by Alex Brown
Its important to realize attacking is better the less players there are, so if you're playing 2er or 3er I think claws are a lot better simply becaus you have less health to deplete on the other players .The metrics in King of Tokyo are points, energy, hits and health. They relate differently to each other in different parts of the game.
When everyone is far from winning, ENERGY is at its most valuable. It allows for powerful cards that subvert the balance of the basic metrics and 'value-adds' to dice or Tokyo.
While at high life and low points, hearts and 1s are useless. This means successful early rolls are either about energy, sets of 2s or 3s or deciding its time to hit someone.
Hitting people has the most risk. This is because the further you are away from 20, and the jigher opponent life totals are, the less valuable the rewards for staying in Tokyo are. In short, Tokyo is 'fun' to hold but doesn't really become strategically powerful until a win condition is in sight.
I've played a tonne (~100 games) and the game tends to follow this narrative:
*try to roll energy
*if 2s or 3s come up go for sets over energy
*reroll all claws!
Once a player pulls ahead in ablilities or points, players have to decide if they can afford to keep accumulating points and energy or need to. E attacking.