Starting Pack Size

Hi, new member here - what would you say is the ideal pack size for someone starting out?  Is it worth paying the SC to get more territory slots if the first 5 spots are full?

I'd say try to get 10 pack slots as soon as possible.

The ideal setup is 1 hunting party, which consists of 5 wolves, then 2 scouts, 2 pupsitters, and 1 herbalist. I dunno if you've unlocked the Herbalist yet (I think it unlocks in 4 rollovers after your joining date) but it's gonna be important later on.

Hi! Hope you're enjoying the game! Getting SC when first starting out is a bit difficult, but upgrading your territory to have at least a full hunting team is I believe 100% recommended, you can try the first days to handle a small hunting team of three (with only one chaser instead of three) while you get the currency to expand, and add more chasers when you have the space, it will also be harder to handle a den with not that much territory slots when you start having pups.

It's really up to you, but I would recommend at least 10 slots so you can have all your pack roles filled: a pair of scouts, a full hunting party of five, an herbalist (once you unlock that quest) and one or two pupsitters.

When you're first starting out, creating at least two caves to sort wolves in is almost as important as expanding your territory. Once you unlock the herbalist quest your wolves will have the chance to get sick, and some illnesses are contagious- designating a quarantine cave for sick wolves helps keep diseases under control.

I mean eventually you'll have to expand anyways so you might as well buy the territory slots if you have the SC for it. If not though I wouldn't sweat it. Personally I like having a few hundred SC always that I don't spend just to have kind of a cushion in case I need to buy stuff like food or items (not likely but anyways that's just me). I'd prioritize getting a full hunting party of 5 first- like you can have a hunting party with 3 wolves but when you assign wolves to multiple roles in the hunting party they lose more energy and its kind of a pain when you keep having to wait for their energy to replenish before sending them on another hunt. 

Thanks for the advice!  Right now I'm covered by the (4? 5?) rollover immunity from illness but I know it's a factor I'll have to deal with soon.  I have 3 pups (two from the intro breeding quest and one I acquired), 1 pupsitter, 2 scouts, and 2 hunters.  The hunters are rather fail-y, unsurprisingly, but they have personality conflicts with the other two which was dragging down their success anyways. 

Is it better to get new pack members from NBWs or try to trade for them? 

depends on your long term goals! on the TC wolves are likely to have much better stats (good for hunting mainly) and still be rather cheap, but if you wanted to start with all fresh wolves to breed within a pack, NBWs may be best! tc wolves also have a better chance of looking nice xD

if it helps, here are some cheap high stat adult wolves on the market :) wolvden.com (only for stats, not for bases/markings/appearance! again, all depends on what kind of wolves you want in your pack ^w^ some 10-30 SC investments while just getting started are things you can easily discard + replace later, though!)

its really up to how you'd like to spend your money starting out, NBWs advantages are that they are free if you encounter them, and are sometimes sought out on the market because there is a very small chance one might be a melanism/albinism carrier (though at this point in the game, I would recommend not worrying about mutations as they are complicated lol) though their stats can be kind of low, buying fairly high stat wolves (and proficient at hunting as well) can speed up your hunting team's ability to get food, but you can end up spending a lot of SC

Welcome to Wolvden!

Most things in this game really depend on your playstyle, there’s very little true right or true wrong. Some things to note about pack size:

• You can have one herbalist, two scouts, one hunting party, and as many pupsitters as you have pups actively in a role at one time.
• Some players rotate scouts/herbalists in order to train more than the limit at a time.
• only one hunting party can be hunting at a time, but if you are online often you can hunt your hunting party out of energy. Because of this I recommend having a primary and secondary hunting party.
• Food and amusement items are the life blood of a pack. Your lead wolf can get both from explore. Hunters bring back food and scouts who are rescouting fully unlocked territories bring back amusement items.
• id recommend having two scouts so you can have one bringing in amusement items and one discovering biomes.