Depth: Evolution and Build Guide

While I consider myself a pretty good and experienced shark player, I am nowhere near the best and there are a lot of players who must have tested all these evolutions and builds on different sharks more than I have, and have more experience testing builds against high level divers. However, for the most part I think my skill and experience is sufficient but I will comment when I don’t think I have tested/used something enough to be completely sure.
This guide will be divided into two main sections: one a rundown of the individual evolutions and how good they are, and the next a build guideline for each shark. For the builds section it is important to note a few things. Firstly, there will never be an absolute best build and there will always be some sort of situationality and improvisation to your builds, but I think the starting core evolutions for each shark should be basically the same every match and having a concrete build plan to follow should be helpful for less experienced players.
Lastly, shoutout to Ray and their incredible guide, How to Shark. A lot of this guide was inspired buy that guide’s evolutions and builds section. If you want some additional information on builds/evolutions and a ton of other information and tips on the game I would highly recommend that guide. It’s better than mine and the only reason I’m making this is because Ray’s isn’t fully updated for every shark.

Rundown on the usefullness of each evolution. Because the ability for each shark is instrumental to how they are played and how you spend your evolution points, I will go over them first. For reference, the first and second upgrades each cost 20 points.

The tiger’s base ability lasts for two seconds and has two main effects. It makes you more transparent and harder to see (although it’s very important to note you are not invisible) and also avoids all forms of detection (flares, tags, sensors, and sonar buoys and spears). Upgrading it once increases the duration to two seconds, and the second upgrade to 5 seconds. While a fantastic ability, I don’t think it’s a great place to invest your evolution points. While I often end up putting 20 points into it for the first duration increase, it should definitely not be prioritized over your core build and is basically just a luxury. Upgrading it all the way for the 5 second duration is very good but I also find the additional recharge wait to be annoying at level 3. If you go in, grab a diver, and escape, it usually stays active through the whole process and then you have to wait the full recharge time to use it again.

As the tiger’s counterpart, lemon also has a cloaking ability but this time it is much more instrumental to playing lemon. Similar to Adaptive Hide, Stalk makes you transparent and much harder to see. However, it lasts indefinitely unless you attack or get spotted by a diver. It also improves your thrash damage if you grab a diver off of a lunge/dart while cloaked, but also has an absolutely brutal recharge time. At level 1 it gives you 110% damage and has a 20 second recharge, which improves to 120% and 18 seconds at level 2 and 130% and 15 seconds at level 3. Maxing out the ability is highly advised for lemon.

The bull shark is also heavily defined by its ability. The bull slowly gains range when you are close enough to the divers, and the rage gain is increased by diver activity like shooting, placing equipment, etc. When you activate your ability you get extra health, stamina, and thrash damage based on how much your rage bar is filled. At level 1 you have a max of 150% health and stamina as well as 166% thrash damage. Upgrading it doesn’t change your damage, but it increases your health and stamina to 170% at level 2 and then to 200% at level 3. Each upgrade also allows you to gain rage faster. Fully upgrading Engrage is highly advised for bull.

In short, copper is a terrible shark, and its ability sucks. A lot of newer players fall into the trap of expecting it to be very good because being invincible sounds completely broken on paper. However, when you are about to die and survive because of the ability you drop any diver in your mouth. Enrage is bad because it basically doesn’t help you get kills at all. It has a similar system to the bull’s ability where you gain rage and then your ability is better depending on how much rage you get. Endure can keep you invulnerable for a maximum of 4 seconds, and this doesn’t change with upgrades. Level 2 gives 120% rage gain, and level 3 140% rage gain. I’ll be honest and say I barely use copper (because it’s horrible) and haven’t tested a lot with it, but I don’t see upgrading the ability purely for rage gain to be to be beneficial.

Great white is the tankiest shark in the game due to its health pool and great ability. Juggernaut gives you 30% damage resistance for 3 seconds, which increases to 40% at level 2 and 50% at level 3. Level 3 also ignores nets and drag while Juggernaut is active, although they will resume effect after the 3 seconds is over. Although duration does not improve, upgrading Juggernaut is very worthwhile and should be one of the first things you do as great white.

Thresher is another shark that would be absolutely horrible without its ability. Tail lash hits nearby divers, including but not limited to the one currently in your mouth, for instant damage. It does 40 damage to start and then 50 damage at level 2 and 60 at level 3. For reference, divers have 100 health. Level 2 also allows Tail Lash to destroy walls and other destroyable parts of the environment, and level 3 allows it to destroy PATs, buoys, and shark screens. Upgrading Tail Lash is a very good use of evolution points.

Bigeye’s ability works similarly to thresher but with some key differences. It doesn’t do instant damage but will, obviously, knock divers back and inflict damage to them if they get knocked into walls. Unlike the regular thresher, it doesn’t do set damage but rather depends on how hard the diver gets knocked into something. Because of this, it also doesn’t do any damage to a diver you have in your mouth, which makes Bigeye better suited to doing hit and runs with your ability (often called drive-bys) and only finishing off weakened divers or easy targets with your thrashing. The game provides numbers for the Knockback ability and says Knockback Force increases with each upgrade, but to be honest I don’t really understand how the numbers work. What I do understand is upgrading the ability has a noticeable impact on how much damage you do, which makes it a very great purchase.

Hammer’s ability goes hand in hand with it’s tendency to smash divers into walls for extra damage. While active, Relentless Force gives you extra stamina when you bash into things, proportional to how much force you smash into it with. It lasts for 4 seconds, then increases to 6 seconds at level 2, but then level 3 makes it so you get extra health. It’s a great place to invest your evolution points into but not until you get a couple other things first.

Mako has a tendency to turn into a super soldier by the late game largely thanks to its ability. When you use Mark Prey, the diver you are most facing towards will be marked by a visible dark red cloud for 6 seconds. If you or your teammate kills the diver you get an extra 5 evolution points. The diver must be in the shark’s mouth to count as marked kill. If you trigger a mine that kills the diver when you swim past, you don’t get the points, but if you kill a diver with a mine while they are in your mouth you do get the points. When you upgrade to level 2 the mark lasts for 12 seconds and gives +10 points, and then increases again to 18 seconds and +15 points at level 3. Maxing out the ability early is a great investment because you effectively get 25 evolution points per marked kill, but depending on your personal preference you might want a few things first.

Blue’s ability also marks divers but has a different effect. If you kill the marked diver you get extra health instead of evolution points. However, it differs greatly from Mako in that your teammate gets health themselves if they kill the marked diver rather than you. This makes Bon Appetit an effective supporting ability. However, at only +30 health and lasting for 6 seconds, it’s not too effective at the start. At level 2 it lasts for 12 seconds and gives +60 health, and at level 3 it goes to 18 seconds and +90 health. It’s a good place to spend evolution points but not your top priority.

Although not as bad as Copper, Goblin is the other shark in the game that just isn’t very good. It’s ability spawns a hallucination that looks just like you (except if you’re level 100, it won’t have your crown) and swims at divers and attacks them. When it’s lunge makes contact it just disappears instead of doing damage. If there are no divers spawned in it just goes for STEVE instead. It seems like a good distraction, and it can be, but it doesn’t take too much experience to be able to tell which Goblin you should be shooting at most of the time. I’ve seen some convincing Goblins replicate the movements of the of the hallucination very well though too. If the divers shoot the imposter at all it disappears because it starts with just 1 health. The level 2 grants them 60 health, and then level 3 increases it to 120. While it’s one of the worst abilities in the game, it can be an annoyance at times which is why I like upgrading to level 2 to make them require at least some effort to shoot down. Level 3 is basically a waste though in my opinion.

By far the coolest ability in the game in my opinion belongs to the whitetip. Instead of an ability that lasts a certain amount of time, activating whitetip’s ability switches you between two modes: defense and attack. In defense mode you get 30% damage reduction but horrible damage. When you switch to attack mode your thrash does 32 damage per second. I don’t really know exactly how this stacks up to other sharks but its time to kill seems comparable to the standard shark damage at the base level. Defense mode increases to 40% reduction at level 2 and 50% reduction at level 3; the same progression as Great White’s Juggernaut. Attack mode increases to 40 DPS at level 2 and 48 DPS at level 3, which puts it noticeably higher than your standard sharks. For this reason upgrading to level 3 is a great choice.

Getting into the actual evolutions, Hydroacoustics is one of two 10 point evolutions available at the start. It allows you to see diver’s silhouettes from further away, and gives you indicators on the screen that point to the direction of where the divers are. This one is really not useful. The only time you should ever really get it is when there are divers using the DPV. It can help you find them from further away and get the easy kill on them while they are getting gold. However, with enough experience you will be able to track them down perfectly fine without this evolution which is why it is basically a waste of money. Sometimes I get it at the very end of games as a throw away in case the divers start swimming away, but you can just starting destroying STEVE in this situation anyways.

Electroreception allows you to see health bars above the silhouette for every diver and allows you to see their equipment much easier. While it definitely shouldn’t be purchased right at the start of the match, it can be pretty useful. It is very good on both threshers as you can see any divers at low health and finish them off with a quick tail whip. On other sharks it’s not as good but it can be nice if you don’t have anything else you think you’ll need. If your teammate is a thresher or bigeye you can finish off their weakened targets as well. Whitetip can see weak divers that can be picked off in defense mode, and hammerhead can see who can be insta-killed and who is holding a net gun.

Slowly regenerates health over time. Unfortunately, it is really slow. You’d be better off grabbing a seal or two. A complete waste of points, probably the worst evolution in the game.

Does extra damage to STEVE and disables him for longer. It’s a very good pick up in close matches where you need the extra time to kill the rest of the divers (or if they just swim away and you want to end the match faster), but otherwise it isn’t needed.

Gives you ultra fast stamina regeneration for a few seconds after spawning. One of the best evolutions in the game for its price. It allows you get into the action way faster and gives the divers much less time to safely go outside and get gold. The extra stamina can also be used during your attack if you get there fast enough. Most sharks should get it early game every match, besides the few that prefer Double Time instead.

Allows Blood Rage, Blood Feast, and Vitalized Frenzy to activate after eating a seal instead of only after killing a diver. Amazing evolution due to its cheap price and fantastic combination with Blood Rage. If you eat a seal before going in to attack the divers you get constant stamina regeneration. The synergy with the other two evolutions isn’t anything to write home about but still could be marginally useful in certain circumstances.

Reduces dart/lunge cooldown (I believe it cuts it in half). In other words, you can lunge/dart consecutively much faster. Another one of the best evolutions that every shark appreciates. Ridiculous synergy with Powerful Tail makes fast sharks incredible, and helps slower sharks deal with missed attacks and good dodging divers much easier.

Deals a bit of damage to divers whenever they make contact with your fins and allows you to break out of nets faster. Pretty situational. I would only ever recommend it if you are dying to nets too often or you’re playing Copper (it’s your only way to deal damage while you’re in the invulnerable state). Otherwise it’s just an okay option for end of game point dumping. A lot of people get it on thresher for extra AOE damage and better drive bys but I don’t find it very useful because people are probably gonna be sitting in opposite corners against a thresher anyways.

Doubles sprint speed. Very good on a few sharks. Necessary on Great White, very good on Lemon, an alternative to Hangry for Bull, and good on Goblin to further boost your own sprint speed and make your hallucinations faster. Other sharks don’t need it because you should be moving by lunging instead of sprinting, but it also helps you drag divers away faster if you aren’t using Powerful Tail. Another upside is making you faster than DPVs while sprinting, making them much easier to chase down.

Outlines mines for you to see easily. Situational and should only be used if the divers are spamming a ton of mines. You can see mines without it so you should practice spotting mines instead of relying on minesweeper. However I still get it every once in a while if they are really going in on the mine spam. When you pick up Minesweeper you should clear them out for your teammate so they don’t have to spend the 30 points on it as well.

Lowers toxic and bleed damage. I’m not sure if it negates the effects of tranquilizing rounds or not, but nobody uses those anyways. Doesn’t impact tagging (would love to see them buff it so it decreases tag duration). Ends up being a good pick up after your core build in most matches due to how commonly used bleed and toxic are. Fast sharks especially love reducing bleed damage, and tank sharks the same with toxic.

If you die with a diver in your mouth, the diver will slowly bleed to death after. This is another one that less experienced players get all the time despite the fact it’s not good. It’s countered so easily by dropping a medkit, a very common and cheap item, that you end up wasting 30 points. The divers can also go over to the further away medkits too and negate it even without medkits. However, it is one of the better things to get for Copper because Serrated Teeth applies when you drop a diver after Endure activates, and it can kill bots easily since they don’t use medkits. Only ever get it as Copper, in a close match against one or more bots, or as a late game throw away. Spend the points on something to help you get the kill rather than a poor attempt to bail you out once you fail to get one.

Allows you to change direction while lunging. Generally not very effective but has potential. I will admit I really haven’t tested it too much though. Used most for Hammerhead and Mako. Hammerhead can use it to veer into walls better, avoid nets, volleyjets, etc. a bit better, and help against dodging divers a little. Mako gets so many evolution points you can use it to increase it’s agility once you have all the other important stuff. I personally find that Blindside makes it much harder for me to get shot as Mako but also makes it harder for me to go to the right place and grab divers.

My pick for the best evolution in the game. Mandatory on many of the faster sharks and is the sole evolution that enables them, while also staying very useful even on the sharks that don’t find it mandatory. Amazing synergy with Nimble Finned which adds up to only 60 points for a ridiculously good ability. Every shark can make good use of PT and some require it to be incredibly good.

Regenerates health after killing a diver after a brief delay. Also stacks if you kill multiple divers. Sounds great on paper but in practice it isn’t that useful most of the time. The amount of health it gives back varies greatly. The majority of sharks don’t even get much health back, so you might as well eat a seal or two instead and keep the 50 points (you’ll probably want to use Blood Rage + Killer Instinct on a lot of these sharks so eating seals is already something you’ll be doing). Great White, Mako, and Blue are really the only sharks that get a lot out of it, but Blue has its ability to get health back instead which can also support teammates, making it a better and slightly cheaper investment. Great White can get good use out of it as it takes a little while to go get seals with the slow GW and it enables multi kills, but it’s better to get other more important evolutions first so you usually can’t afford it. Mako gets good use out of it because it has so many evolution points to work with and gets a lot of health out of it, but once again shouldn’t be prioritized. Otherwise only really useful in close matches where you don’t have time to get seals, but Headstrong is a better and cheaper option here, and on Devil’s Head where the seals are 5 miles away.

When you run out of health your stamina depletes in place of health instead, keeping you alive until you run out of stamina. Pretty useful and has good synergy with stamina regenerating evolutions but usually is not worth the points and isn’t good enough on its own to be prioritized over better evolutions. The sharks I use it the most on are Mako, because it has enough evolution points to afford all the stamina regeneration evolutions, and Bull, because it has a huge stamina pool with its ability and doesn’t need too many evolutions to function. Otherwise it’s useful on every shark only if you can afford it after your core build and stamina evolution, but usually not worth the points. It also helps negates the need for Placoid Scales in your build because it prevents you from dying to toxic and bleed too.

Instantly refreshes your ability after killing a diver. Also works on seals with Killer Instinct but isn’t that useful. How good Vitalized Frenzy is depends on your shark. It’s basically mandatory and the best evolution to use on Bull. Great White, Lemon, Thresher (it’s important to note that the diver must be killed in your mouth to activate vitalized as either thresher drive by kills don’t work), Hammerhead, and Whitetip love it as well but it isn’t top priority like with Bull. Tiger and Bigeye Thresher could theoretically use it well too but it’s really not worth the points; Tiger gets enough out of the ability with minimal points put into it and Bigeye won’t be getting a ton of thrash kills. Mako and Blue don’t care about it since the ability lasts for a whole 18 seconds at level 3 and cools down quickly anyways. I don’t see any real use for it on Copper. And Goblin can use it for a troll ability spamming build but otherwise I don’t really see much practical use.

Extremely fast stamina regeneration after you kill a diver. I don’t know the exact stats behind it but it seems to give even more stamina than Hangry does. Allows you to slip away after a kill much easier, and gives you a ridiculous stamina pool to work with if you eat a seal when its paired with Killer Instinct. Another one of the absolute best evolutions in the game, largely because of its combo with Killer Instinct. Every shark appreciates the extra stamina. Great White and Copper prefer Adrenal Glands because of their crazy health or Invincibility so it’s generally not advised to spend the 60 (or 80 with KI). Bull and Hammer appreciate it but don’t need it because of their abilities. Whitetip, Bull, and Hammer can also make due with Adrenal Glands instead if you can only afford the 60 points, but if you can get 80 for the Killer Instinct combo it would be much better. Every other shark loves Blood Rage + Killer Instinct, although Thresher and Lemon might have a hard time affording it.

Gives extra stamina when you take damage. Amazing on Great White and great on Copper due to how much they sponge hits, but otherwise Blood Rage + Killer Instinct is preferred. However, many large to medium sized sharks like Whitetip, Tiger, and Hammerhead get good mileage out of it if you don’t think you can afford to save up for Blood Rage + Killer Instinct. The smallest sharks don’t really get much mileage out of it because of their small health pools, outside of Mako which has enough points to spend on it and can use it to improve Ignore Pain’s effectiveness.

Now I’ll discuss what general build orders I find most successful for each shark. Each shark gets a brief explanation of what the build achieves as well as three evolution categories. The core build, which are the evolutions you should prioritize every match, filler, which are useful for the shark but should only be purchased with leftover points, and situational. Situational evolutions are the same for each shark and don’t really have a specific place where they should be purchased. It’s up to you to decide how much you need them and when you should get them based on what’s going on in the match. However, you should do the best you can to avoid taking them over core evolutions. You should have a good idea of which are situational based on their descriptions but, I’ll list them here: Placoid Scales, *Nimble Finned* (if Powerful Tail isn’t part of your core build it can be considered situational because you only need it if you are missing the divers more than you would like), Headstrong, Razor Fins, Minesweeper, and Hydroacoustics. Although the situational evolutions won’t be listed, some of them, Placoid Scales for example, are probably more useful than the filler options.
Also another disclaimer is that I have a bit better understanding of some of these sharks than others.

With Tiger you want to maximize your maneuverability and stamina, because your health is mediocre and your stamina is low.

Core Evolutions: Powerful Tail, Nimble Finned, Hangry, Blood Rage, Killer Instinct, *Adrenal Glands (if you can’t afford Blood Rage + Killer Instinct)
FIller: Ability Level 2 and/or 3, Adrenal Glands, Ignore Pain, Vitalized Frenzy, Electroreception, Blindside, Blood Feast

Build Order #1: Powerful Tail start
1. Powerful Tail
2 + 3. Nimble Finned / Hangry
4. Blood Rage + Killer Instinct / *Adrenal Glands
5. Filler

Build Order #2: Hangry start
1. Hangry
2. Powerful Tail
3. Nimble Finned
4. Blood Rage + Killer Instinct / *Adrenal Glands
5. Filler

Hangry gets you in the action faster and gives you extra stamina, which Tiger badly wants. Powerful tail and Nimble Finned is standard for a faster shark. Blood Rage and Killer Instinct are incredible on Tiger because this combo nullifies its only weakness. If you can’t really afford the 80 points, I think Adrenal Glands is better than Blood Rage by itself in a tight match. Everything else is really fair game after that. I personally like to get ability level 2 and then get Placoid Scales because at least someone probably has bleed or toxic at this point in the game.

With Lemon there’s less of a specific build order for most of your core evolutions, but you want to start with your ability and speed evolutions and then go from there. I would advise starting out with either Double Time or Hangry to get to the divers faster and deny gold. Double Time is better early game because it helps negate your ability’s cooldown (if you sprint over with Double Time rather than lunge with Hangry you can activate your ability immediately and then get it back more quickly once its used up) as well as help you drag divers away easier before Powerful Tail and just move faster while cloaked in general. Hangry is viable because it still gets you in the action faster than Double Time, and future evolutions like Powerful Tail and Vitalized Frenzy negate Double Time’s benefits. If you have extra points later there’s nothing stopping you from getting both at once.

Core Evolutions: Ability level 3, Hangry, Double Time, Powerful Tail, Nimble Finned, Vitalized Frenzy, Blood rage + Killer Instinct, *Adrenal Glands
Filler: *Nimble Finned, Ignore Pain, *Adrenal Glands, Electroreception, Blindside, Blood Feast

Build Order #1: Powerful Tail Rush
1. Double Time/Hangry
2. Ability Level 3
3/4. Powerful Tail + Nimble Finned
5. Vitalized Frenzy / Hangry/Double Time / Blood Rage + Killer Instinct / Vitalized Frenzy
6. Filler

This build is for when you find yourself dying a lot with a diver in your mouth, or just after you kill a diver. Powerful Tail and Nimble Finned help you immensely with your stealthy hit and runs. Next can be anything. Vitalized is probably the most consistent and helps you escape much easier by reactivating your ability right when you get out of the room, and helps you get kills at a faster pace. Alternatively you can go with the other one of Double Time and Hangry for either of their benefits Blood Rage or Adrenal Glands for extra stamina (Adrenal with Double Time helps you save stamina about as well as Blood Rage and Killer Instinct for the same amount of points – Lemon’s sprint barely takes up stamina).

Build Order #2: Vitalized Frenzy Rush
1. Double Time/Hangry
2. Ability Level 3
3/4. Vitalized Frenzy
5. Hangry/Double Time / Nimble Finned + Powerful Tail
6. Adrenal Glands / Filler

If you don’t need Powerful Tail to get kills and escape consistently, you can just get Vitalized for its immense benefits. You can get Ptail and Nimble after or forego them completely if you still don’t really need them, going for Hangry/Double Time and Nimble Finned (because of Lemon’s horrible lunge cooldown, Nimble is still very nice to have without Powerful Tail). Without Powerful Tail you don’t need the extra stamina as much so this build is generally more flexible than the first in easier matches.

Bull is interesting because all you really need to function is your ability and Vitalized Frenzy, so much of the useful abilities are considered filler.

Core Evolutions: Ability Level 3, Vitalized Frenzy, Hangry, Double Time
Filler: Nimble Finned, Powerful Tail, Blood Rage, Ignore Pain, Adrenal Glands, Killer Instinct, Electroreception, Blindside

Build Order:
1. Ability Level 3
2. Vitalized Frenzy
3. Hangry / Double Time
4. Filler

Going all in on your ability usage is highly advised for Bull, even over Hangry and Double Time, because Level 3 and Vitalized are the reasons why Bull is so good. Next Hangry or Double Time both work. Hangry gets you there faster but Double Time still works because of Bull’s great sprint and allows you to drag away divers easier without Powerful Tail. If you plan on getting Ptail, I would say Hangry is the better option. If you really want to you can get both because Bull has a lot of points to spare. At this point you can really do anything you want. I like Powerful Tail and Nimble Finned because it helps you avoid nets and strong single shot weapons. Nimble is also helpful by itself if you are missing some attacks. Blood Rage or Adrenal Glands gives you even more stamina on top of your ability and Vitalized Frenzy, which is always nice. Killer Instinct isn’t really that necessary with Blood Rage on Bull because of how much instant stamina you get. Ignore Pain synergizes well with your huge stamina and health pool from your ability. Blood Feast isn’t very good on Bull because you can just use your ability again with Vitalized for more health.

To be honest, copper just is not a good shark at all so I don’t really know the best builds and build orders. You can build and play it like a worse version of a normal shark or go further into trying to use the ability to its fullest.

Core Build: Hangry, Powerful Tail, Nimble Finned, Serrated Teeth, Razor Fins, Adrenal Glands
Filler: Ability Level 3, Blood Rage + Killer Instinct, Electroreception, Blood Feast, Blindside

Build Order #1: Budget Tiger
1. Hangry
2. Powerful Tail
3. Nimble Finned
4. Adrenal Glands
5 and 6. Serrated Teeth / Razor Fins
7. Filler

Build Order #2: Trying to make Copper work
1. Hangry
2. Serrated Teeth
3. Razor Fins
4. Adrenal Glands
5. Nimble Finned
6. Powerful Tail
7. Filler

Hangry is standard and gets you in the action faster. Powerful tail and Nimble Finned get you in and out without dying and dropping the diver in your mouth. Adrenal allows you to escape easier and is better than Blood Rage because escaping after a kill won’t be a problem anyways. Serrated Teeth and Razor Fins let you do the most possible damage with your ability.

With Great White you want to go all in on using your ridiculous bulk to its fullest. I’ve tried to play around with a “fast great white build” which isn’t optimal but still works surprisingly okay so I’ll include a build order for it at the end.

Core Build: Double Time, Ability Level 3, Adrenal Glands, Vitalized Frenzy
Filler: Nimble Finned, Blood Feast, Ignore Pain, Hangry, Powerful Tail, Electroreception, Blindside

Standard Build Order:
1. Double Time
2. Ability Level 3
3/4. Adrenal Glands + Vitalized Frenzy
5. Filler

Double Time is mandatory to start because of how long GW takes to reach the divers, and it also helps you drag divers away while thrashing. Getting your ability to level 3 should be your next priority because it improves your tanking ability and helps keep you safe from nets. Adrenal Glands is incredible on Great White and helps you keep up your sprint while thrashing despite your awful stamina, and lets you get in and out very quickly. Vitalized can be taken before to spam the ability constantly and become the bulkiest thing in the sea, while also being near immune to nets.

Fast Great White Build Order:\
1. Double Time
2. Adrenal Glands
3/4. Powerful Tail + Nimble Finned
5. Ability Level 3
6. Vitalized Frenzy / Filler

Thresher is by far the hardest shark to build for. It is the the shark that badly wants the most evolutions and thus it often struggles against high level divers and is difficult to narrow its core build down to a specific build order. Additionally, it doesn’t really have any filler because of how much it wants everything in its core build it can’t really afford anyways. Below is the build order I find the most success with, and I will also explain why I prioritize certain evolutions over others.

Build Order
1. Ability Level 2
2. Powerful Tail
3. Nimble Finned
4. Ability Level 3
5-8. Hangry / Vitalized Frenzy / Blood Rage + Killer Instinct
*Electroreception
Thresher struggles a lot with its immediate damage before upgrading its ability, and the first ability upgrade is very important to do half of a diver’s health immediately and get faster kills. Without being able to sprint while thrashing and its poor health leaves it extremely vulnerable to divers with decent aim while thrashing, so powerful tail and nimble finned let you avoid being easily killed and also let you bring your diver into someone else and do damage to multiple divers. Next I max the ability for the last damage increase and to destroy consumables. Hangry, Vitalized Frenzy, and Blood Rage + Killer Instinct area tossup and depend on the situation. If I don’t think I’ll get enough points to make use of the two expensive ones I just get Hangry. Unfortunately thresher is so bad early game I find you need to wait this long for Hangry or sometimes forego it completely. Vitalized is if I need to play faster to win and will also have enough points to get it and use it well. Thresher is basically useless without its ability and the recharge wait usually makes you play extremely slow. Blood Rage and Killer Instinct work well if I would rather save extra lives than play faster with Vitalized. Electroreception is starred because I basically get it at any random time when I might have a bit of points leftover and feel like there are a lot of weakened divers around.

Bigeye is better than the regular thresher at drive bys so it isn’t starved for evolutions like its counterpart. You could forego Poweful Tail on the regular thresher and rarely grab divers, but you might as well be using Bigeye at that point. However, Bigeye also doesn’t really have much in the way of useful filler. With Bigeye you will want to want to focus on increasing your ability to utilize your ability and covering its weaknesses.

Core Build: Hangry, Ability Level 3, Nimble Finned, Electroreception, Powerful Tail, Blood Rage, Killer Instinct
Filler: Vitalized Frenzy, Blood Feast, Blindside

Build Order:
1. Hangry
2. Ability Level 3.
3. Nimble Finned
4-7. Electroreception, Powerful Tail / Blood Rage + Killer Instinct
8. Filler

Bigeye has bad stamina and takes a while to get to the divers, so you will want to start with Hangry. Maxing out your ability’s damage is then a given, followed by Nimble Finned for the great maneuverability during drive by. Electroreception is a great pickup to get easy ability or thrash kills on weakened divers. You will normally want to minimize how much you grab divers with Bigeye, but divers often counter Bigeye by going open water which will require you to get thrash kills, leaving you an easy, slow target while thrashing. Powerful tail maximizes your open water killing potential and lets you get thrash kills easier on divers inside as well. If you don’t need Powerful Tail, Blood Rage + Killer Instinct is amazing if you can save up for it to make up for your bad stamina. It helps a ton with drive by. If you can afford all the core builds there isn’t much of a reason to get anything else as Bigeye.

Core build: Hangry, Powerful Tail, Nimble Finned, Ability Level 3
Filler: Vitalized Frenzy, Blood Rage + Killer Instinct, Adrenal Glands, Blindside

Build Order:
1. Hangry
2. Powerful Tail
3. Nimble Finned
4. Ability Level 3
5. Filler

Hammer only really needs its core abilities to get all the maneuverability, stamina, and health it needs. Start with Hangry because of your slower speed and lower stamina. Powerful Tail next as it is the best ability for Hammer. It lets you smash divers into walls way more consistently. Next is Nimble of course, because it works so well with Powerful Tail. Next you want to max your ability for the extra stamina and health from smashing into walls. For filler you only really need one of the three options for extra stamina. I prefer Vitalized Frenzy because it gives you extra stamina AND health, but the other two work perfectly well. As discussed earlier, Blindside is a pretty solid option of Hammer and even if you haven’t tried it before I would recommend picking it up and practicing with it if you have the evolutions.

Although Mako has a very standard fast shark build to maximize its maneuverability, it’s different in the fact that it gets so many evolution points because of its ability. Because of this I will give it a way longer core build than usual and not really any filler

Core Build: Ability Level 3, Powerful Tail, Nimble Finned, Hangry, Blood Rage + Killer Instinct, Ignore Pain, Blood Feast, Adrenal Glands
Filler: Blindside, Electroreception

Build Order:
1. Ability Level 3 / Powerful Tail + Nimble Finned
2. Hangry
3. Blood Rage + Killer Instinct
4. Ignore Pain
5. Blood Feast / Adrenal Glands
6. Filler

Because of how many evolution points you get the only real question with Mako is the start. Do you upgrade your ability first or get Powerful Tail? Mako barely has any health so it struggles early game until you get Powerful Tail. A lot of players go for Ptail and Nimble first to get out of that early game struggle as fast as possible. Without upgrading your ability, it takes 4 or 5 kills to get this combo depending on how many are marked. On the other hand, upgrading your ability first helps later in the game in exchange for a tougher start. If you upgrade your ability first, the least kills you can get Ptail and Nimble with is 5 if you use your marking and upgrades efficiently, but it’s likely you only manage 6. In my opinion since it’s only a one kill difference, I think starting out by maxing your ability is the best way to go because it doesn’t impact your start much and helps your later game. However, mako is already very good later in the game so if you don’t care about the long term upside of starting with max ability Powerful Tail + Nimble Finned start is a great choice as well. It’s basically preference. Next you want Hangry for gold denial, faster play, extra stamina, etc. You don’t need to start with Hangry because Mako struggles early game and it already gets to the divers pretty fast anyways. After Hangry go for the legendary Blood Rage Killer Instinct combo and you are well on your way to becoming a super shark. With all that extra stamina and Mako’s huge base pool, Ignore Pain is a surprisingly great option to secure kills, negate bleed damage, and save some lives. Next Adrenal Glands and Blood Feast can be gotten in either order to complete the super soldier build. Adrenal makes Ignore Pain even more broken and Blood Feast saves some trips to get seals. Your choice which comes first. Blindside is a great filler option on Mako but might require a bit of practice.

Core Build: Poweful Tail, Nimble Finned, Hangry, Blood Rage + Killer Instinct, Ability Level 3
Filler: Ignore Pain, Adrenal Glands, Blindside, Electroreception

Build Order:
1. Powerful Tail
2. Nimble Finned
3. Hangry
4. Ability Level 3 / Blood Rage + Killer Instinct
5. Filler

Unlike Mako, Blue doesn’t have a ridiculous amount of points to spend and doesn’t have anything to compete with a Powerful Tail start. Go for Ptail and Nimble first, followed by Hangry, for the same reasons as Mako. Next you should go for a max ability and Blood Rage + Killer Instinct combo, with the order depending on if you would rather support your teammate (ability, but it still does help yourself too) or be more self servant (Blood Rage). Both of them are great choices and it doesn’t really matter which order you get them. Maybe you like upgrading your ability to Level 2, then get Blood Rage and Killer Instinct, and then going back for level 3. Ignore Pain is a great filler option like with Mako because of your giant stamina pool, and synergizes very well with your ability. You can be almost dead with a marked diver in your mouth, barely survive for the kill because of Ignore Pain, and then get back to full health after your kill just in time. Blood Feast is basically a waste of points because you can just use the ability for health instead.

As mentioned before, Goblin is one of the two sharks that doesn’t really have much practical use in the game. Thus, it’s weird to make builds for. Like with Copper, you either practically ignore its subpar ability or go all in on the ability for a troll build.

Core Build: Double Time, Hangry, Powerful Tail, Nimble Finned, Blood Rage + Killer Instinct, Ability Level 2
Filler: Vitalized Frenzy, Ability Level 3, Serrated Teeth, Electroreception, Blood Feast, Adrenal Glands, Blindside

Build Order 1: Standard Shark
1. Double Time / Hangry
2. Powerful Tail
3. Nimble Finned
4. Ability Level 2 / Blood Rage + Killer Instinct
5. Filler

You’ll want to start with either Double Time or Hangry. Double Time is very good on Goblin because it is the fastest sprinting shark in the game (it’s only good stat) and sprinting doesn’t take up much stamina. It also speeds up your hallucinations too and helps you secure some kills while saving for Powerful Tail. Double Time is probably optimal but Hangry still gets you in the action faster so it a viable option. Powerful Tail and Nimble should be next because Goblin has bad health and lunge cooldown. These two combined with Double Time and it’s sprint speed make it actually pretty solid at dragging away divers for kills. I like to upgrade it’s ability to level 2 just so the hallucinations have more than 1 health and take slight effort for the divers to kill, and Blood Rage + Killer Instinct combo for extra stamina is always very helpful. Adrenal Glands works if you would rather pay 60 points than 80 but it doesn’t have very good health. After that you kinda just want filler. Serrated Teeth and Electroreception are better options than usually because you’ll probably be dying with people in your mouth with this bad shark and you want as easy kills as possible.

Build Order 2: The Troll
1. Double Time
2. Ability Level 2
3. Vitalized Frenzy + Killer Instinct
4. Ability Level 3
5. Filler

This build is not good or serious in any way. You basically are existing to spam your ability as often as possible. Double Time start to be helpful with gold denial and securing kills early game to give you enough points for your troll build, and it will buff your hallucinations’ speed for later anyways. Next you probably would want level 2 ability so the ghosts have extra health. Then you want to get Vitalized Frenzy and Killer Instinct so you can just swim around eating seals while constantly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ out hallucinations to piss off the divers and help your teammate slightly. Maybe you want to go get two more kills to max your ability health too. I wrote filler on the list but at that point you probably have no interest in getting any more kills.

Core Build: Hangry, Ability Level 3, Powerful Tail, Nimble Finned, Blood Rage + Killer Instinct, Adrenal Glands, Vitalized Frenzy, Electroreception
Filler: Blood Rage, Adrenal Glands, Ignore Pain, Blood Feast, Double Time, Blindside

Build Order:
1. Hangry
2. Ability Level 3
3. Powerful Tail + Nimble Finned
4. Blood Rage + Killer Instinct / Adrenal Glands
5. Vitalized Frenzy + Electroreception
6. Filler

Whitetip has a pretty simple but effective build order. Hangry start because it has bad stamina and bad sprint, and you need to get to the divers quickly. Level 3 ability for the damage increase as well as extra tanking ability in defense mode. Powerful Tail and Nimble Finned to secure kills and save lives, as well as mitigate your terrible lunge cooldown. Next, your stamina is pretty bad (you will inevitably have died several times at this point due to lack of stamina) so you want either Blood Rage + Killer Instinct or Adrenal Glands. Both are perfectly viable on Whitetip. BR + KI is a better but if you don’t want to spend 80 points Adrenal Glands works well with Whitetip’s solid defensive stats. The rest of the abilities aren’t particularly useful so Electroreception and Vitalized Frenzy worked well. Vitalized might come in handy a few times, letting you change between your two modes more often after a kill. Electroreception is surprisingly effective on Whitetip because you can pinpoint divers that are at low health and can be killed while staying in defense mode. There’s not really any reason not to get Electroreception because of how cheap it is and how the other options aren’t too useful. Blood Feast barely gives Whitetip any health back and you can get kills at low health because of your very high thrash damage anyways. Placoid Scales isn’t even too useful because defense mode already negates most of that damage. Razor Fins might help against nets but attack mode already helps you shred those faster. I guess you can save for the second stamina evolution or go for Ignore pain maybe? Try out blindside a little or get Double Time for a bit of extra speed?