Posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 10:47 pm by stan
Pets in Rappelz play a very important part, even more so if you are a summoner class (Breeder, Spell Singer or Sorcerer). Pets not only help with physical attacks but also have their own set of passive and active skills. In this guide I will try to explain the basics of the pet system in Rappelz.
The Basics Steps
1. Pet Card
Before creatures can be used as pets you must first catch the animal’s spirit in a pet sealing card, otherwise known as summoner cards. There are different types of card corresponding to the different pet types that can be owned.
The current available pets are:-
Basic Pets – Bloody Poultry, Pantera, Tortus
Ex-common – Orc, Yeti, Siren, Skeleton, Blue Pixie, Red Pixie
Uncommon – Hawkman, Salamander
Rare – Angel, Kentaura
2. Taming
It is important to note that you must check the pet card to find out which type of animals can be used in the taming. For example you must tame a type of Rock Turtle with an empty Tortus card. Click on the card in your inventory and check the list of specific mobs that can be used, some cards will also indicate the appropriate level range e.g. lvl 5-30.
There are two sub-steps in taming a pet.
2a) First you must use the Creature Tame skill on your selected target. Once you have finished casting the skill you should see a ‘taming attempt’ message in the chat window.
2b) Now you will need to kill your target to release its spirit/soul. If you are lucky the spirit on the dead mob will enter the card and you will have a tamed pet. If successful you will see a ’successful tame’ message in the chat window
While it is uncommon for basic pets (Poultry, Pantera, Tortus) to fail during taming it is possible! The more exclusive the pet, the more chance there is of the tame failing. You can reduce the chance of a failure by asking a high lvl tamer (summoner class with +4/5, lvl9/10 taming) to tame it for you. However, you should always check the Rappelz forum for a current list of known and trusted tamers before handing over your card. Just as in every game of this size there will be people willing to steal your card if it’s worth a lot of money! If you are asking a tamer to help always make sure they are willing to party up during the tame so you can still see the taming messages in the chat window.
Don’t expect the non-basic pets to work every time even with a high level tamer. For example, a +5 lvl10 tamer might be able to tame 1 in every 8 Salamanders but only 1 in every 40 Angels !!! Your selected tamer might be able to give you some idea of their respective taming rates.
3. Forming your pet.
Before you can summon your new pet you must use the Creature Form window (Alt+Y). Drag the card from your inventory into position 1 in the Creature Form window. (You might have to move the two windows if the creature description pop-up covers the Form window!).
If you have done this correctly you will get a small window near the bottom right of your screen with an icon representing your new pet. I will call this the Formation window
PLEASE NOTE: there are two card slots available in the Creature Form window to the right of your pet. These can be used to give your pet items such as a weapon and armor. Although they will not change the appearance of you pet they will add considerably to its attack and defense capabilities. See below for more information on equipping your pet.
4. Summon your pet.
Click on the small icon of your pet in the Formation window so it has a light blue outline. Now use the Summon Creature skill to call forth your pet!
5. Look after your pet!
5a) Start slowly!
Most people get carried away with there new pet but are soon disappointed when it dies so quickly! When pets are first summoned they will obviously be lvl 1 and therefore very week. If you try to kill mobs just by using your fresh pet it will die, even against the low lvl mobs on the trainee island! At least for the first 10-15 levels I recommend that you do not use your pet to attack or make sure that you attack together. For every lvl your pet goes up it will get 1 JP but don’t panic, most pet skills only cost 1 JP so you can quickly build up its skills. If you want to know more about which skills to use for your pet type you should look for an appropriate guide in the guide section of the Rappelz forum.
5b) Pet Evolution & Over Breeding
Your pet will grow and get stronger much like your own character. It also has the equivalent of class transfers in the form of creature evolutions. Pets can be evolved twice; once at lvl 50 and then again at lvl 100. However, I highly recommend that you Overbreed (OB) your pet. You can do this by waiting until your pet is lvl 60 before its first evolution and lvl 115 before its second. For each lvl of OB your pet will gain 2JP rather than the usual 1 and a +value will appear in the pet card title. For example a pet that has been fully OB before its first evolution will be +10 lvl60. The second benefit of OB is the addition skills your pet will gain to increase its basic stats (Vitality, Strength, etc.)
Once you are ready to evolve your pet you will need to recall it and go to the Summoner guide in town. They will be able to evolve your pet and making it much more powerful in the process.
5c) What if my pet dies?
You can use that standard resurrection scrolls on your pet if it dies in battle. Simply select your pet and use the scroll as normal. Alternatively, the town Summoner guide will be able to resurrect and heal your pet for a small fee.
6. Equipment for your pet
If you visit a merchant in town you will be able to buy Unit Cards. These can be used to seal weapons, armor, etc. so that your pet can use them. It’s important to note that you can not upgrade or socket stones in equipment that has been sealed in a Unit Card. Therefore, you should always spend as much money as you can to improve the items before sealing them in a card and giving them to your pet.
You should be able to lvl your pet to lvl20 without too many problems therefore I do not recommend giving your pet any Rank 1 items (it can use Rank 2 items at lvl20+). You can seal equipment in the Unit Card via the combination option on your Inventory window. Drag the Unit Card and the item into the Combination window and click confirm.
Note: You can extract the items from the unit card by using Chalk of Restoration in the same way you used the Unit Card to seal the item. Then you can enchant/upgrade or socket the item as usual. However, you will then have to re-seal the item in a new Unit Card.
Now you should be able to drag the sealed item on to the Creature Form window and drop it in one of the item slots to the right of your pet.
6a. What items should I give my pet?
Because pet skills vary from creature to creature there is no definitive answer as to which items will work best for your pet. However, as a general rule of thumb you can’t really go wrong with warrior armor and a 2 handed spear or axe. 2 handed weapons can be hold up to 4 soul stones and therefore can add twice the stats bonus as 1 handed weapons (1h can only hold 2 stones).
Note: Since the Blue Pixie are often used primarily for healing owner might want to try equipping their pixie with a 2 handed staff! It will give a lower attack but higher HP return when casting healing spells.
7. Controlling Your Pet
To make best use of your pet you need to know how to control it. By default your pet will just follow you and will not attack mobs. The basic controls for pet related actions are;
You can drag the pet attack related icons to your quickbar at the bottom of the screen. To activate the skill you can then either click on the skill icon in the quickbar or use the corresponding key on your keyboard.
7a) Basic Pet Attack Options
You can vary your attack technique depending on how you want to fight. I tend to go by the following logic when using pets;
* ATTN PIXIE OWNERS – I don’t recommend using the joint attack command from distance due to your pixie’s ranged attack. Unless you are using a bow you will just end up watching yourself run past the mob as it heads towards your pixie!!!
7b) Using Pet Active Skills
If you have a pet with active skills you can place the commonly used skills in the pet quickbar at the bottom right of your screen. Open the Creature stats window by double-clicking on your pet icon in the Formation window and drag the skills to the quickbar. You might notice from time to time the cast will cancel before it has finished! This is can be cured easily by positioning your pet (Shift+Left Click) before using the active skill. However, don’t forget to issue the follow command (Esc x3) afterwards to make sure your pet doesn’t get left behind.
Some attack skills can be placed on auto-cast so your pet will automatically use the skill as soon as the cool-time has finished. You can do this by Right-clicking on the pet skill in your pet quickbar.
If you find your pet is not casting check that its icon in the Formation window has the blue outline around it. Even when it’s not selected the skill icons are sometimes still shown in the pet quickbar but it will not cast spells. This still catches me out especially if I’ve been temporarily summoning other pets for buffs/heals etc.
8. How do I get a pet card?
The easiest (and free) way to get a pet is to choose the appropriate summoner class for your race at your first class transfer on the trainee island. All summoner class characters get an extra quest from Guildas to visit the Summoner guide; he will give you a free pet card after you have learnt the Creature Tame skill. You can choose between Bloody Poultry, Pantera or Tortus. The choice is yours and the associated skills vary from pet to pet, for example the Poultry has high natural evasion, the Pantera good attack speed and the Tortus has a strong defense.
Don’t worry if you have already chosen a non-breeder class at your first class transfer as you can always start another character. By using the warehouse to move your upgraded Rank 1 equipment from your first character to your new one you should be able to get to your first class transfer in about 30-40mins. If you think this is too long you should stop playing Rappelz now!
Alternatively, you can buy empty cards from the merchant in town at 8,000 rupees each. However, you can only choose from the three basic pets.
If you want any other pet cards you will either have to trade in-game or wait for offer in the Cash Shop (CS). Alternatively you can now buy tamed Blue Pixie, Orc or Yeti for 2000 Achievement points, see the main Rappelz website for more details.