Cone help

So, I’m sort of new in a way. But what’s the easiest and/or fastest way to make silver cones? I know about the raccoon and how he can cheat you if you sell something of a higher value and the fishing game is good, but you get so little for submitting a fish and you have to wait every ten minutes just to submit another. 

Also, what is with the weird dark thing in the Dreamlands? I’ve come across it twice now. 

Doing daily quests and fishing are some of the best ways to earn SC.  There are also explore encounters that can give SC; it's not much per encounter, but if you explore a lot it can add up bit by bit!  Grouse house has a guide on Explore Encounters that can be helpful to you if you're looking for specific encounters/encounters that give certain rewards. 

In the long term, selling food is probably the best reliable source of SC. You'll want five wolves with compatible personalities and good stats for their respective hunting roles. If you haven't read it yet, the Grouse House guide on hunting is great and I highly recommend it. One thing that's not mentioned in the guide is that the level-up algorithm always prioritizes the highest two stats. Therefore, for hunter pups, you need to make sure their highest two stats are the relevant stats. For instance, a future chaser pup needs to have speed/agility that are clearly higher than any of their other stats.

As for what is "good stats" for a starter team, I'd suggest having at least 100 base stats in each relevant role stat; for instance, a chaser pup should have at least 100 speed + 100 agility. Of course you can go higher than that, but it will likely be more expensive. High-end stalker/chaser pups have 140-150 in their relevant stats, and high-end finisher pups have 160.

This takes a while to set up, because you need to build synergy/proficiency/levels and they may not catch much at first. But once it gets going it's great. Food always sells well at the trading center, especially in winter. Eventually, depending on how much you're online, you can expand to two or even three hunting teams (though personally I generally can't finish a third team's hunts).