I leveled all my dragons to 15 and do not consider myself chronically broke. After buying three islands and clearing them over the course of the magic event, I am quite low on $$ (500mil or so)
I obviously play this game quite differently to others
I'm not going to start breeding the light/dark hybrids until I have to (i.e. when they are needed in a combo). I have too many other goals at the moment. Game plan is as follows:
- Breed 30 Solar Eclipses as soon as possible (I want a full island of these guys) - Breed 4 Solstices (just to round out my last few remaining habitats) - Breed second Topaz (sometime this month - for juvenile display) - Breed december gemstone (sometime next month - for juvenile display) - Breed any other limiteds that come up
All limited breeding is done on the Island to maximise the %age chance of success. The cave will be used purefly for breeding my Solar Eclipse army. Once that is done, I'll start breeding some of the Light/Dark hybrids there, but only the ones that have maximum profit. My cave is normally used for breeding for profit - the new Light/Dark hybrids look like they'll fit that bill.
I'm not really too interested in getting the Light/Dark dragons at the moment as:
a) They are permanent and there is no rush; and b) They are only going to be hibernated anyway - only the ones that fit in my giant habitat will be out. Which will be the ones that earn the most
This is only until I have one of each dragon at level 20. But given they just introduced ~36 new dragons, this is going to take a LONG time.
My absolute max earnings will cap out at ~$100m per day. Even at this rate, it will take just over 5 days to level a dragon to Level 20. So say 6 per month. I've got a long road ahead of me...
Can't wait until the Dark dragons come out, although I am still slowly earning up for a second Rift egg.
I know that there might be a disadvantage in placing the opposite elements on the same island, but I am liking how it is looking so far. I'll have to redo the flag art once the Dark flag is released and may keep the plethora of bushes as a painful reminder of the effort put into this event.
Poppy, thank you for posting pictures! I enjoyed seeing what you've done with your park.
I'm curious - why do you think that leveling those dragons was a tactical error? Is it because you wish you had been more selective when choosing which ones to level up? What would you do differently if you had it to do over?
I was working on silver shrines before version two came out, and have been slowly leveling up a pair of each kind of dragon, putting priority on those that earn well or that I need for breeding. I don't have many even to 15 yet, but at least one of each hybrid that I have is at 11. After your post, I'm wondering if I'm going down a path that I will regret.
I have one of every dragon at L15, 1b DC, 20m treats and 1k gems. I have also crowned 4 dragons for coliseum purposes. I've never had a panlong island or bred for cash, but time, frugality and constant playing have really added up I love how this game allows everyone to play differently
GCID: NinjaKiwi. *remember the full stop!*
DVID: NinjaKiwi#3970
Currently breeding for whatever twins I can possibly get my hands on
Poppy, thank you for posting pictures! I enjoyed seeing what you've done with your park.
I'm curious - why do you think that leveling those dragons was a tactical error? Is it because you wish you had been more selective when choosing which ones to level up? What would you do differently if you had it to do over?
I was working on silver shrines before version two came out, and have been slowly leveling up a pair of each kind of dragon, putting priority on those that earn well or that I need for breeding. I don't have many even to 15 yet, but at least one of each hybrid that I have is at 11. After your post, I'm wondering if I'm going down a path that I will regret.
Thanks!
Michele
Michele...
There are limited strategic benefits in leveling up dragons:
o Earning Gold Shrines Maybe obsolete now.
o Increasing coin production This is of limited benefit as Epics and Rares at level 10 are high producers. Right PJ?
o Competing in the Colesseum Level 20's are worthwhile here but you only need a few of them to cover all of the events.
o Acquiring XP (or at the moment MP) Dunno if that's cost-effective or not - have my doubts.
The real resource waster is leveling to 20. I'd much rather have the resources it took to take 18-20 dragons to level 20 than those 18-20 crowns. I'll do a calculation of what that would be in GCs or treats and report back (but my friend Fletch will probably beat me to it ). It will curl your toes.
Poppy
This account was previously Poppy’s account. All posts are by Poppy.
If you’d like to contact adlerist, please use adlerist. Thank you!
There are limited strategic benefits in leveling up dragons:
o Earning Gold Shrines Maybe obsolete now.
o Increasing coin production This is of limited benefit as Epics and Rares at level 10 are high producers. Right PJ?
o Competing in the Colesseum Level 20's are worthwhile here but you only need a few of them to cover all of the events.
o Acquiring XP (or at the moment MP) Dunno if that's cost-effective or not - have my doubts.
The real resource waster is leveling to 20. I'd much rather have the resources it took to take 18-20 dragons to level 20 than those 18-20 crowns. I'll do a calculation of what that would be in GCs or treats and report back (but my friend Fletch will probably beat me to it ). It will curl your toes.
Poppy
I agree it is an obscene amount of money / treats. But the question is, what else are you going to do with it?
You definitely never level dragons to level 20 for the increased income, that's for sure. That said, if you want to display one of each dragon at all times, then there is no harm in levelling them up.
I think levelling MULTIPLE of a single dragon to anything above about level 10 is totally useless though (with few exceptions).
Levelling dragons for XP is definitely effective - it only takes 3 dragons to level 20 to jump 1 level at the higher levels (~200m exp per dragon).
For me it is just the achievement. I've got 32 level 20 dragons at last count - still got a LOT to go.
It all depends how you play the game though really. For me, it is all about optimising efficiency and earnings, while trying to 'complete' the game, which I define as 2 of each dragon (one as a juvenile) and one egg, with one of each dragon at level 20.
I think it is a matter of how you define the "game", what you consider winning. I want everything to be level 20. It has to be even! I don't know what else I would spend DC/food/gems on, is this gives me a very long term goal. Every dragon I own is at 15 (that can) and I am working on getting them to 20. When something new comes out that costs loads of money I save for a day or two... It took me less than a week to get the 250 mil for the island. The least I make in a day is 20 mil, and depending on the number of sweeps more.
Long ago I brought all my dragons to 15 to get the gold shrines. Two weeks or so before I was ready they made the shrines buyable. I thought a while about the new opportunity and then continued grinding. It felt like cheating for me to buy those shrines with gems.
With the shrines I brought my colosseum dragons to 20 : Panlong, Bloom, Liberty
During the light/dark event I levelled all my dragon pairs to 16 ( to gather MP). When this was achieved I started levelling my Paper to 20, because I like him for the dragon track and then he'll be up in the list. He's at 18 now. At the moment I need all food for the new dragons which should get to 16 too. I like having them all (except for the few 20s) on the same level, because it's easier to find a dragon by name then.
My dream is to display two of every dragon : a babyfied and an adult. Wonder if it's possible with the two extra habitats from this event. But even if so : it won't last for long. From the profit aspect It's a shame that all those extra Panlongs for the shrines and some epic fails are hibernating, but I love the variety.
dragon list (last dragon : Gatren) DV friend id: Crumble#7733 friend link coop friends always welcome, but all my gems are spoken for
Crumble: I love the variety too. I try to do some combination of displaying as much as possible while also maxxing profit. (So maybe only display one of something that is really low to allow more slots for duplicates of something that makes more money)
Post by Administrator on Nov 7, 2013 10:41:32 GMT -6
OK, big redo. I changed over from high gold coin production to displaying as many dragons as possible. I was producing 50-60M a day - I imagine I've taken a big hit. I was able to come close to displaying one adult and one turbo-baby of each dragon. There are four left in the HC. It appears this is going to be increasingly impossible moving forward given the new Light/Dark dragons. My compromise is going to be to display at least one of each dragon which should be no problem.
On a side note, it's becoming difficult to manage two parks. Thinking #2 may have to be a daily check for a while.
Poppy
This account was previously Poppy’s account. All posts are by Poppy.
If you’d like to contact adlerist, please use adlerist. Thank you!
There are limited strategic benefits in leveling up dragons:
o Earning Gold Shrines Maybe obsolete now.
Yeah, seems to be. 1mil treats is nice litttle reward for getting gold, but you're probably spending around 13mil treats to get there.
Seems much less likely we'll ever get Platinum shrines now, but I suppose it could still happen...
o Increasing coin production This is of limited benefit as Epics and Rares at level 10 are high producers. Right PJ?p
Mostly true. There should still be some limited dragons that can beat Epics in terms of straight DC/min once you factor in multiple boosts and Giant Habitats.
I say should because my spread sheets aren't fully up to date post DV 2.0... and I'm pretty sure the info on the wiki's DC/min tables are no longer completly accurate either
But there's more inital setup cost involved with the limited hybrids and they put more demands on your time since the habitats the live in have lower DC caps.
So something like that will almost certainly only "win" as we extend out into infinity and assume we have ample time on our hands.
It's also worth mentioning that the DV2.0 breeding rules make aquiring large numbers of high earning limited dragons, Epic or otherwise, far less efficient than in the past. In fact, I don't know if anyone's actually sat down to try and figure out what the potential "best" route would be. Especially when you factor in all the randomness of potental breeding fails to your setup costs...
o Competing in the Colesseum Level 20's are worthwhile here but you only need a few of them to cover all of the events.
True, but don;t forget that in the very near future, you will want add one or possibly two more crowned dragons to account for the Dark and Light elements
o Acquiring XP (or at the moment MP) Dunno if that's cost-effective or not - have my doubts.
You know, I've just realized that I've never actually taken a dragon past level 15 while I wasn't sitting at the level cap.
So I've never gotten to enjoy the amounts of XP they generate
The real resource waster is leveling to 20. I'd much rather have the resources it took to take 18-20 dragons to level 20 than those 18-20 crowns.
Ok, sure, I can kinda see that argument but... what exactly are you going to do with all the resources you would have saved? It's not like DC collects interest or has any real inherent value so your basic options are:
- invest it into Treats, which you will eventually want to feed to dragons anyhow, leading you right back to where you started
- hoard it for some personal goal. I don't totally understand why, but some folks just love to see those big numbers
- save it in anticipation of more stuff to buy
But honestly, there's really not that much you can even spend DC on since all the premium stuff costs gems. And you've been playing forever, so you probably have most of the stuff you would want anyhow. Only new stuff is going to really be needed unless you are overcome with an urge to replace all bushes with giant trees or some such... Heck, the most expensive single purchase currently in the game, the 9th Island, only costs half a billion DC. And that's just a one time purchase.
Personally, I was anticipating an expensivne new island and a huge amount of new decorations/habitats/buildings coming along with Light and Dark, so I saved up 300mil. Once Dark is here, I'll burn all my excess on Beanstalks to get back down to my normal cushion of 100 mil or so, which has always been more than enough to buy whatever new decoration(s) might come alojng with a new limted dragon.
Speakign of, you have also forgotten something: dragons level 11+ are supposed to give us bonuses for breeding all the Golden Hybrid, Limited, Epic and Gemstone dragons. So crowning certain dragons could prove quite useful, thoguh I might not do it just to get this still unknown bonus...
Ultimatly, outside of that potential bonus and the Colosseum, crowning dragons seems to mostly be a bragging rights thing. Kinda like having a billion DC in the bank
I'm still holding off on any major renovations until Dark is here, so my shiny new Light habitats are just sorta sitting alone on an otherwise empty island. As such, seeing all these pictures of peoples lovely new islands makes me feel like SUCH a slacker
And even if I wasn't feelign like a slacker, these are some really lovely pictures that makes my fancier stuff look fairly lame by comparison
I think I have to put some serious work into bringing my park out of the dark ages...
I'm still holding off on any major renovations until Dark is here, so my shiny new Light habitats are just sorta sitting alone on an otherwise empty island. As such, seeing all these pictures of peoples lovely new islands makes me feel like SUCH a slacker
And even if I wasn't feelign like a slacker, these are some really lovely pictures that makes my fancier stuff look fairly lame by comparison
I think I have to put some serious work into bringing my park out of the dark ages...
I have prepared to re-decorate, by moving all my habitats to just a few islands. I might re-do me egg island before dark gets here(I can pretty easily anticipate how much space I would need for dark... But otherwise waiting for the dark ones.
In fact, I don't know if anyone's actually sat down to try and figure out what the potential "best" route would be. Especially when you factor in all the randomness of potental breeding fails to your setup costs...
Solstices are still king. I have run the numbers, but won't list them all down as I still can't seem to convince you that they are a FAR better investment than breeding multiple limiteds to level 15
With the extra nerfs to normal dragons, epics are MUCH better (as they should be). Before, it was technically possible to get more from some limiteds, but in practice, epics are SO much easier and efficient. And a much safer bet due to the significantly lower start up costs.
And you also should bear in mind that if they ever raise the level cap on Epics, which I almost certain they will eventually, Epics will far and away be the best option. If you also bear in mind that they do not yet have giant habitats (or even large habitats for most epics), there is another future potential here.
At the end of the day, you can play however you want. But Epics are the way to go if you want money. That is why they are called 'Epics'
OK, last one I promise. I placed the Gem dragon eggs on the Royal Island where my 23 crown dragons reside. BTW, crowning these dragons is my biggest tactical error playing DV. You don't gain anything after you have the horse power to compete in the Colesseum and mountains of resources are consumed. My #2 error was leveling all dragons to 15. Big waste of resources except to gain Gold shrines and to generate some coin producers.
I'm still chronically broke because of these mistakes.
Poppy
They're not mistakes. Just detours on the path. But I agree with you on both of these. I've crowned a few dragons for the Colosseum, but I leave every dragon I've hatched since gilding the shrines at level 10 (plus a few Juveniles I like). The things floating above their heads look weird. Think I'll start using fails to replace level 11+ dragons with level 10 counterparts.
And don't think I'll be levelling up epics when the opportunity arises. With no shrine to gild it seems pointless. Unless the introduce epic colosseum events, which doesn't seem like it would be fair to new players.
Last Edit: Nov 7, 2013 19:12:21 GMT -6 by Fletch_smf
PJ I'm wondering how long it takes you to earn the cash/grow the food to crown a dragon? Just interested in if the goal is achievable considering a new dragon is released every week (currently 135 dragons, game was launched 111 weeks ago).
'... overwhelming goodwill, and witty humour, profound grace and compassion blended with the spice of relentless taunts.'
Note: This is an independent forum and is not affiliated with Deca Games, the developer of DragonVale.
It was created by and is managed by DragonVale fanatics.
All who observe the following brief guidelines are welcome to this great community: no personal attacks & no spam.
