My 4 year 3 month old Oltan[gitan/goat] was aging rapidly. But in the June 1 venture, he finally found me the coveted jade bit. I wanted him to survive to Sept 1, but i didnt want him to hibernate. Could he do it?

the answer is no. i tried to raise him carefully, but normally, never letting him become tired. he died on august 3. next, i just let him rest every week. he died on august 3. finally, i said, well if he's not going to make it, let me make some money off his sorry hide then. i battled him in the goat s level inv on june 1, and the festa on june 4. he was tired after the june 4 battle. he died on august 1.

obviously, this is not much of an experiment. i could have tried again with only one battle, or reset until he didnt get tired again from the second battle for better controls. but i am still mostly in "play" mode, and i was in a hurry to start raising my dakkung. i am going to play from now on as if a battle drains you of a week of life, but that might or might not be true.

anyone else try anything like this yet?

anecdotal update. my dakkung settled into a fairly standard lifespan pattern. about 1 yr and 1 month each for babyhood, for adolesence and for adulthood. this despite the fact that i rested him on "looks healthy" in adolesence and on "looks a little tired" in adulthood. [superbkato and i are trying to find ways to slip in extra drills during prime].

but in old age, i battled every chance i could with him - got the stones, got 30,000 in s level invitationals. it is hard to resist, once you've gotten a monster good [2500+ composite and leveled up techs of the type he likes]. he did not even make it to 4 yrs 1 mo - died shortly after hearing his 4th birthday song. it is not like they were hard battles either - he won every fight, more than half of his enemies gave up.

this does not even rise to the level of a theory - more of a guess - but i am thinking that battling takes off more lifespan than fatigue in this game. and it looks like you might lose a week of life automatically, even if the battle is exceedingly easy.

Oh my. OHHHHH MY! This is not good. I battle my monsters quite a lot because in MR2 battling was a way to take of stress. Since I don't know what items relieve stress(as in the items you FEED to your monster) I decided that battles would work. Ohhhh Dear. Oh my. Oh my. What to do? Weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and...........

ya i agree... that is kinda lame, cuz i REALLY like to battle. ( o well, i guess that means raise stats high, THEN battle, and repeat)

Possible confirmation for you, Torey. My latest, Pigtails the Golem, was being raised to be my joker-killer. Therefore, it battled a lot less than my first four did. It had its first growth spurt two weeks after its first b'day, second one week after its second b'day, but here's the clincher, maybe. Its third growth came three weeks after its third b'day and at the time it was battling nothing, just training. However, this was also about the time that bone-in meat became its most nutritious meal. It passed at 7 weeks beyond its 4th b'day, after having beaten A and two of the Big 5.