people typically consider any lion who has any inbreeding down their lineage as dirty. people also tend to stick away from long-gen kings, even if they're not inbred. people also consider any lions with the "big four" to be inbred since they have so many cubs, but this is outdated & more modern heavy-stat kings, like Ysdaar, are just as prevalent. i don't personally consider the lion inbred unless it says inbred anywhere down the lineage, i don't consider the big four inbred.

he's a ferus primal variation, so that should help a bit though! he also has a breed-only platinum base, so i would recommend keeping the base but of course he's yours & you can use an applicator base if you'd like! he doesn't really have any markings, so you'd have to rely on applicator markings exclusively or try your luck with random marking applicators (but i honestly wouldn't bother)

people tend to prefer studding to lower-gen lions with lots of breed-only (BO) traits. i tend to value breed-only traits & heritage over any given mutation, but not everyone does. personally i would look for a cheap lion with lots of BO marks & other BO traits (skin, eyes, mane, etc.). bonus points if they have a BO base, but you can always slap an applicator base on (i recommend a factor one like ice or ragdoll if you want studs). near raffle lioness clones (NRLCs) tend to be really heavy BO and vary a lot in price, but you can find pretty cheap ones on the trading center.
another really popular marking is rosettes, those tend to attract stud requests but rosettes are really rare to breed naturally. they likely won't pass onto many of your cubs naturally & a rosette heavy-BO lion is probably going to be a bit more spendy than a non-rosette heavy-BO lion.

keep in mind, this is just my advice to get more studs & sellable cubs!! do what you want, there is no inherently wrong way to play this game. the may event allows you to buy a primal mutie-on-demand item, so you can always slap that onto a different lion if you still want a primal mutation but with a different heritage or appearance. (you can buy one for GB currently, but as a newer player that's probably going to be hard. ticked MODs are also really cheap year-round).

if you need help raising GB funds for this king or any other heir endeavor, there's lots of helpful guides up! here is a pretty thorough one by zuri. keep in mind, selling carcasses from hunts won't be viable once the january event unlocks that pit.

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thank you for such a detailed reply!! :)

would I need to disclose that he’s dirty in the future for future stud requests?

definitely going to keep his base, I wasn’t trying to breed a mutation so admittedly I wasn’t looking too much into heritage, oops
I’ll definitely check from now on

are certain applicator markings still sought after? or are they all generally not really worth anything?

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@Xviperflame_
you don't need to disclose he's dirty, it's just a courtesy. obviously don't advertise him as clean or anything, but if people really care about heritage they will probably check it themselves.

i don't follow applicators too much, but i know neutron markings & haliotis markings are generally not liked very much. people also strongly dislike the brawl & squabble markings so i especially recommend straying away from those.
some applicators are worth more than others, just take a look at the applicator markings wiki and find some marks you like. you can then cross-reference branches and trading center to gauge pricing, which will help you figure out how sought after they are.

since you're new, i would definitely look at each event shop's applicators (specifically january & february which are coming up) and consider those more heavily, since you'll be able to get them for "free." february applicators tend to be worth more since there are a lot of other valuable items to buy, such as lion or buffalo scrotums or yohimbe barks.
one mistake a lot of new players make is slapping every single applicator onto a new king that isn't worth a ton, so they end up "wasting" them on a king they end up retiring anyways & then you don't have the profit from applicators to help fund a new heir. however, the applicator market has been much cheaper than usual so in general you'd be earning less from them (at least compared to previous years).
in the end, it's up to you though! speaking from personal experience i used a lot of applicators on my first inbred king & ended up regretting it. but i also value clean lines more (since they tend to sell better), not everyone plays the game that way :D

speaking of february, that event allows you to earn a lot of valuable items you can resell later! there are many guides for february, but here's one example to give you an idea how to prepare.

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I’ve seen a lot about February being important, thank you for that link! I’ll definitely check it out

it’s my first mutation i’ve got naturally (instead of buying or the giving tree) so I was honestly a bit too excited and didn’t consider everything lol

I’d like to have a king that’s good for studding, clean lions also sell better like you said, so I’ll probably just keep trying to breed for a clean cub with a mutation :P instead of just relying on applicator markings too

thank you for all the tips on markings and events!<3

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