Evolution Traits Reviewed

After trying Evolution for the first time in Asheville this past Spring Break, Danielle and I decided to add it to our collection and make it a Decathlon event. It has truly been the break-out star of the contest, and was popular with my family as well on our trip to Lake Travis. With a few games behind me at this point, I finally feel like I have played Evolution enough to have a good feel for all the traits. Over the course of a couple conversations with my fiance, we have discussed all the traits and the relative advantages and disadvantages of each.

Carnivore
Simultaneously the defining trait in the game and one I desperately wish I was just a little better. The dynamic between carnivores evolving new traits to hunt and the successful herbivores finding the right defensive traits while the weaker ones are killed off is truly when the game feels like it's at its best. Any game where at least a couple species are not killed off honestly feels incomplete to me. It's too bad carnivores aren't terribly strong.

Well, I say that, it has a lot of caveats. First off, carnivores are not beginner friendly. Someone will inevitably try to equip carnivore round one, have no food source, and be effectively out of the game from that point onward. I know because I did this my first game and have seen it happen since then.
carnivores have high start up costs and require continual investment in body size, a trait that does not get scored at the end of the game. I already would not recommend investing in one round one, as you only have 3 cards to play with. Unless you're adding carnivore to an existing species, carnivores really need 4-5 cards to get off the ground (1 to get the species board, Carnivore itself, then 3 to increase body size by 2 and pop by 1). Leaving your carnivore at pop one is just asking for another carnivore to eat you, or to be killed off by a horned herbivore. Ironically enough, because carnivores don't think about investing in defensive traits, usually the biggest threat to your start-up carnivore is another carnivore.

No though, the way the game unfolds, typically everyone opens with an herbivore and plays a defensive trait on it, so you start off with hardier prey that might even require ambush or pack hunting to take down. God forbid you go early in the turn cycle, and people see what size you are at so they can equal it to deny you prey. The bottom line is that there are just a lot of ways to make yourself inedible early, and passing these defenses requires a heavy card investment.
It is worth noting though, carnivores get significantly better late game. At this point, food resources in the watering hole are drying up and you really need an alternate food source. To eat anything, you need a leveled up carnivore at this point though, so I hope you started fleshing one out sometime between turns 2-4. They also give you the ability to target your rival to win, and eliminate species to rob an opponent of a lot of end game points. Combined with low food watering hole plays, you can really cull those herds of pesky herbivores as the game winds down.

On the whole though, while Carnivore can and often does play off, it requires smart, conservative play, a large card investment, and a little bit of luck. Just keep an eye on other carnivores who may try to eat you.

Combo Recommendation: Pack-hunting carnivores threaten to become the apex predators with the possibility of reaching Size 12. Take that hard shells!

Fertile
Maybe my favorite trait in the game, as it scales pretty well. You get the trait point, probably 2-4 additional points from the pop increases, and the additional food you eat along the way. That's a pretty good return on investment. Food in the watering hole usually isn't at a premium until the last turn or so, so feeding the additional population isn't difficult. The trait falls off hard on the last turn or two, as you approach max pop and the watering hole runs out - but can get you a ton of points in the interim. If you have Fertile in your hand, you need a really good reason to not play it.

Combo Recommendation: Fertile Defensive Herders! Impervious to attack from anything but an intelligent carnivore once they reach population 6.

Speaking of...

Defensive Herding
For my money, the best defensive trait in the game (that I don't hate). You want to avoid increasing size unless you have to, as each card spent on it is effectively wasted as far as I am concerned. Defensive Herding is great because your defenses are scaling off of something you want to invest in anyway in the form of your population. Moreover, carnivores usually aren't thinking about increasing their population early because they need to increase their body size. DH also has no counter except Intelligent. The only thing to keep in mind is to constantly be aware of your pop relative to the carnivores, if you ever fall seriously behind, if will be a feeding frenzy on you - especially if you're size one and they don't get much food from each one of you they kill.

Combo Recommendation: See above.

Scavenger
The biggest downside of this trait is the overall weakness of carnivores in Evolution, and for that reason, should not be played early. This, combined with the relative abundance of food in the watering hole for most games makes this trait play early highly suspect. However, this trait scales incredibly well into late game when the plant food grows scarce and at least one or two successful carnivores have emerged.

It's particularly fun to run this when you have a carnivore as one of your other species to guarantee it can feed. If you intend to shift your strategy this way, I would start putting as little food as possible into the middle as early as possible to starve out the pesky herbivores, as you will be largely self-sufficient off of a few kills each turn.

Combo Recommendation: Like a good rosé, this pairs well with most things. One combo I might recommend for late game would be burrowing - scavenger. Rationale: Most people lead off with carnivore attacks, so there is an excellent chance you will fill up on food before the first couple rounds run out, and if you get attacked, you can scavenge yourself an get knocked down to your fed level to become immune from everything but intelligent predators.

Horns
Outside Defensive Herding, my favorite defensive trait. Most other traits have a counter, climbing and warning call have direct counters, and hard shell can eventually be overcome with size or pack hunting. Horns doesn't protect you, but it does turn hunting into a zero-sum game. Especially since carnivores rarely have the cards to invest in population early, this trait is extremely versatile. Keeping your size small means they will not easily satiate on you and will have to essentially kill themselves off to get at your meagre muscle.

This unlike some other defensive traits, this scales fairly well into the late game because pop and the food they eat always deducts from your point total. If you don't have defensive herding, and you don't want to leave yourself open to a counter-played predator, this is the trait for you.

Combo Recommendation: Warning Call for economy of defensive perks, or Fertile because Fertile goes with everything and extra pop is useful on a species that might get hit occasionally.

Long Neck
I was really enamored with this perk when I first played it, since then I've grown quite a bit more jaded. In fact, I think this trait is towards the bottom of the list when it comes to quality. Here's why.
Long Neck is great in that it provides consistent to food not dependent on the watering hole. The issue? Watering hole food is plentiful early on, so its largely wasted. And later when the food is more at a premium, it only provides one food for a species that probably only has 3+ pop. It scales horribly, and its benefit isn't useful early.

I wouldn't recommend this beyond a couple campy pairings. First up, cooperation makes this better, since you double the food you get from it and make it scale better. Similarly, foraging can accomplish the same task of making it more worthwhile by increasing the volume of food you get from it.

Outside combining it with other traits though, I can't recommend this trait.

Recommended Combo: Play a species with burrowing and long neck towards the end of the game and keep it at one pop for a free 3 points (+ eaten food) for the end of the game. Just hope nobody has an intelligent carnivore.

Intelligent
You may think from my multiple mentions of it that intelligent is the best trait in the game since it circumvents so many other cards on carnivores. While I think it can be situationally useful, on the whole it's not very good and perhaps the worst overall trait in the game. This is purely because you need to discard a card to get its effect. Every card you discard this way is costing you at minimum 1 point in the form of a pop increase. It's even worse for herbivores, as the effect it gets you is effectively foraging and you would be better off with that trait card in that case.

For carnivores, I think it can be useful in situations where your prey has a good mix of warning call and climbing. It is also useful in situations where there are lots of burrowers or defensive herders. Still, having to discard a card just to feed is rough and if unless the prey is large, it's a terribly inefficient way to collect food.

On the whole though, intelligence is just incredibly niche and not worth investing in.

Recommended Combos: .....Uhh....

Fat Tissue
I started off thinking this trait was amazing. Now, not so much.

First off, it scales off of body size, which as I've said, is an attribute you want to invest as little as possible in. Second, it's another one of those traits that is only really useful in a food poor environment. Well, that's rarely the case until the final turn, and in any event, it will only stop starvation for one bad year. In that regard, it can be a useful trait to stock up on before the final turn, or as an insurance policy, but for my money, there are better traits to put on your species.

There is one really trolly combo you can use with Fat Tissue though...

Recommended Combo: Carnivore.

Allow me to explain. First off, you are already increasing body size on carnivores, so you can get more utility out of it. Second, it protects you from a year where suddenly all the herbivores countered you load out and allows you to then skip attacking the horned herbivores.  But, most trolly: it allows you to feed for fun.

Being able to take an opponent's 6 pop 3 trait species out of the game on the final turn because you can just keep feeding and feeding is trolly and a good way to tank an opponent's score. Surprise them on the last turn of the game and make yourself phat.

Climbing
I don't have a lot to say about this trait because it's a binary switch. If you want to be immune to predators, take it. If you want to find something to hunt as a carnivore and everyone has climbing, take it. You're an herbivore and a carnivore now has climbing, you better find another defensive trait.

Not much to say here.

Recommended Combo: Works well on your warning call species.

Foraging
Pretty straightforward. 2 Food per turn. Feels like a much better trait than it actually is, since you get to use it regularly. But, since waterhole food is normally plentiful, satiating early doesn't accomplish much. It gets a lot better on the last turn when food gets more scarce, and for my money, is better insurance against a bad year than fat tissue is. But, there are better traits you can put on your species, and like long neck, this one really needs to be paired with something to unlock its true potential.

Recommended Combo: Long Neck/Cooperation. The wording of Foraging specifically allows you to proc it's effect anytime you "take" food, which is what cooperation states occurs. A species with Long Neck, Foraging, and Cooperation alongside a Foraging specific can collect 4 food before the feeding even begins for a hard to set up, if sexy, combo. You better have warning call on that center species though.

Warning Call/Ambush 
I need to discuss these two together. First off, warning call - it is the most card efficient defensive trait you can grab, although you need three species to really get the most value out of it. Second, you need another defensive trait on the species with warning call, since the trait doesn't defend the species with it. When you have this all setup though, you're defending three species with 2 defensive cards. Pretty good bang for your buck.

The problem is that like Climbing, Warning Call has a direct counter in the form of Ambush. On the plus side, whereas a predator is likely to grab Climbing early, they are unlikely to put on Ambush unless a warning call species is already on the field, so there is a good chance that after you achieve your setup your opponents will already have thrown away an Ambush or two and will have difficulty pulling it. A good setup, just be prepared to have your shit wrecked by the end of the game when a predator finally gets Ambush.

As far as Ambush goes, get it if your prey has Warning Call or is going for an obvious warning call setup. Don't really worry about it otherwise.

Recommended Combo: For Warning Call, Symbiosis is a natural pairing that's hard to beat. Ambush doesn't naturally pair with any typically taken Carnivore trait, take it if you need it.

Burrowing
This trait is incredibly meh, and by that I mean it's useful in some niche circumstances and is good at what it does, but is so much worse than the other defensive traits you could take in its place.

If you are early in the turn order, this gets better, and it has some pretty great pairings with Long Neck, Fat Tissue, and Scavenger. You're on the clock anytime you have a burrowing species though, and carnivores are likely to prioritize attacking you while you're vulnerable. In that regard, it almost acts to put a target on your back, and effectively takes the best of a trait that actually might defend you the entire time. The good news is that if you get at least one food (hello Long Neck), you'll never go extinct short of facing an Intelligent Carnivore.

Recommended Combo: Foraging works pretty well with Burrowing, as you want to feed as much as you can as fast as you can.

Hard Shell
Hard Shell is incredibly strong early game, where nobody can invest 5 into size to hunt it down, and with one more card thrown into increasing your size to 2, makes you invulnerable to even size 6 predators. This card is effectively only countered by Pack Hunters, although event then you can still keep investing in your giant turtle if you want even Pack Hunters to have trouble killing you.

I rank this one below Defensive Herding because it can be countered with a specific card, or just by enough pop, unlike Defensive Herding which can only be countered at max size by the otherwise unremarkable Intelligence. However, Hard Shell requires such an investment to counter, involving either Pack Hunting plus population or an all out increase in size, that it will more often than not leave you immune to attack for the rest of the game.

Thanks, I hate it.

Recommended Combo: Is there species that doesn't like this card?

Symbiosis
Perhaps the card with the most extensive setup involved, it has a fairly solid payoff in that it can only be really countered by Intelligence. As said above, it really pairs well with Warning Call, allowing you to pile two defensive traits onto a support species and then reserve room for late-game counter-picks on the larger species to the left and presumably another to the right. The only real problem with it is the fact that it means you need to increase a species in size to get it to work, an attribute that does not payoff in the end game.

Recommended Combo: See above. 

Pack Hunting 
Best purely carnivorous trait card, hands down. Ambush and Climbing are only useful if you need them, Pack Hunting is useful all the time. As stated above, the biggest problem with carnivores is that they need to invest in the otherwise worthless size just to each. Now, you can invest in pop instead! Pop that score at the end of the game and eat in the interim.

A point of caution is that you need to be very careful of other Carnivores when you are planning on staying a small size and exploiting this trait. On the flip size, you can go up to size 6 and become the game's apex predator. Attacking things at Size 12? There is nothing size wise that can resist you.

Recommended Combo: Carnivore....duh. 

Cooperation
Solid but again one that feels stronger than it actually is. Getting able to grab an extra food earlier in the turn order feels great until you realize until you realize you would have been able to feed anyway. Combo with Long Neck and Foraging for the ultimate food producing fiesta that will leave your opponents rolling their eyes in annoyance.

Cooperation scales really well into the late game when food becomes scarcer and there are more species on the table, but I believe it truly shines when paired with....

Recommended Combo: Scavenger

Guess what, now every time your late game scavenger feeds, you get TWO FOOD. Yes, you could accomplish the same thing with an additional scavenger trait, but this allows you to effectively cheat another scavenger into play.

Just hope there are actually some successful carnivores by the time the game winds down.


Conclusions and Rankings

So, this is not a hard and fast ranking. Traits will shift around in usefulness depending on the specific game environment and the specific players. A high ranking means a card is almost always useful, and you should seek to use it if it appears in your hand. A middle ranking means that the card is generally useful, and can be used but can be readily discarded if your strategy doesn't call for it. A low ranking card is only occasionally useful, and should more often than not be discarded. Finally, basically all the "binary" cards (climbing, warning call, ambush) are going to sit in the middle since they have obvious cases of usefulness and lack thereof. Relatedly, carnivore will not be ranked against the others as a trait since it fundamentally changes a species.

Without further ado... 

1. Defensive Herding
2. Hard Shell
3. Fertile
4. Pack Hunting
5. Scavenger
6. Horns
7. Climbing
8. Warning Call
9. Ambush
10. Foraging
11. Symbiosis
12. Cooperation
13. Burrowing
14. Long Neck
15. Fat Tissue
16. Intelligence

Thanks to Danielle for helping me hone these thoughts over a couple showers and car rides together :)