As season 0 of Champs nears its almost time to switch from play money to risking the real thing.
With that in mind I thought now would be a good time to share a bit of what I’ve learnt about breeding so far.
More specifically about star ratings and how they correlate with your chances of rising to the top of the match making leaderboard.
That and how best to consistently breed above 3 stars.
First off, it goes without saying, but if you’re aiming for the top 50 you need to breed quality foals.
3 stars or above.
As you can see below, aside from 2 over performing 2.5 star horses everything else is 3 to 4.5 stars.
(No 5 stars have been bred as yet)
Top 50 breakdown.
2.5 stars – 4% (2 horses)
3.0 stars – 30% (15 horses)
3.5 stars – 30% (15 horses)
4.0 stars – 30% (15 horses)
4.5 stars– 4% (2 horses) These were both highly ranked at 4th and 17th place.
Narrowing things down to the top 5, if your aiming for the tippity top of the mountain you’ll notice below that 4 of the top 5 horses are 4 stars or more.
But what else catches your eye?
Top 5.
1st Cosmic Statesman. 4 stars.
3.5 speed/5 sprint/2.5 endurance.
2nd Attentive Triptych 3 stars.
4 speed/1 sprint/2.5 endurance.
3rd Nautical Rest 4 stars.
4 speed/5 sprint/3 endurance.
4th Esteemed Will 4.5 stars.
4.5 stars speed/5 stars sprint/3 stars endurance.
5th Solare Farewell 4 stars.
4.5 stars speed/5 stars sprint/2.5 stars endurance.
Did you notice the anomaly in the top 5?
That’s right, the second ranked horse “Attentive Triptych” has 4 stars of speed but just 1 star of sprint and despite this it has a 36% win rate.
Looking further down the top ten ranked horses I also noticed others that had the same high speed and low sprint ratings.
It appears in Champions speed is the most important trait.
So how can we do our best to ensure we breed competitive horses that are mostly above 3 stars?
My first tip of course is focus on speed when selecting parents.
Doing just that in Beta this past week has seen my last 9 breeds turn out to be between 3 and 4 star foals.
My second tip to breed consistent 3 plus star horses would be to avoid Buterins.
Unfortunately in Beta most of my starting mares were Butes and I never really bred anything good with them.
The guide below describes them as “Wildcards” so I am sure you could get something good or even great but with real money on the line I’ll be mostly be steering clear.
So my current strategy for season 0 will be to start with 2 parents that have 3.5 or more stars of speed rating.
Based on the guide above and my limited experience I’ll first be pairing a Nakamoto with either a Szabo or a Finney. (Or vice versa)
Ideally the parents will also have a good win rate or at worst a good place rate.
My next consideration will be sprint, perhaps at least a 3 rating there, followed by endurance (career longevity).
Preferably I can start at G0 and build these secondary traits in further as I create my bloodlines.
That said, all the way down the line my first focus will be on speed and win rate with odds considered for good measure.
So that’s where I’m at guys, a need for speed.
I’ll continue to experiment but for now I Hope this has been helpful.
Good luck with your badges, I’ll see you in season 0 next week!