Essential Animals

[SoJam]

I've been toying with the idea of purging my forest of common and/or rare hybrids. So far, I've banished Fairy Ferret, Armordillo and Turtisle, and I'm now considering other Commons (except Honey Bears) and maybe even some Rares. I figure that at the very least, I need to keep the following residents:

BASICS
PyroPony
Pandaffodil
RockRhino
FrostFang
Skyger
Lightning Leopard

HYBRIDS or SPECIAL TYPES
Storybook participants like Racmoon, Plantlers, Bamboon (or Aquatter).
Unbreedable prize animals or those acquired through special limited breeding circumstances.

What else would you add to a Must-Keep list? If you are a collector and seek to have at least one of every breed, this question is NOT for you, thanks.

Also, the question does NOT pertain to Super-rares or Ultra-rares, which I'm assuming you would want to keep.

[Phoenix406]

Well you never know what you might need for a Storybook.

[AppieP]

Well you never know what you might need for a Storybook.

Indeed, my suggest is collect as many as you can. They never used a SR creature for a SB, so collect all the rare animals.

[Limequat]

If I'm short on space, I'd get rid of the single element commons first. The single element commons can be purchased anytime from the market for coins and don't take long to hatch if you ever decide you need them again.

Must-keep animals would be the original hybrid commons (the ones that weren't released as part of a Storybook) and ALL rares. This ensures a smooth experience when playing the Storybook. The original hybrid commons have gotten a bit more difficult to breed now that they've started releasing new hybrid commons, and it can be especially frustrating when you need to breed them immediately for a Storybook.

[SoJam]

Indeed, my suggest is collect as many as you can. They never used a SR creature for a SB, so collect all the rare animals.

Seeing that the animals required were the same for my first 2 SBs, I thought they required the same classic hybrids with the only change being the new common introduced by the story. Also, since two of those animals were common (Racmoon & Planters) and only one rare (Bamboon or Aquatter, depending on player level), it didn't see like the rares figured very prominently.

I now have to rethink this whole thing. The only animals that seem safe to expel are supers, ultras and new SB commons. Confounding!

[SoJam]

For me, the single-element animals are an EVERYDAY necessity for battling; far more effective than even supers in many battles. My rares almost never fight, because in most cases I have a higher-level super of identical hybrid type. None of my ultras are the crystal type; they are all event prizes from the past month or two with what I call wishy-washy battle elements, so they don't fight much either. (They are also on the young side, due to their feeding demands.) Occasionally these can maybe stand in for a single element, but I've found that the battles for which I need singles will ONLY be won by singles, and introducing a second element, even when it's supposedly neutral, brings bleak results. I have tremendous respect for my base-element cohort, from Pony to Leopard. I would hate having to raise even a Pony or Panda from hatchling to epic just for a battle. It IS an option though, but swapping these epic warriors in and out is for forests with food to spare (and maybe a second Evolution Flower).

It seems the decision on what to keep or evict very much depends upon which events are more important or challenging to a player -- Storybook or Tournament/Colosseum. Trouble is that most of us want to succeed in every type of event (and you can't complete SB without getting deep in a Tournament anyway), so it's nearly impossible to choose.

Last month, my space challenge was the habitat limits. I was constantly at my max, with nowhere to put new hatchlings.
Then this month, it's suddenly the opposite - lots of potential on the habitat count; but now the runes required for each expansion is far beyond my breeding capacity.

I think I'm at the level range where originally the game had 40 as the top limit. Then speedbumps were thrown in as they lifted the level caps and added expansions beyond the first green cliff and the ice cliffs.
It looks like my only solution is to speed-breed like a maniac for bombs. In the meantime, newbie commons like Parrotfish and Cottonmouth Viper may have to go, along with my precious Honey Bears. Possibly even Island Amakihi and Sunrise Drake since I have a pair of each, but that will be super ouchy.

forum rules (http://forums.storm8.com/forumdisplay.php?6-Forum-Rules-amp-Policies)

[MystiqueRealm]

Lol good read sojam, and you're right commons are needed for battles and breeding new event commons so keeping those. I'm constantly out of room and it's come to deleting for me too. I hate to mention what's deleted because when they read our delete lists they'll put them as needed animals in the next sb, count on it! Lol

[Alohatami]

I am also of the you-never-know-what-a-storybook-will-require mindset. So, my strategy is to only keep one of each creature, though I recently broke this for ******s and Tye-Dye Tiger. (I have them both as babies in a habitat with their level 15 counterparts. I may also do that with Rainbow Dragon, as I just discovered I have another one in storage.) I still have lots of expansions left to do, but it takes a while to earn the runes needed to expand. If I get desperate for creature space during an event, I usually dump a farm and buy a basic habitat (usually just a fire habitat) and then move creatures around to open space in another habitat with the element I need. When I finally get to the next expansion, I reshuffle creatures again, dump the basic habitat, and repurchase the farm. Selling and re-buying grand farms gives me something to do with my 50 million coins, lol.