Checklist for Every Day Play

==Summary==
Time creep in Merge Dragons is known. Playing for a short while for a critical opportunity for merge chains has over time, changed from sparse and difficult-to-obtain rewards to hours of play, constant rewards and multiples of rewards that take loot management to a new role.
Even the simplest "Complete merge chains" among the motivated has changed to "There are too many new chains to ever complete" concerns, but this abundance can be seen as a prelude to still changes to come and so to stay full of hope. Hence there are reasons for more new works on how to maximize play such as Guide: Where to farm Dragon Stars and Cosmos Eggs and The Efficiency Guide, more completed pages in this Merge Dragons Wiki, and more contributors contributing; noting changes and sometimes gems among the landscapes that are in addition to what the new roll-outs and upgrades provide.
How does a player reflect on what was in the game, with what is presently offered, especially with A/B play, all in light of knowing more changes will come? It's an overwhelming position that can be at least partially measured with time management.
===Time Management from Earlier ===
At first, perhaps just 4 short years ago in 2019, here were the 9 game plays to make every day - don't be surprised, Merge Dragons has hugely changed! If you came online to the game, merged chains, took up harvesting, completed Camp Quests and World Map Levels, and scanned the Camp for things on a 24-hour cycle, these game plays below were the checklist you got to do.
#30 Days Gems Payout - has to be collected daily, or will be counted as missed out.
#Chest Room - has Chests that when selected to Unlock, then count down a timer and shows up ready to Collect, that will not roll over to the other chests without you collecting it.
#Daily Reward - automatic pop-up that sends you the day's reward in the form of a 7-day streak.
#Event Trophies, tap every 10 hours - if these are displayed in Camp, the timer stores a tap collecting up 10 hours of in Camp play, but the Trophy will lose that stored tap if still uncollected by 20 hours.
#Friend Gift To/From - Friends can gift you daily, but will receive a message that your inbox is full at 20 gifts, so these gifts needed to be collected or the flow will stop, and you have a counter of 5 gifts daily to gift out that has to have had 1 gift sent out to restart the 23 hour timer for new gifts to send.
#Kala's Daily Trade - it appears above a portal for a limited time, it can only be seen while in Camp, but having fulfilled the quest, it disappears until the next day.
#Events - if ongoing, having started already or about to start, events require continuous play management in the event level.
#Wonders, tap every 10 hours (for most Wonders) - similar to Event Trophies above.
#Dragon Chalices - approximately 1 refill per hour, and maxes at 7, so the counter must be dropped down in order to get more to refill.
Note: All Event Trophies and Wonders on the board have timers that keep the progress of time played in camp. These type of timers make it so it is not a requirement to pass 10 hours in play all in one lump together.
===Time Management Today===
Today one main reason to come online, different than to complete merge chains, is based on the opportunity for repeated rewards. Camp & Chill Event, Den Events (on hiatus), Race Events such as the Mushroom Madness Race, and Shiny Days Event were all added to the Events from earlier. Developers increased the rewards based on new portals to upgrade or 'max', but players began to complain about a sense of littering their camps with loot or chain builds that would take at least a day itself to organize only to find while in Camp, another event had started or another quest was repeated.
Players began to look for ways to not clutter their camp, and so turned to Levels for answers - wanting a quick shortcut to completing the quest or farming for a particular need. The quantity of Levels changed from less than 200 to over 500 and the ability to keep track of which Level provided which solution became a needle in a haystack. Whether or not you included play on Levels in your day-to-day, it was soon expected to have to check on that at least periodically for when updates would roll out another sequence and you would have another 8 to 12 levels to have to begin play on else the map would soon expand again.
Now if you come online to the game, you might have as follows:
*a competitive Race Event starting that requires you to drop other play in order to be the race champion,
*an OOC event ongoing with different rush rewards to spur players to get the top points within 36 hours of the event starting,
*a Camp n' Chill that most players report they are ready for but only by unbubbling previously amassed high point tappable items,
*a Star Quest/Event Portal/Season Portal quest that was of such a high level or amount it seemed months could pass before solving and so you'd have to go searching for resources,
* or a Shiny Days Event that requires dragon breed merging in volume that can be a challenge to cap.
And as if the repeated rewards in the events weren't difficult to master, and the levels in the World Map oddly growing in number, there were:
* 9 new separate play levels added to Camp as Islands - Arcadia, Dens, Dragon Breeding, Dragon Homes Island, Dragon Missions, Dragonia Kingdoms, Event Portal, Season Portal, and Treasure Tower;
*a timer and system change from Camp Quests for the new Star Quests;
*an additional Dragon Shrine chest to collect,
*and a repeating 28-day Seasons new type of event.
Therefore in addition to the daily game plays mentioned earlier, these below are the checklist for every day play you got to do. 
#Arcadia, tap every unknown hours - has event level tap timers on each of the 3 merge chains of Arcadia Trees, Arcadia Fountains, Arcadia Towers.
#Basic Soul Crystals, up to 10-12 every 24 hours - gained only as by-products through merges done in Camp and only through 5-merges.
#Crystal Harvesting, tap every 16-22 hours from the Soul Tree - timer can be improved through Dragon Breeding upgrades.
#Dragon Shrine Decision Eggs, have to be re-checked - contents change on exiting and re-entering the game.
#Den Chest, have to collect up to 50 points and collect chest - have to qualify to receive chest through making the minimum merges of dragon breeds, and collect the chest once weekly in order to restart counting newly qualifying merges for points.
#Dragon Breeding, tap when breeding timer expires - the chamber must be emptied in order to be reloaded with another timed match, or further progress in the Breeding Exclusives is unable to be obtained.
#Dragon Homes Island, tap every 3 hours - only through play in Dragon Homes and finding the Dust Bunnies that escape into Camp will give progress on the Ash Bunny dragon merge chain.
#Dragon Missions, approximately 1 refill per 30 minutes, and maxes out at 9, so the counter must be dropped down in order to get more to refill.
#Dragon Shrine - once all the rewards are earned, starts a 24 hour timer.
#Dragonia Kingdoms, visit every unknown hours during event - there are only several days each cycle of Dragonia Kingdoms visit to the Camp realm, with only a few opportunities to 'embark', and during these windows chests that have been earned through object donation need to be collected in full or lost.
#Event Portal - can complete a maximum of 3 each 24 hours.
#Web Reward Streak, must be done through the main web site - once a day daily per streak, and if a day is missed, the final rewards is lost.
#Season Royal Pass Bonus Chest - unlocks once daily at midnight to collect (available only to those who have purchased the Season Royal Pass, and have completed all 30 quests).
#Season Decision Egg, has to be re-checked - similar to Dragon Shrine Decision Eggs above.
#Season Event Quests, Free or Royal Pass ones - have a 28-days timer to complete 30 quests and collect the rewards, so there is daily haste to complete it.
#Season Portal - can complete a maximum of 3 each 24 hours.
#Star Quests - can complete a maximum of 12 each 24 hours.
==Further Notes==
Daily increments, just like in any activity, do show up as real progress in a sense of having spent the time and the mental jogging to keep all the balls afloat. That some players report a sense of calm when they just focus on one aspect of play and let the rest be unwatched, untapped, or otherwise just unattended, should come across as true given the way Merge Dragons has just increased way beyond what feels like a normal stretch. But for the naturally attentive, or otherwise steadfastly secure in their convictions that they'll get through these checklists so the rest will fall into place, their Merge Dragons is probably built like a champions palace. 
Category:Tutorial