One line to remember: every pitch decide “swing or lay off” first; use skills by situation; the two-option call only shows up after contact. The sections below follow the actual order of one plate appearance, and every claim comes with numbers you can re-check.

1. One Plate Appearance, Step by Step

1. The defense picks a gear: before each half-inning the defense taps one of five “pitch dice” within the time limit; every batter in that half-inning uses it, and it is re-picked after the sides change.
2. “Swing / lay off” every pitch: the highest-frequency decision in the game — section 2 below.
3. Roll the hit die after contact: only “swing” without a whiff is contact; you then roll the hit die of that pitch type — OUT / FOUL / Single / Choose.
4. The occasional two-option face: on the mystery face you pick “take the 1B” or “roll the second die” (section 4).
5. The plate appearance ends: strikeout (3 strikes) / walk (4 balls) / out / on base; 3 outs change the sides.

2. The Core Call: “Swing” or “Lay Off” Every Pitch

Default: swing every pitch. With the Balanced gear (the default), swinging everything + taking the 1B gives roughly a 48.7% hit rate for the whole plate appearance, and any extra-base hit can only come from swinging; “lay off” never produces contact — it only stacks balls toward a walk (with the Balanced gear, laying off every pitch walks 34.4% of the time and strikes out the other 65.6%).

But there is no global optimum: pick by the opponent's gear

The opponent's gear can be read: ① the pitch face echoed under every result; ② the opponent's swing/lay-off habits this game; ③ against an AI it will adapt to your habits in return. The trade-off (numbers = “lay off every pitch” vs “swing every pitch”, 1000 games per cell in bot self-play):

Hit rate by opponent gear (swing everything + take the 1B)

Balanced 48.7% · Strike-heavy 54.7% · Mostly strikes 58.8% · Ball-heavy 40.4% · Mostly balls 36.9%; in single-player (gears weighted Strike-heavy 30% · Balanced 50% · Ball-heavy 20%) about 48.9%. Strikeout rate (counting a foul as a strike): Balanced 20.1% / Ball-heavy 32.4% / Mostly balls 38.8% / Strike-heavy 11.4% / Mostly strikes 5.5%.

3. Pitcher Gears (Defensive View)

The five pitch dice change the per-pitch contact chance and the chance that laying off is correct (the more ball-heavy, the harder to hit and the easier to read):

The “lay off is correct” rate does not depend on the whiff rate (it is the number of ball-family faces ÷ 6); the swing contact rate is the whiff-rate-weighted average over the five pitch types (dead-center 10% · strike 20% · nasty strike 50% · ball 40% · wide 80%). So swinging and laying off are not zero-sum: with the Balanced gear, 53.3% + 50.0% = 103.3%.

Which gear to pick

• Read their habits: a swing-happy opponent → Ball-heavy (bait the whiff); a patient opponent → Strike-heavy (turn waiting into strikes and rush the strikeout); unsure → Balanced.
• Read the situation: with runners on and long hits to fear, a strike-leaning gear is safer (trade a little walk risk for outs); with the bases loaded and a run to stop, stay Balanced or above.
• Mostly balls is not a win button: it drops nasty strikes and uses four wide balls — against a patient opponent it hands out walks (it is flagged red “Danger” on the panel).
• Panel & time limit: five cards, one tap selects; the limit is 5 seconds (10 seconds for the first pick of the match when facing an AI); if it runs out, Balanced starts automatically. See Basics.

4. After Contact: the Two-Option Face (Occasional)

When the hit die lands on the mystery face you choose take the 1B (an immediate single, safe) or roll the second die (another roll — extra bases, or a double play).

Odds: DP / BB / 3B / HR are 1 face in 6 each and 2B is 2 faces in 6 — only 1 in 6 is a double play; the other 5 in 6 are a hit or a walk.

Comparing the two options (Balanced gear)

Which to pick: by “outs + base state”

5. Six Skills: Priority and Timing

• Allowance: at most 3 skills per half-inning, reset when the sides change, and the same skill cannot repeat in one half-inning. Once the allowance is full even Cmd cannot be sent, so Cmd is only worth it on the last slot.
• While the Bat is equipped, every other active skill ends the plate appearance and wastes the Bat you just equipped — keep hitting instead.

By base state

Combos that work

• Bat + take the 1B: about a 48.7% hit rate, all upgraded to doubles — the strongest passive combo.
• Bat + roll the second die: hits upgrade again (1B/2B/3B → 2B/3B/HR).
• Steal → Sac: steal second, sacrifice him home — good for chasing with 0~1 outs.
• Cmd + anything: send the order on the last allowance slot for a free 3 uses; with allowance to spare it is not worth it.

6. Mode Notes

Challenge (single-player)

• Goal: clear stages in a row — each stage must be won by coming back within 3 outs; one loss ends the run, and after a refresh you restart from the highest stage you cleared.
• Gears are random in single-player (Strike-heavy 30% · Balanced 50% · Ball-heavy 20%), so read the echo and adjust; default to swinging.
• Skills carry over between stages, so ration them: Cmd refreshes are the core of a run; clearing grants 4-of-6 and a walk-off home run grants the most.

Duel (vs human / vs AI)

• The away team bats first; if the home team takes the lead in the bottom half it is an instant “walk-off”, so home has a natural edge.
• Fewer innings means more variance; extra innings start with 0 outs and runners on first and second (a big scoring chance).
• The opponent's gear is re-picked every half-inning: watch the opening pick and use the echo to read their habits.

7. Quick Reference

Two-Option Decision Tree

Skill Timing Decision Tree

Odds at a Glance

Appendix: Self-play Reference Data (for context only)

Produced by an offline bot-vs-bot harness (1000~2000 games per cell, 1 game = 9 innings; re-run 2026-09-27 at the current whiff rates). It compares relative strength and does not equal a human win rate; the dice faces and skill semantics were checked line by line against the live engine.

Using more skills wins (four tiers, round robin)