Twinkle is a giant star nosed mole who was mistreated, who is very angry about that, and who doesn’t care what colour helmet a SuperAnimal is wearing.
Unfortunately for him, Twinkle holds a control mole crate that, when activated, zaps away one hundred of the opposition’s remaining reinforcement points.
Twinkle was introduced as a tool that can either be a catch up mechanic, or, if captured by the winning team, to shorten lop-sided matches.
The Twinkle fight comes in three phases.
The early fight phase is when Twinkle bursts out of the ground and starts lobbing crates at passers by. When Twinkle throws a crate, a red circle will indicate where that crate will land and impact. At a distance these crate attacks are more of a nuisance,, but they are less easy to dodge up-close. Furthermore, if a super animal gets in too close then Twinkle may slam the ground, harming all nearby SuperAnimals. One silver lining here is that those crates sometimes leave behind ammunition pick ups when smashed.
This continues until Twinkle is taken down to half health, when Twinkle retreats back into his burrow for a little bit before returning for a more frantic second phase. The final blow dealt to Twinkle grants the team of that SuperAnimal a speed boost – a very helpful boon.
The third phase is the post-Twinkle fight phase where, with Twinkle defeated, SuperAnimals of different factions fight to claim the control crate that Twinkle left behind. A hundred reinforcement points can be a big deal at this stage of the match.
That covers the basics of Twinkle.
How to deal with Twinkle
The countdown to Twinkle begins when one of the two sides drops to 400 reinforcement points and below.
However there is no real sense of urgency in dealing with Twinkle. The two benefits to be gotten from Twinkle are gaining a boost in movement speed for one’s team, when the final blow is struck, and knocking 100 reinforcement points on the enemy team when successfully capturing the mole crate that Twinkle leaves behind.
Notice how there is otherwise absolutely no benefit to attacking Twinkle. It is only important to be in the right place at the right time, when Twinkle is about to fall.
In any situation where reinforcement points are below 150 and reasonably even, it becomes more important to take down Twinkle and capture his crate, as it can finish a match, as well as snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
When approaching capturing the crate, treat it similarly to capturing a flag. A SuperAnimal doing so is vulnerable – and a lack of support or in judgement can result in the other team capturing it instead.
The stakes of the capture are a little higher and so the players who show up for the capture tend to be more motivated and dangerous than players hovering around the flags.
It is valid to let one’s team know in chat that the Mole Crate is up for capture, preferably a reasonable time before the crate drops, as players will be less likely to miss the window for contestation.
Be aware that capturing the crate has limited value if reinforcement points are still high, and the flags are all red. That can quickly outweigh any benefit.
Similarly, if you suspect that your opposition is focusing on the crate, then unless your team is low on reinforcement points it can be valid to work to turn all three flags green.
‘Next’ up – another stand-apart aspect of SvR. The class system.