Thoughts on female leads?

I started with a female lead because - why not? 

Am I the only one who thinks it's kinda biased towards the male leads?

It costs a LOT to get to lvl 20 and while males can rake in some profit from studfees to recover some, you are pretty stuck with a female. It even seems like it's not worth it compared to having a female scout that can reach the 600 stat mark compared to 700ish as lead female (first gen). 

I mean you can sell the puppies, but then there's the 20 days cool down. And if your lead only has 1-2 puppies then yeah. 

What are your thoughts on female vs male leads? 

Male leads do not have to be the breeding male. There are many popular studs that are scouts rather than leads, and most lead wolves that are studs do not get much in the way in studdings because they aren't desirable.

Indeed, if you have a male lead wolf which is not the breeding male, then their stats do not get passed down in any way, unlike with female leads. 

An actual disadvantage that female leads do have in comparison to male leads is that their pups are affected by their hunger at rollover. If the lead female wolf does not have 100% hunger by rollover, her unweaned pups have a survival penalty, which can be a pain considering that hunger is commonly affected through Explore encounters.

That's true - I actually didn't think of the main breeding male not being the leader. 

And it's pretty funny, I made a post about that yesterday in the suggestions forum with female lead and hunger ^^

i started with a female lead. because i wanted my first lead wolf to be a female.

i decided any future lead wolves will be a female. 

a female lead does have a disadvantage , you have to make sure she is feed to 100%  before rollover if not  the pups will take a survival penalty. 

the good news is that there are opportunities to eat while exploring. 

hunger is common while exploring. 

Not only the hunger/pup survival thing, but when the Lead Wolf is pregnant, she gains only 8 Energy per tick rather than 10. Since Explore gives you so much of the game’s progress (reliable source of food and toys, lead Exp, non-home-biome herbs and a little SC), it adds up if you’re an active explorer.

The only balance to this is in breeding choices. A male lead either is stuck as the breeding male or has no pups of his own. A female lead has her choice of studs, inside the pack and out.

another reason i choose a female as lead is that she has choice of stud inside and outside. the lead female can have pups of her own. she gain stats when the lead female level ups. 

of course female pack members can stud to a breeding male outside of the pack. 

I have no preference either way when it comes to lead gender. The reason my current lead is male is because I didn't know we could make a "second starter" and thought my lead would be my only chance to make a free (semi-)custom, so I made it one I could breed lots.

Going forward, whenever a lead dies, I'll replace them with the highest levelled wolf I have (going on stats in case of a time).

i actually prefer the female lead! but i'm also not breeding her a lot, so i don't have an issue with the energy regen & exploring :') I can see how its a debuff tho and one that some may really dislike.

i find the issue with a male lead is that..unless its the breeding male (which has issues itself tbh), it feels kinda pointless to bother levelling up. i have this with all male wolves, tbh. they're wasted genetic potential in terms of their coats & stats. i don't fight a lot, not at all, but at least when i *do* it doesn't feel..wasted, or pointless, ig!

having a male lead also throws a spanner for me personally, because i intend for my next lead to be a decedent of my current lead, for lore purposes. unless i make my male lead also a breeding male..i cant do that, and that would really suck for me.

and having a male lead that is your breeding male can..kinda suck too. i remember from the days of lioden where you'd spend a full energy bar attempting to breed a wolf that you would have preferred to spend exploring. that will have..much the same issue here. although granted, a male breeding lead wolf has energy taken away *instantly*, and not a debuff for multiple days like a female wolf.

but then again..I am not big on breeding at all, so its not an issue for me. thus far i've had 3 litters (including the tutorial). im mostly focused on bumping stats up rn!

My lead is male but he's not my breeding male - my scouts actually level slightly faster since I don't battle a ton, so I'll make the breeding male a scout rather than paying to retire my current lead.  Although then my lead wolf doesn't breed at all, which is sort of a waste of all the levels...  But yeah, female leads have some minor but still unfortunate issues.