Contests

Creatures can start entering Contests at Level 3. Contests increase hunger and decrease happiness. In return, the winners earn money and XP and cost nothing to enter. Contests are a great way to level up pets once you have run out of Quests for the day and, if you win, it makes a little money as well! Pets gain .50 XP for every critter they place above. You can win other kinds of prizes depending on the contest dificulty: Hearts and Tokens are awarded separately, so you can win both a heart and a token from the exact same contest. All prizes are given at random. First place doesn't always win the heart or token!
 * Difficulty 25%+, you have a chance to win Hearts from contests
 * Difficulty 10%-35%, you can win bronze tokens
 * Difficulty 36%-75%, you can win silver tokens
 * Difficulty 75%+, you can win gold tokens

To enter a contest, first train a pet up to maximum stats, then click the "enter" links on your pet's page. From there just wait and the contests will run as they fill up and prizes will be granted automatically.

There are 5 types of Contests: the Sky Race, the Mountain Race, the Sparring Contest, the Alchemy Competition and the Grappling Match. The terrain (Valley, River, etc) is meaningless, but the actual type of contest (Mountain, Alchemy) is not. Each one calls on different skills.

Each contest requires 3 different physical skills, and all require the interior stats: Wisdom, Courage and Heart. Normal skills come from Training, while Internal Stats only come from using Star gems found in Random Events and can't be trained. Internal stats are modifiers and do nothing without having good normal stats, so training your pets to full stats before competing is a must!

Each contest is rated by skill level. Skill level is determined by how your pet stacks up to the strongest pet in the game, comparing your pet's normal skills to theirs. Interior stats (heart, courage, wisdom) are not taken into account until the contest actually runs. Skill level will not always match creature level, but it will assure that similarly trained pets will run together.

Entering and Winning Contests
Creatures can enter contests that are 5 above or below their current difficulty level. This is because all contests also have an element of randomness. This isn't like some games where you can see the winners the moment you enter.

Contest weighting of stat importance is within a RANGE and the actual weighted values are determined WHEN THE CONTEST RUNS. This is to simulate varying conditions and judge preference.

The stats that count towards the results are the stats of each entry AT THE TIME OF ENTRY. If you enter in the morning, train a whole bunch, and the contest runs that night... the stats from THAT MORNING count, NOT the trained stats. So take that into consideration- and that explains why a Level 100 critter might be in your level 50 competition. When they entered they were the right level and will be judged as if nothing changed.

It's also possible for your critter to be in a "funk" and simply NOT do anything. If you've ever shown animals in real life you know some days are just NOT your day.

The Contests
Contests happen as long as there are enough creatures signed up and there are enough contests filled for the script to run. (Number given was 25)

For Contests under difficulty rating 25 it's 6 entries, difficulty rating 25 through 49 need 4 entries, and difficulty rating 50+ needs 3 entries.

Species in italics get an extra bonus (marked in parenthesis)

 Alchemy 
 * Intelligence
 * Cunning
 * Stamina
 * Species bonus to: Unicorns, Dragons, Hippocampi, Anghas and Kitsune (1%)

 Grappling 
 * Agility
 * Strength
 * Intelligence
 * Species bonus to: Phoenixes, Gryphons, Hippogryphs and Fenrirs
 * Species PENALTY to: Kirin

 Mountain Race 
 * Stamina
 * Cunning
 * Agility
 * Species bonus to: Dragons, Capirnicorns, Qilin, Kirin and Basilisks

 SkyRace 
 * Speed
 * Intelligence
 * Strength
 * Species bonus to: Pegasi, Phoenixes, Dragons, and Perytons (5%)
 * Species PENALTY to: Unicorns and Capirnicorns

 Sparring Contest 
 * Strength
 * Stamina
 * Speed
 * Species bonus to: Unicorns, Capirnicorns, and Perytons