So I am creating this thread to compile some information about pets – how they work, where to get them, etc. If this is a duplication of information consolidated elsewhere then I apologize – I couldn’t find a central reference for pets. This is going to be a work in progress so please excuse the formatting (and incompleteness) at least until I have had a chance to finish it and make it pretty… Without further ado, here goes!
[size=200] Pets - An Unofficial Guide [/size]
- What are they?
- Pet Types
- How to Get Them
- Affixes, Levels, and Stats
- Advanced Strategies
[size=150]1. What are they?[/size]
Pets are a unique kind of “equipment” in Dungeon Quest. They go in a separate tab from your gear (in a tab appropriately labeled “Pet”). As of this writing you can only have one pet “equipped” although you can, of course, have numerous extra in your inventory or stash, and can switch them out as desired. Pets provide stats, much like other pieces of gear. They also have one of three special abilities to help you either in battle or in plundering the dead or country-side.
[size=150]2. Pet Types[/size]
There are three types of pets (not to be confused with the different skins they may have):
A. Dog (Fetch)
This little guy will follow you around picking up piles of gold for you. He will also, from time to time, dig up a patch of ground revealing several piles of gold.
[color=#40FF00]Pros:[/color] The pros of the pooch are that he will save you time running around to pick up piles of gold after you kill enemies. He will also increase your overall gold income by digging it up randomly around the level. Since you can get gold by selling items that drop, in my personal experience the slight extra gold income isn’t very valuable… How much you value him fetching your gold piles is a matter of personal preference; I tend to skip “small” piles and just pick up the bigger ones, which doesn’t bother me all that much, so I don’t particularly use the puppy.
[color=#FF0000]Cons:[/color] Unfortunately both the Imp and the Dog suffer two AI issues. The first is that if you are actively moving, they tend to focus on following (and keeping up with you) rather than actually running over to pick up gold or items. Once they go to pick it up, if you are moving they will usually run back to you instead of continuing to pick things up if there are several piles around. A recent change to the Fetch skill make it pick up multiple piles in a small area, and I have not tested the Dog much since then, so this may help out, but you may still find that he spends more time running back and forth (or following at your heels) and isn’t actually picking up everything you want. The second AI issue is that when the Imp and the Dog go to pick things up, they will often travel a fair distance away, sometimes even off screen. If their special activation (digging up gold for the Dog or tossing out a Rare+ item for the imp) occurs while they are away you may not see it to know to go grab it.
B. Imp (Horde)
The imp carries around a sack and picks up items you don’t want… Any items you are not set to auto-loot based on your options setting, the Imp will pick up. After picking up 5 items, he will reach into his sack and throw out a (usually) Rare or better item. He will also sometimes throw out some gold and/or a health or mana orb in addition to the item.
[color=#40FF00]Pros:[/color] The Imp costs you nothing to use - he is only picking up items you have told the game you don’t care about, and in return he will toss out an item with a higher base rarity than normal. You can then either use the item or else sell it for cold, hard cash. He is even capable of pulling Legend items out of his fun sack (and presumably Crystal-Legend items, though I haven’t personally witnessed this).
[color=#FF0000]Cons:[/color] Unfortunately both the Imp and the Dog suffer two AI issues. The first is that if you are actively moving, they tend to focus on following (and keeping up with you) rather than actually running over to pick up gold or items. Once they go to pick it up, if you are moving they will usually run back to you instead of continuing to pick things up if there are several piles around. A recent change to the Fetch skill make it pick up multiple piles in a small area, and I have not tested the Dog much since then, so this may help out, but you may still find that he spends more time running back and forth (or following at your heels) and isn’t actually picking up everything you want. The second AI issue is that when the Imp and the Dog go to pick things up, they will often travel a fair distance away, sometimes even off screen. If their special activation (digging up gold for the Dog or tossing out a Rare+ item for the imp) occurs while they are away you may not see it to know to go grab it.
C. Fairy (Wish)
This friendly fey will follow you around casting her healing magic on you when you are in need. Unfortunately, I have not tested the Fairy very extensively, so I do not know the following: 1) What % health you need to be at for her to heal you – others have said 50%? 2) Exactly how much she heals you (it seems to be some % of your health, though). 3) How often she can activate (in other words, once she heals you, how long until she can do it again?). 4) How long does she take to heal you (IE once you are under the health threshold how long does it take for her to both notice and perform her heal?).
[color=#40FF00]Pros:[/color] The Fairy is the only pet whose ability is directly useful in combat. In addition, her skill is solid: she can potentially save your life AND her heal seems to scale to your HP, so it continues to be useful even in higher floors with a higher health pool. Her skill is also particularly helpful to players using the Blood Magic set affix - both your MP and HP are merged into one pool, so she can help fuel both your offense AND your survival.
[color=#FF0000]Cons:[/color] Her ability isn’t always going to save you… If you are knocked from above the HP threshold to dead before she has a chance to perform her ability, you’re toast no matter what. This means that BIG hits like TNT on higher level maps as well as taking multiple projectile bolts from a boss enemy at once (usually by standing right in front of them) is still going to be just as fatal. Also, depending on how long it takes her AI to notice you are below the threshold and then actually perform the heal, even multiple smaller hits may still do you in before she can help you out. Finally, with the way that Leech works, many players (especially at higher levels) tend to heal themselves back to full health pretty quickly after taking damage. If you are taken below the HP threshold and she heals you, it is entirely possible you won’t need the healing because it would be healed back up by your Leech quickly anyway. This could leave her on “cooldown” for when you actually need it (which the AI has no way of knowing, of course).
D. Pet Skins
These are purely cosmetic. A warrior can use a Wizard’s Fairy and a Warrior’s Fairy can have wizard-type affixes, etc.
[size=150]3. How to Get Them[/size]
There are two ways to get pets: the shop and from killing Enslavers at floor 21+.
A. Shop
Pets of all three types (AND in several different skins) can be purchased from the Shop. Purchased pets can be of ANY quality level (IE any number of affixes) EXCEPT Legendary. Legendary pets can ONLY be gotten from Enslavers (see below). Pets in the shop can be purchased with either real cash or with gold.
i. Cash - Pets cost $0.99 (plus tax). This price is the same regardless of what floor you are on. Pets purchased with real money have special skins, but are NOT necessarily higher quality than pets purchased with gold. They also cannot be Legends. For this reason, I’d recommend spending money elsewhere unless you just absolutely MUST have that particular skin for some reason… and be prepared for it to possibly have poor stats that may not really help you character at all.
ii. Gold - The gold cost of pets depends on the floor of the dungeon you are on. At floor 1, they cost 23,375 and are level 1. At floor 100 they cost 62,500 and are a random level around 20-25ish. At floor 200+ they cost 100,000 and are around level 40-45ish. They randomly have any number of affixes (which does not appear to be dependent on the floor they are purchased on). I have not tested whether the number of affixes (or the quality of the affix) is impacted by Luck (this would take a HUGE sample size, so probably easier for a dev to chime in?). Due to how pet leveling works, it may be best to purchase them on floor 1 (and it is certainly cheaper).
B. Enslaver
From floor 21 onward, whenever you face the “Enslaver” random miniboss, he will have a random pet following him around, just like yours (though I have not seen them pick up gold, pick up items, or heal, I admittedly don’t let the Enslaver live very long to check…). When he dies, he will drop his normal items, and the pet will become an item as well. Unlike other items, the pet will tend to walk around somewhat. The pet (just like other types of gear) can have 1-6 affixes, making it Grey, Yellow, Orange, or Red. The tier will depend on your luck - just like with other items, the higher your luck, the higher your chances of getting Rare, Epic, and/or Legend pets. As noted above, this is the ONLY way you can get Legend pets.
[size=150]4. Affixes, Levels, and Stats[/size]
In addition to its special ability, your pet will impart upon you other bonuses just like your helmet or ring.
Just like any other piece of gear, pets can come with 1-6 affixes. With the exception of Legend pets, these affixes will be pulled from the standard Normal and Epic affix pool. Legend pets are unique in that they will always have a specific Set affix and then 5 random Epic affixes. Check your LegendEx for more information on which Legend Pet has which Set affix. To my knowledge, any Normal or Epic affix except those which are weapon-only can spawn on a pet. When a pet is created, it will have its 1-6 affixes, and they will be either normal or epic. As best I can tell, the quality of your affixes may be influenced by your luck. The stats on those affixes will be somewhere in the range of possible values for that affix just as if it were on your robes or armor.
Where pets begin to differ from other items is that, like you, they level up. As you kill monsters and gain experience, your pet will gain experience as well. Once it gains enough experience to go up a level, it will do so and you will see a green “Pet Level Up!” message. Pets don’t get to use new gear as they level or place stat points, like you do, but every time they level up the numerical values of their affixes can go up. So if your pet had a Normal HP affix that was providing 124 HP, by the time you get him some levels it may very well be providing over 1000. Also, every time they level up there is a chance that one of their Normal quality affixes will become an Epic affix of the same stat. It isn’t an enormous chance, so there’s no guarantee that the Dog you raised from a pup is going to have every stat as Epic by the time it reaches max level, but it’s not uncommon to see one or two of your pets Normal affixes turn Epic after it has gained 50-60 levels. Lastly, when your pet levels up there is a chance (again, small) that they will gain a NEW affix if they do not already have 6 affixes. I am uncertain whether a pet can gain more than 1 bonus affix if it has space for them.
What all of this means is that when you get a new pet (either by rescuing it from an Enslaver or purchasing it from your local puppy mill pet shop) don’t be put off if it doesn’t have 6 epic affixes. Instead, decide if the affixes it does have are helpful, then let it tag along with you for a bit and see if it picks up any new tricks - either in the form of additional affixes, or improvements on the affixes it already has. Who knows, that scruffy flea-bitten mutt you took in off the streets may end up statted out like Cujo once you give him some love (just hope he’s pointed at your enemies - you did get your rabies shot, right?).
[size=150]5. Advanced Strategies[/size]
A. Farming Legend Pets
Since none of the legend pets have requirements on the floor number they can be found on, doing runs of Floor 21+ on EP8 with as much Luck as you can stuff on your gear (up to the cap) is going to be the “best” way to farm them presently. Unless someone has data showing otherwise, it is unlikely that Item Quantity affects how many pets are dropped by the Enslaver (it should just be the one it had following it, correct?) so all that matters is running around finding (and killing) Enslavers as quickly as possible while crossing your fingers and praying to whichever cosmic force you want. Farming them on lower floors also means they will start out at a lower level, which may be helpful in having the best shot at maxing the values of its affixes (if it can/does increase every level-up, then starting at a lower level should statistically lead to higher end stats. Legend pets are great in that they bring an additional Set affix, and also guarantee you 5 epic affixes right off the bat, but given that they are rarer than their non-Legend counterparts you are much less likely to find a Legend pet with both a Set affix you want AND great additional affixes. Consider that you may actually be better off farming for the “perfect” non-Legend pet…
B. Farming for (“Perfect”) Non-Legend Pets
Given that buying pets on the first floor is both cheaper AND provides you the best chance to get 6 affixes (and as many of them epic as possible), your best bet is likely going to be simply buying them from the shop at Floor 1. This is going to cost you 23,375 each (this is cheaper than converting many low crystals and mythstones). Since luck may have an effect on the quantity and quality of affixes, be sure to wear a set of luck gear (and do it on EP8 for good measure). Essentially just blow a few hundred thousand (or millions) on buying the pet type of your choice to fill up your inventory then go through and sell off the ones that have affixes that are just not useful to you (I tend to dislike HP regen and MP regen… if a pet has one of those and no other really great affixes, it goes right to the animal shelter to be put down… if it has one of those but also has a few affixes I really care about, I might keep it and hope it manages to redeem itself). From there, take your swarm of level 1 pets (you surely have at least a few that have decent affixes, right?) to whatever floor/map you are currently farming. Equip the first one, go slaughter a few hundred monsters to get it to around level 40-50 and take another look at it’s stats. Did it gain affixes that are valuable to you? Did it gain affixes that are useless to you (and thus waste affix space that now can’t be affixes you care about)? Did it convert any of it’s normal affixes to epic affixes? Did it gain a bunch of stats in its affixes? If it’s still possibly viable, you can either keep leveling it to 80 (be warned, like players the XP needed per level continues to rise as it gains them, so 50-80 is going to take a lot longer than 1-50) or you can put it aside to level up later if none of your other pets works out as well. Then, rinse the blood off your hands, bring out a new level 1 pet, and let them witness the carnage as well. Leveling up a bunch of pets like this can take a long time (it is basically like enchanting your other gear, except you actually have to level the pet rather than being able to have the crystals on hand and just do them all at once. The good news is that at least you’re doing something productive in the mean time, since you get to farm floors that are actually relevant to you.
What is the “Perfect” (or “Best”) Pet?
There is no right answer to this. Some Legend pets bring very valuable set affixes that either let you increase the rank of sets you already have on gear, or even bring a whole new set (especially if you have +Set Ranks affix item(s) and are gaining 3-5 ranks in the set just from your pet). Other Legend pets bring awesome set affixes that just don’t work well (or at all)for your character (good luck with that Iceburn on your rogue…). Other Legend pets just bring crappy set affixes (I personally despise Vampiric Touch and Druidic). Even beyond that, just having all Epic affixes isn’t always going to be the best for your character - you may already be capped on that stat, or just not benefit much from it depending on your build. When picking a pet just try to look for stats that benefit the build and play style you enjoy and don’t sweat it so much if it isn’t perfect – after all, you have 6 other gear slots to try to min-max.
(More to come later, including better formatting. As I said this is a work in progress…)
