How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Lock

[ETAK]

TL;DR:

 

This is the casual friendly way (1 dragon grown/day). If you are hardcore, scroll down to "The Devil's Lock". (1.8 dragons grown/day).

 

Old revision here.

 

This is the casual friendly way. If you are hardcore, scroll down to "The Devil's Lock".

 

Purpose

 

I've seen many posts about the best way to raise dragons - the most reds you could possibly need to always have an incubate, the number of pinks you need to always be able to influence - but none to the best hatching strategy. This is the same information that causes people to want larger lock limits, when the current limits are rather ingeniously designed, if you think about it. This is a casual site, and I believe the administrator did a fine job planning to make it friendly to that.

 

This post will go into why and how you can hatch dragons at the fastest rate, always be unlocked to catch an egg, only need to log in once a day, and maximize the egg-hours out of your scroll.

 

Method

 

The key is to simply find the amount of time it takes to grow one new, 7d egg. It takes 3 days to hatch, and another 3 to mature (6d). This is where the first insight comes from: locks only occur when you get too many hatchis or too many eggs at once. If you use incubate (2d egg->3d hatchi), you will overload on hatchis. If you get more than one egg a day, you will be perma-locked on eggs. To keep things even, you should have alternating [Egg -> Hatchi -> Egg -> Hatchi ....] on your scroll. As soon as the Egg hatches and locks you, a Hatchi matures and you are unlocked again! It's a see-saw: you have to keep it balanced.

 

I have removed a paragraph about incubate being counterproductive - see Xylene's Method, and The Devil's Lock.

 

The magic nuber for regular scrolls is "7": 3 hatchies/4 eggs. This is the most "things" you should have on your scroll at once to not end up causing a traffic jam. The more "things" on your scroll at the same time, the more egg-hours you are getting.

 

The second insight is that anything fogged past "4d remaining" is wasted time. If you have an egg at "3d remaining", but are keeping it fogged to remain unlocked, you are wasting time that could be used in the hatchling stage. This means you need what is called a "steady state" process - something that is the same all the time. This method (and the modified version below) are just that.

 

Are you unlocked?

 

The other problem is being unlocked. The main advantage of this method is, you are perpetually locked and perpetually unlocked a the same time. That may sound weird - being locked is a good thing?

 

A better way to put it is you are always "full". When you do get "locked", it is for a fraction of a second. Look at the image above. 90% of the time, you are at 3 eggs/3 hatchis. You are only locked 4 eggs/3 hatchis after you decide to pick up a new egg - and at that point, you have to wait at most a day to be unlocked again. (Note that fogged "ready to burst" eggs will not hatch until you unfog them! Meaning, you can control when an egg becomes a hatchi!)

 

It all depends what time you decide - or want - to go hunting.

 

When are you on?

 

A lot of people unlock at weird hours, making people wait for trades, or again - wasting time by not having a full scroll. This site is friendly to people who are in school, are only on when their parents can supervise them, or are busy taking care of kids or work. Why should you have to take this as anything more than a casual game?

 

If you limit yourself to one egg a day with this method, you only have to log on once, at any time you choose: catch a new egg, unfog your hatching-ready egg, and fog your second-next egg. You can do all this at once, rather than waiting for the "4d remaining" timer to count down and tapping your foot. Less time in DC, more time to do homework!

 

Conclusion

 

So how do you go about doing this? Here's a simple checklist

• Use fogging/unfogging to get staggered [Egg -> Hatchi -> Egg -> (etc.)] This means as soon as an Egg hatches, a Hatchi grows up to make room and unlock you.
• Do not use incubate except to get the times to line up again. If somehow you get behind a few hours, you can incubate the egg and keep it fogged until the moment you want it to hatch.
• Moderation - limit yourself to one egg a day. This has to do with the limits of "no more than 4 eggs or hatchies at a time". Any more than this, and you clog your scroll.
• From the moment your "Deadline" passes, you have an entire day to catch a single egg. Be picky!
• If time is running out and you get to your "Deadline" time, grab any old egg. As soon as your deadline passes, you will have to incubate the new egg if you don't want your log-in time constantly pushed back!
• This method assumes you have enough views to hatch immediately at 4d remaining. (Fansites are a great help!)
• This also assumes the current lock limits of "4 hatchlings *or* 4 eggs, whichever comes first". If this is changed to "7 total", as is implied with the Cave Changes, this all goes out the window.

Hopefully this helps other DC users make the most of their scroll, their time, and enjoy the game more. I came up with this merely because I like asking "what if". In this case, it actually came up with something useful!

 

Have fun, DC.

 

-ETAK

Edited April 9, 2011 by ETAK

[ETAK]

Advanced Methods - "Bursting" (1.16/day)

 

In the Strangelock, have 1 egg slot unlocked all the time. This is essentially wasted space. If aren't picky about which eggs you get, and want fill up your slots immediately, you can do this to get that 1-slot boost.

 

This suffers from login-time drift if you aren't fast, but incubates can get times gradually back on track.

 

 

Click to embiggen.

 

 

Advanced Methods - "Breeder's Lock" (1.5/day)

 

I mentioned above you should keep to 3 eggs/3 hatchis. This is for 90% of people who want to be free to hunt the AP or the Cave for the "new" egg. However, the special rule in DC that lets you keep the 5th bred egg, even when you have 4 hatchis and 4 eggs, means another lock is possible. Basically, you add another "(hatchi)->egg" combo at the bottom of the chain.

 

I call this "Breeder's Lock", since you can only obtain new eggs by breeding them yourself. You are uber-locked until you let the extra [Hatchi->Egg] combo pass through the system. Then you can revert back to the Strangelock. This takes three days, and you cannot get any new eggs until the third day; compared to getting a new egg a day, this can be rough - but it still is the best way to do it.

 

This lets you have 9 "things" growing on your scroll, and averages 1.5 dragons grown/day.

 

Click to Embiggen.

 

Advanced Methods - Trading, Abandoning, Freezing

 

Other variations are possible, but I have not written them up yet. Reserved.

 

Xylene's Method - 3:4 Tandem/DC Vacation [Links to post] (1.16-1.4/day)

 

Xylene has posted her faster method, where you can use incubate and take three day breaks between visiting DC. You can grow 1.16 dragons/day, and every egg can be incubated! (Compared to 1/day with Strangelock.) It works for bred eggs too! If you have lots of reds, you can get 1.4/day. (Requires >28 Reds)

 

The main differences are you have to be able to get three eggs quickly (Xylene says she grabs anything out of the cave), are locked for long periods (but don't need to be on either), and need reds (>28) to make the most out of it. Edit: After modeling, your login times also get pushed back farther and farther each day. It will eventually get to the point you may be unlocked at 2AM and can't log in. Still, given that you can use incubate, it is still faster. Without incubate, you only can hatch 1.16/day. You have to ask yourself which method is better for you.

 

My method focuses on being unlocked as much as possible (for trades, ERs, etc), and being flexible when you log in. However, Xylene's method is clearly better for hatching eggs as quickly as possible, if you can log in any time, aren't picky about eggs, or have LOTS of reds. I strongly endorse her method if you have the reds and are capable of it. (Save the Commons!)

 

Xylene's Method, showing progressively later login times: (pink lines are incubates you have to wait to do, red shows login time. I assume it takes you a short time to find an egg, or for the cave to unblock.)

 

The Devil's Lock (1.8/day)

Ok, so after seeing Xylene's method, I was a bit impressed. So I improved on it and came up with this.

 

It is a way to have 9 "things" growing on your scroll, nearly continuously, incubating everything. (Just a picture, no description for now.) You also have to breed your own eggs most of the time. (The lines with "B" mean "bred egg".) You occasionally get to get CB/AP eggs. (Unmarked lines.) Pink lines are "do not incubate until"s, black lines are "you have to wait until"s.

 

This is the most min/maxed locking schedule I could come up with. I think it averages 1.8 dragons grown/day. That's crazy! And you can still get CBs with it! Someone needs to try this!

 

Click to Embiggen.

Edited April 10, 2011 by ETAK

[SnowSherry]

Wow, ETAK.. this is deep stuff

[iala]

thought you could only have 4 total (hatchies and eggs combines), plus one of your own breed?

[arula]

Nice writeup! I resolved to do this myself a while ago... and then I didn't always check in at the right time, and whenever I messed up and had two or three open spots I couldn't stop myself from grabbing two or three eggs at the same time. So having more consistency and self-restraint than me may be requirements for this method.

[GForce]

Thank you! - If i can get this to work for me you will have the equivalent of my "First Born" haha, will have to grab a nice set of Rares first though!

 

 

[Cariux]

Mine has always been 9 with alternations with 4 hachies and 5 eggs. I'm not a big AP hunter since I breed my own eggs untill I start getting Inbreds. I keep this system until I want to adopt new eggs onto my scroll. I have two eggs and hatches that hatch and mature a day.

[girlinthechair]

Thank you for sharing this!

[Pink]

Good guide, although I figured all this stuff out for myself ages ago.

I'm sure it'll help a lot of people though.

:3

 

[RheaZen]

owo

 

If only I could be so diligent as to stick to this plan... it's certainly interesting though, and sounds quite handy.

[Achire]

I remember when you told me about this! I tried it, but what can I say? I'm terrible at keeping to it. However, when I do stick to it, I offer the following variation:

 

"The Insta-Grow + ND Experimenter Lock"

 

Basically, you follow ETAK's plan, but you take advantage of the unlocked situation in order to catch <24hr experiments and to catch ER hatchies. The beauty is that experiments never go through the growth cycle unless they're successful (although failures may cost you a kill occasionally and slow you down). Hunting for experiments also allows you to be correctly positioned to catch ER hatchies, which further boosts your scroll.

[Obscure_Trash]

thought you could only have 4 total (hatchies and eggs combines), plus one of your own breed?

You can have four eggs or hatchies before you're locked. If you have three hatchies, for example, you are not yet locked, and can grab four new eggs and breed another.

 

Timed right, you can have nine growing things at once. (One of those eggs hatchies and you breed another, giving you five eggs and four hatchlings, for example.) :3

[TJ09]

tl;dr (especially since I don't actively pick up eggs), but I wanted to comment on how I approve of this topic's title.

[NixAyum]

Very interesting, and would be nice if I could follow it lol.

[blackdragon71]

Wow, ETAK! I'm bookmarking this, so I can come back and reference it from time to time while I try to implement it. Thanks for so much hard work.

[Mustangs44]

I had this going for about 4 days once. Then I got bored. I'd never be able to stick to it, but it seems really nice for people who have the patience.

[Xythus]

Cool

[Drakrono]

Great guide! I'm sure a lot of addicts older players have already figured this out for themselves, but nonetheless I'm sure it'll proof useful. This is definitely the best guide for casual players, but "hardcore" players are probably still better off with two or three eggs and hunting the AP for low-time/ER hatchies

[Wookieinmashoo]

People didn't know about this? I thought this would be well known. This is a nice guide and explains things clearly. This is the reason I rarely use incubate, but I'm stocking up on reds for the new limits. New releases tend to throw a wrench into my plans sometimes, but I have been doing this for almost a year. It's the reason why I'm constantly reordering my eggs and hatchlings. All new eggs/ newly hatched are on the bottom and are bumped up each time I get another new egg or hatchling. Anything on top of the stack is the thing that will grow/hatch the soonest.

[Xylene]

My method usually involves locks of 4CB eggs so I can avoid DC for a few (2-3) days. And I make good use of Incubate. I should make a guide!

 

(About 10 minutes later.)

 

EDITED FOR A LONG EXPLANATION. 8D

 

My method... well, the diagram might confuse you less. It's mostly for catching CB eggs out of the main cave. SO, assuming you start with 0 hatchies, 0 eggs: You grab 4 CB eggs, incubate three (or incubate four and fog one, but I prefer to incubate three.) and then you can hide from DC for 2 days (48 hours). This leaves you with three 6-day eggs and one 7-day egg.

 

On day 3, the 6-day eggs have hatched. You hunt for 3 more CB eggs, incubate the 7-day egg from before, which is now at 5 days, and tah-dah. 4 CB hatchies, 3 CB eggs, all at 7 days. (more or less.) And then you incubate the 3 CB eggs because, while it will take 3 days for the hatchies to grow, it will also take 3 days for the eggs to hatch. You're locked until the hatchies grow, so why hold the eggs for a longer time than you need to? Incubating all of them gives you four 7-day hatchies and three 6-day eggs. You'll be uber-locked with 7 hatchies for one day, but when the original four grow up, the remaining 3 will be at six days instead of seven. And with all that done and planned, you can hide until the 7-day hatchies grow up - that taking 72 hours.

 

As soon as the 7-day hatchies grow up, you can grab 4 CB eggs. Incubate three of them, and you will have three 6-day CB hatchies, three 6-day CB eggs, and one 7-day CB egg. Isn't that handy? Because you incubated early to shave off a day, those hatchies will grow up just before your 6-day eggs hatch. At which point, you're back to the beginning and your next step is a repeat of day 3. I usually hide from DC for 48 hours at this point.

 

And... that's it.

 

---

 

I don't know if ETAK's way is better or not. @_@ It probably is. I haven't been able to stick to this without breeding things, and then I go D8 DO WANT and keep it and screw it up.

 

Plus there's the drift of about 5-20 minutes to catch things if you want to be picky. Any CB will do for me, but if you're hunting for something specific, or have trades, it's probably not a good idea.

 

EDIT: The picture is now updated too! You may have to hard-refresh (ctrl + F5) to see it. Yes, all the hatchies on my scroll gender male.

Edited April 9, 2011 by Xylene

[Outer Space]

Well, that's very right math. I always thought it's quite obvious, though, and most of members are probably using it, but as I see, there we re a lot who didn't.

 

Also, the title is real win! Thank you

[Arwen17]

The simple moral of the story is to stagger your egg/hatchie times, which I do all the time to remain in optimal lock.

I thought that staggering time would become obvious to anyone who played long enough.

 

Its not absolutely perfect due to the fact that eggs/hatchies choose exactly what time they want to grow up.

[ETAK]

My method usually involves locks of 4CB eggs so I can avoid DC for a few (2-3) days. And I make good use of Incubate. I should make a guide!

Haha, that would indeed help. The way I posted merely was for if you choose to have one-a-day. For people who aren't (or can't be) regular visitors, your way is better. It all depends what people want to do.

 

If you don't mind, I have added a link to your post in the top.

 

Good guide, although I figured all this stuff out for myself ages ago.

I'm sure it'll help a lot of people though.

:3

Yes, this is nothing people can't figure out by intuition alone, and I am not the first one to discover this. I merely noted a lot of people I spoke with asked about my scroll. And I found I always lacked the proper words to explain it to them.

 

Now I can point here. Also, I am trying to make a straightforward set of instructions for people who haven't come across this yet, and nobody has had a forum to talk about this before.

 

"The Insta-Grow + ND Experimenter Lock"

 

Basically, you follow ETAK's plan, but you take advantage of the unlocked situation in order to catch <24hr experiments and to catch ER hatchies. The beauty is that experiments never go through the growth cycle unless they're successful (although failures may cost you a kill occasionally and slow you down). Hunting for experiments also allows you to be correctly positioned to catch ER hatchies, which further boosts your scroll.

Yes, I do this quite frequently. :x The only problem is catching ERs by yourself is very hard unless you have a lot of time to hunt the AP.

 

I actually call this "Trading", and hadn't posted about it yet - since you can offer bred eggs or IOUs to get other people's ER's. But yes, the benefit of doing this is always being unlocked to do things just like what you said.

 

Its not absolutely perfect due to the fact that eggs/hatchies choose exactly what time they want to grow up.

Actually, that is the exact opposite of what my method proposes: because you can keep the ready-to-go egg fogged, you are only locked after you caught a new egg, unfog it, and click "Log Out" for the day.

 

You need to keep your top-most egg fogged until after you catch a new egg (but before your "Deadline" time). When it grows up into a hatchi, it will mature before your next deadline time, and it becomes your "new" deadline time. Perhaps I should re-do the illustration to clarify that.

Edited April 9, 2011 by ETAK

[GiratinaOF]

Nice story!

I hope there's something similar if the new limits are implemented!

[Pyrozmenace]

Just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to put this together. Yes, some of us have figured this out but I still think it was very well thought out and helpful for those who are looking to min-max their locks!