The Beginner's Guide to MagiStream!

[Bunny]

Welcome to MagiStream, a rapidly growing online community! Today, I will be telling the everything there is to know about how to get started with some creatures of your very own. Make sure you take a look HERE before getting started. Please reply with any suggestion or feedback you may have.

About the Website
This website was created and is owned by Tristan . If you ever have any concerns, take a visit to the FAQ, private message any one of the staff, or visit the Support and Suggestions forum.

Getting My First Creature
Assuming you have already created and activated your account, we can visit the Home Page (also accessible at any time by clicking on the banner at the top of every page). As soon as the page loads, you will notice a scrolling image which looks like some ocean waves with some orb-like objects floating along. Those orbs are eggs, and are the starting stage of every creature. Simply click any egg you would like to "grab" from the stream! Keep in mind you can only have 4 eggs at once, but you can grab more from the stream once they have hatched. You can take a look at all your pets by clicking on My Creatures, which is as the top of every page (it's in the bottom right corner of the banner, and the second one from the right).

Making My Pet Advance Stages
Every pet has the chance to change into 3 different stages: the Egg, the Baby, and the Adult. Pet's advance stages whenever their "Stage" progress bar reaches 100%. The % in this bar will increase whenever a person visit's your pet's page (e.g. here). The "Overall" status bar increases at the same time as the "Stage" bar, but is to show the progress of becoming the last stage, the Adult. The easiest way for you to get clicks for your pet is simply to post them in the click threads, which can be found in the Reindeer Games, or put them in your signature. You can get the BBCodes (the stuff you put in your signature to show images and links) by going to the My Creatures page and clicking "Embed Multiple". You can then click the images of the pet's you want to get the BBCode for, then copy the text in the box, and paste it here (User Control Panel > Profile > Edit Signature).

I See Some Different Pets I Can't Find in the Stream!
Some pets are extremely rare to sight in the stream, and some pets are only available by being purchased from the MagiStream shops (located in "Shops" at the top of every page). Some of the store creatures can be purchased with Gold (Remy's Inn), while others must be purchased with Crystal Shards (Donation Shop). Yet others can only be obtained from Society shops or the Koi Pond.

How do I get Gold and Crystal Shards?
Gold is currently obtained by posting in the forums. You can receive up to 60 Gold for each post you make, depending on the length of it (but don't go spamming!). The most popular place to post was the "Reindeer Games" section, but the amount of Gold received from there has been lowered as of June 18, 2009. You also receive 1 gold for viewing a creature. This doesn't matter whether it's yours or someone else's, but you can only receive one gold for a certain pet once a day (clicking on my pet 8 times will still only give you one gold, but clicking one of my pets and one of Tristan's pets will get you 2 gold). Crystal Shards can only be obtained through donating to the website ($1 = 1 Shard) through the "Donate" button at the top of every page OR by winning certain contests.

What are the Colored Usernames I See?
The blue usernames belong to the Admins, green belong to site Artists, gold to NPCs, orange and teal to mods, and the purple usernames belong to donors who have donated at least $10 (not necessarily all at once; so, you can get a purple username by donating $5, and then donating $5 again later.)

Well, I've told you everything you'll need to know to get started because the rest of it is self explanatory. If you still have any questions, feel free to Private Message any of the Staff. The Support and Suggestions forum is always open for ideas and concerns you may have.
I hope this guide will have helped you in some way, and I wish you luck on your adventures in MagiStream!

Regards,
Bunny



Some Updates by Umbreonage! Thanks!
Trading
Trading allows you to transfer or trade gold or pets to other users. You can find trades, sales, auctions, and giveaways HERE at the Merchant district. Have a look through existing trades, or start your own thread. When you find an offer you like (or someone accepts yours), be sure to PM the other trader, or post in their thread. Either one of you can start the trade. To start it, either click the "Trade" button located beneath your trading partner's avatar, or click the "Trades" button in the banner at the top of every page and enter the person's username. Enter your offer by clicking the creatures you want to trade, and/or enter a gold amount. You can also add a short message into the box provided. Please note that you cannot trade unfrozen eggs at this time due to a bug allowing users to go over the 4 egg limit. This is important: Make sure to click "Save Changes" after entering your offer. If you don't do this, you will end up sending the other person a blank offer. After saving changes, enter your password and confirm the trade. The person you are trading with should now have 1 new trade (they will be notified of this underneath the banner, next to where the site tells you of new PMs). They will enter their offer, save changes, and confirm. Assuming they offered the right pets/gold, you can now confirm the trade, and all pets/gold will be traded. Trades can be cancelled at any time by either party.

Breeding?
When your creatures reach adulthood, they gain the abilitry to breed with other creatures. Usually, creatures can only breed with an opposite-gendered member of the same species. However, there are some hybrids that can only be obtained br mixing two different species. This includes fire gryphons (any gryphon X phoenix), ice gryphons (any gryphon X ice phoenix), and ocean leviathans (storm leviathan(shopbought leviathan) X tropical leviathan (aqua colored leviathan)). A list of breed-only creatures can be found here. Donation pets, such as crystalwings, unicorns, and dragons, cannot breed at all*.
You may only breed a creature once every 3 days. When you breed two creatures, you may end up with a refusal. This does not mean you can never breed these two again, it just means they don't feel like it this time. You may get lucky, and they will produce an egg. The egg will appear on your page. You cannot get multiple eggs from one breeding, only one.
*A few, notable some crystalwings and the cobalt wyvern, can breed. However, they cannot breed with other donation pets - only site-obtainable pets - and they only produce non-donation pet eggs.

Other Notes
I think it's worth mentioning somewhere that all stream eggs are replaced by fresh ones every 15 minutes, on the hour, xx:15. xx:30, and xx:45.

More updates added by Wolfeyedangel
To add an Avatars (pretty pictures above your name):
In the same place you update your signature: (User Control Panel > Profile > Edit Avatar). If you have a picture on your computer use the first line. If you have one on a website you want to use use which ever of the other two you want. Most of the time the Avatar dimensions will update on their own.

[Tony]

You should also add the FAQ.

[Bunny]

Yes I should, thanks.

[Zebeedoo]

Ooh,thanks for makin' yet another superb (sp) guide Bunny!

[Arimermaid]

This is another wonderful idea created by you!

[Bunny]

Not my idea, I got it from someone in the Support and Suggestions forum (forgot your name, sorry!)
Maybe I should have put this in introductions though, would make it easier for people to see.

[Arimermaid]

Not my idea, I got it from someone in the Support and Suggestions forum (forgot your name, sorry!)
Maybe I should have put this in introductions though, would make it easier for people to see.

Well, than which of your wonderful guides did you come up with yourself?

[Bunny]

Not my idea, I got it from someone in the Support and Suggestions forum (forgot your name, sorry!)
Maybe I should have put this in introductions though, would make it easier for people to see.

Well, than which of your wonderful guides did you come up with yourself?

Well I wrote all these myself, but I made them because information in them was needed by people.

[Arimermaid]

Not my idea, I got it from someone in the Support and Suggestions forum (forgot your name, sorry!)
Maybe I should have put this in introductions though, would make it easier for people to see.

Well, than which of your wonderful guides did you come up with yourself?

Well I wrote all these myself, but I made them because information in them was needed by people.

That just makes you agreat person!

[dragoffire]

Thanks, this has help me alot.

Ah my first post.