With the release of episode 10 of Beast-Yeast in Cookie Run: Kingdom, Hollyberry Cookie has been granted her awakened form. She is the fourth ancient cookie to receive this upgrade, and has quickly become the standard in the Kingdom arena. Sugarfly Cookie was also released alongside her, filling a slightly larger role in the second half of Eternal Sugar Cookie's introduction story.

Although I really wasn't expecting it, Hollyberry definitely has my favorite awakened appearance, being adorned with some gorgeous Greco-Roman-inspired armor, and her new costume is just as impressive. She's an absolute must-have for any player wanting to rank up in the arena or any other gamemode, and is currently the best possible choice of front-liner cookie. So, what are the best steps to take to build her now that she has brand-new abilities?

Best Toppings For Awakened Hollyberry Cookie

Healthy Peanuts Or ionate Chocolates

When awakened, Hollyberry Cookie’s “Oath of the Shield” ability becomes “Shield of Conviction.” When her skill is active, she absorbs a portion of the damage directly dealt to her allies. She then provides a powerful buff to her team, making them resistant to damage debuffs and reducing the amount of critical damage they receive.

Depending on the amount of damage received during her skill, she will gain “Seed of Life” and “Steelbound ion” stacks, with the latter wracking up slower. After twenty seed of life stacks, this becomes “berry of life,” which sharply increases her damage resistance and heals her for a small portion of her max HP. Twenty stacks of Steelbound ion will trigger the "Steelbound Guardian" ability, which grants Hollyberry Cookie invulnerability, a boost to Max HP, increases her damage focus and damage resistance by, and resets her Cooldown. In short, she is the most effective after taking large amounts of damage.

Hollyberry Cookie can use "ionate" resonant toppings, but you can only get ionate variants of raspberries, chocolates, almonds, caramels and apple jellies.

Much like how Pure Vanilla Cookie benefits from different toppings in his normal and awakened form, this means that you’ll want to swap out Hollyberry's usual almond toppings for healthy peanuts if you’re using her in the arena. She has decent damage resistance anyway in her Aegis form, but you’re going to want her to be tanky while still being able to be damaged, so increasing her HP with these toppings will be your best bet. Her base cooldown can be a little long, so you may want to consider some cooldown substats on her toppings as well.

Chocolate toppings are quite effective on her for defeating enemies quickly, but healthy peanuts are generally more useful for the survivability of the whole team. I tested out different toppings and team combinations in the arena, and found that cooldown was more effective with her in a team alongside only Eternal Sugar Cookie, but in a full team, my attacking team with Hollyberry equipped with peanuts ended up victorious. Just to make sure, I also tested out solid almond toppings, and peanuts still came out on top.

You should use an epic variant topping tart which corresponds with the rest of your toppings since it will grant an extra full-set bonus. For example, if you use chocolate toppings, you should also use a swift chocolate topping tart. There are currently no resonant topping tarts, so just focus on the type.

Best Beascuits For Awakened Hollyberry Cookie

A Regular Or Steelen Legendary Hard Beascuit Depending On Your Preference

As a defense character like Elder Faerie Cookie, you'll want to pair her with a legendary hard beascuit. Since Eternal Sugar Cookie’s update, Hollyberry has been granted the Steel element, meaning she can use Steelen beascuits. She can deal some considerable steel-type damage, though she's a lot more effective when you focus on her tanking ability. Tainted Legendary Steelen beascuits were available during Eternal Sugar's initial event, though she'll also work well with a non-elemental one. I've chosen to use one on Hollyberry for the 20% damage boost while dedicating the rest of her stats to cooldown.

Some other good stats for her beascuit are HP and Amplify buff. Increasing generally useful stats such as attack, attack speed, critical hit chance, and damage resistance by will also benefit her, though I'd recommend staying away from defense so you won't hinder her skill. With her awakening, Hollyberry Cookie has become a truly unique defense cookie in Cookie Run: Kingdom, and it's refreshing to see a character benefit from something other than general attack and cooldown improvements.