High Five was a split character for me.  On one hand I was looking forward to him because he was a dragonfly and I thought that could bring a lot to the table and his aesthetics are unique and colorful.  Then, on the other side, he was the Frito Lay promo Skylander…and I’m not a fan of their promotions, lol.  That said, the more I have played with High Five the more he has grown on me!

Box Stock he isn’t the most impressive character, but often these are the very ones who wind up with great upgrade paths.  His primary attack, which sadly never gets directly addressed, deals 23-34, but it is spammable and he maintains mobility…That makes it offset a bit, but a slight increase would have been appreciated.  Buzz Dash is a typical quick dash move and attack combo.  High Five quickly darts away, or into an enemy and deals 44-66.

Base Upgrades

Poison Cloud is an offspring of the primary attack.  After your Poison Pellet hits at 23-34 the Poison Cloud forms and lasts roughly 8 seconds.  It seems to deal both 8-12 and 16-24.  I am thinking it does this based on proximity or a series of hits, but in the given time there was no definitive answer.  Fly Slam is High Five’s tertiary attack and it really sets the table for what is to come!  You essentially jump up and do 20-30 damage and then slam down to deal 90-135.  Buzz Charge takes Buzz Dash up a level.  If you tap your secondary attack, you dash at 44-66, but if you hold it for roughly 1.5 seconds, High Five darts forward and delivers a much more menacing 136-204.  The best thing is he auto deploys.  You don’t have to look for a shimmer, glisten, or change in appearance…he just goes when the time is up!  Buzzerker Overdrive is where things get interesting…If you hold your tertiary attack button down, you begin to spin rapidly around your targets.  In this time ,a full charge will deal 20-30 10 times AND THEN smash down a devastating 334-501!  The catch here is that you lose HP while charging this up.  You can stop before the 10 hits and 334 and the damage seems to be somewhat scaled back, as is your health loss.  This is a catch 2-2 attack.  You can dominate your opponents, but you do so at the cost of your own well being.

Pollen Prince

If the thought of giving up health to deal damage doesn’t set well with you, or you just really like the Poison Cloud then Pollen Prince is the path for you!  This is a tough path to document because you have to be “in game” vs real enemies.  Cloud Control lets you have 5 Poison Clouds active at once…they also move faster and seek enemies.  The damage increase is minimal.  Most instances of damage remained at the 8-12 and 16-24 range, but a few hits were a new 18-27.  Buzz ‘Em Up combines the Buzz Dash and Poison Clouds.  When you dash thru a cloud you extend it’s life and up the damage, although not significantly.  Power Clouds makes the Poison Cloud extra big.  You can use Buzz ‘Em Up to extend the life cycle, but I found that they deal more damage 27-40 naturally than if you buzz through them as that actually drops the output back down to 24-36.  In theory, you would think that buzzing through a Power Cloud would result in 30-45, but that is not the case.  Overall, I think this is actually a good path, but it doesn’t deliver the same impressive grandeur you find with Speed Slammer.  This path also has a few issues.  First, as mentioned, buzzing a Power Cloud results in them doing less damage…and since all clouds are now Power Clouds, you kind of get shafted on that front.  There are also two things that I think would have made the path much better.  First, if the primary attack itself was directly upgraded from 23-34 to anything higher, it would have made a substantial improvement.  Second, I think that the Power Clouds could have been greatly enhanced if they either detonated on expiration, or you could dash thru them twice (or something like that) to trigger a radial explosion with a larger damage number, say even 60-90.  Despite the shortcomings, I still think this would be a solid path, it just feels a little under developed and doesn’t quite match up with Speedy Slammer.

Speedy Slammer

If you weren’t scared off at the thought of losing health toe execute the Fly Slam, you’ve come to the right place!  We get started with Spin Cycle which seems to pull enemies in and add 2 hits to the charge time, dealing the same 20-30 12 times instead of 10.  Buzz Buzz Buzz lets you dash up to 5 times by holding the secondary attack button.  The standard dash stays at 44-66 and the chained dashes remain at 136-204.  There were some instances of 68 and 92 that came off broken chains and singular Buzz Dashes, but they didn’t occur at a marked frequency.  Slam Apples sees the Fly Slam extend from 10 to 12 to 18 counts of 20-30 damage.  If you are sad that didn’t increase by now, fear not…the final slam, which has remained at 334-501 since Buzzerker Overdrive now does an insane 734-1101!  That is in OP Wow Pow, or Elite territory!  However, you do loose more health than you regenerate, despite the Slam Apples dealing out +5 Health.  That said, you should, at this pace, destroy your opponents before your own health is truly jeopardized.  If you are concerned, just wait for Organic Slam Apples.

Soul Gem

Organic Slam Apples is an upgrade that might make you take Speed Slammer, with or without research.  Many of you, myself included, likely preview the upgrades in game and then see Slam Apples tied in with Speed Slammer.  There is NO mention of apples with Pollen Prince.  So, you might say, “Ok, this is one of those paths I need to take to utilize the Soul Gem.”  The good news is, this does function with Pollen Prince and it delivers the same +10 Health from the apples…however, there aren’t as many of them.  Essentially it is a nice boost each time you elect to use your tertiary attack (which has no further upgrades via Pollen Prince).  If you couple this with Speed Slammer, however, you are very well served.  Where we were putting down a ridiculous 734-1101 from Slam Apples, we were also doing so at the expense of our own well being.  Organic Slam Apples seems to deliver 10 Apples around a fully charged slam that each regenerate +10 Health.  Similarly, this is what you lose when executing a slam.  So, in theory, as long as you didn’t take damage from the enemy horde you are attacking, you can start the slam, fully charge it, and finish it at the exact same health if you collect all the apples.  In a clutter free environment with little lateral movement from the attack, you automatically pickup all the apples.  If you migrate towards more, or different enemies you will get most of the apples, but might miss a few.  You have a few seconds to collect the remainder.  Either way, this Soul Gem clearly favors the Speed Slammer Path, but does at least work with Pollen Prince.

Attack Damage Numbers (Click to Enlarge)

Conclusion

I personally prefer Speed Slammer.  I would recommend it for rookie players, younger players, and those who just like simple to master paths and/or paths that deal insane damage.  That said, Pollen Prince is a unique path and one that I would not hesitate to stick with…It isn’t as impressive, but when mastered, you can essentially keep 2-3 of the 5 clouds on screen and alive.  This means they deal roughly 20-40 while you dash, or fire off the primary Poison Pellets.  I do fell my earlier suggestions would make this path more formidable, but it certainly does stand on its’ own merits.  That said, my vote would go to Speed Slammer for uniqueness and devastating damage.  The Soul Gem pretty much eliminates the downside to fully charging the Fly Slam.