Moneybags

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~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ Hey howdy!

Throughout this guide I'll be linking to other guides that are far more concise, comprehensible, and credible. Please read those guides in depth for a better understanding of the topic(s). I'll just be doing a very brief overview of everything.

Quick background/ramble; I'm definitely not the top qualifier for "best dragon capitalist", and honestly I think I'm fairly mid when it comes to making income on the site. I am, however, the BEST at impulse spending all of my money, and I've been able to come this far, so I think I'm doing at least something right! These are all just strategies that I personally use.

This is going to be an extremely wordy guide, I'm very bad at being concise. Sorry in advance x'}

Lingo to know:

• t = treasure the currency of the site earned directly through gameplay.
• g = gems the premium currency of the site.
• kt or kg = Thousand treasure or thousand gems. For example, 1kt would be 1,000t. 500kt would be 500,000t. 1.2kg would be 1,200g, and 3.5kg would be 3,500g. You may also see "mil" which indicates million.
• Conversion ratio = the conversion rate of treasure to gems and vice versa. This is a personal choice, and each user has their own conversion ratio, but mine is 1 gem to every 1,000t (1:1000t). Most conversion ratios range from 1:980t to 1:1200.
  • The conversion ratio for gems to real life currency will always stay the same, though. For my fellow US folks, it's $1 to every 100g.
• CR = Crossroads. For exchanges, you'll be sending two way CRs. For 1 sided deliveries, you'll be sending 1 way CRs.
• AH = Auction House.
• PA = Private Auction. Basically just the auction house, but instead of listing an item for the whole site to have access to, you list it for one specific person. Only they have access to the listing.
• LAH = Lowest Auction House (listing). If you're searching for things in the auction house, it'll be the first listing that shows up with the default settings, lowest price to highest.
  
• Stacks = A full stack of 99 items, the limit for a singular grouping of an item. Only applicable to food, materials, battle items, some specialty items, and items in the other tab. Familiars and apparel cannot be traded or sold in stacks, however you can view everything in your hoard as a stack by enabling that feature through settings. I heavily encourage this for mass hoarders like myself.
  
  
• Selling/buying gems = Converting treasure to gems or gems to treasure. It's commonly referred to as "buying" or "selling" gems. If you ever want to convert your money, the best place to go is the items for sale forum! You can either search for someone selling/buying or you can make your own post! If you want to make your own post, titles will typically look something like this:
  • "[/B] 500g | (conversion ratio here)" "[/S] 1700g | (conversion ratio here)" or even "[/T] 400kt for 400g". B means buy, S means sell, and T means trade (trade is just a different way of saying buy/sell). (Also ignore the /, I just did that so the bbcode doesn't think I'm trying to bold letters)
    If you want an example of what these posts would look like, here's my post for when I need to exchange currency. Typically, people just send a CR and you'll do your exchange there :)
• Fodder = Expendable items/dragons, not meant for permanent keeping. Fodder dragons are dragons with the sole purpose of being trained and exalted (which I'll discuss more in the future). Fodder familiars/apparel are items used for melting at Baldwin's Bubbling Brew.
• Hibden = Hibernal Den.
• Hoard-sell = Selling items directly from your hoard, not to be confused with listing items on the auction house. Hoard-selling is instantaneous and only gives you treasure.

Shoving this little disclaimer here since I'm not sure where else to put this, but DO NOT SELL ITEMS TO CRIM. This is a trap many new players fall into. Crim has an extremely annoying tendency to ask for items that are worth far FAR more on the auction house than what she'll give you. If you'd still like to trade with her, I'd still very much advise you check the auction house each time you go to sell her a new item. Really, she isn't worth your time as a new player. The only real benefit she gives is for lairs with tons of worthless trash items, and for achievements.
Case in point:
Everything here will be listed from least game-play intensive (as in having to put in little amounts of time/effort into the game), to most game-play intensive (you'll be playing daily for hours at the minimum).

First up is...
Gathering can give you tons of really valuable items! I don't think I'd be able to list all of the really good things you can get from gathering, so I'll just list a few items that I go after. I'll also be showing what element location you can gather them in, and what level you need to be to be able to gather it.

Hunting: Black Swan Meat These elegant birds are competitive perfectionists. 70 8 21+

Fishing: Tuxedo Urchin Seafood This mysterious urchin appears only when the situation is most dire, never mind what that means. 75 5 1+

Insect: Giant Darner Insect Like, really huge. Seriously, rethink your decision to eat this. 100 9 25+

Foraging: Dark Creeper Plant The rustling of this ivy, which grows only at night, can be quite unnerving in the dark. 75 5 1+

Digging: Gilded Decorative Chest Chests What a prize! This golden chest gleams in the sunlight and is decorated with jewels and beautiful platinum designs. It's extremely heavy. Surely there is something valuable within. 0 1+ Any Element Gold Ore Minerals & Ores Known to drive dragons to do very foolish things. 250 1+ Any Element

Scav: Unhatched Shadow Egg Dragon Eggs A murky, swampy egg that is pulsating with a strange purple glow. The egg feels as though it might just be full of fluid, but now and again, a dark form can be seen moving within. 0 1+ You can gather any elemental egg in it's respective element location. These typically start at 200g or 200kt on the AH.

All of these items are either used for Swipp's Swap Stand trades, or for hibden unlock tasks, which is why they're so highly valued.

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The most optimal way reach the daily treasure limit in the Fairgrounds is Glimmer and Gloom. Glimmer and Gloom (also known as g&g), has two difficulties we will be focusing on, hard (H) and very hard (VH), as they're the 2 difficulties that have very quick/effective strategies.

The puzzle will look different every time, it's randomized, but once you learn the patterns, you'll be able to clear a single puzzle in under 30 seconds. I highly recommend this guide for hard and very hard, as chatoyant explains it a million times better than I could! I may make my own mini guide here sometime.

I cannot stress how good g&g is. I do (VH) every day and in under 15 minutes I hit the daily 75kt limit. Toss that into your vault, and that's 525kt every week! That is, especially for new players, absolutely nuts, and especially so for only 15 minutes of clicking.

Try not to stress if you're really struggling with learning g&g. It took me TONS of trial and error and a good hour or two of re-watching video guides over and over. You'll get it eventually! Or, if you're really not meshing with it, doing any games is better than nothing! If you detest the fairgrounds, then these next money making methods might be best for you...

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The biggest barrier to new players when its comes to Baldwin is not having the items needed to melt. Baldwin likely isn't something very fresh accounts will be able to really utilize, but after you gather for a bit and collect a fair amount of spare food/items, I'd definitely recommend getting started on Baldwin.
The best way to get a ton of fodder items are through events! During food microholidays, extra food can be obtained through doing common site activities like bonding with familiars or collecting the daily item from Pinkerton! This is a fantastic source for fodder food. Events like Love is in the Air also gives you TONS of fodder apparel and familiars if you're grinding in the coliseum (more on that later).

Knowing what is fine to melt and what isn't can also be a bit tricky. My best advice is to check the auction house before melting anything, you'd be surprised at how many items are deceptively very valuable! Anything that's 2g or lower is better off getting melted (or 3g or lower for familiars and/or apparel)

Here's a list of all of the items you get by melting from most to least common, and what type of items you need to melt to get them:

Melting food will get you:

Green Goo Transmutation A mysterious pile of green goo. It is pulsating with an eerie internal glow and giving off the pleasant aroma of burnt rubber. 0 42%

Yellow Goo Transmutation A mysterious pile of yellow goo. It is pulsating with an eerie internal glow and giving off the pleasant aroma of burnt rubber. 0 21%

Orange Goo Transmutation A mysterious pile of orange goo. It is pulsating with an eerie internal glow and giving off the pleasant aroma of burnt rubber. 0 16%

Red Goo Transmutation A mysterious pile of red goo. It is pulsating with an eerie internal glow and giving off the pleasant aroma of burnt rubber. 0 10%

Purple Goo Transmutation A mysterious pile of purple goo. It is pulsating with an eerie internal glow and giving off the pleasant aroma of burnt rubber. 0 8%

Blue Goo Transmutation A mysterious pile of blue goo. It is pulsating with an eerie internal glow and giving off the pleasant aroma of burnt rubber. 0 3%

Melting materials will get you:

Green Ooze Transmutation A perplexing globule of vibrating green ooze. If left unattended, it may pick itself up and slink away. 0 45%

Yellow Ooze Transmutation A perplexing globule of vibrating yellow ooze. If left unattended, it may pick itself up and slink away. 0 20%

Orange Ooze Transmutation A perplexing globule of vibrating orange ooze. If left unattended, it may pick itself up and slink away. 0 15%

Red Ooze Transmutation A perplexing globule of vibrating red ooze. If left unattended, it may pick itself up and slink away. 0 10%

Purple Ooze Transmutation A perplexing globule of vibrating purple ooze. If left unattended, it may pick itself up and slink away. 0 7%

Blue Ooze Transmutation A perplexing globule of vibrating blue ooze. If left unattended, it may pick itself up and slink away. 0 3%

Melting items from the other tab will get you:

Green Sludge Transmutation A soupy puddle of green sludge. If not properly cleaned up, it could threaten to burn a hole in its place. 0 46%

Yellow Sludge Transmutation A soupy puddle of yellow sludge. If not properly cleaned up, it could threaten to burn a hole in its place. 0 20%

Orange Sludge Transmutation A soupy puddle of orange sludge. If not properly cleaned up, it could threaten to burn a hole in its place. 0 14%

Red Sludge Transmutation A soupy puddle of red sludge. If not properly cleaned up, it could threaten to burn a hole in its place. 0 11%

Purple Sludge Transmutation A soupy puddle of purple sludge. If not properly cleaned up, it could threaten to burn a hole in its place. 0 6%

Blue Sludge Transmutation A soupy puddle of blue sludge. If not properly cleaned up, it could threaten to burn a hole in its place. 0 3%

Melting apparel will get you:

Grey Slime Transmutation A slippery concoction of grey slime. This doesn't look useful at all... but maybe... 0 70%

White Slime Transmutation A slippery concoction of white slime. This doesn't look useful at all... but maybe... 0 15%

Black Slime Transmutation A slippery concoction of black slime. This doesn't look useful at all... but maybe... 0 15%

Melting familiars will get you:

Copper Muck Transmutation A bubbling mass of copper muck with a brilliant metallic surface. It is pockmarked with tiny gaseous boils. 0 60%

Silver Muck Transmutation A bubbling mass of silver muck with a brilliant metallic surface. It is pockmarked with tiny gaseous boils. 0 25%

Gold Muck Transmutation A bubbling mass of gold muck with a brilliant metallic surface. It is pockmarked with tiny gaseous boils. 0 15%

There's multiple different approaches to Baldwin! If you want the least "intensive" way, simply melting fodder items every 30 minutes or whenever you hop on will net you a good amount of goos, slimes, oozes, etc. You can make some good cash selling these in full stacks ESPECIALLY if you're selling full stacks of blues.

Doing this can take quite a while, though, and you'll be leveling incredibly slowly through Baldwin. The higher the level, the more expensive stuff you can brew! Something that's important to note, is that every item that's made in Baldwin requires treasure as well. This can range from 5kt to 185kt at the highest.

Here's what I did for a mix of optimal XP and money making gain:
Level 1-7

• Melt items.
• Make Glass Beaker every couple of melts.
• Make Gold Amulet of Alchemy and sell on the AH.
• Make Sizzling Phosphorus every couple of melts.

Level 8-12

• Make Primary Gene: Skink and sell on the AH.
• Make Sapphire Roundhorn and sell on the AH.
• Make Reinforced Glass Beaker
• Make Fine Alchemical Reduction
• Continue to melt items as needed.