DragonVale

Gameplay

DragonVale is a breeding simulation game in which players design a park and display dragons in habitats in order to earn "dragoncash". Dragons earn dragoncash while staying in their habitat. Different dragons earn at different rates depending upon their type and rarity. Dragoncash can be used to upgrade a park with new islands, habitats, and decorations. Currently the game has a max park level of 90, and there is a total dragon count of 343, (134 elemental dragons, 100 special dragons, and 144 epic dragons) decoration count of over 135, and an island count of 17.

There are ten basic elements: plant, earth, fire, cold, lightning, water, air, metal, light, and dark. Basic elemental dragons can produce a specific set of hybrid dragons by being paired in the Breeding Cave, the Epic Breeding Island, the Berrywhite Breeding Cave, which is only available during Valentine's, or the Cooperative Breeding Cave.

There are a number of limited or rare dragons that are only available during a specific period of time. These dragons are themed toward specific holidays, seasons, anomalies,months and events. For example, the Ghost dragon is available for Halloween and the Reindeer dragon is available for the winter holidays. There are also limited epic dragons like the Leap Year Dragon that is theoretically only available every 4 years. Limited dragons are often released alongside a limited park decoration. Limited dragons include the gemstone dragons, which correspond to the monthly birthstones. Gemstone dragons earn gems rather than dragoncash. Backflip Studios has held several "bring them back" events to give players a chance to breed a limited dragon they may have missed the first time around.

Gems are a vital part of DragonVale. Without them certain goals take longer to achieve. Gems can be acquired through trading them with friends, winning them in the colosseum and race track, purchasing them directly, or from gemstone dragons.

There are also a small number of Epic dragons, including Sun, Moon, Rainbow, Treasure, Olympus, Gemstone, Dream, Seasonal, Apocalypse, Chrysalis, Ornamental, Crystalline, Snowflake and Monolith.

There are pedestals where players can display incubated dragon eggs instead of hatching them. Once you put an egg on a pedestal, it cannot be removed.

In addition, there are two legendary dragons: Kairos, the Legendary Dragon of Time, who has the ability to fast forward all activities in your park by 6 hours; and Gaia, The Mother of Magic, who can instantly make your dragon's hatch every 4 days.

Players raise dragons to adulthood by feeding them treats. Though breeding is the most common way to earn non-basic dragons, they can also be bought from the market for gems unless they are the basic elemental dragons, for them you can use dragoncash. Players can buy new islands to make space for more habitats although there is a limit on habitats. All dragons have a different dragoncash earn rate. For example, a gift dragon at level 10 can only earn 77 dragoncash per minute, while a rainbow can earn 400 per minute at level 10. A level 10 moon dragon can earn 256 coins per minute.

To have dragons earn more cash, players may feed them treats grown from treat farms, won from the race track, or earned from the completion of quests.

The racetrack is a mini-game where players can race their best dragons for that race each. Each race lasts under one minute. Races have elements that your dragon needs to be bred for to win. Though timing plays a part, selecting a dragon whose elements match the current racetrack is required to win consistently.

There have also been several events held in relation to time of year or holidays that require the player to do a number of activities like collecting dragoncash/gems, hatching or selling dragons after incubation, and other special things provided. These activities give the player a certain limited time currency that corresponds to the event and enables the player to buy exclusive or unique items.

Critical reception

The game has a score of 84% based on 175 critic reviews.