Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-26051043-20150128033829/@comment-24942747-20150128065805

Last weekend I was working my rear off trying to breed the rare Maw, and the night before the event expired I gave in and lit 5 torches for the first time ever. Next attempt I had a rare Maw. 30 diamonds cheaper than just buying one. After that I tried again for a Ghazt with Entbrat and T-Rox. No dice. Finally I got ticked and impulsively lit the other five torches, and bam: Ghazt on the way. I'm pretty sure I just got lucky though. Like everyone else I don't have the slightest clue just how much wishing torches affect your odds. We only have the word of the loading screens and item info to go by on that. I do find it odd that we have indesputable proof that any attempt at breeding

A word of advice: If you haven't managed to upgrade the incubator and nursery than save up as many diamonds as it takes to do so (25 for each). This cuts the waiting time for all attempts by 25%, which in the long run will save more time. It will also save diamonds if you frequently light torches to increase your odds, as you'll be able to get more attempts in the same 24 hour time frame.

Another word of advice: Get the maximum mine. If you haven't bought any currency pack than just go for the cup of diamonds. At 1.99$ it's the cheapest currency pack, and with the 40 diamonds you just bought you'll have covered the cost of the maximum mine you just unlocked (probably smarter to upgrade the mini-mine for 20 diamonds than buy the maxi-mine for 40 though). The thing pays for itself in a mere five days, and everything after that is profit. With that, and getting a mini-mine on every other island possible (including ethereal) you'll gross ten diamonds a day. For this reason I'd also advise unlocking every island as soon as you can as well, even if you don't have the coin necessary to upgrade the castles on them and therefore can't place more than three or four monsters on them.

This diamond income is important, because lighting torches is completely necassary if you want any kind of a good chance at breeding any ethereal monster. Now of course you won't be getting a mini-mine on ethereal island without first getting a level 15 ethereal monster (unless you swap 5 million coins for 500 shards), so you'll be limited to at most 9 diamonds a day until you do. Remember though, you can also get a few extra diamonds by watching video video advertisements each day too. I'm not sure what the limit is on that, but I think the most I was allowed to watch in one day was six. Now you could light ten torches every couple days, or if you're very patient you could wait until you have 100 diamonds to permanently light a torch, which could save more diamonds in the long run. 1000 diamonds to light ten torches to breed several Ghazts would be more effeciant than spending the same amount just buying one after all. Still, I doubt many people are that patient.

The key to becoming an expert at  any game is to exploit the programming as much as possible for maximum personal benefit. Personally I'm still working on unlocking all the islands, because I've been pouring all my coins into food to get my Shugabush to level 15 (level 14 currently after trying for a little under a week) for the explicit purpose of transfering it to Shugabush island so I can then start breeding the rest of the Shugafam for a massive jump in coin output. I should have unlocked water island days ago, since by now between plant and cold islands alone I can gross 2 million coins in a mere afternoon.