Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Farmville 2, By George!

New "Great Britain" Content Added


With all the Fall and Thanksgiving content additions that have been added to Farmville 2 over the past 2-ish weeks, it was a bit surprising to see the pop-up screen to the left appear today. There's nothing particularly British about today's update, at least that I could find. It's not a Bank Holiday, as the Brits have the same good sense to schedule their official days off like we do in the US i.e. on Fridays and Mondays. In any event, there was actually a new limited-time, craft-able plant item introduced, as well as 3  limited time craft-able recipes. Truth be told, Zynga also introduced a limited-time, Farm Bucks-only Elderberry Tree, but I try to ignore Farm Bucks exclusive content in the same way I'd ignore poor manners, bad grammar, or Justin Bieber.

New Plant:

English Rose
  •  Good until December 23rd
  • 2 Hours to grow
  • 42/59 coins to plant/recieve
  • 3 XP
  • 5 Feed
  • Can be crafted to make Rose Jelly:
            • Requires: 8 Roses + 3 Sugars
            • Rewards: 1510 coins + 9 XP 

New Recipes:
  • Elderberry Tea
    • Good until Dec. 23rd
    • Requires Farm Bucks, so why bother with details? 
  • Petit Fours
    • Good until Dec. 23rd
      • Requires: 2 Blueberry Custards + 3 Batters
      • Rewards: 2710 coins + 27 XP

So there you have it - a proper English menu, at least according to a game made in the US of A.






Monday, November 26, 2012

Farmville 2

Level 20 Skidoo!

 

Bottles 'n Bucks Needed


I reached Level 20 in Farmville 2 this morning, and for once was smart enough to plan(t) ahead with a full field of long growing (24 hour) strawberries and sunflowers. However, I was less than happy when I dived into the details of what was required in order to unlock the farmland. It was not pretty:




  • 13 Chainsaws (easily fulfilled from Zynga.com)
  • 300,000 coins (pricey, but I'd already amassed around 120,000 coins without even trying)
  • 1 Adult Brown Swiss Cow (so I have to buy/raise a baby cow - no big deal)
Except, a Baby Brown Swiss Cow costs 65,000 coins (!) and requires 16 Baby Bottles (!!). Suddenly,one trivial item on the unlock checklist became a major resource sink. I bought the baby cow, started feeding it, and ran out of Baby Bottles after about 6. The freebie giveaway on Zynga.com was no luck - there was a huge run of just free Feed and Water available at the exact time I needed anything but.

So here I sit, waiting to raise enough resources to unlock the farm area. Frustrating. Don't make punishment part of the reward, Zynga.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Clash of Clans

It's Clan-tastic

 

Review


A few weeks ago, I posted an entry that examined how some free apps make money hand over fist via in-game purchases for real money. One of the games mentioned in the original Wired story I reposted was Clash of Clans by Supercell out of Finland (Moi Suomi!). Out of curiosity, I downloaded the app a few days later, and discovered that  spending hundreds of dollars on a "free" game suddenly became to not seem so crazy.




 The Clash Part:

Clash of Clans, at it's a core, harks back to the late '90s, when real time strategy games ruled the gaming landscape. Build a base via harvesting resources, research and upgrade units and buildings, train troops to attack and defend, all the while having a good old time. It's set in a fantasy world of goblins, barbarians, dragons, and the undead, among others, with the player tasked with attacking evil warlords bases wherever they lurk. Pretty standard fare - until you introduce multiplayer into CoC, with other players attacking your base, or you attacking theirs. It introduces the element of tension, anticipation, and low-down scheming that really makes the game shine. Each player's base has a "Shield" last from a few hours to a few days. When the Shield is active, no players can attack you, and you can't attack them. But once that Shield is down, it's every player for themselves. You can raise an army and go out and plunder other player's bases for loot. But they can do the same to yours.  Successfully defend an attack on your base, or win an attack against another player, and you also gain trophies, the quantity of which determines how powerful you are. Lose an attack on your base, and the Shield gets turned back on, protecting your base while you make repairs and re-think your defensive layout.

The Clans Part:

If the idea of constant attacks seems off-putting, there's a solution. Join a Clan. There are dozens of Clans around the globe to join. Clans are essentially your gang - use them to solicit troops for attacks or defense. It's a simple game mechanic - fellow Clan members ask for help when needed, and you can do the same. There's also an in-game chat, which is great for hints, tips, gossip, and generally hanging out. Don't confuse this short description of Clans with it's importance; like may simple things, it's as powerful as you make it.

In closing, Clash of Clans definitely warrants all the love it's been getting lately. It's a perfect mix of good game design, good art, and beyond robust multiplayer. Just be prepared to lose endless hours having a blast. 






Saturday, November 24, 2012

Farmville 2: Thanksgivingpalooza!

Fall Content Updates


A ton of new content was dropped within the past week in Farmville 2. I'll examine in greater detail over the next few days the specific pros/cons and quest tasks. In terms of new, limited-time items to purchase in the General Store, there are new plants, animals, trees, and decorations. The vast majority of these new items require real-cash Farm Bucks, so I won't discuss those items in any detail, as this blog is primarily dedicated to the free game experience.



Plants:
  • Parsnips 
 Animals:
  • 4 Types of Birds (2 Chickens/2 Turkeys). All require Farm Bucks. Blech.
Trees:
  • 2 Types (1 only type, the Plum Tree, yields fruit for crafting). Both require Farm Bucks. Blech times two.
 Quests:
  • L'il Rebel Turkey: rewards 1 Baby Turkey upon completion.
  • Turkey Calls: contains 6 sub-quests. A turkey is required as part of one of the quest tasks, so completion of L'il Rebel Turkey beforehand is vital.
  • Feast Table: mostly requires friends to supply building materials/sweat equity for construction to complete, although there is a food crafting sub-quest in the middle that will require strawberries, so start planting now. Once the Table is completed, you then invite four 4 friends to 5 different feasts. The rewards are pretty good for each successful feast you hold, so make this a high priority on your 'To-Do' list. 

And, that's it in a nutshell. Happy Farming to all!

Friday, November 16, 2012

Freemium Price Compare!

a.k.a. ARSE

Abstract Resource Stock indEx

I recently read an old article on Mental Floss about the Toadstool Exchange - it compared the relative prices in-game, and in real-world dollars, the cost of a grenade. This, in turn, reminded me of an annual column The Economist used to run - The Big Mac Index. Both are genius, and well worth a read when it comes to comparing relative values of things that either are digital or seemingly dissimilar i.e. a burger in a Norway vs. a burger in Tuscaloosa.

Anyways....in that vein I was inspired to create the ARSE. Most (90%+) of freemium or free-to-play app games out there, allow you to speed up the game, and thus gain an advantage, by purchasing some sort of of in-game currency. The important part, as it pertains to ARSE, is that in general, 1 in-game resource, be it gems, or gold, or smurfberries, equals 1 hour of game speed-up time. And thus, a comparative real-currency value can be assigned to these seemingly intangible virtual items.

GameResourceUnitsCostCost Per Resource
CityVille
Cash
50
$4.99
$0.10
Clash of Clans
Gems
1200
$9.99
$0.01
Dragon Story
Gold
120
$4.99
$0.04
Dragonvale
Gems
130
$4.99
$0.04
Gizmonauts
Crystals
130
$4.99
$0.04
Hay Day
Diamonds
130
$4.99
$0.04
Jurassic Park Builder
Bucks
120
$9.99
$0.08
My Little Pony
Gems
120
$9.99
$0.08
Restaurant Story
Gems
105
$19.99
$0.19
Simpsons: Tapped Out
Donuts
132
$9.99
$0.08
Smurfs' Village
Berries
125
$9.99
$0.08
Tiny Monsters
Diamonds
130
$4.99
$0.04
Tiny Tower
Tower Bux
100
$1.99
$0.02
Tiny Tribe
Diamonds
100
$9.99
$0.10


 Several caveats:

1. I tried to go for similar Resource Units or USD ($) amounts. It's not precise, clearly.

2. Some games, like Clash of Clans or Simpsons, use a different metrics to apply against 1 hour of in-game progress. 'Clash' is pretty easy to decipher; 4 gems = 1 hour. Simpsons has no discernible pattern.

3. Unsurprisingly, the mercenary black souls at Team Lava have the highest comparative ARSE cost via Restaurant Story.

I'll be updating the ARSE as the mood strikes, new games make the list, or a cost moves dramatically.











































































































































































Thursday, November 15, 2012

Farmville 2: It's Like A Circus!

Bread & Circuses, Actually

 

After powering through the quest wasteland that was level 15 in Farmville 2, I finally got some new quests, which revolved around preparing for a circus (I think - I'm not one for back-story in FV2, when there's precious crops and animals at stake). Anyways...these quest were pretty straightforward, until I got to the the 3rd in the "Circus" series. It required 3 Cheddar Loafs. Sounds pretty simple, eh? Well, there's 2 problems with said Loaf:

1. You need Salt (which you can't make)
2. You need need Cheese (which you might be out of)

If you're playing FV2 via Zynga.com, it should be relatively easy to obtain Salt via requests. Cheese, however, is another matter. It's a rare drop from Cows/Goats, and since you had to last purchase said livestock, they might have evolved into "Prized" animals, which no longer drop any produce, aside from XP and coins. So, it's Baby Bottle and Feed time once again to raise them into productive members of the farming community. So, take it with a grain of Salt, but if you stock up on your cheese-dropping barnyard critters, and you can (Cheez) wiz through this quest quickly. See what I did there? Funny stuff.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

The Simpsons: Tapped Out

Over 1 Million Krusty Burgers Served


A Look Under The Hood Of A Freemium Moneymaker



Interesting comparative infographic chart over at Games.com which compares in-game purchases in The Simpsons: Tapped Out to real world fast food consumption statistics. A very interesting peak into actual numbers of structures built, and Donuts spent in the game. Given that Donuts are the in-app-purchase-able resources bought with real money, it gives a clue with regard to how much cold hard cash the game is actually generating for EA. Hint: it looks like a pile of money so huge, you'd need Mr. Plow to move it.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Farmville 2: Power Leveling

Bad Pun Alert!


Plowing Through Levels in FV2



I recently had an odd situation occur in Farmville 2; I hit Level 15, and suddenly ran out of quests. I (correctly) assumed quests were given to player based on certain levels i.e. I'd finished levels that the level designers at Zynga had assumed would take me until at least Level 16 to complete. So with no quests to occupy me in Level 15, I wanted to level up as quickly as possible. In the end, it took me about 36 hours to get to Level 17. Here are some tips to turbocharge your leveling:


  • Play at Zynga.com. I cannot emphasize enough how much more efficient it is if you play the game through the Zynga portal.  You can get literally dozens of neighbors in the space of a few hours who can supply you with XP when you visit their farm, or provide you with quest items when you request them. Again, Zynga.com is a godsend when it comes to accelerating the leveling process.
  • Crafting. Every step of the crafting process rewards you with some amount of XP. Cumulatively, each step in creating an item gives you a few XP; put them all together and you can get 20 to 30+ XP per item.
  • Plant items with quick grow times and higher XP rewards. For example, Radishes, which thankfully unlocked at Level 15, have a grow time of 2 Minutes and reward 3 XP per plant. 
  • Fertilize as much as possible. For every prize winning plant you grow, you are rewarded XP equal to the number of pounds (lbs) of the vegetable or fruit. In other words a 12 lbs. Pumpkin will give you 12 XP.
  • Prized animals reward higher XP than animals that produce resources, like eggs, milk, or cheese. I usually keep a half dozen Prized livestock stored away in my inventory, and break them out into the barnyard when I need my livestock to produce just XP, not resources.

I am sure there are other strategies other players use to level up quickly, so I'd love to hear any other tips you have. Happy leveling!

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Gizmonauts - Snax Attacks

Update: New Food Types & Amounts


Looks like my earliest list of Gizmonauts Snax farming stats is now a bit outdated. Backflip revised some Snax in-game numbers about 2 weeks ago across several categories, which I wasn't aware of, and there was third type of Snax farm I didn't even realize existed. D'oh/Facepalm/Apologies x 2. Below are the latest and greatest Snax:







Food Farm Cost Time (in Mins) Amt Made Amt Made/Hour
Micro Chips Shack 50 0.5 5 600
Spring Salad Shack 250 5 20 240
Bolt Burger Shack 1,000 30 75 150
Blueberry Boltmeal Joint 5,000 120 300 150
Carbon Cola Joint 15,000 360 800 133.3
Battery Bites Joint 75,000 1,440 3,000 125.0
Coolant Cone Shop 150,000 1 3,000 180,000
Pizza Shop 250,000 10 5,000 30,000
Astro Oil Shop 500,000 60 10,000 10,000

I'm not 100% sure why they made Battery Bites and Coolant Cones so similar, at least with regard to "Amt Made". By the time you get to the level that unlocks the Snax Shop, the difference between spending 75,000 and 150,000 coins to make them is not that big of a deal, as you're making a fairly large amount of coins. But hey, I'm not complaining. Bon appetit!


Friday, November 9, 2012

Farmville 2

No Quests?!?!?


The Curious Case of the Camouflaged Quests


Perhaps 'camouflaged' isn't exactly the right word, but it had a nice alliterative ring to it. Anyways....here I am at Level 15 in Farmville 2, with nothing to do. All my quests have been completed, and no new ones have appeared in their place. A bit of Google-ing on the topic revealed that other players have experienced this as well, on other levels, so my educated guess is that the quest designers just don't anticipate players completing certain quests before reaching certain levels. Thus, I am now left to my own devices.

"Wake me when we get to Lvl 16"
I expect once I hit Level 16, some new quests will be triggered, but what to do in the meantime? I need 4,492 XP to reach Level 16, but who's counting. Quests are the best way to level up, as they have high XP rewards. But without them, it's just a grind. You get 6 XP per neighbor farm visited, 10 XP for per day for Prized animals, harvests, and the rest is just rewards for prized crops, and that's dependent on the crop size i.e. a 15 Lbs. Tomato = 15 XP, and also appears perhaps once every 10+ fertilized crops. 

This is going to be a long week. Any tips of power-leveling, please send them my way. The alternative is to get a life, otherwise. 

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Farmville 2 - Pecan-apalooza!

Strategies for "Bake Sale" and "No Horsing Around" Quests.


Hint: It Involves A Lot Of Pecans


Around Level 14, you will encounter the aforementioned quests in Farmville 2. Like most quests in FV2, they aren't difficult, but rather time-consuming, if you are not prepared. Both quests revolve around Pecans, which unlock at Level 13, so you in all likelihood, you might not have planted any Pecan Trees yet, which will put you behind the curve when it comes to completing these quests. In a nutshell (ha!), you'll need to craft/make 5 Pecan Muffins for the "Ho No Horsing Around" quest, and sell 10 Pecan Muffins for the "Bake Sale" quest. Luckily, this means the effort you put into 1 quest will apply to the other quest, which makes things a bit easier.  If you do the Crafting math, that means you'll need 50 Pecans to complete the pecan portion of both quests. The logistics of getting 50 Pecans are as follows:


1 Pecan Tree Harvest  =      2.5 Pecans Nuts (on average)
Pecan Tree Harvest Time =  12 Hours

Therefore, 1 Pecan Tree will = 5 Pecan Nuts per Day. 

So, it will take 10 days to get enough Pecan Nuts from 1 tree to complete the crafting for these quests. Or 5 days with 2 Pecan trees. And so on...So plant ahead, and save some time.

 

My Singing Monsters

Feed Me!


Overview of total food required to grow a Level 15 monster


I've been a bit curious to find what the maximum level was is My Singing Monsters. After literally 2 weeks of just baking food to feed one T-Rox constantly, it turns out it's level 15. I currently have all 4 Islands and 2 Green Crystal Mines, so I'm not lacking for monsters to generate cash, or bakeries to create food, or crystals to speed along the process, but even so, it took what seemed like an eternity to reach the max monster level. And it's costly process. Below is the required food ( and in-game money) required to reach that goal:

Level Amt (Food) SubTotal (Gold)
1 5 20
2 10 40
3 20 80
4 40 160
5 80 320
6 160 640
7 320 1,280
8 640 2,560
9 1,280 5,120
10 2,560 10,240
11 5,120 20,480
12 10,240 40,960
13 20,480 81,920
14 40,960 163,840
15 81,920 327,680
Total 163,835 655,340

"It's wafer thin!"
In other words, it would require a Turkey (1,000,000 gold), a Pie (500,000 gold), and 2 Pizzas (75,000 gold per Pie) to get enough food to reach Level 15, for a grand total of 1,650,000 gold to get just ONE Monster to Level 15. This is why I usually stop around Level 9 for monster upgrading. I'm stuffed.  


Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Farmville 2

No Horsing Around Quest


I Gotta See A Man About A Horse



The "No Horsing Around" quest in Farmville 2, which probably appears somewhere around level 13 or 14 (but your mileage may vary), contains yet another minor mystery concerning the acquisition of saddles to complete the quest. The quest text merely says "Gather 3 Saddles..." and unhelpfully has a "help" button marked "Go To Farm", which brings back to staring cluelessly at your farm. Are they hidden? Do I make them? What's the deal?

The answer, like most things in FV2, is that in order to get said said saddles, you have to buy them. Actually, you have to buy a horse which drops saddles. On occasion. When the mood strikes said horse, it appears. Go to the "General Store", and buy yourself a baby Black Arabian Horse. If you have the Farm Bucks, and want to save yourself the in-game money, or bottles, you can also buy an adult Black Gypsy Horse for 54 Farm Bucks, or an adult Black Arabian for 30 FB. Either way, they're not cheap. 

Even if you go the cheapskate route like I did, and buy a baby Arabian, the numbers still aren't great. Here's the cold hard numbers on a Baby Arabian Horse:

Cost:                                 22,000
Bottles Required:                6
Feed Required:                  12
Time Between Feedings:    24 hours
Drops:                               2 Horseshoes
                                         3  Saddles (sometimes)

Thus, it could take several feedings to acquire the Saddles i.e. days. You could buy multiple horses, but with Level 15 land unlock looming, which requires, among other things, 125,000 coins, this is not the time to be spend multiples of 22,000 coins to get 2 or 3 horses  to get 3 saddles. So settle in, cowboys and cowgirls. This quest might take some time.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Jurassic Park Builder

Get Ready For The Dino Doldrums


Review



Jurassic Park Builder is not necessarily a bad game. It's got really sweet graphics, lots of dinosaur species to care for in your zoo, and tons of missions. On the flip side, it's pretty damn boring. There is nothing to do. Find amber, play a gene sequencer minigame that essentially just makes you spend in-game money, feed dinosaurs, build some support structures (hotels, infirmaries  guard towers, etc) that have no bearing on the game, except to make more money, and import meat and veggies from a port for your dino denizens. 

You missions essentially are variations on the same theme - collect money from dinosaurs, move around dinosaur pens, build roads, delete roads, wash, rinse, repeat. Considering it's supposed to be a simulation of a visitor-driven business enterprise i.e. a zoo, there's no mechanic whatsoever that recognizes player actions that would have more/less visitors coming to your park, or providing amenities to them that would aid attendance. It's a sterile experience, with the lone visitor being the player. The most entertaining part is the "Code Red" minigame, which is essentially a game of chicken. But alas, it only happens perhaps 2 times a day, and then for at most 90 seconds each time. So if you wanted to be entertained for no more than 3 minutes a day, then this game is for you.   

Monday, November 5, 2012

FarmVille 2

"Spicing It Up" Quest Hints


aka Cheese Please!


OK, so I've playing Farmville 2. Well, that is to say, a lot of Farmville 2. It's a lot of fun, and the annoyance of having to co-opt FB friends to be farm "neighbors" is gone with the advent of the game on Zynga.com. Anyways....I am currently at around Level 13, and just got the 'Spicing It Up" quest series. Nothing on the surface of the quest seemed all that difficult: Master Habanero Peppers, Harvest some Wells, and make 5 Spicy Quesos sauces. Making Quesos proved more difficult than I thought - it requires 4 Cheese Wheels (which come from cows and some goats), and 10 Habanero Peppers. Simple enough on paper, right?

"Please don't cut the cheese!"
Wrong! Despite having 3 cows and 1 cheese-producing goat, I was getting no cheese after feeding them. After about a day, the goat gave up 2 cheese out of perhaps 5-7 feedings. I was regularly making milk, and fertilizer, but cheese drops were like winning the lactose lottery. In other words, very seldom. Turns out cheese is a rare drop, meaning it doesn't happen with every feeding. This is the type of thing I'd expect from a hardcore RPG like World of Warcraft, not a casual Facebook game like Farmville 2. Plus, there's no visual indication, or text, to let you know cheese is not going to be dropped 100% of the time after each feeding. It's a relatively hardcore game mechanic, coupled with really poor user feedback. So be forewarned in the future.

Also, I'd recommend going with the Sanaanen Goats, rather than the Loghorn Cows, for cheese production; Cows require 4 hours between feedings, Goats require 15 minutes.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Dragon Story Review

"The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?" 

- Joshua, WarGames (1983)



Such is also the case of Dragon Story by Team Lava. Team Lava seems to specialize in making odious free-to-play games that limit just about every aspect of gameplay, from money earned, to cost to create, and time to create, to say nothing of the number of missions that require you to download another one of their games, or make In App Purchases (IAP) to actually complete a mission. I get it's a free game, and they are trying to make money, but such over the top practices such feel like a visit to a user-car salesman convention.

Anyway, back to Dragon Story. The game itself is standard fare - breed dragons, feed them, they grow, you cross-breed them, yada yada yada. There's nothing original here, aside from the arm-twisting to make IAPs in order to make the tedium of waiting to collect enough coins, or for your minuscule crop yields to ripen, or for structures to get built. At it's core, Dragon Story is trying to monetize off of your boredom waiting for something interesting to happen in the game.

I put together a little chart on the plant farm yields in the game, in case anyone is interested. I know I wasn't.

Food Farm Size Cost Time (Mins) Harvest
Impruberries Small 30 1 6
Buffbeets Small 120 3 20
Firapples Small 650 60 50
Pumpwings Large 3,200 300 225
Eliteleeks Large 5,500 480 325
Scalypears Large 13,000 1,200 700

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Home Sweet Home

Maximixe Your 'Bot Home Zone Cash in Gizmonauts


"Time for my money bath!"
Without a doubt, making money in Gizmonauts is one of the easiest jobs in the galaxy. Aside from the Large and Small Builder Zones, every other Zone is a cash cow. However, if you want to make a pile of cash quickly, the best way is to get the maximum number of high level 'bots in either Performance (Small & Large) or Nature (Large) Zones (see below). At the moment I have more money than I know what to do with - I am literally waiting for various breeding combos to produce new 'bots, while the money keeps rolling in. I'm about ready to start stuffing money under the mattress of a robo Sleep Number® bed at this point.


Zone Size Max # of Bots Max Coins
Builder Small 2 250
Mining Small 1 10,000
Performance Small 2 7,500
Nature Small 1 15,000
Builder Large 4 750
Performance Large 3 50,000
Nature Large 3 50,000
Astro N/A 1 1,000,000

Friday, November 2, 2012

Free Ain't Easy

Warning: Actual Learning About Games Ahead. 


"[P]layers should be rewarded even if they don't pay to play, as we know their influence far surpasses their direct income generated and high value players are, of course, rewarded for their loyalty and commitment. Games that are able to respond to real-time player behavior will become the norm in the next few years and players will come to expect a level of support and interaction with the games they play, allowing them to progress further and take greater enjoyment from the experience."

- Games Analytics Whitepaper "The Science of Listening"

Although this whitepaper is focused on the free-to-play game experience, much of the analysis can, and should, be applied to boxed retail titles as well.

Link via Gamasutra

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Ever Wonder How Free Games Make Money?

Then Meet These Guys...


Anyone who plays free-to-play games on a regular basis will wonder, on occasion, how companies that charge nothing stay in business. Well, wonder no more. Wired has a great article on the sugar daddies who will spend hundreds and thousands of cold, hard, real money to be the best in their game(s) of choice. Some of them even justify it by saying they are actually saving money. Regardless of the motivation or rationale, it's a fascinating peek into the economies of F2P gaming, and why games like them keep getting made.

Update


Interesting counter-point article over on The Verge about PunchQuest, a game that has received critical acclaim, but apparently isn't making much money at all.

Proper Breeding in My Singing Monsters

No Need To Send Your Monsters To Etiquette School.


We are talking about breeding monsters found on the Cold Island in My Singing Monsters. Each island in MSM features some new monsters only found on specific islands, just to keep you on your toes.  The following chart just contains monsters not found on the original starting island, Plant. So without further ado, here ya go:

Monster  Island Breeding/Combo Level Coins/Min Max Coins
Tweedle Cold Air 9 14 288
Dandidoo Cold Tweedle+Potbelly 9 29 2,160
Quibble Cold Tweedle+ToeJam 9 22 1,620
Pango Cold Tweedle+Mammott 9 29 1,728
Spunge Cold Dandidoo+ToeJam 9 43 20,736
Thumpies Cold Tweedle+Furcorn 9 50 20,563
Congle Cold Pango+ToeJam 9 43 25,920
Deedge Cold Multiple ? ? ?

Once again, the correct breeding of the four element monster, in this case, Deedge, eludes me. In general, I stop feeding my monsters after Level 9 as the cost is so prohibitive, and for some monsters, like the Tweedle, the return in investment i.e. Max Coins, is minimal and just not worth it.