Breeding Strategies

Breeding is one way to obtain new frogs in Pocket Frogs. Breeding requires two adult, tamed frogs in the same habitat and at least one open space in the nursery. Breeding results in a frog egg with a random combination of the colors and patterns of the parent frogs. In rare cases a mutation can result in child frogs with a Glass or Chroma coloration.

Possible Goals in Breeding
There can be many different goals when breeding frogs. They include:


 * Increasing Experience Points (XPs) to level up.
 * Creating frogs to sell for coins.
 * Completing all possible color combinations of a pattern (100% Froggydex for a pattern).
 * Completing all possible frogs in the game (100% Froggydex).
 * Obtaining specific frogs for Awards, which give XPs.
 * Obtaining specific frogs for Weekly Sets, which give Stamps and Potions.
 * Breeding known mutations to create Glass or Chroma frogs.
 * Breeding to get pretty combinations of colors and patterns to fill habitats.
 * Breeding to gift frogs to other Pocket Frogs players (Neighbors).
 * Breeding randomly for fun.

Many of these goals have slightly different strategies.

Leveling Up
Breeding two frogs together will give the same number of Experience Points (XPs) as the breeding cost. Breeding your highest value frogs together will give you close to the most possible XPs. Taming frogs by going to the Pond and eating flies will give XPs but takes longer. Completing Awards also gives XPs.

The number of XPs needed to get to the next level is displayed in the upper right corner. Large numbers are displayed with M for millions or B for billions. Touching the number will bring up a popup window up with the exact current value and the number required to reach the next level.

If breeding two frogs of different levels together, the cost and the number of XPs is the sum of the max values of both frogs divided by 4.

Power Leveling
Power Leveling is an expensive strategy used to level up very quickly. To Power Level one must have two relatively high-level frogs tamed and a lot of coins.
 * 1) Breed the two frogs to create eight eggs in your empty nursery.  You will get experience points (XPs) for each frog you breed.
 * 2) Sell all the eggs instantly. If you have the VIP Package (which includes the former Babyproof Kit), you could move them to another habitat to let them mature before selling.
 * 3) Repeat.

Power Leveling with VIP Package
As mentioned in the above "Power Leveling" section, you can move multiple sets of eggs out of the nursery with the VIP Package (which includes the former Babyproof Kit) to power level without as much cost.

Levels have no upper value. You can continue to level up past the highest level of frog. The only advantage is that presents give you higher values of coins.
 * 1) Empty the nursery and most other habitats. Dedicate the last few habitats to keep a few frogs of the level you are currently at.
 * 2) Breed two frogs of your current level to fill up the nursery, then move them to a different habitat. Repeat this process until you reach a new level. At lower levels, leveling up can be achieved with a smaller number of habitats. As you increase in level you may have to start selling the eggs before they hatch and mature so you can breed more eggs to get to the next level. Breeding costs half the value of the frogs, so if you are willing to let the eggs mature until the baby frogs have half their value you will not lose coins.
 * 3) While the frogs you just bred are growing, go to the Pond and find pink gifts until you get a new frog of the level you just reached. Tame it and race it or play the search game to get more frogs of the same level. Replace the frogs from the lower level with these new frogs. Additionally, if your habitats don't already have the maximum number of scenery items in them, find or buy +36 scenery items to increase happiness so you can sell the frogs at maximum value when they are fully grown.
 * 4) Once the frogs are fully grown, sell them at maximum value to make a profit.
 * 5) Repeat steps 2-4 with the new frogs you got in step 3. You will level up every two days or so.

Accumulating Coins
Breeding your two highest value frogs together results in high value offspring which you can sell for coins. Frogs reach their maximum value when they are fully mature and 100% happy. Frogs mature faster by taking them to the pond to eat flies or using potions on them. Frogs with enough scenery combined with other frogs in their habitat will slowly reach 100% happiness. Frogs also increase their happiness by eating flies in the pond, playing the puzzle game, or using potions on them. If left in a habitat without enough scenery or other frogs their happiness level will slowly revert to the habitat base level. Taming frogs does not affect their value.

The fastest way to accumulate coins without the VIP Package is to breed 8 eggs, wait for them to hatch, move them from the Nursery to another habitat and repeat. Potions can be used to speed hatch time so frogs can be moved from the Nursery sooner. With the VIP Package (or the Babyproof Kit from earlier versions of the game), eggs can be moved from the nursery into other habitats before they hatch. Breed enough eggs to fill all available habitats, wait for them to mature, sell them and repeat.

The absolute net maximum coin gain depends on the color values and child mutation chances from the parents compared to the resulting offspring value. To compute the net gain from breeding one has to compute the percentage of offspring of each possible combination times the value of each, minus the breeding cost. Breeding your highest value frogs together is usually close to the yielding the maximum profit.

Breeding for 100% of a Pattern in the Froggydex
Each player's FroggyDex tracks all frogs they have ever had in their habitats, including eggs. Frogs in the mailbox must be moved to a habitat to be added to the FroggyDex. Many players have a goal to collect 100%, which is 368 frogs, of one or more individual patterns. There is an Award for doing this the first time. This process is often referred to as Dexing.

Getting the necessary breeds
When two frogs are bred there is a probability of 1, 2, 4, or 8 different breeds that can be present in the offspring depending on the commonalities in the parent frogs. Frog breeds which are not currently in the FroggyDex will be displayed on the breeding screen with an asterisk after the name. After breeding the player must touch the possible offspring image again to update the asterisk status since it does not update automatically. Once an egg is created, if it is new breed combination an entry for it will be created in the FroggyDex immediately and the asterisk will be removed from the name. It does not have to hatch first. The FroggyDex gives the value, speed and stamina for all collected frogs. Those values are in almost all cases unique and can be used to identify the egg in the nursery.

Color Wheel Method
A Color Wheel is a systematic method to breed frogs without needing to use a spreadsheet to track the offspring. There are many different ways to breed with a color wheel. It is most frequently used to collect all color combinations for a single pattern. Other options include collecting all color combinations for 2 patterns at a time, or collecting all patterns for a single color combination.

To be considered a color wheel the collection should contain at least 23 frogs with all possible primary colors, and among those frogs all 16 secondary colors. There will necessarily be duplicates of the secondary colors. Many times the wheel frogs are all the same pattern, but some wheels consist of mixed patterns. The sections below describe examples of breeding and using a color wheel to complete the FroggyDex for one or more patterns.

A color wheel will take up at least 3 habitats but may be spread over more to allow frogs to be easily moved into the same habitat for breeding. Frogs are always ordered in the habitat display in order of age, where the age is set at the time an egg is bred or when a frog is moved from the mailbox into a habitat. To create an ordered color wheel the frogs must be bred or cloned in the color order that is desired.

Dexing with the Color Wheel for a Single Pattern
There are many ways to systematically breed with a color wheel without having to separately track which frogs you still need to complete 100% of the FroggyDex. Here is only one example of a breeding procedure:


 * 1) Start with the first frog in your wheel. One by one breed it with the other 22 frogs in the wheel. Touch each of the possible child frog images to see the name and look for those which still have an asterisk after the name.
 * 2) Skip breeding those combinations where you have all the possible child frogs, and breed those with missing child frogs until you have them all.
 * 3) When your Nursery fills up with eggs your choices are:
 * 4) Sell the eggs immediately without trying to recoup the mature value of the frogs.
 * 5) If you have the VIP Package, move the eggs to another habitat, let them mature and sell them when mature. Because the breeding cost is roughly half the value of the frogs you can also let them mature only halfway and sell them to maintain your current coin level.
 * 6) If you do not have the VIP Package, wait until the eggs have hatched or use potions to speed them hatching, and then move them to another habitat to mature.
 * 7) Continue until you have bred your first frog with all other frogs in the wheel.
 * 8) Unless there were mutations, you should now have 100% of that primary and secondary color in the FroggyDex. You can either move that frog to another habitat if you are planning to save and gift the original wheel, or you can sell it.
 * 9) Breed the second frog in the wheel with the remaining 21 frogs. Repeat this process for all frogs in the wheel until you have 100% in the FroggyDex of all colors.

If you find mutations you will have to use a different combination of parent frogs to breed the missing child frog. Options include using one of the other child frogs from the wheel that has the right colors to breed back to the parent, or pick a frog with the same color combination but a different pattern to breed the missing frog.

Evolving the Color Wheel to a new Pattern
There are many strategies to evolve an existing color wheel to a new pattern. One approach is after each frog in the wheel is bred to every other frog in the wheel, breed it to a frog of the new pattern until a frog of the same primary and secondary color is obtained. Sell the old frog and keep the new frog. Repeat frog by frog until all frogs have been converted to the new pattern. At that point the old pattern should be 100% in the Froggydex and there is a color wheel of the new pattern to dex.

If you want to gift the original wheel to another user, move the old pattern frogs into separate habitats as they are finished breeding. This will require having spare habitats to store the old wheel frogs.

Alternative Color Wheel Method, Mixed Patterns
If money isn't a rare resource for you, it is possible to create a color wheel out of different frog breeds for each color, including only undexed (not 100%) breeds. You clone a frog of the breed and basic color you want to complete next and a random (preferably always different) secondary color and wait for it to be delivered to your mailbox. This strategy is slightly more time consuming, but fills your FroggyDex in a broader approach and maybe even faster, because your color wheel breeds get (slowly) completed as well.

Breeding Specific Frogs
There are 368 different combinations of primary and secondary colors for each pattern and 112 different patterns. That gives 41,216 possible different frogs. To store one frog of each pattern requires 14 habitats, and to store all 368 color combinations requires 46 habitats. Without the VIP Package players are limited to 33 habitats. Even with the VIP Package it is only possible to buy 65 habitats, so in practice people store only a small number of frogs and either clone or breed specific frog colors and patterns when needed.

Direct Cloning
If the desired frog pattern and color combination is already in your FroggyDex and you have enough coins you can clone it directly at a cost of 10x the value. It appears in your mailbox. You can wait for it to be delivered or speed delivery with stamps.

100% of a Pattern
The "Breed Expert" Award requires a player to get 100% of the 368 color combinations for a single pattern of frog. These frogs can be used to clone and breed any other color and pattern combination.

To get 100% of the colors for a single pattern requires a player to find and breed frogs with all 23 primary colors and all 16 secondary colors. New frog colors can be found by breeding with other frogs in the pond, finding frogs in presents, winning races and taking frogs as prizes, playing the search game, or getting gifts from other players.

To breed missing frog color combinations, breed frogs where one of the parent frogs has the primary color required and one of the parent frogs has the secondary color required. The breeding screen will show all possible child frog color combinations. The actual frog bred will be a random selection from all possible child frogs. Frogs missing from the FroggyDex will have an asterisk after their name. Breed and touch the missing child frog again. If the asterisk is gone, you have bred the missing color combination.

For example, breed a Black Floris Anura with an Emerald Tingo Anura if you don't own both a Black Tingo Anura and a Emerald Floris Anura.

Most players use the Anura pattern to breed all 368 frogs because they are the cheapest to breed and mature the fastest. They are also the cheapest to clone.

Keeping Frogs by Pattern


Once they have habitat space many players keep one frog of each pattern. When they run out of space they keep the highest level patterns. Cloning costs 10x the value of a frog so low value patterns are not too expensive but cloning high value frogs is very expensive.

Cloning plus Breeding
If you have 100% of the Anuras in your FroggyDex and one frog of the desired pattern in a habitat you can clone an Anura frog of the right primary and secondary colors and breed it with the frog of the pattern you need. Cloning Anuras is relatively cheap (410-610 coins), they are delivered in the mailbox quickly (~15 minutes), and after breeding any resulting child frogs which aren't the desired color or pattern can be sold to recoup part of the cost.

For example, if you need a Cocos Folium Arbor for the "Endangered 4" award :


 * 1) Go to your FroggyDex and clone a Cocos Folium Anura for 470 coins.
 * 2) Go to your mailbox and use 1 stamp if you don't want to wait. Tame it in the pond then place it in the habitat containing the Arbor frog.
 * 3) Breed the Cocos Folium Anura with the Arbor you own.
 * 4) You have 1/8 chance to get the correct frog. Check the FroggyDex to see if the frog is in one of the eggs. To find the correct one match the value, speed and stamina (6,579 coins, speed 75, stamina 68 for the Cocos Folium Arbor). The other eggs can be sold if you prefer more space than money.

Breeding with the Color Wheel
If you are keeping a color wheel in your habitats, you can use it plus a frog of the right pattern to breed any needed color and pattern combination.


 * 1) Choose a breeding habitat to breed in. This can be the nursery or a habitat with a few available spots.
 * 2) If the frog you need has a base and pattern color that is already in your wheel, move it into the breeding habitat.
 * 3) If the frog you need has a different base and pattern color than is in your wheel:
 * 4) Move the 2 wheel frogs that have the base colors and pattern colors you need into the breeding habitat.Africanus colour wheel.jpg
 * 5) Go to the breeding screen for one of those frogs and click to breed with the other. It will show all possible breeds this combination can possibly create. As you click on each possible offspring frog, new breeds (frogs not already in your Froggydex) will have an asterisk after their name.
 * 6) Breed those two together. The breeding screen does not automatically update, so you have to click on the missing frog again. If the asterisk disappears, you have bred that combination.
 * 7) If you are trying to breed a frog that was already in your Froggydex you will have to go to the nursery and look at the max value, speed and stamina of the egg. If it matches the frog you want you are done. If not, repeat the breeding step until you have it.
 * 8) Move your color wheel frogs back to the original habitats. You are done with them.
 * 9) Move a frog of the pattern type you want into the breeding habitat.
 * 10) Breed the correct pattern type frog with the correct color mix frog. If this is a new frog, check to see if the asterisk is gone from after the breed name.
 * 11) Check the eggs. If the value, speed and stamina matches then this is the egg you want.

For example, if you need a Cocos Folium Arbor for the "Endangered 4" award :


 * 1) If your wheel contains a Cocos Cafea Anura and a Green Folium Anura, breed them together until you get a Cocos Folium Anura.
 * 2) Use a potion to mature the egg if you don't want to wait.
 * 3) Tame it in the pond then place it in the habitat containing the Arbor frog.
 * 4) Breed the Cocos Folium Anura with the Arbor you own.
 * 5) You have at least a 1/8 chance to get the correct frog. Check the FroggyDex to see if the frog is one of the eggs. To find the correct one match the value, speed and stamina (6,579 coins, speed 75, stamina 68 for the Cocos Folium Arbor). The other eggs can be sold if you prefer more space than money.

Getting Multiples of the Same Frog
For many of the awards, multiples are needed, sometimes up to 8 of the same frog.
 * 1) Breed to get one version of the exact frog needed.
 * 2) Tame this frog
 * 3) Clone a copy of this frog from the FroggyDex
 * 4) (optional) Use a stamp to rush delivery
 * 5) Tame and breed the frog with his clone.

Getting Multiples at Less Cost

 * 1) Breed to get one version of the exact frog you need
 * 2) Tame this frog
 * 3) Breed this frog with a frog of the same color combination
 * 4) From this breeding, a player may only have 4 possible outcomes (at most). Once a player successfully breeds a second exact frog, tame it.
 * 5) Breed this frog with the frog in step one for as many as needed.