Merge Tactics: The Broken Undead Super Ramp Strategy

The Undead Super Ramp Strategy

The new Merge Tactics season quietly changed one of the most important rules in the game: Traits no longer only affect the units that belong to them, they now buff your entire team. That single change turns Undead from a niche stacking Trait into the engine of the most unbalanced comp Ricky Royale says he has ever seen, because every stat it ramps now lands on your Super troop as well.

This guide is based on Ricky Royale's video, where he tests the strategy across three runs with three different Modifiers (merge training, equipment training and trait training) and three different Supers: Ram Rider, Dark Prince and Hog Rider. Below we cover how the ramp actually triggers, which Super to build around, the supporting Undead shell, a stage-by-stage game plan, and an honest look at where the comp falls short.

How The Trait Change Works

The core of the strategy is a rules change Ricky Royale flags at the very start of the video: Traits now apply to your whole board, not just to the Troops that carry the Trait. In practice that means your carry no longer has to be tagged Undead for Undead to matter.

Team-wide Traits: every Trait bonus you activate is now shared, including with your Super troop.
Undead ramp: Ricky Royale watches his Ram Rider HP specifically when allied Troops die, and confirms on camera that the number goes up.
Live proof: the Ram Rider sits at 4719 HP before a round, climbs mid-fight, and is still above 5,000 HP at the start of the next one.

Key insight: the ramp carries over between rounds, so your Super ends the game with stats no normal Troop on the board can match.

You do not need a huge Trait breakpoint either. In the second run Ricky Royale starts with only Witch and Skeleton King online, still gets meaningful ramp, then adds a third Undead body simply because there is no real cost to running it.

Why The Super Is The Carry

Your Super troop is already the tankiest, hardest-hitting unit you own. Bolting a team-wide Undead ramp onto it is what makes this comp unfair: you stack growth on a unit that starts ahead of everything else on the board.

The Supers Ricky Royale Tested

Hog Rider: the word on the street, as he puts it, is that this is the most broken Super right now, mostly because of the Earthquake. He gets hit by one in game one and calls it disgusting. His own Hog Rider run finished at roughly 6k HP and 680 damage.
Dark Prince: the surprise standout. Even at 1 star he is dangerous, and his splash plus his natural shield goes silly once Equipment piles on. Ricky Royale measures 4976 HP and 495 damage early, then almost 6k HP and 831 damage later, calling him "a mobile princess from last season".
Ram Rider: the first test subject and clearly strong, but the ramp was slower in that run because his Undead count stayed low early.

Pro tip: Ricky Royale suggests playing your Super earlier instead of building four Undead first, so it starts collecting ramp from more rounds.

⚠️ The ramp only pays off if bodies are dying on your side of the board. In game one the Ram Rider picked up only about 300 extra HP in a round where the fight resolved fast.

Building The Undead Shell

The support package is simple: play cheap Undead bodies, hit their merges, and let the Trait do the work. You are not asking these units to carry, you are asking them to keep the ramp ticking.

Witch: the most important support. Her skeleton spawns keep feeding the ramp, and Ricky Royale repeatedly prioritises Witch merges across all three runs.
Skeleton King: an easy Undead body and the best buff recipient on the board. In game three he soaks a 60% attack speed buff and starts swinging absurdly fast.
Bomber: cheap Undead filler that three-stars quickly. Ricky Royale is happy to sacrifice Bomber progress once the Super is clearly good enough to carry alone.
Royal Ghost: turns up as a bonus Undead body when extra team size unlocks, and he simply keeps it.
Giant Skeleton: another Undead option the shop offered him late, worth taking for board size.

Around that shell you flex whatever the shop gives you. Across the three runs Ricky Royale slots in Musketeer, Golden Knight and Queen, and experiments with Clan and Rider now that every Trait benefits the whole team.

Pro tip: the Rider synergy leaves a trail behind the unit carrying it. Ricky Royale puts his Hog Rider all the way at the back to create the longest possible trail and land the buff on Skeleton King. He also floats pairing the attack speed with Forest as the next level of this.

Getting Merges On Your Super

Star levels still matter, and the video spends real time trying to push the Super to 3 star and even 4 star. Ricky Royale is openly unsure about the exact rules, so treat this as a working theory rather than confirmed mechanics.

The sell trick: in game one he sells his starting Ram Rider copy and immediately starts seeing Ram Rider offers after getting zero merges before. His read is that you may need to sell the original copy first.
Not always needed: by game two he says he might not have to sell the Super copy at all to get merges, so the behaviour is inconsistent enough that you should just watch your shop.
Chase the four star: in game three he goes hard for a 4 star Hog Rider and keeps missing merges because he is talking. Locking in matters, especially under a merge-count Modifier.

⚠️ Do not wreck your board chasing star levels. Ricky Royale's own conclusion in game three is that the Hog Rider by itself is more than enough to carry.

Game Plan By Stage

Early Game

Identify your Super and get it on the board early so the ramp starts collecting sooner.
Open Undead immediately. In game three Ricky Royale checks the lobby, sees nobody else contesting it, and cycles the bench freely.
Abuse the season's generous Elixir economy. He repeatedly points out how easy it is to build a bench cycle and get Eco going under these Modifiers.

Mid Game

Get Witch and Skeleton King down first, then add a third and fourth Undead body as team size opens up.
Scout the lobby. In game two he tracks the Builder player holding his Witch copies and waits for them to be knocked out.
Dump Equipment onto the Super. The Dark Prince with Equipment plus his own ability ends up with a shield Ricky Royale calls "actually insane", and the Pekka sword pushes him toward 1,000 damage per splash hit.

Late Game

Take the extra team size and add more Undead bodies rather than swapping to a new carry.
Position your Super at the back if you are running the Rider synergy to maximise the trail.
Keep hitting merges. Once the ramp is fully online his boards wipe opponents out of the lobby outright.

Strengths And Weaknesses

Strengths

✅ Team-wide Traits mean the Undead ramp lands on your Super, which is already the strongest unit you own.

✅ The Undead shell is cheap, largely uncontested, and easy to three-star with the current Elixir economy.

✅ It works with any Super: Hog Rider, Dark Prince and Ram Rider all delivered in the video.

✅ Equipment stacks on top, turning the Dark Prince into a shielded splash monster at nearly 6k HP and 831 damage.

Weaknesses

❌ The ramp needs bodies to die on your board. Rounds that resolve instantly barely move your stats.

❌ Merging the Super is inconsistent and Ricky Royale never fully pins down how the copies enter the pool.

❌ Managing merges while playing the board is genuinely hard, and he admits to dropping several under the merge Modifier.

⚠️ These runs were played at low ranks against weaker boards. Ricky Royale is upfront that the real test is higher up the ladder, though he says he sees the vision.

Key Units & Traits

Undead: The core Trait: it now ramps stats for your entire team, including your Super troop.
Hog Rider: Said to be the most broken Super in the season thanks to the Earthquake damage.
Dark Prince: Splash damage plus a natural shield that goes absurd once Equipment is stacked on him.
Ram Rider: A solid ramp target and the unit Ricky Royale uses to prove the Undead HP scaling works.
Witch: Priority Undead support: her skeleton spawns keep feeding the ramp, so merge her early.
Skeleton King: Cheap Undead body and the best target for attack speed and Rider trail buffs.
Bomber: Easy Undead filler that three-stars fast, but sacrifice it if your Super needs the resources.
Rider: Flex Trait that leaves a trail behind your carry: place the Super at the back to maximise it.

TL;DR

✅ Traits now buff your whole team, so the Undead ramp applies to your Super troop.
✅ Play your Super early so it collects ramp from as many rounds as possible.
✅ Build the shell around Witch, Skeleton King and Bomber for cheap Undead bodies.
✅ Hog Rider is reportedly the strongest Super right now, with Dark Prince close behind once he gets Equipment.
✅ Ricky Royale's Hog Rider finished around 6k HP and 680 damage after full ramp.
⚠️ The ramp is weak when rounds end fast: you need bodies dying for the stats to stack.
⚠️ Merging your Super is inconsistent, so do not throw away your board chasing a 4 star.

This is the most unbalanced thing in Merge Tactics right now and Ricky Royale says as much: pairing a team-wide Undead ramp with an already oversized Super troop gives you a carry that simply outgrows every board it faces. The caveats are real, since these runs were played at low ranks against soft boards, the ramp does little when fights end instantly, and merging the Super is still poorly understood. Even so, the shell is cheap, uncontested and works with Hog Rider, Dark Prince or Ram Rider, which makes it well worth forcing while climbing this season until it gets patched.