This is a guide to become income independent. You will see $800,000 costs for big trees later in the game and have no problem cutting them down. You will be able to take all your dragons to Epic by feeding them from enchanted farms, quickly and without coming to the forum to complain. Here is a step-by-step process to using the element of Fire to strategically level.


LEVELS 1-9
  • Immediately get neighbors for dragon playing and gold trading. This is critical at early levels and the income bonus makes a big difference in income.
  • DO NOT WORRY ABOUT COMPLETING ANY QUEST
  • DO NOT CLEAR ANY FOLIAGE FOR XP (trees, mushrooms, etc.)


Build the following in this order as money becomes available:
  • Fire Habitat - Spawn two Fire Dragons. Immediately evolve both to level 4 (fast and helps save for water).
  • Forest Habitat ? Immediately get Forest dragon and evolve to level 4. Go ahead and do Life dragon quest
  • Yellow Habitat ? Immediately get Air dragon. Yellow is better for income, do Fruitful quest
  • Forest Habitat ? This is to put spares from breeding. It is optional and if not needed, better to save money and XP (we do not want to level up yet).
  • Water Habitat ? Immediately get Water dragon and level to 4. You must have water dragon for this strategy so its critical to buy as early as possible and evolve so you can breed.
  • Breed Fire[4] + Water[4] = Athlete 100% success rate


Now this is the important part and requires a small amount of patience for big payoff. Do not level to 10 yet! If you get to level 10 and breed the Fire and Water dragon, you will get a Magic dragon with a 20 hour breed time frequently. Magic dragons also do not bring in any income. By the time you create enough food to get your dragons to level 4 and if follow the plan, you will be around level mid-8 to 9.

Below level 10, when you breed the Fire and Water dragon, you will get an Athletic dragon every time because the Magic dragon is not available until level 10! Make sure you breed the next Athletic dragon before taking egg off nest (get XP when place dragon in new habitat). From level 8 to 10 you do nothing but breed and hatch these guys. You can easily get 3 of them before you level to 10 (4 if you have a second nest or do not complete any quests). For the starting economy, 3 of these evolved to level 4 is like having 1 Epic dragon on island! Lets compare a few dragons at level [4]:

  • Fire[4] (Red) $210 per hour
  • Forest[4] (Green) $240 per hour
  • Air[4] (Yellow) $163 per hour
  • Life[4] (Green Red) $192 per hour
  • Life[4] (Green Yellow) $190 per hour
  • Athlete[4] (Red Blue) $441 per hour
  • Magic[4] (Red Blue) $230 per hour


Athlete is almost twice as much income than all these starter dragons and this trend continues all the way to Epic [10]. Athletes make $1,035 per hour at level 10 and do not take huge amounts of food. You can always sell (Android) or trade (Apple) later if you need space.

  • Place first Athlete dragon in the second slot of existing Water habitat.


  • When hatch second Athlete, sell extra fire dragon (had 2) to make room on the habitat for Athlete.


  • Build small Fire Habitat if hatch third Athlete (less XP than upgrading) and delete stone paths / clear small mushrooms to make room. We do not want to collect XP yet, very easy to go from level 9 to 10! Building another water habitat is another option but I recommend fire for many reasons.



LEVELS 10-16
Start saving money, now. You need $200K to immediately purchase both a Light habitat and light dragon at level 17. Here is how you do it.

  • Build Magic Habitat ? Once you get to level 10, breed your fire and water dragon again. This time it will give you a Magic dragon. Then save $24,000 and purchase a purple habitat. Purple is good for overnight economy and you can quickly fill it up with magic + yellow combination (Genie dragon is only 8 hour breed time) and work towards a quest.


  • CONTINUE TO IGNORE QUESTS, they will slow you down and much easier later.


  • From here I build yellow and fire habitats and breed exclusively Fire + Air. This will undoubtedly give you tons of Firestorm dragons (12 hour breed. That is ok, other than light dragons, Firestorm dragons are the highest paying common dragon available. Mist dragon is tied but they cannot live in cheap Fire Habitats and have longer breed time. Plus, you will need many Red rocks later (make transitioning to Love dragons easy).


  • Every time you get a firestorm dragon, put it on another big red rock! Level it to level 3 (requires 25 food to get to level 3) and forget about them. At level 3, Firestorms make $190 per hour (12 hour breed time, only 25 food needed, and $5,000 for Big Red Rocks).


  • While breeding firestorm, you will also get Eagles, these are excellent income dragons. They make an amazing $1,237 per hour at Epic and do not require high food costs to get. Save all of these and feed to epic (use yellow habitats). Scorpion (13 hour) is also possible with a good income but good luck getting one of these.



LEVEL 17+
  • Build a small light habitat ($200K) and buy light dragon egg ($100K).


  • Breed light and fire exclusively.


  • This will make tons of common high income generating Love dragons. You also occasionally get a laser or tusker (cool rares). At level 3, with only 25 food invested (and no time in evolution chamber), these guys produce an amazing $319 gold per hour ($451 per hour at level 4). In comparison, a level 10 fire dragon produces $329. You can easily buy a lot of $5,000 coin big red habitats and stuff them full of these guys. With only 5 hour breed times, you can easily make 3 per day.


  • That is $957 gold per hour per habitat for 75 food invested per habitat. In one week you can be making an extra $6,699 per hour without ever using an evolution chamber or investing heavily in food. Of course you can evolve a couple as food stores allow, but it is not necessary. If on an apple, evolving to level 4 makes since to trade for fire and pearl gems (only 5 hour evolve time)!


  • Most epic dragons average around $1,200 gold per hour, need tons of food to get to epic, and typically have long breed times (way longer than 5 hours). Instead of 10,000 +++ food invested, you invest 25 (five 1 food cost, five 4 food cost) to level 3 and stop.


  • Sell each Firestorm dragon as necessary to make room for the new Love Dragons. Up to this point, you should not have wasted any food on getting dragons to Epic or chasing after quests with useless quest rewards and punishment of XP. It is not needed yet. Once your economy is kicking, then start breeding new dragons and evolving a few to epic.


  • At night before you sleep, breed the Common Forest + Light dragon (Fuzzy). It has an 8 hour breed time (good nights sleep) and earns $326 per hour at level 3 (same 25 food investment). Also the green habitats earn a little more before maxing out so a nice way to expand off fire. You can get lucky and get a Pegasus dragon as well.


  • This strategy is the fastest way to earn income. This is not a get rich quick scheme, it will require checking in on habitats frequently (fire habitats fill up fast) but it takes advantage of short breeding time (shortest in game for common dragon), low food costs, low habitat cost, and high payout. After you get a nice income, things will be much easier.


  • Next step is to upgrade to large light habitat and then start storing light hybrids there (and selling off extra fire habitats to make room for whatever you like).



Other thoughts
  • Apple players can now get Pink from Red + Light combination which may throw this strategy off a little with 33 hour breed times, but I imagine they do not drop too much and it is a good way to get a pink without having to "wait" for it. Of course I wouldn?t know as I use an Android. Just buy a Pink Habitat if you get one and continue.