One of the questions around Chicken Derby that seems to come up on a regular basis is people looking for advice on how to build their coop. Should they go all in on some higher end birds or load up by sweeping the floor?

The answer isn’t a simple one because it probably lives somewhere in between and will be entirely dependant on what each person is trying to get out of the game and what budget they are coming in with.

Let’s run through a few different scenarios

Player 1 - has 1 ETH to enter the game

For this player the choice could be to buy 2 low end Serama. Based on the market at the time of writing the choices would be very slim to get a pair for that budget but it could be possible to land 2 low perfection birds with common talents. The other end of the spectrum would be to buy the 16 lowest priced birds currently on the market. At an average price of 0.06 ETH per bird you could come away with 16 and a bit of pocket change but they would all be at the lowest end of what the spicy generation has to offer.

If this player asked for my advice on what to do my first question is what they aim to do in the game. If all they want to do is hold chickens as an investment than my answer would be to buy the Serama pair. Those birds should rise in value as the top end of the game but the holder would also benefit from having two desirable birds once breeding opens.

But, if the player was primarily interested in racing my answer would probably change. I would instead suggest looking to get 10 birds for around 0.1 ETH each. At that range you can pick up some interesting Dorkings and Lakenvelders with perfections as high as 96 and even some better talents and cosmetics. With this approach you would be maximizing your chances of finding a couple of good racers and putting your eggs in more boxes.

If the player were looking to build a coop to focus on breeding I would suggest the same middle of the road approach but instead of targeting the best perfections I would suggest looking for birds with rare traits. Several cosmetics seem to be underpriced but could be in demand come breeding. It may even be wise to go with just 6 birds in this case so you can stretch the budget a bit higher and get beak accessories, rare eyes, stripes, and even some better talents in the coop.

Player 2 - has 0.5 ETH to enter the game

For this player my advice would actually be much more straight forward because I think the high end option isn’t really there. Choosing to buy and hold a single Serama would really limit your ability to take part in the game in any meaningful way. But if all you wanted to do is hold and maybe breed it would still be possible. It just seems like the least fun option.

This player could still put all their eggs into a single breeding pair but in this case that pair could be higher perfection Dorks or Lakens with maybe something else nice about them like a solid talent or a rare cosmetic. If a pair is the play I would probably suggest this player looks at 2 Sultans with 95 perfection for around 0.25 each. They should be decent racers, produce good offspring, and really just let the player take part in the game more fully.

The third option and this is probably the most compelling one for me in this case would be to just get as many birds as they can which would mean a floor sweep. There are still things down at the floor that are better than 90 perfection Dorks. Underpriced Lakens and even birds with 93 perfection seem to be dipping around the floor if you are able to snipe. 8 birds off the floor should set this player up to have the best chance of enjoying the game and the income from breeding has the potential to be quite solid.

Player 3 - has less than 0.4 ETH to enter the game

For this player my advice is simple. Find the best birds on the floor that you can and keep buying until you are out of funds. Be patient with your floor sweeping and wait for some paper hands to list low. If people are out there taking bot offers there is also hope that you could fire some floor offers at birds that are listed slightly above floor. It might take a lot of offers to get someone to paper hands you a decent bird but if you are on a small budget patience is your best friend. Even with a budget of 0.25 ETH there is no reason you can’t currently build a coop with 4 decent little chickens in it.

Player 4 - has more than 2 ETH to enter the game

Must be nice to be this player but in this case I would look to form high end breeding pairs. Get the two or four best Serama that you can find with the first 2 ETH. After that I think the goal should be to diversify and add numbers. Getting a wide range of heritages, talents, cosmetics, and even perfections would set this coop up to be successful in all areas of the game. I would still probably suggest spreading the budget around roughly 20 birds since that feels like a coop that one person could manage but there are certainly some people building much larger coops than that. If you are coming in with a larger budget like this at such an early stage it feels hard to go wrong.

Overall, I think if you want to really partake in the game and get the most of it you should lean slightly more to the quantity side of things. More birds means more chances to find good racers and more ability to breed. That should lead to more income in the long run.

If all you want is a good hold from the project then I would suggest buying the best breeding pair your budget can afford and basically forgetting about them until breeding is live. But this option just seems a lot less fun to me.