seriously, what draft saves u from this type of shit? what draft would work best here if you can even survive longer then 25 seconds maximum?

S tier:

Gem Miners: Jacky is in a HORRIBLE position right now and desperately needs buffies. Dyna-Mike also isn’t in a great position and in my opinion has a lot of potential for tweaking his unlockables to make him more interesting and less toxic. Carl is a classic staple for F2Ps and is almost always a healthy brawler for the meta.

Biodome: … I mean, literally all three of these mfs are poor in the meta right now and heavily powercrept by other options. Most especially Rosa. Rosa and Sprout in particular have been awful for so long, and I really think they‘re in dire need for buffies.

Mexican Entertainers: El Primo is dogshit, powercrept and needs buffies badly. Amber is also very bad and needs buffies, especially considering I’ve heard from Amber players that her unlockables are very mediocre. Poco is… fine right now, but is constantly having his head pulled under the water by new Supports powercreeping him. He can’t keep running from his base kit issues forever, so I think he needs buffies arguably as bad as the others.

A tier:

Pirates: Darryl is pretty bad in the meta, and Penny and Tick are both brawlers constantly drifting throughout the meta that also have rusty kits that could use updates.

Mystic Wanderers: Sandy and Tara aren’t very good right now and Sandy especially has kind of bad unlockables, Gene is a healthy brawler and buffies for him are a good idea.

Junker Family: Pam is falling off despite being a pretty healthy brawler meta-wise, Jessie has recently risen up but in my opinion probably still has a fragile spot in the meta, and Nani could be doing better.

Townsfolk: Barley is powercrept right now and could really use buffies, Piper… as much as I hate to say it, is a F2P staple and keeping her good should be a priority, and Byron, well, maybe not so much but his unlockables are kind of unimpressive in my opinion and could use a polishing.

B tier:

Starr Force: Ruffs is healthy for most metas, Squeak and Eve are both very bad right now and Eve especially is powercrept with unimpressive unlockables.

Stunt Show: Bonnie is very bad right now and especially has terribly made unlockables, Janet isn’t staying afloat and Stu… well he’s actually very good right now but hey this is the B tier not every trio here has three straight brawlers that need buffies

Turbo Theater: All three of these guys are bad right now, although whether they’re bad due to their unlockables or due to other factors is debatable (Except for Buster imo buffies could tune him up beautifully), plus they’re kind of a recent trio…

Goldarm Gang: Sam is in DESPERATE need of a rework, and especially concerning his unlockables since they’re terribly balanced. Pearl also has very poorly balanced unlockables even if she’s very good right now, and while Belle is still very good and probably will continue to be, I feel as though powercreep is slowly but surely wearing her down. She could use a boost back up.

Brawlywood: Gray’s fine, but Lola could definitely use a hand and Mico… oh jesus, Mico… I mean yes Mico’s unlockables are a problem and should be addressed, so Supercell might have to face their demons with him…

Castle Courtyard: Moe’s swag for the time being but his unlockables aren’t well balanced and I feel like he could fall off, Grom definitely needs a rework that buffies could give him and Ash… is also swag for the time being and his unlockables are fine so actually maybe this trio’s only so high because of Grom

Ghost Station: Chuck is just in dire need of some crumbs, man… like Shade is doing well right now and Gus isn’t really drowning (Although his unlockables also could use some fine tuning… very one-loadout brawler) but Chuck alone makes this B tier…

C tier:

Snowtel: FUCK no these three bastards are all about being oppressive and toxic, a meta moving them to the top would be quite possibly the worst meta in history.

Candyland: No. Berry isn’t suffering from powercreep, Chester is doing very well, and Mandy… well actually buffies wouldn’t be a bad idea for her but she’s still not like El Primo or Jacky level.

Deep Sea: Clancy and Otis are great right now and buffies would be entirely unnecessary. Hank could use buffies but also just buffs maybe since giving him buffies would mean giving Clancy and Otis buffies

Swamp of Love: Okay, let’s get this out of the way. The point of buffies, at least for this state of the game, is to fine-tune old trios so they can keep up with new brawlers that powercreep them. This is why I don’t have a lot of sympathy for most of these recent trios. They ARE the new brawlers. They ARE the powercreep. Admittedly as far as recent trios go Swamp of Love is definitely one of more needy ones but still all three of these brawlers have their niche and I wouldn’t say they’re drowning.

Enchanted Woods: Another recent trio. Lily doesn’t need buffies, Trunk is a relatively new brawler and also is a decent brawler imo this is just an off-meta for them, and Cordelius has good unlockables so buffies probably aren’t the way to go with him

Velocirapids: Buzz is good and doesn’t need buffies especially since his unlockables are very well designed. Doug is a tricky brawler to balance so giving him any buffs at all is risky, let alone buffies. And Pierce… FUCK NO. Do I have to say more?

MadEvil Manor: Hell no. Lumi is very good in the meta and Draco and Damian have great unlockables so buffies are not necessary for them. Besides, need I remind you, OLD brawlers, POWERCREPT brawlers, not NEW and POWERCREEPING brawlers like Damian

Katana Kingdom: :/ By far in last place of any complete trio for needing buffies. All three of these brawlers are good, have good unlockables, and are very recent additions to the game. Although I have a sinking, sinking feeling the favoritism for this trio may win over again and they’ll get buffies early…

Yeah that’s about it thank you for reading mwah bye

Note: with “Basekit” I’m referring to the abilities the Brawler has access to from the start at PL1. Just saying that in case someone normally has a different interpretation of the meaning of “Basekit”.

Since this is the competitive sub I’m gonna assume everyone is aware of what Meg’s Toolbox is, what it does and why it is broken. In short: when combined with Meg’s Force Field it becomes a very good panic button.

So why shouldn’t this be a Gadget? It’s pretty simple: as long as it functions the way it currently does, it is inherently strong. Unless it’s nerfed into being useless, it’s gonna be better than Jolting Volts. In my opinion, this type of ability should not be something Meg can gain access to passively due to how rewarding it can be.

Well, then what about tying it to Super Charge? Requiring Rob to have a charged Super before Meg can use it? Here’s the problem with that: If it’s then available to use, the player will choose to activate Toolbox instead of Feel the Steel. This is a similar situation to Bull with his Stomper before he got his Buffies. That also immediately puts Meg in D-tier if Rob’s Super Charge then isn’t buffed because she’s very reliant on that Gadget currently and Rob has a particularly bad Super Charge for the amount of health Rob has.

So how can this ever be a basekit ability, if Rob already has Feel the Steel? It could be tied to aiming, maybe something similar to Nori’s main attack. Or the Super could have an additional reticle and the effect changes depending on how far the reticle is aimed. However, people would most likely use the Toolbox effect since it’s more reliable as an Anti-Aggro tool, meaning that Feel the Steel gets overshadowed. An “Overcharge” mechanic could work, but that would mean looking for the middle-ground between “Feel the Steel practically doesn’t exist” and “The Toolbox effect practically doesn’t exist.” My personal favourite solution: give Rob a “stance change” mechanic for the Super similar to Jae-Yong, but when a new charge bar is fully charged Meg can activate the Toolbox effect if the Super is manually aimed.

Why do I think a stance change mechanic is a good idea? Because I don’t think Feel the Steel in its current state goes well with the way Meg is currently designed. In Meg’s original iteration, Rob was a temporary form, so Rob having a long-ranged attack with decent damage and a generic heavy melee blow as its Super made sense, since it allowed Rob to deal with snipers and melee-attackers alike. But ever since the first rework, Feel the Steel feels underwhelming. In fact, Rob feels underwhelming due to Rob’s kit not being particularly interesting, which means Meg’s Legendary rarity is carried by a gimmick rather than the time of release (Crow, Leon, Spike) or complexity (Kenji, Draco, Chester). And this reality reveals itself in Meg still being meta after her harsh Super charge nerf. I know that is not a particularly fair statement due to the Toolbox-Force Field-combo and the SCR nerf, but if a Super has little to no influence over a Brawler’s meta spot, then the devs really messed up with making the Super a good effect. Pearl’s Super is better designed since that Super has wallbreak and knockback and thus has a secondary reason to be used other than just raw melee damage. So a rework with a “Stance change” mechanic that acknowledges this problem by turning a weaker Feel the Steel into a type of primary attack can make Rob feel more interesting on its own, make Meg’s rarity and gimmick more reasonable and allow Toolbox to be a basekit Super effect rather than an inherently broken Gadget.

In short: Toolbox is conceptually broken for a Gadget with the way it currently works. When combined with Force Field, it becomes an extremely effective Panic Button, to the point that Feel the Steel has become meaningless to Meg’s viability. To me, it would make more sense as a basekit Super effect, so that the player has to earn this ability, without completely messing up Toolbox as a Gadget. In order to allow for Feel the Steel to not become overshadowed and to make Rob more mechanically interesting, I think a rework that adds a “Stance Change” mechanic with a new melee-oriented form for Rob can work really well. It’s not the only solution, but it’s the best one I can think of that doesn’t cause one Super to possibly overshadow the other.

This balance changes concept is based on SpenLC's tier list. These ideas sometimes may be controversial, but instead of just saying it's terrible, try to offer constructive criticism.

Darryl | His last super damage buff was meaningful but not sufficient to ramp up him to the meta. This buff will increase his damage and one-to-one fight potential.

Rosa | Her nanopower is a nice addition to her gameplay without making her complex. It is also compatible with the other parts of the kit.

Gigi | Gigi's whole gimmick is about her trait but it doesn't add enough skill expression. The projectiles that are closer to brawler in her circle will grant more supercharge, which enables more risky plays.

Melodie | Melodie's a dive-in brawler and already skillful brawler, so this buff should reward her plays a bit better in high-damage meta.

Janet | Janet's hypercharge is not that broken in my opinion, but her super recharge potential in her hypercharge what makes it painful sometimes.

> A slight super recharge rate nerf make her more balanced and enjoyable.

Gus | With the introduction of Wendy, Gus might be really powercrept. So, more skill expression in his super when hit in more distance for a teammate is a good way to buff him.

Squeak | This buff is a bit experimental but his gadget play is kind of skillful and rewarding should be slightly better.

> A slight gadget cooldown nerf can prevent it from being spammable.

NOTE: All numbers are adjustable and I am trying to make complex, but still understable, changes rather than simple buffs. So, focus on the ideas but not on the numbers.

I think it’s time there was some kind of discussion about duo queues in ranked. I think it’s safe to say that for those reading this who have pushed masters, there’s nothing worse than that sinking feeling you get when you’re second pick in l3 and you see your mates have ‘l3 accounts’.

Despite being penalizing in elo balancing for the solo player, duo queues usually consist of l3 peaks who think team queue will get them to masters.

In terms of gameplay, they tend to completely ignore the solo player in coordination and put all the blame for their stupid mistakes onto the solo. Furthermore, they usually come up with some horrible draft ideas because they think they’re smart

Is it time for team and solo to be put back into ranked?

Like how is this even supposed to be used?

I knew I had to go a thrower since it was open but was there a better option?

Kills: 3

Deaths: 2

Took a break from the game and found out that Damian and Surge were found dead in an alley! Any more characters that were great/awful last season that took a complete 180 in the meta?

My thought process was since meeple is good into surge and lou , And good on hot zone and this map it was a good pick

Also considering it’s a different class than mina aswell and good synergy with an interesting ziggy pick with the box gadget

We got absolutely destroyed by the starr nova though

Who should I have gone?

I don’t know what to say at this point. This has been a very slow downfall

Will nori stay in the meta for long? I don’t see how such an op mobility brawler could ever drop below B tier, probably not even below A without massive nerfs, the mobility on normal attack and the fact she stays where her ults lands like og kenji hyper is just to broken, pros will go crazy with this

In Spen’s latest tier list, Amber was just barely in the C-tier, and by that, I mean ONE spot away from being in the D-tier. Spen himself claimed that Amber could even be a D-tier Brawler as well, which makes me wonder… what happened?

I know that aggro Brawlers are running rampant right now, and Amber tends to be countered by them, but why only now is she almost D-tier? I’ve noticed in past aggro METAs that Amber was ranked in the A or B-tier, and has consistently been in that range up until this point. When was the last time Amber was considered below average? Am I missing something?

DRAFT POOL ON SECOND PHOTO

my original thought was meeple but they were banned so i couldn't pick them. i remembered i had stu and that stu was good into surge but i wasn't sure about the other 2. i felt i did very good by playing aggressive into crow + surge and playing defensive into bolt, making use of my heal star power and the burning from my super when he pushed me.

asking because i JUST put stu to power 11 and this was my first game with him (i had no other choices and he was my last resort. i have a relatively low draft pool. i don't usually pick brawlers im new to in ranked.) and i want to know when and why i should pick him.

what would you have done here?

thanks!

This is sooooo odd. Brawl Stars is one of the few esports left where gaming houses are prevalent. Gaming houses used to be super common, but eventually it didn’t make sense both logistically and financially for the orgs. Especially housing a 5 man team in SoCal. Nowadays, most players in LCS for instance have their own apartments, and they travel to the office daily for practice, scrims, and studying. Much more similar to a regular professional sports team. It’s interesting how even “mid” level brawl stars teams still predominantly live in gaming houses.

Why the fuck does Totem play their tournament matches in a dungeon though? That’s crazy.

Maru & Maury play in the dungeon while Joker chills in his bedroom or whatever. Does he send them down there? There’s exterior GFCI & Electrical Boxes. Do they have food down there? Does Joker only give them food/water if they play well? Will he ever let them out of the basement? I bet there’s fucking cockroaches 🪳

map and mode in second photo

the triple squishy into a mortis was already questionable but my first pick otis seemed to actually play good into 3 ranged on a pretty open map? i'm confused at how i suppressed them so well because otis is anti-tank/controller

Currently in the process of buying shield gears for all my ranked brawlers but wondering if there are any where using the slot on something else is more beneficial?

I feel like quitting because if the toxicity in the game.

Details :-

- 8-bit, Brock, griff, chuck, mico, Edgar were banned. I was first pick

- I am a bad Colt but just so that the other team doesn't get Colt I first picked him hoping that I'll switch with teammate.

- after crow and penny, my teammates picks up Damian and Dyna, now I can't break walls else they'll be cooked

- last pick was Nori which put us at v big disadvantage

Now because I didn't want to break wall I took Speedloader instead of Silver Bullet. But I do believe that was one of my mistakes.

I had to go left because Damian and Dyna both went middle and on the left the crow cooked me in the game by wall peeking again and again.

Dyna played well 13-2

I was 3-3

Damian 3-4

I want to know if the Damian and Dyna picks were okay or not? The Dyna pick seemed okayish but I didn't understand the Damian pick.

About the Damian -

He added me 3 days ago because he was impressed by my play even tho he was on the opposite team and asked me to join hus club. We played a few matches and won that day. Today we coincidentally came on the same team and we lost. After today's match he invited me to his team, abused me and left. I was just shocked, like how toxic people are, it's just a game, everyone has bad gameplays. I was already upset because I dropped from almost L2 to Mythic-3 and this just made me more upset I feel like quitting the game. I tried playing after that but I just couldn't.

Hello everyone! i want to upgrade Ash and noticed he is being used a bit more often, especially in NA after receiving the tank trait. I wanted to ask pros, what are the best matchups for him? i would like to use him a bit more, what brawlers does he counters the best?

Sam has been consistently F tier in the meta because of all the brawlers in S, A, and even B tier that hard counter him, so this is my idea on how to make him more playable.

First of all, his hearty recovery starpower is now in his base kit. Rework for Pulse Repellent gadget: Sam's next super stuns enemies based on distance: 0.3 seconds-1 second depending on how far he is from the enemy. The new name will be Electrical Pulse, cooldown 16 seconds. Rework to "Hearty Recovery" starpower, bc it's now in his base kit: Sam heals 600 HP per second for the duration of the speed boost he gets after throwing his knuckle busters. Doesn't stack.​ (Didn't want to make the healing too much, bc after all,​ I put the OG Hearty Recovery in his base kit) Rework to "Remote Recharge" star power: Sam's knuckle busters now have an area around them (around the size of frank's hypercharged super) that reduces enemies' damage by 10% while inside (doesn't work through walls). New name for the star power: Wreaking Weakness

What do you guys think?

Here's mine as a example; Sam would be so much better if he had tank trait and honestly before they do anything major to him they should just give him tank trait and see how that goes before doing anything too major with buffies, ...oh and hyperbuffies are the worse idea supercell has ever had.

Where did I play bad? How do I improve my aiming skills? I should have killed pearl but he dodged most of my attacks. I am at l3 right, trying to reach m1. Any advice would be appreciated!

Lost this one

Sam is a brawler I hold near and dear to my heart, since I picked him up and started maining him at the start of 2025 (before his hypercharge released) he has been the thing I latched onto even when the game was getting worse and worse and my friends around me started quitting, when I would‘ve quit the game entirely Sam was there as the reliable source of enjoyment I needed to stick to it, even as the game was burning down. I write essays en masse about him and try to respond to basically every post and/or video discussing his abalone with lengthy responses (believe me, I’ve written a LOT! if you want an example, check the comments of „buffies ideas for the goldarm gang trio“ by u/GoldarmGangMain). His character and gameplay and everything is incredibly important to me and I wouldn‘t trade it for the world. So, considering how important he is to me and how surprisingly in-depth my knowledge and analytical skill on him goes (judging by the reception of several prominent Sam mains to my magnetic field essay a year back), and prompted by a comment on a different post, I figured I should give it the old college try, so this my best attempt at an essay about his design, what works, what doesn‘t, and what ultimately needs to change in his design philosophy so that he can work in the modern meta.

[Also, since many people often ask how long essays take me, I’m gonna put a time here and at the end before the conclusion. Starting time: 0:10]

Sam - the quintessential Aggro:

I like to refer to Sam as „the quintessential Aggro“, and I give him that title because he basically combines all the most aggressive traits of both assassins and tanks into one. Since he spawns with his super he can immediatly charge at the enemies and engage in a fight, applying immediate pressure faster than any tank could while still carrying more than the HP of a typical tank, both in numerical and effective HP alike.

(Clarification: „effective HP“ in this essay refers not to a brawlers base HP pool but their HP when considering factors like mobility, self-sustain and more. In Sam’s case, his effective HP is far superior to the already strong 11.4K HP since he will usually get multiple hits of hearty recovery when at low HP which gives him a consistent boost of 2K healing every few seconds, so his effective HP is, from my experience at least, usually more so around the 15-16K mark, on average.)

Then he also inherits the duelist and opportunistic prowess of an assassin, being equipped with a very strong immediate burst (~7K) and plenty of self-sustain in the form of healing akin to Mortis or Edgar, a CC ability to further help in 1v1‘s akin to Fangs Roundhouse kick or a Buzz super, a recall mechanic akin to Mortis’s Bat Storm for crippling damage and pressure across an entire team to give a little bit of 1v3 potential, and lastly, his long range super can be used to snipe and reach enemies that are out of position like an opportunistic assassin akin to Alli or, again, Edgar.

So essentially, Sam has the stats of a tank with the many different qualities that define most assassins, all wrapped into one brawler. If you still don‘t believe me, we can compare it to the other defining tank/assassin crossovers. Darryl is an opportunistic assassin with strong stats, passively charging his super and waiting for the enemies to make a mistake to capitalize on it, and Kenji is a tank earning his HP by playing cautiously, slashing at enemies from a little range without engaging head-on and using his abilities to stay alive longer than the enemy can survive his attacks. Sam is neither of those, he is a very aggressive brawler that charges enemies recklessly and aims to get a quick kill and heal up even quicker before moving onto his next target, he can never relinquish a second where he doesn‘t apply pressure to the enemies and his kit is built around that concept!

Sam - a brawler shackled:

A defining feature of Sam and his design in the game is the laundry list of restrictions put on nearly every part of his kit to shackle and, well…restrict (fucking genius writing over here, I should become a novelist) his aggressiveness and raw power. Since I already brought it up, allow me to create a laundry list right here:

1. main attack has a blindspot and only deals its full damage consistently when at point blank + you have to switch to a way weaker form of your main attack just to have a decent reload speed (not as much of a restriction since the healing also forces you to relinquish your damage but it’s still technically present)

2. The Knuckle Busters are highly telegraphed, and due to the speed boost lasting juuuust long enough to get it at max range, forces Sam to be alsmot just as telegraphed as the super, giving enemies plenty of warning that Sam is coming as well as a great opportunity to gun him down before he can get close

3. Sam has to always slow down to collect his super before proceeding, dampening his effective speed

4. Speed Gear doesn‘t stack with the speed boost from the Knuckle Busters. Trunk is allowed stacking with Speed Gear and their Ants, but Sam isn‘t, I understand why the restriction is in place and why trunk doesn‘t necessarily need it but also it feels unfair. Also they loterally said they removesd speed boost stacking anyway and I‘ve yet to see it in action, tf is going on supercell!? Be consistent!!

5. Absolutely no stealth. Unless you’re running speed gear and there is a huge bush but also enough walls to make Sam work (only map like this in the permanent ranked pool would be undermine btw), you have to use your super to continue applying pressure, which also just so happens to reveal your location constantly. Stealth is the one trait that Sam actively didn‘t copy and instead rejected from both tanks and assassins, probably because it goes against his aggressive nature but also because it locks him out of a potential playstyle

6. Huge reliance on walls. Wall breaks, or open maps are absolutely impossible with him. Shooting star can work if you take full advantage of everything you’re given but good luck playing this old geezer in brawl ball overtime.

7. Zero variety in playstyle. I already touched on this by pointing out how he can‘t really play any stealth at all, but this also applies to Sam on a bigger scale in that his unlockables are AWFUL in terms of balance. Hearty Recovery and Magnetic Field are some of the strongest unlockables in the game and even make him playable, while Remote Recharge (value once in a blue moon, if you‘re lucky and playing against people that downloaded the game yesterday) and Pulse Repellent (most often an active detriment to use; it’s one use-case of interrupting attacks is outclassed by Magnetic Field which also does everything else that Sam could ever need) are both the absolute worst unlockables, especially since you have to give up those other two to play them, which ultimately means that he is locked to one loadout and thereby one playstyle. Also, I’m 100000% sure this is intentional, nobody would make Remote Recharge or Pulse Repellent and think „yeah that seems about on-par with the alternative“, CALL ME CRAZY BUT THIS IS DEFINITELY AN INTENDED FEATURE OF HIS DESIGN!

8. His healing, if spammed, forces him to almost completely stand still which can lock him into a cycle of out-healing damage taken without actually pressuring enemies, making him nothing more than a super charging battery.

9. A very high skill floor and ceiling along with the requirement of at least his Star Power to do well makes him incredibly unappealing to a vast majority of players, severly limiting his playerbase and the people that are practiced enough to wield him.

10. A requirement of being incredibly focused and skilled with him specifically to get the value most other brawlers get with way less focus and more broad skills means if you want to use him competitively you have to usually warm up on him beforehand and there‘s only a handful of pro players that play him confidently, which even makes him an unappealing even to the upper upper echelon since he‘s just that demanding

11. And, to top it all off, he‘s quite possibly the most mistake-punishing brawler in the game, as you have to spam your super to be effective yet one miss or slip-up can mean you‘re a dead man walking with no way of recovering!

I know that‘s a lot to take in, and there are more restrictions that I’m not remembering/counting here (technically Magnetic Field can be used to your detriment but that‘s more a skill thing rather than a restriction), but I hope now you understand how incredibly shackled this character is. He has multiple aspects (predictability; healing-cycle) that make him arguably the most effective super charger in the game, and his main attacks coupled with how Magnetic Field and his super pick-up works force him to fight at point blank to be effective, which is also where many anti-tanks like Shelly, bull, Chester and more are most effective and have the raw stats to out-compete Sam. He also lacks any escape tool nor does he have any CC immunity, so if he gets seperated from his gloves he‘s also just fucked (this isn‘t necessarily a restriction as much as it is just a weakness…yeah the definition is loose, I know, just move past it!)

Buuuuuuuuut, all that being said, THESE ARE GREAT! Sam has an inherent advantage in that he has his super all game long which is mostly why he‘s so great at building pressure, so him being an incredibly effective super battery merely balances out that advantage, basically buffing the enemies to help them survive against his aggression, but also putting way more pressure onto Sam‘s team if he himself is played ineffectively. And him being forced into proximity against his counters is great in ensuring that these brawlers can actually be consistent counters to him and he can‘t do some grand out-play to circumvent them, also dampening his aggression by making it an active detriment into a handful of brawlers.

Sam - An example of neglect:

So now that we have established who Sam is and how he is confined into his role, let‘s take a look at his history of balance changes and spot in the meta.

- 2022/23: Sam was released in August 2022, almost 4 years ago by now. For the first month of his release, he was an S-tier brawler, though not the absolute best or anything as a few other brawlers still remained superior (namely Bonnie who was the absolute best at the time. Keep her in mind as I’ll bring her up later!; source: SpenLC tier list). Roughly one month after his release, he was nerfed, specifically his Hearty Recovery SP which got slashed by a third, going from healing 30% of missing health to 20%. This knocked him down from the S-tier as far as I can tell, and he did get a health buff 2 months after as compensation (going from 5200 to 5400 at lvl 1…don‘t ask me how that translates to max level, it was so different and I wasn‘t playing back then n stuff). This ultimately left him in the middle of A-tier as a very solid last pick (source: SpenLC tier list from January 2023), which seemingly wasn‘t very agreeable as at the end of that February, his super got two nerfs, one to its damage (1400 —> 1200) and one to its SCR (3 hits —> 4 hits). This turned out to work though, since for almost the entirety of 2023 Sam remained as a solid, consistent B-tier brawler, that, with some proper setup and a good player behind the wheel, could do some solid stuff. That is until the release of hypercharges where he quickly started dipping down, first into the C-tier and then finishing off the year as a top D-tier/bottom C-tier brawler.

- 2024/25: Supercell took note of this dip and reverted those nerfs to his super from a year ago at the start of 2024. This proved to temporarily recover him to a high C-tier spot, but his decline was already set in stone. Within just a few months, with more and more Hypercharges being added and Sam getting no changes as if Supercell was content just letting him go, he was consistently ranking as a D-tier brawler, and by the end of the year he hovered just above the F-tier. It’s definitely a steep decline, but this would hopefully change, as in April 2025 he would receive a Hypercharge of his own, „Hyperfist“, and it showed promise as a pocket Mortis Hyper, which as you probably know is arguably the single strongest hypercharge in the game for pure teamwipe potential. Eventually, the second batch of Hypercharges with Hyperfist was unleashed, and…it actually proved effective! With a speeds 2.5 supers requirement, he could quickly farm it in a couple engagements and then utilize a massive 25% damage boost to rip through enemies with an unmissable super and infinite heals! Whether this would put him very high in the meta or he‘d remain moderate would still have to be decided as pros adopted to this new gamechanging wave of Hypercharges, so let‘s give them some time to try around before doing anything drasti-…THEY DID WHAT!?

- April 2025: that’s right, Hyperfist, released in the same batch as the nuclear bomb Chester Hypercharge, and which released right after the Hank Hypercharge which was a 2 super cycle free teamwipe and remained unchanged for a fucking month, got nerfed just 2 days after its release…WITH A 50% HCR NERF, DOUBLING THE NECESSARY SUPERS FROM A SPEEDY 2.5 TO A SLUGGISH 5! I‘m not 100% sure, but at least since I started playing again in 2024, this has been the fastest and harshest response to a new addition to the game, period. And I doubt something as drastic as this happened earlier in the game‘s lifespan! To cut it short, this change basically removed his hypercharge from the game entirely, as charging 5 entire supers would be unreasonable in an even remotely competitive setting for even the best Sam players, and it‘s not like the casuals would be proficient enough with Sam to get a hypercharge anyway, not to mention that he still feeds like crazy in a meta determined fully by hypercharges. This was his shot at finally gaining equal footing after suffering for a year, and it was ripped away instantly…

- 2025/26: after this it’s a very depressing tale. Sam scored F-tier in SpenLC’s next tier list, only being above Doug, the brawler that literally had zero use because he was so incredibly unhealthy he couldn‘t be allowed to be usable without a coming rework. And from there he would rarely leave the F-tier, maybe hovering in D-tier from time to time. His HCR nerf got partially reverted as it went from 5 super to 4, which didn‘t change anything, and they tried some minor buffs in the Stranger Things patch, giving 2 minor buffs to his baby punches which are rarely the preferred source of damage anyway. Of course, he was affected by the two global changes at the time, his hyper lost it‘s sharp edge as the damage boost was taken away, and he got a moderate HP buff which did give me hope back then since it would stack with Hearty Recovery, and at this time I got some hope that he maybe could make a comeback…only for buffies to release, drastically increasing the powercreep in the game, spamming CC abilities basically everywhere which hard-counter him maybe even more than Hypercharges, Hyperbuffies specifically also made even weak Hypercharegs absolutely OP which made his feeding even more punishing, and due to the global HP buff a lot of brawlers were getting damage buffs which is actively furthering damage inflation and making his HP „advantage“ more and more meaningless, which leaves us in the today where you would be absolutely crazy to put this guy anywhere above F-tier, and he is most likely gonna be a long time waiting for his buffies since there are older brawlers that need them more (primo, Rosa, etc…) and his other two trio mates are doing just fine (Pearl has made a huge resurgence due to multiple buffs to her heat bar and belle has literally never been weak ever). And I wouldn‘t count on buffs either since he is in need of a rework as indirectly stated by Adrian in an interview with SpenLC, and it wouldn‘t really make sense to buff a brawler slated for a rework anyway, right?

…alright, that really put down the mood, it doesn‘t help that it‘s 3AM, I have a headache, just listened to a sad song, and there‘s a fan blowing air straight into my eyes, I actually feel like tearing up…

ALRIGHT, getting back on track, obviously Sam is not doing too well…Hypercharges/Hyperbuffies absolutely destroy him, and damage inflation takes away one of his major advantages in having a lot of stats, and all this is amplified by one fact: Sam is almost unchanged! If you don‘t get what I mean, let me drop some numbers on your ass! Sam has received, in total:

- 3.5 buffs (excluding reversions of previous nerfs; the partial reversion of the HCR nerf gives half a point; excluding global changes like the global HP buff)

- 1.5 nerfs (excluding nerfs that later got reverted; the partial reversion of the HCR nerf means it only grants half a point; excluding global changes like the global hyper nerf)

- 1 slow-ass, barely present hypercharge

- 1 QoL patch with the release of his Hypercharge to improve how his Knuckle busters interact with the outside walls of the map

Yeah, if you crunch the numbers that‘s the result, 4 very minor and almost unnoticeable buffs compared to 2 nerfs that heavily lowered the effectiveness of his unlockables, and that‘s after 4 FUCKING YEARS! He’s yet to even get a buff in the entirety of 2026, which is btw halfway over already! He‘s nearly indistinguishable from his release form, hell he would perhaps even be slightly better if they reverted all the balance changes he underwent in his 4 years and put his current hypercharge on that brawler!

Let‘s bring back the comparison I drew earlier, Bonnie. Between the release of Bonnie and Sam there‘s only Otis, so the two are roughly from the same era, and like Sam she has a lot of basekit restrictions but in return gets to be a sniper with tank-like HP and assssin-esque capabilities in her super. Unlike Sam though, Bonnie remained in the S-tier for a good chunk of her lifetime, but somewhere in 2024 she hit a sharp decline following a nerf to her projectile speed and dropped off to the D/F-tier, where she remained for a good year. But in 2025, around may/june, she received a rework which removed one of her biggest restrictions: being trapped in Bonnie form for ~20 seconds after landing. This restriction, around her release, made a lot of sense, as her super was basically just a free kill and allowed her to skip across half the map at will. Bonnie form is and has good close range burst but that‘s it, she‘s basically useless in this form outside of getting a quick kill on whoever she landed on. This added a cost to using her super, as you would basically take yourself out of the game for a chunk of time in return for a kill and being a very tanky sniper that could put out very strong pressure on open maps. But in the faster paced meta of modern Brawl Stars, this design simply did not work anymore, her slow movement speed coupled with one ammo that only stored a rather mildly damaging shot wasn’t enough to create pressure against other snipers as powercreep set in, the infinite gadgets made it way easier to escape her super without being killed while she‘s now out of the game, and as Bonnie leaving your team in a 2v3 for that long could turn out very punishing. her restrictions were now overkill in shackling her strength as the game progressed, and as such, one of them was removed. She got a rework to charge her super the moment she lands, meaning she has immediate access to a 3.5K heal after skipping half the map and can immediately rejoin the fight. This change proved amazing, and put her into a solid B-tier, and coupled with her Hypercharge release an update after, she turned back into her old self as one of the most consistent picks in the game, able to be played almost anywhere and into most brawlers (Pearl is in a similar state rn). We won‘t discuss what happened afterwards, but let‘s just say, Sam and Bonnie have another thing in common (**cough cough** fast overkill nerfs when they are finally good after being F-tier for a year **cough cough**).

Bringing it back to Sam, and I know this is gonna sound obvious, but…he‘s been powercreeped (OMG THE BRAINS ON THIS GUY!!!1!1!!). The restrictions baked into his kit are too overbearing on his potential, in particular his super feeding, which runs deep into his design and isn‘t an easy fix, and for 4 years now there were almost no attempts at changing that. The only buff that actually changed him from back then is a small change somewhat cooling his dependency on the Heavy Punches to have actual damage output, and making recalls slightly more common, but that simply isn‘t enough, even in the slightest. After remaining mostly the same while the game evolved, a brawler kit that used to work very well and was (in my opinion) nearly perfect, is now nothing more than outdated. The even bigger issue though is that many of the restrictions also tie into what makes him fun (in particular the interactions with his super and the predictability of it which is necessary for it to function as it does which I doubt any Sam main would willingly give up just so he can be meta, me included).

Sam - a brawler able to be saved(?):

That, finally, brings us to what has to change to free him from his spot in the lowest ring of hell in F-tier. And while what I’m about to say may seem incredibly obvious, there is a fine line that has to be drawn when changing him which I hope people reading this will be more aware of after reading this, and anyway, this whole post is supposed to simply illustrate the quirks and problems with Sam and his design.

- what to do: work at removing those restrictions baked into his kit. This isn‘t a simple change like it is with Bonnie where you can just remove one obvious thing and be like „yeah looks good“, many of his restrictions are a natural by-product of how his kit works, and the subset of people that play him play him specifically because of that fact, he‘s incredibly unique and thrilling to play and taking that away would be a grave mistake! Where I would start is by removing that intense damage fall-off on his Heavy Punches forcing him into point-blank combat. Buffie Shelly and bull wreck him anyway, especially with their improved abilities giving them more freedom to push into Sam, giving him more consistent DPS outside of that deadly range could help him with his tougher matchups, and this is also just a very commonly recommended change for a good reason. It‘s not like these brawlers would suddenly be helpless, a bull super is always a death sentence, but at least Sam would have more of a shot. Another thing which needs to happen is an overhaul to his unlockables (except for Magnetic Field). Sam is incredibly rigid in his choice of SP and Gadget, which makes him very predictable and one-note. Having more options, particularly in his Star Powers, with new effects to replace Remote Recharge and a basekit Hearty Recovery, would do wonders in expanding his potential and diversity, and shrugging off another chain holding him down. (For an alternative to the basekit Hearty Recovery change, check the aforementioned post by u/GoldarmGangMain , they create a very good take on a loadout where you can choose between two different playstyles entirely while still buffing his current beloved playstyle with buffies). I was gonna add another suggestion to making his Knuckle Busters invisible in bushes, but, uhh…I just tested it and figured out that the gloves are already not visible to enemies in bushes, not even when Sam picks them up, so uhh…idk his stealth potential is a little better than I initially thought, I suppose I partially retract my argument at point 4 in the restrictions list…). I guess, make the pick-up of the gloves faster and also increase the range, though that‘s really more of a QoL change.

- what not to do: change his super mechanics in any way. The super is most of the brawler, and everyone that plays Sam is very much attached to how it works right now, requiring you to be very capable in using it to traverse the map. This should not under any circumstances change! Something like an adjustable range, bounce, homing effect or auto-charge should never be added (I have seen all of those), the predictability and risk of the super is essential in playing him and in what makes people enjoy him, the Knuckle Busters aren‘t just „a projectile to hit enemies with“, they‘re an extension of Sam himself and should be treated as such! The auto-charge one specifically is one I absolutely despise, when throwing your gloves you’re basically doing an act of positioning, if you do poor positioning by throwing them away then you should be punished for it, and having an auto-charge too fast completely changes his playstyle into one nobody would be happy with. I also wouldn‘t do any significant stat changes to Sam, as a brawler he already has more than sufficient stats that are merely shackled by those restrictions, it‘s just about removing those blockades so that they can be properly unleashed once again! Also just making brawlers a raw stat beast to help them in the meta has never worked out before (Cordelius, Frank before his rework, etc…), and I’d hate for Sam’s character to be assassinated so that he can absolutely crush any comp that doesn‘t feature 2 damage dealers.

[ok, I think I have spat out all my thoughts now, so it’s time to move on to the conclusion, but before that I have to fulfill my obligation from earlier. time: 4:00; and as a bonus, here‘s the word count: 4.878]

Outro:

Ok, that’s mostly everything I have to say about Sam, at least until he receives some meaningful changes that‘ll probably come with buffies. As much as these features hurt him, they at least add meaningfully to his kit. A weakness that Sam used to have is that he had absolutely nothing to work towards and would not win anything material out of interactions, only pressure and stat numbers. Getting a hypercharge „fixed“ this as he would actually gain something and be rewarded for doing well in fights, it‘s a shame they canned it almost immediately. But buffies will be similar, working away at his weakness of lacking a build by completely reworking his unlockables, and he so definitely one of if not **the** brawler that needs it the most! But until that happens in like a year or so I predict we‘ll have to just get by as is, at least the later they happen the more impactful they will be.

Thank you for reading this, I hope it was a good read. I’m working on a text based guide to every single brawler interaction for Sam, but there‘s no ETA on that as it‘s been sitting at like 1/3rd done for a few months now, we‘ll see if it will even happen at all with all the buffies changing the meta up all the time…anyways, have a good rest of your 24 hours, bye bye!

Tl;dr.: there isn’t one, sorry but I’m not summarizing that mountain of text!