Cute Critter Clash
Recurring
Cross-server animal chess on a 4×4 board, in the Shadows over Glast Heim screen, with matches only between 10:00 and 24:00. Eight pieces numbered 1 to 8, each one taking everything below it — and the mouse, which is 1, taking the elephant, which is 8. What it pays is not decoration: it is equipment enchantment material.
When it ran
- Aug 28 – Sep 10 ended Announced in Aug 27, 2026
How it is played
A 4×4 board, eight pieces a side, all face down. At the start the system rolls a die, and the number decides how many pieces are turned over at random. On your turn you open a piece, move one, or eat with one. Movement and capture run along the horizontal and the vertical only, one square at a time — never on the diagonal.
You win by eating every piece the opponent has. When both sides are down to one, the system settles it on the spot by strength. A match runs at most 60 turns; with no winner by then it is a draw, and surrender only unlocks after a certain number of turns.
The turn timer is 15 seconds. Let it run out and the system moves for you; do it three times and the match is scored as a loss — and a loss by timeout does not count toward the quests.
The order of the pieces
| No. | Piece |
|---|---|
| 8 | Elephant |
| 7 | Lion |
| 6 | Tiger |
| 5 | Wolf |
| 4 | Pig |
| 3 | Rabbit |
| 2 | Cat |
| 1 | Mouse |
Each piece eats everything with a lower number. Two equal pieces trade — both come off the board. And the cycle closes at the ends: the mouse eats the elephant, 1 over 8 — and it does not work the other way. If those two meet, the piece that leaves the board is the elephant.
The daily
Three quests: complete 1 match, complete 2 matches, win 1 round. Each pays 3,500 Zeny and one , so two matches with a win in them close all three — 10,500 Zeny and three shells a day.
The shell is the token for Lucky Flip, the other minigame on the same screen. Across the 13 days of the event the daily alone is 39 of them.
The one-off list
| Quest | Reward |
|---|---|
| Complete 15 matches | ×100 · Fame ×200 |
| Complete 25 matches | ×100 · Fame ×200 |
| Complete 35 matches | ×100 · Fame ×200 |
| Win 5 rounds | ×100 · Fame ×200 |
| Win 10 rounds | ×100 · Fame ×200 |
| Win 20 rounds | ×1 · Fame ×200 |
| Rank: Kitten Apprentice (100) | ×1 · Fame ×400 |
| Rank: Piglet Expert (300) | ×1 · Fame ×500 |
| Rank: Tiger Expert (550) | ×1 · Fame ×500 |
All of it together: 500 , 2,600 Fame, three and one . The rank ladder carries on above Tiger Expert — the screen shows Critter King with a bar running to 2001.
Why it is worth the time
None of that is decoration. pays for equipment enchantment, and the Binding Stone is what locks an affix so the next roll cannot take it away. Fame is what upgrades Medals of Glory. Behind a screen full of party hats, the event pays gear progression.
And the arithmetic is friendly. 35 matches over 13 days is under three a day, which is what the daily already asks for: keep up the daily and the one-off list closes on its own. The part that can fall short is winning — 20 wins in about 39 matches needs a little over half of them to go your way.
Strategy — how to win more rounds
The diagonal is shelter
Since a fight only happens along a row or a column, two pieces sitting diagonally from each other do not threaten each other at all. That decides what is safe to do: open the face-down squares that sit diagonally from his pieces. To eat what you just revealed he first has to spend a move getting in line — and the move that lines him up on you lines you up on him.
Flipping is a draw, and the draw is for both sides
The piece under a face-down square can be his or yours. So flipping next to his pieces is bad twice over: a strong piece of his can come up against yours, or a weak piece of yours can come up in the middle of his half. And it costs a whole turn — if his flip reveals a piece of yours that beats what he has next to it, he does not get to fix it. You eat before he moves again.
The two pieces that decide the match: 8 and 1
The elephant eats everything and the mouse eats the elephant. Finding your own two early, and finding his mouse before you expose your elephant, wins more matches than anything else on this list. While his mouse is unlocated, every square you open beside your elephant is a bet against your own game.
The elephant cannot take it back, which is what makes the mouse the only answer to an 8 — and makes his mouse the piece you have to locate before any other.
After 8 and 1, the 7
The lion loses only to the elephant and to another lion. Once both elephants are off the board it is the strongest thing left, so a lion you kept while he lost his tends to end the game on its own.
If there is something to eat, eat it
Every turn spent flipping is a turn that hands the opponent material and information. When a capture is available and it does not leave you lined up with something bigger, it is worth more than one more flip — let him be the one taking the draw.
Equal pieces trade, and the trade is a weapon
Two pieces of the same number both come off the board. Whoever is ahead on count wins from that: with two pieces against one, trading equals ends the match. And when both sides reach one piece, the system settles it on the spot by strength — so arriving there with the bigger piece is a win and arriving with the smaller one is a loss. Worth counting before you get there.
The centre, and how much it is worth
Taking the centre is a reflex carried over from chess, and on a 4×4 board it is worth less than it looks: there is no real central square. The four middle squares have four neighbours each, the eight edge squares have three, the four corners have two. The centre buys reach and sells exposure at the same time.
Which makes the answer depend on the piece. For the strong piece you actually want to attack with, the centre is right. For the elephant, while his mouse is still alive, the corner is better: only two squares from which the mouse can ever reach it.
Losing on the clock is the worst way to lose
A match lost to the timer does not count toward the quests. In a position that is already gone, surrendering — once surrender unlocks — costs less than letting the 15 seconds run out three times.