Last Updated on Samuel Franklin
byCookie Run Kingdom Best Team (Story PvE and Arena PvP)
Discover the Cookie Run Kingdom best team and cookies for each key team role with this guide to building a team for the story PvE content or the PvP arena. With nearly one hundred unique cookies with their own skills and stats determining the best team from your available cookies can be a difficult task for new and even advanced Cookie Run Kingdom players. This is further complicated by the unique stage of progress of every account and the fact that free to play players will have a smaller pool of available cookie heroes than those going the gacha route with real money. With 5 team slots available, 3 different positions (front, middle and rear) and 7 cookie archetypes (ambush, defence, charge, magic, bomber, ranged, support and hero) there are many considerations to balance.
In this best team guide to Cookie Kingdom we explore how to develop an ideal team composition for your account, the best team for story and other PvE content and considerations for those that are brave enough to tackle the arena challenge. The intention of this guide is to focus on both principles of team design and specifics to ensure that it remains relevant even though you might not currently have the meta cookies available to place in your team. Importantly this page cannot take into consideration your own account progression in mechanics such as toppings and treasures so you’ll need to apply the logic detailed here to your own account at times.
For players looking for the individual best cookies refer to our Cookie Run Kingdom tier list and toppings guide to maximise their individual potential.
Cookie Run Kingdom Best Team Composition
The best team composition in Cookie Run Kingdom is a general set of guidelines that players can use regardless of the cookies they have available to produce a competitive team. For players still early on in their Cookie Run Kingdom adventure and developing their Cookie Kingdom layout this provides a structure to selecting your cookies which are generally from the lower cookie tiers (common and rare) that make the community meta teams out of reach.
In designing your team there are three factors to consider that generally need to be balanced regardless of the content players are facing in Cookie Run Kingdom:
- Durability: Raw durability is pivotal to surviving the diverse range of attacks that come from enemies and opponents in the battles of Cookie Run Kingdom. While having a dedicated tanky character (or two) is important every character needs some base line of durability to survive given there are some attacks that will attack middle or rear characters. Durability is a balance though and cannot come fully at the cost of damage output with your goal to build up sufficient durability to survive between team healing cycles.
- Healing: Having a source of healing for your team is an absolute must in the vast majority of game content in Cookie Run Kingdom as it’s simply not possible to have enough durability to last through an entire stage. Serving as a dedicated team role you’ll want to aim to have a single healer that is capable of keeping all of your team alive from start to finish that ensures each encounter you are starting the fight with near full health and also maximising your chances to 3 star a story stage by finishing with all cookies alive.
- Damage: While having durability and a source of healing provide the foundation to a Cookie Run King best team you won’t be able to progress at all without a suitable damage structure. Generally this means dedicating all of the remaining team slots to damage roles to keep your team moving forward and killing the enemy before they have a chance to overwhelm your team. Many cookies in the damage role also offer the important area of effect skills that can help you trim the waves of enemies in PvE content.
As a result of the above factors the community generally designs meta team compositions around the following:
- 2 durable cookies: Players should always include at least one defence archetype cookie as the foundation of their defence and pair it with a second front line fighter to protect the important middle and rear sections. While this second hero can be another defence archetype if players have a strong charge cookie they can provide a balance of damage and survivability to your team. Occasionally some team compositions will pair their tank with a support that provides durability to the whole team through their skill as an alternative to the 2 directly durable heroes depending on what you have available.
- 2 damage cookies: Two damage cookies in the middle or rear of your team composition will be the major contributor to your damage output and can come from across archetypes although will usually be magic, ranged or ambush based on what you have available in your cookie collection.
- 1 healer cookie: A non-negotiable selection in your Cookie Run Kingdom best team composition players will want to utilise the best healer archetype they have available in their rear position.
Cookie Run Kingdom Best Team For Story (PvE Team)
The meta team compositions for story mode in Cookie Run Kingdom will of course be heavily influenced by what you have available in terms of cookies, your account treasure and to a lesser extent toppings. These comps should be used as a guide only with players adjusting specific cookies to what they have available to fill similar roles in the team. In story generally the level of your cookie is going to play a greater role than a perfectly optimised team so working with your available cookies is always essential.
PvE and in particular story content has a relatively static meta although new released cookie heroes occasionally have redefined the meta. The notable team combinations to consider when creating the best team for story are:
- Holyberry, Wildberry, Blueberry, Moonlight and Pure Vanilla: A standard meta team for PvE and PvP content that has plenty of durability front the dual front line and strong damage output from the middle magic users. Other useful cookies in this comp include Werewolf, BTS, Stardust, Crunchy Chip and Black Pearl depending on cookie availability and the need to counter specific story challenges. Core item treasures include Old Pilgrim’s Scroll, Squishy Jelly Watch and Dream Conductor’s Whistle.
- Holyberry, Financier, Sherbet, Frost Queen and Pure Vanilla: Mixing Sherbet with Frost Queen you’ll find great control of the battlefield with this team as Sherbet offering debuff resistance to the team that makes them an ideal pairing with Frost Queen, Moonlight or Black Pearl.
- Holyberry, Dark Choco, Sea Fairy, Espresso and Pure Vanilla: A team that favours area of effect with a similar item set to the above this is an effective composition for the story challenges that have high numbers of enemies (which is most of them).
Cookie Run Kingdom Best Arena Team (PvP Team)
The PvP meta often adjusts quickly in Cookie Run Kingdom between each released cookie and also has an element of countering what is currently in meta for you to see long term success in the arena. With PvP being home to a number of end game players there is less room to change cookies in the best team for arena noted below:
- Kumiho, GingerBrave Carmel Arrow, Dark Cacao and Sea Fairy: Designed to be a one shot team this is an all or nothing approach with no healing or significant durability that is either highly effective or completely ineffective depending on the PvP match up. Some other variants of this team include the lieks of Milky Way, Captain Cavar, Black Pearl, Moonlight and Squid Ink.
- Wildberry, Crunchy Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Sorbet Shark and Cotton: Another PvP arena team composition focused on countering a durable opponent by stacking damage primarily through critical attacks that can also utilise Clotted Cream as an alternative cookie choice.
Cookie Run Kingdom Best Healer Cookie
The healing archetype is an important contributor to your team given the best healers are always a welcomed addition to any piece of content with your 5 slots generally reserving one for this key role. While the best healer cookie for you will be influenced by what players have available and their respective level some notable powerful options include:
- Pure Vanilla
- Herb
- Carol
- Cream Unicorn
Cookie Run Kingdom Best Defence Cookie
Like the healers above the defence role is a central team role and one that is used across consistently a number of team compositions with either one or two cookie heroes from this archetype. Having a reliable defence cookie with the right toppings and level is invaluable to your progression with some of the notable options to use if available including:
- Wildberry
- Hollyberry
- Financier
Cookie Run Kingdom Best Charge Cookie
Serving often as suitable off tank options in your front line the charge archetype can be durable fighters that also bring damage to your team composition that make them popular options and one players will be familiar with given your starting cookie hero of GingerBrave is also a charge type. Notable cookie options here include the likes of:
- Schwarzwälder (also known as the brute)
- Werewolf
- Crunchy Chip
- Cark Cacao
Cookie Run Kingdom Best Support Cookie
Support cookies can be useful given some of their powerful skills they bring although fitting them into a team can be difficult. That being said the powerful ones still have their place in some of the best teams provided you have the right combination of other cookies available. Some of the best support cookie options include:
- Cotton
- Eclair
- Cream Puff
- Oyster
Cookie Run Kingdom Best Ambush Cookie
Ambush heroes are designed to be fast characters that lie in wait in the back lines before diving into the fight to unleash massive damage and serve a damage focused role in your team composition. Notable heroes of this archetype include:
- Black Pearl
- Vampire
Cookie Run Kingdom Best Ranged Cookie
Another DPS focused archetype in the Cookie Run Kingdom game that sits beyond your durable characters to attack foes with their ranged attacks, notable ranged cookies include:
- Sherbet
- Rye
Cookie Run Kingdom Best Magic Cookie
Arguably one of the common choices for the damage role in a team composition the magic cookies are ones that wield powerful magic and associated skills to dispatch various challenges. Magic options that are particularly popular options include:
- Moonlight
- Blueberry Pie
- Squid Ink
- Frost Queen
- Pumpkin Pie
Cookie Run Kingdom Best Bomber Cookie
Often seen as the less common of the damage focused cookie archetypes the bombers are primarily middle and rear cookies that specialise in area of effect attacks to dispatch large numbers of enemies. Notable choices from the bomber cookie options are:
- Captain Caviar
- Pinecone
- Sea Fairy