Anyone who's gone through tutorial knows what this magical red powder is for: revealing the genes of your pet. But as it's a precious commodity, here's a quick guide on ways to find it and the best way to maximize it's use. 

Where do I find vermillion?

1. Explore.

Vermillion are piles of red sand on islands and can also be found inside treasure chests. This is the simplest method. You already should be doing a lot of exploring for building materials, silver, and easy exp anyway. 

In Desert Islands, you may also find Egg Shrines, which interact differently with your pet depending on gender. A male pet can donate it's DNA and receive 5 vermillion. A female pet can become pregnant from a random male that has donated DNA before and receive 10 vermillion. Your male/female will not use up a breeding point while doing this. 

2. Trade.

In item trades, you can buy vermillion with silver, or exchange for it with another item that the other trader specifies. (ie, they want a rainbow jar in exchange for x vermillion). Be careful with item exchanges, as the worth of the item they want may not be worth the item offered. 

3. Forums.

Take a look in the forums and look for threads that advertise free items. There are often players who offer to give away items for free for others who need them, particularly in Contest/Giveaways. However, these types of threads can be found in other forums, so look carefully. Also take care to notice how active the thread is; the player may not be giving away items anymore or have not logged in some time. 

4. Battlefield

Occupying certain pieces of territory on the Battlefield generates 2k silver and 10 vermillion every 10 hours. However, this is not a recommended method for new players since you can be forced off the land if your squad loses the battle. (And don't ask me about how to build a good squad since I don't know it myself haha.)

Okay, I'm getting vermillion, but I still don't have enough to research my pets completely. Now what?

1. Boost your chances of finding vermillion. Build an Astrologist and level it up when you have the opportunity. Enter what item you want to find on the Astrologist page and your chances of finding it when you enter islands increases. A level 1 Astrologist boosts by 3x, a lv4 boosts by 6x.

2. Boost your chances of finding vermillion in treasure chests. A pet with Agile Paws has a greater chance of finding vermillion in a treasure chest than one who does not. 

3. Explore in Grassland islands a lot with the pet you want to research. Occassionally, you may find a Gene Laboratory, where they research one of your unknown genes for free. Only one use per island, and it won't do anything if your pet is already fully researched. 

4. Be stingy with your vermillion. Don't research a pet if you don't really need to know it's genes. Save it for a pet you really want to know. It is also possible to guess at the genes it has.

• You can look at the parents and grandparents. You can hazard a guess at the offspring's genes if the parents and grandparents are researched. 
• If the parents/grandparents are not researched, or the pet in question is wild, then look at their characteristic numbers. (I call them stats)
• Look at the red/green stats they have and look at the Gene Library. Consider which genes affect what stat, how much power that gene has and make an educated guess. If a puma has a green Agility stat, it likely has Agile Paws, a red Agility might mean Clumsy Paws, etc. 
• If the stats are all green (likely a GP pet), hover over the stat in question: it will tell you where the extra bonus comes from. A pedigree modifier means the extra bonus comes from Genetic Power; a genetic modifier means the bonus came from a gene.

5. Build an Inn and invite a Geneticist. If you only wanted to know certain genes and don't care about others, then having a geneticist stay at your Inn for a few days lets you save some vermillion and silver since you can pick which genes are researched. 

Thanks for reading and hope this helps! Feel free to suggest improvements.