Sorry newbie question, thinking about what to start breeding. Which species do you recommend that has the best fighting abilities? Cockatrice? Their poisoning seems cool. Please advise, thanks.

The Regeneration ability is very useful, it heals about 1/6 of HP every turn. Can be found in unicorns, symurghs and cockatrices. Unicorns are most common. When new, I got started with a couple of basic Regen unis from the pound, and still find this ability to be unstoppable.

If you want to focus on cockatrices: spitting acid is a strong elemental Bite attack. Requires both Acid gland + Spitting muscle genes active at once.

Poisonous teeth, Poisonous claws or Venomous skin can all poison the enemy upon contact. Very powerful status effect, but these genes are quite rare.

Petrifying gaze is my favourite ability of theirs. Keep using Bite/Blow moves only, and the enemy will often miss the turn. Combine with Regeneration and... you see where this is going. x) Very annoying for your opponent.

See the genetic library (Help - List of Genes) for more details, and things you can do with other species. With careful buying and breeding you can obtain a beast with many stat-bonuses and extra abilities at once.

Thanks a lot marans, this is very helpful !!!

Each species has unique genes and fighting abilities. So most people have a preference...

Poisonous claws, and venomous skin, and napalm gland (has to also have fire strike) cause ongoing damage in a fight. Also poisonous thorns on a throdama warrior. These are very nice to have, as once they activate they strip hitpoints from the opponent over multiple turns. Not so much fun when your opponent has these abilities though.

Unicorns and cockatrices have regeneration, so they can last far longer in a match. This is particularly useful when the unicorn has magic horn to make the opponent miss turns. Fragrance in unicorns and stench in cockatrices make the chance of your pet dodging the attack very high.

Cockatrices have acid spit, dragons have fire breath, rocs have lightning strike, and lykoses have ice breath. These elemental attacks are very powerful. Fearsome look (dragons) and petrifying gaze (cockatrices) and ice aura (lykoses) and massive wings (rocs) also make your opponent miss the turn.

Lykoses have Tireless heart, which gives the pet 15 energy instead of ten. All my best lykoses have ice breath and this gene.

I think my best advice to you is to buy beasts that can fulfil quests (striped black dragons, tan forest throdamas, pure black pumas, golden cockatrices, blue symurghs etc) that will give you enough silver every day to enable you, with some exploring, to afford to buy and breed good starter pets that you can get experience with, and then you'll be able to see what you like best.

Personally I like unicorns and lykoses the best, but that's purely for aesthetic reasons I guess.

No problem!

Oh, and I should have added... that all species are pretty much the same, in terms of basic stat numbers. Stats don't mean a lot, really.

It's all about getting extra abilities from genes, such as spitting fire, spitting acid, increased chance of dodging, chance of inflicting status effects on the opponent, or resisting those effects... and so on. Search for the genetic combinations that you want in a beast. :)

Drat, Marans beat me to it XD

Thanks to both of you Arete and Marans for your great help !!!