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Animal companions have the ability to "evolve" as they gain levels. This evolution modifies some of the pet's statistics, namely, their maximum health and their damage. Most players prefer a "fully-evolved" pet, i.e. either a "hearty" or "dire" animal, in order to receive the largest health or damage bonus.

Death-leveling at the Menagerie[]

The easiest and quickest way to obtain a fully evolved level 20 pet is through death leveling at the Zaishen Menagerie Grounds. The method described below can accomplish this in 15–20 minutes and will result in a hearty pet, which will unlock all evolutions at the Menagerie.

The quickest method requires two mesmer heroes and a necromancer hero. The following builds should be used:

Your build[]

NecromancerRangerNecromancer / Ranger Attribute Rank
Blood is Power

Blood is Power

Charm Animal

Charm Animal

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Necromancer primary Ranger primary
Skillsdisk
The Skills Template for this build is:
OAJAE3ZzAAAAAAAAAA
Skillsdisk
The Skills Template for this build is:
OgQQE3ZzAAAAAAAAAA

Your primary profession doesn't matter, as long as you have both ranger and necromancer. If you don't have a suitable character that of either profession that knows Blood is Power, you can replace it with other sacrifice skills.

Equipment:

  • 5 superior runes to bring your health down to 105.
  • Optional: The -50 HP Grim Cesta to bring your health down to 55. Not absolutely necessary, but it makes the process quicker.
  • Any vampiric one-handed weapon (sword, axe, spear).
  • Optional: Any +Health weapon to help keep you alive after you've accrued some death penalty.

Mesmer heroes[]

Both mesmer heroes use the same build.

MesmerRitualistMesmer / Ritualist Attribute Rank
Fast Casting 12 + 1 + 3
Restoration Magic 12
Flesh of My Flesh

Flesh of My Flesh

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Skillsdisk
The Skills Template for this build is:
OQhjAwCTILXMAAAAAAAAAAAA

Equipment does really matter ! : use but Radiant insignia, Runes of Attunement, and weapon whose halves casting time of Restoration magic spells (chance : 20%) on a restoration Scepter and focus (40% chance to cast spells twice faster give a better ratio of resurrect/min).

Necromancer hero[]

NecromancerMonkNecromancer / Monk Attribute Rank
Blood Magic 12 + 1 + 3
Soul Reaping 8 + 3
Healing Prayers 10
Blood is Power

Blood is Power

Succor

Succor

Mending

Mending

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Skillsdisk
The Skills Template for this build is:
OANDQshtG3BAAAAAAA0UkA

Disable Succor and Mending so that he will maintain them. Have him cast Succor on the mesmer heroes and Mending on himself ant the mesmer heroes too.

Again, equipment does really matter, try to have the lesser life you can, to regenerate it fast when you sacrifice it with Blood is Power, and use a weapon of Enchanting.

Monk hero[]

MonkRangerMonk / Ranger Attribute Rank
Healing Prayers 12 + 1 + 3
Divine Favor 3 + 3
Wilderness Survival 12
Unyielding Aura

Unyielding Aura

Vigorous Spirit

Vigorous Spirit

Healing Breeze

Healing Breeze

Patient Spirit

Patient Spirit

Serpent's Quickness

Serpent's Quickness

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Skillsdisk
The Skills Template for this build is:
OwIT0Y4gZihwfAkoBE5AAAAAAAA

Disable all healing skill at the begining to die 2 or 3 time and got 1 hp and able them after. NB : Sepent's Quickness have to be actevated by a human on this build.

this time again, equipment does really matter : use a weapon weapon whose halves skill recharge of Divine favor spells (chance : 20%) on a divine favor Scepter and focus (40% chance to reload spells twice faster give a better ratio of resurrect/min).


Walkthrough[]

Make sure all heroes are set to "Avoid Combat" to prevent them from killing the animal you are trying to death-level.

Travel to the Zaishen Menagerie Grounds and find the animal you want to death level. Aggro the animal by attacking it — this will move the animal's damage dealt/received ratio away from zero and toward the hearty side so that you can get a fully-evolved pet. All animals of the same type will turn hostile to you at the same time, but they will NOT attack. You should kill off all but one of the animals, otherwise they will share the experience from your deaths and leveling up your pet will take longer. The animal won't attack, it will remain hostile and continually wander around randomly, meaning it may wander out of your aggro bubble and thus out of range to gain experience from your deaths. Unless you are watching the process and can move your character to follow the animal, this can lengthen the time required substantially, depending on how far the animal wanders. You can sometimes position yourself and your heroes to "trap" the animal in a corner of the terrain.

Switch to the vampiric weapon, then kill yourself by casting Blood is Power on either hero. If you had 55 health, the -15% Death Penalty will reduce your maximum health to 1. If you did not have 55 health, let yourself be resurrected by Res Chant by immediately switching off of the vampiric weapon, wait a few seconds for the non-Death Penalty delay to expire, then kill yourself again; repeat until you have a maximum health of 1.

Your mesmers' Flesh of my flesh will leave you at 1 health, but the vampiric weapon will drain that in less than a second. On average, you will die more than 20 times per minute. With 338 deaths required to level a pet from 5 to 20, it will take a little over 12 minutes to obtain a hearty level 20 pet.

When the animal has reached level 20, have the mesmer hero use Resurrection Chant, then immediately switch off of the vampiric weapon. Charm the animal, then return to Emryd the Tamer to register it. Wynn will now be able to summon all possible level/evolution combinations for that animal.

Other evolution methods[]

While the method described above is the simplest, some players may wish to evolve their pets in other ways.

Death-leveling in the wild[]

Animals encountered in the wild can also be death-leveled using the method above. In fact, this may be easier for certain animals, as all wild animals will attack when aggroed, eliminating the need to follow the animal's wanderings during the death-leveling.

Many animals can be death-leveled without the need for special builds on yourself or your heroes. If the animal can be found close enough to a resurrection shrine, simply pull the animal to the shrine, let the animal kill you, and let the shrine resurrect you instead of a hero. It is still recommended to use superior runes to lower your health, and a vampiric weapon or sacrifice skills to kill yourself, until you have enough death penalty that the animal can kill you in a single attack; low-level armor will also help with this. You should bring at least one hero or henchman to keep the animal occupied while you are dead, otherwise it may wander away before you get resurrected.

In both of these cases, because the animal is dealing damage, it will evolve as dire instead of hearty, but this will still unlock all evolutions at the Menagerie.

No gimmicks[]

Pets that are tamed without being death-leveled will still evolve, but the exact evolution gained is harder to control. To progress along the playful/hearty evolutionary path, a pet must receive more damage than it deals, while dealing more damage than it receives will move it along the aggressive/dire path.

Obtaining a hearty pet is relatively easy — don't bring any skills to enhance your pet's damage or to reduce the damage it receives.

Obtaining a dire pet is more difficult, but not by much — bring skills that will enhance your pet's damage and reduce the damage it receives. Pet attack skills that deal high bonus damage are recommended. Other suggested ranger skills are:

This method is best carried out solo, and against enemies that primarily deal direct damage. Suitable enemies include the Minotaurs just outside Ice Tooth Cave in Anvil Rock and those in the Elona Reach mission, the insects outside Yohlon Haven, and the Snow Wurms outside Boreal Station. Many more locations/enemies can be used, though, so feel free to experiment and find the ones that work best for you.

Notes[]

  • No matter what method you use, the animal's name will not update to reflect its evolution until you either tame it, reset its name with the /namepet command, or walk momentarily out of targeting range. However, if you "call" the animal as a target (Shift + spacebar), the evolution will be shown in the message that gets sent to team chat, e.g. "I'm targeting Playful Phoenix!"
  • The only pet that cannot be death-leveled anywhere is the Rainbow Phoenix. The only two places it appears do not have resurrection shrines, and it only appears if you are the only person in your party.
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