Look - no one's doubting this can be done without Diamonds, purchased or expended from game earnings.
But this is binary - you either spent DIAMONDS from WHATEVER SOURCE produced them, or you didn't.There is no obfuscation required. This isn't about smart or the wrong strategy. It's not about that you DIDN'T spend diamonds DIRECTLY in Wildlife, but did spend in Rvial.
Spending is SPENDING.
There are very bright people here playing that KNOW what they're doing, and have been doing it a long time.
I had a focused strategy, and so did most everyone else I've talked to here (or read their posts...).
DROP PAWS!
If paws do NOT show up, I cannot control that. The boards are designed to deliver multiple types of experiences across the event 4 times a day. For example:
1) Paw boards, that start "enriched" and stay that way for the duration of that board. We always see these types of boards at the beginning of the event to "hook you" into playing, because they're lucrative and easy.
2) Match boards, those which give you opportunities for long color runs, so you consider changing focus away from paws to Leagues, and daily special acquisitions.
3) Last 6 drop boards - absolute killer. Wait 8 hours, get 1 or 2 paws at the start of play, then nothing for 15 moves, and then for the last 4-6 moves, it drops 1 paw for each move to the top of the stack. Makes you consider paying 65 coins to extend? Don't ya just love this design?
This ENTIRE event could be more fun, but they want their pound of flesh. Inno took most of us for FREE to near the goal line. To get over, you'd have to buy a few more tickets to get that last level 11 upgrade.
That's what I'm hearing, and where I personally ended up too.
If it is now abundantly clear Rival is required - then we all learned something. That's NOT an experience I want, or can play here.
That makes INNO the loser, not me. Way too many people are going to get whipsawed.
I'm not doing this in earnest in live, if at all. I'm telling people they will be SORRY if they start down the path to play this for 1 month, then fail, and have to pay to complete their win.
They will be royally pissed off.
I'm not spending 1 month of my time dealing with an event that so many people here, including myself, did not get the satisfaction of enjoying through accomplishing my secondary goal.
Just because Inno throws something over the wall to us, doesn't mean we have to play it. The prizes are not compelling in this event, and unless this is a Pavlovian thing for you - you can skip it.
When Inno says jump, I don't say "how high"? Seems like many people do though.
I did accomplish my primary goal: Telling Inno as a beta player that, in my opinion, this ISN'T where I want to be for my time and their events.
.
