🌼 Eyes 🌼
How Eyes Originate
I'm going to divide eyes into four main categories: applicator, exclusives, breed-unique, and combo/sectoral. Of course we could further divide these into subcategories, but those subcategories function mechanically the same as each other so it's a bit of a waste of energy. Applicator eyes are non-BO, while the rest are all BO

Exclusive eyes are either going to come from year-round NCLs, monthly event NCLs, groupies, celestial raffle lionesses, or maneater studs. They're the most intuitive to understand. A game-generated lion has those eyes and they pass those eyes on. Breed-unique and combo/sectoral eyes are a little less intuitive, so I'll talk about them in more detail in a little bit

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Pass Rates and Fails
But first we need to understand that not all eyes are made equal. Every notice that some eyes are absolute asses to get to pass, while others seem to appear on every cub? I desperately wish that I could tell you there's some kind of pattern. I wish I could say that all the exclusive eyes passed at a fixed percentage. To show you what I mean, let's look at the pass rates of two NCL exclusive eyes: Albinoid and Celadon



Yes, you read that right, Celadon eyes have double the chance to pass as Albinoid eyes despite being in the exact same category. Truth be told, the pass rates of eyes seems to be more determined by the position of the stars than any kind of solid logic.

The pass rates of eyes can range anywhere from 5% to 100%. As a general rule of thumb, most BO eyes tend to pass somewhere in the 40-50% range. There are so so many exceptions to this, such as Dawn eyes only having a 15% pass rate or Starshine and Sunglow eyes having 100% pass rates, but the majority of BO eyes will land somewhere in that range.

And to make things even more interesting, eyes can pass other BO eyes. "Yeah I know, breed uni-" Nope. We're not there yet. Let's take a look at Maroon eyes



Notice something? Maroon eyes, despite being February event eyes, can pass Albinoid eyes, which are NCL exclusive. There are a handful of eyes that can do this. In particular, the July celestial raffle lioness eyes love to pass each other. Stellar can pass Galaxy, Galaxy can pass Dawn, Dawn can pass Starshine and Sunglow. Note that these pass rates are always extremely low, typically in the 1-5% range. "So BO eyes can pass other BO eyes - cool!" Oh you sweet summer child if only it was that easy. Cause I'm about to blow your mind. Applicator eyes can pass BO eyes too. Most applicator eyes cannot pass BO. But some can. Because of course. There are three applicator eyes that can pass BO eyes. Since there are so few, I'll list them all.

Bismuth eyes can pass Albinoid at 5% and and Glass at 6%
Celestite eyes can pass Starshine at 10%
Star ruby eyes can pass Albinoid at 10%

These eyes also break our 1-5% rule. God forbid we have consistency

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Breed-unique
Ok. Phew. Let's get a little more consistent. Breed-unique eyes are a big fan favorite on this site and for good reason. They're fun to breed and stunning to look at. Breed-unique eyes can appear at varying percentages when certain BO eyes are bred. This is different from before where we talked about BO eyes passing each other, since breed-unique eyes can only be obtained from breeding other eyes. Some BO eyes can pass multiple breed-unique eyes, and breed-unique eyes can come from more than one BO eye color. Which BO eyes do they come from? Oh, that's easy, the NCL exclusi- Oh. Oh no. I'm getting word that that would make things too easy. The only eyes that can pass breed-unique eyes are the NCL exclusives with the exception of Dove eyes. A god damn February event eye that can pass Rose Ebony and Rose Quartz. Sigh. Anyways here's a list of all the breed-unique eyes and where they come from

Dunt eyes can be bred from Tessera (25%)
Clay eyes can be bred from Chamotte (25%) and Terracotta (10%)
Burnish eyes can be bred from Glaze (25%)
Faience eyes can be bred from Ceramic (25%)
Mire eyes can be bred from Chamotte (10%) and Terracotta (25%)
Rose Ebony eyes can be bred from Smalti (25%) and Dove (5%)
Rose Quartz eyes can be bred from Cordovan (25%), Glaze (15%), and Dove (5%)

In a rare moment of consistency, breed-unique eyes can pass themselves at a standard rate of 50%. Yipee

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Combo/Sectoral
I've smashed these together because mechanically they work the exact same. The only difference is that combo eyes have multiple factors while sectoral eyes have to be one specific eye color x the other one. Or should I say combo eye, because we currently have one combo eye in the game: cosmic. Cosmic eyes can be bred from breeding a lion with Galaxy or Jasper eyes to a lion with Dawn, Draconid, Starshine, Stellar, or Sunglow eyes. Note that while it would be really cool, Cosmic eyes themselves cannot pass their factors

Sectoral eyes could not be easier. For a Sectoral Amber & Ice, you breed together, guess what, an Amber and Ice. Sectoral eyes will pass themselves at a rate of 20% and each of their factors at a rate of 40%. Lovely

🌼 Skins 🌼
Good news. Skin breeding has fixed, consistent percentages. Bad news, things get a little muddy. But it's ok, I've got the hose

How Skins Originate
Skins are a little hard to put into distinct categories. Applicator skins rest soundly in their own category, but the BO skins get a little funny. We of course have the NCL exclusive skins, but you can actually get those without ever even touching a NCL. Then there's the "base fail" skins. They don't really have a great name as the wiki just calls them breed-only skins, but they're not the only breed only skins. But we'll get into that

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Roll Order
The most important thing to understand about skins is their roll order. Skins rolls in a 10%/10%/80% order. 10% for the dad, 10% for the mom, 80% for the skin tied to their base. Every single base has a skin tied to it. That means that skins actually don't fail like bases or eyes at all. The vast majority of the time, you're just gonna get a pre-determined skin, regardless of what you bred. Bases can be tied to NCL exclusive skins. For example, Mandarin is tied to Clouded skin. If you're a breeder for a particular base, it's important to know the skin you can expect. For example, Pearl is tied to Red skin. Red skin does not look good on Pearls. To avoid this, you can use a rock salt from monkey business to force a more favorable skin pass. To show you how skins work, let's scry these two lions together:



So the distribution for these lions is going to be 10% Matte, 10% Greige, 80% tied to the resulting base. Let's get scrying


And for our first cub we have a Cameo! Cameo is tied to Butterfly skin and sure enough our little girl has Butterfly skin. This means we hit that 80% chance for a base-tied skin


And our next cub is another Cameo! But this time time she has a nice dark nose. Here we hit the 10% Matte chance from our Vagabond

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Base Fail Skins
So you know when I said the roll order was 10%/10%/80%. I lied. Just a wee bit. Most of the time that is the roll order. But when at least one of the parents has a certain base, there's a secret 7% in there. After the initial 10%/10%/80% roll, the game will roll a 7% chance for a special skin if the parent has a corresponding base. Here's all the skins and the bases they come from:

Bunting can appear if at least one of the parents is a Champagne, Citrine, Sulfur, or Goldenrod
Echo can appear if at least one of the parents is an Interstellar
Eggshell Blue* can appear if at least one of the parents is a Haliotis
Ink can appear if at least one of the parents is a Noctis or Styx
Lilac can appear if at least one of the parents is a Glass, Kunzite, or Protea
Plum can appear if at least one of the parents is a Prismatic or Water Hyacinth
Quail can appear if at least one of the parents is a Buttercream, Pearl, Qahir, or Teardrop
Sandstone can appear if at least one of the parents is an Arabica, Buff, Cameo, or Flaxen
Welsummer can appear if at least one of the parents is an Anjeer, Sapela, Sepia, or Shedua

*All of these skins except for Eggshell Blue are not tied to any base, so they will never be included in that 80% roll. Eggshell blue is tied to Jellyfish. Yes that is why you see it everywhere

An important note is that these skins are not tied to these bases. Very frequently I hear people say that Sandstone skin is tied to Flaxen. This is an entirely separate mechanic

And you may have guessed why I chose a Cameo to scry with because if I hit scry again a mildly insane amount of times badaboom badabing look what we get


A Sandstone! You can see that she herself does not have Cameo. It's her mom's Cameo that made it appear. This took quite a few scrys to get, so if you're lucky enough to have one of these skins pop up, I highly recommend busting out that rock salt and seeing all the different bases you can get it on

🌼 Markings + Manes 🌼
How Manes Originate
Manes are relatively simple in their categorization and breeding. We only have four BO mane shapes in game, and only two clear-cut ways of obtaining BO mane colors. Mane shapes either come from maneater studs or combo breeding. Mane colors either come from NCLS, raffle lionesses, or combo breeding. This going to be a nice and easy section

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Mane Fails
When manes are bred, they can either pass themselves or 2-3 applicable mane shapes. Note that this is only for mane shapes, mane colors do not fail. We'll get a bit more into that later. When breeding two of the same mane shape together (i.e. Savage x Savage), you have an approximated 70-80% chance of the cub having that mane shape

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Royal Mane
Lovely lovely royal mane gets its own section because while we do have a combo mane mechanic, royal is the only combo. There are two separate sets of factors and they function the same as the combo base mechanic. As long as you're breeding manes from opposite sides together, you have a chance at royal mane. Royal mane can also pass from a Royal x Royal or Royal x factor breeding. Here are the two sets of factors:



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Mane Colors
Mane colors are incredibly simple. Mane colors are a 50/50 split between the parents, meaning that if both parents have the same mane color, you are guaranteed that mane color. This makes mane colors one of the simplest BO traits to breed for. Most BO mane colors actually get passed down from raffle lionesses, hence why you can often trace less common mane colors back to common ancestors.

There are handful of BO mane colors, however, that aren't just passed down. When certain combo bases are bred, the game rolls a 50/50 for a match mane to come with it. These combos are Cairngorm. Citrine, Elysian, Madagascar, Qahir, Serruria, and Soul. Any cub born with one of these bases has a 50% chance of having a matching mane. Once these mane colors are generated, they function the same as normal mane colors. For example, a Soul lioness with Soul mane can produce a cub without Soul base but with Soul mane

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Markings
I'm not going to linger on all the ways markings come into the game. Because there's a lot. What I'm going to focus on solely is pass rate. Understanding how markings pass is essential for anyone interested in projects or rare slot breeding. There are four different scenarios that all work a bit differently

Scenario 1: same marking x same marking
This happens when both the lioness and stud share the same marking in the same slot. For example, let's say you have a lioness with slot 10 White Underfelt and you breed her to a king who also has slot 10 White Underfelt. There is a boosted 75% chance of each cub having slot 10 White Underfelt. This is the highest pass rate and most favorable odds. If you want a specific marking to pass, this is your absolute best bet. This is why RLC x RLC breedings tend to be so fruitful, as each marking slot is receiving that boost. Note that it must be the exact same marking in the exact same slot to receive the boosted pass rate

Scenario 2: marking x empty slot
This happens when either the lioness or stud have a marking in one slot while the other has no marking in that slot. For example, you now breed your slot 10 White Underfelt lioness to a king who has no marking in that slot. In this case, each cub has a 50% chance of having White Underfelt. This is below the previously listed 75%, but there are going to ample situations in which you want a lioness to pass her mark but don't have access to a complimentary stud. In these situations, finding a king with an empty slot is your best bet

Scenario 3: marking x different marking
This happens when you have a lioness with a mark in one slot and a stud with a different marking in the same slot. This is a pretty common match up. For example, your slot 10 White Underfelt lioness is really getting around and now you're breeding her to a king with slot 10 Seal Margay. You still have a 50% chance of getting a marking, just like when you breed to an empty slot. However, that 50% is now split into a 25%/25% chance between the two marks. In our hypothetical breeding, there is a 25% chance for each cub to have Seal Margay in slot 10 and a 25% chance for the cubs to have White Underfelt in slot 10. If you only wanted one of these marks to pass, you've halved your chances in comparison to breeding to an empty slot. Proceed with caution!

Scenario 4: marking x rosette
Here is what I'm going to call the nightmare scenario. We all know rosettes have a super low pass rate, and when breeding a lion with a rosette to another with an empty slot, we don't expect much. However, if you've ever studded to one of those deca rosette studs, you know there is a secret, more sinister mechanic at play. When breeding a lioness or king with a mark in one slot to another with a rosette in the same slot, the game still rolls that split between the marks. However, because rosettes have a lowered pass rate, let's assume 2% for the sake of numbers, we don't get that clean 25%/25% split. Instead we get a 2%/25% split. This means that a marking x rosette pairing produces the lowest chance of getting a mark at all. You are effectively sacrificing your total chance at a marking for the chance at a rosette instead

🌼 Bases 🌼
How Bases Originate
Oh bases. lovely lovely bases. We've got a whole bunch of applicator bases and then three kinds of BO ones: rares, combos, and regular BO specials. There's too many ways to obtain BO bases

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Pass Rates + Combo Fun
This is going to be a quick section because what we know about actually bases pass rates is pretty limited. The only actual numbers we have are for special rates. When breeding special x special, you have a 4%* chance of special split between the two. When breeding special x rare/uncommon, you have a 2%* chance. When breeding special x common, you have a 1%* chance. It's pretty cut and dry, but what if I told you there are some ways to have some fun with these numbers.

*notable exceptions are Mandarin and Kimanjano who have lowered pass rates

See, all combos are special bases. But, the combo base mechanic is not considered part of the normal special pass rate. When breeding two combo factors, you have an estimated (not confirmed) 2% chance of producing that combo. But what happens if you're breeding for the best combo Mudstone and pair a Maziwa with a Flint. Well, the game will roll both chances. 2% for the Maziwa and 2% for Mudstone. But let's skip the middle man and directly do Maziwa to Mudstone. Now we've got special x special odds. So that's 4% for Maziwa and 2% for Mudstone. Why does Maziwa get the full 4% instead of being split like previously described? That's because since the combo and base pass mechanics are separated, Mudstone is kind and generous and lets Maziwa have the full 4%. Now probability isn't as simple as adding these two together, but you aren't my stats professor so I'm going to do it anyways and say you have an effectively 6% chance at getting a special from this pairing. I'll take those odds!

But if Mudstone is willing to lend Maziwa the full 4% special pass rate, will other combos do so as well? And the answer is yes! If we were to breed Maziwa to Citrine, Citrine will oh so graciously give Maziwa the full 4%. The game sees a special x special pairing, knows it has to be a 4% chance of a special, and will dump all those odds onto Maziwa. Obviously Maziwa x Citrine does not produce Citrine, so the game never rolls the combo chance. However, breeding Maziwa x Citrine has just as high as a chance of producing a Maziwa as breeding Maziwa x Maziwa directly. This little trick is invaluable when breeding BO specials that don't have a lot of studs. Can't find a good Sidereal stud for your Sidereal girl? Grab a random combo and you've got just as favorable of a pairing

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Genetics Groups
Genetics groups are basically big fancy labels and sorting groups. I am going to begin this section by clearing up a massive misconception. Remember when I just listed out all those numbers for you? Those number didn't have anything to do with genetics groups did they. Nope. "Matching" genetics groups has absolutely nothing to do with if a special will pass or not. Very frequently people ask how to get a base like Jellyfish . And very frequently people respond with "breed a black dark countershaded lioness!" Bzzzzt. Incorrect buzzer. I get why it's a misconception, that sounds like it would make sense. But as I'll get into, the only thing genetics groups control is fails. Special pass rates are flat and only controlled by rarity.

But yes, genetics groups do control one thing. Most of the time you are not going to get a special base pass, instead you are going to get fail cubs. What these fail cubs look like is entirely determined by genetics groups. There are three aspects to genetics:

Color: Bases are sorted into color groups based on their overall color and vibes, going into either Cream, Golden, Red, or Black. Cubs will always be in a color group from one if its parents. If you breed Golden x Golden, the cub is guaranteed to be Golden. If you breed Golden x Cream, the cub can be either Golden or Cream

Shade: Shades denote the darkness of a base, being either Light, Medium, or Dark. You should treat these like a gradient. Dark x Dark will always be Dark, but Dark x Light will encapsulate the whole gradient, producing cubs that can be Dark, Medium, or Light. Medium shades can also wobble into Light or Dark at lower rates. Here's a full list of pairings and their percentages:

Dark x Dark = Dark
Light x Light = Light
Dark x Light = 25% Dark, 25% Light, 50% Medium
Medium x Medium = 15% Dark, 15% Light, 70% Medium
Dark x Medium = 50% Dark, 50% Medium
Light x Medium = 50% Light, 50% Medium

Gradient: I'm gonna be honest the gradient classification is entirely rudimentary. It doesn't mean much from a visual perspective. But nonetheless, bases are divided into Solid and Countershaded. This works the exact same as color groups, the cubs just inherit one from its parents. Solid x Solid produces Solid cubs, Solid x Countershaded gives either

So let's put it all together. Let's make our pairing as restrictive as possible. We'll do a Cream Dark Solid x Cream Dark Solid. The only thing we can get is Cream Dark Solid. Let's slap two Qahirs together and see what we can get



Random albino will always be there. Don't mind her. But see how by constricting our genetics groups, we pretty significantly limit the bases we can get. And they all look pretty similar too. Breeding similar genetics groups produces more consistency. Some players value consistency as it generally means more cohesive cubs, but some players want to see a wider range of bases. So let's entertain them. Let's breed Skyward to our Qahir. That's Black Light Countershaded x Cream Dark Solid. That means we can have Cream/Black, Light/Medium/Dark, Countershaded/Solid. That's a lot. Let's take a look



Oh wow. That's a lot of bases. And a wide range of them too. To some players, that's exciting. For some of us, we tremble in our boots imagining a jet black cub getting the tan lion's marks. Most of the time, most players just match color groups, as most Goldens or Creams will have enough in common to still produce cohesive cubs. If you are breeding for a specific rare base, however, it will become important to restrict genetics groups to the one that the rare belongs to. If you breed Cream Light Countershaded x Cream Light Countershaded and the game rolls a rare base, it will only have one option: Buff