New Pet - Hoglet

It’s more like a square peg, square hole situation. They can’t fit the old event pets into the Wednesday schedule if they keep releasing new ones. At least unless they run several pet events in parallel, which feels somewhat unlikely to happen. The peg just fits the hole too well. They are probably aware this is against community expectations, so I wouldn’t really expect any more official communication about this topic until the first event pet would be due to reappear.

Salty’s quote doesn’t say that they won’t be available every year. I don’t understand why she said Torte would be easier to get. That doesn’t make sense.

We haven’t had pets for a full year. So you may want to play it out a bit more before encouraging others to sink gems due to them thinking they’ll never be able to get the pet again.

That’s a lot of coding and time to create a pet for only 24 hours and never again. Sorry man, the logic really doesn’t add up.

I saw a post someplace (maybe Twitter?) where they were asking for ideas for future cosmetic pets tied to holidays. Given that, Wednesdays would be dominated by cosmetic pets if they ever repeat, like Fourdottwoone said.

It would also explain why everyone gets a free pet via daily login, so lower level players can get at least one copy before they go away forever.

It’s easier to get because it repeats each year, unlike the other special event pets.

She didn’t say that.

Alright ladies and gents, as @Sirrian’s illegitimate Son. I feel confident in speaking for him even if I’m way off based.

Here are all the current cosmetic pets:

  • Freedom will be available every year during a 24 hour pet rescue during the week of July 4th.
  • An anniversary pet will be available every year during a 24 hour pet rescue. Tiny Torte will be available in a gem shop.
  • Dragonkitty will be available every year but no set date during a 24 hour pet rescue.
  • Corgi will be available every year during a 24 hour pet rescue during the week of international pet day.
  • Skullbeak will be available every year during a 24 hour pet rescue during the week of … pirate day.
  • A holiday pet will be available every year during a 24 hour pet rescue. Prancer will be available in a gem shop.
  • Doll will be available every year during a 24 hour pet rescue during the week of Halloween.
  • A lunar pet will be available every year during a 24 hour pet rescue. Hoglet will be available in a gem shop.

Every year there will be brand new customers to sink gems into cosmetic pets. It doesn’t make sense to think that they will be one and done. It’s possible that they will be available for cash instead of gems. But I promise you all, they will not be exclusive to the first 24 hour pet rescue.

I think it also works out like this convoluted mess.

Nothing is consistent in GoW. If we go by historic precedent, all decisions about mechanics are made up as we go along, and even firm statements by devs are subject to change. (This is not objectively bad. Sometimes the devs should change even strongly held beliefs. Let’s not discuss it and instead just accept it as a fact.)

We can’t fully trust the words written in releases. For a long time it was a joke that Sirrian kept writing “the pet will be available today, then will enter the rotation in 3-5 weeks” even though every week the pet was usually available immediately after the event. So we can gather a rule from these posts: what Sirrian writes and what another dev implementes are not verifiably consistent.

We also can’t trust if something changes we will know. Soulforge rotation changed without a peep, despite being in the top 5 player gripes at the time. Champion XP in arena was a bug for many months with zero acknowledgement it was a bug and zero initial acknowledgement it had been changed.

(Corollary: we also can’t trust that if something has historically happened it is correct. Champion XP in arena was only revealed as “a bug” when it was fixed. Every release is saturated with [LOOSE_TRANSLATION_STRING] and yet somehow this is filed as a bug. Etc.)

So we have a host of Sirrian posts about event pets and how event pets are distributed. But we know from the above that:

  • Sirrian isn’t always correct when making a post.
  • Sirrian does not (and, practically, can’t) go back and edit all posts to be “true” when this is determined.
  • If two statements are different, it’s possible the truth changed in between them.
  • If two statements are different, it’s possible neither is correct.
  • We don’t know squat about how event pets are supposed to behave, and can’t know because even if a dev tells us “the truth” they might be:
    • wrong
    • unsure
    • going against the changeset someone else is going to commit in 2 weeks

So, simply put: we don’t know squat, it’s best to assume you need to spend gems today if you are going to be upset without a mythic Hoglette.

Gear Shift

I think the devs are trying to do something fun. I think we also have a clear disconnect between how devs and players perceive the game.

It is “sensible” that if there are some things that will not be given out frequently enough to be practically “completed” without spending a lot of gems that those things should have no in-game effect. Since they don’t help you “win” they aren’t P2W, right?

But the moment pets released, a leaderboard was desired. Even on the forums, a silent race began. The first person to mythic all of the pets got serious bragging rights. The first few still had bragging rights. I remember it being clear AWR and a few less-vocal others were seriously engaged in that race.

They were all endgamers and all in guilds at the top of the brackets. They had no other way to compete, and they were having fun with this new axis of competition. They weren’t dumb, unimportant newbies. They were some of the most influential players in the game. That is unquestionably a profit axis, right? But it was all free, so it was a fun race.

If they are “only cosmetic”, then it wouldn’t hurt if they arrived mythic, right?

Yeah, wrong. Someone out there noticed players wanted to fill out their collection. That someone also noticed that it was doable for free, and the people who were most excited about it were in the best position to get it done for free. And then we get pets where you can’t win the race unless you throw a lot of gems at them. In short, to win the race, you have to pay. Rocket surgery, right? I don’t need Steve and Blue to help me deduce if this is “pay to win”. You have to “pay” in order to “win”, even if the prize is nothing.

Don’t even come at me with the “that leaderboard doesn’t matter” angle. I challenge you to explain to me why any accomplishment in GoW matters, in that case. If you are invested enough to even bother posting on the forums, you’re already treating a video game like it matters more than it does. We’re all sick.

I don’t feel like the devs see the game the same way we do. That means the things they think are “fun” can often end up “insulting” or “confusing” on our end (example: “We thought it’d be fun if you could ascend/disenchant treasure troops.”) I wish our devs were players, too.

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There are a lot of pets in game, and we cycle through them as often as we are able. We purposefully ensured that any pets with limited availability were cosmetic only in nature, so players did not need to invest in them to gain further bonuses, etc.

A point raised above is that completionists may want to mythic these pets on top of collecting them, which is true. Another thing mentioned by @Slypenslyde is a perceived leaderboard found on these forums. I’d like to point out that we haven’t made an in-game leaderboard, and there is no further benefit from mythicing these cosmetic pets outside of the value perceived and created by other end-gamers. However, it was important to us that these limited pets remain cosmetic, so that players did not feel that they needed to mythic them in order to obtain further bonuses, or be competitive in-game. That being said, we are stoked if you want to mythic your favourite pets! Have fun! Live your best life! The point of games is to have fun, and our players do that in a variety of different ways. Some like to play casually and match gems, some like to achieve in highly competitive guilds, some like to beat their personal bests on treasure hunt, some like to read the lore and explore Krystara, and others like the collection aspect offered by Gems of War.

I believe it is also worth noting that these forums can sometimes be echo chamber of the opinions held by end gamers, and show a different side of the community than any other social platform. What is important here isn’t necessarily as important to other sections of the playerbase.

On a final note, a few forumers mentioned a lack of clear communication and a change in policy earlier in the thread. Unfortunately, we cannot answer every question, as we are busy making the game and operating as a business. We endeavour to do so, and I pop up whenever possible to answer the bigger questions. Sometimes these answers aren’t what people want to hear, which can lead to people not believing what information I am passing along, or dismissing it completely. This means that I need to pick, choose and constantly triage what I am answering, how, and where, especially as things can change in the development pipeline, or due to a change in policy, stance or design decision. I am looking into the way we offer these limited cosmetic pets, so please sit tight as I investigate how we plan to move forward.

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Cosmetic pets won’t ever be required to raise the Star level for kingdoms then? (I think that’s what most players are worried about when it comes to cosmetic pets)

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Leveling them also provides orbs and gems for pet mastery, so these pets aren’t entirely cosmetic.

Looking here, leveling a single pet matters to power level 11 (need kingdom pet level 10) and power level 13 (need kingdom pet level 20).

Additionally, power level 15 requires you to have 2 kingdom pets and power level 17 requires those two pets to be level 20.

Finally, power level 19 just requires having 3 pets.

The question I have is if Faction pets count for both the Faction and the Kingdom? Because if that is the case, then just obtaining the cosmetics would matter (if there will be no more than 3 pets per kingdom). You wouldn’t need to level them (however, as someone who just collects them from the rewards tab, I sincerely hope they will repeat them or find an alternate.)

And, of course, they may further expand kingdom power levels in the future…

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These are Blackhawk’s pets currently. (2 cosmetic)


I know it will a while before there’s enough troops to get it to level 19. But imagine having all the troops necessary. But unable to level it up because you chose not to use gems… Or haven’t been playing long enough to be around for when these pets were made available.
I sincerely hope that each kingdom gets 3 normal pets.
Faction pets shouldn’t matter since Factions can’t be leveled up.

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This is a fair point and really hard to measure. I wish players of all walks would join the dang forums so we can get some more perspectives. It feels like it’s mostly endgamers and anyone else shows up to file a single bug report then never come back.

I most strongly disagree on the “just cosmetic” aspect. I’m only holding back because I reckon:

  • I don’t have a way to quantify how many angry diamonds there are.
  • I prefer to believe in publisher pressure conspiracy theories.

The things that irk me the most in this game are the things that are nearly impossible to obtain or maximize unless you are spending money. Right now that is:

  • Cosmetic pets
  • Basically every event weapon
  • Zuul’goth

I have to put the concept of “owning a mythic Hoglet” in a bucket that’s even rarer than “obtaining the game’s most expensive troop”. That’s very frustrating to me.

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For the once in the entire life of the game Pets. Like this specific pet now, why not put an option in the Forge: if you own one single copy you can spend diamonds plus other stuff (souls or pet food or whatever) to create more copies.

That way players can make it Mythic for a cost.

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It’ll be Mythic tomorrow. :wink:


But yeah I have gems to waste. Leaderboards don’t attract me because they require too much time and there’s no guarantee I’ll get a power orb for my investment.
I thought I’d spend a lot on Tower of Doom, but that tier shop is a joke. 500 gems for 1 scroll and 1 doom. :person_facepalming:
It’s the first cosmetic pet I bought to Mythic. Because I suspect it will be needed to get my kingdoms to Max level. I sincerely hope I’m wrong though.

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Nice name lol

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What happen with this thread?

Fixed it!!!

Perhaps, but you’re totally in here to show off you’ll have the mythic pet. And you totally made a thread about when you had/were close to getting all the mythic pets. And you were really vocal about when you felt like the pet distribution was making it hard for you to do that.

That’s being a diamond. You don’t need a power orb to care about completion. Diamonds do it even when there’s no reward. I’m not saying you were wrong to do all of those things. But you’re precisely the kind of player who has to max this “cosmetic only” thing.

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At least in order to mythic it you didn’t have to open your piggy bank.

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