Pet Overbreeding[]
Once a pet has reached a high enough level to be evolved, you can continue to level it before you evolve it, this is referred to as overbreeding. Overbreeding your pet gives you additional JP to invest in pet skills.
Cost/Benefit of Pet Overbreeding[]
During overbreeding your pet will gain 2JP per level instead of 1JP. This allows you to invest in many additional pet skills.
Evo2 Pets without overbreeding have a much lower market value. On the other hand an overbred pet with poorly chosen skills should also have a lower market value. Unfortunately it is very difficult to verify before a transaction just how the skills have been invested.
- If you see a creature card (a.k.a. pet card) advertised as "JP free" then the owner is claiming that none of the job points have yet been spent on any skills. Most of the time this is true and an honest player will not be offended if you ask them for a current screen shot showing evidence of this claim. Pets that are advertised as "Clean" (though this usually refers to items and not pets) or "fresh" are generally either just-tamed or very low level (less than lvl60)- they may or may not have job points spent if they have been levelled.
- In Epic 7 overbreeding a creature is time well spent.
WARNING: Choosing not to overbreed your pet is a definitive choice! It will significantly lower the value of the pet, and irreversibly deny it the bonus JP unless you are going to stage that pet.
Character Overbreeding[]
You may overbreed your character before you decide on your 2nd Job transfer. Once you reach JLv40 in your 1st Job, you start the character overbreeding process. You may overbreed your character up to JLv50 and then you may no longer spend JP on increasing Job Level.
Cost/Benefit of Character Overbreeding[]
- Cost
The cost of overbreeding before 2nd Job transfer is 1,081,100 JP.
- That is the equivalent (see data) of job level advancement in your 2nd Job from JLv1 to JLv26 - assuming that you spent every job point on increasing your Job Level and none on increasing the level of various skills. In practice you'd divide the JP between the two.
The other cost is the time spent overbreeding.
- For every 100 Exp you earn you also earn 9 JP. Therefore, to earn 1,081,100 JP you will necessarily earn about 12 million EXP. Depending on what character level you begin the OB process (and how many times you die or how many JP you choose to invest in skills as opposed to job level) that could translate to anywhere between 8 and 16 character levels.
In general your character will have completed overbreeding by the time it reaches Lv55..Lv60. Compared to players at the same level but who chose not to overbreed you will not have the 1,081,100JP worth of new skills and Job Level and so your character will generally be weaker than those peers.
- A method used by some to "catch up" is referred to as deleveling (a.k.a. down-leveling). You just allow yourself to die over and over, losing EXP each time, until you are back to Lv50. At this point you may decide on your 2nd Job transfer. By the time you catch up to those peers mentioned earlier your character will have both the JP invested in skills and the albeit small stat benefit from overbreeding. That benefit is discussed next.
Note: To avoid the painstaking time in deleveling, once you reach Lv50 go get yourself a red name by having lots of immorality points. This in turn will greatly lower the EXP you get, letting you stay at level 50 for a longer period of time. Another advantage is that you will consume stamina much slower allowing you to get the stamina bonus (faster JP) while gaining minimal EXP. Since your are Lv50, you should be using Rank 3 equipment and also killing mobs 3-5Lv's lower than your rank. A good way of getting stamina is by either buying a tent from the cash shop or making new characters and collecting the STA500 and STA1000 potions from trainee island, then transferring them to your Warehouse and the character you want to overbreed. Make no mistake, overbreeding a character takes a long time but it has definite advantages and with the "Red Name JP farming method" you avoid the EXP leveling. Most players should already know this but a Red Name means that other players can attack you at will and that you can not join parties.
- Benefit
The benefits from character overbreeding are the additional stat points that you earn for each JLv above JLv40. Recall that each of the basic stats increment based on job level and this pattern is different for each Race and Job. To illustrate this point, 10 Job Levels of overbreeding might represent, for example:
- A comprehensive table of "Job level bonus stats" can be found at each job page.
- Alternatively they are all assembled on one page at Talk:Stats & Ability.
In the grand scheme of things this benefit is quite small so a decision will usually be based on your reason for playing and the rupee or cash value that you put on time.
- Patient personalities tend to value the "journey more than the destination" or relate to a "delayed gratification" philosophy because more time spent in-game is not considered by these players as a waste but rather is considered an investment or even an opportunity. Many farming types will even delevel (a.k.a. dlvl or down-level) to extend the time spent farming mobs at a certain level.
- Given the complaints read on forums about the lack of any meaningful end game enjoyment for players above Lv110 these players may be on to something.
- Competitive personalities tend to value the "destination more than the journey" or relate to an "instant gratification" philosophy. These players favor rapid advancement at almost any cost especially if rupee or real currency can be invested in place of a time investment. These players point out that the return on investment is so small that overbreeding is a just a waste of precious time. These players are not wrong ... if time is indeed precious!
- These players advance to higher levels much sooner and some might decide to invest considerable rupee (rather than considerable time) to compensate for the small overbreed benefit which they chose not to pursue.
- Summary
Just make your own choice and don't feel obliged to justify it to others. Unlike the hare and tortoise story both types of player win in this game.