Now I'm not trying to brag here, but I haven't lost a pudge wars game in about 3 months, and thats even 1 versus 5 games, and I don't think that I'm that good at it, its just that I have found the perfect strategy. And I will share that strategy with you now. Now this strategy will only work with version 1.20, 1.19 has a different way hook upgrades work and they screw up this strategy.
So before we begin I will give you an overview of the items.
 Grappling Hook This thing is great if you get into trouble on the enemies side, just remember not to grapple away if you've been hooked by sombody who has level 5 claws, this will most likely kill you if you are low on health.  Tiny's Arm This item lets you throw things! There are a few bugs with this item in 1.20 I have found that if you buy it third, you loose your range, so make sure you follow my strategy.  Strygwyr's Claws All the good old claws. These are by far the most effective item in the game. Get them early and upgrade them to the max. Level 5 has rupture which makes these these the best items for early and late game.  Barathrum's Lantern The lantern adds damage based on your hooks speed. |  Techies' Explosive Barrel Many players like to start out with this one, and they just place them all around the place to confuse and annoy the enemy. It is not a bad strategy, but it is not this one. I've tried mixing bombs into my strategy and it isn't as effective. It's best to tell one of your teammates to do it.  Lycan's Paws These can be useful when combined with claws, but I have found that they don't help as much especially if you want to go with lantern. If you get them for early game, sell them back soon.  Earthshaker's Totem This is a new item in 1.20. It allows you to make walls on the battlefield. This can be good for annoying the enemy, but the walls just waste money if you are going for damage. It's another good item for your teammates to get to annoy the enemy.  N'aix's Jaws N'aix is a good item, the only reason I don't recommend it is because it is so expensive. It's better to spend your extra gold on strength or Tomes of Power.  Ricochet Turbine Another new item in 1.20. Its good if your team has many walls for you to bounce your hook off of, but otherwise it is just a distraction. You get caught up into trying to bounce your hook off the wall so much you miss many great hooking opportunities. |
Alright so now let's get to the strategy. When you first start out, you want to spend all of your upgrade points on your radius and range. If you have one or two left over you can spend a few on damage, but do not get speed yet. Speed will actually hurt your chances of winning at the beginning of the game because you can't run as far making your claws less effective. It doesn't matter as much later because the distance dragged by the claws isn't as much as the amount of damage rupture causes when thrown across the map.
As soon as you can afford it, get Claws, and keep buying them again until you get to level 5. Then get tiny's arm up to level 5 as well. Now I would prefer getting grapple before arm to get yourself out of sticky situations, but there seems to be a bug in 1.20 that causes your tiny's arm range to be significantly less if you buy it third. I'm not sure if this happens if you buy it fourth or fifth, but it is just easier to start out
with level 5 claws, then get level 5 tiny's arm, and then get 1 level to your grappling hook. The entire time you are getting these Items you want to be upgrading your range and radius. This makes it very difficult for people to avoid your hook. After you have level 5 arm this is what you want to do. Hook somebody no matter how close they are, but it's better if they are farther away. Then when they are about one inch away from you while being reeled in, use your arm and click in the minimap somewhere that is farthest away from your pudge. Doing this when they are about 1-2 inches away makes your character throw them the second they come to you giving them no opportunity to run away. The rupture is in effect when you throw them so this will most likely kill them, but later in the game you might also want to send a hook in the direction you just threw them incase they live. Then finally once you have level 5 claws, arm, and level 1 grapple, start upgrading your hooks speed and work on getting level 5 lantern. The added speed will not only add bonus damage to your lantern, but it will give your enemies no chance of dodging your hook. By this point in the game you do not need to run anymore so speed is a good thing to get. The added damage of lantern is more than the extra damage you get by dragging them across the map.
So by this time almost everyone has left because they can't win. You have everything, and the order you bought it let you get a lot of gold to get it early.
There are a few little tips I have as well. When the other team puts up a lot of walls wait until a lightning power-up comes down the river and grapple to them. Continually grapple to them even if you are right next to them, and also hook anybody who is nearby. Doing this will cause chain lighting to constantly attack it and anybody near them, getting rid of them soon.
Also remember if you hook a bomb you can keep yourself from being hurt if you use tiny's arm to throw it right before it reaches you. It won't do any damage to you, but it will use their own bomb against them.
So hopefully this simple strategy works for you in your quest to become the best pudge wars player.
