Thanks to several of our incredible Researchers from our Discord Server (especially Reebecca1977 who nicely helped with the research and the writing of this article), a theory has been established (and enhanced) regarding the cycling of Incubators rewarded from the Battle Arena. We are providing this guide for are all of you who are striving to get those coveted 12 and 24 hour incubators, because now we know when you will get them!

In order to properly explain how the Arena Incubators Cycling theory actually works, we will divide the entire cycle into two sub-cycles.

Sub-cycle 1

In short, there is first a small cycle where Explorers will be rewarded of the following Incubators in this specific order in repeated cycles:

3 hours > 15 minutes > 3 hours > 3 hours > 8 hours

This order seemingly cannot be affected by “pausing”, in other words by having 4 Incubators and continuously winning Battles in the Arena in the hopes to skip all those 3 hour Incubators. This order is also not affected by speeding up incubators, opening them out of order, etc.

Sub-cycle 2

Second, there would be a bigger cycle where Explorers are rewarded an 8, 12 or 24 hour Incubator every fifth 8 hour Incubator. In other words, after going through 4 complete small cycles, the following one will include either an 8, 12 or 24 hour Incubator replacing the standard 8 hour one depending on what stage you are at in your Sub-cycle 2. 12 and 24 hours Incubators basically replace 8 hour Incubs throughout the cycle at specific times.

This big cycle will follow an 8, 12, 24, 12, 8, 12, 24 pattern, repeating. This explains why we sometimes get SO MANY 8 hours in a row, and why it seems to take forever to get that amazing 24 hour!

To give you an example, we have listed what the entire cycle looks like below.

3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 12h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 24h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 12h >3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 12h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 8h > 3h > 15m > 3h > 3h > 24hand so on…

In short, if we forget about the Sub-cycle 1, the picture gets much clearer:

8h > 8h > 8h > 8h > 8h > 8h > 8h > 8h > 8h > 12h > 8h > 8h > 8h > 8h > 24h > 8h > 8h > 8h > 8h > 12h > and start over.

For Free to play players, as long as you maintain perfect incubating efficiency with no ad viewings or Hard-Cash speed ups, one can expect an Epic Incubator every 15-20 days (depending on your Incubator game style)!

Although the sample is quite small and most data has been collected in the upper battle arenas, given the results and how specific of a cycle it is, we are confident that this cycle theory is as close as it gets and that any discrepancies will likely be a result of an error in recording of Incubators, glitches in the game, etc. In this exciting game that is constantly changing however, we encourage you to track your incubators and tell us what you find!

Parting Words

Do you wish to join the Research team or provide our Researchers with your data? You can join them on the Discord Server and start getting involved!