Cassowary

* Cassowary (S2)
* Winter
* Classic

"*Upgraded to Cassowary!!
Hold W to charge up a kick, the longer you hold, the more powerful it is!*"

The **Cassowary** is a tier 14 Land animal in Mope.io, and the equivalent of the Elephant, Giant Spider, Blackwidow Spider, Mammoth and Blue Whale. It was introduced on December 23, 2018.

## Technical

* Upgrades from the Hippo, Boa Constrictor, Ostrich, Komodo Dragon, Sabertooth Tiger or Killer Whale at 650K XP.
* Upgrades to the Dragon, T-REX, Pterodactyl, Phoenix, Yeti, Kraken, King Crab, Snowman or The Bigfoot at 1M XP.
* It can consume almost all food sources in the game. The only foods it cannot eat are the berry, date and cactus pear.
* Prey of the Cassowary includes all animals within the range of tier 13 to tier 6 (Hippo to Fox).
* Predators of the Cassowary includes all animals within the range of tier 15 to tier 17 (Dragon to Black Dragon).
* The Special Ability of the Cassowary is "Charge and Kick." When holding `W` or right click the Cassowary will build up speed (indicated by the animal baring its eyes in most skins), and when the `W` key/right click is released, the Cassowary will kick briefly and very quickly stop its velocity, taking away about a quarter of the average animal's health and stunning for about 3 seconds. The charge can be held for 5–6 seconds, but will not do a kick if held the entire way. Its charge works on predators, but will not be as effective as it is on prey of the Cassowary.
* The Passive Ability of the Cassowary is that it can move slightly faster in mud. It is extremely slow in water, but has a longer diving time than most other non-aquatic animals.
* It can use every type of hiding spot, with the exception of small hiding holes.

### Wild Mope

* Same as above.
* Charge and Kick can be charged for longer.

## Appearance

The default, "*Season 2*" era Cassowary is a fairly small animal primarily covered in ruffs of large, navy blue feathers that darken closer to its broad short tail. At the front is a small pale blue head. The Cassowary has wide brown beak with two tiny nostrils at the tip. On top of its head is a large crest caved in at the top connected to its beak and two dark eyes in small sockets right beside the crest. It has a red ring behind the head, two notable holes near the back of the head, and small red margins by its beak and eyes.

In most skins, the Cassowary narrows its eyes and sticks its head further outwards. When kicking, its body rears backwards to reveal long, 3 toed legs with black talons. Its feathers slightly stick outwards on the sides of the body.

### Purchasable Skins

*The skins listed below are or have been accessible to buy in-game. Older versions or non-purchasable skins may be seen in the article's infobox and/or asset gallery.*

## Strategy

### As a Cassowary

* The player should rely on their “Charge” ability extensively when hunting prey. To maximize value, charge distance and damage, the player should also try to charge for the entire duration of the ability.
	+ It is considerably easier to kill other players with the kick than the Donkey or Zebra because it kicks forward instead of backward, and comes with a lengthy charge that is extremely easy to make turns with. The charge starts off slow, but quickens rapidly in a second or two.
	+ The charge can be useful for catching prey off guard or kicking them into bad spots, such as Mud or Lava.
	+ Do note that the actual kick has a very short range and a brief hitbox. The player has to be quite literally touching the Animal to deal damage to them. If they miss, the inability to boost for a couple of seconds out of the charge can cost them their meal.
* The player should try to target Animals that have low health. If their health is low enough, one single charged-up kick might instantly kill them.
* Hunting animals with similar capabilities is a good strategy; for example the Rhino, as it can't climb hills, and the player can use their similar ability to catch up to it when it charges.
* The player should not go into the Ocean or into any source of water, as they are extremely slow there.
* The player can also venture into the Desert and level up there via plentiful Cacti and Aloevera.
	+ Eating cacti is XP-fulfilling, though mildly time-consuming and potentially dangerous due to the faster rate of water loss and burning damage taken in the desert. The charge also doesn't do damage against cacti. Eating Aloevera, either the entire plant or just the leaves, should keep the player's health up to a good level, as well as avoiding the damage from desert-burning.
	+ The Cassowary's biggest enemy in the Desert is water-loss; the player should stay near a water spot or eat cacti often, and charge away if a Pterodactyl, Giant Scorpion or Dino Monster attempts to eat them. Beware of desert-burning, as it will stop the Cassowary's charge if afflicted.
	+ Pterodactyls are generally easy to avoid, since their ability has a large window to escape from. However, they can chase the player even with their charge due to their dive. The player shouldn't hide in a Hiding Hole, as the Pterodactyl doesn't lose energy like other Animals do with water and can stall them out.
	+ Giant Scorpions are harder as they can sting the player and cause them to shiver to death, so it is best to avoid them at all times.
	+ Dino Monsters are very quick with their ability: it's almost identical to the Cassowary's in terms of mechanics. However, it can climb hills. Swerve around rocks if possible as they cannot climb them. The Cassowary's charge also lasts longer than the Dino Monster, but has a longer cooldown.
* Avoid facing any apex predators, especially the T-REX. The T-REX can easily kill the player with its ability, so if they see one, use the ability to charge and stay out of its range.
* Other predators are easier to evade; be sure to make good use of the charging ability. By keeping W held the entire way, the player will not kick. The charge lasts 5–6 seconds, which should cover enough distance to escape any predator except for the Pterodactyl as it can fly.
	+ In emergencies, the Cassowary has an incredibly long dive time that could be used as a last minute survival technique.
* Beware any statuses such as fire or stun, as they can stop the Cassowary's ability altogether.
* The Cassowary is not stopped by predators in its charge, but isn't a good option to troll as all predators have advantages in terrain the Cassowary is slow in.
	+ Going into mud is more of a last-resort strategy, as the Cassowary isn't really fast while in it, but enough so to evade predators such as The Yeti/The Snowman, or chase in prey that cannot move well in mud. Mainly be aware of T-Rexes, Dragons or Dino Monsters, all of which can easily make the player their next meal if they are in mud.
	+ That being noted, if the player sees a predator with low health, they should attempt to kill it. The Cassowary's kick has been buffed to do equal damage to predators, making it a good kill stealer with its remarkable speed and relatively high damage for a prey item.
* Should the player see an aquatic predator i.e. Kraken, King Crab, Sea Monster or even a Blue Whale (the latter is same tier) using a River, use the ability's kick to boot them out of water.
	+ The player should act as though their attention is occupied with something else, and when the Animal is right near the shore, charge slightly off to the side and then come back so that the Ocean animal will not be focusing on the player, and have merely a split-second to react.
	+ King Crabs and Sea Monsters can be hard because King Crabs survive on land for a long time, and Sea Monsters have superior health. King Crabs are not recommended to face as their arm smash ability is supremely strong and do not lose water quickly on land.

## Gallery

### Assets

The "*Season 2*" Cassowary skin (February 1, 2022–).The "*Season 2*" Cassowary chargingThe "*Season 2*" Cassowary kicking, revealing its clawed legsThe Winter Cassowary skinThe Winter Cassowary chargingThe Winter Cassowary kickingThe Classic or "*Season 1*" Cassowary skin (December 23, 2018 – January 31, 2022; in-store from February 1, 2022–).The Classic Cassowary chargingThe Classic Cassowary kickingThe Golden Cassowary (in-Store from December 23, 2019–).The Golden Cassowary chargingThe Golden Cassowary kickingCotton Cassowary (in-Store from December 23, 2019–).The Cotton Cassowary chargingThe Cotton Cassowary kickingBasilisk Cassowary (2021 Halloween Skin; in-Store from October 25, 2021–)The Basilisk Cassowary chargingThe Basilisk Cassowary kickingThe Pastel Cassowary (in-Store from May 27, 2022–).The Pastel Cassowary chargingThe Pastel Cassowary kicking
### In-game

A freshly upgraded Cassowary.A Cassowary charging.A Cassowary charging and about to kick a Big Goat.A small Cassowary in the mud with a Rhino nearby.A Cassowary's head.A Pastel Cassowary on a Floater by some SeaweedA cassowary holding a Golden Pumpkin.
## History

 August 11, 2020 | * Buff: Ability is no longer stopped by hills
* Buff: Cassowary moves faster in mud (70% of normal speed, previously 50%)
 February 11, 2019 | * Nerf: Kick no longer affects animals diving underwater
 December 23, 2018 | * Added. Can hold `W` to charge up a powerful kick for up to 3 seconds; the faster the Cassowary is, the harder it hits.

## Criticism

When it was initially released in December 2018, the Cassowary was poorly received due to being overpowered. At the time, its "Charge" ability lasted much longer and had more speed than other animals with a similar ability such as the Rhino and Swordfish, to an unreasonably high extent. It has also a ridiculous amount of knockback, being able to beach Ocean Animals from rivers. The damage dealt by the Cassowary's kick was also greatly disapproved by the Mope.io community for being disproportionately high, e.g. a tier 11 animal with 3/4 of health left could be instantly killed by the Cassowary's ability. A glitch from the Cassowary's ability that caused it to be able to kick diving animals further enforced hatred for this animal.

In response, the Cassowary was nerfed by the developers in the Desert Update on April 27, 2019. Consequently, its kick's inflicted damage was reduced, the Cassowary itself was made to be unable to bite predator or prey for 4 seconds after using the special ability, and it bounced off hills and rocks while charging. Later on, the Cassowary was buffed slightly, exchanging some damage for biting 2 seconds after its charge and not being ricocheted when hitting a hole or hill. Despite this, the Cassowary still was outshined by other animals of its tier (mostly Elephant and Giant Spider), and players requested further buffs for it. Circa June 2020, the Cassowary was tweaked to inflict more damage to predators, and move faster in mud.

## Trivia

* KOA was seen testing the Cassowary on Beta in the days prior to its mainstream release.
* The Cassowary is quite small for its tier, being even smaller than Giant Spider upon initially upgrading.
* The Cassowary is the the first bird that was added to tier 14.
* It is the fourth playable bird in Mope.io that is flightless. Excluding AI Animals, the others are the Ostrich, Phoenix and Chicken.
* The Cassowary originally only minimally affected the health bar of predators after being tweaked in the "*#GoldenAge*" update of December 23, 2019. However, on August 11, 2020, it was buffed now takes approximately 1/5 of health away instead from most predators.

* Land
* Ocean
* Arctic
* Desert
* Forest
* Lava
* Rares
* Poisonous
* AI
* Unreleased
* Re-added

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