Does Pet Happiness Matter in Wizard101?
The short, straightforward answer is: no, pet happiness does not significantly impact the effectiveness of your pet in combat or its ability to manifest powerful talents in Wizard101. While it might seem intuitive that a happy pet would perform better, the game mechanics don’t work that way. Happiness primarily affects only two things: Adventure and Combat talents during specific mini-games within the Pet Pavilion and your ability to play as your pet in certain areas. This means that a pet’s combat effectiveness and stat boosts are entirely unrelated to its current happiness level. Therefore, if you are focusing on creating a powerful pet for battles or simply boosting your wizard’s stats, you don’t need to worry about keeping your pet constantly “happy.”
The Real Impact of Pet Happiness
While happiness doesn’t affect combat stats or talent manifestation, it’s not entirely useless. The “happiness” meter you see is mainly a part of the pet-training minigames in the Pet Pavilion.
Pet Minigames and Happiness
Specific pet mini-games, such as the pet obstacle course (Adventure Talent) or battle arena (Combat Talent), do require a certain level of happiness for your pet to perform well. When you participate in these mini-games, your pet will gain or lose happiness based on their performance. A happy pet is more likely to complete objectives and achieve high scores, leading to better rewards. However, these rewards are limited to in-game currency, pet snacks, and minor items, not directly impacting pet stats or talents.
Playing as Your Pet
The other aspect of pet happiness is related to a rather limited feature: playing as your pet in your houses or the Pet Pavilion. This function is not tied to a pet’s combat prowess and can be done at will within your housing and the Pet Pavilion, meaning that your happiness level before transforming into your pet for gameplay purposes is virtually irrelevant. It’s purely a fun, cosmetic feature with no impact on your character’s progression.
What REALLY Matters for Powerful Pets
If pet happiness is mostly irrelevant for combat and stat boosts, what should you focus on? Here are the key areas:
Pet Stats and Talents
The most crucial aspect of a powerful pet is its stats (Strength, Intellect, Agility, Will, and Power) and its talents. These directly impact how much your pet contributes to your wizard’s abilities. Talents can include critical, damage boosts, resist, and healing talents, all of which directly improve your wizard’s performance in combat. The stats are crucial for powering these talents. High stats mean the talent values on your pet will be as high as possible. For instance, if your pet has a “damage boost” talent, higher Strength, Will, and Power stats will translate to a higher percentage damage boost for your wizard.
Pet Hatching and Pedigree
The process of hatching is the primary way to obtain ideal pet stats and talents. You’ll start by training any pet to adult, then use the kiosk to select a “perfect” pet to hatch with. This allows you to pass down the preferred body type and, more importantly, the desirable talent pool. You keep hatching until you get the combination you want. The pedigree of a pet refers to the sum of all its talent values. Although this doesn’t determine how powerful a pet is, it can help indicate the potential power of the pet when hatching. The higher the pedigree the higher the stat potential and the more powerful it is when you train and manifest talents.
Pet Training and Leveling
Training your pet is necessary to manifest its talents. The higher your pet’s level (Adult, Ancient, Epic, Mega), the more talents it can manifest. Feeding your pet gives it experience, especially if you use higher-level Mega snacks. These snacks give significant experience points to speed up the leveling process. Remember, larger Mega pet snacks, like rank 8 or higher, give significantly higher amounts of experience. You typically get 25-30 points per snack, with the highest quality giving 45-50.
Max Pet Stats
Aiming for a “2.0 pet” is the goal for many players. A 2.0 pet has maxed stats (255 strength, 250 intellect, 260 agility, 260 will and 250 power). These max stats ensure that your pet’s talents provide the maximum benefits to your wizard. By carefully hatching with pets that have high stats, you can steadily increase the overall quality of your pets.
Conclusion
While pet happiness does play a minor role in mini-games and the novelty of playing as your pet, it does not affect the real power of a pet. You can safely ignore the “happiness” aspect of your pet if your primary goal is to create a formidable ally in battle. Instead, focus on training, hatching, maxing stats, and manifesting the most impactful talents to create a pet that will truly elevate your Wizard101 gameplay.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Does feeding my pet affect its combat stats?
No, feeding your pet primarily affects its happiness (used in pet mini-games) and its experience, which is necessary for leveling up. Combat stats and talents are determined by hatching and by your pets base stats when training.
2. What is the best way to level up my pet fast?
The fastest way to level up a pet is by feeding it high-level Mega snacks obtained from higher-level worlds. The higher the rank of the snack, the more experience it will provide.
3. Can I hatch two of my own pets?
Yes, you can hatch two of your own pets by stepping onto the timer in the Pet Pavilion solo.
4. How do pet stats influence my wizard?
Pet stats directly influence the potency of the pet talents that boost your wizard’s abilities. For example, higher Strength, Will, and Power will translate to a greater damage boost from a damage talent.
5. What are the max stats for a pet in Wizard101?
The maximum stat values without a selfish talent are: 255 Strength, 250 Intellect, 260 Agility, 260 Will, and 250 Power.
6. What does the pet pedigree mean?
The pedigree is the sum of all talent values of the pet. The higher the pedigree the higher the stat potential and the more powerful it is when you train and manifest talents.
7. What is a 2.0 pet?
A 2.0 pet is a pet that has all maxed stats: 255 Strength, 250 Intellect, 260 Agility, 260 Will, and 250 Power.
8. Do pets with Maycast talents need happiness to activate?
No, pet happiness does not affect the activation of Maycast talents. Maycast talents activate randomly in battle, and their activation is unrelated to your pet’s happiness level.
9. Can I turn my pet into a mount?
Yes, you can turn your pet into a mount by buying a saddle for your pet. Click on the mount icon on your pet to equip the saddle and ride your pet.
10. What is the best balance pet in Wizard101?
The Snappy Gryphon is considered one of the best balance pets, as it gives a universal blade and a feint. The Balance Hamster is another great option that provides a universal blade and a Sharpened Blade card.
11. How do I get rare pets in Wizard101?
Rare pets can be obtained through various means: drops from specific bosses, hatching, and purchasing them from the Crown Shop.
12. Can you sell pets for gold?
Yes, you can sell unwanted pets at the Bazaar. This will yield gold as well as the chance to get treasure cards and random reagents. However, feeding pets to your pets provides treasure cards and reagents as well, with the slight chance of giving your pets xp as well.
13. How many times can you lend your pet out?
You can lend your pet up to three times per day depending on your wizard level.
14. What are the best schools for damage in Wizard101?
The schools that offer the most damage in the game are typically ranked: Storm > Fire > Myth > Balance/Death > Life/Ice.
15. What is the best DPS school in Wizard101?
Fire is often considered the best Damage Per Second (DPS) class, especially when soloing. Storm wizards have more initial damage, but can be more volatile to play.