How would you revisit critters?

[Loremorn]

What ideas do you have to make critters more fun — maybe even a bit useful ?

To start: I think critters should have a small QoL feature like a feeding bowl. Something you craft, fill with “pet food,” and the critter automatically eats from it so you don’t have to keep feeding them manually all the time. Nothing game-breaking, just something cute and convenient, like making “dog food” using regular ingredients.

What other improvements or fun mechanics would you add to critters?

 

Edited November 30, 2025 by Loremorn

[Edible Coal]

treating your pet well should give you some sanity bonus as a small reward, cos petting a animal must feel nice right?

[Ohan]

Id like a way to park a critter at base like the kitcoons. So i can fight bosses or decorate without the critter getting in my way or just get a break from it following me all the time. 

[Auth]

You should be able to put hats on them

[mima_]

pet have special name to them like crafty and other things if im not wrong.. maybe they just make it like a little buff based on the traits of pets. crappy pet will give u crappy debuff too  

[Radicaljoe]

3 hours ago, Loremorn said:

What other improvements or fun mechanics would you add to critters

I've said before, that every pet should have a small but slightly useful ability just like the moon moth. 

Varglet should have 1 slot of inventory.

Kitcoon should spit out one of the cartoon table items every 2 days.

Ewelet should act as a lightning rod +drop a mucus every 10 days.

Giblet should drop random feathers every day. (Probability would probably be black>red>winter>yellow.)

Eyeball should increase the map reveal radius by 15%

Dragonflylet should allow you to cook food on it like the lavae. 

Eyeball and dragonflylet get marginally better effects because they require boss drops.

[Evelo]

I think 100% critters should NOT have gameplay benefits. Merely cutesy little companions. 

1) Remove their hunger and therefore their need to beg for food. If you want to change the traits, "Scrappy, Crafty, Peppy, Plump" have it depend on an item they are given. This can change at any time if you just give them a different item. The item given to the critter is consumed and non-refundable.
Scrappy - Give the critter raw meat
Crafty - Give the critter a crafted item (plank, cut stone, rope, etc)
Peppy - Give the critter a living creature (Butterfly, Moleworm, Bee, etc)
Plump - Give the critter a crockpot dish

2) Improve the critter AI, so if the player or nearby players are constructing something, they run far away as to not get in the way. Given they won't be begging for food this might not be an issue at all.

3) More critters! Moleworm, Bee, Shadow Goop, Birchnutter, etc. There are so many possibilities.

4) Critters have an inventory slot for a Collar. A little item that has various colors and is visible on the critter occasionally that allows you to name your critter much like a Beefalo Bell. Can be unequipped to remove the name. Named critters still benefit from their little trait titles. So if I name a Kittykit, "Kit-Kit" and it is Crafty, it would be called "Crafty Kit-Kit".

5) Thats it. Maybe have some toys that can be placed around for critters to interact with but that's not integral to the enjoyment of critters for me.

Edited November 30, 2025 by Evelo
Typo in Birchnutter that flagged it. Oops!

[Mike23Ua]

Give them all unique benefits, getting a pet is NOT an easy task, some of the ingredients are hard to get or even require fighting a difficult boss to obtain.

If the players can became crazy super powered gods by the player literally just standing around AFK to unlock skill points.

Pets Need a Change.

[Jakepeng99]

Make them poop.

 

the butterfly doesnt poop for balancing reasons.

[Nikki Darks]

I think that critters themselves are fine, however... They need to be A LOT cheaper.

[reddocc]

give them a tiny ability that doesn't interfere too much with regular gameplay, based on the tendency of the critter. 

This should activate once a day

 -scrappy a buff that gives you 3 hits of double dmg.

-Crafty. A buff that lets you craft items at twice the speed for 30 seconds.

-Playful. A buff of 20% movement speed for 1 minute.

-Well-fed. A buff that increases 30% of hunger of the next thing you eat.

These buffs could only be given to the owner of the critter and they replenish every game save, also they should only activate when you do the action required for the buff, fighting, crafting, eating, the speed could be activated after petting the criter or just automatically at the start of a new day

[RubLog6]

I just don't want to have to use the mute critters mod to make having them bearable. They're cute and I love the skins.

[Ridley]

I need to be able to mute them and make them disappear/reappear on a whim.

[Cruvimaster]

My beefalo and Chester are enough for me. The others are very annoying, screaming to be fed. I'd like a way to make Extra-Adorable Lavae useful.

[Cheggf]

On 11/30/2025 at 12:58 PM, Evelo said:

I think 100% critters should NOT have gameplay benefits. Merely cutesy little companions. 

1) Remove their hunger and therefore their need to beg for food. If you want to change the traits, "Scrappy, Crafty, Peppy, Plump" have it depend on an item they are given. This can change at any time if you just give them a different item. The item given to the critter is consumed and non-refundable.
Scrappy - Give the critter raw meat
Crafty - Give the critter a crafted item (plank, cut stone, rope, etc)
Peppy - Give the critter a living creature (Butterfly, Moleworm, Bee, etc)
Plump - Give the critter a crockpot dish

2) Improve the critter AI, so if the player or nearby players are constructing something, they run far away as to not get in the way. Given they won't be begging for food this might not be an issue at all.

3) More critters! Moleworm, Bee, Shadow Goop, Birchnutter, etc. There are so many possibilities.

4) Critters have an inventory slot for a Collar. A little item that has various colors and is visible on the critter occasionally that allows you to name your critter much like a Beefalo Bell. Can be unequipped to remove the name. Named critters still benefit from their little trait titles. So if I name a Kittykit, "Kit-Kit" and it is Crafty, it would be called "Crafty Kit-Kit".

5) Thats it. Maybe have some toys that can be placed around for critters to interact with but that's not integral to the enjoyment of critters for me.

I was gonna say they shouldn't receive any changes at all but this comment pointed out some good ideas.

Critters should stay useless. I dislike critters and do not want them to follow me. I should not be missing out just because I dislike this cosmetic thing, it should stay a cosmetic thing so people who like it use it and people who don't like it don't use it.

[twitchgabo]

Just give them some item slots. 1-3 slots would be fine. We have so many things to carry in the game that even shadow chester is not enough lol

[ARYEL984]

It would be lovely if they could use emotes just like the survivors.

Example: happy, dancing, yawning, or crying