@scott-clark ... agreed! the daily freebies made a HUGE difference for THIS puzzle!! Just now picked up Onigiri

With all the dragons front loaded to work on from the beginning, most tasks being do-able (I did end up spending about 15 gems to buy out tasks like breed/hatch 5 flame/electric), and the generous amount of moves in Freebies ... was able to grab all the dragons offered in the event. MUCH more enjoyable putting in time and effort to actually be able to earn the prize(s)!!

@nynaevelan ..... GO NYNAEVELAN, GO!!! Git that dragon!!!!

Grabbed Neo-Izumi this morning ... plug'n away at Onigri, 512/517 to go ...

@xiskza ... quickest way to breed Pure/Light? pay the gem to skip the task

Got Tempura ... working on Onigiri, down from 950/950 to 852/854 ... and Neo-Hanzo now at 216/216

I must admit, I do like this set up a bit better...all dragons available up front and early on to have plenty of time to work on them. So far, breed/hatch numbers have stayed at 1 or 2, we’ll see if that remains the case as we move forward ...

Still dislike the combinations being chosen to complete a breed/hatch task though as multiple hours are needed for breeding/hatching i.e. Dark/Ice; seems it would be better to use combos requiring a 1-2hr breed and/or hatch to enable better progress towards something like a 950/950 task.

Got lucky this morning and already grabbed Maki, Neo-Izumi and Nigiri ... spent 3 single gems (told myself no more than 5 gems for this puzzle) to get past the first few Quests required and had food/gold ready to gather after a couple hours nap last night while finishing the Race ... then saw a Gold Quest come up later this morning (maybe SP did hear the suggestion in the Race thread although a food and token Quest would be good to run alongside the Gold Quest...fingers crossed). No plans to be aggressive on this one as previous puzzle islands have proven an exercise in futility with the number of items required and some of the breeding tasks required. Just gonna play as the items become available ...

SP? if you're listening/reading this ... breeding/hatching tasks should not take 8, 10, 12hrs to complete and should not come up more often than once or twice a day at the most. In my queue currently sits 2 of the 3 breed/hatch items from this morning alone. First breed required 4hrs, second Dark/Ice breed requires 12-16hrs (thankfully I got dealt the 12hr breed), and third was to hatch 2 Terra/Sea combinations of a 4-5hr breed each (total 8-10hrs). Frustrating ...

AND ... THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!! to EVERYONE for the tips, tricks, and strategies shared in here ... without you ALL it would have never been possible for me to get the farthest I ever have in a Race!! Again ... THANK YOU!!!

OMG! MADE IT!! Just crossed into Lap 20 this morning with 23m to go! Grabbed my 20 Heroic Joker orbs, made sure they were safely stashed away ... now grab’n a nice soft pillow ... put’n my head on it ... and take’n a VERY long ... MUCH needed ... sleeeepppp ... zzzzzzzzz

If SP does look in here and takes comments to heart ... was also glad to see the multiple Quests show up (what does it hurt to reward with food/gold all the time during Races?)

Would like to see fight times cut back to 15min or 30min at most with the last one being only 2-4h instead of 8h. The 1h 19m is quite rough when needing to complete 9 or 10 of them to finish a node, especially when the last fight is 8h !! Also especially on a TIMED Lap ... got to 19.2 with 11-1/2h on the timer to discover 9 fights (10h 40m total for the 8 fights and probably 8h for final 9th fight; Total time on node 2 alone requires 18h 40m) ... impossible to complete all of the nodes required on a timed lap of only 12h? Won’t be picking up any extra reward on THIS Lap ...

@susan-mclaughlin ... CONGRATS!! am currently slogging away at 10 fights on 16.4 with 2nd only 2 laps away; will keep going to maintain the 2 lap lead if possible ...