Runic Breeding Caves

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RUNIC BREEDING CAVES 101

If you’re new to the Runic Breeding Caves, here’s a description and some tips
If you’re familiar with the caves, here’s a refresher

WHY ALL THE FUSS?

The Runic Breeding Caves are an event mechanism that allows players to earn event currency. But it’s much different than other features because you can claim dragon eggs from the RBCs to complete your dragon collections. As a result, the RBCs are a beloved part of DragonVale and are always highly anticipated.

Depending on the event, there will either be 5 or 10 RBCs. One RBC is always active. You’ll activate another during the event tutorial, and there’s a Bonus Runic Breeding Cave that will be active during Double Days, and another if there’s a Triple Day. The remaining RBCs need to be activated by a Runestone. You will receive several free Runestones, one during the event tutorial and there may be more from the event’s daily calendar rewards. Any additional Runestones can be purchased from the Market.

If you tap the Info button on a RBC, a description of the cave will appear indicating whether it’s a Bonus Cave for Double or Triple Days.

HOW THE RUNIC BREEDING CAVES WORK

The RBCs are different from the regular breeding caves in several ways:

• When you activate a RBC with a Runestone, it will remain active for one week.

• The breeding times at the RBCs are 75% shorter. So a 24 hour breed will now take 6 hours.

• After you breed an egg, instead of incubating, the egg is added to the Runic Breeding Cave’s Egg History. To access the Egg History, select the Egg History button at a RBC.

• The Egg History applies to all RBCs. If you breed a dragon at one RBC, it will show on the Egg History for every cave, and you can claim the egg at any RBC.

• After you breed a dragon, you’ll receive event currency based on the length of the breed. The amount of currency you’ll earn has changed over the years. Since 2020, for every hour of a dragon’s normal breeding time, you’ll receive 2 event currency, with a maximum of 50 event currency per breed (examples: Lava dragon, which has a 10 hour breeding time, will take 2.5 hours to breed at the RBCs, and will earn 20 event currency. Double Rainbow with a 60 hour breed time will take 15 hours, and payout 50 event currency).

• For every unique dragon you breed at the RBCs, you will receive a bonus of 100 event currency. If you breed the dragon again, there is no bonus. The bonus amount does not increase with Double Days.

• Be sure to keep track of the RBCs you activate. You do not want to activate a cave that has already been activated, since you can claim an egg from every cave that has been activated during the course of the event.


CLAIMING EGGS

• To claim an egg, open a cave and tap the Claims Left button. Choose a Dragon will pop-up, just scroll to find the dragon and tap Confirm.

• You can claim ONE egg from each Runic Cave you activate.

• You can claim the egg at any time, even after the cave has been deactivated.

• You can claim the same egg more than once from a different RBC. This is especially helpful for players who want a twin or traited-twin dragon. The RBCs follow the same pattern as the mystery eggs (regular > twin > traited-twin). You only need to breed the dragon once in any RBC, then you can claim the regular version from one cave, the twin from a different cave, and the traited-twin from a third cave.

• Be sure to claim your eggs before the event island is removed (last day to collect event currency). The RBCs depart with the event island.

• TIP: if you’re claiming a traited version of a dragon, click the Claims Left button at a RBC. The Choose a Dragon menu will show, find the dragon you need, and tap the '?'. The dragon’s info card will show and you can see what the trait looks like on the dragon. If you don’t like the trait, close Choose a Dragon, click the Claims Left button again, and you’ll be offered a different trait. Repeat until the desired trait appears.


STRATEGIES & TIPS

• Wait until the end of the event to make your RBC egg claims. You never know what you’ll breed at the RBCs, Vale, or Rift.

• Since the RBCs reward 100 event currency for each unique breed, target breeding (cloning) dragons with two of the same dragon (e.g., Woolen + Woolen) is an ideal way to earn currency.

• An effective way to earn event currency and breed many unique dragons at the RBCs is to start with dragons that have three or more primary elements or have a locked breeding combo (so they cannot be breeding fails). Check the dragon’s breeding time to see if it fits your schedule. If you can’t login for eight hours, you may want to breed a dragon with a breeding time over 24 hours (it’ll be ready in 6+ hours). If you can visit your park in two hours, select a dragon with a breeding time of 8 hours (it’ll be ready in 2 hours). Be sure to breed two of the same dragon (e.g., Woolen + Woolen). Cloning two of the same dragon has a much higher breeding percentage than using the breeding hint or single cloning (e.g., Woolen + another dragon).

• You will probably want a checklist of all the dragons listed by their RBC reduced breeding time. On Quil’s DragonVale Compendium, there is a Runic Breeding Caves spreadsheet to plan and keep track of your RBC breeds.

• If you don’t have two of every dragon, start cloning the dragons you do have duplicates of that contain more than two primary elements, then move on to single cloning (target dragon + another dragon). Check the Compendium for the dragons with the best single cloning percentages. Breed the permanent hybrids last because you’ll likely accidentally breed them as breeding fails. Primary dragons are the easiest because breeding two will guarantee you’ll receive the primary dragon.

• If you’re new to DragonVale, and don’t have a lot of dragons, breeding two dragons that combined have all 10 primary elements (e.g., Rainbow + another dragon) will yield a wide diversity of dragons. Be sure to use two different dragons. Breeding two of the same will greatly increase your chances of breeding that dragon over and over.

• If you don’t have a lot of the dragons in the event market, you may want to breed the dragons with the lowest breeding percentages at the RBC (check the Compendium for the breeding percentages). Since the breeding time is greatly reduced, you’ll have more attempts than using the Vale breeding caves. Try to breed as many of the event dragon you don’t own in the RBCs, Vale, and Rift. At the end of the event, whichever dragons you were unable to breed in the Vale and Rift you can consider claiming at the RBCs.

• Keep an eye on the RBCs activation timers. Just before an RBC deactivates, breed a dragon with a long breeding time. When the cave expires, the breed will be complete. Insta-breed!

• Before deploying Kairos, try to fill the RBCs with dragons that have long breeding/incubation times. You can use gems to speed up RBC breeds.

• Monolith and Snowflake eggs are identical, so if you need to know which Monolith or Snowflake dragon you bred in the RBCs, click on the Egg History button, then tap the Claims Left button to see the list of dragons.

• If you keep your park in black and white, it’s difficult to notice that a RBC is lit up and activated. This has resulted in some players forgetting to breed in the Double Days cave. You may want to keep your park in colour when the RBCs are in the game.


RUNESTONE INFORMATION

• Depending on the event, five or six RBCs can be activated for free. So if you’d like to claim more dragons, you’ll need to purchase Runestones.

• Runestones can be purchased from the Market. You can buy one, or a _____  of Runestones (3), or a Satchel of Runestones (7). If you want to activate all 10 Runic Breeding Caves, so you can claim 10 eggs, you’ll need to purchase a Satchel of Runestones, and will have several leftover Runestones. You can use the leftovers to reactivate caves and earn more event currency. Or, if you don’t spend them, they’ll convert into 10 gems after the event concludes.

• Once you purchase Runestones, you can use them at any time. Click on a Runic Cave, and in the upper right corner your Runestone counter will show. Tap on it, or on the RBC Breed button, and you’ll be asked if you want to activate the cave with a Runestone.

• Runestones have never been offered at a discount. That doesn’t mean it’ll never happen, but it seems highly unlikely.


RUNIC BREEDING CAVE BUGS

• When using gems to speed up breeding, the gem cost can reset late, or not at all. This is an ongoing bug since the inception of the RBCs. It was reported to Backflip and has been reported to Deca.

• Lunis and Solis cause crashes when they’re successfully bred at the RBCs. As a result, Lunis and Solis are usually unavailable if the RBCs are in the game. Please check the breeding hints and Dragonarium to ensure they’re available before attempting to breed them.



THERE ARE TWO DEADLINES FOR EVERY EVENT

1. Last day to collect event currency
2. Last day to buy items at the event market

The Runic Breeding Caves will depart when you can no longer collect event currency, be sure to claim your eggs before then. If you do not, the game will give you Motley eggs!