VIP and Premium Dinosaurs

VIP and premium dinosaurs are the various species that cannot be freely purchased from the regular Shop and also do not appear in special events. VIP and premium dinosaurs generally exist to incentivize spending real money, but some species may be obtained via other avenues for limited amounts of time.

## Premium dinosaurs

Premium dinosaurs are species received as bonus for purchasing ammonites (except the most expensive diamond package). They mostly change once every 2 weeks.

Starting from June 7 2022, the Black & Gold Stegosaurus was introduced as a special extra bonus with *any* first purchase of ammonites. It's a one-time offer so only **one** special color Stegosaurus can be acquired in this manner.

*Note: Dates are estimates and may not be accurate.*

## VIP dinosaurs

VIP dinosaurs are species received as bonus for purchasing the most expensive ammonite package. They mostly change once every 8 weeks.

Starting from June 7 2022, the Black & Gold Stegosaurus was introduced as a special extra bonus with *any* first purchase of ammonites. It's a one-time offer so only **one** special color Stegosaurus can be acquired in this manner.

*Note: Dates are estimates and may not be accurate.*

## Top Deals

On the left, in the quests & events column of icons, there will usually be a special combo package for sale displayed as a dinosaur's portrait and an orange timer. This Top Deal will generally include: two animals of the species, an enclosure, plus a trough, water source and appropriate game toy. Cosmetic enclosure decorations may or may not be included too. The purchase price is always ammonites and is billed as heavily discounted compared to buying the entire package item by item at their regular price. Any given Top Deal will be available for between 24 hours and 7 days.

Top Deals are *not* restricted to VIP and premium species and will offer conventional Shop-buyable species fairly often. However, they do offer VIP and premium species equally often, and since they cost ammonites instead of requiring cash-shop purchases, a player can save up for these Top Deals to acquire species without spending real money.

There is no way to know what the next Top Deal will offer or how long it will stay prior to its appearance.

## Ammonite Chests

There are three types of chests that can be purchased for ammonites: Epic Chests, Retro Chests and Legendary Chests. These chests are guaranteed to contain at least one piece of their currently boosted dinosaur every time one is opened. Please see the Chests and Keys page for more information about how they work.

Of note is that these chests will generally "boost" a premium, VIP or event dinosaur that is otherwise unavailable. When paired with some other systems this makes them surprisingly attractive to patient players:

* The "boosted" dinosaur guarantees 1 DNA of that species in the chest.
* With enough amber a player only needs 1 DNA to complete the creature.
* A player has a decent (~50%) chance of finding the "boosted" card within their free flips. With luck a player will need few or no keys at all.
* Sufficiently persistent players can obtain chests and keys for free as daily login rewards, level-up prizes or the occasional quest/event.
* Amber is also amply available to players by scrapping unwanted DNA, such as DNA for items that can be purchased for coins– these are particularly common in Friendship Chests. Combined with amber-boosting events that increase scrapping yields, a persistent player may amass large quantities of amber.

Patient players can thus save up amber & the chests obtained as free rewards until the chests "boost" a desired species. Opening a single chest for 1 DNA and completing the creature with amber will yield the desired dinosaur while mostly costing a cheap/plentiful resource (amber) instead of an expensive ammonite resource (chests). With enough amber stored in advance and care taken to stockpile multiple chests, a player may even obtain a breeding pair without spending a single ammonite: open the first chest to obtain 1 DNA → complete with amber → open the second chest to obtain 1 DNA → complete with amber.

As premium, VIP and other exclusive dinosaurs are generally considered Epic or Legendary rarity, note that the amber costs to complete them are often quite high, frequently ranging from 500 to 2000 amber per missing DNA. Players with large ammonite or cash budgets may well find purchasing ammonite packages, or just buying more chests, more cost-effective for their purposes.