Breeding

**Breeding** is a method to obtain new colors of the existing patterns and, in case of the chained koi, new patterns in *Zen Koi*. You need at least one koi to start breeding.

## The Basics

### Adult Fish

Before you can do anything with breeding, you need to get your koi fish to at least level four. This should be a simple task, needing only a few minutes in the smallest pond to achieve.

### Experience "Sweet Spot"

Then, at every half-level, the game will send another koi out into the pond to 'visit' with you. Players have reported that a mate will not show up at this sweet spot. The number one reason for this is an opposing fish is still in the pond - either your previous mate fish (a rival) or your offspring from another mate (upstarts) are in the pond. A mate will leave the pond as soon as the deed is done, and s/he is off screen for at least ten seconds, so swim to the opposite side of the pond as the mate. It is also believed that too rapid a succession in leveling up will skip past the call for a mate.

### The Chase

   You will need to direct your koi to stay as close as possible to the mate. Te easiest way is to place your finger on the head of the mate, and slide it accordingly in order to follow it. As you keep up, a large circle will start to form around the two fish. It should be noted that the mate will never be faster than your koi, but can have a higher agility, making it difficult to keep up with a mate that twists and turns often.

### Success!

When its complete, an egg will appear. You are then shown the offspring screen, where all of the possible outcomes of the breeding pair are shown. There can be as little as one (if your mate is the same pattern type and color pattern as your own), all the way up to eight (if your mate is a different pattern type and completely different colors). Those that are already in your collection are marked with a check. If you wish to go ahead and start the hatching process, you can add your egg to the list - if you still have room for it. You can even spend some pearls to get it hatched right away. However, if you already have all of the available choices, or simply aren't interested in any of the hatchlings, you can elect to release the egg.

## Methods

Players have developed a few different ways to tackle the great challenge of collecting all of the koi. Trying to raise the fish up to dragons at the same time will prove to take quite a lot of time.

### Catch and Release

This method consists of hanging out in the first pond for your breeding. This pond is interesting in that there are so many prey fish. You can literally just swim back and forth across the pond, scooping up prey fish that happen to be in your way, and get a koi to level ten in a relatively short amount of time. You will also get six chances to breed during that run as well. At the end, release (or gift) out the breeder koi. If you do this four times, one for each base color (white, yellow, red and black), you are bound to get most of the sixteen needed to finish the common collection. In fact, as you are only using the two types of prey fish, you won't really need the speed or agility attribute. You can put all of your ability points into the rare attribute to work on the rare colors as well.

Interesting note: It is possible to have a koi mate just hang out in this smaller pond, well past the time an egg was created. So long as the mate fish in on the screen with your koi, it will not leave the pond. It is advisable to actively avoid the mate when you level up to get it to leave, and prepare for the next possible mate at the half-level.

### Crazy Eights

This method lends itself to those that wish to develop dragons at the same time. In the eighth level of the pond, the two-headed fish becomes available. It gives a remarkable amount of experience, and levels can be earned rapidly. Along with the multiple levels, the abilities can be maxed out, so the fish is highly maneuverable, as well as pick up on the rare colors (if desired). The only downside to this method is the limitation of the egg slots. Once the eighth egg has been gathered, you should go ahead and ascend the koi to a dragon, then start the process over again.