Selective Breeding House
Complete guide to the Selective Breeding House in Starsand Island, covering Expert Rancher unlock requirements, differences from the regular Breeding House, trait biasing mechanics, White Horse breeding strategies, rare variant targeting, and endgame animal breeding tips.
Overview
The Selective Breeding House is an advanced ranching building in Starsand Island that allows targeted trait selection when breeding animals. Unlike the regular Breeding House, which produces offspring with random trait combinations from both parents, the Selective Breeding House lets you bias the outcome toward specific desired traits. This makes it the essential tool for players pursuing rare animal variants, optimal trait combinations, and endgame breeding goals like the White Horse.
How to Unlock
The Selective Breeding House blueprint is a premium unlock tied to the Expert Rancher tier of the Rancher profession. You must complete all previous Rancher certification quests (Apprentice, Junior, Intermediate) before reaching Expert.
Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
Profession Tier | Expert Rancher |
Blueprint Cost | 30,000 coins |
Sold By | |
Prerequisite | Complete all prior Rancher certification quests |
The 30,000-coin price tag is significant. By the time you reach Expert Rancher, you should have a well-established income from selling animal products, crops, and crafted goods. If you need to raise funds quickly, focus on high-value cooking recipes and processed animal products.
Selective Breeding House vs. Regular Breeding House
It is important to understand how the Selective Breeding House differs from the regular Breeding House, which is available much earlier in the game.
Feature | Breeding House | Selective Breeding House |
|---|---|---|
Unlock Tier | Intermediate Rancher | Expert Rancher |
Blueprint Cost | 3,500 coins | 30,000 coins |
Trait Inheritance | Random from both parents | Biased toward selected parent traits |
Rare Variant Chance | Low (pure random) | Increased (targeted selection) |
Best For | General breeding, filling your ranch | Rare variant hunting, optimizing genetics |
Purchased From |
The regular Breeding House is still useful for bulk breeding and general animal reproduction. The Selective Breeding House does not replace it; rather, it supplements it for targeted breeding projects. Many players keep both buildings active on their Hopeland property.
How Trait Biasing Works
When you place two parent animals in the Selective Breeding House, you can choose which parent's traits to favor in the offspring. The mechanics work as follows:
Step | Details |
|---|---|
Parent selection | Place two compatible animals of the same species into the Selective Breeding House. |
Trait preference | Select which parent's traits you want to prioritize. The offspring will have a higher probability of inheriting traits from the favored parent. |
Probability, not guarantee | Trait biasing increases the odds but does not guarantee the outcome. You may still need multiple attempts to get the exact combination you want. |
Both parents contribute | Even with biasing, the non-favored parent's traits can still appear in the offspring. Biasing shifts the probability distribution, not the gene pool. |
For a detailed explanation of how animal traits, inheritance, and genetics work in Starsand Island, see the Breeding and Genetics article.
White Horse Breeding
One of the most common reasons players build the Selective Breeding House is to breed a White Horse. The White Horse is required for the Expert Rancher certification quest and is one of the rarest animal variants in the game.
Statistic | Details |
|---|---|
Base Chance | Approximately 4% to 7% per breeding attempt |
Expected Attempts | 10 to 30 attempts (with Selective Breeding House) |
Without Selective Breeding | Potentially 50+ attempts at regular Breeding House |
Parent Pairing | Use horses with the lightest coat colors available |
Optimal Strategy | Bias toward the lighter-coated parent each time |
Step-by-Step White Horse Strategy
Acquire two horses with the lightest available coat colors. Check the Green Pasture Ranch shop or breed lighter-coated horses from your existing stock.
Place both horses in the Selective Breeding House.
Select the lighter-coated parent as the trait-favored parent.
Breed and check the offspring's coat color.
If the offspring is lighter than either parent, use it as a new breeding parent in the next round to progressively lighten the lineage.
Repeat until you produce a White Horse. Expect 10 to 30 attempts with the Selective Breeding House.
Patience is key. Each breeding attempt costs time and may require feeding the parents back to full condition. Keep your ranch stocked with animal feed to minimize downtime between attempts.
Other Rare Variant Targets
Beyond the White Horse, the Selective Breeding House is valuable for breeding other rare animal variants:
Type | Description |
|---|---|
Rare coat colors | Each animal species has uncommon and rare color variants. Biasing toward parents with desirable colors increases your chances of producing rare offspring. |
High-stat animals | Some traits affect animal productivity (milk yield, wool quality, egg frequency). Selectively breeding high-stat parents produces a ranch optimized for output. |
Show animals | Rare and visually distinctive animals can be displayed on your Hopeland. Some players breed purely for aesthetic variety. |
Quest requirements | Several Rancher profession quests require specific animal variants. The Selective Breeding House dramatically reduces the time needed to produce these. |
Building and Placement
After purchasing the blueprint from Green Pasture Ranch, craft the Selective Breeding House at your Worktable and place it on your Hopeland. It has a larger footprint than the regular Breeding House, so plan your ranch layout accordingly.
Place it near your animal pens and feed storage for convenience. Breeding sessions involve moving animals in and out of the building, so having it centrally located in your ranch area saves travel time, especially during long breeding projects that require many consecutive attempts.
Tips
Start saving coins for the 30,000-coin blueprint early. By the time you finish the Intermediate Rancher quests, you want enough funds to buy the blueprint immediately upon reaching Expert Rancher.
Keep the regular Breeding House for general reproduction. Use the Selective Breeding House only for targeted rare breeding. This way you always have animals reproducing in the background while you focus on specific goals.
Track your breeding results in a notebook or spreadsheet. Knowing which parent combinations produce which results helps you narrow down the optimal pairings faster.
Use progressive lightening for White Horse breeding: keep the lightest offspring from each generation and breed them forward. This incrementally shifts the gene pool toward white.
Feed parents between breeding attempts to keep them in breeding condition. Malnourished or tired animals may refuse to breed.
The 4% to 7% base chance for White Horse means you should expect it to take multiple real-world play sessions. Do not get discouraged if the first 10 attempts fail.
Sell unwanted offspring to recoup some of the breeding costs. Even non-rare animals have decent sell value.
Consult the Rancher Trial Walkthroughs article for specific quest requirements that involve the Selective Breeding House.