In dragon story the goal is to collect dragons. You can try to collect them all, but that's quite impossible. Some dragons are expired, i.e. there's no way to get them at that time. Furthermore, each dragon needs a habitat, and since there's a limit on habitat's, it's not possible to have them all: there are more dragons than there is habitat-room for.
But don't let that keep you from collecting (or at least try to) all the nice dragons you want: try collect the ones you like, rather than try to collect them all.
So, how can you do that? You will learn the very basics at the beginning of the game, but how do you get all those beautiful dragons that are not so easily obtained?
Collecting dragons can be done in various ways:
* breeding
* winning a tournament in the arena (iOS only)
* crafting in the spell shop (iOS only)
* buying with gold
* collecting enough items in a Summoning (iOS only)
* collecting enough items in a World Event (iOS only)
* album rewards (iOS only)
* valuepack / starterpack
* spin-the-wheel (iOS only)
BREEDING
Not all dragons can be acquired through breeding: some can only be won in the arena, some can only be crafted in the Spell Shop, some can only be bought with gold. Some dragons have multiple ways to acquire them, for example, a Black Knight Dragon could be won in a tournament, or can be bought with gold.
Some dragons have a level requirement, i.e. you can only have a chance at breeding them when you're above a certain level.
Some dragons are very common, which means you breed them easily. Some are rare, some are super rare and Diamond-dragons are ultra rare.
If you're aiming for a certain dragon, look at the colours he has, and make sure the parents have those colours. Pink, Diamond, White, Black, and many other types (for example Egyptian or Fairy) split in separate colours.
Your dragons need to be level 4 before they can be used as parents. Levelling can be done at the Evolution Temple, once you've fed the dragon enough.
BOOSTED BREEDING
Boosted breeding costs 12 gold and enhances your chance to breed a rare, super rare or ultra rare dragon. Sometimes, for a limited time, it's as expensive as a normal breeding.
DIAMOND TEMPLE
You can buy the Diamond Temple at the market for gold. The Diamond temple gives you a higher chance at breeding Diamonds, but only has a limited time of 7 days it has effect. After that you need to re-activate it, which costs gold and again lasts for 7 days.
TOURNAMENT (iOS only)
General information
Once you've reached level 30, you can battle in the Arena. Once you've reached level 32, you can participate in a tournament. When there's a tournament, you need to defeat 30 dragons to win the price. The Tournament price is a dragon, which usually can't be bred, but sometimes it can be bought for gold. Usually there is 1 tournament of 30 rounds every 2 weeks, starting on Tuesday 19:00 CET). There have been a couple of short tournaments, 12 rounds, which started on Friday.
Opponents vary from level 1, to level 20, a level your dragons can't reach. Battling a round costs silver.
For starting players it can be difficult to defeat the high level dragons, but you can always buy your victory (the Ultimate) at a price of 30 gold per round, or 12 gold when you're battling in the arena when there's no tournament. For me, it was the only way to finish the tournament when I didn't have that many good, high level dragons, and I still buy some of my victories. When you don't have many good, high level dragons, winning a Tournament-dragon (especially a Champion-dragon) usually highly improves your chances in a next Tournament.
A tournament has it's own thread on this forum and the whole list of opponents will be known there within the first days of the tournament: this way you can see in advance what rounds are going to be tough for you and if it's worthwhile to spend your gold. You always have a chance in defeating your opponent, but sometimes it's a very small chance. Since you can only battle once an hour (and healing your dragon costs 2 hours), you don't always have the time to try till you get lucky: sometimes it can take 10 hours or more before you defeat a certain opponent by chance.
If you know on forehand you don't have enough time to play and don't have enough gold to buy yourself through the tough battles, you might want to keep your gold and wait for the next Tournament.
Level and rarity matter, the higher and rarer your dragon, the better. Colour matters too. In each round you can deal 3 blows: 1 of them must be a critical hit, other wise, you'll lose.
A defeated dragon needs to be healed in the Healing Well.
CRAFTING (iOS only)
The Spell Shop can be bought when you've reached level 8. You can craft dragons here.
In order to craft items or dragons, you need parts or gems.
These parts or gems can be acquired as follows:
* trading your surplus dragons of level 4 or higher in the trading portal (for gems)
*
quest outpost (for gems or parts)
* mine (for parts) You need to be level 45 to enter the mine and you get bombs from evolving your dragons in the Evolution Temple (there's not always a craftable dragon which requires parts found in the mine)
*
arena (for parts) (there's not always a craftable dragon which requires parts won in the arena)
* asking your neighbors for Lotus Blossoms (feature in the spell shop itself)
Sometimes you need to craft gems before you can craft the dragon you want. In the Spell Shop you can also craft other things like decorations.
BUYING FOR GOLD
When you have no object selected, you see the market in the lower right corner. There you can buy the available dragons for gold. Decoration can be bought here too, usually for silver, sometimes for gold. Very few dragons can be payed for in silver.
SUMMONING (iOS only)
From time to time, there is a summoning. You can earn items by hatching dragons, harvesting food, questing a special quest and winning battles in the arena. Once you have enough items, the prize, usually a dragon, is placed in your storage. You don't need to place these dragons on your nest immediately.
WORLD EVENT (iOS only)
Basically the same as a Summoning, but it has more prizes, not only dragons, and a community goal.
If you gather enough items, you enlist in the community prizes, which means that if all players worldwide have collected enough items, more prizes are granted and placed in your storage.
ALBUM REWARDS (iOS only)
Once you start to collect your dragons, you get rewarded for having unique dragons. The first reward will be given when you have 5 unique dragons, the last when you have 50 unique dragons. You can obtain 3 different dragons, food, some decoration and some gold this way. These dragons cannot be obtained any other way.
VALUEPACK / STARTERPACK
When you play, you'll be regularly offered valuepacks or starterpacks which you can, for a limited time, buy with money. These packs usually offer a dragon and some food, silver or gold. At first it will be called "starterpack" and be offered at a very low price, for example: a good dragon, some food and silver for 0,99 Euro or 4,99 Euro. Be aware: you only get to buy the starterpack once! In my experience you can let the starterpack with a dragon you don't want expire, after a while you will be offered a new starterpack.
After your first buy, you will get valuepack-offers, of which the price usually will be around 18 Euro, which is often still up to 70% cheaper than when you buy it in the market.
Some dragons are only obtainable through these valuepacks and sometimes the offer is a dragon that has already been expired.
Spin-the-wheel
Sometimes, for a short period of time, there's an event where you can spin the wheel. You can get food, silver coins, maps and even dragons this way. With gold you can buy extra spins.
OTHER INFO
Timed events:
Most events are timed, which means you only have a limited time to complete the event. For example, a tournament usually lasts 6 days: if you don't win all 30 rounds by then, you won't receive the dragon. The remaining time is shown at the icon in the top-right of your screen. Mind you, all time is rounded up, so 25 hours will be shown as 2 days.
Neighbours:
You can invite and visit neighbours at the social-tab in your menu. You need to have their Storm8-ID, not the name of their island. They can ask you (and you can ask them) for mystic maps (required to expand) and lotus-blossoms (needed for crafting certain dragons). Responding to a request doesn't cost you anything.
You can also visit them and can tap dragons to play, which gives you a small amount of experience or silver coins. When they visit you to play with your dragons, you get an extra 250 silver when you collect silver from the habitat. Others can see how actively you visit your neighbours (your social rating) and neighbours tend to visit those with a high rating more often.
Silver:
Dragons make silver when they're in their habitat, some make a little, some make a lot. The higer the level, the more silver it makes, but some level 5 dragons make more silver than other level 10 dragons. You can use this to grow food, buy habitats, discover new areas, clear foliage, battle in the arena, sent a dragon on a quest, breed, buy decoration and even a couple dragons can be bought with silver. Habitats can only hold a certain amount of silver, so be sure to check in regularly to collect it all.
There are buildings that enhance the amount a habitat can hold.
Gold:
You can either buy gold, get it from a quest, or receive it from your neighbours as gift. You can only give 3 neighbours 1 gold, so be careful with this: usually it's a trade "you give me, I give you". Declining gold is never a good idea.
Regularly there is a gold-sale, at which the gold is offered at a discount price, usually 25-30% cheaper than the normal price.
(Almost) everything in the game can be skipped, enhanced, bought, sped up or won by paying gold. There are certain things that can only be bought with gold, so use your gold wisely. Be wary of "gold-traps": clicking too fast may result in accidentally spending gold.
An easy way to earn gold, is to participate in other Team Lava games when invited. Android-players will be rewarded with gold, iOS-players need to fulfil a simple quest on order to be rewarded.
Expanding:
As you get more and more dragons, you need more and more habitats and thus, more and more space. You can clear out the foliage (costs silver), but a lot of space needs to be discovered before you can clear it to make room. This requires Mystic Maps, which you can ask from your neighbours.
As you're discovered space grows, the new expansions will be more expensive.
When you've reached level 80, you can go to the
mine (iOS only) for more expansion-parts. This requires Dynamite, which you become from breeding. This also costs silver and time.
Food:
Food is needed to level your dragons. Higher level dragons give more silver and have better chances in the arena. You grow food at the farms. This requires silver and takes time. Farms can be upgraded or bought upgraded.
Arctic Isles (iOS only)
When you've reached level 35, you can travel to the Arctic Isles, provided you have an Ice Age Dragon. On the Arctic Isles you can breed, feed and evolve dragons like on your normal island, only there are far less dragons and the hatching proces is different. The goal here is to have 10 different dragons on level 10: then you get Glacious the Ancient.
Goals:
Almost all dragons have their own goal and some goals have multiple parts. There are also goals that aren't dragon-related (for example: clear some debris). You don't need to hunt the goals, you can go after every dragon you like.
Dragon Stables (iOS only)
In the market you can buy the Dragon Stables for gold. When you buy it, it can hold 1 dragon, so it doesn't need a space in a habitat. You can upgrade it 4 times, at that level it can hold 25 dragons.
But I guess that, by that time, you're no newbie anymore!
So, I hope I've given you a head-start!
For more info:
(Old) Newbie question thread, now closed.
Dragon Story General Questions-Part II
Game Guide
And don't forget to check out the other guides!
Any questions, comments or addition can be given in this thread, so, if you still have questions, don't hesitate!
For more information on game play you can see:
Dragon Story Game Guide
An (as short as possible) Introduction to Dragon Story
