I had actually just replied to a breeding question thread that you had also replied to. Maybe this will help you with breeding (cheaply, and slowly to start).

Link: https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=26324&page=1#3 Author: Fox Time Posted: 6/13/2015 at 8:14 AM To add onto what Khumos said... If you are looking to breed a pair that can breed together and create as many offspring as you like... the cheapest (but slowest) method is to use 3 regular essences. Generate 1 girl, 2 boys. For each pet put the traits as carries, whether you're using enhanced/mystical or regular. Distribute the traits as you see fit, as long as there is 1 of each trait you need within your trio. Breed your generation 1 girl to one of your gen. 1 boys. If you hatch a girl this is good. You want to breed this generation 2 girl to the generation 1 boy that isn't the father. You would continue doing this until the females you breed have more and more trait slots filled. When you breed males that are better than your adult males, switch them out... but make sure you have girls that can breed to the new male. Siblings and children can not breed to each other, however grandparents can breed to their grandchildren (gross, I know but that's how it's done cheaply). If you need more help there are lots of player guides about breeding.

In the case of traits that say "AE" or "CF" instead of "AA" or "CC" that is called a hidden trait, the second letter being the hidden. Every trait has a letter assigned to it. Hidden traits happen when you breed two pets that have different traits in the same slot.

For example: If you breed a zolnixi with banded stripes (gene 1, "AA") and a zolnixi with paint (gene 1, "CC") you'll get a zolnixi that shows banded stripes ("A") but hides paint ("C"). Therefore when you look at it in adv. search (and if it is genetically tested) it will show gene 1 being "AC". Hope that explains it!

Does the hidden trait interfere with the visible trait when breeding? Any chance the hidden trait will be passed down instead of the visible? I would assume not since the hidden trait is recessive...

The hidden trait does not actually, physically show on the pet, however...

When you breed pets they will pass on 1 of 2 of the letters (they're called alleles in real life genetics).

So let's say you breed a pet with this in gene 1 slot: NA (a carry) and you breed it with a pet that has this in gene 1: AB (a visible with a hidden trait)...

It's possible that pet 1 (NA) will pass on it's second allele (A) and it is also possible for pet 2 to also pass on its second allele (B). If this happens that means the offspring would have gene 1 as "AB"... a visible with a hidden.

Another possibility is pet 1 will pass on allele N (no trait) and pet 2 will pass on its second allele (B)... the offspring would have gene 1 as "NB"... a carry with the more recessive trait from the pair.

Hidden traits will always be more recessive than the visible trait. You will never see something like "BA" or "FC".

It would help to look up "punnette squares". That's how Sylestia breeding works, essentially.

This is very helpful ^^

Thank you!

Follow up question though

If you breed AA x AE

Will it give you a 100% chance at an offspring with AA?

No. 50% to get AA because...

AA + AE gives you 2 chances of four to get AA and 2 chances of 4 to get AE. You will never get EE though because pet 1 doesn't have an E allele to give.

Just to try and illustrate what I mean.

Pet 1 has A(1st allele) and A(2nd allele)... for simplicity's sake we will say it has A1A2.
Pet 2 has A(1st allele and E(2nd allele)... for simplicity's sake we will say it has A3E1.
Just to show what I'm doing easier.

After each parent passes on 1 of their alleles the offspring can have...

A1A3
A1E1
A2A3
A2E1

That means there are two chances the offspring will have "AA" and two chances for it to have "AE".. as you can figure out after writing down all the possibilities by giving 1 allele from each parent to the hypothetical offspring.

I get that part, but will the A always be visible in every case of those? Or does it go back to carried when an E allele is present?

As I said before the dominant trait will always be the visible one.
A is the most dominant trait, Z is the most recessive.

You will never see hiddens like "EA" or "CB".

Alright, seems clear now.

I'm trying to put together a plan to get to 6 vis without relying on %s less than 5.

I'm kind of stuck though... I can do 3 vis at 6.3% but once I try to introduce more than that I end up falling to a primarily 0,1,1,1,1,1 scheme which is a dead end I think. I mean, I could cross it with a couple twos and hope that the twos carry over and the offspring picks up a few 1s, but that's pretty low chance...

Am I missing a technique or something?

I'm not sure how others breed, but this is how I do it and I've been able to breed 6 visibles starting from 1 carries/2 carries in about 10 months. 10 months is a reasonable amount of time considering I usually start with only 3 to 6 pets (cause I'm cheap).

I start with 2 boys, 1 girl. I hoard all the girls I hatch and release/sell the boys unless they have more trait points than their fathers. Essentially you create as many girls as possible and keep 2-4 boys so that the girls will have a compatible mate.

In the case that you breed a male that is better than his father... don't release the adult yet. While the hatchling grows continue hatching girls, releasing boys. When the hatchling grows up you now have a better male, meaning better females. The females that share a father with your new boy can breed to the male you have that is not related (hence why you start with 2 males).

You just continue to hatch females, and when a better male comes along you keep him. You keep the females because that means more eggs, which means more chances for better males and pets in general.

The key is mass breeding. There is no way to avoid the low % unless you breed every female you've got.