Secrets to Dragon Story/Tourney Battle Plan

Dragon Story Secrets/Tourney Battle Plans

There are a few secrets encoded into Dragon Story (DS), that if you don't know, while you may still enjoy the game, may cause tourneys to be especially frustrating and difficult, to say the least. And it may occassionally cause you grief when a Dragon Tale (DT) act coincides with a particularly difficult tourney round, perhaps even derailing the DT. I would like to uncover those secrets. They are: 1) That there are two kinds of wealth in DS, one obvious and one totally hidden. 2) The fierce power of champion dragons.  3) The real value of Diamond dragons. 4) The tourney battle plan. 5) Distractions, what they are and how to avoid them.

1.  Two kinds of wealth in DS.

The obvious one is gold. It is no revelation that gold allows you to buy stuff, purchase ultimate hits in tourneys to help win them, and skip Dragon Tales (DT) acts that are particularly troublesome enabling us to complete them. The 2^nd type of wealth, which may go completely and indefinitely unnoticed, I will explain in a moment, but first I must discuss two very important things: Diamond/Infinity Dragons and champion type dragons.

2.  The Fierce Power of Champion Dragons

Champions are the best all around fighters in DS. Point Blank. And I will tell you why. There are 3 sets of circumstances that you can find yourself in during a battle. The first is that your dragon has a type advantage over the opponent. The second is that your dragon has a type disadvantage. And the third is that you are neutral and have neither a type advantage nor type disadvantage. (Battle charts and calculators help assess which situation you are in. If you don't know which circumstance you are in, that may derail you in many a battle.)

What does advantage/disadvantage mean to me? The advantage, disadvantage or neutral scenarios give you an indication of what chance you have of getting a critical hit. Without a critical hit you will definitely lose a battle or a tourney round. While a critical hit does not guarantee a win, it does make it very, very likely. So you want a good chance for getting one. Dragons with a disadvantage or in a neutral situation have a much lower chance (percentage) of getting a critical hit. Dragons with an advantage can have more or less of an advantage, which controls whether you have more or less of a chance of getting that necessary critical hit. Let me explain with a chart.

Your L15 champion's chance of getting a critical vs. a L20 Opponent

NB-SRs = Non-breedable Super Rares, ta = type advantage, examples are in parentheses.

You may have noticed that my chart only shows you fighting a level 15 champion and only shows your opponent to be a level 20 dragon. That is because this chart is meant to showcase the most difficult battles that your champion will face. In short, this is your end of tourney scenario or worst case scenario against an opponent. The percentages of getting a critical hit only INCREASE as the level of the opponent dragon DECREASES. A 35-60% chance of getting a critical hit is quite good at the end of a tourney and a L15 champion has much higher percentages (like 65-90%) at the beginning and middle of tourneys and in all non-tourney battles. 

The ONLY time your champion will have a type disadvantage is when fighting other champions and, according to the battle calculator I use, also when fighting diamond types. THAT'S IT. Just those two situations. When he is in one of those rare situations he will have his lowest chance of getting a critical hit (10-15%), but only when the opponent is a L20 dragon. As the opponent champion or diamond type level decreases your champion's chance of getting a critical hit will increase. 

The ONLY time your champion will be in a neutral situation is against the following pure types (with their specific dragons): valentine (Passion Dragon), egypt (Pyramid Dragon), soccer (Soccer Dragon), olympus (Olympus Dragon.)  Also Rainbow Sentinel and Valiant are special cases where your champion will have the equivalent situation of neutral. If I find any other special-case dragons I will update this list.  As it stands, I only know of these 6 dragons in which your L15 champion will have a 25% of getting a critical hit when the opponent is a L20 dragon. Once again as the level of the opponent dragon decreases, your chance of a critical hit increases.

In ALL OTHER circumstances your champion will have 1, 2 or 3 type advantages. And in these circumstances, which is most of the time, your L15 champion will have a 35-60% chance (at worst, when the opponent is L20), a 65-80% chance (with the same dragons on L15), but a 75-90% chance (when the opponent dragon is on L14 or below, which is most of the time) of getting a critical hit. There is simply NO OTHER dragon type with such a high chance of getting a critical hit SO OFTEN, while having so FEW situations where his chances are low.  And this fact makes champions very, VERY powerful in battle.

I have tracked my L15 champion's win rate for the last 4 tourneys and I just started tracking his daily non-tourney win rate (that's NOT his chance for getting a critical hit, but his actual winning percentage.) His tourney win rate (where he fights L19 and L20 dragons) is about 86%. But his daily non-tourney win rate is at about 94%. I will update these percentages weekly. No other one dragon would ever have anywhere near those numbers. Furthermore I don't need charts or calculators to figure out who I should fight. 

3.   The Real Value of Diamond Dragons

Many people think diamond type dragons are great warriors, and they are right..sometimes, but not as much as they may think. This misconception is probably due to the fact that diamond types are ultra rare. Although, the rarity of a dragon is a factor in battle, there are two other very important factors. First, the level of your dragon as opposed to the level of the opponent dragon and second, dragon types and how they play upon one another in battle. So the real value of diamond type dragons is not found in her rarity or even in her coin producing ability, but is found in the Diamond Dragon (herself) and her twin sister Infinity Dragon. And their value IS that they are the greatest warriors against two very important type dragons: champion types and diamond types. No other dragons can boast besting BOTH champion and diamond types, not even diamond type combos, such as Mercury, Crusader, Anubis, Unicorn, Diamond Prism or even Valiant. That's right I said it, Valiant, who is just as useless against champion types as almost all other dragons. Diamond combo types fight well against other diamond types. And there are 3 other dragons that fight AS WELL AS the Diamond and Infinity Dragons when engaged in battle with champion types. They are Passion, Pyramid and Soccer. Passion Dragon is a Valentine type dragon with no other types and should not be confused with Valentine Dragon, whose types are pink and white. Pyramid is an Egypt type dragon with no other types. And Soccer is a Soccer type dragon with no other types. So altogether there are only 5 dragons that fight better against champion types than all other dragons. Those 5 dragons I will henceforth refer to as DIPPS (Diamond, Infinity, Passion, Pyramid and Soccer.)

How to breed a Diamond Dragon if you don't have one. It is actually quite simple, but requires quite a bit of patience. Simply keep at least 4 different types in the breeding den. (Examples:. Landworm (G/R) with Winter (W/B), or Supersonic (W/Bk/R) with Leopard (W/Y) or my new favorite if you have him Supreme (Bk/Rainbow/Gemstone) with Virtue (Pk), which will give you all available basic type (color) combos, all available gemstone combos, and all available rainbow combos that don't also have specialty types.) When you go to breed the pair of dragons you select, it doesn't matter what level either dragon is on and it doesn't matter which one you put on what side in the den or how many dragons are available when you breed. Having less available dragons will NOT help you breed Diamond any faster. In fact, it will only bore you to tears to keep breeding the exact same dragons over and over and over again. And having a ton of available options will NOT cause you to breed Diamond any slower. Breeding results don't cycle through all available dragons. Instead they cycle through rarity and rarity only. On average, for every 100 dragons you breed, about 65 will be common dragons, about 25 will be rare dragons, about 9 will be super rares and about 1 will be ultra rare. So the ONLY thing that matters when breeding is that there are 4 different types in the pool. You don't know where in that 100 breeds you will get a Diamond. It could be on the 4^th try, the 62^th or the 112^th.  So I sugguest you pick some breedable dragons that you would like on your island, and go for them while keeping at least 4 types in the den and then not worrying about it. Your Diamond Dragon will show up when she's good and ready.

Now back to the 2^nd kind of wealth, which by this point should be a bit more obvious. It is to have a squadron of champion /DIPPS dragons aligned in battle formation. This winning combination allows you to win tourneys (and by default DTs, when battles are an issue) with relative ease. It also allows you to get more of the dragons earned through fighting daily battles. And those tend to be REALLY good dragons to have.

4.   Expanding Squadron/Tourney Battle Plan

By this point, my tourney battle plan is probably quite obvious and simple, really. 1) Use L15 champions for fighting all dragons, except for other champion types and diamond types. 2) Use L15 DIPPS (Diamond, Infinity, Passion, Pyramid, Soccer) for fighting champions. 3) And use Diamond or Infinity for fighting other diamond type combos (especially Valiant, whom they have an extra edge against.)

I currently have, what I call, The Mercenary Squadron. It is comprised of one L15 champion (Dueler) and one L15 Diamond Dragon. While this is a great start and allows me to coast through daily battles and all but the most difficult tourney rounds easily, I see room for much improvement. Also I should note that I still use battle charts and calculators to figure who to fight when my L15 champion is healing (but only at the end of tourneys, and on one other occassion, which I will get to in a moment, other than that I just use either of my L11 champions to fight, and they usually take it home.)

The Mercenary Squadron Tourney Battle Plan looks like this: 1) Fight L15 champion against every dragon as long as it is not a champion or diamond type, which means almost all fights. If he loses, heal him and fight him on every odd battle. For even battles refer to battle chart and/or calculator. 2) Fight L15 Diamond Dragon against other diamond types and also against champion types, and if she loses keep healing her and fighting her evey odd battle. 2a) On the even battles (against other diamond types) refer to battle charts or calculators. 2b) On the even battles (against a L20 champion) it doesn't matter a hoot who you fight if it is not a L15 DIPPS. Period. Want a suggestion for who to fight on the even battles? Here are some ideas: the lowest level dragons you have, or the lowest coin producing dragons you have or whatever dragon that you would most be entertained to see fighting a L20 champion. That's it. It really, really, REALLY doesn't matter. Really. Like, for real...it doesn't matter. With the Mercenary Squadron Tourney Battle Plan you should be able to coast through most of a tourney with your L15 champion. As for the L20 champions we all come up against, you should be able to beat this dragon within 9 tries, on most occassions. My average is 6 tries, which includes a 2^nd try, a 3^rd try, an 8^th try and two 9^th tries. Occassionally, you may have the old trouble of a two day battle, but it will no longer be the norm.

My next goal is to get 2 L15 champions and 3 L15 DIPPS, which I will refer to as The Samurai Squadron. This squadron will allow me to have three back to back battles using my L15 champions and five back to back battles using my L15 DIPPS. The Samurai Squadron Tourney Battle Plan for champions looks like this: For all dragons, aside from champion and diamond types, (using my champion dragons, when they are both on L15) 1) Fight L15 Dueler, and if he loses put him in the healing spring. 2) Fight L15 Prize Fighter, and if he loses...3) Take Dueler out of the spring and fight him again. That's three fights. As long as I don't fight against other champions or against diamond types, I should be able to win any battle within three tries. And I am talking about difficult battles. Although, it is not a guarantee that I win a battle within 3 tries, most of the time I indeed will.

The Samurai Squadron Tourney Battle Plan for DIPPS looks like this: (using my L15 Diamond Dragon and both an imaginery L15 Infinity and L15 Passion as an example, although they could all be L15 Diamond Dragons.): 1) Fight Diamond, and if she loses put her in the healing spring, which will belong to her for the duration of this battle plan. 2) Fight Infinity, and if she loses...3) Take Diamond out of the spring and fight again. If she loses again, then she goes back in the spring. 4) Fight Passion, and if she loses...5) Take Diamond out of the spring and fight again. That is 5 battles in a row. Now against a L20 champion type, the likelihood of winning one of those 5 battles is significantly higher than if you were to fight a L15 DIPPS every other battle like with the Mercenary battle plan.

My ultimate goal, The Spartan Squadron Tourney Battle Plan, is to have three L15 champions and 5 L15 DIPPS. This plan works just like the Samurai Plan except that you will have 5 back to back battles using the 3 L15 champions and 9 back to back battles using the 5 L15 DIPPS.

5.  Distractions

There are 4 main distractions for acquiring your squadron of champions/DIPPS. They are: 1) Getting dragons to L15 or even just the higher levels for individual tourneys. 2) Getting dragons to epic level for no good reason. 3) DTs. 4) And acquring Valiant. All 4 of these are temporary distractions.

I'm going to contend that since a squadron (of your comfort level) of L15 champion types and L15 DIPPS creates incredible wealth (of the 2^nd kind) in DS, and that therefore until such a squadron is acquired anything that gets in the way of acquiring it IS a distraction. After the squadron is acquired, then you have amassed incredible wealth (of the 2^nd kind) in DS and you can afford to level up whomever you desire. In short, I am suggesting that getting non-DIPPS and non-champion dragons to L15 is actually a distraction, because it takes hundreds of thousands of apples away from the goal. Now if you don't have a squadron just yet, then I highly suggest immediately abandoning spending tens of thousands or perhaps even hundreds of thousands of apples to level up dragons for individual tourneys.

Getting dragons to L15 for individual tourneys. That's akin to focusing on a single tree when your lost in the woods. I suggest getting the bird's-eye view of the forest and figuring a path out. And that is done with L15 champions.

DTs – If you are in the highest group level for DTs and are unable to finish, good-bye 300,000 apples. And for what, to get a rare to L14 and a super rare to L12, only so that they will be top tier fighters for a few daily battles and a few rounds in tourneys, with homework (read battle charts and calculators) I might add. Okay, that's nice, but completely unnecessary. I contend, that that is for the wealthy (again of the 2^nd kind.)

Valiant – If you have him, awesome. If you don't, it's not even the slightest problem. If you don't have your squadron of champions and DIPPS, then he is getting in the way of your acquiring Diamonds or Infinitys, and that is a giant distraction. Actually, the worst and most detrimental of the four distractions. I understand the emotional attachment to Valiant. I had it, when he first came out, because he has such cool types, and he seems invincible, but he is not invincible by any means and furthermore he is wholly unnecessary in this game.