Saturday, January 15, 2011

Types of pet personalities

No, I'm not going to get into the MBTI typologies of my pets.

I love examining how pets can evolve differently from each other. Here's my breakdown of pet personality types:

1. The Diamond in the Rough

The Diamond in the Rough is one that jumps out of a sea of similar tameables and speaks to you. Some hunters, like Sochi from the Petopia forums, look for one who does something different than the others, like running off and killing a critter. I tend to find mine based on their spawn location. I like "fringe" spawns. A number of my pets who are ordinary types of their species spawned a bit away from the others. My Ursa was the first grizzled black bear on the east side of the Loch in Loch Modan before the Shattering. Kallisto is the first rabid blisterpaw hyena outside the Caverns of Time. These pets look the same to everyone else, but they have a strong sense of self, which they reveal to their hunters before they're tamed.

2. The Chameleon

The Chameleon remains the same species, but undergoes color changes within the same species. Often, this is due to the pet "aging" or "molting" to a new skin. This can cover the hunter's desires to change their pet's look without having to give up their little buddy. Hector, who began life as Old Cliff Jumper, will be changing to Deathmaw in patch 4.0.6 to become the brown-skinned wolf he was always meant to be. MaqueChoux, Kallimon's formerly jittery Haarka the Ravenous, grew up into the much more mature Harakiss the Infestor.

3. The Changeling

The Changeling can take on the form of any species as their hunter needs while retaining their personality. My dear Orpheus has been my loyal PvP pet since back in BC, starting out as a pink scorpid, then became Nuramoc, the pink and blue chimera. He turned into a blue crab for a long time, but it was Chatter's brown tarantula form that he chose to take on permanently. Until he chose Chatter, he was a Changeling, ready and willing to change his form as functionality required for PvP so he would never have to leave my side.

4. The Rare Breed

There can be a strong bond between the hunter and the named/rare spawn or difficult tame they pull off as well as to their pet. King Krush was an epic adventure to tame and his personality is forever bonded with that of my Theseus. DaBeast, Kallimon's Beast, couldn't be named anything else because of how deeply connected the two of them are. These Rare Breeds tend to define themselves.

5. The Lone Wolf

However, not all rares are instantly bonded with their pets. Sometimes, there's no chemistry. I originally camped for Old Cliff Jumper for my Hector, but while I felt a connection to Hector, I didn't feel anything for OCJ. Hector was only OCJ in that he was the only pet available to tame. This makes Hector a good example of a Lone Wolf. Lone Wolves are basically polished Diamonds in the Rough; everyone can see they're special, but will usually misunderstand why.




Pets can sometimes change categories as their moods suit them. Orpheus already had his own personality from when he was a Changeling, but when he became Chatter, he merged with the little guy, becoming a Rare Breed. He lost his flexibility in terms of morphing to the pet family needed for taming, but he gained a stronger sense of self. No other form will ever suit him again.


My pets fall into every category, but that's not the case for every hunter. One size does not fit all, and your results may vary, be it between pets or even hunters.

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