Strategies

This is a list of user ideas on how to accomplish various goals and tasks, different ways to play the game, things you may not have thought of before, and just general things you should know.

Money Strategy

 * Breeding dragons:
 * Air Dragon breeding (Hybrids): Breeding an Air Dragon with a Plant Dragon, Fire Dragon, Water Dragon, Cold Dragon or Lightning Dragon will produce a dragon that can be sold for 1,000,000. Each combination takes eight hours to breed and eight(7 hours with the pollen dragon) hours to hatch. This means 16 hours total before profit can be made.
 * Air Dragon breeding: Breeding an Air Dragon with an Air Dragon or a Fire Dragon with a Water Dragon will produce more Air Dragons. Air Dragons sell for 500,000 and each breeding and incubation time is only two hours, so each cycle is just four hours from breeding to cash. If you check in every two hours to start a new cycle you can gain a lot of money very quickly.
 * Leap Year Dragon breeding: Breeding a Leap Year Dragon takes just 14.5 hours to breed (and 14.5 to incubate) and sells for the same as a Rainbow Dragon or, 2,500,000.
 * Iron Dragon/Magnetic Dragon breeding: Breeding a Magnetic Dragon or Iron Dragon and selling it for profit yields the most per hour; even more profit than the Air Dragon since the introduction of Metal Dragons into the game. While both yield the most  per hour overall, the Iron Dragon is preferred over the Magnetic Dragon, since it results in slightly more  per hour, as well.
 * Visit friends: Visiting friends each day and tapping the party hats is an easy way to earn extra . The higher your level, the more cash you get! The more friends you have, the more you can make this way.
 * Goals: Many in-game goals offer rewards for the completion of certain tasks, like breeding a certain dragon or constructing a building. Frequently, the  offered for the completion of goals that require purchases are greater than the purchase price of the item.
 * Collect money from habitats: Dragons produce simply by being in their habitats. Different dragons produce money at different rates and the amount of  that can be collected is limited by the habitat. Plant dragons produce  very quickly, but they are limited by the low threshold of the plant habitat to only 200, or 500  for a large habitat. Plant dragons are therefore most useful when you are actively playing and are able to collect the accumulated  often. Earth dragons produce  at a slower rate, but their habitats can store more . They are better for long term moneymaking when you are not around to collect  at frequent intervals.
 * Panlong Dragons: One of the fastest ways to earn cash from a habitat, and a method that is fairly easy to manage, is an Earth Habitat with three Panlong Dragons in it. At level 10, Panlong Dragons earn 194 cash per minute. The Panlong Dragons can be boosted by both a Water Boost and a Fire Boost, at which point each one will produce 279 cash per minute at level 10. With three dragons to each habitat, you will produce a total of 837 cash per minute at level 10. For comparison, the Rainbow Dragon only earns 400 cash per minute, and you can only fit one of them in a habitat. When you are at a high level and want to maximize your cash output, it can be very productive to build a number of Earth Habitats and fill them with Panlongs . A full habitat will fill up every one-and-a-half hours, and is therefore easy to check in on. Alternatively, you can fill a Fire Habitat with four Panlongs for a total of 1,116 cash per minute. A Fire Habitat only has a cash capacity of 15,000, however, meaning that you will have to empty it out every 13 minutes or you will lose cash. Moreover, the Panlong Dragon can be upgraded to level 20 (the Rainbow Dragon cannot) at which point each one will earn 540 cash per minute (with boosts).

Experience Strategy
Example: Dragon Fruit (3000 units of treat) costs 75,000 and gives 125,000. Add the 60,000 you get for feeding the treats to your dragons (3000x20) and you get 185,000  for 75,000 (2.47:1 ratio). Other treats produce different ratios depending on their unit price. This strategy is most beneficial to your park as a whole, because higher level dragons earn more money and attract more visitors.
 * Goals: Many of the built-in goals throughout the game supply 100,000 or more experience points for breeding a single dragon or building certain structures.
 * Participate in races at the Dragon Track. Experience rewards seem to scale up for higher level players, and there are periodic bonuses of MILLIONS of experience. Bonus for level 33: 24,500,000. Highest exp rewards at the dragon track for a level 33 player: around 33,000,000.
 * Buy and sell from the market: Buying and then reselling things is a quick, albeit expensive way to get XP. Decorations can be built instantly and give the half purchase price in experience. For example, a yellow tree costs 500 and gives 250 . Buildings and Habitats may take longer to build, but most of them give out experience in a 1:1 ratio with purchase price and are therefore more cost effective. Some buildings, such as Treat Farms, take no time to build at all while still giving out more experience than decorations. These are the best items to buy and resell. ( Backflip Studios changed the ratio to 1:2)
 * Breed dragons: Hatching dragon eggs gives experience, so breed your dragons often. Basic dragons do not give very much, while hybrids and rares can give much more. The Metal Dragon achieves the most per hour.
 * Grow treats and feed them to your dragons: Harvesting treats you have grown on your treat farms gives out experience points. Feeding these treats to your dragons gives 20 per unit fed (cited here). When you add these two XP sources together the experience/money ratio becomes quite lucrative.
 * Participate in the Colosseum: Each day, a different elemental event will ocuur in the Colosseum. Winning the gold trophy in these daily events will give you 10% of the needed to get to the next level. Silver trophies will earn you 5% of  to the next level and bronze trophies will earn you no.

Gem Strategy

 * Form a circle with yourself and three friends: Every 24 hours, you get three free for gifting to friends on your Game Center friend list. In order to ensure that you get the same amount of  that you give, form a "gem circle" of four people. Gift your  only to each other and every day each of you are guaranteed to receive three . If you purchase the Dragonsai Gifting Tree you can gift an additional three  daily and can expand the circle to yourself and six friends.
 * Participate in the Colosseum: Gold trophies give five, silver trophies give two and bronze trophies give 0 . High level dragons which include the element displayed in the Colosseum have the best chance of winning a gold trophy.
 * Get 12 Gemstone Dragons: You can earn 12 a week if all your Gemstone Dragons are Level 10.
 * Race in the Dragon Track. While are not a frequent prize, they can be gained through winning races.

Shrine Strategy
Breeding Hybrids (dragons with more than 1 element) will fulfill more than one shrine's requirement per dragon, thus costing less time and food. With the Love Dragon you can fulfill three per dragon, and with the Panlong Dragon you can fulfill four per dragon. The most food efficent way is to use Paper (12 hours), Magnetic (4 hours), and Fogs (8 hours). However, this method takes a while due to Paper's incubation time. The most time efficent way to level up all shrines is to use Poison (30 minutes), Sandstorm (2 hours), Storm (5 hours), and Rust (6 hours). Although it will require 33% more food, it completes the process faster.

Dragon Leveling Strategy
When leveling-up dragons, it is generally beneficial to level them all up together equally, not one by one, since there are diminishing DragonCash collection returns of DragonCash&rarr;Food&rarr;Dragon Level investment.

Useful Strategy Blogs

 * The optimal strategy for most per minute by means of collection from habitats is known as the Panlong Waterpark Strategy, which requires constant/steady daily playtime.
 * A practical and non-time consuming strategy for is the Leap Year Dragon / Rainbow strategy.
 * Another practical strategy to use for is The Gold Medal Strategy.
 * The Dragon Track can get a focused player around 5M per hour in the form of . Outlined here.
 * A practical strategy to display all dragons in your park, while slightly modifying the Leap Year Dragon / Rainbow strategy is to use the Display All Dragons, Modified Leap Year Dragon / Rainbow strategy.