Remember that this event starts on August 1st 12:00AM LDT, and will end on August 31st at 11:59PM LDT. All unspent currency from each event is stored on your account until next year.

August Event - Droughts and Fires!

A ravaging Sahel Drought disrupts migrations sweeping across Africa, claiming the lives of humans, livestock, and wildlife. With animals dying, many camps have been set to feed hippos and provide basic sources of water for animals who need it most, such as elephants. Reports on rivers drying up are increasing by the day, as the wet seasons never seem to arrive.

What will the lions do? Will you rampage local farms and villages, or try to survive on scarce herds and starved corpses? Will you cause further conflict, or succumb to the plans of nature?

The drought event is intended to be harsh. You will struggle to survive. Your huntresses may fail to bring back carcasses, and your main male may struggle to battle if he's too thirsty.

Shops and Progress
This month, your decisions will affect the Good and Evil bars, as well as your karma. If you guys are evil, opportunistic bastards, the Evil bar will fill out first, unlocking the Destroyers shop. If you guys decide to be good instead, the Good bar will fill out, unlocking the Preservers shop. Each shop has a theme, and contains different decors.

In prior years, the bars worked based on actions by the community as a whole. This prevented many players from accessing the shop they desired, especially if the community was dead-set on keeping the same shop open for a long duration.

We've decided that this is a perfect time to utilise personalised event bars.

In 2018, the shop bars will respond only to your actions. How exactly does that work?

Both the Preservers and Destroyers progression bars will show when you have 0 Evil/Good Points, but once you choose your path, it will only show the bar for whichever shop you are progressing towards. Earning Good Points progresses the bar towards the Preservers, while earning Evil Points progresses the bar towards the Destroyers. The shops unlock at 300 points. You can reduce the points in the bar by choosing the opposite actions. If you're maxed for the Destroyers, and you want the Preservers, you will need to earn 600 Good Points to open the shop. It's a bit like having -300 karma, and trying to get to +300!

This way, once you've decided that you're done being naughty, and you've bought all you needed from the Destroyers, you can begin saving humans and animals in Explore to push your bar towards the Preservers. We hope this will make you work towards your own goals without any frustration and pressure from the community!

Please note that only one shop may be open at a time, depending on which direction you've swayed the bar.

Currency
The rewards in the Destroyers and Preservers will be fully unlocked from the very start. The magic here is to gather the currency for this month, which are Carrion Beetles and Dried Bones. You will find them in Explore.

Other Areas
You may have noticed the two additional bars on the Event page: Humans Killed & Dried Bones Collected.
Of course, they're also based on the Good and Evil incentives, but they'll progress continuously throughout the event. These bars are unlocked based on the actions of the community as a whole - they are not personalised.

The Humans Killed bar will unlock special August event-only studs, while the Dried Bones Collected bar will unlock the Peddler Shop, with its extra features such as Tracking Herds and Vulture Chasing.

You will also notice a thirst bar on your side panel. 100% thirst means that you are extremely thirsty and need to find a source of water. You can do so by using thirst-quenching items, or getting lucky in Explore. Your thirst will drop by 5% every 30 minutes. 0% thirst means you're good to go!
What, exactly, does thirst affect? If you're too thirsty, you won't be able to battle any NPCs.

So... will you eat humans? Will you protect animals? Good luck, lions!

Recap
- Carrion Beetles and Dried Bones are this month's currency. Carrion Beetles are for the Destroyers and Preservers, and Dried Bones are for the Peddler.
- No wet seasons; Explore images are extra dry.
- Hunting will fail more often - food will be scarce!
- Being cruel will give you Evil Points towards the Evil bar.
- Being kind will give you Good Points towards the Good bar.
- You can only have access to one shop at a time, depending upon your actions.
- Thirst drops by 5% every 30 minutes.
- You cannot battle NPCs if you are too thirsty! Try exploring for water sources instead. You can also try to buy herbs from the Beetle Grounds for a chance at receiving a water item!
- The "Great Fires" encounter in Explore has many possible outcomes.

2018 Changes
- Available studs will swap around to a total of 6 unique studs - 2 Tsavo, 2 Savage, and 2 Pariah. This year, they will have new, unique bases and markings. This will be a tradition from now on.
- Tons of new decors in the shops!
- NPCs in the shops have been refreshed completely with new looks, names, and animations!
- A lot of old art has been retouched; some have been redrawn!
- 3 new Explore encounters have been added!
- Unlocking the global bars will now grant you new titles!
- Studs might get an extra breeding button this year! Stay tuned to find out what it is.

Remember that this month unlocks the "Fire Escape" minigame for the August event. It can be found in the Games area.

For newcomers as well as older users, the August Event Wiki Page will be very handy!

In 2018, the Man-Eating Studs will introduce a new base: Ruffian (Cream Solid Medium Special). They will also carry Ruffian markings. These may pop into the Lion Wardrobe soon!

Inspired by the droughts, the Solaris base (Cream Solid Light Special) may appear as an applicator this month. How? Keep an eye out for the Friday coding update!

We really liked the "parched" effect suggestion for main males if thirst is high (a bit like how rabies appear during October), but due to the increasing number of mutated kings, we figured that it would break a lot of carefully-arranged scenes and profile pictures. We'd rather try to see if we can revamp this system first to fit all mutations, then add new effects in future!