requesting advice on retiring and replacing your lead! EDIT: ANSWERED

hi! so my first lead is now at the age where i can retire her for free. she has an heir that i think will be my new lead and he’s just over 1 year now, leveling as a scout. it seems like it would be best to make him my new lead as early as possible? his stats will quickly catch up to my current lead’s, whose stats are only 600 at level 18 💩

what is the best way to go about retiring your lead, replacing them, etc? i want to be sure i don’t dive in too quickly since i know this will cause my map to reset! ty!

It is easier to level a wolf from scouting than from fighting animals in exploring so if you are wanting to get your heir to have the highest stats possible I would recommend waiting it out for your current lead to die of old age. Though it is totally up to your personal preference, of course. :D

leads die around the same time any other wolf does, correct? between 7.5-8years? this may also come down to personal preference, but i wasn’t sure if my new lead would be “too old” by the time she passes on. he would be around 3ish years, which isn’t old! but again, i want to make sure i’m smart about this lmao

@wolfyfeelers

Correct! Lead wolves will have the chance to die each rollover when they turn 7 years and 6 months and they will die at 8 years old if not before then. I would still recommend waiting it out because your heir will age up no matter what role they have (lead wolf or scout) and overall it would be easier to raise their stats from scouting than fighting animals in explore (and cheaper too, because buying healing salves can add up quickly). I would not consider 3ish years old at all either but that is just my opinion. Your heir should have plenty of time to unlock new areas on the map no matter when they take on the role of lead wolf. I hope this helps! <3

ohh yes it does, thank you!!

do leads’ stats make a difference in battles at all? sometimes it doesn’t seem to matter if i have an active lucky foot against a weaker enemy, i’ll still get beaten but i know rng’s are evil too lol because if it doesn’t seem to affect much, unless you’re going for leaderboards, would this mean that leads would more so be for lore purposes?

thanks again for answering my questions!

oh huh! i thought lead wolves lived until the maximum ? :o at least that's what I figured from the cooldown counter since it would make my wolf 8 years old before I can retire her for free (aka death)

oh i’m not sure! i still have my first lead who is just under 6 years old, but she can be retired for free now. i’ve seen people retire leads around 2 years old (obvs for a fee) and that’s another reason i was curious if there’s a good way to time retiring your lead and replacing them.

hmm.. I'm wondering if maybe you're experiencing a bug, as my lead is now the same age as yours is, and I certainly can't retire her for free! :o

if you click your name at the top > cooldowns, you'll see a cool down for "lead wolf retirement". the question mark states
"Lead wolves retire naturally when they die of old age. You can pay to retire them early if you wish".
so essentially, you shouldn't be able to retire your wolf for free until they die. so if you're seeing you can retire her for free at just under 6 years, I'd bugbox that for sure, as you should be paying a 25gc fee!! :]

also, looking at cooldowns, I do believe lead wolves die at 8 years old, and do not follow the same random rollover chance such as pack members do. otherwise, lead wolves would say 41-53 roll overs like breeding males do, which is essentially 7.6-8 years !! ^^

& onto your question: I don't think there is a "good" time to retire your lead tbh!

I think those that have paid to retire early did so as they maxed out their wolfs level, reached max stats, bred them, & retired replacing their lead with a higher stat pup. probably people who are attempting to play the game of stats overall, hence why they swap out leads & breeding males fairly often I'd assume!

honestly I'd wait and continue to level your next lead via scouting. its probably one of the most lucrative ways & she will keep her stats + level upon becoming your lead.

oh im a fool!!! since other packs members have “retire (X amount of sc)” until they become old enough that they no longer have a fee, i had assumed that’s what was happening with my lead! 🤦‍♀️ upon clicking the retire link for her, though, there is a fee still. think i was scared to click her retire button :p

BUT that does answer my question! it seems retiring a lead super early like that is probably for the purpose of leaderboard status when they have a high stat pup. so it sounds like it’s not such a big deal to time replacing your lead so that the new one is exactly 1 year old like i was worried about. thank you! i think one last question i have is what happens if you don’t have a new lead ready to go when yours dies? 🥶 do you just kinda have to pick whoever right away?

When your lead die, you are forced to choose a new one right away among all the wolves and pups you have at that moment.

If it's an adult with a role, they will "lose" their role (but they can be a breeding male). If it's a pup, it's aged up to 1 years old.

Since lead wolves always die at 8yo exact, you are good to go as long as you have already decided on a heir before your lead reach that age.