Wunderkin is a dragon SIM where you own and train dragons called Kin. You need to feed them and keep them healthy for most actions with them. They will age naturally, and at some point will not gain any more stats or be able to receive any additional training. They will also be unable to breed naturally past a certain age. At this point you may retire them (and they won't take lair space), or you may keep them for display, battles, or competitions. In the future there will also be the possibility to breed old kins, but it will be a costly process.

Your dragons, or Kin, can participate in competitions and battle against other dragons. They all have personalities and stats, which influence the outcome of battles and their ranking in competitions. You will need to feed them and to train them in certain stats, and the stats you choose directly affect their performance.

All kins of your element will receive a slight bonus in battle and in competitions), and kins of your secondary element will receive a smaller bonus. There is a penalty associated with breeding kins that don't belong to any of your elements, and breeding kins of your element has a larger chance of success.

Potions are items sold by Ketlan and can be of three types: Full, Half, and Wing potions. When you use them on a kin, they change that kin's coloration to that of the potion. Full potions will change their primary color, Half potions change their secondary (and less visible) color, and Wing potions change their wing gene. Stats are unaffected by these potions.

Raising a kin depends very much on what you plan to use it for. If you want to use it for breeding, you'll want a kin with a high CON score, and beautiful, matching colors. If you want to battle, you may want to specialise in STR or DEX. If you'd like for it to participate in competitions, you'll want to develop characteristics that are good for a particular competition type. Since some of these overlap, a kin may be suited for two types of things, but they will never completely cover all possibilities.

Personality affects almost everything a kin can do. There are four basic personality types: aggressive, nurturing, gentle, and balanced. Aggressive kins are especially suited for battle, as they get a small bonus on every attack, but they have a penalty to breeding. Nurturing kins get a bonus to breeding, so their breedings fail less frequently. Gentle kins will have a penalty in battle, but excel at competitions. Balanced kins, on the other hand, will not have penalties or bonuses in any of their actions, but they are extremely rare. (Balanced kins are still affected by element-specific bonuses and penalties!)

Wunderkin has two primary currencies: Bloodstones and Soulstones. The first, Bloodstones, you can obtain through several actions on the site. Soulstones are obtainable through Paypal or by buying them from other members.

You can get bloodstones by performing work for various NPCs when they post Work Announcements. You may also enter your kins in Competitions and if they rank they will receive bloodstones in return. Winning random battles in the Battle Arena nets you a small amount of bloodstones. Buying and selling items that have a competitive market (like Training Stones and some Potions) may also give you some profit. With bloodstones you can then buy items on the market or heal your kin after a battle.

Most everything you can do in the site will give you some small amount of bloodstones, so it is worth it to try and do several things. However, it may be good to specialise in battling or competitions (for example) so you maximise the number of times you win (and, therefore, your earnings).

Soulstones pay for the many site costs: domain names, site art, site coding and hosting. The players who buy these stones help keep the game free to play, and can choose to redeem the stones for several benefits. Soulstones can be used to upgrade an account (which slightly extends gameplay), or buy items in the Soulstone shop. These items include crystals (to create custom kins with) or Adamantine.

Crystals of a pure breed can be used to create custom kins of the corresponding element in the custom kins page. These crystals are available on the Soulstone Shop, by buying them from other players, or by winning them from site contests.

Adamantine is the only way for a kin to gain their wings. It is an incredibly hard blue stone that can be used in the Adamantine Fountain. These stones can be bought on the Soulstone Shop or (rarely) obtained through exploring.