Intro

Welcome to Phoenix's own kad-feeding guide! Whether you have never fed a kad and aren't sure where to start, or you're just looking for some tips on how to improve, this guide should have something of use to you!

Still have questions after reading? Send them to me and I will be happy to answer if I can!

The Basics

This is the Kadoatery.
This is the Games Chat, where you find the Times & Lists (T&L) board. It will have this title:

Mains and minis: The majority of kads will go hungry in synch, and these kads make up the main. However sometimes kads are fed outside of the main kad schedule, making a mini. A mini is a kad (or multiple kads) that runs on a separate schedule from the main.

New main or New mini: After a main or mini goes, 28 minutes are added to calculate a new main or new mini. Kads never go hungry at this time. The time will be listed on the T&L as "new main @ :00" (example time).

Pends: After a new main (or mini) has passed, it starts to pend. To calculate each pend, add 7 minutes. Kads will always pend in 7-minute intervals. Mains and minis work the exact same way. Pending mains and minis will be listed on the T&L as "main [or mini] pending rf @ :07", meaning, "main is pending, refresh @ :07". These are the times that you want to refresh because they are when the kads might go hungry!

Refreshing: Kads don't go hungry until at least 20 seconds after the minute, so that's when you should refresh. If you have a fast internet connection, refresh 21 seconds after. If the site is lagging, keep refreshing until 30 seconds after the minute if kads didn't go at the 21-second mark—they sometimes go a bit later.

You can tell the kads have gone hungry when their background changes from grey to white, they get sad, and (most importantly) they ask for a new item.

If you'd like to know a bit more about times, time-keeping, and times lingo, click the link at the side for my mini-guide on Time-keeping!

The Methods

There are three main methods of kad-feeding.

Invent-feeding is a great method for beginning feeders as it is the fastest method and you can easily budget how much you want to spend. On the downside, it's the least consistent method because your items will not be asked for every main.

1. Look at the food lists. The two mains ones are here (alphabetical) and here (categorized). I would personally recommend using the categorized list and choosing a word-based invent. This makes items easier to spot/search.

2. Choose your invent! If you like, take a look at the Times & Lists boards and see what items are being asked for a lot. Keep in mind that things like to trend without any apparent reason though, so one week that category might be asked for a lot, and then it might be less common for a while.

Another factor to help choose your invent is size. Some things you might consider doing are:
- Buy a category that you can keep in your inventory in entirety. The ideal size for this would be about 40-48 items (depends on how much free space you need to keep).
- Buy a couple smaller categories of around 20 items.
- Buy a large category of over 50 items and keep some in your invent, and some in your SDB. For tips on SDB-feeding, see the next section.

3. Buy your invent!

4. When the kads go hungry, quickly scan for your items or use the Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac) function to search for them. If you see one, click the kad! Invent-feeding is the quickest method as it requires only 1 click, so if you had the item, then congrats! You've most likely fed a kad.

SDB-feeding is the next fastest method. Like invent-feeding, you can decide how much you want to spend, and if you get pwned you don't take a loss.

1. Start by building up your SDB. In order for SDB-feeding to be effective, you should have a decent number of kad foods. The easiest way to do this is by buying categories from the grouped foods list, or by buying based off first letter using the alphabetized food list. Also, keep foods that you win from dailies/random events/etc. because you never know when they may come in handy!

2. Set up your kad window whichever way works best for you. I've explained how I set mine up in the Tips section over in Extras.

3. In your SDB tab(s), have the category set to Food. It's annoying that you can't set your search to "Identical to my phrase", but doing this helps reduce the possible number of items that your search might turn up. Have your cursor ready in the search bar.

4. When the kads go hungry, find one of your SDB items, triple-click to highlight the item, ctrl+C (cmd+C on a Mac) to copy, switch tabs, ctrl+V (cmd+V on a Mac) to paste, hit Enter, click Remove One, switch back to the Kadoatery, and click the kad.

Wiz-feeding (or SSW-feeding) is the most popular method of feeding because it's the most convenient. It's the slowest method as it required the most clicks to get to the feed, you don't have as much control over how much you spend, and you generally end up with a bunch of failed foods, but if you're quick enough it's a great method to go pink with.

1. Set up your kad window whichever way works best for you. I've explained how I set mine up in the Tips section over in Extras.

2. In your SW tab, have the search set to "Identical to my phrase", and have the cursor ready in the search box.

3. If you're using SSW, set it up in a separate tab all the same. Bringing up SSW in your Kadoatery tab will slow you down and get in the way. Set it up the same way you would for regular wiz.

4. Pick a spot to go for.

5. When the kads go hungry, triple-click to highlight the item, ctrl+C (cmd+C on a Mac) to copy, switch tabs, ctrl+V (cmd+V on a Mac) to paste, hit Enter to search up the item, buy it, switch back to the Kadoatery, and click the kad.

Tips

1. Setting up your kad window effectively can help speed you up. Try moving things around to figure out how you like them, especially if you're using shortcut keys to switch tabs. My window is set up as follows: Kadoatery tab, Times & Lists tab, SDB tab, SSW tab #1, SSW tab #2. I keep two SSW tabs so that if I get pwned I can look up another item without having to clear the search first.

2. The more time you spend in the Kadoatery, the more you'll start to notice about the other players. Some SDB-feeders always like to use the same spot, and can consistently feed there because their method is faster than wiz-feeding. If you notice someone with a high kad count consistently feeding the same spot, chances are they have a SDB, and you should avoid that spot until they go offline—unless you're invent-feeding. If you're invent-feeding, you can go wherever you like ;)

3. If you're using the shop wizard to feed, always pick a spot to try for before main goes, and stick with it unless you recognize the item there to be out of your price range. Look to see who's online and who fed in each spot. Try picking a spot where someone with a similar experience level to yours has fed during the previous main. When the kads go hungry, don't second-guess your decision and consider moving. This wastes valuable time. Pick a spot, and stick with it!

4. If you're wiz-feeding and find yourself getting overly frustrated, try kadding when there are less people around (if this is convenient for you). During night and early morning NST, kads generally go a lot more slowly.

5. If you're invent-feeding and find yourself getting frustrated that your invent isn't showing up often enough, consider using a combination of methods!

Rewards

Site rewards:

　

Bronze trophy: 1 kad fed
Silver trophy: 10 kads fed
Gold trophy: 25 kads fed
Avatar: 75 kads fed

Phoenix rewards:

5 kads fed
25 kads fed
75 kads fed

Overfeeding

Feeding kads is a game. It's also one that many people enjoy. On that note;

That is all.

Time-keeping

Time-keeping is not an essential skill in learning how to kad. However, it is a handy thing to know, whether you want to help out at the T&L board, or just want to TK for yourself somewhere.

When TKing at T&L, it's good to keep a consistent times format. Remember that there are a lot of people that check the board and rely on it to convey accurate information.

Another part of time-keeping is posting the lists. To get the list, simply hit the back button after you feed a kad (or fail to feed a kad—the list will still be there). You'll lose the list if you refresh the Kadoatery after main has gone. Try to avoid refreshing it until you have successfully copied and pasted the list.

This time-keeping guide is a WIP.