The Great Hatchling Hunt level 6 - where to go?

Hello Dragon Ladies and Lords! In my post about level 4 of ongoing castle event I have explained why is minimizing the expected value of key finding cost important. If you haven't read it, you should do it before reading this post.

Now, the level 6 is different from previous levels for two reasons: finding key at level 6 will not increase your Egglets pool and there is only one way to get to every chest (not counting possibilities to go around battles). Because of that, optimizing this level isn't so important as it was for previous levels. However, if you aren't sure if you will complete the event, it's still worth to follow the recommended routes. It will give you higher chance of obtaining Petal if you aren't sure if you will be able to open all the chests at level 6. Also, all chests prize (Princess in this case) pieces from castle events are sometimes available in special card packs (purchased for gems) after the event ends. There is no official information from Gameloft, whether Princess pieces will be available this way or not, so it is possible. In my personal opinion, Gameloft will let us buy card packs with chances for Princess, but we can't be sure about it. Now, if Princess will be available in gem card packs and you are willing to spend gems to obtain her, having possibly many cards from event will increase your chances of getting the missing pieces (or lower the number of gems spent). It won't matter at all, if the piece you have will come from chest at level 1 or at level 6. So, it will be great if you find Petal Dragon quickly and go back to open missing chests starting from the cheapest. Maps below will guide you through routes with best chances of finding Petal Dragon quickly. 

Once again, I assumed that you will win the battle that allows you to bring any dragons (if not, add 2500 to estimated value of finding Petal cost), and that if you are able to win one battle with certain team, you will win any battle that allows you to bring the same team.

For players, who can win all the battles at this map:

For players, who can only win battles with energy dragons:

For players, who can only win battles with metal dragons:

For players, who can't win any element-restricted battles

Battle dragons

If you are very determined about this event and plan to feed some of your dragons to be able to win battles, here are two good picks:

Tesla Dragon has energy and metal elements, so will be able to enter any battle at this level. He is common, so enchanting him is pretty easy, therefor you will be able to save some food, as the more enchantment stars a dragon has, the better are his statistics, so he will need lower level to win fights. For this reason, he is better than UV (uncommon) and Digital (rare), who both share element set with Tesla. Tesla is good pick for low-level players, as they will change their battle dragons soon anyhow, and having him at higher level than average dragon can be later useful for ruin exploring or breeding.

Archangel Dragon, who has been Dragon of the Month several times, and prize in some of past events is legendary, with metal and energy elements. As a legendary dragon, he can be member of primary team even for very advanced players, so feeding him wouldn't be a waste of food. Unfortunately, he is a limited-time dragon, so if you don't have him yet, there is no chance for you to obtain him before The Great Hatchling Hunt ends. Keep in mind that awakening Archangel's energy element takes two days, so better start now, if you plan to make him one of your battle dragons. If you don't have his metal element awoken yet, unfortunately you'll need to use some Chronosian seals or speed up awakening with gems. Because of the awakening and enchantment cost, I recommend Archangel only to advanced players, as Tesla is better for new players.

Other dragons that have both metal and energy element aren't good picks: the ones that only have metal and energy are rarer than Tesla, so they require more enchantment elements, not being any better than Tesla in battles. Tri-elemental dragons with metal and energy elements are all epic, so require really huge amount of enchantment elements, and none of them has any battle potential that would compensate this. An energy-metal-light or energy-metal-shadow hybrid would be worth being considered, even as epic, because of triple element strength of light and shadow elements. Unfortunately, no such dragon exists, so Tesla and Archangel are the only good picks in my opinion. 

If you don't want, or can't make a battle dragon neither Tesla nor Archangel, but you can level up another dragon (for example one from your secondary team), a dragon with metal element will be better pick than a dragon with energy element, as the route for players who can win battles that requires metal dragons has estimated value of Petal finding cost lower for about 1100 Egglets, and metal dragon will be able to fight in all the battles at level 5 if you get back there to get missing Princess pieces. 

Before you feed one of your dragons for the sake of event, make sure you have enough food to get him to the level that you need to win the battles. Otherwise it will not help you anyhow. Remember that you can train your dragon before entering the fight, teach him some skills and use Striker or Gravelis Clan Dragon Power. Even if you don't feed an energy dragon, it's worth teaching him the energy skill to level 6 with mastery of Power of Thunders, which gives you 25% chance of stunning the target. This skill is nice help in battle, even if casting dragon is on much lower level than enemies, so if you have some spare gold to spend, this is an option of increasing your chances to win the battles. 

Special thanks

This post wouldn't be possible without:

• Silent Grey Eminence, who created the program that I used for the calculations
• DML Wiki team, who posted tile costs, so that I could make the calculations
• Agnieszka, who sent me the screenshots of level 6

Thank you so much for your help!