My favourite auto-battler has a big new expansion

The game I play most frequently is free-to-play auto-battler Super Auto Pets. A round or two at my PC at lunch, a couple battles on my phone on the sofa after work, maybe a bash on the bus if I've nothing interesting to read. Lovely game. Now it's all fresh and confusing again with the launch of its latest paid expansion today, adding a whole new lineup of pets to recruit. This here Golden Pack is another pleasant escalation of complexity across the game's life, a pack for professional petpeople.

Out now for $10.00/£8.39 through the in-game store on PC, the Golden Pack adds 63 pets and 13 new power-up foods. It's a tricky one, focused more on clever builds, careful placement, and temporary buffs than immediately jumping into boosting giant stats.

For starters, the new pack introduces a new combat resource, Trumpets. Various pets have abilities which generate Trumpets (often from taking damage or fainting) then others have abilities which spend them. Perhaps you'll spend Trumpets to fling damage and defuffs at enemies, or to buff allies. If nothing else, Trumpets get spent to summon a golden retriever as a last-ditch defender. A clever Trumpet build might not look immediately impressive stats-wise, but then proceeed to dazzle you with fiendish combos.

The new pets also have many abilities focused on fainting effects, or carefully ordering your lineup, or manipulating the shop, or doing clever things with food, or... there's a lot of little bits to learn. I only saw a bit of the newness during the public beta, so I'm keen to properly learn all these lessons.

$10 feels cheap considering how much Super Auto Pets I play, and how generous the free base version is. And as is the way with SAP expansions, you will sometimes get to play with new pets and foods even if you don't buy it. They're now in the pool to get picked for the Weekly Pack, a free mode which picks a new selection from across all sets every Monday, a whole new meta to discover and master every week. A few new ones are there right now.

The expansion also reworks the health system, adds a new progression system with new cosmetics to unlock (including new entrance animations), and fiddles with other bits and pieces.

Super Auto Pets is available on Steam as well as Android and Apple pocket telephones. The expansion only out on PC right now, with mobile versions to follow. I assume buying the expansion on PC will once again get you it on mobile too.