Merge Tactics Top 25 Strategies: Speed, Merges and Best Units

Top 25 Merge Tactics Strategies

Climbing to the very top of Merge Tactics right now is not about clever tech or hidden pocket comps: it is about raw speed. Ricky Royale hit Top 25 in the world and the single theme running through every game is that if you are not merging, you are losing. Opponents are showing up with a three-star Musketeer and a two-star Baby Dragon by round two, which means every second of downtime between rounds is a round you are already behind on.

This guide is built entirely on Ricky Royale's Top 25 run and the three ranked games he breaks down in the video. It covers why tempo matters more than perfect placement this season, the Troops he calls genuinely broken, the Goblin Machine and Undead package nobody is contesting, how he plays the Goblins Treasure, Pandora's Bench and Cursed Tile Modifiers, and the equipment and positioning calls that closed out his games.

Speed Is The Whole Season

The most repeated point in the video is blunt: speed is literally everything, at least on top ladder. Ricky Royale calls this probably the fastest season to play aside from the very first season of Merge Tactics, and the reason is simple. The best Troops are so much stronger than the filler that whoever secures them first usually wins the lobby.

No downtime between rounds. If you are not buying, contesting or merging, you are straight up going to lose. He is explicit that this season allows for no chill time whatsoever.
Round four is the checkpoint. By round four he expects you to already have plenty of three-star units on the board, not one. Falling behind that curve is how games get away from you early.
Merge for the sake of merging. Deep into game one he keeps merging purely to keep the counter moving, because tempo still compounds when the immediate board gain looks small.

Key insight: this meta punishes hesitation more than it punishes sloppiness. A slightly misplaced unit that got merged on curve beats a perfectly placed unit that arrived a round late.

The other half of tempo is the 60 merges milestone. Hitting 60 merges unlocks the orb, and across all three games Ricky Royale treats getting there as a genuine win condition, cycling aggressively even when it means recycling a unit he was trying to max.

Prioritise the orb over perfection. In game three he says outright that he is far more focused on reaching 60 merges than on saving a dying Undead unit.
Cycle to empty the pool. Burning through the shop is not only about your own board: it denies opponents the copies they need. In game one he spends a stretch emptying the card pool specifically so his opponents have no options to use against him.

The Best Units Right Now

Ricky Royale is unusually direct about the power ranking this season, and the list is short. These are the Troops he says are worth contesting the moment they appear.

Archer Queen: called the best unit in the entire season by far. He buys her very early in game one, and in game three a three-star Queen is valuable partly because it blocks an opponent who might be running one.
Musketeer: described as probably the best unit in the game other than the Queen. Her opening ability, where she shoots and stuns, does disgusting damage: in game three she simply deletes a Bandit on her own.
Boss Bandit: explicitly listed among the best units to secure. A three-star Boss Bandit is one of the pieces that seals game one, and his opponent lands a four-star version in the same lobby.
Dark Prince: the best rider in the game, though he is not a shop troop. Ricky Royale calls the four-star version the devil himself: it pummels a four-star Goblin Machine while reflecting damage back onto it.
Hog Rider: in his view the second best rider, though he flags some uncertainty after the balance changes. He opens all three games with the Hog, and a three-star Hog Rider keeps him alive through the early rounds of game one.
Archer: underrated among Clan units, and he happily plays the three-star version when the cycle hands it to him.

Units That Have Fallen Off

Princess: now described as very weak, with even a three-star Princess doing almost no damage.
Her remaining use is as an equipment holder: her splash makes her strong with the golden lance, and she is also good for the control enchantment.
Duchess: he suspects her glory days are over, but flags this as an open question rather than a confirmed fact.

Goblin Machine And Undead

The genuine tech pick of the video is the Goblin Machine. Ricky Royale says flatly that nobody really goes for it and that it is absolutely broken, to the point that he half-apologises for letting the secret out.

The three-star is already very good. He is careful to say his four-star in game one is not an accurate representation of an average Goblin Machine, but stresses the three-star version is very, very strong on its own.
Undead is the ideal pairing. With the Undead trait the Goblin Machine gets more damage and more health, and more health means he survives to get more shots off.
Put the thrower's telescope on him. He swaps the telescope onto the Goblin Machine mid-game specifically to make its super far easier to activate. He calls it a no-brainer he should have made earlier, and the rockets proceed to delete the enemy board.

Pro tip: he describes the Goblin Machine as the only thing that can compete with Dark Prince. If you are going Undead, treat the thrower's telescope as its default equipment slot.

The wider Undead package in game one is worth copying: a maxed Witch for constant spawns, a rage spell on the Giant Skeleton, plus a three-star Bomber and a maxed Giant. The Witch's extra sets of spawns matter because every new body feeds the Undead ramp-up buffs.

Do not break the ramp. Late in game one he passes on maxing the Archer Queen out of the shop because he did not want to break the Undead ramp-up his board had already built.

Playing The Modifiers

Each of the three games runs a different Modifier, and each one changes the opening plan.

Goblins Treasure

Ricky Royale loses round one and is fine with it, because the treasure chest is the real prize.
He deliberately keeps his rider on the board to guarantee the chest by any means necessary. Protect the reward, not the round result.

Pandora's Bench

He calls this a very interesting Modifier with a lot of viable lines. The headline play: if you get a fortunate start, three-star the Skeleton King, because he is the champion nobody goes for.
You then convert that three-star into a champion you actually want to run, which is the realistic path to a four-star champion if the luck holds.
If you are on low HP, do not gamble. With a healthier life total he would have converted his three-star Hog Rider to roll for a Dark Prince, but he played it safe instead. His converted Skeleton King turned into a Golden Knight: fine, not spectacular.

Cursed Tile

Use the cursed tile offensively where you can, placing it to squeeze out an extra kill.
⚠️ Watch your own placements. He accidentally drops his Musketeer onto the cursed tile in game three: exactly the kind of avoidable slip a fast season punishes.

Equipment And Positioning

Placement sits behind speed in priority, but Ricky Royale is still deliberate at the moments that matter: he says he does not want to fumble a game for stupid positioning reasons.

Spread against Dark Prince. When an opponent fields a Dark Prince, he spreads his units out rather than clumping them.
Back-line the Goblin Machine. With the thrower's telescope equipped, the Goblin Machine goes in the very back.
Right-side the Hog Rider. In game one the Hog Rider is placed on the right specifically to squeeze value out of the earthquake damage, which he still rates as pretty solid after the nerf.
Golden shield on your survivor. In game three it goes on the Golden Knight, and later onto the Hog Rider to keep him alive.
Rage spell on the Giant Skeleton, and the thrower's telescope on whichever unit most wants faster ability activations.

Ricky Royale notes that running four of anything is relatively rare. He manages four Noble in game three and leans into Undead in game one, but he only commits when the cycle hands it to him.

How Strong Is This Approach

Strengths

✅ Tempo beats theory. Fast cycling and constant merging is the single habit separating top ladder from everyone else this season.

✅ The Goblin Machine is uncontested. Almost nobody goes for it, so you can build it without a bidding war.

✅ Undead scales into long games. More damage and more health means more shots fired, which turns round seven slugfests around.

✅ Blocking is free value. Emptying the pool and taking a three-star Archer Queen you do not strictly need denies opponents their best piece.

Weaknesses

❌ RNG is heavy. Ricky Royale repeatedly calls the season random and misbalanced, and openly admits he out-rolled his opponent in game one.

❌ Four-star Dark Prince outclasses almost everything. If an opponent hits it, even a four-star Goblin Machine gets pummelled and takes reflected damage.

❌ No margin for error. There is zero downtime, so one distracted round can cost you the game.

⚠️ Low HP changes the plan. The Pandora's Bench conversion gamble is only correct when you are healthy enough to absorb a bad roll.

Key Units & Traits

Archer Queen: Called the best unit in the entire season: buy her early and contest her even just to block opponents.
Musketeer: Best unit in the game after the Queen thanks to her stunning opening ability and huge damage.
Goblin Machine: Massively underrated: pair with Undead and the thrower's telescope to wipe boards with its super.
Dark Prince: The best rider in the game and terrifying at four stars, reflecting damage while pummelling what is in front of it.
Hog Rider: Ricky Royale's pick for second best rider: a strong three-star carry that survives the early rounds.
Boss Bandit: One of the top units to secure: a three-star version helped seal game one.
Witch: Undead engine piece: maxing her gives repeated spawns that keep the ramp-up buffs flowing.
Undead (Trait): The ramp-up trait that adds damage and health, letting your carries live longer and fire more.
Skeleton King: The champion nobody contests: three-star him on Pandora's Bench and convert into the champion you want.

TL;DR

✅ Speed is everything: if you are not merging every round, you are losing.
✅ Rush the 60 merges orb and cycle hard, even if it means recycling a unit you were trying to max.
✅ Contest Archer Queen, Musketeer and Boss Bandit the moment they appear in the shop.
✅ Build Goblin Machine with Undead and slot the thrower's telescope on it for faster supers.
✅ On Pandora's Bench, three-star the Skeleton King and convert him into a champion you actually want.
⚠️ Only take that conversion gamble when your HP is healthy: play it safe when you are low.
⚠️ A four-star Dark Prince beats almost anything on the board, so spread your units against him.

This is not a single comp: it is the habit set that took Ricky Royale to Top 25 in the world, and it holds up because the current Merge Tactics meta rewards pure tempo above all else. Cycle relentlessly, chase the 60 merges orb, contest Archer Queen and Musketeer, and take the near-free win that is the uncontested Goblin Machine plus Undead package. The honest caveat is his own: RNG is doing a lot of work at this rank, and a four-star Dark Prince on the wrong side of the board can undo a great game. If you are grinding top ladder and wondering why your strong boards keep arriving a round too late, this is the fix.