Hey, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now, here’s a guide for all of you who love free stuff and how to make the best out of it :)

Blue = for new players who don't know how to use the pound, I'd recommend to skip those part if you're familiar with that

The pound

 Basic info

-           The pound is accessible via the ‘’pet’’ table. It’s pretty big but we don’t know how many pets are in it. All the pets come from players. You can send a pet to the pound via its page, by clicking on the option on its right if it’s a non-busy adult. This will result in you loosing that pet and gaining 500 silvers.

 You can adopt a pet there ONCE  A DAY, for free. You won’t be able to trade it ( including sending him to the pound) for 7 days. However, you will be able to use it right away for breeding, battle, quests and send him to reserve if you have one.

 You have a few informations on the pets in the pound: its level, name, skin, race and sex. You don’t know if it has degeneration or genetic power and you don’t know its genes.  

Be sure to know 

You can refresh the page and have a new selection of pets

 If you go directly to the page of a pet and that pet is currently in the pound, you’ll have the option to adopt it. Use that tool to get back pets you regret sending away or for some of the tactics below ( more details later on)

Tactics

Here are some of the ways I use the pound. This is based on my experience, feel free to share yours. The pound has mostly uninteresting pets so these tactics all need patience and luck.

1. Beginners : use the pound to get some pets fast. This will give you pets to accomplish some quests, explore, build things and start a new line of breeding. Choosing a high level pet can be more useful for that.

2.  Some points to consider  when choosing  a pet ( This part is the least scientific of the bunch, your mileage may vary :P)

-          Homozygous color/pattern genes : If a pet has homozygous genes for color or pattern of the most recessive gene of its specie, you can tell right away by the way it looks ( see the list of skin and genes in the ‘’ help’’ tab to see what this appearance is). These pets are often the result of a failed deviant breeding. They are useful mostly for that use. Their genes tend to be okay at best.

 Recessive color/pattern : These are the pets that have a rarer appearance, without being the rarest( and thus homozygous). These are usually a good choice if you choose at random and you are looking for great genes because they tend to be the result of a more careful breeding. You will have way less wild pets in that category.

 High level pets : The usual high level pet in pound standard is around lvl 20. These are interesting for beginners but their genes is usually okay-ish with sometimes 1 or 2 great ones. My theory is that they come from new members clearing a bit of space and getting rid of their first pets. The really great pets in pound are usually level 1 pets that went there right after their birth because they were not perfect in the eyes of experienced players who usually have great genes banks and gp pets. That being said, any level 50 pet in the pound is worth trying in my opinion.

3. (low) steady income

If you have 7 free space in your stable and desperately need money without being in a hurry, you can adopt a pet from the pound each day and after a week, start sending them back. The net gain is about 375 silver per pet, lower if you forget to send them away after 7 days. Eventually, you may even find one that you will want to keep.

4. Specific gene research

This tactic is really effective but require time to succeed, both because you need to research for the right pet and often you need to make more than one attempt.

If you are looking for a specific genes that you don’t have at all in your stable, example : a lighting strike roc for a kami event…, the quickest way to achieve that without buying one is to find a pet from the pound with the appropriate recessive genes and breed it.

To find this pet in the pound, you want to have a direct link to its page. This will allow you to adopt it without searching through the pound. You can find this link via its parents page, by clicking first on the number next to ''children'' in the top corner left and then by clicking on the name of a pet that as ''Pound'' as owner. You adopt it and Tada! Done

 Of course, you need the right parents with the right genes for that. A great way to search for appropriate parents with available offspring is to go in the pet breeding tab and search for a male with the required genes. Once you found a couple of suiting ones, it’s time to go back in the family line. You go up and down in the pedigree by checking the offspring of the father, their offspring, the father of their mother or of your original pet...  and you go on like that, looking for a pet that has been placed in the pound. There is a lot of dead ends, I usually do this with a lot of internet tabs opened so I don’t lose sight of the first key pets. It’s easier to go straight to males since they can have lots of children, sometimes using a female as a way to another male ( her father).  It’s important to remember to verify if the parent of the children you are checking has the genes you look for because it's surprisingly easy to get lost. Save the links somewhere if it didn’t work and the pet you adopted is not the one you were looking for, you can go on tomorrow!

Works great to acquire pets for quest based on their colour or abilities, pets for kami events, rarer types of beast like lykos or throdama, homozygous pets to breed deviants and other things. It’s less effective to find GP pets though, since most of them aren't put in the pound in the first place and it's not guaranteed that the offspring inherited it.

Okay fiew sorry that was waaaayyy longer than I thought it would be, thank you for the read and feel free to share whatever you think may be of use or  to correct my English :)

I'd like to add some critical tidbits.

A pet with an astrict * somewhere in its name means it has a genetic power star. One * for each level. So a pet named:

Raincatcher*** = GP3 pet.

Molly ** = GP2

Richard* = GP1

It -IS- possible to find a pet with a custom skin, or a deviant in the pound! I've found both. It is also possible to find a level 50 pet. (I've found 5 of them.) Only one of those five were good and they were neutered. :) The others had to be rehomed because they lost fights just trying to explore. and were donated for a reason, but if you avoid battles and just collect silver, level 50 pets can collected upwards to 1.5k silver at a time during explores which is a life saver early game.

And also note that certain users name their pets certain ways! If you keep track of prominant people, you'll see they have naming conventions that can help you spot a high quality pet. For example anything in the pound prefaced with W.(Name here) was bred by Wisteria. (Me) and is genetic power three, often with homozygous color/pattern or close to or perfect genes. (I don't preface the W.- if they are not GP3.)

Other users are known for their amazing stud males and preface those studs- I found one in the pound and he had perfect genes too. :D

Some other people add specific initials or suffixes so keep an eye out!

Genetic purity is something I always look for. The better the genes, the more likely one is to win battles.

Remember, if your pet has good genes, it will level up really easily.

What I do is this: I either use Pet Search (when I have premium) or Breeding offers. I search for the genes and GP levels I want, and find animals that I like the look of. Then I go into their profile page and click on their children. If they have children in the pound I adopt them.

It's a bit of a gamble but I have gotten good pets that way, partcularly questers. I also sometimes approach the owners of rare pets directly, and ask for breedings.

I once found a perfect gened unicorn in the pound. She formed the basis of my project to get my first perfect deviant. She's a cremello and she is beautiful.