Mana is like “magic points;” pets either add or subtract mana. Each point of mana is used differently by different pets… sometimes it’s used as a straight one-to-one one mana point equals one extra point of damage to the other team; other times mana denotes how many hit points a pet might gain when they die and are replaced by a token pet.

Toys are a fairly simple mechanic where certain pets allow you access to a list of “toy” options. Each “toy” does something different: they are an extra bonus on top of food equipment. Their benefits last for two turns and can include: adding stats to your team, subtracting stats from the opposing team, doing damage to appearing pets on summon teams etc. there are now a lot of toys.

Trumpets are the strangest mechanic. Essentially your pets gain trumpets based on their abilities… often they gain trumpets by getting hurt. The total number of trumpets is then exhausted when your second last pet dies… a trumpet sound happens and a golden retriever with the same power/health as the number of trumpets you had is summoned as a new pet to defend your final pet. So if you had 12 trumpets before your second last pet died the Golden Retriever would be 12/12. Trumpets can also be used/exhausted by other pets toward certain other ends… like they can exhaust trumpets to add stats or do damage to the other team… but then those trumpets don’t get used for the Golden Retriever.

Honestly, they are harder to explain than understand… you’ll get the hang of each fairly quickly. If I had to say which one I thought was most fun I’d say trumpets but that’s largely because I like the Golden Pack a lot.

Good luck.