Should you build Chili Pepper Cookie in Cookie Run: Kingdom?

Chili Pepper Cookie is one of the most recognizable faces in the Cookie Run: Kingdom character library, as she is part of the starter team and a main character in the World Exploration storyline. That being said, she hardly figures in the game's meta and has always belonged to the C or D tier of CRK for almost her entire time. A surprise addition to the recent Cookie Run: Kingdom update was the buff to Chili Pepper.

Read on to find out whether the buff is enough for the Epic Cookie to finally reach into the higher tiers of the game's meta.

---

Chili Pepper Cookie in Cookie Run: Kingdom - All you need to know

The various substats of a maxed-out Chili Pepper are attached below: (Lv. 75 Cookie and Skill Lvl., 5 Star Ascension, Full Juicy Apple Jelly build)

• HP: 200,124
• ATK: 83,510
• DEF: 83,106
• CRIT%: 74.33
• Overall Power: 535,920

Her newly buffed "Cheap Shot" skill numbers are also provided below:

• Passive: For every 1.0% of self CRIT%, increases CRIT DMG by 2.0%, up to 200.0%
• Single hit DMG: 157.1%

While the substats appear to be of a high-tier Cookie, that's where the similarities end. Chili Pepper's buff raises more questions than it addresses, given that even with the buff, the Cookie has largely the same negligible in-game value. Notably, developers seem to have overlooked this deliberately.

The substats, particularly the overall power number, are completely disproportionate to the "Cheap Shot" skill as the ability is miles behind anything close to what one would expect from an Epic rarity DPS in today's Cookie Run: Kingdom meta.

Even with a full upgrade, 5 Star Ascension, and +12 toppings, players will be hard-pressed to see a DMG output above 1,000,000 in any high-ranked Arena match.

While the buff may have added to her viability in PvE to a certain extent, given that her base DMG numbers were also amped up, it is better to get as much use as possible from those base numbers than to level her up for use in Cookie Run: Kingdom's PvE side.

Possible teams with Capsaicin and Mala Sauce were discussed before the update was released, given that all three strongly complement each other with the new "Fire" DMG and CRIT heavy skills.

Such a team does make sense on paper, and the combo between Capsaicin and Mala Sauce is being extensively tested in the arena right now. However, Chili Pepper's DMG numbers are still far too low to be considered for any investment.

C/D tier Cookies like Chili Pepper should only be used in the face of an absolute lack of alternatives. So beginners are advised to save their Ambush skill powders for when they pull stronger Cookies like Black Pearl or Stardust.

Cookie Run: Kingdom players can track this space for all the latest news.

---

Note: The article is subjective and reflects the author's views.