Strategy - [The True Potential Of The Ankylosaurs: A Pet that rivals dragons] [off meta builds episode 1] (2024)

Hello Skyblock community, I am starting a new series where I try out niche items and see how they compare versus the meta!

Video here: (coming soon )

Its Perks:
15% def -> str
+50% lifeline and last stand effectiveness
50% cleave every 5 hits, mobs hit deal 10% less damage

This pet is pretty commonly assumed as trash, buggy, and just not good overall, because a damaging tank isn't too useful.
However, if you test it out a bit, you will find some very, insane bugs:

First off, the first perk, armored tank, which turns defense to strength, has a nasty twist
Thanks to _starryskies for being the first person to post about this:

The strength value you get from the pet doesn't update unless you equip the pet or switch lobbies, meaning changing from a high defense to a low defense armor set doesn't decrease the strength value from the pet.
Fun Fact: (This was actually a fix for a different bug, where being berserker class with an anklyosaurus causes an infinite loop as ank turns def into str and bers turns str into def)
Unfortunately, fixing one bug caused another bug, so now Ank can literally give a lot of strength.

This is probably intended, but (last stand and lifeline defense buffs do not affect the first perk, even if you equip the pet with it active.)

But just how good is this actually? does it rival the best pets in the game, with or without lifeline?

Before we test, we need to see the bugs with the other perks.
The second perk is bugged like so:
lifeline's damage is increased, but defense from lifeline and last stand are not.
(Lifeline's damage increase was tested using mastiff armor to prevent any strength being gained from defense, and a fist with LL5 equipment, before: 90 damage, after equipping pet: 105)

Time to reveal about 3 weeks of secrets.
Now, how do we maximize the defense from the first perk?

The most brainless and obvious method is t13 perfect armor, and this is a very viable method.
perfect armor gives the most amount of defense in the game, and can also be dungeonized.

reforges: all defense armor should use perfect reforge with defense gemstones

while swapping, we should also be holding a weapon that gives lots of defense, for example, wither cloak sword or an astrea.

Testing procedures:
Note on these tests:
The tests aren't too consistent with each other, however the outcomes, as well as the math support the overall conclusion of these tests.
If you want to do / verify the testing, you can so by messaging me.
Some tests were done during jerry, others were done before jerry
claymore is actually chim 4 at the time of the testing
videos of the tests will be released once the footage has been uploaded
We will be testing the ankylosaurs pet against 2 pets: the golden dragon (1b bank) and the ender dragon (leg no tb) edrag lvl 100, gdrag lvl 200, ank lvl 94 lmao

weapons used:

We will be testing these setups: warden helm + tux, LCM ancient storm, lifeline setup terror with warden helm, and regular berserker armor.
weapons using: chim 5 maxed claymore, maxed terminator, random clean weapon
(lifeline is LL9 3/4 terror LL6 equip)

how to perform the ankylosaurs swap:

step one: de-equip ankylosaurs
step 2: equip perfect armor, hold defense weapon
step 3: equip ankylosaurs while still holding the weapon.
finally:
swap back to regular set (make sure strength is still the same as with perfect armor)

Data with the Gdrag and Edrag:

Cata 45 LCM, start of dungeon, to a skeleton, with claymore:
Gdrag: 315m
Edrag: 256m

lifeline setup with aotv (, to graveyard zombie:
Gdrag: 720k
Edrag: (not tested yet)

with term
gdrag: around 820k (was hard to find an exact value because terror armor buff)

warden + tux with claymore to graveyard zombie:
Gdrag: 1.4m
Edrag: 1.2m

Now, other than perfect armor, is there any other armor set or buffs that will help boost our defense even more?

yes there is!

The two other armor sets are:

protector dragon armor, this set gains 99% more defense if you are at 1% hp (get there using health cost items with lava shell)

shark scale armor (doubles defense in water).

As for ultimate enchants: refrigirate 5 grants 1k defense. (1k is global cap for all 4 pieces) this requires an extra step, by first having your mana set, placing 2 power orbs getting the defense buff, then swapping to defense armor, then equipping pet, then swapping to dps set. (refrigerates 1k is doubled by shark scale)
(hardened mana can give 1.6k more but you need friends)
As for power stones: pleasant grants the most defense (this adds an extra step because you need to use maxwell's abiphone contact to change back to dps power
Abilties: pigman sword grants +300 def (but lasts for 5 seconds so swap quick)

With xStqrm's late-end game account, 1450 mp, and stats:

perfect armor holding astrea: 3k def pleasant reforge + refrigirate can add to total 4.6k def, that is equivalent to +450 str, and +690 str, respectively

protector dragon armor holding astrea: 3.2k def, pleasant reforge + refrigerate can add to total 4.8k, that is +480 str and +720 str, respectively.

Using pigman sword buffs str by 45 for both perfect and protector, and 90 for shark scale.

Shark Scale Armor in the Water: 4.1k def, but with pleasant reforge + refrigerate can add to total 7.3k def, that is +615 str, and +1095 str respectively (yes a pet giving 1095 str outside of dungeons)

Now finally, testing with the sets:
(everything but lcm is graveyard zombie)
(LL terror is with term)

LCM with Perfect armor swap start of dungeon, no blessing, to skeleton:
264m

LIFELINE TERROR perfect armor swap with AOTV on graveyard zombie perfect armor swap:

no lifeline warden tux perfect swap with claymore:
1.3m

Final data conclusion and analysis:

All ank setups, seem to beat enderdragon by a pretty significant amount, with all the different dps sets.

perfect armor falls short of golden dragon, with or without refrigirate, without lifeline. it only beats gdrag barely with lifeline.
same goes with protector dragon, although the gap is closer.

but shark beats gdrag pretty hard with or without lifeline and refrigerate.

verdict, for a swapping setup that costs at max 200m including the pet, being able to beat out or even smoke, in some areas, gdrag, and in all areas, edrag, makes this pet such a sleeper pick in the meta.
It is absolutely at least, the second best pet in the game for melee damage, sometimes even first, if you use shark scale, and if this bug stands as a feature.
Its safe to say, that the first breaking the meta episode, is a success, ankylosaurs definitely deserves recognition for being a good pet.

The pros of the pet:

The one thing that holds this pet back is: swap takes time and skill
this is a bug (but they still need to make sure their fix also fixes bers class crash) (a temporary solution will be to just break the infinite loop midway.)
shark scale and protector dragon aren't good in dungeons, shark scale can't be used in T5, same with pleasant reforge since abiphone doesn't work in kuudra
chim 5 rag axe still is better with gdrag in t5
attack speed

credits:
the absolute thanks to- starry skies for finding the bug 2 weeks before me and publishing it
aleemo for supporting and streaming the build (and soon maybe the video)
xStqrm, OneAndOnlyNoob, BenNovak, ChanmanGamer17, Nikitao, for helping test and funding me, (my early game profile would not have been able to test this lmao)
every other person in my guild Vindixate (join it for future experiments!) who helped support the anklyosaurs workshop
you- the reader, for taking the time to read and watch the video!

Sneek peek at the next episode:
oh you thought the anklyosaurs just had a bug going for it.
Well, how about we use it as intended?