Grail Zappy Guide

Zappy is Grail’s gadgeteer. The character select cycles to a white-rabbit inventor silhouette with the same Play/Unlock flow as Mabel. 1.0 added Steam pack. 0.39 added Plier, a hidden event, and the Iconic Johanna’s prosthetic. If you unlock Zappy to play Toothpick, you bought the wrong hero. This page is his kit. Compare portraits on the characters hub.

Unlock order

Pay trophies on the select screen when his price appears. Mabel’s 200 is the one number we can screenshot; Zappy is the later arrow. Earn trophies by finishing runs, not by opening 40-trophy cosmetics chests. Demo cosmetics carry into 1.0. They still do not add gadgets to Ratagnan.

Play Ratagnan first. Zappy’s pip puzzle is meaner if you do not already know why a card sits unfilled. Getting started and energy and cards are prerequisites, not optional lore.

What the kit wants

Gadgets. Energy tricks. Shock. Cards that do something the moment they fill (the Guardbot instinct, except in his colours). Steam pack is a 1.0 Zappy card — treat it as a pack, not as a Ratagnan attack. Plier is a 0.39 tool; if the text nips, discards, or yanks energy, it is a gadget clause, not a bleed clause.

Shock as a status taxes energy gain. You gain energy every draw turn. A Zappy plan that applies shock to the opponent is a tax on the entire genre. A Zappy plan that applies shock to you is a self-own. Read the card. Status effects is the trigger sheet.

Copper wire in launch footage is a small shock applicator. If it is in his shops, it is a seed, not a finished deck. You still need a kill condition for the 40-turn wall.

Hidden event and Iconic

0.39 added a Zappy hidden event. Take map nodes that look like workshops, prosthetics, or named NPCs tied to Johanna. Skip musketeer canals and carrot kitchens. Secret events exist for all three heroes; they are not shared loot tables.

Johanna’s prosthetic is the Iconic. If it drops, the rest of the shop has to feed it. If it does not drop, Steam pack plus Plier plus one shock applicator is a run. Do not sit on day 8 waiting for a legend while your pips starve.

Traits

Keep traits that mention gadgets, shock, energy, or “when this is fully energized.” Remove traits that mention cheese, bleed, or carrot unless the card is actually in the pool. Three slots. Hold to remove. Trait tier list will lag behind your cardopedia; the cardopedia is right.

Insulated (1.0) is a name that should make any shock player read twice. If it protects you from your own tax, it might be a Zappy keeper. If it does nothing in the tooltip, skip it. Never keep a trait you cannot quote.

Anvil and shops

Upgrade the gadget that resolved. Blister only if you will not need to sell that gadget for gold. Zappy shops can look expensive because gadgets like to wear extra pips. If a fight stalled, take a low energy shop or sell, do not buy a fourth 3-pip. Upgrades and enchantments still apply.

Fat Zappy decks go first (more cards) and then display a beautiful prosthetic that never fills. Thin Zappy decks go second and still tax the opponent’s income. Take the second life.

PvP as Zappy

Snapshots of Ratagnan bleed want to finish you before shock stacks. You need a first-cycle play, not a museum of pliers. Snapshots of Mabel food will try to outlast the tax; you need the tax to be large enough that over-heal does not laugh at it. Scout with PvP battles.

If you keep losing to thin poison, you are the one shuffling into their canal. Do not copy their thinness unless your shock is already stacked.

When to stay on Ratagnan

If gadgets feel like homework, stay. Grail is allowed to be one hero forever. The character tier list is a patch snapshot, not a moral obligation. Unlock Zappy for variety after a six-win Ratagnan run, then use starter builds and the run planner so day 1 is not a rapier rebound.