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zenobia42
11-03-14, 12:23 PM
I will begin with a disclaimer: I now have a unicorn. However, I played this game for months before getting it. I started the game when it was so brand new there were only 4 elements, and spent weeks at the old level 30 cap, then weeks at the new level 40 cap, before my luck rolled in. I have no emeralds. I have no additional unicorns. I may have one now but I remember VERY clearly what it was like going for months without. And all the coping mechanisms I came up with to be able to inch forward as fast as I could regardless.

For those of you who think game life must be easier with a ultras, you are correct. It takes SO little effort to get an ultra to level 10, and at that level it makes the income of a typical common-rare-super spread of 10 animals. The income of 10. In one small habitat. It IS worth the long wait.

I can't even imagine how easy expanding and feeding animals is for those with a bunch of ultras. I know there are those with multiples out there who don't get as much income as we might think, not as much as they can, but that is only because, while they lucked or bought their way to a fleet of yachts as compared to the ultra-less in rowboats, they don't put the effort in to make the fuel to make their yachts go. But even so, they can just coast and still get ahead. They still have yachts.

This thread is for those who don't have yachts yet, but who DO want to put the effort in to row to the finish line. Who want to get a decent income even with the handicap of no unicorn. I managed to get over a million coins per day income and nearly all my expansions pre-unicorn. By intelligently leveling what I did have, and choosing the best habitats to house them, and arranging them optimally in those habitats. And I wanted to create a thread to share advice and help others in the same boat (lol) at least be able to expand and create enough income to afford to plant grand farm crops. After all you need 10 animals to earn what 1 ultra does. You NEED that room.

Anyone entering this thread who is unicorn-less and wants to ask questions / seek advice, please do! And players old and new with advice please post that too!!!

After all that preamble, I will have to start my actual advice in the next post.

zenobia42
11-03-14, 12:24 PM
First of all, level your animals. I can’t stress how important it is that ALL your animals be put to work for you. An animal sitting at level 1, or even 3 or 4, unless it is going to be replaced by something already in the nest/den, is a rowboat without paddles. No, you are not keeping that armordillo #3 forever. But while you have it, get something from it. Feed it.
7 is the magic number for levels. For every animal and every level, I calculated the additional income they generate for that level divided by the cost of leveling them. EVERY animal has a GREAT +income/food spent ratio from level 1 to 7. They all have a drop from 7-8, then pick up again a bit from 8-10. They also mostly have terrible ratios from 10-15, though most rares are good to get to 11 or 12… IF your other animals are already to 7 or higher.
In general, leveling beyond 10 should only be done for battling. You will almost surely need a few level 15’s for the arena. If you have none yet, I recommend your first be the ancient sloth, vinotaur or grassquatch. Why? Because they are super rare but cost HALF as much food to level to 15 as all other super rares.
EXPAND. I spend ALL my coins on food to keep leveling my animals, but when I am close to getting enough bombs for my next expansion, I slow my food spending until I have enough for the next expansion as soon as I am ready bomb-wise, and don’t start spending a lot on food again until I’ve paid the gazillion coins it takes to clear that expansion of all obstacles.
FILL your park. If you are not at your max habitats, and have room, build small nature habitats and fill them with pandas. Replace those pandas as you breed better animals. Replace those small nature habitats as you breed better animals too.
Don’t worry about “wasting” coins on animals and habitats you are not keeping forever. Consider a small nature habitat with a lowly fairy ferret and planther leveled to 7. That costs 1800 coins and 1800 food but earns you 377 coins per hour. As opposed to the 156 coins per hour you’d get if you hadn’t bothered to level them. Leave them there a week and they’ll have earned you over 60,000 coins! Unleveled, they’d only earn 26,000.)
As you get more rares and super-rares, and no room to just add them, ditch your duplicate commons. This kinda goes without saying but I say it anyway. :p
Electric hybrids make more at the same rarity level than dark hybrids which make more than those with neither element. Try to get a lot of these hybrids.
I calculated the value of each type of habitat, big and small. It is WORTH the money to buy habitats that hold more. Every time a habitat fills with income, you are LOSING that income until you collect from it. Large nature, earth and water habitats >>> their small versions. And small dark & electrics > big anything else. Let’s take earth for example. A small earth’s capacity is 2300 coins. That means each of the 2 animals it holds produces on average 1,150 coins then stops unless you collect. But in a big earth habitat, each of the 3 animals produces 2,500 coins before the habitat fills - that’s TWICE as much!
So for your non-dark&electric creatures, you should have BIG habitats. But for dark and electric, not only do your animals make 5,000 & 6,500 coins respectively before their habitats fill, but per animal, the small is just as good as the big. This is especially good news considering that the game refuses to allow us enough expansions to get anywhere near 41 large habitats. I have 21 small, 19 big, and 1 grand (the haunted hollow) habitat. I have ZERO fire, nature, earth or water SMALL habitats. ALL my smalls are dark & electric (plus now the one gem). And of my large habitats, most are earth. Fire habitats fills so quickly that you should only have ONE (big) one, for your pyro pony and a couple fire hybrids you just like.
SPREAD the wealth. If you have 1 habitat with 3 super rares in it, 1 habitat with 3 rares, and 1 with 3 commons, you are losing money. The one with super rares will fill up and not only stop earning you income, but stop earning you your BEST income! I put all super rares, if possible, in a large habitat of their best habitat element (electric > dark > water > earth > nature > fire). Then with your highest-earning super rare, put in your 2 lowest-earning commons. Then your next best super and next worst 2 commons. Then when you run out of supers, all the rares together. Remember to plan ahead: if you have a level 3 cosmic phoenix, it earns only 419/hour. But still put low earners in with him, because when he grows up to level 10, he'll be earning 1,439/hour and you don't want that habitat to fill too quickly and lose your money! If you have high-earning super rare electrics and darks, you should have a few big electric/dark habitats like this for them.
FOOD, FOOD, FOOD. Grow, feed, grow, feed. … Power. Pears. Watching TV in the evening? Keep your device in your lap and make power pears every 3-4 minutes. Do that until eight hours before you plan to wake up, at which time you plant mangoes. During the day, plant the fastest crop you can based on how long until the next time you can log in. Short time crops yield LITERALLY 100 times as many food per hour as long-term crops. So plant short crops as often as you can, then long ones based on how long you’ll be offline. And never partial-feed an animal (less than the 5 feedings for it to gain a level). You may get another animal you'd want that food for before you finish!
Visit your neighbors. The 1500 coins they each leave you in return by sparkling your habitats (if you are high level) REALLY add up. If you go through all your neighbors (while planting and harvesting power pears!!!), go to community. Sparkle up someone with a few stars and invite them to be your neighbor. In a month you can get hundreds of neighbors this way. And they’ll all want to visit you if you have 4 stars because they trust you will also visit them.
Timing is everything. Have a breeding done and an egg that will be ready to hatch 2 hours after you go to sleep? Spend the 2 gems to hatch it now and have your nest and den working for you overnight. And don’t put a pony and panda in the den at bedtime. They’ll likely be done in 3 hours and the rest of the night hours wasted. Breeding is unpredictable but with a few free gems, you can make the best of your timing.
Speaking of free gems, ALWAYS download the advertised game and play it until the quests about it are done. At the very least, install the game and play it for one minute to earn 30 gems. If possible, keep playing until you’ve earned all 75 total gems you can get from each new game. Those gems will come in extremely handy. Also, try to keep up with the gem trade with reliable neighbors. 3 gems a day is 21 a week!
That’s all I can think of now. I’m sure others will pipe in with good, even better advice. You CAN get somewhere in this game without any ultra rares. Or should I say until you get your ultra rares. :)

zenobia42
11-03-14, 12:25 PM
Okay, players, please add your advice and questions! I hope this thread proves useful to new players, and long-term players alike, to all who want to learn how to get by in this game with no unicorn.

zenobia42
11-03-14, 12:29 PM
I meant to post this in the regular discussion section if someone could please move it. It doesn't really belong here. Thanks. :)

ETA: I went and just made the thread again there. Please delete this one. Thanks.

dumbpluff
11-03-14, 05:53 PM
i'm trying to compile some things i've learned while going unicornless to help you out, but i did want to say right now that you've already helped me with your information quite a great deal! i've rearranged a few of my habitats and tomorrow morning i should be able to see how much difference it's made. ; v ;

this is going to be an incredibly important post and i hope everyone knows it!

edit: AH, I POSTED WITHOUT REFRESHING. i did not realize this was bumped somewhere else. i'm so sorry. but my feelings remain, even if my post is dumb.

RorJam
11-16-14, 07:16 PM
Since I first read this last week I've started to follow it. Just spreading my supers around made such a huge difference. I couldn't believe it. Now I'm slowly building up my non super animals to lvl 6-8. Thanks for the Thread it's really helped me to un stress about not having a unicorn :)

Crr008
11-17-14, 05:05 AM
Zenobia, this is a great thread. I don't have an additional advice. The advice you gave is invaluable. Thanks.

zenobia42
11-17-14, 06:16 PM
Since they never unlocked the other of this thread I made, I'm glad folks are finding it in here and seeing some results!!! :)

I fine-tuned the first and second posts a little while here, too.

reellis39
11-18-14, 05:49 AM
Really like this post, didn't think about fire habitats and using small darks etc instead. Leveling all lower animals to 7 to see how that helps my coin situation!

Vodelle
11-24-14, 05:04 PM
I'm a new player to FFS (I think I'm level 11 now) and stumbled upon this thread a bit ago. A lot of this is pretty common sense-ish to me but some of these tips were definitely helpful (such as level to lvl 7 -- not something I had bothered looking up the math on). So thank you for taking the time to write all that out! (:

Tokitae
11-24-14, 05:13 PM
The pandas do work! I kept a herd of pandas until my super rares began coming in, and then I sold them off for greener pastures. Now, I'm saturated with super rares and waiting on my unicorn to finish breeding/hatching. This guide has helped so much! :3

60something
01-02-15, 11:20 AM
Just found this thread yesterday. I couldn't figure out how to earn gems and would like to know more about that. I'm a Grandma who plays with my Grandaughter on iPad and have managed to get to level 29 but would really like to know how to get gems a lot of you suggestions are ones I didn't know so will do them. Thank you!

flowless
01-02-15, 11:26 AM
Just found this thread yesterday. I couldn't figure out how to earn gems and would like to know more about that. I'm a Grandma who plays with my Grandaughter on iPad and have managed to get to level 29 but would really like to know how to get gems a lot of you suggestions are ones I didn't know so will do them. Thank you!

You can gift gems to neighbors up to 3 a day
And recieve almost 20 which rarley happen
But find loyal neighbours or what i call a gem buddy to gift each other every day

Downloading the games ( when u recieve an add )
U can get up to 75 gems if ist a new game

If u manage to breed a treasure animal
U would get one a day

And some times there are goals that offer gems as a prize

U get a gem per achievement

And battle ground u get 9 during
Amd 10 aftet hatching the animal

Other than that u need to buy gems
Its quit hard to save gems as temptations are alot to spend

Listal
01-04-15, 04:50 PM
What unicorn are you reffing too?

sweetdeda
02-26-15, 01:51 PM
Thank you! Very helpful.

sweetdeda
03-12-15, 06:28 AM
i'm trying to compile some things i've learned while going unicornless to help you out, but i did want to say right now that you've already helped me with your information quite a great deal! i've rearranged a few of my habitats and tomorrow morning i should be able to see how much difference it's made. ; v ;

this is going to be an incredibly important post and i hope everyone knows it!

edit: AH, I POSTED WITHOUT REFRESHING. i did not realize this was bumped somewhere else. i'm so sorry. but my feelings remain, even if my post is dumb.
When you say you rearranged some of your habitats, are you able to move animals from one habitat to a different one?
Thx



Oh wait I figured it out. ;)

LonePudding
04-06-15, 02:38 PM
I hope someone sees this. Is there any currently following the habitat arrangement Zenobia suggested. I am trying but I'm more of a visual learner so I was wondering if there are any islands that I could have a look at?

rjazz
04-06-15, 09:26 PM
Just go look at neighbors or visit community members who are higher up in the game. I think what you mainly want to do is have at least one of your highest level and/or a rare, super or ultra in each habitat. So that each habitat can produce as many coins as possible.

sweetdeda
04-07-15, 07:09 AM
I calculated the value of each type of habitat, big and small. It is WORTH the money to buy habitats that hold more. Every time a habitat fills with income, you are LOSING that income until you collect from it. Large nature, earth and water habitats >>> their small versions. And small dark & electrics > big anything else. Let?s take earth for example. A small earth?s capacity is 2300 coins. That means each of the 2 animals it holds produces on average 1,150 coins then stops unless you collect. But in a big earth habitat, each of the 3 animals produces 2,500 coins before the habitat fills - that?s TWICE as much!
So for your non-dark&electric creatures, you should have BIG habitats. But for dark and electric, not only do your animals make 5,000 & 6,500 coins respectively before their habitats fill, but per animal, the small is just as good as the big. This is especially good news considering that the game refuses to allow us enough expansions to get anywhere near 41 large habitats. I have 21 small, 19 big, and 1 grand (the haunted hollow) habitat. I have ZERO fire, nature, earth or water SMALL habitats. ALL my smalls are dark & electric (plus now the one gem). And of my large habitats, most are earth. Fire habitats fills so quickly that you should only have ONE (big) one, for your pyro pony and a couple fire hybrids you just like.
SPREAD the wealth. If you have 1 habitat with 3 super rares in it, 1 habitat with 3 rares, and 1 with 3 commons, you are losing money. The one with super rares will fill up and not only stop earning you income, but stop earning you your BEST income! I put all super rares, if possible, in a large habitat of their best habitat element (electric > dark > water > earth > nature > fire). Then with your highest-earning super rare, put in your 2 lowest-earning commons. Then your next best super and next worst 2 commons. Then when you run out of supers, all the rares together. Remember to plan ahead: if you have a level 3 cosmic phoenix, it earns only 419/hour. But still put low earners in with him, because when he grows up to level 10, he'll be earning 1,439/hour and you don't want that habitat to fill too quickly and lose your money! If you have high-earning super rare electrics and darks, you should have a few big electric/dark habitats like this for them.


Zenobia, I just want to thank you for this thread and all you do for the players of this game. I found this thread shortly after starting the game 2 months and if not for all info in this thread I probably would have given up.
I understood what you were saying about the habitats but until now when I'm saving to expand to Treent, I only watched putting too many super rares and rares together, I made some bad choices and really have been costing myself coin. Started to do some rearranging and boy what a difference it makes!


Thank you again for all the great info you provide!

sweetdeda
04-07-15, 07:14 AM
And btw I really think this thread should have a sticky to keep it at that top, would be very helpful for new players to find.

LonePudding
04-07-15, 07:57 AM
Just go look at neighbors or visit community members who are higher up in the game. I think what you mainly want to do is have at least one of your highest level and/or a rare, super or ultra in each habitat. So that each habitat can produce as many coins as possible.

People who are higher don't really follow this anymore - that's if they did in the first place. I visited Zenobia, but there's quite a few large dark/electric habitats there now, opposing the advice in the first post. Thanks for the tip though.

LonePudding
04-08-15, 09:43 AM
Thanks so much Zenobia for all your helpful tips!!

I've managed to save 1 million coins in a few days! Now what to spend it on...habitats or food?

sweetdeda
04-09-15, 03:00 AM
People who are higher don't really follow this anymore - that's if they did in the first place. I visited Zenobia, but there's quite a few large dark/electric habitats there now, opposing the advice in the first post. Thanks for the tip though.

Maybe she had to go with big habitats because she ran out of room and not because of the coin factor. And I understand why once you hit a certain point and coins really aren't an issue because you have banked enough that these tips really wouldn't be relevant anymore. I am not having an issue leveling up, I'll be on level 36 today but coins and food are still an issue for me so I try to follow these tips, and they have helped a lot. Currently saving to expand to Treent, I need all the tips I can find.

zenobia42
04-10-15, 08:59 AM
Hi, guys! I just realized people had been posting in here. I will try to find some time this week to revise the advice based on the changes to the game since I first made it. But one question at least I can answer right now: I have all large habitats now. Because we actually have ROOM for them now which is glorious! And also, I don't have to worry about getting enough coins any more. I diteched almost all my duplicates to make room for a little bit of decoration. Let me tell you all - when you get to that point, it feels great!

Space is not as much of a premium now as it was way back when I started this thread. Those of us who started the game early, there was only the island we started on. Then they opened up the first blue island, the one where the baby lightning leopard mewls at us adorably until we expand to him. Actually, they opened up a few squared on that island then the leopard square a bit later. Anyway, they opened up the rest of that island and the final blue island. For months there were tons of level 40 players with only those islands available. AND expanding and clearing some of those plots cost over 2 million each. And many of us had to try to get that space with no unicorn.

Anyway, now there is the second green island and the purple islands. I am going to dig up the old expansion obstacles thread and put the total cost of each plot on it so everyone can see the cheapest way to expand. But in short:
1) you need to get to the mine before you start having choices where to expand
2) then you want to get to the lightning leopard as soon as possible. Follow the route along the left edge of the first blue island to get to him cheapest.
3) then start opening up the green island to the south. And you might as well head straight for the Treent of Life. You've going to need to open at least 6 plots before you get to him.
4) then the rest of the blue island the leopard was on.
5) then I need to check whether the first purple island or the final blue island is cheaper. But if they are similar in price, I recommend the purple island before the final blue. The obstacles on the purple island only need 20 minutes to clear. The frozen obstacles require a day each once you've saved up the coin.

sweetdeda
04-10-15, 05:36 PM
If you visit my park it looks like it under construction lol. I'm saving for Treent so as I'm expanding I'm not clearing the obstacles. Looks pretty sad but I should be to Treent in just a couple more days!

Elev8edCre8ion
04-15-15, 05:06 AM
This thread has been super helpful! For instance, knowing what level animal gives you the most return for your investment, and which specific animals require less food to achieve the same coin payouts. I wish I could find something like this for Dragon Story, so I could know how to best maximize my habitats and manage my dragons. I find DS much harder than FF!

LonePudding
04-15-15, 02:02 PM
If you visit my park it looks like it under construction lol. I'm saving for Treent so as I'm expanding I'm not clearing the obstacles. Looks pretty sad but I should be to Treent in just a couple more days!

How many coins do you have? I find it hard to stay over 1 million coins, so the Treent isnt really a realistic goal for me YET...

LonePudding
04-15-15, 02:07 PM
I don't understand the 'cheaper' expanding routes? Are you referring to the cost to expand + clearing the obstacles? Every expansion for me is 1 million coins no matter where...? It's always been that price for me; that led to me quitting back in October last year lol!

sweetdeda
04-15-15, 08:11 PM
How many coins do you have? I find it hard to stay over 1 million coins, so the Treent is really a realistic goal for me YET...

Right now I'm up to 8.5 million, had to buy a new habitat a couple days ago, set me back a bit from my goal. It seemed like for me I would never stay above a million, as soon as I would get there I would have to buy something. Once I moved animals around so my habitats weren't filling up as fast I started to see an increase. Now I bank over a million a day while still always spending on food. I hope soon I will reach a point where coin isn't an issue, like I know it isn't for a lot of the veteran players, I've only been playing since around valentines day.

sweetdeda
04-15-15, 08:13 PM
Oh and as far as the cheaper expansions, yes she was referring to the cost to clear obstacles.

LonePudding
04-16-15, 02:56 PM
Oh and as far as the cheaper expansions, yes she was referring to the cost to clear obstacles.

Ohh thank you! I was panicking.

sweetdeda
04-17-15, 04:58 PM
Your welcome LonePudding. I would be to Treent but I had to expand to a different spot, I maxed out both my runes and bombs while trying to collect the coin. I didn't want to not earn bombs on the breeding I was doing.