Is it possible to win any of the event prizes without using gold?

I'm a fairly new player (several months) and I've been enjoying it but what turns me off is it seems impossible to win the event dragons (milestone in the leaderboard, chapters 7 & 10 of the storybook, the last 2 in community events) without the use of gold. To get that many community or leaderboard points seems impossible, and the storyboard is ridiculously difficult (if not impossible) to breed the needed "common" dragon.

I'm lvl 82 - does it become possible when you're a high level? I'm frustrated as it seems even with constant breeding, evolving and hatching I have no way of winning these dragons! I haven't been able to get a monthly dragon yet either. Wondering if it gets easier :/

Also the tournament dragons! With those champion types it seems dang near impossible too

No.

Depends on what you mean by win. In general if you are competing against others no. You could save food and get bingo x10s and such and then maybe have a shot IF you got an easy group. IMO not worth it. Just shoot for getting the lower level dragons and save the effort. I never go for the final dragons, as the resources can be used for the next event to get all of them but the top ones. Depends on your game goals.

when i do go to win, its because i managed to breed the dragon ASAP. then once it is on the nest, i will do a boost (30 gold), then i will use gold to hatch it. then evolve it up all the way. using gold to do it all in seconds. so if you figure 30 for the boost, yu can wait until last hour of hatching, thats 1 gold, then 4 gold to level 4. then 4 gold to level 7, then 4 gold to level 10. so thats 43 gold and i get a LOT of points with that. plus if you have any dragons that you can place in the evolve temple early on (so plan ahead), that helps.
that initial boost is often more than enough. but then i have to luck out breeding it asap

I started a whole post with all kinds of math and then got distracted and lost it. Basically, for World event, you can get to 4200 without any gold or any upgrades (that's breeding, hatching, evolving, harvesting for 24 hrs/day for all 7 days and winning 7 battles per day, getting the common by the start of day 4, raising it to level 10 and then sending it on quests). I realized this does not include collecting from the point giving decor.

So, then the question is - what does spending gold mean? I saved my gold and bought a second evolving temple pretty quick. This was both for the events and to just raise dragons to level 10 more quickly. The cost is 1,000 gold but it is usually available during the sales for 500 gold. Having a second evolving temple also helps if you have a boost as it will boost both temples. I haven't used any gold for World Event in 2 years (since they changed the format) and usually finish with a day left - even if I need a bit more, I can set up for leaderboard and just use quest and point producing decor items in the last 24 hrs of the event. This is also accomplished now without evolving, hatching, breeding, or harvesting 24/7. I always plant diamondates overnight and sleep 8 hours, so I lose 3 hours/night there. Breeding/hatching/evolving I try to set up so I don't lose time but I don't stress if I do.

A second nest is also very helpful, not only to add points (not as much since it's only 1 point per hour of hatching) but also to do things like put the common dragon directly on the nest once it's done crafting instead of having to wait and hold up hatching breeding or what not. A second nest is 250 but wait for a sale and get it for 125. I have 3 now, extras were bought on sales.

Once you have a second evolution temple, you are doubling the points for evolving. (7X24X3=504X2=1008).

Math for the leaderboard is a bit trickier because it depends on the luck of the spin to win wheel as well.

Total points:
Breeding 504
Hatching 504
Evolving 504
Harvesting on 7 nests - 2352

So - 3864 plus 1000 for the common dragon.

Then you supplement with feeding, collecting from the decor items, and questing with the common dragon. I finish at about 15K without gold or boosts.

With both these events, set up matters. If I have a dragon in storage I want to take out, I may wait until the World Event (or especially leaderboard) is going to start. This is especially true if it is a 20+hr hatching time. These same dragons will evolve at the start of the event. Also, plant scalypears for max harvesting points. Anything that is ready once the event starts gives you points. So, with 7 scalypears, a magic on the nest and magic breeding, and a magic evolving you could start the event with a lot of points. This menas you can get the point producing decor more quickly and move up the ladder more quickly.

While an investment of evolution temple and nests will cost gold, they are going to earn their keep by allowing you to use less/no gold in the future. Gold doesn't necessarily have to cost you money either. The Gold Horizon from the ticket temple will give you 4 gold per day and you can get gold from neighbors. It is obviously slower moving that way but it is up to you, your budget and your interests.

As far as Dragon Tales goes - the Chapters all have the same acts but the strategy is different. Save your food here. Right now, I am foregoing most adventure league stuff due to the tournament and breeding the common dragon. Use these forums - while Tales won't tell you, there is usually a post here within hours of Tales starting tha will tell you what you need to breed the common dragon. There are also a number of tasks that can be accomplished early and will still count - like hatching and raising the common dragon to level 6. Raising both crafted dragons. Crafting and placing the items needs accomplishing when the task comes up, along with arena battles.

My first crafted dragon is raised up to 14 by the end of day 3. I do have enough food for this and my strategy was a bit different when I had less food but I still generally had him raised up as quickly as possible. So here the strategy is making sure your evolution temple is available ASAP. Also, again, use the boards here to know what's needed. Even though I have been playing for years, I still often check to see what's needed in the morning. Oh, the third task is to collect from breeding but I can finish the first two as soon as I wake up - mental note, go through the Tales Acts before I start messing with Adventure league.

I have been able to finish tales without gold for every Tale except the first one I was eligible for.

Tournaments are a different strategy. You want some level 15 dragons but you want the RIGHT level 15 dragons. I have a Diamond and Achilles at 15. I made the sacrifice to get a Glasswing to 14. That and he Dark Omen and Creator at 14 (both raised for Tales) are some of my go tos if I'm not sure. If I'm having trouble with a dragon, usually there is a tournament thread (though this is recently less common than threads for the other events) and I see what others have used. The Pure Champion types, I know my best bet is my Achilles or Diamond but they are so tough that I just plan to be on them for a while and toss everything at them - what I don't do is use Glasswing against them. I know the chances are slim and I don't want him stuck waiting to heal when I need him for another opponent.

I do not have videos to skip wait time and about 90% of the time I do not need to use Ultimate. Every once in a while I do and that's only for one Champion dragon that's level 20.

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Originally Posted by froggirl202

I'm a fairly new player (several months) and I've been enjoying it but what turns me off is it seems impossible to win the event dragons (milestone in the leaderboard, chapters 7 & 10 of the storybook, the last 2 in community events) without the use of gold. To get that many community or leaderboard points seems impossible, and the storyboard is ridiculously difficult (if not impossible) to breed the needed "common" dragon.

I'm lvl 82 - does it become possible when you're a high level? I'm frustrated as it seems even with constant breeding, evolving and hatching I have no way of winning these dragons! I haven't been able to get a monthly dragon yet either. Wondering if it gets easier :/

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To answer your original question: NO. You have to spend gold one way or another. It's become a (an adult) money game.

Wow, thanks everyone for your responses! There's a lot of really good strategy here - I think I'll slowly save up for a second evolution temple (I keep and then trade all duplicates, so it would be really useful). Other than that I think I'll just continue as I am and accept that a lot of the dragons are out of reach (there's so many anyway, I would like to evolve up some of the ones I have!).