Pet System & Familiars — Blade & Soul Guide

Pet System & Familiars

In Blade & Soul, your journey through the Earthen Realm is made significantly easier and more engaging with the aid of loyal companions: Pets and Familiars. These aren't just cosmetic additions; they provide crucial combat support, utility, and even passive bonuses that can turn the tide in challenging encounters. Understanding how to acquire, train, and utilize them effectively is key to maximizing your character's potential.

Acquiring Your First Companion

Your initial foray into the world of companions typically begins early in your adventure. While some are quest rewards, the most common method involves the use of specific items.

• Pet Pouch: This is the primary item for obtaining a random pet. Pet Pouches can be acquired through various means:
  • Daily Challenge Rewards: Completing your daily challenges often grants Pet Pouches as bonus rewards.
  • Dungeon Drops: Certain dungeons, particularly those in the Cinderlands and Moonwater Plains, have a chance to drop Pet Pouches from final bosses. Keep an eye out for the "Blackram Narrows" and "Brightstone Ruins" dungeons.
  • Event Rewards: Seasonal events frequently offer Pet Pouches as part of their reward structures. Always check the event tab for current offerings.
  • Dragon Express: The Dragon Express, accessible via the in-game menu, sometimes has Pet Pouches available for purchase with Dragon Trade Pouches or other event currencies.
• Specific Pet Summons: Rarer pets can sometimes be obtained directly through specific summon items, often found in the Hongmoon Store or as ultra-rare drops from high-tier content like the "Ebony Citadel" raid.

Pet Types and Their Roles

Pets in Blade & Soul come in various forms, each offering unique benefits. While their appearance differs, their core functionality often revolves around providing defensive or offensive buffs.

• Defensive Pets: These pets typically offer shields, damage reduction, or health regeneration. Examples include the Loyal Jinyu or the Ironclad Protector. They are invaluable for classes with lower natural defenses or for tackling content with heavy incoming damage.
• Offensive Pets: Focusing on increasing your damage output, these pets might provide critical hit rate bonuses, attack power buffs, or even direct damage skills. The Infernal Lord and Shadow Hunter are prime examples. They are excellent for maximizing DPS in raids and dungeons.
• Utility Pets: While less common, some pets offer unique utility, such as increased movement speed outside of combat or reduced cooldowns on certain skills.

Pet Tiers and Rarity

Pets, like Familiars, also come in different tiers or rarities, which directly impact their base stats, skill potency, and potential for growth. Higher-tier pets generally offer stronger passive bonuses and more impactful active skills.

• Common/Uncommon Pets: Often acquired early in the game or from basic Pet Pouches. They provide foundational benefits but have limited growth potential. Good for starting out.
• Rare/Epic Pets: These pets offer significantly better stats and often have more advanced skills. They are typically found in higher-tier Pet Pouches, specific dungeon drops, or event rewards. These are usually the first pets players invest heavily in.
• Legendary Pets: The pinnacle of pet companions. Legendary pets boast the highest base stats, unique and powerful skills, and the greatest potential for evolution and customization. They are exceedingly rare, often obtained from high-end raids (e.g., Skybreak Spire, Temple of Eluvium), special limited-time events, or through the Hongmoon Store.

Familiar System: Empowering Your Pet

The Familiar system is where you truly customize and enhance your chosen pet. Familiars are essentially stat-boosting items that you equip to your pet, similar to how you equip gear to your character.

Familiar Acquisition

Familiars are primarily obtained through:

• Familiar Chests: These chests drop from various sources, including daily quests, weekly challenges, and dungeon bosses. Higher-tier chests have a greater chance of yielding rare Familiars. For example, completing the "Daily Challenge" in the UI (default key 'J') often rewards "Basic Familiar Chests," while specific heroic dungeons like "Sogun's Lament" or "Naryu Foundry" can drop "Advanced Familiar Chests."
• Crafting: Certain Familiars can be crafted by the "Soul Wardens" profession. You'll need specific crafting materials, often found by salvaging unwanted Familiars or through gathering professions like "Green Thumbs" for plant-based materials or "Prospector's Union" for ores. Visit a crafting hub in major cities like Jadestone Village or Zaiwei to interact with crafting NPCs.
• Hongmoon Store: The Hongmoon Store frequently offers premium Familiar Chests with a higher chance for epic and legendary Familiars, often bundled with other valuable items. Keep an eye out for seasonal sales.

Familiar Types and Stats

Familiars come in different rarities (Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary) and provide a range of stats. Prioritize Familiars that complement your character's build and your pet's inherent abilities.

• Attack Power: Increases your character's overall damage. Essential for all DPS roles.
• Critical Hit Rate/Damage: Boosts the frequency and potency of critical strikes.
• Defense/HP: Enhances your character's survivability. Crucial for tanks and less mobile classes.
• Accuracy/Piercing: Improves your ability to hit and bypass enemy defenses.
• Elemental Damage: Specific to certain builds, these Familiars boost damage for a particular element (e.g., Fire, Frost, Lightning).

Familiar Enhancement and Evolution

To get the most out of your Familiars, you'll need to enhance and potentially evolve them.

1. Enhancement:
   • Process: Select a Familiar you wish to enhance in the Pet UI (default key 'P'). Drag and drop other unwanted Familiars into the enhancement slots as fodder.
   • Materials: Lower-rarity Familiars are ideal for fodder. You can also use specific "Familiar Enhancement Stones" (obtained from events or the Hongmoon Store) for guaranteed success and higher experience gains.
   • Success Rate: Enhancement has a success rate that decreases with each level. Critical success can grant multiple levels at once, significantly speeding up the process.
   • Cost: Each enhancement attempt costs a small amount of gold, increasing with the Familiar's level.
   • Strategy Tip: Always use Familiars of the same type (e.g., Attack Familiar to enhance another Attack Familiar) for a bonus experience gain. Save your high-rarity Familiars for enhancing your primary ones, and use common/uncommon ones as fodder.
2. Evolution:
   • Prerequisites: Only certain Epic and Legendary Familiars can be evolved. They must first reach their maximum enhancement level (e.g., +10 for Epic, +15 for Legendary).
   • Materials: Evolution requires rare materials, often obtained from high-level dungeons, raids, or special events. Examples include Sacred Familiar Orbs (from Skybreak Spire, Temple of Eluvium) and Divine Familiar Dust (from weekly challenge rewards or the Dragon Express).
   • Benefits: Evolution significantly boosts the Familiar's stats and can unlock additional passive abilities for your pet, such as increased critical damage or a percentage-based health shield.
   • Common Pitfall: Do not attempt to evolve a Familiar before it reaches its maximum enhancement level, as the option will not be available, and you risk wasting valuable evolution materials.

Pet Management and Interaction

The Pet UI (default key 'P') is your central hub for all things pet-related.

• Summon/Dismiss: You can summon or dismiss your active pet at any time outside of combat by clicking the pet icon in the UI or using a designated hotkey.
• Pet Skills: Each pet has active and passive skills. Active skills are often on a cooldown and provide a burst of utility or damage, which you can manually activate. Passive skills are always active when the pet is summoned, offering continuous benefits. For example, a defensive pet might have an active skill to grant a temporary shield and a passive skill for constant health regeneration.
• Pet Food: Pets consume "Pet Food" over time. If your pet runs out of food, it will become inactive and provide no benefits until fed. Pet Food can be purchased from general merchants in any major city (e.g., Zaiwei, Mushin's Tower) or crafted by the "Chef" profession. Always keep a stack of Pet Food in your inventory.
• Transmutation: Unwanted pets can be transmuted into "Pet Essence," which can then be used to upgrade other pets or craft rare pet-related items like higher-tier Pet Pouches or specific Familiar materials. Access the Transmutation tab in your inventory (default key 'I') to perform this action.
• Pet Skill Customization: For higher-tier pets, you may unlock the ability to customize their active skills. This often involves consuming specific "Skill Books" or "Pet Skill Gems" (obtained from high-level content or events) to change the effect or enhance the power of an existing skill. For instance, you might be able to change a defensive pet's shield skill to also apply a brief crowd control immunity.

By diligently acquiring, enhancing, and managing your pets and Familiars, you'll unlock a significant power boost for your character, making your adventures in Blade & Soul much more rewarding and enabling you to tackle the most challenging content the Earthen Realm has to offer.