Breeding is the core of the waja game, and therefore warrants the greatest amount of attention.
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Table of Contents
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1. Dominance
The twelve breeds of waja are ranked in terms of dominance. This determines which type of waja offspring will be when cross breeding between two breeds. Dominance is not fixed, and there is an off chance that you will have offspring matching the non-dominant parent. Additionally, when a new breed is first introduced, they can appear randomly in breedings that have a history of Normal wajas. New breeds may also be more dominant than their final position on the dominance ladder in order to establish the breed.
I am currently working some friends on sorting out a more "stable" dominance chart. We will be collating data from breedings to get a better picture of breed dominance. Until we have more information, you can use the following chart as a rough guide.
From most to least dominant:
Normal
Bane
Aerial
Fire
Plushie/Tempest/Egyptian/Corsie/African
Earth
Water
Breedless
Divine
Breeds in italics are fairly certain, while plushies, tempests, egyptians, corsies, and africans are the least known about breeds.
Normals are the one exception to the standard dominance rules. They are the most dominant species, but are also the most likely to produce mixed litters (litters where you have pups of both breeds). Mixed litters are possible with all cross-breedings, though the likelihood decreases the further apart the breeds are on the dominance chart. Additionally, Normals can give birth to new breeds of waja.
2. Inbreeding
Inbreeding occurs when the sire and dam of a pairing are closely related. Each time an inbreeding occurs, the pup will gain an inbreeding percentage. This percentage can be reduced with ice pears, or by breeding pups to non-related wajas. Each subsequent breeding will reduce the pup’s inbreeding percentage. A word of caution however, ice pears reduce a waja's IN% by a random amount (1-3%), and you should spend the extra pear to reduce an IN% of 1 all the way to 0, otherwise the pups will still have 1 IN%.
There is some degree of confusion at the moment as to what consitutes inbreeding. Initially, I was led to believe that if any waja appears twice in offsprings parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents, then that offspring will be inbred. However, I have recently been told that an inbreeding percentage will only appear if the offspring’s sire/dam is also their grandparent.
The inbreeding characteristic was introduced fairly recently, which may explain some of the confusion surrounding this aspect of breeding. Further, the inbreeding percentages rarely seem to make sense. The parents of a waja in my cave both had the same father, as shown below:
. -- Grand Sire
-- Sire --|
| -- Grand Dam 1
Offspring --|
| -- Grand Sire
-- Dam --|
-- Grand Dam 2
All three offspring, who have picked up a stunning purple coat, have an IN% of 40. Finally, inbreeding is surrounded by misconception. Line breeding is common amongst real-life breeders trying to strengthen markings or conformity in their pet line.
Some waja owners will refuse a waja or breed request if any waja appears in both parent’s lineage, no matter how far back (and when you’re talking generation 180-something, that’s a lot of parents to be checking).
You can check a waja’s linage by scrolling to the bottom of the details page and looking at the parents. You can click on the parent’s names or portraits to be taken to their detail pages, where you can view their parents, and so forth.
3. Inheritance
Trying to work out what a pup will look like is the most challenging (and rewarding) part of playing wajas. A pup will inherit its base colour, eye colour, mutations, and markings from their parents. The inheritance rules are not entirely straight-forward, but we can make educated guesses.
3.1 Base Colour
A pup’s base colour is half-way between that of the parents. A pure white male and a pure black female will produce a mid-tone grey (#706F6C to be exact). Using the custom demo and this combine colours tool, you can predict very precisely what the base colour is going to look like.
Remember that computer colours are based on the light spectrum and do not mix like paints. If you’re uncertain as to how a combination will turn out, use the combine tool. Below is an actual example taken from a waja that saw. The sire had a blue marking, the dam the same marking in red. As you can see, the combination of these particular shades is grey, not purple.
3.2 Mutations
Mutations are very unpredictable. Even if both parents show a mutation, there is no guarantee that the pup will even carry the mutation. The higher the parent’s MU characteristic is, the more likely they are to pass their mutations on to their offspring. However, waja’s with a high MU characteristic are also have an increased likelihood to produce pups with random mutations - mutations that weren’t present in either parent.
Some mutations also pass on their colour. Note the colour of a mutation before you breed, as you could be in for disappointment when you find your otherwise perfect pup has a bright green set of wings that clashes badly with the coat and markings you so carefully bred for.
Some breeders do not want certain mutations in their pups, or may object to certain combinations of mutations. On the other hand, there are breeders and collectors that love "monsters" - wajas with many mutations.
A paintball monster.
Mutations are rather easy to breed out of a waja lineage as the likelihood of passing on mutations tends to be low by default.
3.2.1 A Guideline to MU Inheritance
The hardest part about predicting whether or not a mutation will be passed to waja offspring is the MU characteristic. By default, a waja is more likely to “lose” a mutation the retain the traits of the parent. I don’t know if this is an intentional challenge programmed into the game or not. The following are not the exact breeding rules that determine mutation inheritance, but should give you a guide line towards predicting outcomes.
parent x parent = low MU :: moderate MU :: high MU
none x none = none :: none :: none or random
none x carry = none :: carry :: carry, visible, and/or random
none x visible = none :: carry or visible :: visible or random
carry x carry = none or carry :: carry :: carry, visible, and/or random
carry x visible = none or carry :: carry or visible :: visible and/or random
visible x visible = none, carry, or visible :: carry or visible :: visible and/or random
3.2.2 Low, Moderate, and High MU
I haven't done much research into the MU charateristic, so I couldn't really tell you what constitutes a moderate or high MU characteristic. Breeders, to whom mutations form an essential part of their waja, need to be able to determine what MU to give their wajas: enough so that they pass on their mutations, but not so high that the majority of their pups start sprouting random mutations.
3.3 Markings
There are three factors to marking inheritance: paired markings, unpaired markings, and inheritance of marking colours.
3.3.1 Paired Markings
When both parents have a specific marking, that marking is paired. All paired markings are reduced from the parents percentage, but the sire and dam’s reduced percentages are then added together to determine the offspring’s percentage. Paired markings are inherited more strongly than unpaired markings - the parents suffer less reduction, and the offspring will frequently have these markings as strongly as their parents exhibit them.
3.3.2 Unpaired markings
By contrast, unpaired markings occur when only one parent has a specific marking. Unpaired markings can be reduced to 10% or 20%, no matter how strong they were on the parent; though they may remain as strong as 50%. Waja offspring will always inherit paired markings, but tend to get a random number of randomly determined unpaired markings. It is possibly to breed weak markings out of mudballs by breeding them to unmarked wajas, but in all likelihood their offspring will always retain two or three weak markings.
Wajas inherit the order of their markings first from their mother, then from their father. Paired markings will be layered in the order the mother demonstrates them. Unpaired markings from the mother will remain in the layers the mother had them, and then unpaired markings from the father will be layered over the top.
3.3.3 Colour inheritance
Inheritance for markings works in the same way as base colour inheritance. Paired markings will be mid-way between the marking colour of the parents, and unpaired markings will have the same colour as the parent they inherited the marking from. The one exception to this is #RAINBOW coloured markings. As a general rule, wajas will inherit the #RAINBOW colour if they inherit a marking that one parent is rainbow-coloured in.
4. Mating Wajas
When you have found the perfect partnership, it’s time to mate them. If you own both wajas, simply make sure you have a love pear in your inventory, select the male you want to mate from and click the light blue breed button. You will be asked to select one of your cave females. Only females of breeding age will be shown, and females that are already pregnant will have a small stork icon next to them. Click the radio button next to the female and click the submit button at the bottom. You will receive a message advising you that your waja’s have successfully mated. From there you have nothing to do but wait.
If you are using another player’s male as a stud, make sure you have read the cave rules carefully. I cannot stress this enough. If you do not obey the cave rules, you make find your account suspended. A male that is available for breeding will have [Breeding] beneath his name. On the details page, the breed button will be light blue, with a price underneath. This is the stud fee. Clicking on the breed button will subtract the amount of waja credits from your account, and a love pear from your inventory; and you will be asked to select a female. Click submit. Once your breed request has been accepted, there is nothing to do but wait.
Using your male, but another’s female, is referred to as reverse breeding. Again, read the cave rules carefully. As the females require a love pear to breed, the polite thing to do is send a love pear to the female's owner regardless of whether or not the cave rules request one. The process is still the same: click on breed, select a male, and click submit.
The owner of the male waja designates where the pups will be born. You can select that they be born in your cave, the dam’s cave, or a cave of your designating (enter the player’s ID# or select a friend from the drop-down list). Some cave rules require that pups be born in their cave, and you will be sent your share of the litter once they are born. There is a "glitch" in the system that if there is a space at the end of the cave #, the system will not recognise the number you have entered and your pups will be sent to the W.A.T cave (waja administration team). For this reason, I highly recommend that if you are sending unborn pups to any cave other than the dam or sires, you have that cave on your friends list.
Remember when requesting a stud or reverse breed that the owner of the other waja can reject your breed request. If your request is rejected, your waja credits and love pear are not refunded, they are gone for good. Also remember that other players may not be online at the same time as you, and to be patient when waiting for a breeding request to be approved.
5. Studding/Reverse Breeding
To make your wajas available for stud or reverse breeding, the first thing you should do is review your cave rules. Once you’re happy that the rules cover everything (or at least everything you can think of), you’re ready to set breeding fees. On the details page, there will be a box to enter the breeding fee, and a check box to activate breeding. This is directly beneath the selling box, so take care that you’re not accidentally putting your precious waja up for sale.
Once your waja is available for breeding, [Breeding] will appear beneath its name. If another player wishes to breed with your waja, you will receive a breeding request. If you are concerned about the potential litter, you can check the other waja’s lineage and make sure that the other player understands all conditions regarding breeding with your wajas before you accept.
If you are not satisfied with the breeding, you can reject a breeding request. The waja credits they paid you for the breeding are not refunded, and if it was a reverse breeding request, you will have lost a love pear from your inventory.
6. The Waja Life Cycle
There are five stages to the waja life cycle.
Pregnancy: waja’s carry their pup(s) for five days before giving birth. Each litter consists of a single pup, or rarely: twins. If the mating pair both have high LQ characteristics, you can increase the litter size to a maximum of four pups, though this is rare.
Puppy Stage: during this stage, the young waja will be curled up in the cave. You can see the pup’s base and eye colour in their details, but it is not yet reflected on the pup’s coat. Markings and mutations are not yet shown. This stage lasts 4 days.
Juvenile Stage: starting on the 5th day, the pup is up and about, but not yet full grown. Resetting the waja’s image will allow you to see the juvenile artwork, and the coat takes on the adult colour, but the markings are not visible yet.
Pre-Breeding Stage: at 12 days of age the waja is full grown, and you can see all markings and mutations; however, the waja is still to young to breed. You must reset the waja’s image to see the colouration and marking, this will not happen automatically.
Adult Stage: at the age of 20 days, the waja reaches full maturity and can begin breeding.
