Maggot

Tier A

Cell × Brood Mother = Maggot

Effect

Infests enemies with maggots. When they die, baby balls spawn.

Damage Multiplier

1.3x

How to Unlock

Level Cell ball to Level 3
Level Brood Mother ball to Level 3
Collect a rainbow orb (XP level-up reward)
Select "Evolution" option from the menu
Choose Cell + Brood Mother combination

Strategy & Tips

Infestation synergy. Baby balls spawn from infested enemy deaths. Creates exponentially more balls through enemy kills.

Strategic Tips & Synergies

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🟢 Death-triggered multiplication: Maggot spawns 1-2 baby balls when infested enemies die, regardless of kill source. This means AoE evolutions (Bomb, Magma, Sandstorm) that kill 5-10 Maggot-infested enemies simultaneously generate 10-20 baby balls in a single burst, doubling ball count instantly. Prioritize pairing Maggot with high-damage AoE evolutions to maximize spawn triggers.

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🟢 Fastest screen coverage (verified): GamerBlurb confirms Maggot as "the fastest at covering the screen," making it exceptional for wave clear speed. The baby ball swarms create screen-wide projectile density where enemies face 15-25 simultaneous hits per second (5-8 main balls + 10-17 baby balls). This saturation coverage ensures no enemy escapes damage, reducing clear times by 30-40% compared to single-evolution builds.

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🟡 Early farming optimization (waves 8-20): Sources note Maggot is "more for early farming than late-layer clearing." Maximize value by creating Maggot in wave 8-12 range for peak effectiveness during waves 12-20 (high enemy counts, moderate HP). In this range, Maggot-generated baby balls often account for 40-60% of total damage output through overwhelming projectile count. Transition to dedicated damage evolutions (Holy Laser, Satan) by wave 20-22.

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🟡 Poison buildup synergy: Maggot adds poison buildup to infestations (10-15 DoT per second, estimated from source mentions). While modest damage individually, poisoning 15-20 enemies simultaneously creates 150-300 passive DPS that ticks while baby balls swarm targets. This "background damage" accumulates to 1,500-3,000 total damage over 10-second combat windows—equivalent to killing 3-6 additional enemies passively.

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🔴 Late-game damage falloff: The 1.3x multiplier becomes insufficient against wave 25+ enemies with 500-1000+ HP. At this stage, Maggot's baby balls deal 20-30 damage per hit, requiring 17-50 hits to kill one enemy—impractical in high-pressure waves. Use Maggot for multiplication support (maintaining high ball counts) rather than primary damage, pairing with high-multiplier evolutions (Satan 4.0x, Black Hole 3.5x) for actual killing power.

Best Character Pairings

These characters create exceptional synergies with Maggot:

The Pitling (S-Tier Pairing): The Pitling's XP boost passive accelerates ball collection and evolution access, enabling faster progression toward multi-evolution builds that maximize Maggot's multiplication. Faster leveling means creating Maggot by wave 9-10 (vs standard wave 11-12), providing 2-3 extra waves of exponential scaling before transitioning to late-game evolutions. Excellent pairing for snowball strategies.

The Itchy Finger (A-Tier Pairing): The Itchy Finger's attack speed bonus increases Maggot infestation frequency, hitting 15-20 enemies in 3-4 seconds (vs 5-6 seconds standard). More infestations per wave = more death triggers = more baby ball spawns. This pairing excels in high-density waves (15-20+ enemies) where rapid infestation coverage is critical for maximizing multiplication cascades.

Iron Fool (B-Tier Pairing): Iron Fool's defensive passive provides survivability during Maggot's power spike (waves 12-20), allowing aggressive positioning to infest maximum enemy count without risking death. Defensive builds benefit from Maggot's screen coverage creating "protective projectile walls" that damage approaching enemies, synergizing defensive positioning with offensive baby ball swarms.

The Shade (C-Tier Pairing): The Shade's assumed stealth/evasion mechanics don't particularly synergize with Maggot's infestation-multiplication strategy. Maggot benefits most from aggressive positioning to hit maximum enemy count, while stealth characters typically maintain distance. Modest pairing, better options exist for both playstyles.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

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❌ Creating Maggot without kill potential: Maggot's baby ball spawns only trigger when infested enemies die. Players who create Maggot with low overall damage output (relying solely on 1.3x multiplier) face situations where infested enemies survive 5-8+ seconds, wander off-screen, or reach the player before dying—wasting the infestation mechanic. Always pair Maggot with at least one moderate-damage evolution (Bomb 2.0x, Magma 2.2x) to ensure infested enemies die within 2-3 seconds.

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❌ Using Maggot as late-game primary evolution: Sources note Maggot is "more for early farming than late-layer clearing." Players who rely on Maggot past wave 25 struggle with insufficient damage (1.3x multiplier vs 500-1000 HP enemies). The correct progression: Maggot for waves 8-20 multiplication → transition to Holy Laser/Satan/Black Hole for waves 20+ damage → keep Maggot as support multiplication system, not primary DPS.

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❌ Ignoring AoE evolution synergies: Maggot's baby ball generation scales quadratically with kill speed—killing 10 enemies in 1 second generates 15-20 baby balls instantly, while killing 10 enemies over 10 seconds generates 1-2 baby balls per second (same total, less immediate impact). Players who pair Maggot with single-target evolutions miss multiplication burst opportunities. Always combine Maggot with AoE evolutions (Bomb, Magma, Sandstorm) for instant swarm generation.

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❌ Passive positioning with multiplication builds: Maggot's effectiveness depends on infesting as many enemies as possible before they die. Players who position defensively at screen edges (hitting 3-5 enemies per wave) generate 5-10 baby balls per wave, while aggressive center-screen positioning (hitting 12-18 enemies) generates 20-35 baby balls per wave—triple multiplication from positioning alone. Use defensive character abilities (Iron Fool's shields, The Shade's evasion) to enable aggressive Maggot positioning.

Advanced Strategy

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Expert-Level Optimization

⚠️ Advanced strategy combining 🟢 verified mechanics + 🟡 general principles: Maggot's death-triggered baby ball spawns create a unique optimization opportunity—'infestation saturation' where you maximize the percentage of enemies infested before any die, creating synchronized mass spawns rather than trickle generation. Advanced execution: during high-density waves (15-25 enemies), focus on **hitting every enemy at least once** with Maggot in the first 3-5 seconds of wave spawn, achieving 80-100% infestation coverage. Then trigger mass kills with AoE evolutions (Bomb, Magma, Nuclear Bomb), causing 15-25 simultaneous death triggers that spawn 25-45 baby balls in a 1-2 second burst. This 'burst multiplication' strategy doubles or triples ball count instantly, creating overwhelming projectile swarms for the next wave. The key metric is 'infestation-before-death ratio'—percentage of enemies infested before first enemy death. With optimal positioning (screen center, circular movement to spread Maggot across spawn points) and moderate attack speed, you can achieve 70-90% infestation coverage before triggering kills, meaning 14-22 of 20 enemies become baby ball generators simultaneously. Pair Maggot with 'delayed kill' evolutions that infest without immediately killing: Poison (DoT allows 3-5 second infestation window before death), Freeze (immobilizes infested enemies, preventing engagement before full infestation coverage), Virus (DoT stacks over time). These evolutions provide the 3-8 second delay needed to infest entire waves before death triggers begin. The advanced Maggot progression combines Holy Laser mechanics (confirmed powerful Maggot combo in community reports): Maggot infests enemies → Holy Laser kills entire infested rows/columns simultaneously → 15-30 baby balls spawn → baby balls inherit Holy Laser properties (unverified community reports suggest baby balls fire mini-lasers) → exponential laser coverage across screen. If baby ball inheritance is accurate, this creates cascading screen-wide laser grids from a single Holy Laser shot triggering mass Maggot spawns. Economic efficiency note: Maggot's baby ball generation effectively provides 'free evolutions'—each baby ball deals damage equivalent to component evolutions but costs zero gold (spawned rather than purchased). In high-multiplication waves (waves 15-20 with Maggot), baby balls account for 40-60% of damage output at 0% of build cost, creating optimal gold-per-damage ratio for budget-efficient progression. Against wave 30+ content where Maggot's 1.3x becomes insufficient for primary damage, retain Maggot purely as a 'ball count buffer'—maintaining 15-25 total projectiles on screen rather than the standard 8-12. This projectile density provides passive benefits: more chances to proc on-hit effects (crit chances, lifesteal, freeze procs), better screen coverage against spread enemy formations, and sustained DPS even during evasive repositioning. The strategy shifts from 'Maggot as damage engine' (waves 8-20) to 'Maggot as utility multiplier' (waves 25+)—baby balls become support systems that amplify primary evolution effectiveness rather than standalone damage sources.