Little Dragon Cave Sanctuary

[Lebanah]

Hello!

My name is Lebanah, and I love dragcave.net!

Unfortunately, being in school and having to work on my thesis
means that I won't be able to maintain this thread...
But it looks like it's still become a fun place for people to post.
So go ahead! ^_^

Enjoy, and happy clicking!

Have a dragon with under under 2 days left? __
consider adding it to an Emergency Room! __
DCF or Soti-Dragon or Eggs will be Dragons

[Lebanah]

I'm sadly not going to be able to keep this updated
due to school. ;_;

[Lebanah]

Dragon Cave (DragCave) is a fun and addictive clickable pet. After making an account and stealing an egg, you can post it on forums, blogs, fansites, or in your signature. As your egg gets more clicks and views, it matures, and it will eventually hatch into a hatchling and later grow into an adult dragon!

The game is quite simple; there are no stats, no battle system, and no feeding/playing system. There is, however, an array of beautiful dragons to collect and a lot of freedom to set your own goals: will you get one of each color? hoard rares? breed a purebred or diverse legacy?

I find raising dragons to be quite easy; the eggs I look after become adults in about a week with only a minimum amount of checking, tending, and walking. Let me share some of the knowledge I've accumulated since I was a newbie and help you raise a family of your own! I'll gather links to my favorite guides, sites, and threads here.

[Lebanah]

The first thing to do is read the Official Dragon Cave FAQ!!

♡ Your first dragon
You will probably obtain your first dragon from the Cave or the Abandoned Page.



Stealing from the cave

Every 5 minutes, eggs will appear on the main page of the Dragon Cave site (http://dragcave.net).
You can steal one by clicking on it. Click fast; you'll often be competing with hundreds of other players!
If you're fast enough, you'll receive a brand-new "cave-born" egg, with 7 days to live and no parents listed.
Stealing from the cave is the only way to obtain the unbreedable dragons such as the papers, dinos, and chickens, aside from gifting/trading.

Snagging from the Abandoned Page

While only three eggs appear at a time on the main page, the Abandoned Page (often abbreviated "AP") is usually full of eggs during peak hours.
Many of these are leftover eggs from breedings.
Some of them were genuinely abandoned, for whatever reason.
Others are gifts or trades, and so you could end up grabbing a dragon meant for someone else!
It would be very sweet of you to post in the "LOST IN TRADES?" thread on the DragCave forums after grabbing an abandoned egg, to make sure that you didn't steal someone's trade.
... But you don't have to! After you grab it, the egg or hatchling is legally yours.
Babies from the AP get 1 day added to their counters, though counters never go above 7 days.
Now the AP shows the correct amount of time your new egg will have. ^_^
Abandoned eggs may already have parents, views and clicks, or sicknesses. You never know!

♡ Raising your dragon
Dragons need views, unique views, and time to grow.
It seems that clicks help but aren't necessary. I'd like to investigate this in a future project.
To get views and clicks, you need to post your dragon somewhere.




Posting on Gaia

There are a lot of dragon lovers on Gaia! Consequently, there are many threads for posting your dragons.
There are also a lot of dragon haters on Gaia who hate seeing dragons in their threads. :(
So make sure you read the rules of the thread before posting!!
Some threads are for dragon spam; you can post your dragons however you want, whenever you want.
Some allow dragons but have restrictions on the number of dragons you can post per post or per page.
Some only allow dragons in signatures.
In general, your signature is a safe place to put your dragons.
Use the tinyurl that dragcave provides, to save space.

Posting on fansites

But my favorite way of raising dragons is posting on self-serve dragon fansites.
Designed by skilled coders, these sites allow you to add and remove your own dragons.
They often feature Emergency Rooms, "ERs," where you can post dragons that have only a little bit longer to live.
They are usually very good at saving dragons!
My favorite sites will be listed below, in a "links" post.

!!! Precautions !!!

Though you will usually be trying to get as many views as you can, your dragon can get sick from being posted incorrectly or too much!!

exclaim Do not post your dragon's link without its image!
From this, your dragon can get more clicks than views, causing Sickness Type 2.
exclaim Don't post your dragon on extremely high traffic sites on the first day!
Too many views too fast can result in Sickness Type 4.
... This sickness is actually not common. I've never had it, nor have I ever seen it. I HAVE seen it on fresh eggs that were overposted.
However, some people's dragons have been killed by malicious people posting them all over the internet or using auto-refresh bots.
exclaim Your dragon can also get sick from having more unique views than regular views, which is Sickness Type 3.
I think this sickness is very rare, though.





Your dragon's progress

Your dragon's graphic will update as it grows.
Your egg will slowly develop cracks, evolving from being uncracked to having a large black hole in the center.
Then, once your egg has hatched, the hatchling will develop from being wingless to (usually) having wings.
When your hatchling grows wings, you will finally know its gender.
Therefore, this final stage is usually called "gendering."
Then, your hatchling will finally grow into an adult!

♡ Breeding dragons

Dragons can be bred once a week.
At the time of this writing, the way to breed is to go to the female's Actions page and then select a male.
If the dragons breed, you can get 0-4 eggs, some of the mother's type, some of the father's type.
If you have room, you can keep one egg, and the rest will be abandoned; if you don't have room, they will all be abandoned.
The dragons might also refuse to breed.
As far as I know, rare (silver and gold) dragons only breed with commons.
Paper dragons, dinos, and chickens do not breed.




♡ Trading and gifting dragons

You can also obtain dragons through trading or gifting.
However, there is no official trading system on the DragCave site.
Trading is actually a coordinating dance of abandoning.
Engage in it at your own risk!
(On the other hand, it's a nice way to get rares, especially if you're a slow clicker.)

[Lebanah]

Some tips I've picked up through raising our dragons and those of friends?

○ Coordinate your clutches.

If you're planning to stalk the cave or AP, make sure you have less than 4 eggs and less than 4 hatchlings on hand.
Try staggering your clutches, or at least keep in mind when everyone is scheduled to hatch or grow.

○ It's safest to be cautious and patient.

Although we're all impatient and want our babies to mature fast, it's safer to be cautious.
Don't overpost your little ones when their timers read between 7 and 6 days.
And if you're really paranoid, fog them ("Actions" page -& "Hide") before you go to sleep, to make sure no bad people overpost them while you're gone.
Remember, there are always ERs to help you if your baby falls behind.

[Lebanah]

DragCave research projects I'm interested in, to gather information for other players! ^_^

question General breeding questions

There are some questions about breeding I have...
Are certain colors more compatible with one another?
Do certain combinations produce more eggs?
I'm collecting data, but...
It may not be possible to ever find out XD

question Draconic pathology

Under what exact circumstances do eggs and hatchlings get sick?
Particularly, what does "too many views too fast" really mean?

question Healthy development

Likewise, what are the optimal ratios for growing?
...Those are probably too difficult to determine themselves, so instead:
When should you expect your eggs to crack or hatchies to gender?
When should you get worried if your egg isn't showing progress?
I'll track my own and walkees' growth progress to come up with some rough estimates.
There are too many variables to know for sure, but
hopefully I'll be able to give diagnoses. ^_^

Past Experiments!

exclaim The Pink Twins Experiment

Provided evidence for the following:
○ Being clicked helps dragons grow faster.
○ Clicks themselves do not necessarily help dragons.
○ Dragons can grow to adulthood with zero clicks.
Go check out the writeup in my journal!

[Lebanah]

g i f t i n g !

It's been a while since I made this thread as a dragon newbie,
and I've now achieved my scroll goal.

... So I'm not sure what else to do on dragcave. o_o;;;

So I decided to try breeding for other people! ^_^

What's available?

I have lots of silvers to breed.
I will NOT be giving out golds because mine are TERRIBLE breeders.

I can also try breeding commons.
I have two pairs of splits,
four seasonals to breed for springs,
and my friend has a pair of stones, so he
could try to get you a geode.

But I recommend you get most commons through
the Abandoned Page, to help with clogging.



How to get considered?

PM* with your wish, a link to your scroll, and an AIM, Yahoo, or MSN screenname.
(If you're missing any of this information, I can't help you. Try another breeder instead.)
If you have a lot of dead dragons, I'll decline your request;
it's better to learn how to raise dragons on your own first
before trying to raise other people's bred eggs~

* If a lot of people send annoying or abusive PMs, I will end the service. :<

Even if you get on the list, I can't guarantee you'll get an egg.
It just means I'll keep you in mind while breeding. ^_^

Lebanah's status:
Busy and tired.
I am currently only considering people who do not yet have a dragon of the type they request.

wishers
1. xX AcidRainbow Xx silver

normal breeding schedule
(for rares, splits, seasonals, other interesting breeds)
Sun: silver
Mon: split
Tue: silver x 2
Wed: silver x 2
Thu: silver x 2
Fri: silver, split
Sat: silver

If I turn you down, try the Giving Tree on the DragCave forums.

[Lebanah]

. . . a n d ... l i n k s !

And here are some links to helpful and informative threads and web sites!



Affiliates

Mistress Stockholm's Dragon Thread


The Dragon Sanctuary

Guides

The Dragon Cave Guide by iarsma is my very favorite guide. It is very helpful and merits a thorough reading!


The Dragon Cave Nesting Grounds

The Help Forum on the DragCave forums.

Self-Serve Fansites

The Dragon Cave Fansite


Daily Dragon Fix

Soti-Dragon

Dragon Guilds on Gaia

The DragCave Guild

Dragon Spam Threads on Gaia

Dragon Cave Nesting Grounds

Dragon Cave eggspam thread!

Other Dragon Threads on Gaia

Dragon Cave Daycare Center - Not a spam thread

Eggs R Us!

More will be added as I dig up the links~ ^^

Link this thread!
If you want <3

[url=http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/chatterbox/little-dragon-cave-sanctuary/t.46059091/][IMG]http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp11/isaacblack/dragcavebutton.jpg[/IMG][/url]

[Lebanah]

*experimental poke* o.o~

[Lebanah]

*experimentally pokes again*

... nevermind!

[Lebanah]

*snip*