ANSWERED:is there any reason to get duplicate dragons?

[catboykin]

extremely new here, and honestly i have no idea what i'm doing lol. my first instinct is wanting to work at completing the dragon encyclopedia.

 

if all i am trying to do is collect as many different species as possible,  is there any reason to get any duplicates? and is breeding important for anything other than obtaining hybrids?

[Fuzzbucket]

How you choose to play is all up to you. If you want to breed lineages, you might need at least one caveborn dragon of each sex of each breed. If you want to collect as many sprites as you can, you'll need extras to freeze as hatchies. If you don't want to breed you don't have to. It's important to me, but not to quiet a few players. I'm afraid the only answer here is "You do you." It's what YOU want to do that defines what you actually do on your scroll !

[UnicornMaiden]

To complete the encyclopedia you generally need at least three of any dragon. In the encyclopedia the image of the egg unlocks when you have one, the image of the hatchling unlocks when you have two, and the image of the adult unlocks when you have three. The other way of unlocking encyclopedia images is to view other people's dragons, but if you're doing it that way then you need a lot more. Viewing fifteen adults on other people's scrolls is the equivalent of raising three adults on your own scroll.

 

Some breeds have dimorphism, which means that males and females have different sprites. That doesn't make any difference for encyclopedia completion, but if you want all the different sprites you will need one of each for those breeds.

 

Some breeds come with alternate colorations (generally referred to as alt dragons), so if you want to collect all the different sprites you will need more than one. Some alts, like Dorsals and Ridgewings can be found in the biomes, but other alts, like Blacks and Undines, only appear in bred dragons, so you will need to breed if you want those.

[Fuzzbucket]

I thought you could complete it just by viewing the dragons of other people ? but it takes an AWFUL lot.

[UnicornMaiden]

You can complete it just by viewing others' dragons, but yeah, it takes way more time and effort that way. If you're raising your own all you have to do is raise three dragons from egg to adulthood, but if you're viewing other's dragons then you need to view fifteen adults, ten hatchlings, and (I think) five eggs. That's assuming the dragon doesn't have any alt forms.

[DragonLady86]

Do what is fun for you. Nothing is mandatory. And if later you decide you do want to breed for lineages or amass a giant army of single breed you can do that too. Everything remains available (holiday specials are only available for a week during thier holiday but they come back every year). 

 

For the encyclopedia if by completing it you mean get all the sprites, you only need a few of each. However if you want to unlock all the info some entries have you will need A LOT more. Especially if you dont observe other people's to help. Chickens for example have a ton of information to unlock.

[PrincessLucy]

If you want to just get a couple of each dragon or to collect tons of them is up to you.

 

That is the beauty of Dragon Cave. There is no wrong way to play.

[catboykin]

i see, thanks for the answers everyone! in my mind i was viewing completion of the encyclopedia as similar to completing the pokedex in pokemon, so that's probably still how i'll proceed. i hadn't looked at the unlockable images though, so that info is super helpful. gives me a much clearer idea of my goals and how to complete them!

 

i'm a huge collector and completionist at heart, so it's nice knowing i can just stick to that play-style and won't "miss" anything :3

[Chaos Rider]

There are also some dragons that have different Breed Specific Actions (BSAs). They have a per-dragon cooldown so it's helpful to have multiple so you're not waiting around so much. Some dragons like Cantors and Electrics have different alts depending on which BSA is used on the egg/hatchling

[Shadowdrake]

There are a few dragons that are helpful enough you might want duplicates of, particularly reds/incubate, which allows you to hatch an egg sooner (lets eggs hatch after 2 days instead of 3) every two weeks per red dragon. https://dragcave.net/help/actions#bsa-incubate

Teleport is also helpful if you like the rush of hunting for rare eggs and want to trade for common hatchies so you get adults sooner for your next trophy.

 

You may also want to breed your own hybrids/bred alts, in which case having a couple extra of the parent breeds may lower frustration.

Edited May 26, 2022 by Shadowdrake

[RainDear]

My first goal was to just get a male and female of each breed. When I accidentally caught a third of one breed, which grew up on my scroll before I noticed, I changed that to 2 males and females of each breed. Then the game changed and we got BSAs so I have a lot of each of those breeds, so don't be surprised if your goal evolves over time.