Breeding

**Breeding** is a method to obtain new colors of the existing patterns and, in case of the progressive koi, new patterns in *Zen Koi 2*. Breeding happens on the main screen while the player is swimming their active koi.

## Basics

The player needs at least one koi to start breeding. After the koi gains level 4 the player will get a message “Your Koi is now an adult and can breed.”

### Getting a mate

When the player is swimming an adult koi, at every half level a koi mate will spawn in the pond, offering the player a chance to breed to get one egg. Collector's koi will always get a mate with their own pattern. For progressive koi there is a chance to get a mate with their own, previous or next progressive pattern. *Note: Next pattern can appear in the pond only after the player collects at least five different fish of the existing pattern.*

During a certain time of the year when an event is active (Christmas, Easter, or Valentine's Day period, *etc*) a seasonal collector's koi mate can come to the player's pond if they are swimming a progressive koi, though the chance of getting a seasonal koi mate is fairly low.

A mate never comes if the egg slots are full. There also a few possible scenarios when the mate does not come even if the player has empty egg slots and their active koi hits half-level:

* A mate will not come if the previous mate is still in the pond (even after mating).
* A mate will not appear after the player activates the gems for the final pond symbol for ascension and then hits half-level.
* Swimming fast at higher pond levels may cause the mate to linger in the pond without appearing on the screen while trying to reach the player's koi.
* Leveling up too fast at higher levels can cause the mate not to appear because previous mate can still be in the pond.

If a mate is not appearing it may be helpful to enter the Pearl shop screen (by tapping the + sign in the top right corner of the screen) right after the active koi hits half-level for the game to send a mate immediately. It may also be helpful to switch to another koi and enter its pond, then switch back to the koi the player is breeding to refresh its pond.

### Getting an egg

In order to breed with the mate the player's koi needs to follow it closely. When it does, a circle timer appears. When the player or the mate leaves the circle, the timer depletes, and can be recovered when finding the mate again. The breeding is complete when the circle is full. An egg appears, and the player will see the list of possible offspring and will be prompted with a choice either to save the egg to the list or to release it. If the mating koi has the same pattern but different base and spot colors as the player's koi, four possible offspring are listed. If the mate the same base or spot color as the player's koi, only two offspring variations are possible. If the mate has a different pattern, up to eight offspring variations are possible (only applicable to progressive and seasonal koi patterns bred with a progressive).

Each egg needs some time before it is ready to hatch. These times vary between different patterns.

The player can hatch an egg once it's ready and they have an empty koi slot. The player can also hatch an egg immediately by using  (1  for every 30 min of the timer).

The new hatchling will start at level 1, will have random attributes and colors and patterns of the two parents.

## Offspring colors

Rare koi colors can be more challenging to obtain when breeding. Most of the time the mate which comes to the pond will be common with rare mates spawning about 10% of the time.

If both the player's fish and the mate are common, a random common color is chosen for the offspring.

### Rare colors

The chance to get a rare colored offspring is determined by the player's koi's color, the mate's color and the player's koi's Rarity attribute at the time of mating. Rarity stat **has no effect** on the chance of rare mates appearing in the pond, it only affects the chance of getting a rare colored offspring.

If the player's fish is rare but the mate is common there is a 8% + 4% per rarity point chance that the player's rare color is chosen for the offspring.

If the player's fish is common and the mate is rare there is a 80% + 2% per rarity point chance that the mate's rare color is chosen for the offspring.

If both koi are rare, the offspring will be 100% rare, with 50% chance that either parent's color will be chosen.

## Notes

* When the player gets enough experience for the mate to spawn it may be useful to stop swimming and wait for the mate to arrive so the player's fish won't level up or swim away too fast and miss the opportunity to breed.
* If the player loses sight of the mate, they may lose the chance to breed with them.
* The mate coming to the pond will never be faster than the player's active koi, but it can be more agile.

## Known bugs

* Some players do not get a mate every half-level even if they make sure the previous mate leaves, move slowly, and wait for the new mate to arrive. If the problem persists, it is advised to try some of the following:
	+ It may be helpful to enter the Pearl shop (+ sign in the upper right corner of the main screen) after the active koi hits half-level mark and return to the main screen; doing so should send the player a mate immediately.
	+ If entering the shop does not work, it is still possible to get a mate every half-level by resetting the active koi's pond (by switching to another koi, entering its pond, and switching back to the koi the player is currently breeding) **after the fish levels up, but before it hits half-level mark**.
	+ Clearing the app's cache in the Settings menu may also help.
* It is possible to skip the breeding animation entirely by tapping the koi level button when the circle timer is almost full.