How I stay motivated to play by setting my own "end game" in JWA

AFXPokeben · February 23, 2019, 6:47pm

I just wanted to share my experience, and see if other players took similar decisions while playing the game to enhance their experience.

Grinding coins and DNA to level up creatures to very high levels takes an astonishing amount of time, effort and, eventually, money. At some point, the game looked pointless to me: so much to do just to raise one creature one level up discouraged me, and my playtime was gradually vanishing.

That’s when I took a “decision”: I decided to consider level 20 at the top level for my creatures instead of the in-game level 30 limit. Since I am more a collector than a competitor, that decision turned me more motivated to level up my best creatures to their “top level”, and complete my collection of “top-level” creatures.

The level 20 limit offers a couple of advantages: access to uniques, good battles with a stable meta, and, mostly, a way more reachable goal. It also offers less frustration in case of a meta change due to some creatures boost or nerf from Ludia: in such case, all I have to do is to adjust my team, thanks to my ever-extending collection of level 20 creatures. As a example, my Dracoceratops was already level 19 when it suddenly became meta-relevant. In other terms, I was ready!

So, has anyone here took decisions of that kind to keep enjoying the game? What limits or rules have you set for yourself?

Arnold · February 23, 2019, 7:03pm

For a collector it’s a good decision, but I want more and more battles and trophies. And the limits to keep enjoying it is simply stop and come back later when I see RNG isn’t on my side and I start losing too much.

Colin_Goodman · February 23, 2019, 7:39pm

I enjoy the game anyway (away from the Arena that is) but I have made it a point to try and get everything to at least 15th level as that seems to be a level where most hybrids are created from.

Kay · February 23, 2019, 9:31pm

I do the same as u

Faethor_Ferenczy · February 23, 2019, 9:59pm

To the OP that has been my goal get my favorite fighters up to 20. The rest 15 minimum unless they are a dedicated breeder like einosaurus or such. Eventually lvl 20 for most lvl 15 for all then I will cycle back and take my faves up to lvl 25.

Sure it’s a lot of coin and yes I could just focus on the highest power ultra win ones but… I enjoy fighting just to fight. I like to win sure but I’m so Dagum oppositional that losing with a non standard team is still fun. Especially when I knock out an Indo with 2 commons. As for tournaments I get enough trophies for bottom tier rewards and I’m ok with that

Krissi_Liz · February 23, 2019, 10:50pm

My motivation is definitely unlocking every Dino in the game, even if I see people writing about how bad they are, I don’t care. I want them all haha. Then I will decide which ones in my own opinion I like using the best. Your level 20 idea is great though because that’s still a challenge for sure!

Oriondestiny · February 23, 2019, 11:08pm

I’ve already have this idea underway on my second account except when I make a unique. I’m close to my first one but it will be my only level 21. I just need a thousand and some raptors. Also you can still win on most epic strike towers.

Beast · February 24, 2019, 1:15am

Same as you I power to lvl 20 anything up to legendary, A team gets levelled more(up to average 24). Focus mainly on unlocking new creatures. Too many cheats/hacks/spoofs to play legit and have fun in arena at highest lvl! If ludia had a backbone to kick all the people that are not legit, the arena would be so much more fun for all players! But at least there’s the collection side to the game right… . Some backbone against cheats and some real attention to bug fixes is all this game would need to make it great again!

PteroSaar · February 24, 2019, 4:04pm

I resent the time and $$$ investment this game requires, but at the end of the day, I still love playing. If the time comes when I have to negotiate with myself to stay motivated, I’ll give it up cold turkey.

When the game is no longer enjoyable, when it seems like work and isn’t fun, if I’m forcing myself to play, it means it’s time to pull the plug. That’s my end game.

My prediction is that Ludia will eventually wreck the game with stupid changes, and that’s when I’ll leave. That’s what happened for me with PoGo.

AFXPokeben · February 24, 2019, 6:12pm

Level 20 is my limit, but my current goals are in the same wavelenght as yours:

Level all my legendaries up to level 20.
Level all my epics up to level 15.
Level ingredient creatures and some “fun” ones up to level 20.
Level everything else up to level 15.

By “fun” creatures, I mean non standard ones that I’d like to use in my team, to try them in battle or as specialists for some strike towers. Examples: Proceratomimus, Sarcorixis.

AFXPokeben · February 24, 2019, 6:17pm

“Unlock them all!” is sure my top priority too! I just don’t think about this too much right now because there’s not a lot of creatures I can unlock in short term. Prior to the 1.6 update, I had only three legendaries to unlock, with hard to find ingredients.

As for the uniques, I only have two (Indoraptor and Tuoramoloch) and the others just seem so far away from unlocking (except for Thoradolosaurus) that they are not my main focus right now, except for collecting their ingredient DNA.

Wwwoodchuck · February 24, 2019, 9:22pm

Similar game play but I will take them over 20 if need be to fit on the team. Example: Monolometrodon or Apato would be worthless at 20 on a team of 20 Legendary or fresh evolve Unique, but they fit in at 24. Common and Rare need to be over level 20 to battle with Unique. My team average is level 21.5 and everyone can take a turn in the roster.

Coin wise it is a big savings. I am always able to have a good stash of coins from just playing, so I have enough to level up whatever needs to be done. I play enough so I max on coins just about every day. The most I have spent on any Dino is 80k to level 24. Once a Unique is created it is finished, unless I feel it needs to go up one.

I almost always have enough DNA stored to create whatever the new hybrid is. Unless it is from new introductions. Then, all I need is enough to get it to ~21 to be team ready.

And I get to have some fun. If I run into a string of opponents with Dracorat, I can put in the Hotel California crew: Apato, Giga, Gryposuchus, Grypolyth. Run of bleeders? Stock the team with immune. Put in a raptor pack and see how a fast crew does, or slow it down with a fleet of tanks. Put in a crew of big chompers and try to power through the opponent.

I am not a competitive player and am happy with keeping an incubator going. Trophy level doesn’t matter either I’ll battle until I get the daily incubator or enough to fulfill the daily mission requirements.

AFXPokeben · February 24, 2019, 10:05pm

Yes! That is exactly the kind of fun I want to have! I’d like to have a wide range of strong creatures that let me try different combinaisons! It will come, I guess… From your post, I see that I am a little less hardcore than you (I never reached any limit of coins from supply drops), so it’s only gradually that I’ll be able to make that kind of play!

The idea of leveling most common creatures to make them on par with the other ones on the team is interesting… I won’t adopt it now, but it’s something I’ll keep in mind…

Dinotris · February 24, 2019, 10:08pm

I like the grinding part. First goal though is create all dinos. Then level team dinos and some reserves to level 30. At the end, level up all dinos to level 30. I’m F2P (bought only first OTO, to see if they get better) and going step by step. Now I’m bouncing between Lockwood and Aviary.

AFXPokeben · August 31, 2019, 2:20am

***** 6 months later! *****

I made this thread six months ago to share the decision I took not to level up my creatures beyond level 20, and I can now say that I don’t regret it! I refined a little bit my own “end game”, and now build my collection following those rules:

Uniques are unlocked, but not leveled up any further.
All other hybrids are leveled up to level 20, including legendary, epic and rare hybrids.
All other dinosaures are leveled up to level 15, except if level 20 is necessary for the creation of a unique.
As for boosts, I raise to level 3 all the stats of all my hybrids.

Apart from having given me a definite and realistic goal to reach, those decisions made my arena experience better than what seems to be the one of many players… Sure, I’m statying in the 4000 trophies zone (reached 4500 this week), but my experience in the arena had some interesting outcomes:

I don’t face anymore truly competitive (annoying) players, which notably means that I don’t face too many overboosted thoradolosaurus, that were becoming very annoying at some point. I suppose that the players using them climbed up in the arenas, and are now just too strong for me to be matched against them…
I feel like I’m having a pretty unique collection for my level when compared to the teams of my opponents: I have 11 uniques right now that I use in battle against players that don’t seem to be used at facing them! My opponents often make “rookie mistakes” against some of my creatures, notably my diorajasaurus!
I mostly face teams consisting of mid-level legendaries with one or two uniques, but I also face sometimes teams containing overleveled non-hybrids dinosaurs, or overleveled rare hybrids. In fact, I face pretty diversified teams overall, which makes battles more interesting!

So, right now, I must say I’m pretty happy with my decision! I just wanted to share my observations… and my current happiness with the game!

P.S. For those wondering, here’s my current battle team :

Colin_Goodman · August 31, 2019, 8:50am

As an update as well, I’ve stopped with creating hybrids. I only use Indominus and Indoraptor because they are at least movie canon.

I’ve upped my limit to 20th and I’m slowly getting all non hybrids up to that point and no further. When you stop wasting coin creating hybrids or saving gold to level up component animals it’s cheap enough to level a couple every day.

I’ve also started making weekly theme teams now for the fun of it. Currently on week 4 and I have a thread here to track it.

JWA is so much more enjoyable when you take the competition out of it and play for fun.

Sixty-Four · August 31, 2019, 9:55am

Sounds fun. I can only relate in a certain way. I set self goals for myself and try to reach them. Around May 27th I set a goal of “stack 100k tarbo dna” as of now I have 107k Tarbo dna lol.

I do these little things to keep me going strong.