BDO Basics - Pets

 Introduction

Pets are an essential part of Black Desert as they act as Auto-looters for drops!

• Pets used to be an expensive barrier to entry but this is no longer the case 
• New players can obtain pets for free through questing and other rewards 
• Some pets give special stat bonuses that can make them more sought after
• Pets can be upgraded all the way up to Tier 5 which increases their speed and stats 

 

Players can have a maximum of 5 loot pets out at any given time to help collect loot automatically. 

 

Obtaining Pets 

Pets used to be gated behind the cash shop in a big way, requiring multiple purchases to be enhanced while also needing several pets.

 

This was pretty costly to new players, but since then, the game has added a lot of ways to grab some pets for free. This will give you 5 different ones that you can have to hit the max amount. 

 

 

There's 17 different quests, though they do require you to complete certain mainline quests before they can be completed. 

 

The pets given are mostly copies of the same pet, this is to allow you to enhance the pets, making them pick up faster for you. 

 

 

You can also buy an [Event] Kuku for 5000 Loyalties and they're often given out during login events, along with other different types of pets. 

 

Coupon codes will sometimes give pets, but it's much more rare than login events. 

 

You can also get a Desert Fox from completing the Deve's encyclopedia journal, if you need a guide for it, we have one here: 

 

You can also get another free pet from the Choose Your Pet Box that can be obtained using [Season] Seals of Journey

If you're new or want a guide on the Permanent Season, we have one available too! Check it out here: 

 

Managing Your Pets

To access your Pets, simply click on the Pet icon in the top left of your screen, this icon will also flash red to let you know when your pets are hungry. 

 

A pet at 0% hunger it will no longer pick up loot for you, so make sure they're fed before grinding. 

 

 

Clicking on this icon will display all of your pets for you as well as let you manage them. You can also see their hunger % on their image. 

 

The red icons under the pet's Tier is the selected pick up speed. You can set the Speed to Cautious, Average or Agile. 

 

At Tier 4, Cautious is 2.8 seconds, Average is 2.5 seconds and Agile is 2.3 seconds.

 

I'd recommend just keeping it on Agile for the fastest pick up speed, though the other modes can conserve pet hunger, it's not really ever worth doing. 

 

 

Feeding your Pets

To feed a pet you can use Cheap Feed from an Stable Keeper NPC, this food isn't that effective, but you can put it on your hotbar and mash the hotkey to feed your pets quickily. 

 

 

Because there are a lot of buttons on the menu, I'll go over them with seperate screenshots to make things easier. 

 

If you want better feed or want to make your own, you can use Good Feed, Organic Feed, Balanced Feed, Nutritious Feed and Brady's Nutritious Feed.  

 

You can purchase them readily on the Central Marketplace, if you want the recipes for cooking, just hover over the item tooltip. 

 

Pet Info & Skills

 

 

These three icons will let you feed an individual pet, view the pet's info and put away or take out the pet to be used for looting. 

 

 

The pet info section will show you which stats your pets have. Pets have different set abilities and then additional skills, these are basic passives that give small bonuses. 

 

The amount of skills will depend on your Tier of pet. Tier 1 and Tier 2 pets only have 1 skill each. Tier 3 have 2 skills while Tier 4 has three. 

 

The best set abilities are Max HP, Weight Limit, Item Drop Rate, Life Exp and Combat Exp.

 

You can see what built in skill your pet has by checking their Talent. You can see their Talent on their item tool tip:

 

 

You can also see this in the cash shop when purchasing a pet should you choose to do so, again, listed as Talent. 

 

 

This is a bit more min-maxy and not something you really have to worry about too much if you just want pets for looting. 

 

Enhancing Your Pets 

Most of the other buttons in the image below are self explanatory, the only one that really stands out still is the "Exchange" button. 

 

 

This is the button you'll need to use when you wish to enhance your pets. Put simply, pets in Black Desert have different Tiers. 

 

The higher the pet Tier, the faster it loots and the better passive bonus stats it gives. To enhance a pet, you smash two pets together. 

 

 

When accessing this menu you'll see that the pets have different types. Event, Classic, Rare and Premium.

 

Only pets of the same type can be used to enhance to a higher Tier. So make sure if you do decide to purchase pets that you get the correct types.

 

The cash shop tells you the Type in block capitals so it's easy to identify if you do decide to buy from there. 

 

There is also a pet called a Wizard Goshpy which can be used to enhance any Tier of pet. it also has increased chances of success for enhancing other pets. 

 

By clicking the yellow button in the bottom right corner of the pet you'd like to enhance, you'll select it and open up the pet enhancing window. 

 

 

You can select which Appearance to use, which skills to learn and set a new name for your pet. You can also add more than one pet to boost the chances of success. 

 

 

You can also use higher Tier pets to enhance together instead of using only Tier 1 pets, which will also increase the success chances. 

 

Pets Tiers being used	Chance Option 1	Chance Option 2
Tier 1 and Tier 1	55% chance for Tier 3	45% chance for Tier 2
Tier 2 and Tier 1	65% chance for Tier 3	35% chance for Tier 2
Tier 2 and Tier 2	80% chance for Tier 3	20% chance for Tier 2
Tier 3 and Tier 1	15% chance for Tier 4	85% chance for Tier 3
Tier 3 and Tier 2	25% chance for Tier 4	75% chance for Tier 3
Tier 3 and Tier 3	35% chance for Tier 4	65% chance for Tier 4

 

Since you can also use multiple pets, you can actually hit 100% success rates. 

 

For example, using a Tier 3 pet to enhance to Tier 4, you would need 2 Tier 3's and 2 Tier 1's.

 

Using Wizard Goshpy can make this easier to hit. I wouldn't imagine most people go all the way up to 100% though.  

 

Tier 5 Pet Enhancement 

Unlike the other Tiers, this Tier offers a unique buff to your pets by assigning an "Alpha pet." which will give it the Pack Leader skill. 

 

While you can have multiple Tier 5's, you can only have one "Alpha pet" selected at any given time.

 

Upgrading your pets to Tier 5 will not give any bonuses, so it's best to just select one to make Tier 5 for the Pack Leader skill which lowers the looting cool down of all pets by 15%. 

 

 

To start the Tier 5 pet quest “[Pet] Domesticated Squabbles” you must be at least Level 60 and have a Tier 4 pet.

 

If you meet the requirements you can grab the quest from the Black Spirit. 

Before you head to the quest location, you should grab some items to be able to deliver them right away without backtracking. You'll need: 

 

• 40 x Magical Shard which can be obtained using Sealed Black Magic Crystal
• 10 x Growth Reagent, purchase at any Old Moon Manager NPC within cities for 60 mill each. 
• 800 x Fine Lightweight Plume, gathered at Navarn Steppe or purchased easily on the market. 

 

Use Simple Alchemy (L) on the ingredients to create a Royal Plume for enhancing your pet.

 

Once you have the items, use the quest to navigate you to NPC Obi Bellen at the Old Wisdom Tree in Kamasylvia: 

 

 

They'll have an option to select Tier 5 pet training when speaking to them, Obi Bellen will then progress the questline. 

 

This is the Level 5 Pet Training UI, just throw the Tier 4 pet in the left slot and the Royal Plume in the right. 

 

 

You can then open up your Pet Management UI and assign your Alpha Pet by clicking the golden crown icon that will be available on your new Tier 5 pet. 

 

Pet Appearance Change

If you'd like to change the appearance of one of your pets, you can grab a Pet Appearance Change Coupon from the cash shop or use one from an event. 

 

 

Rather than buy it outright, it's much better to buy it with Loyalties if you have them available, as it only costs 1000, so it'll only take 5 days to save for. 

 

 

Pets will have a set of appearances that they can choose from. To select the pet you want to use, they must be checked in to be available. 

 

 

You'll be able to change the appearance of the pet with the left and right arrows with the pets features being usually within the same type of pet. 

 

 

When you find one you like, just hit change and your pet will change to the new appearance. 

 

Got a favourite pet or pet stat combination? Let us know!