The Cage — Scarlet Butcher
A timed event with its own rules. The Cage is a pure damage race against a boss that never fights back — so almost everything you know about defense doesn’t matter here.
A pure damage race. Only attack stats matter, and your score is your own damage, not the rally total.
More Cage facts
- Your troops can’t die in the Cage.
- The Epic Arbitrator satellite gives +24% damage to the Cage boss in rally attacks.
- •The game’s own name for the Cage is Ultimate Trial. Your alliance builds 2 Trial Cages, at Alliance Lv.5 and Lv.6 (100,000 Food, 100,000 Wood, 20,000 Steel and 2,000 Gasoline each).
What matters here
- Only attack counts. Attack stats and damage buffs are all that matter.
- Defense, HP & Lethality do nothing. There's no incoming damage to survive and nothing to "kill."
- "Weaken enemy troops" skills do nothing. The boss is a single creature, not an army of troops — those skills have nothing to hit.
- •Use almost all Shooters — 0% Shieldbearers, 10% Bombers and 90% Shooters — since only damage matters. Lead with a Generation 7 Shooter (Rin or Rex) if you have one, and with heroes that boost ATK (Tyronn's rally ATK EE, Ada, Kate, Koschevoi).
- •Ada exception: if Ada leads your rally, keep about 1,000 Shieldbearers instead of 0. Her Continuous Destruction only triggers when a Shieldbearer or Bomber attacks — with zero Shieldbearers it does nothing. With any other leader, use exactly 0% Shieldbearers, 10% Bombers and 90% Shooters.
Scoring is personal
The single biggest beginner mistake: thinking the big total rally damage number is your score. It isn't.
Your score is only the damage your own formation dealt. When you lead, your heroes boost the whole rally. When you join, you only send troops and use the leader's buffs — so send as many of the right troop type as you can.
Do both every event: run your own 5 rallies and join 6 more.
Best Cage joiners
A joiner only adds its lead hero's top War skill — so bring a simple ATK or damage boost that works every round:
| Hero | Top skill |
|---|---|
| Flameborne | +30% damage (the skill names the Cage) & −20% enemy DEF |
| Koschevoi | +25% damage, all your troops |
| Phoenix | +25% damage, all your troops |
| Lunarl | +25% damage, all your troops |
| Kate | +25% allied ATK |
| Lofili | +25% allied ATK |
| Vivian | +25% allied ATK |
| Ryuichi | +25% team critical-hit chance (basic attacks only) |
| Worrell | +25% — basic attacks only, so it helps less |
| Samir | +14% ATK (the Lethality half does nothing here) |
| Boogie | +25% basic-attack damage, all your troops Season 7 · based on skill text, not tested yet |
| Rex | +25% Shooter damage, and the Cage is 90% Shooters Season 7 · based on skill text, not tested yet |
| Veronica | 50% chance of +50% damage taken only sometimes |
| Lee | +50% Tactical damage taken — needs another hero that deals Tactical DMG only sometimes |
| Drake | +110% Tactical, every 3rd round not confirmed |
| Wukong | 150% ATK Tactical, every 3 rounds, Bombers only not confirmed |
Best Cage leaders
When you lead, your 3-hero formation uses all its skills and EEs — unlike a joiner, which only gives one war skill. Ranked by slot, so you can use the best heroes you own:
| Slot | Hero & why |
|---|---|
| Shield | 1. Tyronn — his skills do nothing here, but his +16% troop ATK EE still works and boosts all your Shooters 2. Phoenix — +25% allied damage, a skill that works here, so he’s better if your Tyronn EE isn’t maxed 3. Otto — +75% allied Tactical DMG, but only if another hero on the team deals Tactical DMG |
| Bomber | 1. Wukong — +25% Bomber damage and +25% allied damage, both work here 2. Ryuichi — +25% critical-hit chance, and the only Bomber whose EE works here (+16% troops ATK on rallies). Better than Koschevoi once that EE is almost maxed 3. Koschevoi — +25% damage to all your troops. A safer pick if your Ryuichi EE is still low, since his boost always works 4. Boogie — +25% basic-attack damage for all troops Season 7 · based on skill text, not tested yet 5. Whisper — 50% chance of +50% damage for all your troops |
| Shooter | 1. Rin — Generation 7, so the biggest boost to your Shooters’ ATK. Her Shooter attacks can also deal Tactical DMG, and her rally EE works here Season 7 · same stats as Rex, not tested yet 2. Rex — the same Generation 7 boost as Rin, plus +25% Shooter damage. His EE is for solo attacks, so it does nothing here Season 7 · tested: scored higher than Ada 3. Ada — extra Shooter attacks plus a rally ATK EE that works here. The best choice if you have no Generation 7 Shooter keep 1,000 Shieldbearers 4. Kate — +25% allied ATK 5. Mireya — +25% ATK and +20% damage 6. Edwin — extra attacks, but only when Tactical DMG hits |
Why Generation 7 Shooters come first: every hero also boosts the ATK of their own troop type, and newer generations give a bigger boost: +466% for Generation 5 (Ada) and +683% for Generation 7 (Rin and Rex), at 30 stars. The Cage is 90% Shooters, so at the same stars a Generation 7 Shooter makes your Shooters hit about 38% harder than Ada does. That is more than all of Ada’s skills add. In a test with both EEs at Lv.8 and the Dauntless robot, Rex scored higher than Ada.
Your ratio depends on the Shooter you lead with
| Leading with | Shield | Bomber | Shooter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ada | exactly 1,000 troops | 10% | the rest (~90%) |
| Anyone else | 0% | 10% | 90% |
Only Ada needs the 1,000 Shieldbearers — her Continuous Destruction triggers off a Shieldbearer or Bomber attack, so with 0% Shieldbearers it never triggers. With any other Shooter, go back to exactly 0% Shieldbearers, 10% Bombers and 90% Shooters.
Avoid as joiners: Tyronn (his top skill does nothing against a single boss — only use him as leader), and any “weaken enemy troops” skill (Ada's Sweet Smile, Whisper's Curse, Mireya's Stealth Cloak) — there's no army of troops to weaken.