So I just started playing this game a couple days ago and thought it might be worthwhile to buy some diamonds as kind of a jump start. I was thinking of picking up a couple of enhanced essences to gen a pair of fabled pets and maybe a test kit (since it's on sale at the moment).

So my question to you more experienced users is - is this worth it for newbies or is it better to wait?
How often do diamond/item sales come up?
From reading the description of the test kit it sounds like it is re-usable as many times as I like. Is that true?

I appreciate any responses. :)

Welcome to Sylestia! c:

So my question to you more experienced users is - is this worth it for newbies or is it better to wait?

Depending on how long you stay around and how much you end up doing, I'd say wait.
Because test kits are more for people who breed in my opinion (otherwise you can get small numbers of pets tested for absolutely free by other people, just takes a bit of time and wait between players). If you end up not really breeding pets, or you just prefer to have less than 25 pets over your entire life on Sylestia (which doesn't tend to happen, but it happens), then you don't really have much use for your test kit, other than to probably test other peoples' pets.
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edit: I say wait also because I like getting a feel for a site for more than a month after I start playing. (For others, this time of testing and playing can differ, can be a week for some and 6 months for others.)
The test kits and scanners have the greatest benefit for long term players or active players (over the long term aha). :) But for people who tend to jump from game to game (which also happens), I would recommend waiting.
But I will say that the test kit and the scanner was my top priority and a great asset when getting diamonds. The only thing that had more priority than them was more stables, because I just started getting more and more pets aha.
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It's good for when you catch a lot of pets or breed a lot of pets. If you see yourself doing that, go for it! Otherwise, the sales happen around different holidays and during festivals (seasonal festivals happen 4 times a year, winter/spring/summer/fall, and Week of Love (Feb) and Week of Fortune (March) and Black Friday (November) and other misc days can have this sale, and the diamond discount on the test kits/scanners is the same every sale.)

How often do diamond/item sales come up?

Woops, answered the question above. xD;

From reading the description of the test kit it sounds like it is re-usable as many times as I like. Is that true?

Yup! :) Totally permanent and reusable.



If you have any more Qs, feel free to ask. /o/

Thanks so much for the reply!

I joined this game after hearing about it from another breeding game so that is one of the main reasons I want to play. :) I think I'm just being impatient!

Never hurts to be impatient. :) If you absolutely think you love this game and want to have a head start, go for it! Using diamonds to buy your essences or test kit is faster than asking someone to test your pets or make enough gold to buy essences.

Learning how the site works definitely helps though, and that sometimes come with time.

I can tell you that one thing that older users may recognize (if they look into it) is that some items you buy with diamonds (cash) don't reflect their value in gold (virtual currency), even when converted from one currency to another.
(For example, an Enhanced Vulnyx (cat) Essence is 445k on the broker (a player is selling it for 445k), while its 750 diamonds, which converted is roughly 1.875mil) from the cash shop (the site-mandated price), and other items may be undersold in comparison; either way, discrepancies are high aha, and sometimes it's better to go about buying things with gold than with diamonds, and just sell diamonds, and so on. But players learn this after playing awhile (and that's for many games), instead of being told this aha.)

This sorta thing doesn't hamper the overall experience, so I'm glad you like Sylestia. c: Again, if you have more questions, feel free to ask!

That's good to know! If I did buy I was thinking of buying a couple Lighira enhanced essences. I'll have to compare prices!

If you plan on staying around and doing a lot of breeding I would highly recommend an Exceptional Genetic Test Kit.. it was my first diamond purchase and I've never regretted it. I would wait until they are on sale, and they have diamond sales quite frequently.. usually during every holiday event. Like the above person said, there are people that will test for free on the forums until you get one. I'm impatient though so I NEEDED my own.

Diamonds will also come in handy when buying stables, greater mutators, monthly avatar items, etc. I usually like to keep a small stockpile so I have some when I need them, and I buy more if I need to when sales happen.

As for essences.. you almost need diamonds to purchase them from the diamond shop. People sell them here and there in the trade broker but there aren't always ones for sale.. especially the ones that give higher GP. Fabled pet essences (like the lighara) are hard to find in shops.

It's funny you mention the test kit as I ended up getting it on sale last month and waiting on the essences. I decided I'd play for a bit to save up for cheaper essences like Sylvorpa to do my first project with and do the Lighira project when I've got a bit more cash flow. :) I'm hoping to have enough to be able to buy three enhanced sylvorpa essences around the time of the spring festival (I want to see if they release new genes or mutations before generating). I've got enough to buy one now so I think I can do it - of course that's assuming that there are some enhanced essences being sold at that time too!

Doh! Totally didn't notice this was posted like 3 weeks ago.. my bad. Hah.

The test kit was by far the best purchase I've made here.. I use it almost daily.

The Sylvorpa are one of my favorites. They just got revamped not too long ago and got a bunch of new traits so I've had a lot of fun playing with the generator. It's probably a better idea to start cheaper for your first project as you're still learning the best way to go about things. The regular essences are usually much cheaper and I've used them a lot for 3-4 vis projects and they seem to work fine.. a 6v might be a bit slow with regular essences though, haven't really tried it.

A word of warning though.. don't let your projects consume you! Hah. A year ago when I first joined I was all "Ooh, I want to try a project!" next thing I know I had 10 active projects and like 20 more designed and waiting. My poor stables didn't stand a chance and were overrun in no time.

Hi i was wondering if there was a way to get diamonds besides buying them cause i'm only thirteen and my parents don't have money to give me to buy diamonds on here and also is there another way of getting nets without buying them with diamonds and how do u get a mission? wow sorry for all the questions my account is only a day old

you can go to the exchange (trade > currency exchange), and buy diamonds with gold. prices will fluctuate, though usually it's around 2.5k - 3k gold per diamond, so you might want to save up some gold before buying.

Nets can be bought in the towns. Just go to the market in the town. the first town only sell the lowest-grade trap though. The master trap can only be bought in the diamond shop, or from other players on the trade broker (under trades).

regarding missions, you may want to look at this guide: https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=12841