Here's what you do:

Send your companions out Plunderin' rather than Pet Wranglin' and go to Bestia and buy snacks your pet will like, not love, but like.

I started a new pet with a new pirate under the new times for Pet Wrangling, and have him up over level 30 in less than a week. His Will and Strength are maxed, and soon so will his Agility. Power is already over 40, and I expect to have that maxed before then end of next month.

I found that getting snacks that provided power or that my pet would love was rare, even with the old system, and I ended up with a bunch of snacks that provided nothing. This way, all the snacks I get accomplish something.

You just have to look at it a different way.

Just Another Pirat... on Sep 21, 2014 wrote:

That is fine if you aren't busy morphing/rare pet farming and have a large number of pets to raise. Note you said you expect close to two months for that pet to be full power, therein lies the problem. The regular stats are easy to raise, that was never a problem. As far as what came in wrangling, I have such a variety of pets that no matter what the companions found I had pets that would love it.

If you want to raise pets quick on power only get skull island pets. The problem is the more exotic ones, like the new pet hawk from the Grizzleheim pack. It is unknown desert which means my tiny stash of Gears N Granola is going to vanish soon and I will be up the creek without a paddle if I morph the hawk.

If you are in the market for teir 1 & 2 snacks Bazaar is usually cheaper than Bestia unless Bazaar is sold out. By the way, go run the new Tower if gold is a problem. Sending companions out plundering really isn't all that profitable. My lv65 plus companions are only bringing in around 550 gold each but with the companion revamp there isn't anything else for them to do if I want them back in a timely fashion. Actually once the rest of my lv 65 pirate's crew finishes brawlin' up to lv65 they will be idle like they were before advanced companions, nothing really changed but that is a topic for another thread.

On another note, I think I see why my lv26 pirate's crew is bringing in a mixture of teir 2 and 3 snacks. It is really dependant on the companion level rather than the pirate, the ones lv20 and under are finding teir 2, the ones lv21 and up are getting teir 3 snacks. Gah, this explains why my lv65's crew is only finding teir 6 (currently have lv 61-62 companions on pet wrangling) and I thought I had remembered getting a few teir 7. That must have been on the companions who were higher leveled. This spells doom for some companions and I normally have my companions on random as I enjoy the company of all of them. I never benched anyone before.

Frankly, I don't see why you need a large number of pets, period. They are not that much help in battle, and I really don't want to be playing piratepokemon. But that's just me.

Now, with regard to how long it takes, I said I expected it to be maxed by the end of October. That's closer to one month than two. And honestly, I was being conservative in that estimate. It would not surprise me if I get it maxed by the middle of October, less than a month.

You then say that companions going out Plunderin' is not as fruitful as the Moo Manchu Tower. That may be the case, but I often don't have time to do a two hour tower. And if your level 65 companions are idle, why not send them out Plunderin'? You could also send them out Scavengin' and put the items they find in the shared bank for your lower pirates to remove and sell.

Frankly, though, it seems to me that you want them to change the game so you can attend your pet farm faster. Like I said, I don't see the point.

Max DeGroot on Sep 22, 2014 wrote:

Frankly, I don't see why you need a large number of pets, period. They are not that much help in battle, and I really don't want to be playing piratepokemon. But that's just me.

Now, with regard to how long it takes, I said I expected it to be maxed by the end of October. That's closer to one month than two. And honestly, I was being conservative in that estimate. It would not surprise me if I get it maxed by the middle of October, less than a month.

You then say that companions going out Plunderin' is not as fruitful as the Moo Manchu Tower. That may be the case, but I often don't have time to do a two hour tower. And if your level 65 companions are idle, why not send them out Plunderin'? You could also send them out Scavengin' and put the items they find in the shared bank for your lower pirates to remove and sell.

Frankly, though, it seems to me that you want them to change the game so you can attend your pet farm faster. Like I said, I don't see the point.

"They are not that much help in battle"

Max, respectfully I would have to disagree with this statement. If you take your time and put some thought into a pet's pedigree and/or bloodline, a pet can be almost as vital as a good companion-- better than many or most of the 'lesser', even really good, companions.

I have numerous pets that have already granted 4+ powers/talents to my pirate......to use in battle! What can be more helpful than that. I have one Fire Toad that has Grants Back Stab, Grants Brutal Charge, Grants Rally and Grants Blade Storm already expressed-- meaning my pirate gets them added to his list of powers/talents.....to use in battle! No companion in any of our crews can do that. In it's pedigree it also has Grants Shark's Fury, Grants Tough Rank 2, Grants Elusive, Grants Dodgy 2, Grants Kraken's Lament and a couple others. And that's just the Grants, I haven't even gotten into the talents that some of my pets themselves have (many have most of these on the same pet): Charming Gaze 3, Poisonous 2, Bloodsucker 2, Scent 1, Sneaky Sneaky 1 and many others. These all provide amazing help in battle.

I had a 640 Budgie, with Charming Gaze 3, in the tower the other day that Charmed one of Moo's Terra Cotta Warriors-- meaning it would not attack our team, meaning it would attack our enemy, meaning the other Terra Cotta Warriors may attack it instead of our crew, meaning one less enemy to do damage to us for that round. That is what I would call.......extremely helpful. I have been in battles were that same little birdie charmed 3 enemies in one round and they then took out the 4th enemy on their own in that same round! I also have had a pet heal a companion that had taken a good bit of damage. Pets with Scent that can remove Hidden from enemies and thus take away the +100% damage that attacking while Hidden would have done. Pets that hide, themselves, after every round and have buffed my Buccaneer crew with extra Strength. Pets that decrease an enemies accuracy in battle-- in some instances -50% for 3 rounds....that's a huge help!

So, my point is that if you try to dabble in the pets just a bit, you will get some pets that are tremendously helpful in battle. So much more helpful than many or most companions. No companion, no matter how good, has the ability to give your pirate 4, 6, 8, even 10+ powers & talents to use in battle-- powers & talents that improve your pirate & your entire crew in battle. That's quite helpful if you ask me. I absolutely am blown away by the new system, by the pets themselves & by their potential effectiveness & what they bring to the table in battle.

With the new Advanced Pet System there's only a couple instances and battle scenarios where I may not take a pet into battle. Other than those very few times, I certainly would not leave home without them! I think there are no ineffective pets, just possibly ineffective training and/or morphing of pets.

Their potential in battle is quite astonishing and AMAZING!

Personally, I love this change, it rewards players that play the game and actually level up their characters.

Complain all you like, but if you want better snacks, simply play the game and level up your characters, it is quite simple. You can purchase up to rank 4, unlimited supply in the pet snack vendor behind the morphing tent and you can keep checking the Bazaar for rank 5 snacks.

You can also purchase snack packs and mega snack packs from the crown shop.

This is a crowns vs time scenario, as is with most things KI.

I am sure you loved the previous fix, where your low level pirates were getting rank 7 snacks, I am sure that benefitted you quite nicely, however, some of us that play the game all the time and have high level pirates, don't agree that we should be getting rank 2 and 3 snacks from our pet wrangling...

So, the solution is simple, level up your pirates!

Kymma Starflower on Sep 25, 2014 wrote:

This change has taken a little bit for me to get used to, but it is indeed all about keeping a balance in the game. Yeah the first time I saw the 3 days for my companions to complete pet wrangling I was thinking "Do What?" But after a bit of experimentation, I realized there was a balance to what was changed. I do find that I can level my pets quite successfully using the combination of lower level snacks available in the bazaar or from vendors and the higher level snacks that my high level companions bring in. I can always find at least a snack my pet likes, so I'm always able to boost power a bit. If you are in a hurry, KI has always been a time vs crowns company.

And yes Valkoor is correct, pets bring much more to the game now. At first they were cute additions, now they are a force to be reckoned with. Thanks so much Valkoor for the help with my Fire Toad among others!

Harmony Hawkins
Privateer, Lvl 65

Hello there Harmony! Nice to see you here on the boards as well as on Central. You are quite welcome, hope that Toad hasn't toasted any marshadillows or anything like that. How has it been training up? Hope it expresses some goodies for you...at least there should be some in it's pedigree.

And you bet it takes a little adjusting with the Snacks nowadays. I almost never bought from the Bazaar or vendors for that matter because I always had about 3 pages of companions out Wranglin' them up. Plus with the couple hours return times from wranglin', they kept snacks of all levels coming in. Snacks were plentiful, both from the crew and from boss drops. So I could easily keep up with training my 4-6 pages of pets, without fear of running out of snacks, and usually had plenty of mid-level ones to go around. Now, with the new changes I am regularly down to level 3 snacks or less and have to visit the Bazaar often to try to keep lower level snacks in supply. But I just had to force myself not to train so many pets at once and realize that the ones training were going to take just a bit longer to train up now. So, I passed even more on to my other pirates, so they could help more with training. And once the fix is applied to the Energy boosting Grizzly Gear, that will help as well....those extra 20 units of Energy every time I log on will make a huge difference!

Again, Harmony, you are very welcome and just send me a message on Central any time you are looking for a pet or for any other reason for that matter. Best of luck to you morphing, training, feeding and pet collecting.

Just Another Pirat... on Sep 26, 2014 wrote:

Alright, you got me to take a good hard look at what my lv65's companions are bringing in (Btw, I have played this game since open beta and regularly. Just not my playstyle to race to end game with all my character slots so I can be bored waiting for the next book.). Currently I am finding zero teir 7 snacks. I thought I had remembered seeing a few of those right after the wrangling revamp but not recently. I seem to recall even getting a teir 5 snack a day or so before you posted and I started keeping a record.

My lv65 pirate's companions are lv61 - lv67. I decided to send out lv65 and higher to start with, this includes lv66 Catbeard, lv67 Samocles, lv67 Hawkules, lv65 Lt. Springer, lv65 Gracie Conrad and added in the next day lv67 Zeena. What I have gotten back so far are Despertatoes x3, Licicles x1, BBQ Banana x1, Gears N Granola x1, Taboolah Salad x1, Decimatoes x1, and no snack x5. So a total of 13 returns in the past couple days, a small sample indeed in the big scheme of things but that is all I have to go with. I got teir 6 snacks from Cool Ranch, Marleybone, Unknown, Skull Island, Aquilia. Nothing from Mooshu and not a teir 7 snack in the bunch. So what happend to the teir 7 snacks, is anyone finding those?

I just sent out my lv61 and lv62 companions on wrangling to see what they find, be a day or so before those results are in and it will only be 6 as that is all I have in that level range.

My focus is on worlds moreso than teirs, the vender sold teir 1 through teir 4 are only Skull Island and Monquista. Cool Ranch teir 4 snacks are excluded from the venders. I would be thrilled to find Mooshu and Cool Ranch snacks on a vender in the same teir and lower stats. Don't get me wrong, my pets eat enough scrimshaw swiss and fish fingers I buy in stacks of 50 or 100.

It would be interesting to figure out where the change point is for companion levels from one teir of snack to the next. I am surprised to find that none seem to bring in any teir 1 snacks, even a lv8 companion brings in teir 2 snacks. I get teir 2 snacks from lv8 - lv20 companions. Lv21 companions are bringing in teir 3 snacks.

@ValkoorTheVictorious You sir, are the master of pet training. I am in awe of your skills.

Thank you Just Another Pirate but absolutely no need to be in awe. I have some master-esque pets but they have come from a little bit of luck, plenty of my own work and plenty of help and knowledge from other kind and helpful players out there in the Spiral. It took me a while to figure out the whole morphing, pedigree, transferring of traits, grants and expressions.....and I still don't have it all down yet.

I just happen to have teamed up with other players that had equally decent pets and morphed with several of them to get some really super pets. From those super pets I am working on trying to get amazing pets. Now that I have the pedigree and the grants/powers/talents in many 600+ plus pedigree pets, I can focus on trying to get the grants/powers/talents that I actually want on separate pets, to distribute to the class of pirate they will be of most use to and provide the most support based on their arsenal. It takes a lot of time and work to get things to transfer over the way you want, but I have had some really great people help with the process. That is why I am so willing and wanting to help others out when I can.

As far as the topic of snacks, I too have seen zero rank 7 snacks coming in from wranglin', quite a few rank 6, but no rank 7. I haven't done much farming of bosses lately (actually none at all since the recent updates), so perhaps they are only dropped from high level bosses now. But that's more of a question and certainly not a confirmation.

I really appreciate the compliment but it takes an entire crew to raise a sail.......I mean to blow stuff up......I mean to sink a ship!