Someone has posted it before and I'll post it again. For lvl 7, digging up a lot of dirt will not help. Instead, use shields and launchers. Makers are not that important.
@Sir_Cadogan I had high stats in everything except Charisma. Then I used the Clout: The Game Wiki. This really helped me and now I have high stats in everything! Check it out, it has equipment stats.
I shall now make a noob guide of getting the 100 equipment badge!
1) There are 62 equipments in the first area. Take them all because the second stage is much harder than the first.
2) Keys are the best! Take a key whenever you see one.
3) Healing helps a bit in stage 1 and a lot on stage 2. I recommend having 2 (1 when new to the area) healers.
4) RAGE WHEN YOU GET AN EMPTY CHEST AND SWEAR TO KILL THE KING IF HE DOES THIS ONE MORE TIME!
5) If you followed this noob guide correctly, you will have your badge in ABOUT 3 HOURS OF GRINDING. If you didn't, it'll take 4 hours!
If the hippos escape thing doesn't work, check if you're pressing both buttons at the same time. DON'T PRESS BOTH BUTTONS AT THE SAME TIME. I lost a fight due to this mistake.
wahooguy14 and oscymaloscy have copied all of my comment except for the first and last sentence. My comment is the original. Keep that in mind, please.
The bug pink11804 posted also happens to me. I can't scroll through the upgrade menu, it's stuck at 150 upgrades (I don't even have all of them) and My kongpanion screens randomly flash in different colors, showing a black screen, +3 attack and shiny/earned kongpanion. Please fix this, I really want Cogs!
This bug has been fixed recently. Sorry for the wait!