Best pets for Sal?

[AuntHerbert]

So, Sal can meet Phroluk 'of the Beasts' at the night market and buy, heal and upgrade pets from him. In my experience, it is totally worth it, and I stacked Sal to be able to run 2 pets, and have them trained right from the start.

My absolute favorite so far is the Vrock, for his sheer capacity to tank damage. It gives itself Evasion for the first three turns, so it just negates the first incoming hit and Sal usually doesn't have to spend cards to defend it to keep it from getting hurt or even worse, dying. Phroluk sells it regularly for 240 sparks, which is quite a steep price at day 1, but given the damage it will tank for Sal over a game, that, and later on the coins to have it upgraded, are well spent.

When I take the perk to have two pets (really useful for Sal) my second choice is the Yote, It's a bit cheaper, 200 sparks, and its main perk is Formation, giving itself and all allies a decent defense buff if it didn't take damage the turn before. It needs a bit more care and defensive cards played on him, to make sure Formation triggers, or bosses and monsters don't one-shot it before Sal has the coins to armour it up, but once it gets going it turns the whole party into an armoured column.

I have seen Phroluk offer other pets, too, that blueish lizard with something something Lumin in the name, and a youngling of the bog monster, but so far I only bought the lizard-thing once, and it died right in its first battle, without me even figuring out what its all about.

Great things about pets for Sal, yeah, they cost some coinage, but they just increase her survivability without needing special grafts, or a tailored card strategy to support them. Off course, that money could be potentially saved by just hoping Sal will pick up a pet from a random encounter, but on the other hand, if she already has her pets, she will just have different useful encounters. I am considering, whether the perk for training them is really worth it, as all it does in the current version of the game is to give them 10(?) extra health in battle and keeps them from deteriorating as arguments after the first turn.I remember earlier versions, where untrained pets were rather a slight annoying disadvantage in negotiation, and am a bit sad Klei changed that, as it was actually funny, and made the training more valuable.

I am at the moment quite fixated on raising through the prestige ranks, and changing a reliable tactic, that does not depend on luck is a bit hard for me, but I AM still curious what the lizard or the bog monster actually DO in battle. Also, if Phroluk sells even different beasts, that I havent spotted yet. I am for example not 100% sure, whether there is an actual CRAyote on offer sometimes, or if that is just the yote.

So, this is my question for the experienced grifters: how do other pets compare in combat, do they need a special strategy to support them properly, and which one is in your opinion the best and most useful one?  

 

 

[Rook the Bogger]

Combat Drone is my favourite pet.

[Maniafig]

The only pets I consider worth the money spent at Phroluk's store are Vrocs and Shroogs, with Fleads as a distant third. I'm not impressed by Erchins, Yotes or those Hesh pets.

What I like about Vrocs and Shroogs is that they require minimal babysitting compared to other pets. Vrocs have their Evasion which lets them potentially absorb huge attacks for free, and generally you want to be finishing battles before their evasion specialty runs out. Their upgraded ability to give extra energy to Sal is also just about the most useful pet ability in the game. 

Shroogs can sustain themselves with their self-healing bite attack and have no morale, so you never need to worry about them fleeing. Shroogs are also ridiculously cheap to buy and upgrade in Brawl mode. They also accumulate in power by themselves if kept unharmed, though the ramping's pretty slow.

Fleads start with innate armor every round and can generate the most amount of Block of all pets when upgraded, but I still find them harder to keep from fleeing/dying than Vrocs and Shroogs. 

I don't think pets need that much support to work. Mostly you just want to pick cards that APPLY rather than GAIN block, pick perks like innate training or the two pets perk and purchase the +25 HP Mettle upgrade if you're playing with Mettle. The Red Bandana is pretty great too, since it's just a plain damage upgrade and also works with other allies, which you should commonly have in campaign mode.

There's also the Spark Baron Autodogs sold at the Rise Camp. They don't have passive armor generation or negotiation support, but their howls are a useful debuff and they're good right out of the gate, with no need for training or upgrading. The scrapped Autodog is also really good value for its money as Rook when you have the +25 HP mettle, it can sponge a ridiculous amount of damage for a very low purchase price. Both Autodogs also have no morale, which is again quite useful.

[RageLeague]

I like the automech. High damage, decent health, and a good negotiation buff.

[AuntHerbert]

1 hour ago, Rook the Bogger said:

Combat Drone is my favourite pet.

Combat Drone is cool, but it's an item, not a pet, and the only way to get one that does not self destroy after one use, is AFAIK as Rook to do the industrial espionage mission for Kalandra on day 3(?) and steal the Learning Drone out of the scientists chest. You also want to keep on best of terms with Kalandra, so you can summon 2 Combat Drones at the start of every battle via her boon. BUT, that's totally not what this thread is about. Actual Pets that Rook can consistently buy are afaik only autodogs and cobbledogs, or a Flead that spawns from an egg. I don't recall where I picked up that Flead egg, but I think it was an encounter on the final day fighting through the swamp, and by that time Rook already was stacked out with Robo-Allies and that Flead was rather unimpressive in comparison. But this thread is mainly about Sal's pets.

13 minutes ago, Maniafig said:

The only pets I consider worth the money spent at Phroluk's store are Vrocs and Shroogs, with Fleads as a distant third. I'm not impressed by Erchins, Yotes or those Hesh pets.

What I like about Vrocs and Shroogs is that they require minimal babysitting compared to other pets. Vrocs have their Evasion which lets them potentially absorb huge attacks for free, and generally you want to be finishing battles before their evasion specialty runs out. Their upgraded ability to give extra energy to Sal is also just about the most useful pet ability in the game. 

Shroogs can sustain themselves with their self-healing bite attack and have no morale, so you never need to worry about them fleeing. Shroogs are also ridiculously cheap to buy and upgrade in Brawl mode. They also accumulate in power by themselves if kept unharmed, though the ramping's pretty slow.

Fleads start with innate armor every round and can generate the most amount of Block of all pets when upgraded, but I still find them harder to keep from fleeing/dying than Vrocs and Shroogs. 

I don't think pets need that much support to work. Mostly you just want to pick cards that APPLY rather than GAIN block, pick perks like innate training or the two pets perk and purchase the +25 HP Mettle upgrade if you're playing with Mettle. The Red Bandana is pretty great too, since it's just a plain damage upgrade and also works with other allies, which you should commonly have in campaign mode.

There's also the Spark Baron Autodogs sold at the Rise Camp. They don't have passive armor generation or negotiation support, but their howls are a useful debuff and they're good right out of the gate, with no need for training or upgrading. The scrapped Autodog is also really good value for its money as Rook when you have the +25 HP mettle, it can sponge a ridiculous amount of damage for a very low purchase price. Both Autodogs also have no morale, which is again quite useful.

Thanks, that includes a lot of the answers I was looking for. Btw, I was oogling the item cards in the compendium and saw that Sic' em card, that allows to order your pet to take a second action. Do you, or anyone else, know by chance who I have to kill, betray or seduce to get that card? Because that sounds like a fun item to play around with....

4 minutes ago, RageLeague said:

I like the automech. High damage, decent health, and a good negotiation buff.

automech, automech,.... not robodog, definitely not cobbledog,... I think I have seen that option,.... bought from the Sparks Baron factional vendor as Rook? Am I right? I don't remember to ever having tried one.

Also, what do you mean with good negation buff? I thought all the pet arguments just did a few points of damage to random arguments until they die, after the first round when wild, and when they lose their few points of resolve when trained. I must admit, I failed to check their actual stats as arguments after a while, as I just assumed they are all the same.

[RageLeague]

The automech you can get by getting an event with a damaged automech, or by "appropriating company assets" during the day 3 rook night quest against the boggers.

The automech counts as a spark baron when determining negotiation support, so you get a double duty argument that allows you to play the first card you play each turn twice for the first two turns.

[Rook the Bogger]

Fun fact: as Rook, there is event when you can find alone Automech who speaks with (my guess) hexademical. He has 4 options "Prevoius" "Next" "Select" and to leave him alone. He says different things when you change between his dialouge with "Prevoius" and "Next" He has for options that can be chosen with "Select": to be scrapped for items, to explode, to atack, and to follow you. Choosing the last option gives the automech for free as a companion but he comes with very low health, so you have to go to sleep to fully heal him.

[AuntHerbert]

I remember that quest... but I think I triggered him to send a signal to call his owner instead. And I don't remember what the interaction options with the owner were.... or was that the scrapped for items option?

[minespatch]

I stick with Lumincyte but the Fleads are pretty cool once you get them armor.

[AuntHerbert]

Just now, minespatch said:

I stick with Lumincyte but the Fleads are pretty cool once you get them armor.

What are the perks of a Lumicyte as pet? I bought one once, but at the evening of Sal's second night. The poor beast was immediately slaughtered by the assasins first attack, which taught me to value the Vrock so highly. I was also quite tired and don't remember much from reading its description.

[RageLeague]

The Lumicyte just has a lot of burst damage from the kindling buff, and that's about it.

[Rook the Bogger]

Quote

I remember that quest... but I think I triggered him to send a signal to call his owner instead. And I don't remember what the interaction options with the owner were.... or was that the scrapped for items option?

Yeah, thats what happens when you choose to scrap him.