Volinolona #13549

Friending me does not provide either party with any in-game benefits and random friend requests stress me out. As such, I have disabled friend requests.

See a pup labeled Pupsitter Fodder and want it? Just PM me. ^-^ These pups are destined to be chased when they hit adolescence and I probably bought them for 5SC or less, so I'm more than willing to part with them if someone actually wants them. They'll be set up in a refunded trade, so you only need 1SC. ^-^

Tips for Newbies

If you are new to the game, the biggest and most helpful tip I can give you is pretty simple: do NOT breed your wolves until you have the resources to care for them. Just because the little heat symbol is there does not mean you have to breed them. If you breed them too early, your pack will starve, your pups will die, and you will run out of SC to buy things you actually want while trying to buy things to save them.

The Basics

- The ideal starting pack has seven normal members: five Hunters, one Scout, and one Herbalist. Having five Hunters will increase your hunt success rate. Your Scout can, of course, scout new areas and bring back toys via rescouting. Your herbalist will be key in keeping you from spending too much SC later when your Hunters begin getting open wounds. (You will need 285SC to open two more slots in your pack so you can fit all seven members.)

- Sending your Hunters on critter trails will grant you more food than larger trails when they are first starting out, as you will have more successful hunts.

- You can find cheap wolves in the Trading Center and free ones while exploring. I suggest using cheap and free NBWs (Newly Befriended Wolves) for your first set of pack members while you save up money for higher stat, higher mark, and higher tier base pups to replace them with.

- Get to having two caves as quickly as possible. Use one to house all your wolves and one to quarantine any sick ones. Having ANY wolves in the 'unsorted' section will result in illness passing between caves!

- The Prairie and the Desert are your friends. In the Prairie, you will find the prairie chicken, who will give you food in exchange for acorns. This is usually a one-use carcass, but the prairie chicken can also give you large carcasses with up to twenty-eight uses. In the desert, you will find a wandering tortoise who has a chance to give you a large, eight-use feather for protecting him. They both also have Winterfat, which you will need to craft Open Wound Salves for your Hunters!

- When you are finally in a position to take care of puppies, don't skimp on the pupsitters! I have seen many people upset over that one TII puppy they wanted to keep dying because they didn't assign them to a pupsitter or assigned too many puppies to one sitter. You will need a minimum of one pupsitter per two pups if the pupsitter can give 60% total protection, one pupsitter per three or four pups if they have 100% total protection. (Pupsitters take 20 days to train to full proficiency, so plan ahead!) Remember: protection is split among puppies, so if your pup's survival chance is below what a split pupsitter can provide, they will need their own personal pupsitter to survive or you will need to move some of the other pups to new pupsitters!

- Moving out of the starter biomes is not recommended at this time.

Spending and Making Money

- Use the search in the Trading Center! Especially the SC and GC buyout amounts - it can really help to find the cheapest of what you're looking for.

- If you have a sick wolf, always search for the exact cure for their illness AND a Cure-for-All. Sometimes, the Cure-for-All will be cheaper!

- Do not sell large trades of items. You will have much more success selling 10 lots of 20 uses of food than you will selling 1 lot of 200 uses of food. It all comes down to pricing and waste - not only can most users not afford to buy 200 uses at once, but even if they can, most of it will go to waste! (Exception: You are selling really bulk amusement and aren't pressed for cones OR it's winter and you have extra food. Bulk food sales in winter are great.)

- Sell your one and two-use food items to the raccoon for quick cash. Selling larger items and non-food items is not advised, as he offers way less than market value.

- Do not expect to make money off puppies. In a game like this, unless you have the highest stats, a brand new marking or base, or something exceedingly rare such as a mutation, it is not likely that you will make money breeding and selling. Why? Because there is so much competition that supply is way higher than demand, making puppies worthless unless they really stand out.

- Make sure to bump your trades in the trading center every once in a while and advertise them in the sales chat. It works wonders on your sales.

Winter

- If you do not want your puppies born in winter, do not breed your female any later than the first day of fall. I personally would not breed any later than the last day of summer if using a stud, as you have not guarantee they will get to your female before rollover.

- If you want to make sure you have enough food for winter, you want all your food to have at least seven days left on the first day of winter and you will want twelve uses of food per wolf you own (two uses per day).

- Moving to the Desert during the winter will not save you. It will murder your pack. (Kinda weird to have to point this out, but apparently some people do move there thinking they'll be safe from the lower pup survival rate? The Desert is a Difficult biome, so your wolves will have an even lower hunting success rate than normal.)

I think that's it for now. If I think of something else, I'll put it here. I will also be writing up an actual guide later that's more detailed, maybe with some quick links for good searches and stuff. You can PM me if you have any questions. ^-^

♥