GOAT Squad Beginner's Guide: How the Spin, the Boss Series and the Gauntlet Work

GOAT Squad is GoatLab's roguelike roster builder. This guide explains the seven-slot spin, when to hit STOP, how the boss series is decided, what the Gauntlet's forks, shops, relics and spoils wheel do, and how the daily works.

GOAT Squad is the GoatLab game that is not a career sim. You build a roster instead of a player, you fight a boss series instead of playing seasons, and if you win you go into a gauntlet where one loss ends the run. It is a roguelike wearing a basketball jersey, and it has editions for baseball, football, hockey, soccer and UFC. This guide is the NBA version; the others follow the same shape with their own rules.

The spin

There are seven slots: point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, center, a sixth man who can be any position, and a coach. Every open slot spins at the same time, at a fixed speed, with the ratings hidden. Hit STOP when you are ready. The reels freeze, and you pick the one player you keep. Everything else spins again. The sixth man's rating counts at three quarters weight, and the coach is a modifier from minus five to plus five on the whole team.

A "PG / SG" player belongs only to the point guard slot, so read the positions, not just the names. On your last lock you can drop one player and respin once, which is the only take-back in the game.

The reel is a mix of current players, legends and era cards. Legends are rarer, but the game has a pity timer in the Gauntlet: after 18 stops with no legend, one is forced onto an open position slot.

The boss series

Once the squad is full, you play a first-to-four series against the day's boss, drawn from a list of sixteen all-time teams. Each game's win chance starts at even, moves with the gap between your Overall and the boss's, and swings with momentum: the side that is trailing gets a push. If you go down 3-1 you get a comeback boost, and it is bigger if LeBron is on your squad.

Every boss has a quirk. The '96 Bulls are stronger in elimination games. The '17 Warriors come out hot in game one. The '13 Heat do not let your momentum build. The '16 Cavs have their own comeback. The '04 Pistons drag your ratings down in the sim without showing it on screen. The result screen ends with a scouting report that tells you which star flew past while you hesitated, and it is rarely wrong.

The Gauntlet

Beat the boss and you enter the Gauntlet: a ten-stop map, eight fights and two shops, and your squad from the boss series carries over. You get one life. Lose a series and the run is over, and refreshing does not bring it back.

Some stops are a straight road. Others are a fork: a safe city with a beatable team, or a harder one with better spoils. A plane flies you between them. After every win you spin the victory spoils wheel: the team you just beat is on it, rated for that era (a player is a different number on the '08 Celtics than on the '13 Heat), and you can sign one of them by cutting your incumbent at that position or your sixth man, or pass.

Relics ride the same wheel. You can hold five at most, and landing a sixth means swapping one out. Some are simple edges (better in elimination games, no momentum drag, cash for game wins, shop discounts), some are restrictions with a payoff, some are gambles. Twenty per sport. Shops sell players and relics for the cash you earn on the road.

Squad Clash

If you want a human opponent, Squad Clash is ranked GOAT Squad: you are paired first, you both build in the same sprint, and the server settles the result. It lives inside the GOAT Squad page under Squad Clash · Ranked.

The daily

The daily uses the same reels and the same boss for every player in the world, seeded from the date. Your attempt counts the moment you start, so there is no refreshing for a better spin. Streaks run across every GoatLab sport, so a squad daily keeps a Build a Pitcher streak alive and vice versa.

Five tips for a first run

1. Take the first star that lands at a starting position. The wheel offers fewer great players per stop than you think, and the scouting report will remind you of every one you let pass.
2. Do not burn the sixth man on a star. He counts at three quarters. Put your fifth-best position player there and your stars in the starting five.
3. Take the coach seriously. Plus five on the whole team is worth more than a marginal upgrade at one position.
4. On the first fork, take the safe city. You do not have relics yet and a loss ends everything.
5. Sign off the spoils wheel when the era rating beats your incumbent, not the name. A legend rated 79 for that season is a downgrade.