How a Top 1 Merge Tactics Player Thinks: Pro Habits Breakdown

Pro Ronin And Bamboo Decisions

Watching a top 1 player is the fastest way to understand what actually wins games in Merge Tactics. The decisions look tiny in the moment: one hex of bamboo placement, one Troop benched instead of played, one three-star unit sold for something better. Stacked across a full lobby, those small reads are the difference between scraping through rounds and running a board nobody can touch.

This guide is built entirely on Ricky Royale's video breaking down four games from the pro player Happy, who hit top 1 this season and lent the footage over. It covers how the Ronin bamboo is really used, the Troops a pro trusts every single game, how items and boss units get assigned, and the stage-by-stage game plan across the Three Star Fantasy, Trait Gift, Orb Galore and Abyss Tile Modifiers.

How The Ronin Bamboo Works

The Ronin is the headline act of these games, and Ricky Royale points out that it is genuinely hard to use well: the bamboo only pays off if enemy Troops actually walk into it, and ranged units tend to hold position and never step in. That makes bamboo placement a prediction problem, not a damage problem.

Place it where bodies clump. In game two, Happy drops the bamboo directly onto his Mega Knight. Ricky Royale calls this the best strategy, because enemy units pile onto your tank and you essentially get a guaranteed bamboo strike.
Round one is the hardest placement. With only two enemy Troops on the board that early, there is almost nothing to snipe, so a whiffed opening bamboo is normal and not worth tilting over.
Use it to close out a round. The standout play in game one is a central bamboo placement designed purely to guarantee the Ronin slash connects and lock in the round win, rather than chase extra damage.
Pathing can matter more than board slots. At one point Happy deliberately leaves a Troop unplayed, and Ricky Royale reads it as keeping enemy pathing on course.

Pro tip: the bamboo scales with the rest of your board. Late in game three it finishes the fight for 29,000 damage, which only happens because the frontline forced everything to bunch up on top of it.

⚠️ Expect misses. In game three every enemy unit dodges the bamboo outright, and in game two nothing walks into it at all: the pro simply accepts the chip damage and keeps building.

Core Troops A Pro Trusts

The unit pool Happy gravitates toward barely changes between games, and that consistency is the real lesson. These are the Troops Ricky Royale calls out again and again.

Magic Archer: called easily one of the best ranged units in Merge Tactics right now, and flat out broken when its ability goes off. Happy reaches three-star and even four-star Magic Archer in multiple games, and at four-star it is strong enough on its own that bamboo placement stops mattering much.
Baby Dragon: treated like an S tier card. It works as a merged carry, and in the Abyss Tile game it is played up front as an improvised tank.
Mini Pekka: a merge engine that repeatedly upgrades itself and other units. In game one it is valuable enough that Happy sells a three-star Magic Archer to pick it up, and it eventually hits four-star.
Musketeer: an auto-buy. Positioning it one hex forward lets it reach the enemy backline instead of chewing on a tank.
Dark Goblin: flagged as very solid and underrated, because its poison deals percentage based damage.
Mega Knight: the designated bamboo carrier and frontline anchor, with a three-star Mega Knight on the late boss-unit board in game three.
Monk: a consistent late pickup. The four-star Monk in the Orb Galore game is described as absolutely geeking out on the field.

Ricky Royale's read: Spear Goblin merges are super useful for non-Empress gameplay, because other Rulers need every scrap of Elixir they can get.

Merge And Sell Discipline

The part of the video that genuinely surprises Ricky Royale is not the bamboo, it is how aggressively Happy reshuffles his board to chase star level.

Sell high to merge higher. Dumping a three-star Magic Archer for a Mini Pekka looks wrong on paper, but Ricky Royale sees the vision: it feeds a unit that climbs to four-star and upgrades the rest of the board.
Bench on purpose. Units are parked off-board specifically so others can be upgraded, rather than leaving everything deployed for a marginal round win.
Ignore merges that do not help. A merge chain on the Demolisher is available in game two and gets passed on, which Ricky Royale calls the smart decision.
Save instead of forcing. Early in game one, Happy declines to sell for a Mega Knight and banks the Elixir instead, then spends it on a Goblin Machine to switch on Goblin.
Scout constantly. The video highlights how actively he checks other boards before committing to a purchase.

⚠️ Dropping rounds is acceptable. In game three Happy still loses a round immediately after landing the Superstar Ring on his Mini Pekka, and it barely matters because the board keeps compounding.

Items And Boss Units

Item assignment is where a lot of players autopilot. Ricky Royale highlights several deliberate choices.

Dragon Scale on Baby Dragon: not for the dragon flavour, but because the splash damage hits boss units hard, since they are all melee and therefore clumped together.
Queen's Cloak on Baby Dragon: used in game one, and Ricky Royale simply notes that it makes sense on that board.
Shield on Mini Pekka: the obvious home for it in game two, on the unit doing the heavy lifting.
Superstar Ring on Mini Pekka: described as effectively GGs for the opponent once that pairing lands.
Pekka Sword on Baby Dragon: called the obvious choice once the board is settled, since the Baby Dragon is already the main threat.

⚠️ Even a top 1 player slips: Ricky Royale catches Happy apparently forgetting to assign the Pekka Sword for a round because he was focused on placement. Do your item pass before you fine-tune positioning.

Late in Orb Galore, the plan shifts to assembling a full set of four boss units and pushing their star level, with the extra Elixir from the Modifier letting him cycle the shop almost like an Empress player would.

Game Plan By Stage

Early Rounds

Open with cheap Goblin units like Spear Goblin to switch on the Goblin synergy and generate extra Elixir, especially under Trait Gift.
Holding the Goblin opener one round longer than feels natural is called out as smart, because non-Empress Rulers need all the Elixir they can get.
With the Royale King, throwing round one is described as simply the best way to play that Ruler.
Accept small chip damage. Taking two or three HP early is not the worst case this stage of the game.

Mid Game

Commit to a trait direction. In game one that means going all in on Forest, backed by a two-star Baby Dragon.
Build the backline: a board of two-star Magic Archer, two-star Musketeer, two-star Dark Goblin plus a Baby Dragon behind a tank is called a very strong setup.
Push the Musketeer forward a hex so it snipes the enemy backline rather than the enemy tank. In game three it removes the enemy Dark Goblin, then a Mini Pekka.
Keep the bamboo on the tank so clumped enemies eat it.

Late Game

Once a four-star carry like Magic Archer is online, there is no point sweating the bamboo: just get the board positioned.
Position around threats, not just toward them. Ricky Royale specifically watches how Happy arranges his board against an enemy Echo and a magic wand effect, including keeping the caped Mini Pekka up front.
Push boss units up in star level when the Modifier gives you the Elixir to cycle for copies.

On the late-game Ruler matchup, Ricky Royale's view is that the Warden counters the Royale King, because the shields matter so much, though which shield you get is RNG and the lava shield stands out for its damage over time.

Strengths And Weaknesses

Strengths

✅ Ronin can straight up steal rounds when the bamboo is placed to guarantee a slash.

✅ The core unit pool (Magic Archer, Baby Dragon, Mini Pekka, Monk) shows up across every Modifier and Ruler in the video.

✅ Aggressive selling and benching gets you to three-star and four-star units faster than playing it safe.

✅ Bamboo on a tank is a repeatable, low-thought way to make the Ruler ability land.

Weaknesses

❌ Bamboo is unreliable against ranged boards and in round one, where there are only two Troops to snipe.

❌ The style means dropping rounds while the board matures, which punishes sloppy follow-up.

❌ Shield outcomes on the Warden are RNG, so the late-game Ruler matchup is not fully in your control.

⚠️ Selling strong units to chase merges only works if you read the shop and scout opponents. Do it blind and you just lose board strength.

Key Units & Traits

Ronin: The Ruler of the showcase: place the bamboo on your tank so clumped enemies walk into the slash.
Magic Archer: Called one of the best ranged units in Merge Tactics; a four-star copy can carry the board on its own.
Baby Dragon: Treated as an S tier card: works as a merged carry or an improvised frontline tank.
Mini Pekka: Merge engine and item holder; worth selling other units for and pushing to four-star.
Mega Knight: Frontline anchor and the ideal bamboo carrier because enemies pile onto it.
Dark Goblin: Underrated pick whose poison deals percentage based damage.
Musketeer: Auto-buy backline unit; shift it one hex forward to snipe the enemy backline.
Monk: Reliable late pickup that goes wild on the board once merged up.

TL;DR

✅ Place the Ronin bamboo on your tank, usually Mega Knight, so enemies clump and the strike is close to guaranteed.
✅ Prioritise Magic Archer every game: it is one of the strongest ranged units and terrifying at four-star.
✅ Open with Spear Goblin and Goblin units for the extra Elixir, and hold that opener a round longer than feels comfortable.
✅ Bench and sell freely, including three-star units, when it accelerates a bigger star level elsewhere.
✅ Push the Musketeer forward a hex to snipe the enemy backline instead of the tank.
✅ Match items to roles: Dragon Scale on Baby Dragon for splash into melee boss units, shield and Superstar Ring on Mini Pekka.
⚠️ Round one bamboo almost never connects and whiffs happen all game: take the chip damage and keep building the board.

This is not a one-trick comp, it is a decision-making template, and that is what makes it worth copying. Ricky Royale's breakdown of Happy's top 1 games shows the same formula every time: a trusted core of Magic Archer, Baby Dragon, Mini Pekka and Monk, bamboo placed on a tank so the Ronin ability actually lands, and a total willingness to sell or bench good units to reach three-star and four-star faster. It demands patience, because you will drop rounds while the board matures and the bamboo will whiff more often than you would like. If you are comfortable scouting opponents and making uncomfortable sell decisions, this is the clearest blueprint for playing Ronin in Merge Tactics right now. If you need to win every early round, expect some nervous HP totals before it clicks.