How to Get A Pet in Core Keeper (2024)

The Claws and Paws update of Core Keeper came out recently, and there’s loads of new content on offer! This most recent addition to the survival game comes with some furry friends, ranging from kitties to oozes and everything in-between. Getting yourself some pets in Core Keeper is now a crucial part of late-game survival, since these companions come with massive stat increases and can help you fight off hordes.

So, how does this new mechanic work, and how can you use it for your own advantage? Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about how to get and raise a pet in Core Keeper.

How Do Pets Work in Core Keeper?

Pets are a type of equipment introduced in the Paws and Claws update of Core Keeper. To hatch one, you must first find their egg out in the wild. Then, you must bring it to an incubation chamber and wait a short while – 30 minutes, usually – as it hatches. Then, you can equip them and level it up through fighting and food to give it new talents.

As of the release patch, there are eight different critters that you can enlist to follow you around and battle enemies in Core Keeper. These are the Subterrier, Embertail, Owlux, Fanhare, and the Jr. Slimes – Orange, Blue, Purple, and Lava. They generally do the same thing: Passively fight enemies you encounter or, in rare cases, improve your own stats. Pets have a leveling system as well, gaining different perks that you can select as you delve deeper into the dungeon.

If you want to survive endgame encounters, having your companion slot full and upgraded as much as possible is going to be crucial. So, here’s how to collect them!

Where to Find Pet Eggs

Each of the eight different pets hatch from eggs that you can find in the wild of Core Keeper. They each have a different location that they can appear in, and will require very slightly different methods of unlocking. All of these pets – besides the Embertail – have a quite low chance of occurring, so you may need to do it multiple times.

• Subterrier (Loyal Egg): Has a rare chance to appear when digging in any dig spot that is not from Laval Rock terrain. Digging spots are the “X” shapes that appear when you uncover terrain and can be looted with a shovel.
• Embertail (Curious Egg): Can be purchased from the Bearded Merchant for 375 Ancient Coins. You’ll have to farm some chests or sell some items for this one!
• Owlux (Lively Egg): Obtained from crates in the Forgotten Ruins or the Dirt Biome, with a higher likelihood of appearing in the Dirt Biome.
• Fanhare (Nimble Egg): Found hidden within the Flowers of Azeos’ Wilderness. Give them a whack with your weapon to loot! Shovels will pick up the flower itself, which won’t give you the chance at the egg.

Each of the Slimes are special, in that their eggs drop from bosses. Eggs are part of two separate loot pools, meaning you have a decent chance for them to drop at least once.

• Jr. Orange Slime (Oozy Egg): Has a decent chance to drop when slaying Glurch the Abominous Mass.
• Jr. Blue Slime (Oozy Slippery Egg): Is a relatively normal drop from Morpha the Aquatic Mass.
• Jr. Purple Slime (Oozy Poison Egg): Can be found when defeating Ivy the Poisonous Mass, in the small pile of loot.
• Jr. Lava Slime (Oozy Lava Egg): Igneous the Molten Mass can drop its spawn, with relatively good rates.

How to Hatch Pet Eggs Using The Egg Incubator

Finding a pet egg is just the start. In order to equip and start using your pet, you need an Egg Incubator. This recipe requires 8 Copper Ingots and 8 Glass Pieces, spent at a Copper Workbench, in order to craft. You can interact with the Incubator to place your given egg inside of it. Then, after 30 minutes pass, you can interact with it again to take your egg out.

You will need a Glass Smelter to get glass pieces, which will require 5 Copper Bars. Thankfully, you can smelt any sand terrain to get the pieces you need.

The Egg Incubator also requires electricity to function. That means youu’ll need a generator and some wires to get it running. If you haven’t already, work to make an Electronics Table with 8 Wood and 8 Copper Bars. Then, you can power things like your Incubator and many, many other electrical systems. You can also ensure that your Generator only powers specific things, if you’re into the logical side of Core Keeper!

You can tell that the egg is ready to be removed from the incubator if it shows as heavily cracked. After that, you need to remove the egg, equip it, and then use it like you would any consumable item. Doing so will hatch the egg, and allow you to finally equip your new companion in your pet equipment slot.

All Pets and Egg Types in Core Keeper

As of the Paws and Claws update, there are eight separate pets in Core Keeper. They each have their own unique ways of interacting in combat. While they all serve you well, some might fit your play style better than others.

Here’s the full list of pets and a quick description of their different abilities:

• Subterrier (Loyal Egg): A melee attacker that has a good chance to stun your enemies. Talents improve its critical hit damage and improve its stun – either with duration, chance, or bonus damage.
• Embertail (Curious Egg): A ranged attacker that applies burn to its foes. Talents improve its burn damage, attack speed, and glow.
• Owlux (Lively Egg): A buffer, improving its owner’s movement speed and damage. Talents grant a various array of buffs, from additional movement speed to critical hit damage, to even a triple damage chance!
• Fanhare (Nimble Egg): A ranged attacker with a chance to poison and pierce enemies. Its poison reduces enemy healing by a significant amount. Talents improve its poison chance and give it more Area of Effect opportunity.
• Jr. Orange Slime (Oozy Egg): A melee attacker that slows down foes it attacks, and deals extra damage to bosses. Talents improve stats and ups the slow effect.
• Jr. Blue Slime (Oozy Slippery Egg): A melee attacker that can cause opponents to slip, and deals extra damage to bosses. Talents improve stats and increases the chance for slippery movement.
• Jr. Purple Slime (Oozy Poison Egg): A melee attacker that can cause opponents to heal for much less, and deals extra damage to bosses. Talents up stats and the chance to poison enemies.
• Jr. Lava Slime (Oozy Lava Egg): A melee attacker that glows, and deals extra damage to bosses. Talents up stats and apply a +40 Burn damage.

The list includes the creature’s base abilities as well as some examples of talents you may get. Because the talent tree is currently completely random, some of them might get a better spread of talents than others. However, most of the time, they will follow a standard trend among their species.

In general, we’ve found the most success with the Slimes, at least excluding Lava Slime. While having an automated familiar that handles the light for you can be helpful, we’d prefer to control where our light goes. All of these little rascals serve their role in making combat easier to handle, though. Try each of them to see which one you prefer!

How to Level Up Pets in Core Keeper

Pets level up through battle and food. Battle is the most common source of experience, and your companion will often level up through hard fights and encounters. However, feeding your friend gives you quite a lot of experience as well! Pet Pellets are extremely common and provide a very small increase to your little buddy’s EXP. Rare Candy and Beast Boosters provide much larger boons to your companion, though the latter food is only found from bosses.

When your pet levels up, it will gain a boost in stats. Every even-numbered level, it will gain a Talent Point, which can be placed into talents. Talents are randomized, but come from a list of known abilities that each species has. You may need to hatch a few of a type of critter to get the talents that you’re looking for!

If you don’t like the talents that you gave to your friend, you can reset all talent points for 200 Ancient Coins. This is a rather lofty price, and it doesn’t increase over time. You might as well wait to gain a few points before flipping that switch!

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