Food Earning Strategies

[MelodicStars]

I'm sure there are players other than me who wonder about how some people get so much food to grow most of their animals to level 15 and earn their new fancy looks.

Putting aside fancy looks, high level animals may be important for battlegrounds, tournaments, coin production, and other things. And I'm not asking for food costs per level for an animal or anything like that (since there's already other threads that explain this), but simply, what's your strategy for getting enough food to feed your animals?

So far, I have 4 grand farms and 2 large farms. I plant the 5 hour nuts on my grand farms whenever I get enough coins (300,000 to plant 4) and the 8 hour mangos on my 2 large farms before I go to sleep. Which is basically about 3,800ish every time I plant all 6 farms. And of course, being the super rares some of my animals are, it's usually not enough to feed it all at once. Please, share your ways of earning food (types of farms, crops, quantity, and coin cost), and maybe we can all learn an efficient way to earn enough food while spending a reasonable amount of coins.

[zenobia42]

My basic food strategy is to:
a) plant power pears over and over and over and over whenever I can.
b) got all farms of a size to be able to plant mangoes overnight.
c) I used to plant charm cherries all the time in my one grand farm, but now I can't afford to what with each expansion costing 1,000,000 coins plus ANOTHER 1,000,000 to clear the obstacles. But once I can afford to again, I plan on upgrading a second farm to grand. And having both of them do cherries all day and nuts at night.
d) ONLY feed an animal if I can feed it the 5 times to get it to another level. So if I suddenly get another I'd rather feed, the food is there and not wasted on a partial feed.
e) I organize which animal goes in which habitat based on maximizing the amount of time before each habitat fills up. I am working towards the only small habitats I have becoming dark and electric, with all the other types of habitats being large due to them being able to hold a lot more per animal than the small versions (unlike the dark and electric which are just as good per animal in the small version as the large).

I have 87 animals now and the median level of them all is 10. 28 are > lvl 10 and 30 are < level 10 but the vast majority of those < lvl 10 are not keepers - they are all the 3rd or more duplicate of a common, and will therefore one day be replaced... but I DO feed almost all of even them to level 7 to help with income. ONLY if I'm sure it won't even last a day do I stop at level 3 (pre-evolution).

My park is currently at 42 commons, 30 rares, 15 super rares, and, obviously since they'll never ever give me one, ZERO ultras. When I had 66 animals it was a similar split (it was 33, 22, 11) but now a lot of lower-producing commons have been replaced with electric ones which make a lot more.

[kita_drisk]

My strategy break down:

Crops
I am using two five hour food crops a day, and one 8 hour food crop. I have 4 grand farms and 2 large farms. If I'm saving for an upgrade, I will do solely spell melons. However, if I'm not worried about expanding, I will have 4 nexus nuts and 2 spell melons. Overnight, I always have 6 mystic mangos growing. That means my daily food output (if I remain on schedule) is 7300, and the rare day thrown in is 9250. I can level up fairly regularly, and still keep a busy life outside of the game!

Leveling
I don't have many level 15 creatures. However, almost all of my forest is up to level 10. I have 48 creatures total (only 43 of my album)- I've sold all of my duplicate commons, thus it appearing as though I have amazing luck. My only duplicates are rares/super rares for more money. And since most of them are heavy eaters (my breakdown is 16 common, 12 rares, 16 super rares, 2 ultra), level 10 is a personal achievement.

Tournaments/battles
I plan on having one in each element bracket at level 15, and then the remaining at level 10. That is, unless I somehow get to the point where I can level them all up. And then I'll do that instead! My level 10 creatures still get critical scores rather regularly, but the level 15 ones then to score better.

[zenobia42]

My strategy break down:

Crops
I am using two five hour food crops a day, and one 8 hour food crop. I have 4 grand farms and 2 large farms. If I'm saving for an upgrade, I will do solely spell melons. However, if I'm not worried about expanding, I will have 4 nexus nuts and 2 spell melons. Overnight, I always have 6 mystic mangos growing. That means my daily food output (if I remain on schedule) is 7300, and the rare day thrown in is 9250. I can level up fairly regularly, and still keep a busy life outside of the game!

Leveling
I don't have many level 15 creatures. However, almost all of my forest is up to level 10. I have 48 creatures total (only 43 of my album)- I've sold all of my duplicate commons, thus it appearing as though I have amazing luck. My only duplicates are rares/super rares for more money. And since most of them are heavy eaters (my breakdown is 16 common, 12 rares, 16 super rares, 2 ultra), level 10 is a personal achievement.

Tournaments/battles
I plan on having one in each element bracket at level 15, and then the remaining at level 10. That is, unless I somehow get to the point where I can level them all up. And then I'll do that instead! My level 10 creatures still get critical scores rather regularly, but the level 15 ones then to score better.

Oh, but you DO have amazing luck! You have 16 super rares AND the unicorn AND the emerald!

[SANDSCApe]

Oh, but you DO have amazing luck! You have 16 super rares AND the unicorn AND the emerald!

LOL. It's never enough unless you have em all. But, yeah, I'd say that's pretty darn stupendous.

Indeed, I think the variety of breeds you both have is enviable. As for your fruit production and feeding plans, I have nothing even nearly as ambitious. You won't believe how stingy I am with the food. As Melman from the Madagascar movies might say, "This is definitely NOT San Diego."

[kita_drisk]

LOL. It's never enough unless you have em all. But, yeah, I'd say that's pretty darn stupendous.

Indeed, I think the variety of breeds you both have is enviable. As for your fruit production and feeding plans, I have nothing even nearly as ambitious. You won't believe how stingy I am with the food. As Melman from the Madagascar movies might say, "This is definitely NOT San Diego."

Thanks everyone... I'd actually say that my luck with the ultras has mainly been timing. I tried for them when they were both initially released, so it was not nearly as difficult. I had actually started massive playing to get my levels up to unicorn standing because I guessed they would shut out the chance of it soon after release! Now if I try, it's just annoying, so I don't bother.

I'd say the feeding pattern has been what's led me to be as effective as I am. Because that breeding pattern lets me level up higher. Which lets me win quicker in the battles and get the SR battle animals, and despite people saying that the chances are the same, my higher level-rarer-multi element pairings have created higher level critters.

Just my two cents, I always suggest bankrupting oneself to level higher. But level your rarest, most versitile creatures up the highest first. It will bode well for any other game challenges. Frankly, from what I've seen the ultras are not as versatile in the battleground. So they're not really worth leveling yet (except for money), but my green/red combos wins most rounds.

[SANDSCApe]

Thanks everyone... I'd actually say that my luck with the ultras has mainly been timing. I tried for them when they were both initially released, so it was not nearly as difficult. I had actually started massive playing to get my levels up to unicorn standing because I guessed they would shut out the chance of it soon after release! Now if I try, it's just annoying, so I don't bother.

I'd say the feeding pattern has been what's led me to be as effective as I am. Because that breeding pattern lets me level up higher. Which lets me win quicker in the battles and get the SR battle animals, and despite people saying that the chances are the same, my higher level-rarer-multi element pairings have created higher level critters.

Just my two cents, I always suggest bankrupting oneself to level higher. But level your rarest, most versitile creatures up the highest first. It will bode well for any other game challenges. Frankly, from what I've seen the ultras are not as versatile in the battleground. So they're not really worth leveling yet (except for money), but my green/red combos wins most rounds.

Much truth in that statement. One of the biggest reasons I haven't raised so many animals in Satyr Sanctuary is that 60 of mine (50 commons and 10 ultras) are not the best candidates for being levelled up very far. The 50 commons don't earn enough at high levels to make it worthwhile and over 30 of them are just drones anyway. The ultras are all sharing Gem Groves so if I over-feed them, I won't be able to collect much of what they can earn. My emphasis is on the supers, but I have only 7 of them. LOL -- Not complaining; just describing my unusual forest population.

I see forests with commons and rares at L15 while their supers are still in juvenile stages and I can't help but think how all that food might have been better utilized. It may be quicker to raise commons, and it may seem cheaper, but its not! The return on your investment for feeding low-ranking animals to epic stage is horribly dismal!

Feedings
I used to calculate a ratio of earnings to required food in deciding which animals to feed, but later abandoned that approach. Instead, I now compare required food to the INCREASE in income from one level to another. When I don't have earning data for all levels, I compare CUMULATIVE consumed food to earnings. (E.g., I may total how many fruits are consumed through levels 1-9 compared to income at L10 for Animal A, then compare that to how much Animal B eats to reach the same income, though not necessarily at the same level.) I have found that, surprisingly, the animals that give you the best return on your investment -- those with the greatest gains in income from one level to another -- are the very ones who eat the most; the ones many players postpone feeding because raising them seems more costly.

Crops
Since my forest has stopped producing supers, I no longer have an urgency to produce massive amounts of fruit, so I stopped the cherries and nuts about 3 weeks ago. I only have 2 farms (small) growing pears. The rest grow mangoes. 3-minute crops involve way too much tap-tapping and online presence. That's all well and good in your early game, but becomes less practical as you progress. I'm not bothering to upgrade my small farms or downgrade my Grands to suit my preferred harvests. Aesthetically, I like the look of 2 small, 2 Big & 2 Grand farms the way I have them arranged with my Earth Plateaus & Evolution Flower.

[kita_drisk]

I also agree with the idea of your crops strategy. Honestly, when you have nothing pivotal to feed, why spend the extra money on the food? I doubt I'd drop the 5 hour- 8 hour method, but that's simply because I don't want to get lagged behind on apples. Yet, when I'm not interested in feeling the common creatures, and see something awesome in my breeding unit or nest, I'll just save them instead. Frequently, a new baby is in the evolution flower as soon as they're hatched.

I think more people need to utilize food strategies to make the most of the game - especially if they're struggling to get the resources they need. Instead of focusing on solely expansion, food can be a better choice.

[MelodicStars]

Good to hear your guys' progress, and it seems we're pretty much dealing with the same thing. And I would like to reply to every one's comments but that would just take too long :P Anyway, I guess it's basically planting the long hour fruits when we sleep or go out for a long time, or just simply planting pears when we have free time. And I agree with SAND, I used to stay on for hours growing pears when I was level 10-16 or so, but now, being level 36, I just do the nuts or mangoes.

I think the most efficient objective is to plant melons or cherries during the day, then do nuts or mangoes at night. I THINK that's pretty much what will work best for me. And to be honest, I like to feed the commons or rares first so I can just get it out of the way, then focus on my super rares. It works out well for me.

[sweetypies97]

My first step was to maximise income for the habitats I had. To do this I got each of my super rares to level 10. I don't have many so it wasn't hard, lol.

I had been trying to get a unicorn since I first found out about it and had many, many many fails. I finally lucked out and got one on my secondary account. I'm still trying on my main account.

I have one grand farm and 5 regulars. During the day, if I can, I plant cherries and bananas each hour. I had nearly 50,000 apples from this when my unicorn hatched, I got her to level 11 and am now saving to get her to 15. After this I will try to get my super rares to level 15. This will take a long time.

Overnight I plant nuts or mangoes.

[zenobia42]

I now have 3 grand farms and 3 big farms. My current plan is to eventually upgrade those 3 bigs. Because I LOVE LOVE LOVE charm cherries! They come really close to how many apples per hour you can get from power pears but without having to check in every 3 minutes. Unfortunately, considering the still limited amount of expansions we can do, that means I will only get to add 2 animals per fully cleared expansion instead of 3 (because, instead of being able to build a new large habitat on the expansion, I'll only be able to move a large there, move a big farm to where that large was and upgrade the farm, then build a new medium habitat where the farm was). And I will have fewer animals once I have maximum habitats. But since my income pis over a million coins per day now, my focus is shifting from increasing income to increasing food production to get more super rare animals to level 15 for battles.

Raising a common, rare or super rare from level 10 to 15 does NOT increase your income per apple spent much at ALL. IMO, most animals should only be raised to level 10-12, depending on how good their income is. Beyond that you have to spend SO many apples to get very little return on your investment that is it ONLY worth it if you find you need those level 15s for battle (or if your personal goals include how many level 15s you can get). For example, let's take a dark hybrid super rare. Income better than most super rares but not the best of the best. To get any super rare (other than special cases of great cost efficiency: vinotaur, grassquatch and ancient sloth) from level 10-15 costs 80,000 food. For a dark hybrid you get an extra 161 coins per hour for those last 5 levels. That same 80,000 food could instead get 8 commons + 4 rares + 1 super rare from level 1-10. Based on the average income per rarity, leveling those instead of the one level 10-15 would increase your income by 3,772 coins per hour. Vs. 161. Leveling supers beyond 10 makes no financial sense. But t DOES makes sense from a battles standpoint.

If you are one of the lucky ones to have a ultra rares, leveling them to 10, from a financial standpoint, makes a LOT more sense than spending those apples on anything else. 85,000 apples will get THREE ultras to level 10 which increases your income by about 12,000 coins per hour. Vs my 3,772 per hour by only spending food in the wisest possible manner. That is a difference of almost 200k coins per day. Anyone with multiple ultras not making more income than I it's because they are not spending anywhere close to the amount of time I must spend making food, or they are not spending their food in the right places.

At any rate, this new evolution time ?ber-nerf of the game means that I can no longer automatically level any critter I get that has better income than a common duplicate I have to 10 in short time. Which makes me VERY glad I leveled so many (67) of my critters to 10 or higher BEFORE the nerf. How this huge roadblock would hamper my food earning strategy were it not for having already made so many evolutions already I have no idea. People who started this game recently and who start it after this point are really screwed. :( I guess they should just level everything to 9 and once the queue of animals awaiting evolution #1 are done, queue them all up again for #2. And the few supers that are needed to be level 15 for battles jump in the line.

Anyway, I think I'm rambling a little lol. I guess I'm just glad I got so many to level 10 as part of my food / earning strategy before the evolution time roadblock was set up. And I feel really bad for everyone who could not or did not or starts playing after this. Because my earnings would be in the toilet without that aspect of my strategy.

[MelodicStars]

I now have 3 grand farms and 3 big farms. My current plan is to eventually upgrade those 3 bigs. Because I LOVE LOVE LOVE charm cherries! They come really close to how many apples per hour you can get from power pears but without having to check in every 3 minutes. Unfortunately, considering the still limited amount of expansions we can do, that means I will only get to add 2 animals per fully cleared expansion instead of 3 (because, instead of being able to build a new large habitat on the expansion, I'll only be able to move a large there, move a big farm to where that large was and upgrade the farm, then build a new medium habitat where the farm was). And I will have fewer animals once I have maximum habitats. But since my income pis over a million coins per day now, my focus is shifting from increasing income to increasing food production to get more super rare animals to level 15 for battles.

Raising a common, rare or super rare from level 10 to 15 does NOT increase your income per apple spent much at ALL. IMO, most animals should only be raised to level 10-12, depending on how good their income is. Beyond that you have to spend SO many apples to get very little return on your investment that is it ONLY worth it if you find you need those level 15s for battle (or if your personal goals include how many level 15s you can get). For example, let's take a dark hybrid super rare. Income better than most super rares but not the best of the best. To get any super rare (other than special cases of great cost efficiency: vinotaur, grassquatch and ancient sloth) from level 10-15 costs 80,000 food. For a dark hybrid you get an extra 161 coins per hour for those last 5 levels. That same 80,000 food could instead get 8 commons + 4 rares + 1 super rare from level 1-10. Based on the average income per rarity, leveling those instead of the one level 10-15 would increase your income by 3,772 coins per hour. Vs. 161. Leveling supers beyond 10 makes no financial sense. But t DOES makes sense from a battles standpoint.

If you are one of the lucky ones to have a ultra rares, leveling them to 10, from a financial standpoint, makes a LOT more sense than spending those apples on anything else. 85,000 apples will get THREE ultras to level 10 which increases your income by about 12,000 coins per hour. Vs my 3,772 per hour by only spending food in the wisest possible manner. That is a difference of almost 200k coins per day. Anyone with multiple ultras not making more income than I it's because they are not spending anywhere close to the amount of time I must spend making food, or they are not spending their food in the right places.

At any rate, this new evolution time ?ber-nerf of the game means that I can no longer automatically level any critter I get that has better income than a common duplicate I have to 10 in short time. Which makes me VERY glad I leveled so many (67) of my critters to 10 or higher BEFORE the nerf. How this huge roadblock would hamper my food earning strategy were it not for having already made so many evolutions already I have no idea. People who started this game recently and who start it after this point are really screwed. :( I guess they should just level everything to 9 and once the queue of animals awaiting evolution #1 are done, queue them all up again for #2. And the few supers that are needed to be level 15 for battles jump in the line.

Anyway, I think I'm rambling a little lol. I guess I'm just glad I got so many to level 10 as part of my food / earning strategy before the evolution time roadblock was set up. And I feel really bad for everyone who could not or did not or starts playing after this. Because my earnings would be in the toilet without that aspect of my strategy.
Thank you for the feedback and tips :) I only produce about 300,000 coins every 3-5 hours so I can't count on getting 1 million coins right away. However, I will try out the charm cherries since they cost a lot less than the nuts and also seem to produce more than them per hour. As for my small farms (2), I will stick with spell melons.

[SANDSCApe]

Here's an example of how a shift in game progress affects my crop decisions.

Expansions on the Upper Ice Shelf (assuming all the previous regions have been explored) need 20-46 runes. My current breeding rate of 2 animals per day nets me 2-4 bombs which mine about 5-10 runes per day. So I'm down to 1 expansion per week as I've been working through the last 3 plots which need 38, 42 and 46 runes.

Since I'm breeding only for Magmacore (ignoring the other 17 missing breeds), the fails are being sold from the nest; no new mouths to feed; no new habitats or upgrades; no expansion imminent; no obstacles to clear. Coins are therefore piling up, so I've chosen to splurge on food for a few days.

The criteria now is not cost per fruit; it's fruit per hour. Cost being no consideration for the time being, my minis AND biggies are growing bananas while grands are growing cherries. When I'm playing less frequently, grands switch to nuts and biggies switch to melons. No mangos unless I really expect to be offline for 8 hours or more.

Now this is only temporary because my game is going through a slow phase and my breeding fails are being discarded. It may go back to mostly mangoes if I build more Electric Enclaves and resume breeding in that family.

Why even bother growing and stocking up this food? Because there isn't much else for me to do with coins right now. Besides, while food always accumulates slowly, it gets gobbled very quickly once a worthy creature shows up.

[MelodicStars]

Here's an example of how a shift in game progress affects my crop decisions.

Expansions on the Upper Ice Shelf (assuming all the previous regions have been explored) need 20-46 runes. My current breeding rate of 2 animals per day nets me 2-4 bombs which mine about 5-10 runes per day. So I'm down to 1 expansion per week as I've been working through the last 3 plots which need 38, 42 and 46 runes.

Since I'm breeding only for Magmacore (ignoring the other 17 missing breeds), the fails are being sold from the nest; no new mouths to feed; no new habitats or upgrades; no expansion imminent; no obstacles to clear. Coins are therefore piling up, so I've chosen to splurge on food for a few days.

The criteria now is not cost per fruit; it's fruit per hour. Cost being no consideration for the time being, my minis AND biggies are growing bananas while grands are growing cherries. When I'm playing less frequently, grands switch to nuts and biggies switch to melons. No mangos unless I really expect to be offline for 8 hours or more.

Now this is only temporary because my game is going through a slow phase and my breeding fails are being discarded. It may go back to mostly mangoes if I build more Electric Enclaves and resume breeding in that family.

Why even bother growing and stocking up this food? Because there isn't much else for me to do with coins right now. Besides, while food always accumulates slowly, it gets gobbled very quickly once a worthy creature shows up.
Your plan also seems to be relatively similar to zenobia42 (charm cherries every hour or so.) however, if I may ask a question, when you were still expanding the first few plots on the upper ice plateau, did you have trouble gathering up coins for the cost of expansion? (1 million coins is a huge roadblock for me) Cause frankly, all my coins are going towards expansion (more room= more habitats= more coins= more food= more higher level animals) and I've actually halted on farming for now. Similar to your "phase of continuous breeding and using your coins for food" I'm pretty much in the phase of "scraping every coin I can for expansions."

As for food, I will have to continue experimenting when I have the coins to do so.

[zenobia42]

IMO, when the thing holding you back from expanding quickly is the million coins (+ another million or so to clear), it makes sense to hold off on the grand farm crops for a while. They eat a LOT of coins. AND they take up a lot of space.

I have only switched to the lots of grand farms strategy once I hit the point where it takes longer to acquire the runes needed to expand than the coins. Like Sand.