Breeding: Difference between revisions

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When a wolf is nesting, their pose will be replaced with special nesting artwork! This artwork change lasts while the wolf is nested and while they are nursing pups. They will be reverted to their previous pose once their pups are weaned. If you enjoy the way the pose looks, however, you can also purchase it in the form of the Pose Variant [Motherly] for 3 [[File:icon-gc.png]] Gold Cones from the [[Grove]]!
When a wolf is nesting, their pose will be replaced with special nesting artwork! This artwork change lasts while the wolf is nested and while they are nursing pups. They will be reverted to their previous pose once their pups are weaned. If you enjoy the way the pose looks, however, you can also purchase it in the form of the Pose Variant [Motherly] for 3 [[File:icon-gc.png]] Gold Cones from the [[Grove]]!
<center>[[File:nestedwolfexample.png|600px]]<br>[[File:variant_pose_motherly.png]]</center>





Revision as of 00:46, 27 March 2024

Excuse the mess...
This article is currently in development. We'll post on the main page when it's complete. Check back later!


Breeding is one of the primary mechanics that Wolvden is based around. With such an elaborate genetics system, breeding is a great way to get new traits into your pack, explore possibilities, and grow your family!


Breeding is locked until you complete the unique quest The Next Generation, which has you temporarily assign a breeding male and insta-birth a litter to learn the basics. This quest is available on your first day, after you complete the Time to Hunt quest. After this, you can assign your own breeding male, send stud requests, and have puppies!


The Basics

The Basics

Wolves can be bred after they turn one year old, or 24 rollovers old. It's not as simple as pairing two wolves together, however. While any female wolf can be bred if you choose, only select male wolves have the same possibility. You must pair a designated breeding male with your female wolf, or make a pair bond between the wolves in order to be able to breed them together! In addition, female wolves can only breed during certain times, called their heat cycle.


Breeding within your own pack can be done from the Breeding page. Breeding two wolves will expend 2% energy from each of them for each pregnancy attempt. A wolf requires at least 2% energy, 50% hunger, 80% mood, and 1 HP to breed. Additionally, illness may affect breeding- some illnesses prevent a wolf from breeding altogether while other illnesses may have the chance to be transmitted via breeding.


The litter size and attributes of the pups are determined at conception, right when the wolves are bred. This means that changing one of the parents' appearances or stats after they have already been bred will have no affect on the puppies. This is also true of personalities- puppies have a 90% chance to get a personality from one of their parents' personality group(s) and a 10% chance for a completely random personality.


Breeding Males

Breeding Males

Breeding Males are the primary method of breeding that new players are introduced to. While you can breed any wolves in your pack using pair bonds, only Breeding Males can become studs and breed outside the pack.



After the tutorial quest, you're able to pick a new breeding male on your den's Breeding page. Breeding Males are intended to be a permanent role, and they cannot be removed without a costly fee. As such, it's recommended that users do not assign their breeding male until they obtain a wolf that they would be happy to breed with for multiple months. Any adult male can be made your breeding male and they will remain your breeding male until their death, or until you remove them from the role for a GC cost. You cannot select pups or adolescents to become your breeding male.



Removing a breeding male from his position early can be done on the Breeding Male Settings page. It has a base cost of 20 Gold Cones. If you have assigned this breeding male within the past 30 rollovers, an additional 25 GC cost will be added, for a total of 45 GC. Even after the 30-day cooldown is over, you still have to pay 20 GC to remove your breeding male early. This can never be done for free.


If you want to remove your breeding male from their position without killing/retiring them, you must do this from the Breeding Male Settings page. Do not use the "Retire" option on the wolf page, as this will send the wolf to your dynasty and you will be unable to revive them. If you "Remove" the breeding male from their role on the Breeding Male Settings page, they will not be killed and will instead become a normal pack member.


Heats

Heats

Female wolves must be in heat in order to breed. You can tell that a female is in heat if they have a heat icon next to their name and a note in the Breeding Information section of their page. Hovering over the heat icon will tell you how many rollovers the wolf has left of their heat. Heats last for 4 rollovers and count down from 4. So, even if the icon says that the wolf has one rollover of heat left, they won't actually be in heat after their next rollover.


A new adult wolf, either befriended or customized, will go into heat 8 rollovers after they join the pack. There is not currently a way to befriend wolves who are already in heat. Wolves aging into adulthood will go into heat immediately at 1 year old unless they were aged up using an Aging Crystal or adopted from the Enclave, in which case their heat may be delayed a few rollovers. If a female wolf isn't bred during their heat, they will go back into heat 8 days later. Male wolves follow this same cycle, but hidden from view. The cycle will be evident if you were to sex change the male wolf, as they would go into heat if the amount of days since they reached adulthood lined up with what would be needed for a female wolf of the same age to go into heat.


Female wolves that are elders, 7 years 2.5 months and older, are unable to breed, so they will no longer have heats. Instead, the heat cycle indicator on their page will say N/A.


Don't want to wait through a whole heat cycle? You can instantly push a female wolf into heat using an Elk Heart, purchased from the Grove, but only if the female wolf is not pregnant, nursing, or on a breeding cooldown.



Heat Cycle Durations
Wolves bred on their heat Wolves not bred on their heat
Heat 4 rollovers Heat 4 rollovers
Pregnancy 4 rollovers Default 8 rollovers
Nursing 5 rollovers Heat 4 rollovers
Cooldown 15 rollovers Default 8 rollovers
Heat 4 rollovers Heat 4 rollovers


Grouse Tip!
A variety of different Heat Calculators are available here, which you can use to check when a wolf's next heat will be or how many heats they have left in their lifetime!


Studding

Studding

Interested in making some money from your breeding male? You can put your breeding male up for public stud on the breeding settings page. This will allow other players to send breeding requests to your male for currency. If you want some fresh blood for your own pack, you can breed to other players' public studs, as well!



Once set as a public stud, your breeding male will start the week with 15 stud slots. Every stud request you get will take one stud slot. If you drop to 0 stud slots, you can pay to refresh the slots, but you can only buy an additional 15 every week for a total of 30 possible slots every week. Each additional stud slot purchased costs 2 Gold Cones. Stud slots refresh on Mondays at 00:00.


To find other players' studs to breed your own wolves to, you can search the wolf search page page by checking the For Stud option and narrowing down your desired stud price, browse the Studs forum board, or check out the Sales chat. There's hundreds of studs to choose from, each with their own unique traits, and plenty of people advertise theirs in the hopes that someone will choose them! After you have found a stud to breed to, visit their page, where you can find a Breed to this Breeding Male option. From there, select your in-heat female from the dropdown menu.



Before sending a stud request, make sure that you have read the player's Stud Rules if they have any. Oftentimes, specific rules are laid out that might mean your request will be denied if you don't abide by them. For example, many players disallow "Stud Racing", referring to trying to breed your own wolf while a stud request is out. Be patient for the player to accept your stud request, rather than rushing to breed your wolf yourself.


Next, you can select the method of payment you prefer. This could be Silver Cones or Gold Cones, but you cannot send a combination of these currencies. You have the option to send a message to the stud owner if you would like. Finally, you can choose breeding items to send alongside the request which will be automatically applied to the stud when they breed to your wolf.


The currency that you paid for the stud request will disappear from your account after the request is sent. If the request is rejected, the currency will be returned to you. The stud owner can breed your female as many times as is needed to get them pregnant, but you will only have to pay the singular fee. After your female is pregnant, you will receive a notification that the breeding was successful. If the stud owner rejects your request, you will also receive a notification informing you of this.


If your female is sick with an [[Illnesses|illness that affects breeding], or doesn't have enough energy, HP, hunger, and mood, the stud owner will not be able to breed them. After sending the stud request, you will not be notified if the female is unable to breed. So, if you have an outgoing stud request, make sure to keep the female happy and healthy!


You can view all of your current outgoing stud request on your Breeding page, under the Outgoing Stud Requests tab. This is also where you can remove stud requests if you've changed your mind.


Fertility

Fertility

Fertility is a value that female wolves have that determines how easy they become pregnant, specifically how many tries it might take to successfully breed them. The lower the fertility value, the harder the wolf is to breed. You can view your female wolf's fertility category on their page, but the exact percentage isn't visible until you reveal the wolf's fertility on the Fertility Snake page. This costs 20 Silver Cones per wolf. A wolf's fertility is determined when they are conceived and is fixed. Sex-changing a wolf multiple times will not alter their fertility.



According to the breeding tutorial quest, wolves with low fertilities may have a higher chance of birthing a random mutation (but not a genetic one)! Fertility does not affect how many pups a wolf tends to have in one litter, this is purely random. Each fertility falls into a specific category, which serves as a descriptive hint if you do not have the exact fertility percentage revealed.


Fertility Thresholds
Infertile 0%
Extremely Low 1%
Very Low 2 - 10%
Low 11 - 30%
Average 31 - 50%
Good 51 - 70%
Very Good 71 - 90%
High 91 - 99%
Extremely High 100%


You can temporarily increase or decrease your wolf's fertility using Juniper Berries or Pasque Flowers, purchased from the Fertility Snake. The fertility adjustment only applies until the wolf's next successful breeding.


Fertility Items

Juniper Berries
Decreases your wolf's fertility by 10% for their next breeding. Can be stacked until the wolf is at 1% fertility.

Pasque Flower
Increases your wolf's fertility by 10% for their next breeding. Can be stacked until the wolf is at 100% fertility.


Genetics, Stats, and Personality

Genetics, Stats, and Personality

The important, determining factor in what your wolf's pup look like is their genetics! Visual traits aren't the only thing based down in breeding though- stats and personality are also affected by a pup's parents.


Wolvden's genetics system is very intricate. There's a lot of layers to a wolf's appearance and even hidden genetic traits. You can learn all about genetics generally on the Genetics and Appearance page. To get into specifics, check out the Base Genetics, Marking Genetics, Eye Genetics, Claw and Leather Genetics, and Mutations pages. Pups won't always get their parents' exact traits. Base breeding will produce a random base from a specific group, there's chances that markings won't pass, eye colors might fail, and more. While a wolf's pups might look similar to them, you'll find a pleasant amount of variety in every litter!


The amount of stats that a pup has will be determined by the stat totals of their parents. You can learn more about stats on the Stats page! Generally speaking, a pup will get roughly 1/3 the combined total of their parents' stats. However, there is some variance to this and the amount that the pup gets lessens as stat total rises.


A pup's personality will also be affected by the parents' personalities. This time, the pass rates are much more simple! Puppies have a 90% chance to get a personality from one of their parents' personality group(s) and a 10% chance for a completely random personality.


Nesting and Pregnancy

Nesting and Pregnancy

Pregnancy takes a toll on a wolf's body and has a few noticeable effects! Pregnant wolves will regain energy at a slower speed than normal. Pregnant lead wolves will regain 8% energy every 7.5 minutes as opposed to the normal 10%, while pack members will only get 3% energy every 7.5 minutes as opposed to the normal 5%. Pregnant wolves will also lose 30% hunger every rollover instead of the normal 20%. Once they have given birth, these effects will wear off.


Pregnant wolves will have icons next to their names that change depending on how far along in the pregnancy they are. Hovering over the pregnancy icon will display how many rollovers this wolf has left of the pregnancy.


Making Nests and Nesting Wolves

Making Nests and Nesting Wolves

Once pregnant, wolves must be nested in order to safely give birth or else they will risk losing some pups when they are born. In order to safely nest a wolf, they must be given a Nesting Material from the Nesting page. Only one Nesting Material is required to safely nest a wolf.


If a wolf is not nested the day before they are due to give birth, you will receive a notification in your Daily Rollover Summary reminding you to nest them. Be sure to nest them before rollover- if they give birth without a nest, there's a chance that they some pups will not survive the birth!



Nesting Material can be obtained through a variety of means. There are multiple explore encounters that can drop Nesting Materials, and they can also be purchased from Raccoon Wares for 60 Silver Cones. If you find yourself with a lot of spare items, you can also craft Nesting Material from the Crafting page. 10 soft items, such as feathers, herbs (with the exception of Charcoal), leaves, and pelts, can be combined into one Nesting Material. Nesting Materials require remnants over whole items. If you are trying to use an item that can be shredded, you must shred it first before using it in crafting.


Once a wolf is nested, they will become unable to complete role tasks until they give birth. Wolves cannot be nested while they are actively completing a task, either. Hunters will not be able to join hunts, scouts will not be able to scout, etc. Nested lead wolves will still be able to explore and battle.


Grouse Tip!
If you trust yourself to remember to nest them, we recommend waiting to nest your pregnant wolves until the day before they are due to give birth. This will allow the wolf to continue contributing to the pack even while they are pregnant.


When a wolf is nesting, their pose will be replaced with special nesting artwork! This artwork change lasts while the wolf is nested and while they are nursing pups. They will be reverted to their previous pose once their pups are weaned. If you enjoy the way the pose looks, however, you can also purchase it in the form of the Pose Variant [Motherly] for 3 Gold Cones from the Grove!




Auto-Nesting

If you find yourself forgetting to nest wolves frequently, the Auto-Nesting service might be a good choice for you. This is a paid service you can purchase in subscription form from the Grove, meaning you have to renew the subscription every month or few months to keep being able to use the service.



Auto-Nesting will automatically nest your wolves during the rollover that they give birth. With Auto-Nesting, wolves can be nested even while they are completing tasks, unlike with normal nesting. This means that you can send your wolves out to complete their tasks and then log off for the night, and rest assured that your pregnant wolves will be properly nested when you check in on them after rollover.


Auto-nesting still requires that you have a Nesting Material in your Hoard. If you do not have any Nesting Materials in your hoard on the rollover that one of your wolves gives birth, they will not be nested by auto-nesting. As long as you have a good stock of Nesting Materials, your pregnant wolves will never suffer complications with birth while Auto-Nesting is enabled.

Scrying Stone

Scrying Stone

The Scrying Stone is accessible from the Crossroads. This page can provide information about current pregnancies and potential offspring.



For 10 Silver Cones, you can select a male and a female wolf to scry together. This will return 4 potential puppies that the female wolf could have if these wolves are bred together. The puppies you are shown are only a possibility and there is no guarantee that the puppies from this breeding will look like this. The scrying stone will not display mutations, either random or genetic, so it cannot be used to determine if your wolf is a carrier of a mutation. You can scry any wolves together regardless of age, but you cannot scry two wolves of the same sex together.


For another 10 SC, you can get an ultrasound of one of your female wolves. This will tell you exactly how many puppies that wolf is carrying. The wolf is guaranteed to give birth to this many puppies as long as they are properly nested before the rollover of the birth.




Wolf Birth Information

Wolf Birth Information

On a wolf's page, you can view information from when they were born! This includes their starting stats as well as birth location and time. This information is recorded when they were born, not when they were conceived, and is purely for informational purposes. Moon phase, season, and biome born in do not currently have any gameplay effect- they're just for fun!


Pair Bonds

Pair Bonds

Pair Bonds are a method of breeding which can allow a non-breeding male to have pups! However, the male wolf can only breed with the female in his pair. Pair bonding is unlocked on your 30th rollover, on which the accompanying quest becomes available to you from the [Questing page! Adult wolves can form pair bonds after they have been in your pack for at least 7 rollovers.


You can view all of your current pair bonds on the Pair Lists page, where you can also disband the pair or breed them if both wolves are eligible. There is no limit to the amount of pair bonds you can have in your pack.



Pair bonds consist of two wolves and can be formed regardless of the wolf's sex. Different-sex pair bonds are able to breed when the female wolf is in heat. Same-sex pair bonds are not able to naturally conceive puppies, but any pair bond is able to adopt puppies from the [Enclave]. Wolves can only be in one pair bond at a time, and you cannot trade a wolf that is in a pair bond. Breeding males can also be a pair bond, and they will still be able to breed to any female inside or outside the pack like they are able to normally. Females in pair bonds are also not required to breed to the male in their pair bond- they can breed to a breeding male or an outside stud, as well. If a male in a pair bond is not a breeding male, however, they will only be able to breed to the female in their pair bond.


You can view if a wolf is in a pair bond in the Breeding Information section of their page.



Pair bonds will last until one of the wolf's passes, or until you choose to disband the bond manually. Disbanding a pair bond does not cost anything and can be done on the Pair Lists page. However, after a pair bond is disbanded (whether through death or player choice), both wolves who were in that pair bond will loose all of their Mood. You must play with them quickly before the next rollover to prevent them from leaving your pack. Disbanding a pair bond will also put both wolves on a 30-rollover pair bond cooldown during which they cannot be added to a new pair bond. If a wolf leaves your pack due to neglect, their pair bond will be disbanded. Reclaiming them into your pack does not renew the pair bond, even if both wolves left and were reclaimed at the same time.


Having a lead wolf with the personality Amiable will reduce pair bond cooldowns by a third and half the mood loss suffered after breaking a pair bond, meaning the wolves will only lose 50% mood instead of 100%.


Pair Bond Restrictions

Pair Bond Restrictions

While there is no limit to how many pair bonds you can have, the amount of breedings you can make between pair bonds is restricted based on your territory size. This restriction is not how many pair bonds can be made, but how many breedings can be done by the pair bonds already made. Pair bond breedings are defined by breeding done through the Pair Lists page. If your breeding male is in a pair bond, but you are breeding him from the breeding male page, it will not count towards your monthly limit. Your pair bond breeding count resets on the 1st of every month.


Pair Bond Breeding Limits
< 10 territory: 2 pair breedings
10 territory: 3 pair breedings
20 territory: 4 pair breedings
30 territory: 5 pair breedings
40 territory: 6 pair breedings
50 territory: 7 pair breedings
60 territory: 8 pair breedings
70 territory: 9 pair breedings
80 territory: 10 pair breedings
90 territory: 11 pair breedings
100 territory: 12 pair breedings
110 territory: 13 pair breedings
120 territory: 14 pair breedings
130 territory: 15 pair breedings
140 territory: 16 pair breedings
150 territory: 17 pair breedings
160 territory: 18 pair breedings
170 territory: 19 pair breedings
180 territory: 20 pair breedings
190 territory: 21 pair breedings
200 territory: 22 pair breedings


COI, Inbreeding, and Generation

COI, Inbreeding, and Generation

Wolvden keeps a detailed record of your wolves' family and lineage. Any wolf bred on site will have their parentage recorded! From the wolf's Family page, you will be able to view their entire pedigree, as well as information about inbreeding. You can get to a wolf's Family page by clicking on this View Family button on the wolf's page.



At the top of a wolf's family page, you will find three different stats determined by the wolf's heritage: Coefficient of Inbreeding (COI), Instances of Inbreeding, and Generation. Underneath these will be your wolf's family tree, going back 4 generations. If you'd like to see further back in the tree, you can click on the names of the wolves' great grandparents to view their family trees. If a wolf in this family tree has passed, they will still show up on the tree. However, if a wolf has been chased, they will display as a black silhouette.



The values presented on the Family page do not have an impact on gameplay, they are purely for player reference and market value. Inbreeding and generation do not affect a wolf in breeding nor provide any adverse effects. However, inbreeding is generally valued low by the community, and wolves with any instances of inbreeding or a COI higher than 0% will be worth less to many people than a wolf without inbreeding. Alongside this, lower generation wolves tend to worth more than higher generation wolves.


Coefficient of Inbreeding

Coefficient of Inbreeding

A wolf's coefficient of inbreeding, or COI, provides information about how related their parents are. It is calculated by comparing the father's side of the family tree against the mother's side of the family tree. If wolves that appear in the father's side of the tree also appear in the mother's tree, then a rate of COI is present for the offspring. A lower COI means that inbreeding is more distant, while a higher COI means that inbreeding is more recent.


A COI of 0% means that the mother and father are not related. However, this does not mean that the wolf is not completely inbreeding-free. If the mother is inbred, but does not share any common ancestors with the father, then the wolf's COI will still be 0%. A COI of 25% means that a pup has been bred to its parent or full sibling. A COI of 12.5% means that half-siblings have been bred, or a grandchild has been bred to a grandparent. A COI of 6.25% means that first cousins have been bred, or a great grandchild has been bred to a great grandparent. Any COI greater than 25% means that there is more than one instance of inbreeding in the family tree.


COI is only calculated on the first page of a wolf's family tree. If their parent's are related past their great grandparents, it will not be counted in the wolf's COI.


Instances of Inbreeding

Instances of Inbreeding

The instances of inbreeding value represents how much inbreeding is present in a wolf's family tree. Inbreeding in this case is defined by one wolf appearing in the pedigree more than once, whether on both parents' sides or one parent's side. For example, the wolf below is inbred because their father is also their mother's father.



Instances of inbreeding are only calculated on the first page of the wolf's family tree. So, if a wolf's great great grandparent is also their father, they will not have any instances of inbreeding shown. Instances of inbreeding have no effect on gameplay.


Generation

Generation

A wolf's generation indicates how many generations back its pedigree goes. Any wolf is always at least 1st generation. If the wolf does not have parents listed on the family tree, it is 1st generation. 1st Generation wolves are often also referred to as "NBW" or "New Befriended Wolf", because all wolves you claim from exploring are 1st generation. Wolves created with the Customiser in the Grove are also 1st generation.


For every additional column of wolves that goes back on the family tree, you can add one generation. For example, the wolf below is fourth generation, because the further back line in their family tree stops at 3 out. With the wolf itself already being one generation, you then add 3 to this, to get 4th generation. The generation value does not stop counting after the first page of the family tree- it goes as far back as the whole pedigree goes.



Breeding Items

Breeding Items

Breeding items are special items that can be used before a breeding to guarantee certain results in their upcoming litter, such as little size or a specific trait. Most items can be used on either one of the parents, however some can only be used on a male or a female wolf. When stacked between both parents, items of the same or similar purpose will use the female's item, while the male's item will remain for the next breeding. This is so that two items with counteracting uses will not both be used in the same breeding.


You can send breeding items alongside stud requests to be automatically applied when the stud owner accepts the request. Studs may also have their own items applied, which you can view under Stud Information on the studs' page.



You can also see what items a wolf has applied from their page, under the Breeding Information section.



Breeding Items
Item Obention Effect

Black Sage
Jackpot prize in Slots Guarantees a minimum of 4 puppies in the wolf's next litter

Blue Sage
Jackpot prize in Slots Guarantees a minimum of 4 puppies in the wolf's next litter

Great Tit
Jackpot prize in Slots The wolf's next litter will be entirely female. Can only be fed to a breeding male.

Juniper Berries
Purchase from the Fertility Snake Decreases your wolf's fertility by 10% for their next breeding. Can be stacked until the wolf is at 1% fertility.

Pasque Flower
Purchase from the Fertility Snake Increases your wolf's fertility by 10% for their next breeding. Can be stacked until the wolf is at 100% fertility.

Red Cock
Jackpot prize in Slots The wolf's next litter will be entirely male. Can only be fed to a breeding male.

White Sage
Jackpot prize in Slots Guarantees a minimum of 4 puppies in the wolf's next litter