The problem with pets.

Own

Moderator
Ages ago there were three pets in the game and you got them all around the same time. None of them had any advantages or disadvantages over the others, to avoid making it seem like you chose a 'bad' pet to level. You could fish, or more realistically, forcefeed them hundreds of potions to level them up. And while the maximum level of them was infinite, it was said that that was temporary to give people something to do and the eventual cap was level 10.

It's now 2020 and pets are in a really awkward state. You can get your first pet in under an hour into the game. You can get your (current) last pet in about 20-30 hours+ (if you're doing a ton of side content) in an optional area.

The only real change between 2014~ pets and 2020 pets is that pets now get forcefed actual food from Oak instead of potions.

Despite trying to keep things 'fair' between all pets, this makes Slime and Rabby by default the 'best' pets. You've been investing into them for the longest time, switching to later game pets throws aside all your past progress and invests a ton more resources into them just to try and get back to the bonus you had with Slime and Rabby.

That's not an ideal system. I feel like it would be best to treat pets as if they aren't all created equal, because that's a false equality. The problem shifts from "Why should I level my slime, the wisp is better!" to "Why should I level my wisp for no overall benefit, the slime has all my invested EXP!"

Ways to solve this: Before anything else, give pets their level caps so there's an actual finality to them. Then any number of any of the below.

1.
Make earlier pets level faster, but their max cap is lower.

2. Make later pets level faster than earlier ones.

3. Give every pet a unique max level bonus when equipped. Slime? +25 HP for maxing. Rabby? +3% crit. Wisp? +10 EP.

4. Give every pet a unique max level bonus that is awarded to you when that pet hits max level, without needing being equipped. Either in terms of stats, a unique housing item or a cosmetic hat. A gift from your pet or Oak for taking such good care of them.

5. Change how pets level. Levels 1-5 can be fed with pet food, 6-10 with fish. Alternatively add in a Pet EXP bar that fills as you keep a specific pet out while killing enemies, as a different way to level pets. You can invest this EXP into any specific stat, up to a certain level. But it is the slowest way.

I can't think of anything else at the moment, but... pets are in a really awkward place right now. There has to be some way to improve upon it. A way that doesn't involve letting pets fight, given the can of worms and bugs that would involve.
 

MrChocodemon

Handsome Moderator
I would love #4 as it would give an incentive to level all pets, which is in sync with the grinding aspect of the game while also rewarding taking care of them all.

Maybe even a modified #4 where you get a tiered level bonus.
Example: Slime level 1 gives +5HP, Level 5 gives +20HP and Level 10 gives +50HP
 

Teddy

Developer
Staff member
It's on the (long) list of stuff to talk about before the ever-more-likely "fix some stuff"-segment scheduled for after the Lost Ship stable :D

I'm partial to a solution akin to #4 as well... to be precise, I like the idea that feeding multiple pets has some purpose to it, while also keeping the current sense of "just have the pet you think is cool (and then keep it hidden for the rest of the game)"

That said, we haven't talked much about it yet so don't take that as a real indication of the direction pets are heading!
 

Frigid

Green Slime
I was under the impression that pets were intended to have a level cap at one point but that idea was scrapped? I've got a level 80 Slime invested wholly in damage that I've been investing a large portion of time into just because "big numbers."

upload_2020-3-28_11-47-24.png

Obviously more little fun reasons to not just use one pet would be neat, but I feel as though without a small rework to the pet system, there wouldn't be a way to convey Rabby = Speed, Bee = Damage, etc.
 

Faangzzz

Rabby
whoa how do you get your pet to such a high level? the most I've managed was around 20 before it became too tedious for me
 

matissimo

Green Slime
whoa how do you get your pet to such a high level? the most I've managed was around 20 before it became too tedious for me
It's really not that hard.
I grinded a lot of money, during collecting all cards (+ all other drops, seriously there were more cards than some of other rare drops), so I bought a lot of meals for my pet.

Personally I think that speed is better (gives more fun) to invest into than dmg.
 

Faangzzz

Rabby
I mean I've gotten every card and grind for money periodically but I've never gotten remotely enough money for that. Maybe it's because I spent so much on housing?
 
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