How to start off and how much you will need to invest:



And yes, unfortunately some initial investment is required.

I suggest doing some missions and battling to help acquire starting funds and only transition to pure breeding later on or simply keeping your breeding projects as a side operation and simply another way to enjoy the game which might make you some money too.


There are many ways to acquire pets, however valuable pets are valued because of their scarcity, as such they will not be easy to acquire. If they were easy to acquire other people could get them themselves and would not have to buy them from you (always keep this in mind).

You will always need a starting investment of some sort and I suggest you only breed what you yourself are also interested in.
This investment can be traps, dyes, essences or buying pets from other players.

You can essentially choose one of a few ways:


1. Make a breeding project and setting yourself a goal - there are guides on this particular topic Im sure, but some basics of it will be discussed here as well, although I likely wont go into detail concerning exact strategies. This process is similar for themed, non themed and even some generated pets.
It will require you to acquire starting pets and will likely be months of work during which it may not be advisable to sell intermediates. The cost will vary depending on the pets you choose.

2. Making pairs with specific matching traits and matching colours this only requires one pair to sell offspring from, I would recommend using essences for this, but buying and dyeing pets is equally viable. You just need to be certain the traits match and you have an aesthetically pleasing end result as well as a good probability of achieving it.
This will generate gold relatively quickly, but essences, dyes and possibly pets need to be acquired first.

3. Breeding fabled themed pets (wheel or otherwise) without a solid breeding project. Fabled themed pets can usually be sold for a decent price (see trends) and this requires the least effort, although you will need to invest in buying or capturing your breeders.

4. Breeding currently popular pets (see trends) This is very short term and will likely not yield a great profit, but it can help boost your funds nonetheless. I recommend breeding high trait males with good colours with, well, any female you have or can find for a decent price. Said males can usually be found via the pet search up for free or cheap breeding.

5. Stat breeding. Breeding pets for their stats, not solely for their appearance. This is complicated, long term and requires philters. It also requires good starting pets, as 120 mana is desirable. However as long as said mana requirement is met, anything else can be forgiven for your starting set as long as your pets are of the same species.

2. Releasing: it is not a bad thing


This point is a short one but unfortunately it appears to need to be stressed.

Begging for pets to be somehow passed on just in order not to be released is something I have seen far too many times.

You need to release pets.

Not doing so only does its part to drive down the prices by swamping the market in pets.
You are not doing people a favour by giving away pets you would not be able to sell, it will simply result in more unwanted pets being bred and yet more pets entering the market.

If the pet you bred is not something you want to keep and would like to breed from or otherwise are very attached to or you are reasonably certain you will be able to sell for more than a small pittance, dont pass it on.
Release it.

If you would like, imagine it as releasing the pet into a wonderful meadow to play with its wild friends instead of sitting neglected and hungry in someones stable. Pets can find their own food if you just let them out.

3. How to be discerning - What to keep.

You too have limited space. As much as we all might like to, we cannot keep everything we breed or capture everything we encounter.
As such we need to decide.
I have my hatchery set to release unnamed adults aging out.

I have a few criteria for hatchlings:

1. Do you need it for your breeding project and are you confident it is better than the previous generation. If it is male, do you not already have a duplicate of it? If so, keep it.
2. Do you need it for battling or missions? If so, keep it.
3. Do you really want to keep it in your stable, let it take up space and pet it just because it looks nice? If so, keep it.
4. Is it a result from one of your breeding projects that you do not intend to keep but would be absolutely opposed to anyone else breeding it? Release it (or neuter and sell it when/if such philters are released)
5. Can you confidently sell if for more than 5k, if so, put it up for sale. (I usually use 10k but 5k is significant enough I believe)
If neither of these things is the case I will release immediately upon hatching.


I also have criteria for buying pets:

1. Do I need it for my own breeding projects and is it in my price range? If so I will buy it - prices can usually be inquired about and debated. If it is someone elses finished project and I intend to breed from it and sell its direct offspring I will not buy it however (see Etiquette)
2. Is it something with a design I like enough to reserve a spot in my stable for and not touch it ever again and I have said spot and do not need it for anything else? If so I will buy it. Do not take this option lightly, you have limited space and the space these pets take up will be of no use for you for breeding.
3. Do I need it for battling or missions because of its stats? If so I will buy it.

If neither of these applies, do not buy it. If you just think it looks vaguely attractive do not buy it either, its of no use to you and you will likely be bored of it soon.


And criteria for catching them (scanners are very useful here):

1. Does it fit your breeding project very well without needing too many dyes? if so catch it.
2. Is it a rare or above themed pet (blue, purple, yellow, red), catch it, sell if if you dont want it.
3. Is it a fabled themed pet? Catch it.
4. Is it beautiful and a member of a species that has just been released? Catch it and sell it.
5. Is it an uncommon or above rarity Nephini with decent colours? Catch it
6. Is it legendary or mythical in rarity? Catch it, sell it if you dont want it.
7. Do you know somebody looking for a pet just like the one you found? Catch it.
If none of these apply, leave it be.


I would also recommend a stable clean out every two weeks to see whether you still have a use for or are still attached to all of the pets.
Release anything of your breeding projects you no longer need - starters may be exempt for sentimental reasons to some people.

4. About Etiquette

All of these things are also affected by basic ethical concerns, but a bad reputation is from my experience bad for sales, should you require a factual reason

1. Be polite.
2. Dont insult other players.
3. Dont assume other players are stupid or act patronizing towards them. You are probably having a misunderstanding.
4. Dont trick other players, your reputation is important and making enemies makes the game less enjoyable.
5. Know the value of your pets, be aware of why they are valuable. Explain your reasoning if questioned, but refer to. the first three points on this list as well.
6. Dont beg. Its not appreciated and will make others think less of you.
7. Always be friendly when dealing with other players, even if they ask questions you consider strange and superfluous, they may be new or not be as familiar with english as you are.
8. Try to be helpful and recommend them the best option available if asked - if somebody likes you they are also more likely to buy from you.
9. Dont buy cheap pets off other players and try to resell them for a higher price. Yes it is possible, yes people may not notice immediately or at all, but it is definitely bad PR. Contact the player selling the pets if you disapprove of their prices or just leave them be and have a look at the advanced search to figure out the average price of what they and you are selling.
10. Dont try to sell other players extremely overpriced pets. It rarely works and even if it does there is no need to make unnecessary enemies.
11. Dont hugely (or at all in some cases) undercut others, it does not help anyone in the long term
12. Do contact other people working on similar projects, you may be able to help eachother out
13. Dont try to profit off someone elses work without asking. It may be possible to acquire someone elses project, breed from it and sell the offspring, however it is very much frowned upon - see my point on reputation.

5. About Promotion

1. Dont. Beg.
If you need to beg people to buy your pets, reconsider your prices and what youre offering.

2. The pet auction forum is your friend - you can advertise there and nobody will mind.
3. Make it easy to stumble across your pets for sale - the more people see them, the more will be tempted to buy.

4. Post often in general, however make sure to keep your content appropriate and useful. You want people to go to your profile and have a look around because theyre curious about you in a positive way.
Be helpful, essentially.
Hosting giveaways or contests may or may not help as well.

5. Coming to general chat or region chat is a good idea, however just coming to advertise is not only not going to sell you anything but will also make other players dislike you.

6. Nurture. Some people like nurturing, nurture at least one pet of theirs to make sure that when they go to nurture whoever has nurtured their pets, they will then see your hatchlings and potentially egglings for sale.

6. Trends and popularity


Some pets are more popular than others.

For example despite being of a common species the morkko is harder to sell than a qitari. I dont have a list since I mainly breed fabled species, help here would be appreciated, but differences are clearly visible in some cases. If you have a bit of a look around you will likely be able to tell which species players are most interested in.
The same applied to genes and mutations of course, for example the Lighiras mystic wings are more popular than more other mutations for the same slot. This should also be obvious to some degree but compiling a list here would be nigh impossible and I generally recommend just going with whatever you think looks best together on your pets instead of individually.

There are some trends and tendencies that can help you predict popularity regardless of the value of pets discussed in the next post.

The species that was released or re released most recently will be popular for a month or two afterward, anything past this time period depends on whether it is actually well liked on its own merits, not just on novelty alone. Fabled species tend to lose value far slower than others and of course have a higher base value.

Pets displaying or carrying a very recently released gene or mutation are also more desired and thus more valuable for maybe a month or two after release. From then on it will depend on whether this Mutation or gene is actually more popular long term and there will be less fluctuations in sale value.

More recent themed pets are again more valuable, although here the actual appeal of the colouring and the species plays a large role as well.

Of course then there is the business of player created themed bred pets which will likely be more popular the more relevant the theme is.

7. There are pets and Pets some things are always better than others.

This is regardless of trends.

Colour: A clear colour scheme without unintentional clashes is best. High contrast (dark/light differences) as well as bright colours are a good thing in most cases. Eyesores from too much colour are rarer than the usual mixed gray. In fact if your pet happens to have all weirdly mixed gray tones I would recommend releasing it unless you are using it for a project and intend to dye the final pair or it is a stat project. Those pets do not sell.
After all people are attracted to pretty colours and bright colours in this game rarely, if ever, come about by accident.

vs which one do you prefer?

Genes/Mutations: Generally if all else is equal, more is probably better. Yes clutter is an issue to some people, but considering the time and effort involved more carried or visible traits are objectively considered more valuable. Also if all else is equal a visible trait is better than a carried one, but two carried may beat one visible if the pet is intended for breeding. Less dominant traits are also in my opinion slightly more valuable and useful.
vs for example

Species:
Fabled species are better (stats wise as well as rarity and sale value) than others. Current fabled species are: Nephini, Nyvene, Lighira, Ryori, Griffi and Aeridini. These are also harder to acquire which is part of their appeal.
The Puffadore is considered semi fabled.
The rest is dependent on popularity.

Generated: A generated pet is considered more valuable than an offspring. Regular generated is less valuable than enhanced, enhanced is less valuable than mystical. The same applies to offspring of enhanced or mystical generated pairs.

Captured: A caught and unmutated pet is considered more valuable than an offspring.

Themed: A themed pet is more valuable than most non themed pets. Caught,unmutated and unnamed is most valuable for sale. In general even themed offspring is more valuable than most pets however.

Wheel: Wheel pets or wheel pet offspring are always far more valuable, by a very wide margin. (of course some are more popular than others, but this always applies). A tagged pet is also objectively more valuable than an offspring and will sell for far more.

8. On Pricing


Generally I would recommend pricing by the criteria listed above and of course only selling if it has good colours.

Captured:

Depends on demand. I recommend checking the Advanced search for themed pets or new species.
If you don't find anything, it's a good sign.
I have no experience selling other captured pets sadly as such some information would be appreciated.



Offspring:

Higher prices can be applied to projects, both project offspring and especially finished projects.

These prices are for pets with good clear colours, ones without will be less valuable.

Project pair offspring (especially from mystically generated pairs) and some themed pets will be more valuable. I sell quite low for what I breed. Others do not, do not harass them.


You can go lower of course but going too low will as I mentioned above not do anyone much good long term so I wouldn't recommend it.

You can go higher if you think you can get away with it, after all certain pets or projects are very expensive and one has to at least try to recuperate losses not to mention consider how much it would cost the buyer to make the pet themselves - and if you can it is not a bad thing or inappropriate to do so.


I tend to start at 10k - something that in my opinion is fairly easy to make, but doesn't give the pet away for free either.
I usually value non fabled pets at a base of 5k, an extra 5k for each vis, another extra 5k for every two carries.

I usually value fabled pets at a base of 20k for 0vis and 1vis, 20k for each extra visible, 10k for the first two carries 20k for the next two. This is of course based on themed pets or pets with good colours though.
I usually sell a finished fabled 2vis project (again good, clear, consistent colours are very important) for 50k - however I could probably sell it for higher - some people do.

I have also sold 2vis fabled from mystical pairs for 150k and 1vis for 75k and that is fine too - some others will do the same, some might even go above, but I'm not entirely certain.

I only have one finished non fabled project I can breed with decent probability and that I sell for 50k, however other finished projects are more expensive if they happen to be mine, because they don't happen nearly as often and that one is using only one pet generated from essences and another captured one.


I only sell 3+vis fabled finished projects or stat pets upon request at the moment, but I would value them at 100k and up, for more information on this I recommend visiting the breeding forum.



If in doubt, ask on the pet auction forum.

9. How to breed pets, probability and dominance


As far as I can discern, Sylestia operates on basic mendelian principles.
This means each pet carries two letters of information for each trait slot.

NN means nothing shown, nothing carried.
NA means a trait is carried
AA means a trait is visible

This is relevant because each hatchling gets one letter from each parent, which means that the probability of a visible trait being passed on is 100%, but a carried trait is only passed on 50% of the time. Carried traits can be revealed by a genetic test.

Of course you can also have AB which is to say it shows one trait but also carries another and each trait has a 50% possibility of being passed on. Only A is shown because A is dominant over B.
The order of dominance is how close they are to the top of their slot in the generator, no trait is always dominant.
Older traits for the same slot are dominant over newer ones because the newer ones get added to the bottom.
This AB constellation can only be seen over the advanced search or in the image URL of a gene tested pet.

This then means breeding a pet with a dominant visible trait with a pet with a less dominant visible trait will result in it always showing the dominant trait, which makes breeding less dominant traits more difficult.

Now why is this important?

Well these probabilities are very relevant for your breeding project and how likely you are to get what you want. Essentially for each carried trait the chance of getting what you are aiming for halves.

So AA x AA has a 100% or 1/1 chance to get AA
NA x AA has a 50% or chance to get AA
and NA x NA has a 25% or chance to get AA

Now if youre breeding several carries the chances are even worse.

NA/NA x NA/NA only has a 1/16 chance for AA/AA
as you can see the more carries added the worse your chances get. this means you may have to do a lot of breedings and intermediate stages to get where you would like to be. It also means I wouldnt recommend anything above 4 total carries unless you happen to be alright with not quite perfect results and dont mind adding a generation or two breeding from the same population.