Fodder Flipping for Fun and Profit
Fodder flipping is one of the easiest ways to make money in the game, and takes less time and effort, especially for those of us who can't coli or don't have time to research auction house prices.
Of course, the basic concept is simple—buy hatchlings and sell them as adults—but there's some tips I've discovered to help maximize profits and make the most of limited den/lair space.
Determining Hatchling Age
First off, hatchlings are listed in the auction house by age. So for example, when I run a search for hatchlings selling for 5 gems, the hatchlings at the top of the list will be oldest. They get younger and younger until I get to the 6 gem hatchlings, and again it will start from the oldest hatchlings.
[Image Description: A screenshot of the auction house showing where the hatchling price increases from 5 gems to 6 gems. The last 5 gem hatchling's age is shown as 4 minutes.]
[Image Description: A screenshot of the same dragons in the auction house showing where the hatchling price increases from 5 gems to 6 gems. The first 6 gem hatchling's age is shown as 5 days.]
You can easily determine how old a hatchling is by hovering over it. But that isn't the whole story. Hatchlings become adults on their 6th day. However, the age shown when you hover over the dragon doesn't change at rollover—it changes at the time the dragon was born.
What does this mean? Let's say a baby Spiral was born on October 1st at 1 PM FRT. This hatchling will officially become an adult on October 7th at rollover. However, up until 1 PM on October 7th, its age will show as 5 days instead of 6 days.
This means a 5 day hatchling, which will become an adult tomorrow, might show its age as 4 days. But instead of going to the dragon's profile to see what day it was born on, you can hover your cursor over the egg icon that tells you how many days until a dragon can be bred. If a 4 day hatchling has a number that ends in a 0 or 5, it means the hatchling is actually 5 days old.
[Image Description: A screenshot of a hatchling in the auction house showing its age as 4 days, but that it will be ready to breed in 20 days.]
Maximizing Profit Per Slot
The most important metric when maximizing profits is treasure per dragon per slot. Buying the cheapest hatchlings isn't always the best idea. I will explain what I mean through an example.
Let's say Abby and Billy have 10 slots in their dens. Abby only buys 0 day (newborn) hatchlings for 5000 treasure each and Billy only buys 5 day hatchlings for 6000 treasure each. To keep it simple, let's say the fodder floor is stable at 7000 treasure.
It would be simple to assume that Abby will make more profit because her profit margin is higher. But Abby will have to wait for all those hatchlings to grow up, while Billy can sell the dragons tomorrow and immediately refill their den with 10 new hatchlings. If those are also 5 day hatchlings, they can make 20kt in profit while Abby's hatchlings are still only 2 days old!
If we assume that Abby and Billy keep refilling their dens with hatchlings and selling those hatchlings as adults according to the same pattern, we can see their profits over time. How much better does Billy do in the long run?
[Image Description: A graph showing Billy and Abby's profits over 30 days. Billy makes 10kt every day while Abby makes 20kt every 6 days.]
As you can see, buying older hatchlings can make a dramatic difference even if those hatchlings cost more. Billy is making more profit per den slot per day than Abby. If Abby has to wait 6 days for 2000 profit, that's 333 treasure per slot per day. Compare that with Billy's 1000 treasure per slot per day!
Profit per slot depends on the price of hatchlings and the fodder floor price. To make things easier, I have made a spreadsheet to determine which hatchlings are best to buy. Please feel free to make a copy of this sheet for your own use.
Because the fodder floor price affects the profitability of hatchlings based on their age, it's important to keep an eye on it. Typically, when fodder is cheap, it is more worthwhile to buy younger hatchlings, but situations like microfests and battles can shake things up.
Get More Slots
In order to make the most profit, you will want as many slots as possible! Many people balk at giving up expensive items for slots, but it's not that bad if you plan to keep flipping fodder in the longterm and if you look at it in terms of your earnings. If you make an average of 350 treasure per slot per day, for example, you will know how long it will take to earn back the money spent on expansions.
Some flights have den or lair expansion programs. Of course, these have their own rules which can include the slots being used for a specific purpose. Be sure to follow the rules to respect your flight's generosity, but otherwise these programs exist for you to use them!
Oops! All Treasure!
After flipping dragons for a while, you will end up with a bunch of treasure (I don't recommend selling fodder for gems as there's easier ways to make gems and you don't want to miss out on even 200t per dragon—it adds up!) This is not an issue as there's two very easy ways to turn them into gems.
The easiest way is through the currency exchange thread. Treasure takes longer to sell than gems, but if you use this thread you should be able to exchange it pretty easily and quickly.
The more time consuming way, which will likely net you even more profit, is through flipping marketplace items. This requires being in a flight which will have 1st place dom benefits soon. When my flight has those benefits, I spend ALL my treasure on breed and gene scrolls, and eye vials. I then sell those over time at a slight markup. This way I convert my treasure while making a profit, and I can do it pretty quickly because my markup isn't that high and my items sell fast.
You can then use your new gems to buy 5g and 6g hatchlings, flip them for treasure... you get the idea. Being in a dom heavy flight is helpful to use the marketplace trick, but it's not strictly necessary.
Conclusion
Fodder flipping doesn't have to be time consuming, nor do you have to snipe dragons to flip them (who has time for that?) If you have any questions or suggestions, do let me know! I hope this guide helps you achieve your dragon dreams!
