Revamping Pets

The pet system is probably one of the oldest still in use, and although it has been modified several times over the years, it's no longer suitable and now needs to be completely overhauled. This will include how pets work (feeding, evolution rate, etc.) as well as their bonuses. To make this devblog simpler to read, we'll primarily be discussing pets, but everything explained here applies to petsmounts as well.

We'll be offering a new system that fulfills the following objectives:

• Remove time-based restrictions on pet progression
• Provide pets with competitive bonuses relative to mounts
• Allow them to influence the economy of game servers
• Update the method for obtaining them so they're more integrated with other types of content
• Have a system that is more accessible

To achieve these objectives, adjustments have been made to every aspect of the system.

How Pets Progress

Bonuses

As for pet bonuses, these now depend directly on the pet's level: If a pet is level 50, it only has a 50% bonus; at level 100, it has the maximum bonus. Initially, it's very easy to level up a pet, and this gets progressively harder (and therefore more expensive).

Part of the new system is that pets now progress in only one way; it will no longer be possible to choose which characteristics you want to improve. This should make a greater number of pets more useful; instead of, for example, having a pet qualify for three different bonuses, it will now have only one bonus, and its two other characteristics will be available from other pets. We took the opportunity to greatly improve bonuses for all pets so they would compare more favorably against mounts.

There are a few exceptions: Pets that currently don't need to be fed (e.g. Brulay and Quaquack) still won't progress in the new system. Their bonuses have been made more appealing, but it won't be possible to feed them, and they'll have their maximum bonus when you get them (as is currently the case). 

Ways to Obtain Pets

There are currently multiple ways to receive a pet: completing a dungeon or quest, buying one from an NPC or the Shop (using Ogrines), or trading with another player.

We're going to substantially increase the number of pets that can be obtained in game. This will mean removing most pets from the Shop and various promotions so as to make them obtainable through accessible in-game content. At the outset, nearly 40 pets will be transferred from the Shop, and so we'll make sure to regularly add some over successive updates.

Each pet will be linked to content you'll need to have completed (e.g. quests or achievements), at which point you'll see the pet in the form of an NPC. Then you'll have to obtain a certain number of resources for it (linked with the same content) to be able to adopt it. Generally speaking, each pet can only be acquired once per character.

We'll also be reviewing how you unlock certain pets that can already be obtained in game, with the goal of limiting the ability to generate an excessive number of them. We've noticed these pets are often abandoned, fed to Dragoones or ground up, which is rather unfortunate… and cruel.

Pet-Centered Systems

One major change is that pets no longer have health points. That means they can't be killed or injured anymore, and so it won't be necessary to heal them or revive them.

We also removed the system of favorite areas and increased abilities. We think the new pet bonuses will really be interesting and diverse enough without needing to have this system added on top.

As a result, certain systems relating to pets have been modified or removed:

• The pet dungeon is essentially pointless now, and was therefore removed.
• Pet ghosts have been removed.
  • Those found in a player inventory or Marketplace will be automatically revived.
• Pet certificates have been removed.
  • Those found in a player inventory or Marketplace will be automatically replaced by the appropriate pet.
• Eniripsa Powder and Resurrection Powder have been removed.
• Hormones have been removed.
• Improvement Potions can no longer be crafted.
  • You'll be able to use your Improvement Potions to collect their component ingredients (except for Hormones).
• Croquette Potions have been removed.

Conveting Old Pets into New Ones

Your pets' bonuses will not be lost when the system is updated. Your pets will be reset (to level 0), but you'll receive a resource allowing you to give a certain number of experience points to any pet.

• The amount of experience granted by this resource depends on the pet and how much XP it had acquired.
• For example, the new Nomoon will give a maximum of 120 Prospecting. If you have one that gives 90 Prospecting, you'll get a resource that allows you to raise any pet's level to 75. If you give it to your Nomoon, it will then give 90 Prospecting. 
  • You may certainly choose to give this resource to another pet to raise it to level 75 (and it will provide a bonus other than 90 Prospecting, depending on the pet).
  • If your Nomoon only gave 60 Prospecting, you'll receive a level 50 resource.
  • If you have a Baby Crowdzilla that gives 44 Prospecting, you'll receive a resource allowing you to raise a pet's level to approximately 36.7.
  • If you have more than one pet, you'll receive as many resources as you have pets, and it will be possible to give several to a single pet. Keep in mind that in this case, the level reached by the pet will not be the sum of the levels of each resource; since the progress curve for pets isn't linear, the higher level they are, the more experience they'll need to reach the next level.
• Some pets, however, will become ceremonial items (especially those acquired through DOFUS Pets). In this case, you'll receive the pet as a ceremonial item, and if it had bonuses, you'll also get a resource allowing you to raise another pet to an equal level.