Unit Classes and Rarepons (Patapon 1)
Patapon 1 gives you six combat classes plus the flag-bearing Hatapon: Yaripon, Tatepon, Yumipon, Kibapon, Dekapon, and Megapon. At the Tree of Life you combine two materials whose levels each run from 1 to 4, and the sum decides which Rarepon you get, from a plain Patapon at 2 up to Baasara at 8. You can field only three squads alongside one Hatapon per mission.
Your army is built from six unit classes plus the flag-bearing Hatapon. Each class fills a distinct combat role, and choosing the right mix before a mission is half the battle. On top of base classes, the Tree of Life lets you create Rarepons, upgraded versions of each unit with boosted stats and elemental properties.
Unit Classes
Hatapon (Flag Bearer)
Hatapon is your army's anchor point. Every formation is built around it. Hatapon does not fight. It carries the war flag and determines your army's position on the field. If Hatapon dies, the mission ends.
You cannot control what Hatapon does directly. It follows your rhythm commands like every other unit. Protect it by placing Tatepons (shielders) in front and keeping it away from boss AoE attacks with Retreat commands.
Yaripon (Spear Thrower)
| Stat | Rating |
|---|---|
| Range | Medium |
| Damage | Medium |
| HP | Low |
| Speed | Medium |
Yaripons throw spears at enemies from a moderate distance. They are your first combat unit and remain useful throughout the entire game.
Best for: General-purpose damage, hunting missions, enemies that stay at medium range.
Weakness: Low HP means they drop fast if enemies reach them. Always keep Tatepons in front.
Tatepon (Shield Bearer)
| Stat | Rating |
|---|---|
| Range | Melee |
| Damage | Low-Medium |
| HP | 100 base, same as Yaripon and Yumipon |
| Speed | Slow |
Tatepons carry shields and swords. They form your frontline and soak damage that would otherwise hit your squishier units. The Defend command (CHAKA-CHAKA-PATA-PON) is most effective with Tatepons in your army since they actually raise their shields, and in Fever those shields grow larger and block more.
Their toughness does not come from a bigger health pool. Tatepon base HP is 100, tied with Yaripon and Yumipon for the lowest in the game. What makes them tanks is the shield slot and their armor percentages, so a Tatepon in poor gear is no sturdier than the archer behind it.
Best for: Tanking boss attacks, protecting ranged units, any mission where you expect heavy incoming damage.
Weakness: Slow movement and low damage output. Relying on only Tatepons makes fights drag on.
Yumipon (Archer)
| Stat | Rating |
|---|---|
| Range | Long |
| Damage | Medium |
| HP | Low |
| Speed | Medium |
Yumipons fire arrows in an arc. They have the longest attack range of any base unit, and wind direction changes that range. A tailwind extends it and a headwind shortens it, but wind does not change their damage. In Fever they fire three arrows at once instead of one, which is where most of their output comes from.
Best for: Boss fights where melee is dangerous, missions with environmental hazards, any fight where staying far back is safer.
Weakness: Wind dependency, and they take extra damage from fire. Use the Tailwind Miracle to extend their reach. Rain does not affect wind, so it will not help here.
Yumipons are the best hunting unit in Patapon 1. Animals run from melee units, but arrows hit them before they flee. Always bring Yumipons to hunting grounds.
Kibapon (Cavalry)
| Stat | Rating |
|---|---|
| Range | Melee |
| Damage | Lowest base of any melee unit, high during Fever |
| HP | 150 |
| Speed | Fastest in the game |
Kibapons ride horses and have the highest mobility of any Patapon. Their base weapon damage is the lowest of any melee unit, and almost all their output comes from Fever, where speed and knockback rise sharply and the cavalry charge becomes genuinely dangerous. Outside Fever they are weak.
Best for: Burst damage during Fever, rushing enemies before they set up, breaking through defensive formations.
Weakness: They charge ahead of your Tatepons, which puts them in danger. Defend will not pull them back, because the Defend command makes Kibapons perform a short charge of their own. Use Retreat if you need them out of range.
Dekapon (Heavy Hitter)
| Stat | Rating |
|---|---|
| Range | Melee |
| Damage | Highest in the game |
| HP | 300, highest in the game |
| Speed | Very Slow |
Dekapons are massive units that hit like trucks, carrying both the highest base damage and the highest HP in Patapon 1. Their ordinary club swing is single-target melee. The area attack people remember them for is NoshiNoshizugan, a ground slam that damages and stuns nearby enemies, and it only comes out through the Charge command and never on a normal attack.
Best for: Boss stagger farming, clearing large groups of enemies, missions where raw survivability matters.
Weakness: Painfully slow. They lag behind other units during March commands and take forever to reach the fight.
Megapon (Horn Blower)
| Stat | Rating |
|---|---|
| Range | Long |
| Damage | Very low per hit, high through multi-hits |
| HP | 220, second highest in the game |
| Speed | Medium |
Megapons attack with sound waves from horns. Their normal attack is a wave of three blue notes that bounce off and around the enemy for ricochet damage. In Fever they switch to a single massive red note that pierces, hits multiple times and can ignite. There is no cone.
Despite their reputation they are not fragile. Megapon base HP is 220, second only to Dekapon. Their real weak point is base weapon damage, which is close to nothing on its own. The output comes from how many times each note connects.
Best for: Boss fights where you need long-range damage, and anything with a large hitbox for the notes to ricochet around.
Weakness: Very low damage until you get them geared, and they cannot wear helms at any rank.
Recommended Army Compositions
| Mission Type | Front Row | Back Row | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Story missions (general) | Tatepon | Yaripon + Yumipon | Balanced damage and defense. |
| Boss fights (melee safe) | Tatepon | Yaripon + Kibapon | Kibapon burst damage during safe windows. |
| Boss fights (melee dangerous) | Tatepon | Yumipon + Megapon | Full ranged, stay far back, Defend through danger. |
| Hunting missions | None | Yaripon + Yumipon | Ranged units hit animals before they flee. Leave Tatepons at home, since melee units scare prey off before they can connect. |
| Farming (boss stagger) | Tatepon | Dekapon + Yumipon | Dekapon staggers, Yumipon picks up drops from a distance. |
The Tree of Life and Rarepons
The Tree of Life (Mater) is where you create your Patapons. In Patapon 1, Mater can only create Rarepons, never upgrade an existing one, and the system works on a material combination formula.
How Rarepon Crafting Works
To create or upgrade a unit, you select two materials. Each material has a level from 1 to 4. The sum of both material levels determines which Rarepon type you get, so the possible range runs from 2 (two Level 1 materials) up to 8 (two Level 4 materials). There is no Level 0 material and no total below 2.
Formula: Material A Level + Material B Level = Total Value
| Total Value | Rarepon Type | Ka-ching Cost | Key Traits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Normal Patapon | 1x base | No bonuses. The only rank that can wear a helm. |
| 3 | Pyokola | 2x base | +50% movement speed, +3/+3 damage, +30% stagger rate, immunity to stagger. |
| 4 | Gekolos | 3x base | +20% attack speed, +5/+5 damage, +10% crit, immunity to ignition. -20% defense against spears. |
| 5 | Mofeel | 4x base | +100 HP, strong defense against infantry and against spears, arrows and lances, immunity to knockback. -100% defense against fire. |
| 6 | Tikulee | 5x base | +50 HP, +50% attack speed, +80% crit. No damage boost at all. |
| 7 | Mogyuun | 6x base | +100 HP, +30/+50 damage, +50% knockback and stagger, broad resistances. -30% movement speed and -30% attack speed. |
| 8 | Baasara | 7x base | +150 HP, +50% movement, +20% attack speed, +10/+15 damage, +50% crit. No elemental weakness. The best Rarepon overall. |
Ka-ching cost is a multiplier on that class's base creation cost, so a value-8 Baasara costs seven times what a plain unit of the same class does.
Rarepon names changed in the 1+2 Replay remaster. Patapon 1's Rarepons were renamed to match Patapon 2's, so the Steam achievements read "Create a Baasara Ultra Rarepon" and "Create a Mogyuun Ultra Rarepon" where the PSP-era and 2017 names were Barsala and Mogyoon. Tikulee is likewise reported as Chikkuri in game, though no achievement text or first-party listing confirms that one.
Expect the lower-tier names you see on screen to differ from their PSP-era versions too.
Material Levels
Materials drop from bosses, hunting missions, and minigames. Patapon 1 has exactly five material categories, each with four tiers:
| Level | Meat | Mineral | Branch | Vegetable | Alloy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leather Meat | Stone | Banal Branch | Eyeball Cabbage | Sloppy Alloy |
| 2 | Tender Meat | Hard Iron | Cherry Tree | Crying Carrot | Hard Alloy |
| 3 | Dream Meat | Tytanium Ore | Hinoki | Predator Pumpkin | Awesome Alloy |
| 4 | Mystery Meat | Mytheerial | Super Cedar | Hazy Shroom | Magic Alloy |
Hides, Bones and Fangs are Patapon 2 material categories and do not exist in Patapon 1, so no Patapon 1 boss drops them. Adamantine is likewise a Patapon 2 material. Note also that Super Cedar and Mytheerial (often written Mithril) are both Level 4, and that makes them the pair you combine for a Baasara.
You cannot "downgrade" a Rarepon back to a basic Patapon without retiring the unit and creating a new one. Plan your upgrades before committing materials. If you waste a Baasara on a unit class you rarely use, those materials are gone.
Rarepon Selection by Class
| Unit Class | Best Rarepon | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Yaripon | Tikulee (6) or Baasara (8) | Attack speed and crit both raise throughput. Tikulee adds no damage of its own, so pair it with a decent spear. |
| Tatepon | Mofeel (5) or Baasara (8) | Defense stacking turns Tatepons into walls. Watch Mofeel's -100% fire defense against Dodonga and Majidonga. |
| Yumipon | Tikulee (6) | Faster attack speed means more volleys, and Fever already gives you three arrows per volley. |
| Kibapon | Pyokola (3) or Baasara (8) | Kibapon lives on movement speed. Avoid Mogyuun here. Its -30% movement and -30% attack speed cut straight into what makes the class work. |
| Dekapon | Mogyuun (7) | The speed penalty barely matters on the slowest unit, and Dekapons receive boosted values from every Rarepon, including Mogyuun's +80% stagger rate. |
| Megapon | Mogyuun (7) or Baasara (8) | Megapon damage comes from notes connecting repeatedly, so raw damage per hit pays off more than attack speed. |
Managing Your Army
You can only field three squads (three unit classes) per mission alongside one Hatapon. Squad size depends on the class: Yaripon, Tatepon and Yumipon deploy six to a squad, while Kibapon, Dekapon and Megapon deploy three. Before expensive boss fights, consider:
- Retiring weak units. Select a unit in the army screen and press the retire option to remove it. This frees up a slot for a stronger replacement, and it kills the unit permanently.
- Specializing squads. Making every unit the same Rarepon wastes the spread, so mix one Baasara or Mogyuun "carry" unit with cheaper Rarepons in the same squad.
- Checking equipment. Higher-tier gear from boss drops and the anvil minigame outperforms Rarepon stat bonuses alone. Slots are class-specific: Yaripon carries a spear, Tatepon a sword or axe plus a shield, Yumipon a bow, Kibapon a halberd plus a horse, Dekapon a club, Megapon a horn.
Helms are the slot Rarepons cost you. Only Normal, non-Rarepon Patapons can wear a helm, and Dekapons and Megapons cannot wear one at any rank. Turning a unit into a Rarepon permanently gives up its helm slot. That is a genuine trade-off against the stat bonuses, and the game never spells it out.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if Hatapon dies in Patapon 1?
The mission ends immediately. Hatapon does not fight, it carries the war flag and sets your army's position, so keep Tatepons in front of it and use Retreat to pull it clear of boss AoE attacks.
How does Rarepon crafting work at the Tree of Life?
You select two materials, each with a level from 1 to 4, and add their levels together. The total runs from 2 to 8. A total of 2 gives a Normal Patapon, 3 gives Pyokola, 4 gives Gekolos, 5 gives Mofeel, 6 gives Tikulee, 7 gives Mogyuun, and 8 gives Baasara.
What is the best Rarepon in Patapon 1?
Baasara, the total value 8 Rarepon, made from two Level 4 materials such as Super Cedar and Mytheerial. It boosts every stat and has no elemental weakness. It was named Barsala before the Replay remaster renamed the Patapon 1 Rarepons to match Patapon 2.
How many Patapons can I bring into a mission?
Three squads plus one Hatapon. Yaripon, Tatepon and Yumipon squads hold six units each, while Kibapon, Dekapon and Megapon squads hold three.
Which unit is best for hunting missions?
Yumipon. Animals run from melee units, but arrows hit them before they flee, so always bring archers to hunting grounds.
For where to farm the materials you need, see Materials and Farming.
What to Read Next
- Materials and Farming. Sourcing the materials Rarepons need.
- Boss Guide. Army compositions per encounter.
- Minigames. Reward tiers that feed the Tree of Life.
- Rhythm and Commands. Drum sequences your army responds to.
- Tips and Tricks. Material level totals, and the slot a Rarepon costs you forever.