Lost Ark guide: How to get your first free pet

Pets are more than just cute companions that follow you around in Lost Ark. They can provide players with a range of boons that empower you, and services that make your life a lot easier. You may expect to pay for such a wonderful companion. However, for heroes venturing into Lost Ark for the first time, you can unlock a pet for free.

The major benefit of running around Arkesia with a pet is that it will pick up your loot for you. And every single pet in the game can do this, whether it was paid for or earned. This may not sound like much now. But when you kill a boss and tons of loot drops, or when you’re rapidly farming monsters, it does save you a lot of time and hassle. It’s just a convenience that’s incredibly nice to have.

How to get a free pet in Lost Ark

Getting your first pet is easy. And it can be done early on in the game in the town of Prideholme. Once you complete the mission “Demons in Prideholme” (it’s the one with fire and demons running rampant in the town), you wake up in the Prideholme Inn. There is an orange button to accept a guide quest in the lower middle of your screen.

Accepting this gives you a purple quest and send you off to speak to Blueberry. She’s on the southwest side of the square outside the inn. You’ll need to go through a few easy quest steps, which also teaches you a little bit about the benefits of pets.

Then, you’ll be sent to talk to Working Achatemeow, the Pet Management NPC located in the center of the square – right in front of the lion statue. Achatemeow runs you through what pets do. Then, it will gift you a free White Bunny pet. And that’s how you get your first free pet in Lost Ark. The Bunny is unlocked for your account. So, all your characters can use it.

If you’re reading this guide at launch, you can earn a couple of free pets by watching streamers on Twitch. You can watch Crown Channel at 8 PM ET every evening from February 8 to 11 to unlock a free Saphia Pet Chest. You need to watch a total of four hours to unlock the pet. Additionally, you can watch streamers as part of the Legends of Lost Ark event to earn the Helgaia Pet Chest, as well as some other rewards.

Paying for pets

Players who purchased one of the Lost Ark Founder’s Packs receive a pet as part of the bundle. Along with this, they also gain a Crystalline Aura for 30 days. This Aura has numerous benefits, including some excellent pet perks. If you didn’t purchase a Founder’s Packs, you can purchase a 30-day Aura from the store for 420 Crystals or $9.99 USD.

Pets can be purchased from the store for Crystals or Royal Crystals. But there is really no need to purchase a pet unless you particularly love its look. You will receive plenty of free pets in Lost Ark from events, quests, and Twitch drops.

Pet Effects and Functions

All pets come with two Pet Effects. According to the tooltip, they are only active when you have a Crystalline Aura. But currently, they are being applied to your character even without the Aura. Pet Effects are buffs to your character’s stats that you receive whenever you have that pet out. There is always one offensive and one defensive buff. When you get a pet, its Effects are generated randomly. You can reroll the Effects on your pet. However, it is going to cost you Crystals. While these are a free type of in-game currency, they shouldn’t be spent lightly. And you will be able to acquire other pets. So, save the rerolling for later if necessary.

When you have a Crystalline Aura active, you also get access to Pet Functions. Pet Functions do not empower your character in any way. However, they do make your life a lot more convenient. The Pet Functions include a pet inventory, as well as remote access to your storage, mail, the market, repairs, gems, and refaceting.

This pet increases Max HP and Crit.

If you’d like some more help with Lost Ark, you can check out our beginner’s guide, as well as a guide to choosing a class based on your playstyle.