SHAPING TIP / 01
Choose the strength you want and the body it creates
Food builds your stats and body together. Chicken Strip raises attack power, but makes you wider and slower. Before choosing it simply for damage, picture the body you will have afterward.
| Regular food | Body change | Main accompanying effects and extras |
|---|---|---|
| Canned Tuna | Taller | More critical chance and Max HP |
| Cat Grass | Shorter | More movement speed |
| Chicken Strip | Wider | More attack power and pickup range, but less movement speed |
| Dried Sardine | Narrower | More movement speed and ball speed |
| Fish Cake | No width or height change | +12 Hardness and +3 Max HP |
| Pudding | No width or height change | More ball speed and critical chance, HP recovery on pickup |
Tip: Fish Cake and Pudding are options when you want to keep your current dimensions. Pudding still changes ball speed and reduces Hardness, so keeping your shape does not mean keeping the same handling or durability.
SHAPING TIP / 02
Grow for strength, then reshape for handling
Chicken Strip → Dried Sardine: Keep the attack and pickup-range gains from Chicken Strip while narrowing your body with Dried Sardine. Dried Sardine also improves movement and ball speed.
Canned Tuna → Cat Grass: Build critical chance and Max HP with Canned Tuna, then reduce your height with Cat Grass. The earlier upgrades remain, and you also gain movement speed.
First-pick adjustments and size limits affect dimension changes. One of each food will not necessarily restore your exact starting dimensions.
SHAPING TIP / 03
Combine width and height with square or triangle
Growing your dimensions through food and changing your outline through Cheese are separate choices. Becoming a triangle preserves the food upgrades you have already accumulated.
A square's top changes return angles depending on where the ball lands; a triangle reflects from its slopes. Different widths and heights also change the steepness of those slopes. You can keep adjusting the dimensions after choosing triangle and see how it handles.
Tip: Consider dimensions and durability together when using triangle. Ordinary incoming damage is 15% higher in that shape. You can support it with Hardness or Max HP, or return to square with Tuna Cubes. Returning to square keeps your food upgrades. Shape-specific modifiers switch to the current shape rather than stacking when you change back and forth. Existing fixed damage is unaffected by the triangle's 15% increase.
SHAPING TIP / 04
Different ways to grow stronger can create different bodies
Focus on attack power, critical chance, or Max HP, then combine those upgrades with changes to width and height. Try combinations that suit the way you like to move and return balls.
| Direction | Example combination | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Build attack power while managing width | Chicken Strip + Dried Sardine | Keep attack and pickup-range gains while narrowing your body. Check ball-speed changes too |
| Build critical chance and Max HP while managing height | Canned Tuna + Cat Grass | Keep earlier upgrades while adjusting height and movement speed |
| Build HP and durability | Canned Tuna + Fish Cake | Combine Max HP and critical chance with Fish Cake's Hardness and Max HP |
Tip: A wider body offers a wider catching surface, but also a wider hitbox. A narrower body has less catching surface. Consider mobility and durability alongside dimensions.
SHAPING TIP / 05
Similar-looking bodies can have different food histories
Reshaping can make Michiko look closer to an earlier body while leaving accumulated stats and extras in place. Starting with a particular body and building back toward a similar one do not necessarily produce the same strength.
Reaching a width or height limit also does not automatically stop separate effects such as HP gains.
Tip: Check current stats on the bonus or pause screen instead of judging growth by appearance alone. Check dimension changes separately from your other stats. Track both the strengths you have gained and the weaknesses that remain when choosing the next card.
SHAPING TIP / 06
Premium snacks make a bigger reshaping decision
From W9 onward, premium snacks may appear. They count as three picks of the regular food, including its drawbacks and dimension changes as well as its benefits and extras. First-pick adjustments and limits still apply to dimensions; your current body does not become three times as large.
Tip: Gourmet Chicken Strip can add attack power in one choice, but also brings width and movement penalties. Will you narrow the body later with Dried Sardine, or keep it wide and support its durability? Treat a premium snack as a substantial step toward the body you want.
SHAPING TIP / 07
Match skills to the body you have built
Skills add ways to fight with the body created by food.
- Phantom Michiko: Adds a phantom that can rescue balls. Its dimensions use Michiko's width and height, so narrowing your body changes its catching surface too.
- Claw Sharpen: Fires more balls at once. This can put several balls with your accumulated attack power and critical chance into play, but each ball fired uses ammo.
- Cat Punch: Time a parry to a returning ball to boost damage, critical chance and speed. After reshaping, check where and when balls meet your body. Balls returned during the lockout after a whiff are weakened.
Tip: Ask how a skill fits your current body. Can you still handle the ball speed, or keep returning the extra balls? Those handling choices are part of the build too.
BETWEEN SHIFTS
Growth that supports your shaping choices
Bow ties fill the bonus gauge, giving you more opportunities to build this shift's body and upgrades. BALL Lv gained through supplies and shop purchases carry over to the next shift. With that foundation, try raising a different Michiko from the foods offered each time.
These combinations are suggestions based on the rules, not proven strongest builds or guarantees of clearing with a particular body.