Guides

What is this guide?

I've been self-debating the "best" exalt fodder level for a long while, and I decided to do the formal math for it. This guide provides a spreadsheet that helps you calculate your exalt leveling options, introduces you to some tools that help to gather the data, and includes some comments about the factors that modify your exalting times.

Quick Links

[x] Template spreadsheet copy
[x] Section 0: Introduction
[x] Section 1: Spreadsheets and data
[x] Section 2: About dragon supply
[x] Section 3: Measuring and improving your exalt times

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Section 0: Introduction


0: Introduction

Before you begin, ask yourself: are you trying to maximize your profit per time spent or levels per time spent? Unless fodder is abnormally cheap, these goals are usually mutually exclusive.

Of course, if you want a balance of levels and profit per time spent, you should compare your time data to the appropriate values to make an informed decision. How much profit per time spent are you willing to sacrifice in favor of levels per time spent, and vice versa? That is situational and therefore up to you to decide.

0.1: Levels per time spent

If your goal is to maximize level output, disregarding profit, level 4 will usually provide the maximum levels per time spent. This is because the ramp-up time for building breath makes exalting at level 2 or 3 wasteful; if you've already invested time in the ramp-up battle, doing an extra battle for level 4 is much better than stopping at level 2 or level 3. Due to the way that experience thresholds work, regardless of who is training, level 4 always trounces level 5 in levels per time spent.

Level 4 is still better than level 5 in terms of levels per time spent during a 50% XP boost event, but you'll have to decide for yourself whether that maximum level output is worth throwing away "free" boosted XP that you would get towards level 5 instead.

See Section 0.3 for more comments about 50% XP boost events.

0.2: Profit per time spent

When considering profit per time spent, the main question is, which stopping point should you choose? The answer: It changes depending on your average time to level a dragon compared to the amount of Treasure that you paid for it, and you must also keep in mind how many dragons are supplied to you at that price.

For reference, average exalt payouts were taken from this thread. Level 1 exalts go between 2000 and 3000 Treasure, with an average of 2500 Treasure. For higher levels, the average is (Level * 1500 + (Level + 1) * 1500) / 2.

0.3: XP boost events

Drakeharvest, Frigidfin Expedition, Springswarm, Sunparched Prowl, and Warrior's Way all boost experience gains by 50% while active. This reduces the amount of experience required without affecting the average time spent per battle, meaning that more experience can be gained for the same number of battles. During an XP boost event, the profitable levels tend to climb upwards. (For example, if the most profitable level for a certain fodder price range is level 6 on normal days, it may be bumped up to level 7 during an XP boost event).

For an exact reference, you should record your times during an XP boost event to compare them with regular training times. It's not accurate to just reduce your regular training times by 50% for the lower levels (4-6), because this fails to take into account the effect that the XP boost has on the number of battles that need to occur for a level. Sometimes there's no difference at all, and sometimes there's an important difference. The difference in training time per level is not distributed evenly. Please read the next section (0.4) for more comments about real timing vs. oversimplified math estimates.

Check this post for a performance comparison between regular times and XP-boosted times. In it, I share some numbers taken during Warrior's Way 2021.

0.4: Why true timing is significantly better than oversimplified math estimates

You may be asking yourself the following: "I have the total XP required for each level and the average XP per battle, and I can time how long 1 battle takes me. Why can't I just apply some simple multiplication and addition to estimate my times instead of recording and averaging my real times?"

There are several reasons. The short answer is "Average battle timing is more complicated than you might think, and simplistic mathematical estimates eliminate too many significant variables."

The first (minor issue) is that not all packs have an equal chance of appearing, even though most guides will knowingly make that incorrect assumption for the sake of easier maintainability. So, your calculated "average XP per battle" will be wrong from the get-go. It's a tremendous amount of work to find the true average and requires tens-to-hundreds-of-thousands-of-battles per venue, so we don't bother.

Next, a major reason: The effects of RNG, even for the same type of issue, are not evenly distributed. Example 1: An Eliminate miss in one situation can cost only a second or so of delay, whereas a different miss could cost nearly a minute. Example 2: Being forced to reset on the battle right after you've just finished building breath causes far more total delay than needing to reset after successfully completing many battles in a row with previously-built breath. The context of an issue matters greatly in determining the effect, and wild swings in RNG can cause a wide rift between the minimum and maximum times to train dragons to a particular level.

For the lower levels (4-6), the difference in training time for the same level can be almost 2x as large, and at higher levels, the differences can add up to cause a delay of several minutes. But good times and bad times resulting from RNG are not evenly distributed; your "best" time and your "worst" time do not occur with the same frequency, because there are so many factors that affect the amount of delay caused by RNG.

For example, with a GLR Meditate build, I can train a pair to level 4 in 16 seconds per dragon with good RNG, but bad RNG can drive the time up to 38 seconds per dragon. My average time to level 4 with GLR Meditate is 20 seconds per dragon. Note how the average is closer to the "good" time than the "bad" time. Extremely bad RNG doesn't happen often, but when it does, it can cause very large delays. Since RNG variance is so large, to properly gain a reliable "average time per battle" for an estimated average, you would need to record a lot of trials (hundreds at least, but preferably thousands). At this point, your real average times will be much more accurate than any theoretical ones derived from oversimplified math.

Even in the absence of "bad RNG" such as misses or forced resets, the sequence of the packs that you get can subtly alter the training times due to different animation timings and so on. Your luck with the exact starting pack, random CAPTCHAs, and other small things will add up to affect your times. Also, depending on which level you're training to, needing to reset at certain points can have either a small or large effect on your total time.

Shifting topic slightly: another problem with oversimplified math is that it doesn't reflect the true number of battles needed to train a batch of dragons. The leftover XP at the end cannot be ignored if you want realistic results. This is especially true for the lower levels.

For example, a 50% XP boost event does not mean that you'll be training 50% faster for each level. For level 4 with a GLR Meditate build, I take an average of about 20 seconds per dragon with or without an XP boost event, because in each case, level 4 for that build/venue requires 2 battles. With a Mire Meditate build, there's a small improvement due to the existence of 2-packs in the Mire, from ~21 seconds unboosted to ~19 seconds; the 50% XP boost contributes about a 9.5% improvement in this case. For level 5, without a boost, I take an average of about 39 seconds to train each dragon with Mire Meditate; with a 50% XP boost event, I instead take about 30 seconds. That's a ~23% improvement in speed from a 50% boost in XP.

There are multiple factors that affect average training times unevenly between one level and the next, so using simplistic multipliers in calculations can lead to significantly incorrect projections. I hope that these examples help to illustrate the importance of recording your actual times instead of making inaccurate theoretical estimates.

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Section 1: Spreadsheets and data


1.1: Summary of popular levels

I am including some visual charts, graphs, and analysis of the profit per minute comparisons for popular training venues with standard builds. I chose some common training levels and prices.

Disclaimer: The data used is taken from my individual times, and these values will vary per user. While profit per minute trends tend to translate similarly, exceptional cases of latency and other issues may throw off the patterns slightly. (I have a modest internet speed - no fiber - and I train either on my laptop or smart phone, so my connection and devices aren't particularly special for speed.)

See section 1.2: Spreadsheets below if you're interested in recording your own data!

1.1.1: Per-profit comparisons

When determining the highest profit you can make within a certain amount of time, you need to take into account how much you paid for the dragon vs. how much you're getting paid for the dragon. General "best" levels by price per adult are listed below, with the caveat that it can vary slightly if your exalt times have a very different level : time ratio from mine.

I take a lot of speed tests for a lot of builds, because I pay particular attention to which level is fastest in which venue. Currently, Ghostlight Ruins is the fastest venue for level 4s, and there are a variety of builds that will yield similar results. The fastest build for level 5 and up (when comparing every build being used optimally) is currently the 119 STR / 64 QCK Meditate Mire build. Other breath stone variations in the Mire and Ghostlight Ruins are reasonably close together in times, so you can choose a different one based on your preference if you don't mind being a little slower. If you train thousands of dragons, the difference per dragon is quite significant, though. Click here to see time comparisons.

Estimates for average exalt payout

Subtract 1250t from your price for each gene and breed bonus and subtract 2500t for a color bonus.

* Remember that these are estimates based on my times. Your times might affect the exact values if you play significantly differently.

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Adult price (T) Free - 5054 5055 - 5875 5876 - 6986 6987 - 8274 8275 - 9474

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Most profitable Lv. * Lv. 4 Lv. 5 Lv. 6 Lv. 7 Lv. 8

At custom exalt payouts

The spreadsheet linked here will help you easily calculate adjustments to pricing. This accounts for raffles, public buy threads, and personal bonuses from buyers. Please read Section 1.2: Spreadsheets if interested.

1.1.2: Visuals

Solo Ghostlight Ruins Meditate 115 STR / 65 QCK

This is a Nature dragon with 115 STR, 65 QCK, 39 VIT, 8 DEF. It is equipped with 3 Berserker and 2 Ambush, and the Ability Stones of choice are Meditate, Shred, Eliminate, Rally, and Haste.

2.0 turn order KO thresholds and alternate stats / stones (Scratch, Meditate, Anticipate) that all perform very similarly can be found here. Check speed test comparisons here.



Solo Mire Meditate 120 STR / 64 QCK

This is an Arcane dragon with 120 STR, 64 QCK, 26 VIT, 7 DEF. It is equipped with 3 Berserker and 2 Ambush, and the Ability Stones of choice are Meditate, Shred, Eliminate, Rally, and Haste.

2.0 turn order KO thresholds and alternate stats / stones (Scratch, Meditate, Anticipate) that all perform very similarly can be found here. Check speed test comparisons here.




1.2: Spreadsheets

I made a template spreadsheet copy for anyone to use, if you want. The formula section does not need to be edited unless you want to customize the spreadsheet further. The training time recording section is where you will be inputting your data.


You want to record your average times on the spreadsheet and consider your dragon cost and supply in order to find the right sweet spot for you. You also should keep track of different venue times separately, as each zone has different enemies, configurations, and experience averages.

1.2.1: Spreadsheet section overview

The spreadsheet is made up of a few main parts:

• Training time recording ("Time Recording" tab), where you should record the times for tracked levels; these times will be used in the level sections. You do not need to record times for every single level, and you should leave columns completely blank if you forgot to record the corresponding time. For example, if you level a dragon to 7 but you record levels 5 and 7 while leaving 4 and 6 blank, that is fine. Recording each level is good too. If you want accurate averages, don’t intentionally skip recording just because you got “exceedingly bad luck”; bad luck is part of the Coliseum.
  
  Fill the times in HH:MM:SS (Hours:Minutes:Seconds) format, making sure to enter a 0 for hours if the time is less than an hour, etc. You're going to have to watch your back here, especially if you're doing some weird copy/pasting, because Google Spreadsheets likes to do strange things with automatic Number formats, and deviating from HH:MM:SS format will break the calculations. For example, if you slip up and input incorrectly (as I've done a few times), the sheet may try to count 4:01 as 4 hours 1 minute instead of 4 minutes 1 second, which will mess up your averages. You won't get an error, so you won't notice unless you're paying attention to the values.
• Average profit per minute ("Average Profit" tab), which contains formulae that show you the profit-time efficiency based on the cost of exalt fodder. All of the cells in this table will automatically reference and update according to the values in the "Average profit per dragon" table.
• Average profit per dragon ("Average Profit" tab), which contains formulae that lets you see how much Treasure you can make from dragons of specified costs. It automatically updates based on the payout chart and bonuses in the References tab. It's directly below the Average profit per minute table.
• The exalt payout chart ("References" tab). Since the profit per minute and profit per dragon charts are hooked up to recalculate automatically, you can easily edit the exalt payout chart in the References tab to use custom payout values (such as when there are buy threads). The bonuses box in the same References tab will automatically update the profit sections as well, if you just place an "x" by the relevant bonuses in the Include column (and remember to erase the ones you don't want).

1.2.2: Modifying the spreadsheet for your needs

Feel free to modify your copy of the spreadsheet for your needs; it is meant to track information that you personally care about. Parts that you may typically want to modify are not limited to, but may include:

• The average profit per dragon section: Note that Dragon cost column can be modified with no issues, and if you change your levels in the level section, these should update the column labels and references automatically. Don't confuse this section with Average profit per minute, which automatically updates based on Average profit per dragon!

1.2.3: Example personal spreadsheets

Here is a list of sample personal spreadsheets that I've recorded. You will see the zones and builds that I used listed in the titles.

• Mire Meditate
  Tab 1: Time Recording
  Solo dragon: 120 STR/64 QCK/26 VIT/7 DEF Arcane (Meditate) (check my turn order thresholds here)
• Mire Scratch
  Tab 1: Time Recording
  Solo dragon: 120 STR/64 QCK/26 VIT/7 DEF Arcane (Scratch) (check my turn order thresholds here)
• Ghostlight Ruins Meditate
  Tab 1: Time Recording
  Solo dragon: 115 STR/65 QCK/39 VIT/8 DEF Nature (Meditate) (check my turn order thresholds here)
• Ghostlight Ruins Scratch
  Tab 1: Time Recording
  Solo dragon: 115 STR/65 QCK/39 VIT/8 DEF Nature (Scratch) (check my turn order thresholds here)
• Ghostlight Ruins Anticipate
  Tab 1: Time Recording
  Solo dragon: 115 STR/59 QCK/45 VIT/13 DEF Nature (Anticipate) (check my turn order thresholds here)

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Change log:

• Aug 14, 2021: Added some comments about why you should record your real times instead of making inaccurate estimates based on average XP and time per battle.
• Aug 12, 2021: Split out some information into more sections and added some details about levels per time spent vs. profit per time spent, as well as some comments about 50% XP boost events.
• Feb 14, 2019: Updated the graphs and linked data for Coli 2.0 values.
• April 8, 2017: Added a section that lists the most profitable level per price range for average exalt payouts, and a note about finding cheap fodder in Auction House 2.0.
• August 18, 2015: Added some charts and graphs in a new section on the first post entitled "Visual analysis of popular levels". They represent a visual version of the profit per minute data on my personal spreadsheets.
• May 7, 2015: Updated the measuring/improving exalting times section. There were some out-of-date comments, and I changed the format to hopefully improve reading convenience, since there's a lot of text.
• May 5, 2015: Moved guide information into separate posts. Updated personal Kelp Beds spreadsheet to use Duration format.
• May 4, 2015: Updated template spreadsheet: Moved average payout chart to References tab and added new tab with Duration format data entry. Updated personal Mire spreadsheet to use duration format and consolidate data onto the same tab.
• Nov 21, 2014: Updated template spreadsheet notes and highlighted safe-to-edit sections in green. (Apologies to the colorblind, there are still notes with instructions.)
• Oct 25, 2014: Updated the template spreadsheet to make the dragon cost cells in the "average profit per minute" table reference the dragon cost cells in the "average profit per dragon" table.
• Oct 19, 2014: Added a new sample data sheet to the guide for training two exalts at once in the Mire.
• Oct. 5, 2014: Updated the guide to include more detailed commentary about dragon supply.
• Oct. 5, 2014: Added "average profit per dragon" section to the spreadsheet. Modified cell referencing in "average profit per minute" and "average profit per dragon" to make minor changes to levels easier.
• Oct. 1, 2014: Removed mentions of hotkey software because Xhaztol has said that such software should not be used, as it has the *potential* to be used for botting.
• Aug. 28, 2014: Swapped out some data and information because augment stones are now mostly working.
• Aug. 19, 2014: Added level 4 and level 7 formulae to template spreadsheet.
• Aug. 19, 2014: Added average levels per minute to template spreadsheet.
• Jan. 3, 2024: Updated super old template spreadsheet to hopefully more useful and user-friendly.

Quick Links

[x] Template spreadsheet copy
[x] Section 0: Introduction
[x] Section 1: Spreadsheets and data
[x] Section 2: About dragon supply
[x] Section 3: Measuring and improving your exalt times

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Section 2: About dragon supply


2.1: Factors in pricing

Your mileage will vary depending on your available lair space and online times. People with higher lair space will tend to have an easier time getting their hands on cheaper dragons. People who can be online when supply tends to replenish (mornings and evenings FR time, due to varying time zones) will be available to take advantage of the cheaper deals. Being online exactly as the new bonuses are announced also allows you to grab good deals on new bonus adult dragons, as long as you manage to exalt those bonus dragons on the same day.

2.2: Acquiring dragons

There are three main avenues of supply. Your method of pursuing this supply may vary, depending on whether you choose to use the Auction House or trade with other players.

Historical note: At the initial release of Auction House 2.0, adults were easier to find, and aged hatchlings were less so, due to a change in how dragons were sorted. The ability to sort by age within the same price range was left out, and waiting to get cheap adults on the day-of tended to be a better time investment. Fortunately, the devs brought back the feature in the first AH 2.0 tweak since release, making cheap old hatchlings a good investment again.

2.2.1: Adult dragons

You could buy dragons that are already adults. These can be (but aren't always) the most expensive, as they are the only ones trainable on that day. Having more lair space allows you to pick up more good deals if you are lucky and find some cheaper adults. Having very little lair space means that you are mostly limited to buying these dragons and must rely on them for the bulk of your supply.

Keep an eye out for adults that give bonuses for that day, as this can sometimes save you money as long as you exalt the adult that day. Do not overextend with bonus adults; know how much you can train that day, because the bonus won't last forever.

People with limited lair space may find this option the most efficient, as it allows a consistent output instead of locking lair slots with non-adults.

2.2.2: Aged hatchlings

You can target older that will be adults within 1 - 3 days. There is sometimes less competition for older hatchlings compared to ready-adults, as only people with a lot of space can buy these in large quantities. However, the release of the Hibernal Den results in less cheap old hatchlings overall. Many more spaces are available, and many more players are buying hatchlings that they previously wouldn't have.

As the goal of picking up aged hatchlings is to save money, I recommend against buying older hatchlings that are too expensive. Buy what you can find, but if there isn't sufficient supply, sometimes it's better to buy slightly younger hatchlings, or it could be worthwhile to simply wait and buy adults.

It's better to pay for only what you can train that day and then have cheaper options that grow up the following days if you can't get all to them in the same day.
This is a delicate balance that you must figure out for yourself based upon your own pace. Factor in the opportunity costs of food and space as well; extra food can be sold on the Auction House, and space is a limited resource. Although dragons in the Hibernal Den don't need to be fed, den slots should be considered as part of the cost.

Players with many empty lair / den slots will have an easier time managing a consistent flow of growing dragons.

2.2.3: Breeding your own

You could wait for your own hatchlings to reach adulthood. Your own hatchlings do not cost you money upfront, but you may pay maintenance costs on them (possibly a small amount of food that you could have sold on the AH, and, more significantly, space that you could have used for older dragons). The space loss is an "opportunity cost"; especially after the Hibernal Den update, the base price of newborns is so high that it can be worthwhile to sell them immediately and then use the lair space to target older dragons. However, because the Hibernal Den also adds many potential slots, it is possible that you can store more dragons than you can train daily, in which case selling your own hatchlings can make less sense.

Waiting for young hatchlings to grow up can work well if you cannot take advantage of the immediate time availability of older hatchlings and you think that you will be holding dragons for a while. I mainly recommend this investment over older dragons if you are not sending out the maximum amount of dragons every day and you do not need hatchlings to grow up immediately.

Large lair / den owners with time constraints have a greater potential to benefit from younger hatchlings.

2.3: Deciding on optimal levels

This section discusses some things to consider when choosing the appropriate level to train your fodder to, depending on situational modifiers.

As mentioned in the first post, if you are interested in maximizing your level output with disregard to profit, training to level 4 offers the fastest levels-per-time-spent. Training to level 5 offers a balance of levels-per-time-spent and cost effectiveness.

With regards to levels that maximize profits:

While the spreadsheets and charts in Section 1 can tell you the highest profit per minute options for a given price range, you must think about how many dragons are available to you at the said price range. The spreadsheet is only a guide, and it cannot account for limited dragon supply, which is common especially during Dominance battles. Choosing your actual optimal level is very important, and you should understand your typical exalting patterns to make your choice.

If you're getting less dragons than you can train for a specific price range and the profit per minute is equal for a lower and higher level, you should go for the higher level for a higher total profit. If you're getting too many dragons and you can't train them all, it's likely worth it to take a slight profit per minute loss to train all those dragons for a higher total profit, as long as the payout doesn't drop too low compared to the cost (so that you can pick up more cheap ones for the next day).

Another note: if increased training time is affecting your ability to acquire cheaper dragons (competition over rollover hatchlings, bonus dragons, or limited cheap supply), you may want to drop down a level even if your projected profit per minute is higher at the current level; your effective profit per minute could rise if the time saved would allow you to acquire dragons at a lower price tier. This can't be reflected in the spreadsheet because the Auction House is a living creature and must be judged on a case-by-case basis, so you’ll need to rely on experience to make the choice.

Quick Links

[x] Template spreadsheet copy
[x] Section 0: Introduction
[x] Section 1: Spreadsheets and data
[x] Section 2: About dragon supply
[x] Section 3: Measuring and improving your exalt times

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Section 3: Measuring and improving your exalt times

3.1: Timing your exalt runs

To measure my times, I like to use an online stopwatch. I can collect data for multiple levels in the same run by stopping and starting the timer on the way, for as many or few levels as I want.

I keep the clock running from the beginning of the first pack until the end of the last pack. I do not stop the clock when I have to reset fights, because that is part of the time spent training. I also get slight latency delays between battles, but I do not stop the clock for that because that is normal and unavoidable for me.

The main times I stop the clock are to record or to take a break. I usually try to time my breaks for when I would normally exit the battle for a restart, but of course, things don't always happen nicely that way. If I can pick up where I left off with the same amount of health and breath, then I unpause the clock and continue recording.

If I have to exit the Coliseum prematurely at a time where I would normally not choose (e.g. I have plenty of health and breath but I randomly disconnected as a rare occurrence), then I will not record any more of that session, because restarting a fight when I normally wouldn't will modify my time. If I had full health/breath and ran into a boss that forced a reset, I would keep recording, because I would normally reset if I see a boss. Bad luck should be included in the recorded times because the Coli is volatile that way. We have to accept that RNG happens and allow RNG to factor into our times.

Remember, this data needs to be accurate for you, and your conditions. If you experience a normal level of lag for you, do not stop the clock! Mainly stop the clock (or stop recording for that group) for abnormal interruptions.

3.2: Modifying your average times

Here are some things that affect your dragon leveling speeds, and what you can do to change your average times.

3.2.1: Things you can't always control

1) Latency.

You live where you live, and the further away from the server you are, even with the most expensive fast Internet connection, the bigger your latency handicap. I've got low-to-moderate latency, myself.

2) Machine speed.

If your computer just takes longer to play the animations, that's just what you have, sorry. I tend to use two devices: a not-particularly-stacked laptop and a several-year-old smart phone.

3) Untimely misses.

Sometimes it's no big deal if you miss, other times you miss at the absolute worst moments. There is unfortunately no stat build or anything you can do to prevent misses, although you can (and should) try to reduce the effects of misses with smart rotation choices and Breath padding, as well as going back to the menu at the right time. According to Words on the Wind Vol. 12, the devs are looking at making AGI more useful for preventing misses in the future, so stay tuned!

4) The first starting pack where you need to do your Breath building.

You *can* control the first pack by restarting the Coliseum when you get a bad one if you want, but some people might not like to do this because it could be seen as taking advantage of browser behavior to play the game in an unintended way.

With the launch of Coli 2.0 and the high presence of solo dragon trainers these days, refreshing for the first pack has become more important (though the decision of whether you want to take advantage of reload-dependent builds is up to you). It helps to refresh for the packs that either cause the most trouble or waste the most animation time on startup (e.g.: 4-packs and anything that has a high chance of causing too much damage or the most time-wasting debuffs, such as packs with too many enemies that can Contuse/Congeal Freeze/Shock Paralysis/Enamor Silence/Shroud Blind).

If you're using 2 dragons to train a single trainee, it's usually not necessary to cherry pick any starting packs (except 4-packs or bosses even if it's easy to complete the battle, since starting on those without Breath wastes a lot more time compared to others).

5) The final pack that bumps you over your desired experience threshold.

This is just random and unfortunately you can't do anything but shake your fist at the screen when you get a tiny bit less experience than you need and then the next pack is a 4-pack. (Sometimes if this happens, I'll either ignore it if I'm training to a specific level, or I may go on to the next level if the profit-per-time ratio is close and I have high HP/Breath to complete the level without resetting.)

3.2.2: Things you can control

1) Stat builds.

You want every stat to have a reason for being there. Generally, you want enough STR (and in some rare cases like Golem Workshop/Forbidden Portal, INT) to cut down on the number of attacks you need to make, and you want enough QCK to have enough turns before monsters to KO them. You have several options for exalting builds, depending on your preferences and circumstances, and for some good recommendations and breakdowns of pros and cons, you can refer to compiled lists such as Maki's guide or Catvrix's guide, or use the Forum Search to scout your options if you're looking for a build for a specific venue.

2) Battle stones.

If your exalting team doesn't have the right stones for the specific venue build, you're wasting a lot of time. You should also have 3x Berserker on your physical dragons. Mages should have 3x Scholar, though mages have a niche role in terms of efficiency and are mainly limited to the Golem Workshop/Forbidden Portal. At the moment, Ambush x2 is the most worthwhile accessory setup due to its reliability, even on mages.

3) Elemental setup.

This isn't as big of a deal as stat builds, and you can make do with the "worst" elemental setup, but the "best" elemental setup provides a cushion in case you get a run of bad luck with untimely misses combined with the wrong random packs at the wrong time.

4) Your skill casting and KO order.

Use the right skills on the right monsters at the right time in order to save a lot of time. In general, you want to KO such that the longer animations and the monsters that get more turns die earlier, and when choosing targets, you want to keep in mind your potential damage intake such that you don't have to reset fights as much, since breath building is costly.

3.2.3: The main things that add to your time

1) A suboptimal stat build and/or skill rotation.

I use the word "rotation" loosely because your casting order can and should change depending on the situation. If you're not minimizing the time that your enemies get to move and that you have to spend watching animations, your time will keep adding up.

2) Enemies getting their turn.

You want to KO as many enemies as possible before they move, because they can either do damage that racks up over time and increases likelihood of KOs, or they have annoying long animations (casters) that may not seem long individually, but in fact do add up.

Note: You almost never want to let casters use their ultimate attacks, because on top of being very long animations, some of the skills can have rather annoying time-wasting side effects.

• Disorient prevents you from controlling your dragon and may result in extra damage and even KOs dealt to your team.
• Congeal's Freeze, Shock's Paralyze, and Fossilize's Petrify will disable your dragons to prevent them from moving.
• Enamor will prevent you from using skills like Eliminate. (Especially bad for Meditate and Anticipate builds; Scratch builds can at least still do damage.)
• Shroud can cause your dragons to waste turns and Breath by missing.

3) Needing to re-build Breath.

If your team gets wiped, you have to start over and build Breath all over again, and you've just wasted a lot of time in a battle that you did not complete. Also, if you don't wipe but a dragon's KO causes you to fail to knock out an enemy before it takes its turn, you wasted time watching animations, taking additional damage that will add up later, or both. Scrambling to stay alive at low health while having very little Breath to handle another miss is also very time-inefficient since if you need to waste time to build Breath anyway, it's better to do it with full health.

4) The first starting pack when you're building Breath.

You can't get rid of enemies before they move, so you're going to have to deal with watching additional animations and taking additional damage. The biggest packs are the absolute worst ones for this, because even if you can survive them, you're unable to knock out all of them before they move when you're just starting up your Breath.

5) Taking too many turns.

Yes, even if you're using fast skills like Scratch and Eliminate, the battle animations do add up, as does the repetitive strain on your arms. If you don't need to take extra turns for Breath padding to avoid slowdowns when Eliminate misses, don't. This is why faster fodder can be annoying; it hurts by wasting time more than helping.

3.3: Leveling exalts effectively

It may be weird to consider "optimal" behavior for something that should be a casual dragon breeding game, but in games like these, time is at a premium and doing things more efficiently does add up. If you work on saving time, you'll have that much extra time to do something else.

1) Ideally, have a team specifically specced for exalt leveling in the zone that you choose.

However, not everyone can afford multiple teams or wants to have them, and if this is the case, you can opt for a balanced team that can grind and level exalts effectively (with a focus on the exalt stats, because grinding with 3 dragons each with double Ambush and 2-3 Eliminates is pretty trivial even if your stats are slightly different).

2) Know how much each monster takes to KO.

Different monsters require different amounts of STR to KO with different skill combinations. I have made this tool as a reference for build decisions, and it is complemented by this tool, which helps you see the stats that you can actually give to your dragon.

3) Change your "casting order" based on the situation.

Depending on the build you choose and/or when you lose Breath with inevitable misses, it could be beneficial to change your default skill order based upon the different packs that you encounter. Don't be afraid to Scratch one monster and leave it alone to Eliminate it later, if that's what will let you KO monsters in the least number of turns (or to KO monsters that will add too much animation time.)

Sometimes, I even cast Eliminate on a monster while knowing that a non-crit won't KO it if I'm coming towards the end of the exalt bait's leveling session, to either fish for a crit that saves time or to utilize excess energy on one dragon when the other dragon has missed too much. By the way, pay attention to your buffs. If you're using Rally, know when it ends, and know what buffed / unbuffed damage is required to KO monsters. This will help you decide which monster to go for / which attack to use first, if you're coming towards the end of your buff.

4) Choose the KO order that results in the shortest total time.

Deciding which monsters to KO first depends on whether or not you miss, how much they are threatening to KO you at the time, and whether you know that you have enough Health and Breath to weather additional damage until you're done leveling the exaltee (in which case you may purposely target casters that won't do damage to you, eating Scratches from physical monsters, to prevent the longer casting animations.)

5) Know when to flee*.

* You can read "fleeing" as "refreshing the page" if you're okay with exploiting the browser's behavior for all of your battles. I like to play the game as intended as much as possible, so I only refresh the page for starting packs for solo trainers as a necessity. The rest of the times, I intentionally take the energy hit; I have more food than I can possibly ever sell even though I sell food daily, anyway.

Chaining battles is all well and good, but if you're low on Breath and Health such that another miss can prevent you from completing a battle, it's time to go back to the menu and reset. The absolute last thing you want is to bust out the survival rotation, wasting lots of time on buffs, breath re-building, and health recovery, but then end up either getting knocked out before completing the battle or being forced to reset soon after anyway. If you have to build your Breath back up anyway, make sure your dragons are healthy enough to do that and keep chaining. It's inefficient otherwise and will waste a lot of your time. That said, you can't afford to be too conservative, going back to the menu too often, because this will make your average times less efficient. Calculate your risks, and don't get frustrated if you take one and roll on the low end.

6) Place your mouse* in advance.

* Coli 2.0 released keyboard controls, but if you choose to use the mouse controls, this advice is still relevant to you.

You can move your mouse cursor to the appropriate spots as soon as you've clicked buttons and click on the next spot. You don't have to wait for the buttons to appear because that wastes animation seconds.

This goes for the EXP awarding at the end as well, don't wait; judging whether the "final" battle will award enough EXP to finish leveling your dragon will take practice, and if you're not confident, just be safe and wait out the "final" EXP bar because it'll waste even more time building Breath if you're wrong and have to restart for one more battle. It really helps if your dragons all have their skills in the same exact slots, so that you can fall into a rhythm of clicking the skills without waiting for the buttons to appear.

@Sylvandyr
Oh man, I didn't know that Autohotkey thing existed! This can make so many things much easier.
Although I can't seem to get it to work properly. I'm using the click commands, putting the coordinates on the ability stones and each of the enemy's location on screen. For some reason though, the script makes the cursor click before it moves. It was fine with scratch, but when it comes to eliminate (or other stones which position overlaps the cancel button), when i press the key to click on an enemy, it ends up clicking cancel then moving to the enemy's spot. So it ends up not working, really
Could you tell how you're doing your hotkeys? I have 0 knowledge in programming, so, yeah...

As Xhaztol has stated that third party software to change hotkeys is not allowed because the said software *can* be used for botting, I have removed discussion of the hotkey software from this post.

http://flightrising.com/main.php?p=mb&board=frd&id=1199916&page=49

@Sylvandyr
Ahhh, I see, thats what you were using it for O:

Well What I thought of using it for is like, I wanted to put the coliseum controls onto my keyboard. So basically I'm using the Click commands to do that.
My list of commands goes a bit long due to me mapping the whole setup onto the keyboard but it basically goes like,

u:: Click 900, 571
i:: Click 982, 612
j:: Click 1024, 668
q:: Click 921, 266
w:: Click 1002, 385

The first one, U, clicks on the Abilities menu button. I clicks on scratch, J on Eliminate, and Q and W clicks on the general spot of enemies in a 2 enemy encounter setup.

So what I do is i'd press U, I then Q or W to scratch an enemy. the only problem I saw here was like, it didnt seem to properly click at the buttons and enemies, tho the locations was quite spot on. But as I tried with eliminate, as the location of the ability stone overlaps the cancel button, the problem became clear. As I successfully click the ability stone, when I press the key to click on an enemy, it didn't click on the enemy. Instead it clicked on where it was before which is the location of the ability stone - now turned to the cancel button - then only does it move to the enemy's spot.

Idk if im doing a good job explaining that tbh, but basically the click command doesn't click at the spot it's supposed to do so, instead it clicks on where it currently is, then moves the cursor to the specified coordinates.

Xhaztol has stated that we shouldn't use third party software for hotkeys because it can be used to bot:

http://flightrising.com/main.php?p=mb&board=frd&id=1199916&page=49

I have removed information from this post to respect the ruling.

@Sylvandyr
i did rerun the script each time I tweak it O: Though my problem wasn't much about the coordinates, it just seems that the script runs the clicking first then only does it move the cursor to its coordinates, whereas it should have done the other way around, ykno what i mean?

Oh and I needed that ExitApp term. I was tryin to look for it but, well, the AHK site was pretty large. Thanks for that xD

And the clicking too fast thing happened to me too xD Kept clicking items menu instead, hh. Im not really sure of the issue with my scripts right now. It should be working fine tbh, but I actually suspect it might have to do with, idk, mouse delay or something? I'll be redoing the whole thing tomorrow, probably, and see if the problem persists.

Also when I learned about AHK I actually thought it might have been possible to put a string of actions into 1 key. For example, pressing A will scratch top enemy in 2 enemy setup, pressing S scratches the middle one, and so on. But I couldn't find the method of stringing several actions together in 1 script, especially since there needs to be a delay between clicks. I tried putting them together in like,

a::
Click --, --
Click --, --
return

but it just sort of jumbles up the action and clicks randomly, Im not totally sure. But do you think it can be done?

As Xhaztol has stated that third party software to change hotkeys is not allowed because the said software *can* be used for botting, I have removed discussion of the hotkey software from this post.

http://flightrising.com/main.php?p=mb&board=frd&id=1199916&page=49

@Sylvandyr
I still havent gave a try at redoing the script, btu just for info Im just using, like, some mouse which i dont rly know how to configure. I dont know tho, in a laptop's case, would it make any difference, seeing that essentially I'd have 2 mice, 1 as a physical mouse the other is the touchpad?

i'll try looking into that Send command, though. It might just be the key to doing the thing here, like the one u wrote as an example there. I'll try it out later o: