Category:Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is also a holiday celebrated on DragCave since 2009. Every year, a new Valentine's dragon will be released for a brief time while those from previous years can produce eggs of their own kind. Since 2012, the day is now also associated with a matching event.

Events and Dragons released over Valentine's Day so far:
 * 2009: Spontaneous release of the Valentine Dragon (TJ09 implemented them roughly 15 minutes before the date rolled over to the 14th EST).
 * 2010: The release of the Sweetling. An initial glitch caused the eggs to auto-abandon during the start of this event; as an apology, the affected scrolls were given alternate-colored Sweetlings with the color scheme of black and red, now known as Alt Sweetlings. This was the first event in which Spriter's Alts were intentionally introduced to DragCave.
 * 2011: Release of the Rosebud Dragon.
 * 2012: The first Valentine's Day event, "Send a Valentine", was introduced to users together with the release of the Heartseeker Dragon.
 * 2013: "Send a Flower" event took place, similar to the previous "Send a Valentine" event. Arsani Dragon was released into the cave.
 * 2014: The "Gardening" event occurred, similar to the previous Valentine's events. The Radiant Angel Dragon was released into the cave.
 * 2015: "Dragon Matchmaking" event occurred. Decorations could be collected and used to decorate your chosen dragon's cave in order to attract a mate for them. This was also when the Heartstealing Dragon was released.
 * 2016: "Giant Wings and Shiny Things" event occurred, featuring 7 stories across one week written in a "choose your own adventure" style. The Mutamore Dragon was released at the start of this event.
 * 2017: "Valentine's Day 2017" event occurred, featuring a choose-your-own-adventure style text-based story with environmental artwork. The Soulstone Dragon was released at the start of this event- it was originally released as the "Cermorvus Dragon" but due to internal issues, the sprites and dragon were changed upon TJ09's dragons becoming adults. This dragon is the first breed on the site to have all of its spriters remain anonymous as a result of this event.
 * 2018: The "Flowers & Dragons" event occurred, adding to the site a large range of sprited dragon portraits and flower/item sprites. Players could interact with these dragons, sharing dialogue, and ask them to collect flowers/items on their behalf. These flowers/items could then be paired with cards to send out with a message to other players on the site. The Floral-Crowned Dragon was released at the start of this event. This year was also special as it featured the introduction of a new special holiday-themed habitat added to the cave temporarily during the Valentine's Day period. This new habitat re-released Cave-Born versions of previous Valentine's Day dragons that users could catch if they had missed out on previous years. This year also saw changes to the Alt Sweetling mechanics. Originally, it was announced that they would be retired altogether, but this was adapted into a compromise after negative feedback from the player base. Currently, only those who possess Alts on their scrolls can produce more Alt Sweetlings, with the egg having to stay on their scroll to Alt. If an Alt scroll holder obtains a regular Sweetling egg from another player, it will remain as a regular Sweetling rather than Alt.
 * 2019: The "A Tail of Young Love" event occurred, whereby a choose-your-own-adventure style graphic & text based game was made based on the idea of a dragon dating sim. The Sakuhana Wyvern was released into the cave, and the special "Valentine's Day" habitat made a return.

Valentine's Day Dragon Mechanics
Valentine's Day dragons are limited to two cave-born eggs per scroll. There is currently no cap for bred dragons. Users can check their status via the Breed Limits help page.

For many years held a policy that no limited-edition dragons would be re-released from the cave. The only way to obtain a previous year's Holiday dragon was by trading for, or catching bred eggs from the Abandoned Page. However, in 2018, a Valentine biome was introduced, allowing users to catch cave-borns of previous Valentine's Day breeds for the first time.

Valentine's Day dragons only produce eggs of their own breed during a one-week window before the Valentine's Day holiday. Outside of the Valentine's Day window, Valentine breeds will always produce eggs of their non-holiday mate's breed. Due to this limited breeding mechanic, Valentine's Day dragons will often produce a multi-clutch of 2-4 eggs at this time. Valentine's Day dragons are also given precedence in the Abandoned Page during this time, and will appear ahead of any non-Valentine dragons in the queue.

Traditionally, Valentine's Day dragons have been single-gender breeds, with the gender alternating every year (odd years female, even years male).

Sweetling Mechanics
Sweetlings have a unique alt mechanic. During the original 2010 release, a bug caused certain users' eggs to automatically abandon, despite the users not exceeding the scroll limit for Valentine's Day breeds. The bug was fixed, and the users affected by it were given a black and red alternate Sweetling sprite.

When the scroll limits on bred Valentine's Day dragons were relaxed, the alternate coloration was scroll-linked. Any Sweetling on the scroll of a user who had alternate Sweetlings would also become an alternate. If an alt Sweetling hatchling was transferred to a non-alt holder scroll, it would become a regular Sweetling again.

In 2018, it was announced that the alternate Sweetling mechanic would be retired. However, following feedback from users, the mechanic was merely adjusted. Now only offspring of an alt could become an alt, and only if it is on an alt holder's scroll.

Valentine's Day Dragon Quick Reference
Below are descriptions and notes to aid in breeding and hunting for Valentine's Day dragons.