Hello all!

I'm a pretty new player but I'm itching to start up a project and had some questions. Hopefully this is the right thread for this - it was a toss-up whether this should go here or in the FAQ section. I've been an active player and project creator on a different pet breeding game (mechanics are a little different but the idea is the same). So - my questions were a little more specific. Hopefully they aren't too idiotic though!

To give a little more background on what I want to do, I'm planning to do a Lighira project but due to cost am starting with a cheaper species to get the hang of it on this site. Thinking Sylvorpa maybe - I've got about 260k saved up so I can buy a few regular essences of those. I'd like to do 6V if I can create a design that I'm happy with that doesn't look too jumbled.

On to the questions!
- How many starters do you generally create for a 6V project? I understand the minimum is 3 (I was going to do 2 males and one female) but is it a lot easier with a different number? Is there some "magic number" that most people tend to go for?
- Do you typically release all your pets that are used to create the final version or do you sell some of them off? I'm assuming this is personal preference here but was just wondering what was common. In the other game I play I always released everything but the final pair and then only sold the completed project. Fails along the way were released.
- Are any species more popular than others when looking to buy?
- How do you determine pricing when your project is ready for sale?
- What essence quality do you usually use? For my first project I was probably just going to do Regular essences but for the Lighira was thinking Enhanced since they're so expensive anyway and I'd get two more trait points to work with. Didn't know if Mystical was ever worth it.

Thank you to all who read this and respond! :) I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go along.

I have never made a project with essences, but I am working on several that I started with purchased/caught pets.

For a 6vis project I would start with three because I don't really think it is necessary to spend the extra money, I would recommend saving up to buy an unlimited genetic test kit (I went back and forth on this for a while, and ended up paying full price (1,500 d) and it was 100% worth it because I do so much breeding.) I think the more females the faster it will go, but you should never have more than 2 unrelated males. Also, if you breed your one female every 3/7 days, you will pretty soon have plenty of pets.

I do release the fails along the way, for my projects they were never worth enough for me to sell them (I try to sell all my pets for at least 10k) but if you have rare genes, you might make something.

There are more popular pets and less popular pets, but I generally breed what I want, not what someone else wants.

I don't have a good pricing method, but I would try auctioning them off and than adding 10-20% for the rest, but It also depends on what you put in to the project.

the reason for Mystical is the colors. they are always spot on with a mystical, and the regular are a joke. (I had a luffox go from purple to green once) If you are not picky about colors, I would recommend just buying them as it is way cheaper.

If you have any more questions, ping me! : )

Thank you for taking the time to reply! :)

I can be very picky on certain colors. Ones like blue, green, purple, etc. I'm not as picky on as long as they look pretty but I can't stand tinted whites and blacks. I was thinking of using a dye if needed on the whites. The one I have planned for Sylvorpa has two white hexes (and one yellow that might give me trouble) but I was going to try it and see first.

Before I start I just want to say I didn't read the previous poster's reply so there may be overlap but there may also be things I point out that they didn't.

1. How many starters do you generally create for a 6V project?...
I personally go for the cheapest way (3 regular essences). Instead of generating 2 males and 1 female I generate 2 females. Why? Because the more eggs you breed every 3 days (7 for fabled species) the greater your chances are of getting that ideal offspring.... but it really doesn't matter if you prefer more males (it won't mess anything up), it's just with more females it means you get more eggs.
I also keep most of the females bred during the process because that means you'll be able to breed more eggs. Hoarding females is a good way to speed up your project, even if they don't get all the traits from her parents.
Only keep perfect males, or near-perfect. Release the rest.

2. Do you typically release all your pets that are used to create the final version...
Release them if you don't want players to copy or breed similar designs. The player may not intend it but when you place pets on public sale it is kind of a free-for-all and there's no way someone would know that it was an intentionally designed pet. My personal rule for selling my personal project designs is: you can only buy 1 and none of the offspring can breed to each other. This prevents people from stealing your design or re-selling your design.

3. Are any species more popular than others when looking to buy?
Yes. Right now the most obvious is Morkko aren't really popular... but will change when they are re-drawn. People really like the felines and canines. This is just what I've observed. You can generally tell which species are popular and which are not by searching for essences on the broker. The more expensive essences with few in the market are obviously popular.

4. How do you determine pricing when your project is ready for sale?
Ask around, see how much interest there is. I usually do not have set amounts and keep it open in case someone offers a pet or item I really want. "How much do you want out of it, how much gold did you put into it and how much are people willing to pay for it?" are some important questions to think about.

5. What essence quality do you usually use?
I always use regular essences. I personally don't see mysticals being worth it and the extra GP from enhanced don't make a difference for me. Get enhanced if you want to speed up the project, but regulars are all you really need if you have no money. Don't worry about colour swing, that's what dyes are for. I recommend completing your project and then dying your final pairs. Don't dye your generated pets because sometimes the colours even out during the breeding process and then you will only have to correct 2-3 colours (it will save you a lot of dyes). Also when you use enhanced there is still a possibility of colour swings, so your hard earned gold could go to waste if you are unlucky.

What BluSnoTu said in the top of her post is a good idea -- it's much cheaper to buy pets with the genes you want, then breed those, then worry about colors later. Essences, unless you have diamonds (cash currency), are very expensive in gold in comparison to just buying pets, breeding them, then dyeing the end pets.

- How many starters do you generally create for a 6V project?
Depends on what you start with, and where you wanna go.
For example, for me to get a 6vis, I have to start with pets that have at least 6 carried traits. To get that kind of pet, I can either choose to make two 3vis pets (which need 4 enhanced essences each), or three pairs of 2vis each that will somehow all make offspring and breed those offspring to make 6 carried babies. For me, I can't imagine what I start with without a clear plan, which is why it's kinda important to understand how breeding chances work, or how often getting a carried trait across into offspring happens.

- Do you typically release all your pets that are used to create the final version or do you sell some of them off?
Yup, personal preference. People either sell theirs for low cost or release. I personally release, but sometimes I set some up for sale for cheap.

- Are any species more popular than others when looking to buy?
Fabled pets happen to be more popular, I suppose. But it also depends on colors of the pet.

Another popular thing is purebred species from a line of exclusive themes (which have specific colorations). Those are particularly expensive, even moreso than enhanced-generated projects.

- How do you determine pricing when your project is ready for sale?

I kinda just adlib a number. I browse other players' projects as well, and I get a feel for the prices. You won't know what's considered 'cheap' or 'expensive' until you feel Sylestia's economy for yourself, especially when you start learning how to make gold).

I personally like to share my pets with others, so I'd think to make projects a relatively cheap price. If it had lots of work involved, it would be proportional to its gold price.

- What essence quality do you usually use?
Mythical is just for color accuracy. This may mean a lot to some but not for others. As a full-time student that tries really hard not to spend diamonds, color accuracy isn't the world for me. (I speak from experience when I say dyes are easier to get than mythical essences...considering people try to sell mythical essences for millions of gold whereas dyes are 50k-100k per piece, which is still expensive but unless you have diamonds, essences in general are too expensive in comparison.)

I would go with enhanced, as they offer the most GP (genotype points, which you use to make genes visible or carried) per pet.

Thanks so much for the responses guys! It's definitely helping me figure out what I want to do next. :) Most of the mutations I want are pretty recessive so not sure what luck I'd have buying. Plus, making a project sounds fun so I'm going to go the essences route. :) Just need to pin down my design before I start!

If you are getting the minimum (three) then you can get to males, one female, or two females, one male.
The second way is faster in the beginning, but it slows down pretty fast.

With the first way you only get one offspring every 3/7 days, but once those offspring grow up you can immediately breed all the females with the other males. you will spend one month getting one egg every 3/7 days, and then the numbers will go way up, so within two months you can have at least 4 eggs per 3/7 days, and still going up.

With the second way you get a lot more eggs in the beginning, but once those offspring grow up, they all have the same father, so you can't breed any of them, and all the females are related to your generated male. At that point you have to breed one of your new males with the other female to get an unrelated male. at the end of two months you will still be getting two eggs every 3/7 days, although at that point, if you have kept all the females that you couldn't breed before, your egg production will go way up,

It all really depends on what you want to do, I guess, but there are how they each work. If you have any questions, please ask.

I'm fairly new at breeding, but I do have several projects in the works. I initially started out breeding just for traits and figured I'd dye the end product since I had very little money at the start. I will never do that again. The cost of dyes has gone up considerably and for some species you can buy two regular essences for the price of one dye. I do nurture a lot, but it takes a lot of clicks to get enough scales for one dye. Lighira are an exception for me, since essences are very rare and I usually only want a 2 or 3 vis so I don't need quite as many dyes.

I usually do two females and two males. I find this helps my impatience at the slooooow start of a project. That and certain projects just hate me and refuse to carry traits at the start.

I usually release offspring I don't want. I have way too many projects, so I really don't want to be feeding pets I'm not using and none of mine are worth much of anything anyway.

I just breed for myself, so I can't help with pricing.