Pet Training and Care Made Easy

I’m sure someone in the past has posted something to this effect in regards to training, but my search didn’t end up well. It may be a grind at times, but the end result is worth it. Here’s some of the basics:

How to get a pet:

To receive a pet you must have either the folllowing items: Pan Flute, Drake Egg. A Pan Flute is required for a horse pet, and a Draggon Egg is required for a Dragon Pet. Those items randomly drop through a variety of different enemies. After you receive one of those items you should be given a quest automatically. Follow the quest or go in your map at town(Roland), and look for Teleporter Eteal, go to him, teleport to Dratan, and then go to Archaelogist Jajan. Jajan will turn your item into a pet after speaking, and they will show in your inventory.

Pets must be raised and trained to lvl 31 to be mountable.

How to keep your pets stats up:

Mine Energy to replenish sympathy of pet (This decreases when pet is unsummoned; show it some love!)
Mine Stone to replenish hunger of pet (Slow decrease but monitor if large level difference; great post from udluv2 here: http://lastchaos.aeriagames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20759)
Mine Herbs to replenish vital points (health; decreases by ONE pt every hit; multiple enemies can make this go fast, be careful)

How to train a pet:

One point of contention is whether pet xp is based on combat time, or a set number of hits vs. an opponent. AS PER TEAM AERIA DEVELOPERS AS OF 14JUL2007, "..Pets earn experience over time… so prolong those combats. Team Aeria…." Maintain a steady fight against a creature, and watch your pet xp gain.
It is not creature level based, other than you will rarely ever, if ever period, gain off of blue critters for pet xp. Greens or above, and keep the fight rolling along as long as possible.

You can use a low lvl weapon if you prefer, but going at it bare handed is the best. Try to keep from killing the creature if possible. The object here is to TEACH THE PET ABOUT FIGHTING AND SURVIVING, in concept that is.

This will work easiest with a Healer, but any class with heal pots will do just as well. Bring plenty. Knights work well due to defenses. Bring a friend, guild member, or just party up with a healer if someone you know has time to kill.

1. Find a mob (creature) type that is preferably green to you, although white will suffice as long as their attack does not take too much damage from you. Blue creatures will give pet no xp gain. With defenses (pet and personal), I looked for a critter that took 10-15% or less with a normal strike on me. At level 10-15, I LOVED the sasquatch. Do what you can to max your defenses.

2. Position yourself in such a way to stay between the mob and your pet, who should be out by now. Attack with the LOW level weap or bare hands repetitively, and your pet will gain an exp point approximately every four seconds.

3. If your pet gets hit, dont freak out. It only loses one point at a time. Reposition yourself and start again. Make sure you have some Herbs on you to heal your pet if necessary. You can give them to him/her as you are fighting without interrupting the action.

4. If you can take the hits, try to get TWO of the critters to attack you at the same time. This is where it gets tricky, but the payoff is nice. Positioning is critical to keep the creatures off your pet. Eventually, you will wear down MOST critters to the point of low health. You then just switch to the second critter and attack it while the first one is regenerating. You can make your attack/training sessions last a long time this way with few critters. When the second gets low, go back to the first. You may kill one, but then just drag the other over to where another is and start the one-two again.

It can be tricky keeping your pets out of harms way, but after a while you get the hang of it. Try to stay away from creatures that AGGRO too easily. You dont want to draw a crowd you can’t handle. If it gets to hairy for your pet, PUT IT AWAY and fight another day. I don’t like unsealing a slain pet. Its a personal thing with me. If you have to, just go to the animal trainer and pay for the "unsealing."

Up to character level 10 I used Jaguars, after that till 15 I used Sasquatch. I am pausing at that level to work up my pet more, and keep the Sasquatchs green to me. As a healer, I can’t hurt them significantly, so I only need ONE instead of two.

You can work a pet up very efficiently this way. I am averaging 15 points a minute (900 an hour!) of pet experience a minute in this fashion, and can keep my pet on level with me or higher instead of leaving it behind.

I’m sure there are many critters out there to chose from, but focus on those that can’t lay waste to you. You may have to look about a bit for those that are level appropriate for your character. This gives the new player a chance to work their pet up with them, instead of having a "pet trainer" character. I hate bot characters.

Besides being level appropriate, some critters will aggro your pet faster than others. For example, horn beasts love pets, drakes do not even though they are close to same level of difficulty. You can snare a whole group of drakes and they will center on you.

You can of course just keep fighting and let it level on its own. Just takes a very long time if not a dedicated practice.

If your pet dies:

It will be sealed and unavailable for use for a time. You can go to the animal trainer to get it unsealed for a price. The higher the pet level, the higher you will pay.

I could repost about caring for your pet, but just check out the great General Pet Care post by KetskiKev at: http://lastchaos.aeriagames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?highlight=sympathy&t=1270

Digitalk for MEGA pet care Wiki entry here
http://wiki.aeriagames.com/lastchaos/index.php/Pet/RaisePet

Check out and more Props to:
udluv2 for hunger post and input–KetskiKev for great pet care post– Viperpray for nice guide to all basics. Karma for U!

Thanks to TEAM AERIA for responding to the question of how pets gain XP.

If you have particular questions, drop me a PM.

Hope this helps someone out!
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Credits go to BigEvil70 for putting this guide together!