This thread began as a way to bring attention to the fact that the Golden color group is being neglected in favor of other, more prominent color groups, both because it gets fewer additions and because those additions are nothing like what you’d usually expect from the Golden color group – for example, Green, Labradorite, and the latest addition, Ember.

To start with hard facts: It has been almost a year since I first posted this, and here are all the new bases we got since December 2018:

• Black Group: Aufeis, Elysian, Rhino, Glass, Velvet, Murk, Leonids, Demiurge, Augur, Noctis, Spectre, Frotbitten, Snowflake


• Cream Group: Alabaster, Heavenly, Ammonite, Moss Agate, Guardian


• Golden Group: Maziwa, Ornament, Ember, Angelic, Festive, Hyena, Nudar, Sunspot, Sahara, Victor


• Red Group: Rough Ruby, Wine, Sha, Rose Gold, Scoundrel, Merlot, Hibiscus, Rhubarb

Final count of bases added from December 2018 - May 2020: 13 Black bases, 5 Cream bases, 10 Golden bases, 8 Red bases.

And the final count of all the bases currently in game? A total of 67 Black bases, 53 Cream bases, 58 Golden bases and 59 Red bases.

If you want a more updated version of this long explanation below, take a peek at the latest lament of a golden breeder here.

To me it feels highly unfair that there is this blatant neglection going on because either a) apparently Golden bases are hard to make, or b) players that prefer other color groups don’t like it and that’s why we get such “interesting” additions to spark interest. And of course, we don’t see Golden intruding in other color groups, to spark “interest” in those in exchange – not that I’d want that to happen, but it’s the principle of the thing.

I like Goldens. Well, I like the concept of Goldens as they were. Nacarat, Goldenrod, Doubloon, Sulphur, Sunshine, and Champagne, to name a few. So, what if other players find them bland or boring? You won’t see me complaining seriously about other groups’ additions because I think they are an eyesore, if they are liked by others, that’s absolutely fine. But we’ve been waiting years for nice Golden bases and, when we finally do, we keep getting these weird things that more often than not are hard to breed or come from a really hard to make applicator, on top of that.

Dhahabi was supposed to be our November’s applicator back in November 2017, to pair up with Penumbra and Fossil, as you can see here, but then, after a long anticipated wait, exclusive bases became a thing and we were left with no applicators for Golden bases except the regular custom ones until May 2018, with Trophy. This has happened again and again, with Labradorite being added on July 2018 to Goldens for some unfathomable reason – though I’d be hard pressed to pick a proper color group for its final design, to be honest –, Xanthic, ect.

Another thing that keeps happening is that all the applicable bases seem to be going to the Solid gradient. Up until Anubis and Bast, there wasn’t a single Golden Countershaded Special base one could apply, and when they were first introduced you could only get one of those per account, as a reward for completing the new June 2018’s storyline – and, in fact, keep being the only ones, as there are no Uncommon ones.

In the original post, I mentioned that, while there seemed to be events dedicated to other color groups, there wasn’t a single one dedicated to Golden: February with its Red bases, March starting with Cream and then getting one (1) Golden base (Chatoyant), May with the long road towards crafting the Trophy applicator and this year’s addition of Ornament, then June started with two (2) Golden bases and one (1) Red that could be used to breed for the Golden combo base Gilded, but 2019 got one (1) more Black with Velvet, one (1) more Red with Sha and one (1) Cream with Alabaster, and make up the factors to trigger the Rose Gold combo base, which is Red. July features mostly Blacks, with 9 Black bases against Sunset and Sunrise, which belong to the Red color group, Labradorite which was, sadly, added as a Golden, and then the Cream Heavenly -, August started with the stud exclusive Ruffian Cream base, and the hard to get Solaris Cream applicator, but also got the Scoundrel stud base this year, September has so far the Red applicable base Locust and the newest Black base, Augur, October has featured Red bases since the big Genetics overhaul, November started featuring only Creams and then got the addition of Black with Penumbra and Nuumite, and last we have December with – you guessed it – more Black bases. And what does Golden have? Hybrid bases and explore exclusive. Nice if you want a challenge, not so nice if you want to go on with your breeding projects customizing existing cubs.

To summarize that big block of information above, Black seems to be everywhere followed by Red, and then Cream and Golden are left forgotten in a corner to be recalled sporadically and, in the case of Golden, with the weirdest and/or hardest to get bases.

I understand people voted in the polls for Blacks to get additions first back in the day because there are a lot more breeders focused on the group as a whole or liked the bases better, but that doesn’t mean Golden isn’t loved by players and that it doesn’t deserve some attention for a change. There are some suggestions in the base and mane base forums that would look right at home with the more “classical” Goldens, and if everything else fails there is always the option to make other existing bases’ recolors, too.