October 23, 2013 March 23, 2019

Epic Derby Guide

By: John FrostRiver

This is a guide to Pet Derby with Epic level pets. It aims to give a basic understanding of everything needed to build a competitive Derby pet to race at Epic. It is written by John Frostriver, a Derby player with over 3,000 Rank.

Player Controls:

Switch Lanes: Use Left or Right Arrow Key.
Activate Derby Talents: Use Number Keys 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Cheer: Use Up Arrow Key. Cheering makes your pet run faster.
Jump Hurdles: Use Space Bar. Press Space Bar rapidly when near hurdles to ensure you clear them. This will help you regain Morale that is spent Cheering for a pet.

Derby Pet Builds

Cost to Cheer

Cheering your pet causes it to run faster, but costs Morale. This cost to cheer can be different for different terrains, depending on your pets stats.

Agility affects cost to cheer on grass.
Strength affects cost to cheer on water.
Intellect affects cost to cheer on clay.
Will affects cost to cheer on dirt.
Power decides your maximum Morale.

Cost to cheer lowers every 45 xp for a specific stat. For instance if you have 195 Will, it costs 5 Morale to cheer on dirt. If you have 240 Will, it costs 4 Morale to cheer on dirt.

Grass and Dirt are the most common terrains, so Agility and Will should be the first stats you focus on raising. A cost to cheer of 4 Morale on grass or dirt is just “ok”. A cost to cheer of 3 or lower on these terrains is very helpful.

Selfish Talents

If you have studied Wizard101 Pets much, you may have noticed a problem with our Cost to Cheer suggestions. It would take 285 Will points to get a Cost to Cheer of 3 on dirt, however, pets cannot be hatched with stats above 250. It’s impossible. So how can we still raise these stats? Selfish talents. These are the talents that most of us hate getting on our pets, but in derby they are highly valued. They raise stats and can help create Derby pets with amazingly low cheer costs!

Derby Talents

These are the talents that show up under the Derby tab on the pet screen. The most desirable Derby talents are Mutes, Saps, Hurries, and Charges.

Charges are great for helping with pets that don’t have the best stats and so have a higher cost to cheer.

Supercharge (40 second cooldown)
Charge Up
Charge

Mutes remove cheer from other pets for a certain amount of time.

Pipe Down – Removes cheer from next pet ahead for 12 seconds. 45 second cooldown time.
Ultra Mute – Removes cheer from next pet behind for 12 seconds. (Very good if you can get in the lead)
Mute – Removes cheer from next pet behind for 8 seconds.
Ssh! – Removes cheer from leader for 8 seconds.
Shush – Removes cheer from leader for 12 seconds. 45 second cooldown time.

Hurries are some of the best talents in the game, and all of them except Mega Hurry have a 30 second cooldown.

Mega Hurry – Gives 100 speed to self. 50 second cooldown time.
Super Hurry – Gives 50 speed to self. 30 second cooldown time.
Big Hurry – Gives 40 speed to self. 30 second cooldown time.
Hurry – Gives 30 speed to self. 30 second cooldown time.

Saps and Leeches steal Morale from other pets.

Bummer – Steals 10 Morale from every pet. 60 second cooldown time.
Mega Leech – Steals 20 Morale from next pet ahead. 60 second cooldown time.
Leech – Steals 10 Morale from next pet ahead. 60 second cooldown time.
Sap – Steal 10 Morale from the leader. 40 second cooldown time.
Super Sap – Steal 20 Morale from the lader. 40 second cooldown time.

Talent Combinations

Hurry Pets

3 Hurries and Super Charge
2 Hurries, Super Charge, and Charge Up
4 Hurries!

Combination Pets

Mega Leech, Bummer, 2 Hurries – very strong combination because the hurries can get you ahead while Leech/Bummer steal Morale from the pets behind you.
2 Hurries, Mega Leech, Super Sap
3 Hurries and a Mute is also a very strong combination.
2 Hurries, A Mute, and Super Charge – another great combo.
Mega Leech, Super Sap, Ultra Mute, and Mega Hurry
Shush, Pipe Down, A Hurry, and Super Sap
Ultra Mute, Pipe Down, and 2 Hurries

Note: You don’t need the most amazing pet to do well in ranked. A pet with 4/4/5/5 cheer cost and 2 good Derby talents is plenty. Preferably Super Charge and Super Hurry.

Advanced Racing

Techniques to leave your opponents in the dust!

Inner Lanes

On turns, always try to stick to the inner lanes. It is the shortest route, so it is faster. If there’s a large difference in the cost to cheer between outer lanes and inner, you may want to stay on the outer lanes. If the difference is small, say 1 cost difference, always go for the inner lane.

Note: changing lanes slows you down, so try not to change lanes unless you have to. If you are low on Morale and you need to jump hurdles to cheer more, for instance, is a time when it makes sense to change lanes more.

Timing Your Talents

Hurries, Bummer, Saps, Leeches, and Ultra Mute can be used at the very start of a race.

Pipe Down, Shush, and Ssh should not be used until later. Wait until the opponent starts cheering before using them. If your pet is a sprinter, you can stay behind your opponents and pepper them with these mutes and then shoot ahead in the last 10 seconds, but it takes a great deal of experience to time correctly. This is most effective if your opponent has Pipe Down, pass them at the last moment so it’s less likely they can debuff you in time.

If your pet is not full of amazing Derby talents, it’s often best to stay toward the back early on and let the other players use their debuffs on each other. Once they’ve used up their debuffs, then you can sprint ahead and take the lead.

Stars & Hurdles

Hurdles – Jumping hurdles helps replace some of the morale you lose from cheering. If you become low on Morale, take the opportunity to jump what hurdles you can. As you approach them, start pressing the space bar rapidly. An icon will come up that is meant to tell you the proper time to jump, but every experienced Derby player will tell you there is nothing more effective than spamming the space bar.

Stars – These are power ups that you will find on the track. Large, glowing stars. They give you a speed boost and make you immune to certain debuffs for a brief time. Different stars last for different amounts of time. They are one reason that it can be okay to jump out ahead early on. If you jump ahead to get the star first, it will give you a short-term immunity and speed boost, helping you to build a solid lead.