How to Get Rare Through the Forgotten Desert on Animal Jam Classic

Last Updated: October 2, 2020

The Forgotten Desert is a popular adventure in Animal Jam Classic. Most people usually play this adventure several times since it is the only way to get spikes for free, and spikes are quite rare and popular in the game. However, there are countless other great items you can get from the Forgotten Desert which can help boost your rarity. Here are some tips to help you get rares and betas in this adventure.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Joining the Forgotten Desert

1
Go to the server, Aldan. Click the gear icon in the top right corner locate the blue button beside the world icon. The button will have the name of the server you're currently on. Click it and find the button that says Aldan.
- Aldan is the server most people go to trade in. Also, usually its lands are always full or contain a lot of people, unlike most other servers. Not only do many Jammers trade in this server, but you'll probably find a lot who are hosting the Forgotten Desert as well.
2
Turn into a flying animal, or buy one if you do not have one yet. The flying animals available are:
- Eagles
- Owls
- Falcons
- Toucans
- Flamingos
- Great Horned Owls
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3
Join a Forgotten Desert adventure. Search for someone who is hosting the adventure and join them, or host it yourself. Wait for the lobby to fill up.

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Playing the Adventure

1
Go down to the lake right by the adventure portal and get a watering can right away. You'll need this just in case you find an oasis.
2
Make sure your map is up. Most people don't use the map but it is actually very useful. It allows you to see which areas you've gone through before so that you can search for shards in new parts of the desert instead of going in the same places over and over again without finding any shards.
3
Know how to collect each shard and where you'll usually find them.
- Green shards are the easiest ones to collect. They'll simply by lying on the sand or floating on water. Green shards won't ever reward spikes, but they can reward other rare items, such as betas. They can also reward items that are worth spikes, like neon bows and arrows, black worn blankets, rare claws, etc. There are 25 green shards that you need to collect, but there are actually a total of 30 that lay around the desert. When you finish collecting the green shards, the other 5 shards will disappear. ^{[1]
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- Yellow shards are the second easiest ones to collect. However, this time they'll be buried beneath the water or sand. If you see something shining in the water or sand, it's likely a yellow shard. There are 25 yellow shards. Yellow shards can reward spikes and den items (including betas) as well. There are 25 yellow shards that you need to collect, but there are actually a total of 30 that lay around the desert. When you finish collecting the yellow shards, the other 5 shards will disappear. ^{[2]
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- Blue shards are a little harder to collect. To find blue shards, you'll need to find an oasis. Water the oasis with a watering can and it will fill up with water and plants. A blue shard floating on the water will appear. There are 20 blue shards to collect. Blue shards don't reward den items, so you can't get den betas from them. However, they can still reward clothing betas, spikes, and other rares, though there will be less of a chance than white shards.
- White shards are also a little hard to find, but there are fewer of them to collect. To collect a white shard, find a cactus that has two golden bird talons on it. Sit on the cactus and a white shard will appear. There are 15 of the white shards that you'll have to find. White shards have the highest chance of rewarding spikes, but it doesn't mean you'll get them all the time. White shards can also reward rare clothing items/betas, but no den items.
- Purple shards are the hardest of all the shards. To collect purple shards, you need four people who aren't slow, and you need to begin right from the start of the adventure. There are only 5 purple shards, but you need to sit on 6 rock formations just to collect 1 shard. This can take up to 15 minutes, and most of the time in the end, you won't even get a spike or good rare. Purple is mostly a waste of time - it's better to get 4 chances at good prizes than only 1.
4
Collect as many shards as you can within the time limit. If 3 or 4 people are playing the adventure, you'll have 15 minutes to complete it. If 1 or 2 people are playing the adventure, you'll have 17 minutes to complete it.
- Always have a watering can with you. Once you water an oasis, you should immediately go back and get more water just in case you find another one. Otherwise, if you find an oasis and you don't have water, you'll need to go back and get water. By then, you may have forgotten where the oasis was. It also makes it much faster to already have water when you come across an oasis instead of going back to get water every time you find an empty one.
- Any blue spot on the map means there is water in that area. Don't ask other people to come to you with water whenever you find an empty oasis and don't have any. There is water all across the desert and you don't need to waste time asking others to come to you. By the time they come, you could have gotten water and watered the oasis yourself.
5
Open any ground chests you find. There are a total of 5 ground chests. Most people say that ground chests give you bad luck, but that is only a myth. Ground chests do not lower your chance of getting a good prize - the prize is planned from the very start of the adventure, and if you still get bad rewards, it's only a coincidence and you need to keep playing the adventure in order to get good items. It's also only a coincidence if you get a good item and you didn't open chests.
- In fact, it is actually possible to get spikes from ground chests, as well as worn blankets and other rares. ^{[3]
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  Research source} They mostly reward gems, but they can occasionally reward good clothing items and spikes. ^{[4]
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6
Ignore myths you hear about the Forgotten Desert. Sometimes when you play with other people, they'll tell you to collect the shards in a certain sequence or to not open the ground chests, but these are just myths. If you do end up getting a good item using these methods, then it's only a coincidence. The only way to get good items from the Forgotten Desert is to keep playing it until you do. There is no specific method. Some myths you should ignore are listed below:
- Ground chests do not lower the chance of a good prize. Ground chests can actually give you good items and it's only a coincidence if you get bad items while opening ground chests or you get good items while avoiding the ground chests.
- Doing a certain action on the last green, yellow, blue, or white shard will not make your chance of getting a good prize higher. For example, most people think sitting backward on the last cactus or sleeping on the last oasis will reward you a spike, but this doesn't work. Again, it's only a coincidence if you do get a good item after doing this, because most of the time you won't anyway.
- Saying the name of the shard or the name of the item you want right before you get the last color of a shard will not give you a good item. For example, saying "Spike" in the game right before you collect the last white shard won't give you a spike, or saying "Green shards" right before you get the last green shard won't get you a good item either.
- Even though your bird is a high level, it doesn't mean you'll get more or better prizes. Even with 4 level 30 eagles, you still might not get a good prize.
- Collecting the shards in a certain sequence also doesn't make the prize worse or better. For example, collecting yellow, then green, then white, then blue doesn't make the last prize give you a spike. No other sequence does either.
- If you are rare or have rare clothes on your animal, it doesn't mean you'll get more rarer prizes. All the prizes are random.
- Any other myths you hear about the Forgotten Desert - there is no specific way to get good items. The prizes are random. ^{[5]
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Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Getting Better at The Forgotten Desert

1
Memorize where each shard is. You might think this is impossible since there are so many shards to collect, but if you do the Forgotten Desert enough, you'll know exactly where each shard is, or at least where most of them are. This will help you complete the adventure faster so that you can play it again and again and earn some rares.
- There are two different versions (paths for where each color's shards will be laid out) for each shard color. If you enter a Forgotten Desert adventure, the versions, or paths for each shard color will be different. For example, you may enter a Forgotten Desert adventure where green shards are version 1, yellow shards are version 2, blue shards are version 1, and white shards are version 2. The versions will change each time. Here are the paths for each version of the shards if it is too hard for you to memorize:
  - Green shard path, version 1:
  - Green shard path, version 2:
  - Yellow shard path, version 1:
  - Yellow shard path, version 2:
  - Blue shard path, version 1:
  - Blue shard path, version 2:
  - White shard path, version 1:
  - White shard path, version 2:
2
Memorize where each ground chest is. Again, this may seem impossible since you'll have to remember so many things, but the more you see the shards and chests in the same place adventure after adventure, you may start to get a good idea where each of them will be. Knowing where each of the 5 chests in each chest version will help you get rarer because you'll be able to open all of them and not miss out just in case a spike or other good item was in one of them.
- To find out which chest version it is in each Forgotten Desert adventure, just look around the perimeter of the map until you find it. This shouldn't take long, either. Sometimes it'll be near the edge of any place on the map instead though, but usually it'll be right on the perimeter. Once you find out where one chest in an adventure is, you should be able to know where the rest are, if you've memorized where they are.
- There are also several chest versions. The version is different for each adventure. Even if you don't memorize where they are, these maps for each chest version will help:
  - Chest version 1:
  - Chest version 2:
  - Chest version 3:
  - Chest version 4:
  - Chest version 5:
  - Chest version 6:
  - Chest version 7:
  - Chest version 8:
3
Collect the shards as quickly as you can.
- One way to do this is that when you find a shard, don't stop and then get it. Right after you click on the shard to collect it, you should immediately continue clicking towards wherever you want to go so that you don't have to stop every time you find a shard. This will help you collect the shards faster. When you see yellow or green shards, simply click on the paw print as you go by them to collect them, but don't stop and then click on the paw print. Keep moving to help you go faster.
- When collecting blue shards, you shouldn't wait for the whole oasis to fill up - just click the blue shard right after it appears on the water and move on.
- When you find a cactus with talon prints on it, you don't have to position your flying animal perfectly. Simply sit on it as soon as you're on it and wait a second or two. As soon as a white shard appears, go down and collect it right away and move on without stopping instead of waiting for the golden circle that appears around the cactus to go away.
- As soon as you see water, click on it as you go by it without pausing to get it, just like the other shards. This will not only make it faster, but help you collect blue shards faster. It'll be especially easier if an oasis is right next to a pool of water.
- When you get a ground chest, you should be able to see in a flash what is being rewarded, even before the full clear picture of the item appears - depending on what you get rewarded, just quickly click Okay, Keep, or Discard and keep moving on. The same goes for regular shard chest prizes, only you either click Keep or Discard.
4
Go on a certain route across the map and collect shards from there. If you take a certain route, you can finish the adventure faster, as long as it's in a different area that the other 3 players are in. For example, in each adventure, you can start off clearing the bottom right area of all shards first, then move on to the bottom left area, etc. This will also help you memorize the shards in each area more easily since you're memorizing one section of the desert at a time.
- If you've gone through the whole desert and shards are still left to collect, check areas where people frequently forget to or don't notice shards in those areas. For example, people usually forget shards or don't notice them when they are at the very edge of the map.
- Sometimes, people forget to collect a blue shard even though they watered the oasis because they were moving too fast. The same goes for white shards - they sit on the cactus and don't realize that they didn't actually get the shard. If you still can't find the last shard despite going through the whole map, try checking oases that have already been watered, or cacti that have already been sat on.
- A cactus with talon prints that glow golden means it hasn't been sat on yet. However, cacti with talon prints that don't glow at all mean the person sat on it, but the shard hasn't been collected. When the white shard gets collected, the talon prints vanish completely, so try looking for cacti with regular talon prints instead of golden ones if you still can't find the last white shard.

Community Q&A

Question

How likely am I to get a spike when I play The Forgotten Desert?

Linnie

Top Answerer

Spikes can sometimes be awarded by collecting purple shards, but most people skip collecting the purple shards completely as you need all four players to be in one location to collect them.