Outside of matches, your progress in Plants on Fire is leveling cards, collecting Variants and equipping Badges. Each of these systems has a simple rule in the game's official tutorial and a hard decision in practice: where to spend. This guide explains the rules and uses the simulator tier list from Oct 21 to show where spending pays off most.
THE RULES
- Level: duplicate copies of a Minion raise its level. Leveling improves ATK and the ability and raises the Power Bonus, which applies to all your Minions. Epics arrive at level 4 and Legendaries at level 7.
- Minion Omni Card: levels up any Minion of the same rarity. That's why it's worth more than a copy of a single card.
- Captain HP: goes up with Ranked Trophies, not with card level.
- Variant: a version of a card with a different ability. You need the base card to get it, it inherits the base card's level (level the base and the Variant goes up too) and it can't share a deck with the base. SS Variants are usually stronger than S ones. They come from the Shop's Variant Recruitment with Sprout Coins, and Rumble Chess is a good place to collect those coins.
- Badge: each deck takes 1 Badge and 2 Charms. You usually get the Badge when you unlock a Captain. Duplicate Badges raise its level. Charms unlock when the Badge reaches level 3 and get stronger at level 5. A Badge and a Charm from the same Captain can't be used together.
IF YOU'RE JUST STARTING: WHERE TO SPEND
1. Pick a main deck and level its cards first. Gold spread over 20 cards doesn't change any match.
2. Save Legendary Omni Cards for the Legendary at the center of the deck. An Omni Card on a Legendary you don't play is wasted.
3. Don't chase Variants before the base card is at the level it plays at. The Variant inherits the level, so the investment is in the base.
4. Equip the Badge that fits the deck. While you're learning, a Sun Badge (Fortune Cat: +2 Suncoins at match start) helps more than a damage Badge. The Badges page lists all of them with the official text.
Common mistake: leveling a card just because the copy is available. Before spending, check in the deck builder whether the card makes your best deck.
FOR TOP PLAYERS: VARIANTS THAT BEAT THE BASE
In the simulator, most Variants lose to their base card. These are the exceptions, with the 0 to 100 score from the Oct 21 tier list:
- Sir Rose I: 80.3 vs 19.3 for the base. It gains ATK for every Minion the enemy has more than you, and the base barely shows up in strong decks.
- Cheerbloom I: 89.4 vs 44.1. Tier S, the strongest Variant on the list.
- Leeky Beats I: 70.3 vs 28.1, in 4 of 34 strong decks.
- Cabby Trainer I: 65.3 vs 36.9.
- Lychee Babe I: 51.9 vs 24.6, in 4 strong decks.
- Apple Sheriff II: 75.2 vs 59.9.
- Pom Piper I: 62.9 vs 52.2.
And the ones that lose most: DandeLion II (11.7 vs 94.5 for the base, which is in 15 strong decks), Cashew Sage I (22.8 vs 73.8), Seed Peon I (21 vs 68.6) and Azure Astrologer I (28.4 vs 75.5). If you don't have Sprout Coins for everything yet, start with the first list. The four Sea Rebel season Variants are compared one by one in are they worth swapping in for the base card?.
CARDS THAT GROW MOST WITH LEVEL
The tier list measures how much each card adds to a deck's score at levels 10 and 12. The ones that rise most from one to the other:
- Tumbleroller: from −4.7 to +28.3 points.
- Limejito: from +5 to +25.3.
- Cheerbloom I: from +21 to +41.
- Azure Astrologer: from +11.3 to +28.7.
- Greenkeeper: from +8 to +24.
If one of these is already in your deck, it's a good target for Omni Cards. The game team's daily tip points the same way: the big ability upgrades come at levels 7 and 10, and at level 10 Princeling starts treating demotions as promotions.
BADGES AT THE TOP
The wiki simulator doesn't put Badges in the score yet, so this choice is yours. What we can measure:
- Pirate Captain: 6 damage to the enemy Captain at Battle Start, 60 over 10 rounds, and Charm II reaches 105. Full math in the Pirate Captain guide.
- Coco Coinhog: Ready, +1 Suncoin for every 5 you hold, up to 2. In the simulator, the Dragon Hoarder deck with this Badge scored 95.
- Candlemancer: the match's first refresh is free and always shows one cost-8 Minion. It's the Badge for decks that need to find their cost-8 card early, like Chuckleberry.
SOURCES
Level, Omni Card, Variant and Badge rules: official in-game tutorial. Levels 7 and 10: official daily tip from the game team. Card and Badge text: site pages (version 2.0.1021). Scores, usage and gain per level: simulator tier list, Oct 21, 2026. Spending order: my analysis.