If you've been on Lioden long enough to see the Friday updates, you may notice that at the end of each news post, there is a special announcement about a raffle lioness. Raffle lionesses are special lionesses designed and created by the community manager Katze (#3) to contain new and exclusive markings that can only be achieved through breeding to these ladies!
Each Friday, the raffle lioness is swapped out for a new one, and the old one goes to her new pride!
Let's find out some more information.
What are Raffle Lionesses?
As mentioned above, raffle lionesses, aka "special lionesses", are lionesses designed and created by Katze (#3) to contain new and exclusive markings that can only be achieved through breeding! They were previously created by Xylax (#4) and occasionally created by Clay, a former community manager.
Each Friday, the raffle lioness is swapped out for a new one, and the old one goes to her new pride.
Raffle lionesses have their own unique bases (referred to as "raffle" or "special" bases) and markings (referred to as "raffle" or "special" markings) that they can come with. However, these lionesses can also have regular custom or NCL bases and markings, and may even come with a marking only applicable by an event applicator!
You can find a list of all raffle markings on the Special Markings page!
There are certain bases, eyes, markings, and mutations that you will never see on a raffle lioness. If you head on over to the Base Genetics page, you'll see a wide array of different bases. Any bases that can be applied using event or gem applicators, received from the July event, or bred from hybrids will not show up on a raffle lioness. Any eyes that come from Gorilla Enclave applicators are not able to be used, and applicator markings purchased with referral markings or from the Gorilla Enclave will not be used, either. In regards to mutations, there will never be a raffle lioness with the Deaf, Double Uterus, Dwarfism, Overgrown Fur, any Patches, any Piebald, Primal, Primal (Felis), or Primal (Ferus) mutations. Hybrid raffle lionesses are exclusive to the Christmas season.
If you see a mutated lioness in the Special Lioness area, you're not dreaming - occasionally, the admins will decide (at random!) to make a lioness mutated! Any mutation that is not listed above can be chosen, with the most common ones being mane mutations. For Christmas 2016 and 2017, second generation Leopons were given out as a way to show the players some appreciation. For Christmas 2018, a second generation Tigon was given out... and for Christmas 2019, a first generation Tigon was the raffle lioness!
How to Impress
So, you're interested in this lady and want to have a chance at welcoming her into your pride. The first thing you have to know is: your king must be at Dreamboat Impression in order to impress her. Any other impression level will not be permitted to enter her raffle—she only has eyes for the best of the best!
If your king is a Dreamboat, make your way either to the Explore page or the News section!
In Explore, you'll see this image—click on it to go to her page.
On the News section, you'll see this image—click on it to go to her page.
Impressing a lioness can only be done by a Dreamboat king, and costs a one-time (for the week) 50 SB fee. If there's a special lady your king has his eye on, make sure you boost his impression up before the end of the week in order to have a chance to bring that lovely lady home! Impression can be boosted using Dove Feast (which raises your impression by 20% for each item used), fighting NPCs, or claiming lionesses in Explore.
Note that your entry for the raffle lioness stays even if you retire your king during the week. Have no fear about retiring your king—you paid for your entry, and your last king was a Dreamboat, so it still counts!
What Happens if I Win?
First off, congratulations on being the special player out of all others to win a raffle lioness!
When you are the lucky winner, you'll receive a Game Notification entitled "New Lioness!", which looks like the following.
If you've already been lucky enough to win a raffle lioness before (wow!), you won't receive the achievement again, of course. It's a one-and-done deal.
The lioness will be waiting for you in your Unsorted Lions section, freshly 2 years of age and in heat for your handsome pride leader!
You can do anything you wish with her, as she is your lioness, after all! You can breed her, sell her, kill her, keep her as a trophy, change her appearance, what have you. If you're the winning recipient of a raffle lioness with a newly-released marking, you may want to make sure you have an Ochre Gnawrock on-hand to securely pass down this marking. Raffle markings can certainly fetch a pretty penny when they are first released.
While using an Ochre Gnawrock to secure the passage of one of her rare markings may be a swell idea, an even better one would be to use a Crunchy Worm on her! Crunchy Worms work per-litter and have a 25% chance per litter to activate and duplicate the mother's appearance onto one of her cubs. Note that this only counts for her appearance, not her heritage, mutation, or stats. Duplicated cubs can be either female or male, and can even have mutations of their own!
Raffle Backgrounds
Along with raffle lionesses having their own unique bases and markings, they also have VERY special backgrounds, only achievable from winning a raffle lioness! These backgrounds are easily identified by the "[Raffle]" located in the beginning of their item names. Let's take a look at these backgrounds!
An important thing to note is that raffle backgrounds are cycled in four at a time. When each background in a cycle reaches a rough total amount of 11 in game, they are then retired, and in comes a new cycle! If you have your eyes set on a background that's from a retired cycle, fear not—they are available to purchase within the Gorilla Enclave shop, at a price of 200 Monkey Teeth per background!
First Cycle
Second Cycle
Third Cycle
Fourth Cycle
Fifth Cycle
Sixth Cycle
Seventh Cycle
Eighth Cycle
Ninth Cycle
Tenth Cycle
Eleventh Cycle
Miscellaneous Questions
If I retire my pride leader, is my entry in the raffle removed?
Nope! As stated above, if you entered the lioness raffle with a Dreamboat leader, then you retire that leader, your entry still remains in the raffle. This is because entries are tied to your account, not your leader - although your leader must be a Dreamboat in order to unlock the ability for you to enter the raffle.
If my territory is full and I am chosen to win the lioness, what happens?
If you are at maximum territory (say, you have 50 territory and 50 lionesses occupying this territory) when the raffle lioness is pulled, and you are chosen as the winner, the system will skip over you and go to the next randomised winner. As it gets closer to Friday, you'll want to make sure you have at least one available territory slot open so that this scenario doesn't happen to you.
If I've won a raffle lioness before, can I win another one again?
Of course! As the raffle lioness winner is randomised, it is entirely possible that one player can win multiple raffle lionesses within their Lioden lifetime.
That being said, there is a restriction set into place. If you win a raffle lioness for one week, you are prevented from entering the raffle for the next week. You will have a one week cooldown before you can enter the raffle again, to make it more fair for other players! If you do try and enter anyways, you'll receive the following error message.
What happens if a raffle base or marking dies out?
Fear not! If a special lady is awarded to a leader, and they end up lying dormant for a few weeks, there's still hope yet for that unique base or marking. You can always ask for bases, eyes, mane colours, and markings to be re-released on the official Raffle Lioness Attribute Requests topic! Dry up those tears, because those bases and markings won't vanish forever; they'll be re-released on another lady in the near future.
Miscellaneous Links
Raffle Lioness Directory
Click here to go to the Raffle Lioness Directory!
The above page is an archive of nearly all of the raffle lionesses that have graced Lioden with their presences!
Marking Release Numbers
Click here to go to the Raffle Marking Release Numbers page!
The above page is an informative archive regarding when a specific raffle marking was last released.
Marking Slot Rarity
Click here to go to the Marking Slot Rarity page!
The above page is an informative archive of how populated certain slots are for certain markings.