Introduction

This post will be split into 2 sections. I will start with analysing Cocoa's lore first. Scroll further down if you are more interested in what Cocoa has to offer in-game. I will also provide a glossary right below as some of the topics and words here may appear as jargon.

Glossary

(These definitions are either from websites or is my own definition, please do correct me if I'm wrong!)

Saviour complex: An attitude and demeanour in which a person believes they are responsible for assisting other people.

Mary Sue: A type of fictional character, usually a young woman, who is portrayed as free of weaknesses or character flaws.

Aggro: When a twisted spots you, abbreviation for aggression.

Support: A toon that assists others toons.

Extractor: A toon with fast extraction capabilities. They complete machines to speed up floor progression.

Distractor: A toon with fast movement speed. They gather up twisteds to allow extractors to finish machines and prevent them from taking aggro.

All-rounder/Hybrid: A toon who can fulfil all roles at the same time, e.g. Flyte who can extract, distract and support.

Burning: Getting rid of an item/Using an item and replacing it with a more valuable item, e.g. burning a Chocolate and in exchange, picking up a Box o’ chocolates. Burning is also used for a higher tape count. Sprouts, Teagans and Blots tend to do this since their abilities rely on tapes.

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Lore

I want to clarify before I start analysing Cocoa's lore that these things I say are from my interpretation so you are bound to disagree with me. We all have opinions, I have one, you have one, I just hope we can respect each others'.

Cocoa has a saviour complex

This is an obvious point but I'll include it in anyway. We can see this being hinted through many of her interactions with other toons. As an example, the 1st interaction with Eggson.

Eggson🥚: Cocoa, you always seem to be helping one person after another.
Cocoa🐇: I guess I am, yeah. I kinda lose track of time when helping others, haha...
Eggson🥚: When was the last time you took a break, young lady?
Cocoa🐇: Uhmmmm...
Eggson🥚: ...I think listening to one of my stories would help you slow down a bit.

• In this interaction, she speaks ambiguously to Eggson about how much of a workaholic she disturbingly is to the point that she avoids his question. Other toons also tell her to slow down, an honourable mention being Flyte. Why? Because in his 1st interaction with Cocoa, he advises her to “not be helping the wrong person” and that it could be “dangerous” for her. He is likely referring to Bassie. (Off topic but Flyte has to be one of the most mysterious and well-aware toons if you take a look at his dialogues and trinket description but that’s a conversation for another day). Nevertheless, Cocoa still believes everyone deserves a little of help, even including toons like Bassie or Shrimpo who have… quite the opposite personalities I should say.
• Eggson is concerned of Cocoa. He thinks that she helps others too much, giving but not receiving anything back, e.g. Cocoa attempting to ask Connie to help her with her "huge list of things she needs to get done" before abruptly getting rejected, (The only exception being Cosmo who actually had the intention of helping Cocoa by baking bonbons for her) signifying that Cocoa has the time to help others but does not have the time to help herself, yet another symptom of a saviour complex.

Cocoa's desire in wanting to always help others could be driven from the fact that she is a holiday toon, meaning she only has relevance during her dedicated holiday which is Easter and nowhere else. Furthermore, the reasoning for her overworking is that she may want validation and recognition. This explains her tendency to help others even when they don't need it, pushing boundaries so that people can view her in the limelight, criticising how little to no relevancy holiday toons have. This moves me onto my next point.

Cocoa exposes the harsh truth of holiday toons

Glisten🪞: Cocoa, how do I look?
Cocoa🐇: Hmm, you look nice!
Glisten🪞: Well, I mean, do I not look perfect?
Cocoa🐇: Aw Glisten, no one is ever perfect!
Glisten🪞: You must be mistaken! You simply can't handle perfection! You're looking at it.
Cocoa🐇: Hehe, alright, alright. Whatever you say, silly!

• In this interaction with Glisten, Cocoa states that, “No one is ever perfect". It's as if her mask slightly drops here, hinting to her possibly still having unresolved trauma for just being a holiday toon. Despite that, her efforts of trying to be perfect seem to be in vain. Cocoa thinks this as she has hardly any reasoning to appear in Gardenview Centre outside of her own holiday. Sure, she is definitely one of the most like-able toons but once Easter is gone, is she really still like-able compared to other toons who don’t have an affiliated holiday? Furthermore, she could be stating that, “No one is ever perfect” because Glisten is a regular toon and Cocoa’s not. It’s kind of her implicit way of saying that she feels envy and yearns to be as perfect as Glisten.
• Unrelated to the topic of holiday toons but I could argue that Cocoa is emotionally intelligent and this interaction strongly suggests this. Cocoa likely has an awareness of Glisten's insecurities considering how she has insecurities too and similarly, both do not like to show it. She also downplays Glisten which could be an attempt at giving him a subtle reminder that constantly trying to be perfect is tiring, seen through how both of them frequently strive to be perfect. Moreover, most of Cocoa's interactions are just her checking up on other toons, asking if they need help or how they are doing which further proves my point of her emotional intelligence as she is more experienced in dealing with emotions, e.g. Bassie's jealousy towards her.

Cocoa🐇: Long time no see, Coal! Have your expeditions with Bobette been fun?
Coal🎧: ...Bworf.
Cocoa🐇: I guess you do look a little tired. And a little hungry, too...
Coal🎧: Bwoof...
Cocoa🐇: You know what, I'll give you all the treats I can find after this! Will that make you happy?
Coal🎧: Bwoof!

• Coal seems to respond in a negative tone to Cocoa's question, indicated with the use of ellipsis. This coud be explained through the behaviour of holiday toons acting strange according to Delilah's note. No one knows what the holiday toons go through once their respective holiday is over but it is mentioned that they isolate themselves or hide. Maybe Coal, Cocoa and the rest of the holiday toons serve no other purpose than to be limited-time profit for Gardenview Centre's shows. Possibly, they are trying to find their purpose during the time that they are away as well?
• Cocoa also states that Coal looks "a little tired" and "a little hungry" which opens up another possibility. Could they have been neglected by Delilah or their toon handlers?

Cocoa is a Mary Sue

Bassie's jealousy towards Cocoa suggests that she possesses traits that are unique, traits of a Mary Sue, traits of a main toon, traits that not many toons have. Both toons juxtapose each other, Cocoa being independent while Bassie being dependent which explains the reasoning for Delilah's note and her second thoughts of choosing who is more fitted to be the Easter main toon. In the easter map, we could see an area with what seems to be ichor splattered everywhere and messages like, "Get her" and "I'm sorry". Maybe Bassie feels remorse for taking away the role Cocoa was meant for. Bassie could also be having mixed feelings because she appears inferior to Cocoa and she instead wants to appear superior, hence the intrusive thoughts of "Get her" and the her being Cocoa.

Cocoa in-game also has Mary Sue written all over her. Her stat spread is one of a kind in my opinion and arguably can be used as an all-rounder. Meanwhile, Bassie's stat spread seems very random and can only be a support/distractor at most. This symbolises how she cannot do nearly all of the things that Cocoa can do. It's like Bassie is trying to figure out her role whilst Cocoa already figured hers out. That likely explains why both Bassie and Cocoa have a plushie (Main toons have plushies) and that's the reason as to why Bassie speaks coldly to Cocoa, knowing that if anyone is more fitted for the main toon role, it would be Cocoa. To make matters worse, Cocoa doesn't acknowledge Bassie feels envious of her. That’s because Cocoa has optimistic views, always seeing the good outcomes whilst Bassie has pessimist views, always seeing the bad outcomes. These two present "Opposites attract" so well that it makes other existing tropes look bad. Place these two in a room and you get a Mary Sue and a reverse Mary Sue standing right next to each other.

Furthermore, Cocoa is depicted and suggested as having little to no flaws. Should I even beg the question that some of her flaws don't even seem to be flaws? e.g. Cocoa not having enough time to take care of herself. Not many things that can put her in a negative light. Even the Dandy's World Wikipedia mentions in her personality that she is "A kind and jolly toon who is always trying to be helpful". Cocoa is the best and realistic representation of what a Mary Sue character should be. Not some overpowered and attractive young lady who is good at everything and does things better than everyone. That's just lazy, stereotypical writing.

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Gameplay

What is Cocoa's role?

While I could argue that Cocoa is an All-rounder/Hybrid… if we were to stick to one role, it would be support. However, her stats scream All-rounder/Hybrid, and in my opinion has the most reasonable and balanced stat distributions out of all the toons in the game.

The reason why I say this is because...

• She is fast (4⭐movement speed)
• Her extraction capabilities are okay (3⭐skill check and 2⭐extraction speed)
• She has high stealth which is typical of a support (4⭐stealth)

You can pretty much use Cocoa as any role as she seems to have barely any weaknesses, even with an abysmal trinket set. Although, I won't recommend any trinkets sets as it is up to you on how you want to play Cocoa. If you want my input however; I pair her up with VM📺+MG🔍to complete machines faster and makes the run less time-consuming!

To conclude...

• She can become a soloist. I've seen a few solo Cocoa runs. I found one specific run impressive though, they reached floor 83 with her. Sure, her extraction capabilities are not as rapid as a soloist toon like Yatta but to combat that, her survivability is incredible, seen through through her stats and is self-sustainable with her active ability "Bonbon" which I will talk about soon. Sometimes having fast extraction isn't always key.
• She can become a back-up distractor, just as long as toons with lower stealth don't go near Cocoa which can be painful considering how more than half of the toons in this game have 3⭐stealth whilst Cocoa has 4⭐stealth.
• She can become an extractor, her high stealth makes it easier for her to do machines that have a risky placement on the map. Specifically machines near the distractor as you won't take aggro unless your distractor is Bassie or something with the same/higher stealth stat as Cocoa.
• She can become a support. To add more onto why her high stealth is important... She can use her active ability comfortably without taking aggro. Notably near distractors who have lower stealth than Cocoa, and speaking of active abilities... that brings me to the next question.

What is Cocoa's active ability and is it good?

She has an active ability named "Bonbon". It allows her to place a Bonbon anywhere on the map. Increases extraction speed by 50% and movement speed by 25% for 5 seconds. Has a cooldown of 40 seconds.

Pros:

• It is portable. The fact that you can place it anywhere on the map makes her so flexible, e.g. placing a Bonbon near a distractor/extractor to help with their movement speed/extraction speed.
• It is multipurpose, meaning it can be used in any situation, like the examples I mentioned just now.
• The Bonbons count as a rare item which give 5 tapes when used. This means that you can spam her ability to give tapes when no one is in need of extraction speed or movement speed boosts, e.g. especially useful on Sprout, Teagan, Blot who are all tape-hungry.
• The cooldown is quite short, meaning her ability is likely to refresh at the beginning of each new floor, depending on cooldown cards/trinkets.
• You can gather Bonbons near a dangerous machine. This method is especially beneficial in Dyle's map since being spot by him is ill-advised. You should complete machines cautiously but also rapidly. 25 machines are not to scoff at, along with a twisted that can one-shot you. Anyways, I've found that using around 8 to 10 Bonbons all at once is basically a free Vee's Remote.
• You can also outrun EVERY twisted, including Dyle. You just need 3 Bonbons which only requires your whole inventory but that's fine if you want to survive. Cocoa's base running speed is 27.5. Bonbons increase movement speed by 25% like I mentioned. Skip this part if you don't like calculations.

Calcs:

3 x 25 = 75(75%)

100% + 75% = 175%

175% x 27.5 = 48.1

Dyle's maximum speed is 40 to 45. That's a 8.1 to 3.1 difference in movement speed! You'll have no trouble outrunning him! You just need to manage those 5 seconds wisely since the movement speed boost only last 5 seconds (9 seconds if you have Glazed Fondant Bag which is arguably one of the best, if not, the best trinket for Cocoa by the way). I'm not going to mention calcs for walking speed because you might as well carry 3 eject buttons if you want to try and outwalk Dyle. Excluding Dyle, for every other twisted, just carry 1 or 2 Bonbons.

Cons:

• Cocoa's Bonbons are an indirect boost rather than a direct boost like Shelly's. This means that players have to burn another item to free up an item slot in their inventory, then pick the Bonbon up to use it. Getting a boost from a Tisha or a Shelly is less of a hassle and does not require freeing up an item slot and burning an item from your inventory.
• The Bonbons can be a waste of an ability if no one decides to pick them up which is why I recommend burning them for tapes like I mentioned in the Pros section.
• The boosts from Bonbons is basically an extraction speed candy and a speed candy smashed together, so the boosts are typically rather insignificant and do not last long enough to make a noticeable difference.

The item and ability is a nice concept. You can do so many things with it. Strong but weak. I just really wished that the developers would buff Cocoa's Bonbons if dropping items is her whole gimmick. I would suggest decreasing the cooldown of her active ability/increasing boost duration of the Bonbons (which is somewhat fixed by Glazed Fondant Bag, her own trinket)

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Conclusion (+Extra thoughts)

Why do I like Cocoa in the first place?

• I really enjoy her design, not to mention she is a legit animal and not some object with eyes and limbs (I'm sorry Glisten, he's my favourite by the way if you already couldn't tell) I find that really refreshing in a character.
• Adding more onto her design, Cocoa was quite hard to model. Quotes from the Dandy’s World Wiki, “Cocoa was one of the most difficult Toons to turn from 2D art to an 3D model, essentially due to her snout, the other one being Coal” “Additionally, it took more than 7 to 9 attempts to try to model her snout”. Words cannot express how much appreciation I feel for the developers who took their time with Cocoa. I’m super satisfied with the outcome!
• Cocoa is pretty diverse. She has a chubby model and is the 3rd chubby toon to be released in this game. Also the 2nd bipedal toon, the 1st being Rudie.
• Her animations are amazing. I'm glad she got 3 separate animations, one for running, one for walking and one for idling. It shows they actually put blood, sweat and tears into these toons despite them only lasting for about a month or two and that's it.
• It's very fun playing as Cocoa. It's fun being fast, almost never taking aggro, constantly dropping whatever the hell it is that Cocoa drops whilst running and walking around the map looking like a fucking queen!!
• Her twisted counterpart is also very unique. Twisted Cocoa's running animation is her hopping instead of actually running. Twisted Cocoa is the only rare twisted without an ability, though I'd say her ability is just being extremely fast. Twisted Cocoa is the 4th fastest twisted, also having the shortest attention span in the entire game (0.8 seconds). Twisted Cocoa’s chasing speed (21), rendering 4⭐️movement speed toons unable to outwalk her even with the signature distractor trinket set, DP🐶+SS👟, walking speed of 20.2. Think of Twisted Cocoa as Twisted Toodles but slightly faster and easier to lose aggro. To sum up, just pure nightmare fuel for distractors.

Bassie mischaracterisation

I also want to clear a common misconception about the relationship between Bassie and Cocoa. No, Bassie does not hate neither dislike Cocoa. That is not stated anywhere inside the game neither the Wikipedia. Jealousy is a normal emotion that everyone will experience at a point in their lives. It's just that Bassie portrays jealousy in a more extreme way due to the fact that she has a fear of being replaced which can appear as hatred or dislike. If you were to be replaced would you also not act out with strong emotions? Their relationship dynamic is very complex though. To put it simply, I would say Bassie looks up to Cocoa as her role model and tries hard to become like her to the point it seems like she's copying her. For example, both of their idle animations showing them fidgeting with something; Cocoa constantly playing with her ears and Bassie constantly fixing her handles. Two more examples… both drop items and have the same sound effect when using their abilities. Please stop with the mischaracterisation. Full stop. It's painful to lay my eyes upon whenever I witness something like "Oh Bassie wanna kill Cocoa!?!?!". End of convo.

I hope this changed your view about Cocoa because I think people slept on her a bit too much. I wanted to make this post to serve justice for Cocoa since she's definetly a well-made and well-written toon. I'm upset knowing that we only will get crumbs of Cocoa every year as her and the rest of the holiday toons don't play a significant enough role in the main story. I don't think there will ever be a toon as unique as Cocoa the Chocolate Bunny ever, if so in a while. Useless fun fact, this was meant to be posted more than a month ago. I will end this here because I've been yapping too much. Have a good day/morning/afternoon/evening/night! >3<