Hey guys, I'm Karebear (Bear) and thought I'd pop in to introduce myself!

I've played a few games like this before but was looking for one that really focussed on the breeding, which is when I came across Beast Keeper. I hope I find it as fun (and as distracting from university work as possible!) as the last few games I've been involved in!

I'm just trying to get my feet in the game and work out what on earth I'm doing haha, so if anybody has any useful tips they feel might be of help I'd be very grateful to hear them :)

One question I have now (only one because I don't know what it is that I don't know yet xD) is how much of a difference paying for a subscription is? I know we get a premium account for the first 2 weeks of playing, but I don't want to get really in to the game and then struggle to keep going when my account is downgraded to a new one! I'm a uni student so don't have the spare moolah to be spending on gaming :(

Look forward to meeting you all and *hopefully* becomming an active member of the game and it's community!

Thanks for reading my thread,

Bear :3

Hello Karebear! 

I joined when I was in college.... I spent way too much time in class on BK. But hey, I graduated just fine!! :P 

First off... My tip is to read these: http://beastkeeper.com/threads/21 

They are so helpful to new (and even veteran) users. You gain a lot of first hand user knowledge. :) 

Secondly.... Not that bad. I mean this is the list of benefits for premium users: 

• Premium users can set Triggers.
• Premium users see maneuvers that are currently selected by your opponents at the Battlefield.
• Premium users get Inbreeding Warning when trying to breed pets that are close relatives.
• Normal users can perform searches only among pets which are being traded. Premium users can search among all pets. This can be useful if you're looking for a pet with special traits and want to buy it from another Keeper who didn't put this pet up for trade.
• Premium users can search among their own pets.
• Normal users only see a pet's mother and father. Premium users have access to full genealogy.
• Premium users can instantly leave the island from any point of the map. Normal users need to move to the portal tile first.
• Premium users can send all pets within a group to Arena and cancel all battle applications within a group at once

Most of these things are created to save time really. Enjoy your two weeks. Right now leaving the island instantly is probably your most time saving thing. 

What will be nice later on is the ability to add all your pets to battle at once, see people's moves on the battlefield, and have the inbreeding warning (which you can look up manually with some detective work).

These things become useful if you have -lots- of pets. But when you get to the point it doesn't become too hard to ean gold in other ways. You don't have to donate to get gold coins! You can place on the weekly charts, report bugs, win events and sell custom skins. 

I hope this was useful! I'd be happy to answer more questions if you have them! :)

Thank you Nightingale that was all very useful! Been reading all the posts in the guides thread, very helpful in getting started :) And thats good to know its not too much of a difference, I just didn't want to get into the game and then not be able to afford to continue it!

Thanks again and have a nice day :)

No worries!! Beastkeeper is not pay to play. Everyone can enjoy. I forgot to mention another way of getting gold- and that is referring friends and having them complete the tutorial. :)

Please don't hesitate to ask me any other questions!!