developed high damage attacks of their own, leaving the Terror Bird playerbase with bipedalism as their only solid advantage. This is actually a significant advantage. But, it is best used in conjunction with powerful grasping or slashing forelimbs, a trait Terror Birds failed to take advantage of.

## B Tier Builds

### Glyptodon

Next up on the tier list is the Glyptodon, the best armoured build of the Ice Age Meta. Glyptodons were mostly safe from predators, being able to block attacks from most of the common weapons at the time. They also possessed two powerful offensive moves. The first being Skull Bash, and the second being Club Smash, reminiscent of the Ankylosaurus build but nowhere near as strong. They are not by any means below average builds, but as a tank, they weren't near oppressive in Area Denial enough to be ranked any higher in the tier list.

### Woolly Rhinoceros

Also in B-tier, there is the Woolly Rhinoceros, a stronger version of the modern-day Rhinoceros build. Rhinos themselves are a tank variation of the Horse build and aren't particularly viable in the current meta due to two reasons, low Intelligence, and poor eyesight. This combination makes it very difficult for the Rhino to determine friend from foe, and as a result, Rhinos often teamkill each other. They're hyper-aggressive, often attacking anything they detect in their territories, which can include ridiculous things such as trees, rocks, and termites mounds. Because of that, Rhinos aren't any higher than D-tier. But the Woolly Rhinos, despite having the same issues, made up for it with their higher Power and Defense. With the power creep starting to reach dinosaur levels, Defense was very critical. They also had the most threatening weapon in the game at the time.

### Dire Wolf

    Last in B-tier, there is the Dire Wolf. Dire Wolves were the premier pack hunting build of the Ice Age meta. They were more powerful than any of the canine builds today, but actually on the weaker side when it comes to Dogs throughout the Cenozoic meta. Earlier on, during the Oligocene and Miocene expansions that came just before the Ice Age, there were even stronger Dogs like the Borophagine and the Bear Dogs. And yet, it seems as if the playerbase has constantly been shifting towards smaller, less powerful builds that were more agile and efficient. The reason for this is that the canine build in general is best suited for the pack hunting strategy. Team strategy is perhaps the best way to take on builds above your weight class. But if you're teaming up with other carnivore players, you'll need to split the loot from your kills. This gets to be a problem if your entire team is playing as the larger, more powerful dogs because they have a much higher food cost. Since pack hunting is still effective, even when the individual members of a pack aren't particularly strong, it makes sense why the Dire Wolf playerbase eventually shifted to the smaller Grey Wolf build. Still, at the time, they were a force to be reckoned with, although they often were unable to defend their kills from the more powerful solo DPS builds of the Ice Age. All in all, not top tier, but by no means low tier.

## A Tier Builds

In A tier, the builds are all unimpeachable overpowered and would still likely rule the meta today if not for the Holocene balance patch.

### Mammoth

First up, there is the most famous build from the Ice Age, the Mammoth. Mammoths had the highest Health of any Ice Age build and also some top-tier gear, second only to the Woolly Rhino. Mammoths, as well as elephants today, also possess one of the most unique abilities in the game, a trunk. A trunk can be used to grab or pick up items without having to use bipedalism. While many Ice Age mid-tiers and top tiers had an difficult matchups against Humans, the Mammoth had better matchups against humans thx to their high intelligence, herd behavior and their trunk. Unfortunately, after the Holocene, Climate Change nerfed them really hard and made them have much more difficult matchups against humans.

### Sabertooth/Smilodon

At the high end of A tier is the other Ice Age all-star, the Sabertooth. In terms of critical hit damage, nothing else can come close to what Sabers could dish out. Sabers actually had a different playstyle than the cats of the present day. Their lower agility made it tough for them to chase down prey, and so they had to use stealth not only to get close, but literally within range of a strike. They could take down almost anything they wanted. But it's important to note that due to how fragile their fangs were, they couldn't use them in combat to deal damage to their foes. They were specifically reserved for finishing a downed player. Their high Power stat comes more from their bulky front limbs than their teeth. They also brought the Macrauchenia and Josephoartigasia builds, two high tier builds of the South American server, to D tier, and ruined the Terror bird build pretty badly. While few builds could stand up to them, they did have a poor matchup against the next two builds on the list, the top tiers.

## S Tier Builds

### Ground Sloth

The first S tier is the giant Ground sloth. They could body just about anyone in a 1v1 match. And because they were one of the few mammals to pull off bipedalism correctly, they were much less vulnerable to stealth approachs due to their height.

### Cave Bear

Last on the list is the Cave Bear. Cave Bears had insane stats across the board, and here's the kicker, they were scavengers. Cave Bears could effectively steal kills for entire packs of Dire Wolves. But if there weren't any chumps around to do the Bear's work for it, the Bear could either take down huge quarry by itself or simply fall back on the numerous herbivorous options available to it. It's obvious why the devs had to nerf this build, as it had basically no weaknesses. It's the only build on this list that Humans are almost certainly not responsible for the extinction of. When they were in the game, they were absolutely broken in a meta full of broken builds.

## End

After the power creep grew out of control, the devs dropped the Anthropocene balance patch (or patch 1.3.4). This balance patch nerfed most of the powerful Ice Age builds and buffed the Human build. Many of these builds were banned in the update. The ones the managed to survive either retreated to lands in the far north or were completely eliminated by Humans, who quickly became the number one build in the current meta. Despite this, many smaller, less powerful variants of Ice Age builds managed to persist into the new meta. This would include Elephants, Rhinos, Tree Sloths, Brown Bears, Seriemas, Armadillos, Gray Wolves, Moose, and Panther-Style Cats. Although, these are also under threat, as Human technology has allowed them to travel nearly anywhere in the main part of the game and eliminate builds quickly and efficiently. Humans also have unintentionally been raising the temperature of the Overworld since the Industrial Revolution, melting away the last vestiges of the Ice Age servers and their unique builds.