CB Prizes: A User Guide

[whitebaron]

Prizes don't breed like metallics at all. They have a FAR HIGHER success rate. (I'd estimate them to be borderline-common)

 

Also, bred Pyralspites can currently go toe to toe with absolute ubercommons like crimsons or brutes. You can even get Pyralspites from Black Teas, for those who really know how bad breeding ratios work, this is a good indicator.

 

I never said "won't work." I said that you need not be sorry when it takes a year or more, because that's THE EXPECTED RESULT - ubercommon to rare, takes around 150-200 breedings, ubercommon to common, 50-60. (some of those are so common, that you have almost a zero chance).

 

 

[Nalyua]

Prizes don't breed like metallics at all. They have a FAR HIGHER success rate. (I'd estimate them to be borderline-common)

 

Also, bred Pyralspites can currently go toe to toe with absolute ubercommons like crimsons or brutes.  You can even get Pyralspites from Black Teas, for those who really know how bad breeding ratios work, this is a good indicator.

 

I never said "won't work." I said that you need not be sorry when it takes a year or more, because that's THE EXPECTED RESULT - ubercommon to rare, takes around 150-200 breedings, ubercommon to common, 50-60. (some of those are so common, that you have almost a zero chance).

I'm still not convinced that this is the sole reason in all honesty.

 

If you take a look at all the Prizes out there, there are not THAT many with more than 100 Babies and most of them made several shinies even with more common mates.

 

And seeing how rarely I see Almadines I wouldn't exactly name them ubercommons either. If they were that underpopulated then the Cave would or should pop out more of them than it currently does. We have seen this with the cycling of alt blacks between curled, sitting and non-existant. Or take Striped or Black Dragons in the Cave, you can always tell when the Cave wants to balance out some overpopulation. Or the lack therof.

 

While I agree that regular metallics are rarer than prizes I'm still thinking it may be that those are kinda overpopulated and not the Pyropes underpopulated.

Edited April 23, 2015 by Nalyua

[Daydreamer09]

Well, I haven't had any fails yet, but I haven't really had much of anything. Week after week of no interest, even switching mates hasn't helped much...

Same. I've been trying Monet with a handful of waterhorses. You'd think getting a shimer-kin would be easy, but I've had a record of 6 consecutive weeks of 'no interests'.

[djengis]

Do you use the purple BSA ?

It does help a little with the stubborn ones

[whitebaron]

And seeing how rarely I see Almadines I wouldn't exactly name them ubercommons either. If they were that underpopulated then the Cave would or should pop out more of them than it currently does.

You do know, that breeding ratios and cb ratios got seperated a while back?

prime examples are coppers, pyralspites (easy to breed, hard to catch) and to an extent trios/blusangs (moderately easy to catch, tough as nails to breed)

 

 

also, i do have to agree - if you want just any baby, use fertility. it seems to harm more than help when you want only the rarer outcome of a pair, but in general they produce more with fertility.

[Daydreamer09]

Do you use the purple BSA ?

It does help a little with the stubborn ones

I always make sure to before breeding. It just doesn't seem to get anything from him. Not even shimmer-kins. :/

Edited April 23, 2015 by Daydreamer09

[whitebaron]

I always make sure to before breeding. It just doesn't seem to get anything from him. Not even shimmer-kins. :/

That's strange. I thought that waterhorses would be more common...

[The_Bucket]

That's strange. I thought that waterhorses would be more common...

From what I understand, "no interest" works the same no matter how common the mate is. Like a temporary refusal.

[Nine]

So what kind of breed pairings are people interested in, as far as Shimmers go? What's rare, sought after for even-gen lineages with other prizes, not seen in circulation?

 

Feels weird bumping this up, but I'm in a rut with breeding and will take any suggestions into consideration (except things that will 99.9% not produce). Nocturnes are still gonna be my go-to favorite, but the lack of shinies isn't doing much for the community atm.

[The_Bucket]

So what kind of breed pairings are people interested in, as far as Shimmers go? What's rare, sought after for even-gen lineages with other prizes, not seen in circulation?

 

Feels weird bumping this up, but I'm in a rut with breeding and will take any suggestions into consideration (except things that will 99.9% not produce). Nocturnes are still gonna be my go-to favorite, but the lack of shinies isn't doing much for the community atm.

There is not any single "desirable" pairing. In general, people prefer common pairings since not many other people have those, but that's for a reason - they breed terribly. If you want to get some shinies out, try Blusang, Copper, Golden Wyvern, trios, metals, uncommons such as Stripes and Tsunamis, etc. Please feel free to PM me if you'd like to discuss pairings at all - I'm happy to be a sounding board for ideas. I spend a lot of time searching through prize progenies and have a pretty good idea of what's popular, what breeds well, what's not a common pairing, and stuff like that.

Edited May 19, 2015 by The_Bucket

[Sansa]

In general the most wanted pairs are from commons that were released in the past year ot two. The only problem is they will give you a ton of commons before you get a single shinie.

 

Stark is actually a very productive prize. I breed him every week and so far the result is 13/15 weeks with produced eggs. He is just not shinie productive

[Jazeki]

Hi, tiny question for prize owners:

 

Has anyone had success with undines or bleeding moons?

[The_Bucket]

Hi, tiny question for prize owners:

 

Has anyone had success with undines or bleeding moons?

Haven't ever heard of success with Bleeding Moons. Undines are certainly getting a lot better - I've seen a reasonable number of lines from them lately. The ones that jump to mind are [EDIT: This one is still growing, so I won't name the progenitor, but know that it exists.] and (Fairy), but I'm certain there are more that I'm forgetting about.

Edited May 21, 2015 by The_Bucket

[Jazeki]

Thank you!

[Lavinia]

Haven't ever heard of success with Bleeding Moons.

 

I see CB Prize owners struggling with difficult mates such as those, frustrated as all hell and no longer having fun breeding their prizes.

 

I know a CB Prize owner who ended up in an unfair trade, which stuck them with needing to breed multiple 2g shinies from similarly extremely difficult mates. They are still stuck in that rut of breedings, and it is really wearing on them. The poor breeder has stopped being happy about the precious CB Prize and is having no fun because they can't be breeding or trading or creating new lines.

 

I think that if a user wants a nearly impossible pairing, they are the one who should suffer the headache and the tedium and the exhaustion of dozens of fails, not the CB Prize owner.

 

I have an idea: CB Prize owners should trade IOUs of breedings, not IOUs of shinies. An IOU of a breeding would be: the prize owner fertilizes appropriately, the prize owner breeds to a CB of the requested mate breed, the prize owner sends off WHATEVER IS PRODUCED DURING THAT ONE BREEDING to the person they traded with. The gamble is the trader's, not the prize owner's. No egg, fail, or shiny, you get whatever it is. Or maybe not including no eggs, rebreed in that case.

 

You still get to choose your mate. But with it, you choose the probability of success. If you reaaaally want that 2g tinsel from anagallis, be prepared to make thirty different trades for one before any succeed.

 

Then the prize owner goes on with their life, to choose what to do with their prize next week.

 

Another benefit of this: the IOUs of breedings could be traded for MUCH cheaper than IOUs of shinies with chosen mate. This opens up the potential for low-gens to much more of the community, not just the few with several CB silvers and golds on hand. Lots of users like me (who have some pretty good stuff but can't catch super-rares) would be happy to trade for a random chance at getting a 2g shiny or fail.

Edited May 23, 2015 by Lavinia

[Fiona]

What you're describing is one of the pitfalls of IOU trading. You feel obligated, even though it's turned out to be a poor decision. That's one of the main reasons I suggested, early on, that no IOU lists or very very short ones were a better choice than longer lists. I'll add, keep your deals to one or two eggs and no more.I locked myself into a couple big deals like that and though one turned out very well it still made me consider refusing multiple egg deals ever again.

 

Another good suggestion was communicating that you will try a certain number of times before moving on, or breed once for them, then once for yourself, back and forth.

 

Tying yourself into a never-ending string of "but I owe them an egg (or eggs)" ends up feeling like your dragon doesn't really belong to you and sucks all the fun out of it.

 

 

If I were the owner of the dragon Lavinia is referring to I'd go back to the person you set up the deal with and talk about taking a break from it for awhile or doing the "every other week" deal for awhile.

 

ETA: and I know I'd be willing to trade for breedings of "whatever the result ends up being" with prize owners. It's rather like a lotto. Also, it's immediate. You know as soon as breeding day hits you're done with the trade. I'd still keep that to no lists or no more than two or three on the list.

Edited May 23, 2015 by Fiona BlueFire

[Jazeki]

Wow, Lavinia. I think prize owners should be able to breed what they want and that people who do have the chance to ask for a pairing should be able to ask for what they want without the possibility of "Sorry, no egg for you." If the person isn't going to be getting an egg at all (and without the option of at least a fail from a future breeding), then he or she is wasting his or her time. And the prize owner would be better off not even offering breedings and doing what they want with their prizes and fails.

 

I was simply asking about bleeding moons because a prize owner was generous enough to offer to breed for me and preferred that I pick an uncommon mate. Bleeding moons came up as uncommon on the Dragon Cave wiki.

Edited May 23, 2015 by Jazeki

[linda3.0]

theres some breeds that prizes just dont wanna cooperate wth i mean i dont own any CB's but this second gen of mine clearly hates specklethroats haha -> http://dragcave.net/progeny/RheRX (idk if anyone else is having success with this pairing)

[djengis]

Hi, tiny question for prize owners:

 

Has anyone had success with undines or bleeding moons?

http://dragcave.net/progeny/MENvX

not a single shiny yet.

all i get is fail eggs and a lot of no interest.

Horrible line

[Chalkboard]

http://dragcave.net/progeny/MENvX

not a single shiny yet.

all i get is fail eggs and a lot of no interest.

Horrible line

Oh no! Undine x Silver Shimmer is such a lovely pairing, it sucks that they don't produce well.

(Strangely, though, your Shimmer was the first and only produced by his father. )

[Ribombee]

I tell people who want shinies (be they metals or prize) from a common pairing that I will try a certain number of times before they have to pick a less common mate. I have someone on my list who wants one from red, but if I don't get it after so many tries, I'm doing magma, instead. This was part of the arrangement made. I did the same with a silver x terrae cross. I bred about 15 times (I have a lot of both breeds, so it was only two weeks) then moved to the other option.

 

If I DO guarantee a shiny egg from their choice of mate without falling to another mate, I ask for more from them. If they want an egg from a mate I know works well, I won't ask as much in trade. If they want to try a new mate breed of about the same rarity, I ask a little more, but not too much. If they want something from a more common, the price goes up with each drop in the rarity tier of the mate.

 

This is also why if I am asking for a rare from something hard to breed from (like a caveblocker), I don't take IOUs. I simply accept an offer if someone happens to get what I am looking for. I've been surprised a few times with people's luck. Someone got the silver from silver x black tea I was trying for forever. I do trade well for shiny offspring from such combinations, too, because I know it is difficult to get.

[FluffyPillow]

I'm wondering if I should choose another Pillow mate for my 2nd gen prize, since out of the 3 times I've bred him, he's given Shimmerkins He's being productive though, just not with the shinies My question is, should I skip breeding him this week and see if next week is any different?

[The_Bucket]

I'm wondering if I should choose another Pillow mate for my 2nd gen prize, since out of the 3 times I've bred him, he's given Shimmerkins He's being productive though, just not with the shinies My question is, should I skip breeding him this week and see if next week is any different?

Pillows can be a little stubborn, from what I've seen. I don't think skipping breeding him this week will really help that much. Changing mates probably won't help much either, until you've bred at least five-seven times to the same one.

Edited May 24, 2015 by The_Bucket

[aqua17]

Hi, tiny question for prize owners:

 

Has anyone had success with undines or bleeding moons?

My undine lines have been successful so far.

 

https://dragcave.net/progeny/dzSxc

 

https://dragcave.net/progeny/9P4eT

 

mystyic

[FluffyPillow]

Pillows can be a little stubborn, from what I've seen. I don't think skipping breeding him this week will really help that much. Changing mates probably won't help much either, until you've bred at least five-seven times to the same one.

hehe Stubborn is an understatement, I bred him again and got another fail Well, like I said, at least he's giving eggs, fails or not