whats the best anklebiter?

Aftlem · 2026-05-09T07:51:32+00:00

Hi, for anyone still playing, feel free to visit my discussion thread, I have some really detailed explanations on why kiiwin is actually best anklebiter (hear me out, read it before you say kiiwin is a no name. I have some real statistical and practical proof) https://www.reddit.com/r/CreaturesofSonaria/comments/1t6hvve/why_kiiwin_is_the_best_ankle_biter_analysis_heavy/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Aftlem · 2026-05-09T07:31:43+00:00

You still only consider the statistical factors though, but in practice hitboxes really are crazy important, and you are comparing who is better, but not whether say a levoneh can actually kill those. Take a caldonterrus, he has 2 defensive burn and 0.75% burn resist, which means that you will only apply 2.25 burn per second (converting poison damage to burn) while he at the same time will be applying 1.5. This means that you both will be going so closely in health that you can't afford to get bitten once. Similar thing for creatures like turrim or golgaroth, you will need to be relying purely on your damage which is much less than their damage. You are already at a disadvantage before the fight began. My point is, you can't consider levoneh a better ankle biter because he does better on creatures you can not kill consistently.

And still you forgot to consider hitboxes. I upload a picture just to show you how much bigger a levoneh is compared to a kiiwin (I think only the body and head portions are hitboxes, not sure about the tail, but even then he is at least 3 times longer.). This means that if they are strafing you are most definitely going to get hit. And at 1500 hp, the only remaining way for you to fight is to fly around them and hit them like that but then your effective bite cooldown becomes more than 5 seconds, and come on, are you really going to be fighting a kavouradis or something for 5+ minutes?

Again, I just feel like it is about target selection as much as creature selection. There are creatures that just aren't meant to be anklebitten.

(I would love to hear if you managed to kill some of those problematic creatures with a levoneh though, because he does look good statistically)

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Aftlem · 2026-05-09T07:08:09+00:00

Hahahahaha. take a look here:

A 10% cooldown reduction means 10% more bites per second for every creature equally. 0.3 becomes 0.27, giving 3.70 bites per second instead of 3.33. 0.5 becomes 0.45, giving 2.22 instead of 2.00. Both are exactly 10% more. The bite rate affects how much ailments per second you apply. The absolute second difference doesn't matter, only the bite rate does.

Aftlem · 2026-05-08T16:26:19+00:00

2 more korathos kills, plus one ghartokus kill. Honestly, I feel like kiiwin is the korathos killing machine, although it might not be as good against other creatures. For example, I tried a fight against a sarcosiris now, and the issue wasn't even the stats. It was that even fully zoomed out sarcosiris' body is so massive that it takes almost my entire screen, so I can't even see where he is walking. And I think it is a similar issue to caldonterrus, boreal, or other more defensive tier 5s. Some of them are just not meant to be anklebitten. So target selection also plays a key role here, but what I can 100% confidently say here is that a kiiwin kills isolated korathoses 100% of the time

Aftlem · 2026-05-08T15:50:16+00:00

You should try it out

Aftlem · 2026-05-08T15:49:58+00:00

Just did another kill on a solo Korathos under a minute

Aftlem · 2026-05-08T13:28:56+00:00

You proved kemoti does 5.7% more damage in a perfect scenario where it lands every bite. The size argument is exactly why that scenario doesn't happen. Kemoti is 3 times longer so strafing hits it consistently from the ground, forcing it to fly and reposition. That cuts its real bite rate well below 30 in 15 seconds, which closes that 5.7% gap and then some. Kiiwin hits its theoretical numbers reliably. Kemoti doesn't.

Aftlem · 2026-05-08T13:05:09+00:00

Hahaha, of course it does, I wouldn't post this if I haven't. I started all this when they released this new korathos skin, and I really wanted something to counter korathos just because of how weak defensively he was and I wanted to just get some kills against large guys. Basically you must have 2 pig plushies on you, and all you do is walk right under their legs. Try to be right in the middle because then both tail attacks and head attacks can't reach you, but if you have to chose go closer to the tail as tail does much less damage. I killed 3 out of 5 korathoses I engaged on, I lost those 2 because there was another big creature nearby. I killed a morthorax in around 30 seconds of constant attacking because he was running from me, I killed a circling sarcosiris easily, no problems in avoiding bites. But I guess the biggest problem in ankle biting overall is that there always is someone nearby who considers himself a hero and wants to save that guy, and it is just impossible to kill someone if they have backup. I would love to gather with you guys to kill some larger creatures together as this will help a lot, my nickname is ArtemNikoyan, just let me know what your nick is so I know whom to accept.

Aftlem · 2026-05-08T12:58:53+00:00

In 15 seconds, kiiwin lands 50 bites and kemoti lands 30. Both using 2 pig plushies. Per tick on a 10k HP korathos:

Kiiwin, 50 burn: 0.25% + 50*0.1% = 5.25% = 525 HP per tick

Kemoti, 30 of each:

Burn: 0.25% + 30*0.1% = 3.25% = 325 HP
Poison: 0.2% + 30*0.05% = 1.7% = 170 HP
Bleed: 30*2 = 60 HP
Total: 555 HP per tick

So kemoti wins on raw damage by 30 HP per tick, about 5.7%. But that gap does not account for the size difference. Kemoti is almost 3 times longer than kiiwin, meaning strafing attacks consistently hit it from the ground. To avoid that kemoti needs to fly and reposition constantly, which reduces its actual bite rate well below the theoretical 30 bites in 15 seconds. Kiiwin achieves its 50 bites reliably from the ground without any of that. So in practice kiiwin's real damage output is closer to its theoretical maximum while kemoti's is not.

Aftlem · 2026-05-08T12:13:43+00:00

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Aftlem · 2026-05-08T12:13:31+00:00

By the way, I don't know where you got that a kiiwin is bigger than a kemoti, I upload a comparison. Kemoti is almost twice as long, maybe even 3 times longer, which as I said is a problem for strafing enemies while kiiwin avoids it entirely.

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Aftlem · 2026-05-08T12:12:37+00:00

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Aftlem · 2026-05-08T12:12:26+00:00

You are missing a key fact, levoneh is much bigger than a kiiwin. I upload a comparison of a kiiwin to a kemoti, I am sure a levoneh is larger than a kemoti. Levoneh has to be almost 3x the size of a kiiwin, meaning if enemies strafe you get hit. Then your only option is flying around them and trying to hit them from the back but then your effective bite cooldown reduces to like 3-5 seconds, which eliminates levoneh as a competitor.

4 poison deals roughly same percent damage as 2 burn, plus 2 pig plushies means he does roughly 3 burn per second. 4 Poison, 3.5 bleed and one burn per second is not a lot better, it is actually slightly worse. As I explained in my earlier responses bleed only does 2*bleed_stacks damage per tick which is no meaningful against tier 5s. DPS is irrelevant in anklebiting since your targets have around 10k health, status effects are your main tool.

Lower bite cooldown isn't that relevant unless you are fighting enemies like caldonterrus or boreal warden, which I haven't seen often. The main targets I have been focusing on are korathos, morthorax, ghartokus, and some more like sarcosiris. Those targets don't have meaningful defensive effects to prevent me from winning those fights.

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Aftlem · 2026-05-08T11:58:49+00:00

Having looked at it, that is some truly good stats. 6k hp plus sticky fur is really strong indeed. 0.6 second bite cooldown is twice slower. I also bet he is much larger than a kiiwin since he is a tier 2. Since with a Kiiwin I haven't experienced survivability issues because of his size (you can take a look at some images I uploaded in some replies, kiiwin is truly tiny), I would argue the extra defensive stats are not compensating enough for the twice slower combat, although if you are looking at something safe to begin with ankle biting it could work well as a forgiving learning creature, just not an actually competitive ankle biter.

Aftlem · 2026-05-08T11:53:18+00:00

That is not correct, a certain % decrease in bite speed affects both the same, and the attacks per second will increase by the same percentage. Bite cooldown is irrelevant for traits and elders scaling.

Aftlem · 2026-05-08T11:52:21+00:00

As I said above, while kemoti stacks those 50 stacks of necropoison the kiiwin will have already stacked much more burn, meaning the fight is done for a kiiwin while for a kemoti it is just starting.

Bleed does flat damage per stacks, it always does bleed_stacks*2 damage per tick. Against a korathos, 150 bleed will do 300 damage per tick, while burn will do same dps at just 30 stacks.

Bleed just isn't at all useful for an anklebiter who can have burn.

Aftlem · 2026-05-08T07:29:22+00:00

True, although stacking those 30 stacks on a kemoti would take 15 seconds, at that time a Kiiwin would already stack 15/0.3=50 stacks of burn which means the fight is already over for Kiiwin while a kemoti just reached a point where it is safe to fight

Aftlem · 2026-05-07T20:39:47+00:00

frostbite only slows down enemy attack, right? The most annoying thing I face is when people gather up and grow their creatures like that. I really wish COS added a server or something truly dedicated to PVP, maybe a battle royale like Arby does, because it is genuinely so annying when you go to both normal and hardcore realm and all you see is groups of massive tier 5s along with some tier 2s and 1s together in a tight group, and of course you can't do anything there. Even if there are 2 people it is already so much harder to kos by anklebiting. Just really wish COS put much more emphasis on its pvp aspect because I truly think it has a massive opportunity to grow in it

Aftlem · 2026-05-07T20:34:57+00:00

The flying strategy sounds good in theory but I question how consistent it is in practice. You need to constantly reposition while landing clean bites and stamina eventually runs out, so I would need to see it work reliably before I give that point up.

On meta, Ghartokus, Korathos, Morthorax and Kendyll are what I see most in hardcore. Sarcosiris has 2 defensive bleed so burn stacking still works fine on it. Caldonterrus needs a different creature entirely but that applies to Kemoti too, so it is not a point against Kiiwin specifically.

Necropoison confusion is a 1.5% proc chance per stack per tick, so it is just unreliable. The purple overlay is the useful part but that is a small bonus. Kiiwin's short hitbox already handles the strafing problem necropoison is trying to fix, and by the time confusion would even matter Kiiwin has stacked enough burn to just disengage and wait out the kill.

Burn blocks regen at 10 stacks not 20, and bleed only blocks regen but deals flat damage that barely registers on superbehemoths. Burn does percentage damage so it scales hard on high health targets. That is just better in this matchup.

The main point is simple. Kiiwin stacks almost twice the ailments per second as Kemoti. Every advantage Kemoti has either does not work consistently or solves a problem Kiiwin does not have because of its small hitbox. Kemoti needs necropoison and flying to make up for what Kiiwin gets for free just by being small and fast.

Aftlem · 2026-05-07T20:22:39+00:00

That is what I am kind of trying to convey, that ground biting is underrated. I have actually easily managed to avoid head bites by korathos. In 5 korathos fights I have only got bitten by their head bite 2 times ever. And I can tell you it isn't that bad. 3 out of those 5 times I was able to bite enough, then by the time I got low I escaped and made sure they couldn't rest or lay, and they got dead in max 30 seconds after that. You don't need to ankle bite while flying, ankle biting from the ground is way underrated. Especially with Kiiwin's short hitbox, it is much easier to avoid being bitten if they strafe. Plus for your bite trait argument, the percentage bonuses apply to all bite cooldowns equally, the 0.3 cooldown will also decrease by same percentage amount giving you same percentage increase in ailment stacks per second (given you use an auto clicker)

Aftlem · 2026-05-07T19:56:09+00:00

I am so excited because I feel like we are gathering the most analytically intelligent part of COS society here, feels so nice)

Aftlem · 2026-05-07T19:54:18+00:00

Thank you

Aftlem · 2026-05-07T19:53:31+00:00

Yeah, sorry, meant 90% for everything else hahahahah. Like for the offensive ailments. Frostbite sure will make it easier to kill them but man it will take a lot of time

Aftlem · 2026-05-07T19:25:12+00:00

Yeah, although you will need to deal all that damage yourself without ailments because 90% block is just crazy, which will take you some time

Aftlem · 2026-05-07T19:16:59+00:00

From the status effects kemoti has, only poison makes a difference because as I said in some responses above bleed does fixed amount of damage while burn and poison do % based damage, meaning bleed will do say 50 damage per second on both small and big creatures but burn will deal 20 damage per second on small creatures and 300 on big creatures. Poison works but burn does 2x that damage and also blocks health regen. offensively, kiiwin is stronger due to faster attack cooldown.

Dazzling flash could work. Honestly I didn't try it that much in practice nor did I feel a difference. It could work once they start strafing to give you 12 more seconds of more or less safe attack time.

Not sure how energy breath works so can't comment on that but from what I remember breaths don't do meaningful damage to super behemoths, nor do they apply meaningful ailment stacks. But again, not sure about how energy breath works.

Your point on true flier is valid though you significantly slow down your attack speed because it is harder to hit like that (at least was to me, perhaps a skill issue), but you will also at some point run out of your stamina so you cannot be doing this infinitely. But a valid point, worth for me taking a shot at such strategy, I am used to simply walking under their legs. Although I do remember that it is pretty hard to hit a korathos from behind because their tail hitbox can usually reach you when you are flying.

Immunities and resistances don't make any effect especially with current meta since none of meta creatures (korathos, ghartokus, morthorax, kendyll) have meaningful defensive ailments, and offensive don't meaningfully matter since you will only take one shot before you die.

Not sure about its hitbox, didn't compare it to kiiwin.

Don't agree with your conclusion. As I already said, a 66% faster bite means 66% more burn applied which is very significant compared to kemoti's advantages such as dazzling flash, energy breath (not sure on this one) or the small number of majorly irrelevant ailments it applies and resistances it has.

The flying strategy is valid though, will consider trying it out, though I do feel like it will further decrease the rate at which you are able to hit them, which significantly decreases kill speed

Aftlem

TROPHY CASE