My Favorite Virtual Pets



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My full collections can be found at the links below:
The Final Outpost | Dragon Cave | Magistream

A Guide to Virtual Pixel Art Pet Sites

This was originally published as a blog post on Nov 11, 2022.

Over the past four weeks, Iโ€™ve been having a ton of fun waking up each morning like itโ€™s Christmas day, eager to see which of my eggs have hatched and which have grown into their adult forms on my Hatchery page. Given how much serotonin Iโ€™ve gotten from these pixel pets, I wanted to write up a summary of the different sites with tips I wish I knew before starting (and accidentally killing four dragons RIP ๐Ÿ˜ญ) in case anyone else wants to get started too.

Disclaimer: Iโ€™m still quite new to these sites and havenโ€™t delved into breeding and trading; however, if I got any of the basics wrong here, please drop me a note in my guestbook, and Iโ€™ll update this post. Thanks!

The Final Outpost (TFO)

Site Link | Summary

Concurrent Egg Limit: 5 (complete quest #6 to upgrade to 6)
Concurrent Growth Limit: unlimited
Growth Rate: 3โ€“5 days total (๐Ÿฅšโž›๐Ÿฃ 1.5โ€“2.5 days | ๐Ÿฃโž›๐Ÿ‰ 1.5โ€“2.5 days)
Clicks: Not required to grow; boosts happiness, hardiness, appearance (important for breeding better offspring)
Views: โ€œmightโ€ increase growth rate
Art: 50+ species, LOTS of shape, pattern, and color genetic variation through breeding, no unobtainable species



My Rating: โญโญโญโญโญ โ€“ straightforward, good pacing, great art, no unobtainable species, generous Discord community

TFO is unique in that I want to eventually get into breeding my favorite species due to the wide variety of gorgeous colors, patterns, and physical attributes like fins, horns, etc. I also really like that viewing othersโ€™ creatures gives you gold sometimes and also helps increase the attributes of the viewed creature for later breeding. Since creatures grow up automatically based on their age, TFO is a straightforward and chill passive game. If you donโ€™t care about breeding, you donโ€™t even have to worry about views and click sites. Given the variance in types of creatures (cats, deer, bugs, dinosaurs, etc.), I recommend looking at the wiki to find which creatures appeal to you most before adopting a bunch of random capsules. No need to be intimidated by the quests, theyโ€™re straightforward, donโ€™t require specific creatures to begin (unlike Magistreamโ€™s quests), and are enjoyable to read (thereโ€™s even some neopronoun representation ๐Ÿ’–).

Dragon Cave

Site Link | Summary

Concurrent Egg Limit: 4-8 depending on # of adult dragons
Concurrent Growth Limit: 12-24 depending on # of adult dragons
Growth Rate: Total: 3-7 days (shorter if you adopt older abandoned egg)
Clicks: Not required to grow, but helps growth rate
Views: Unique & total views must be accumulated to reach adulthood
Art: 300+ species; some species are seasonally available, though none are retired



My Rating: โญโญโญโญ โ€“ complicated at first before I knew the Rules of Thumb below, good pacing, awesome art, generous community, no unobtainable species

I felt like the math behind growing pets (click the expansion at the end of this section if you really want to know the details) was extremely complicated as a complete beginner, but you can entirely get around that if you just follow these 2 Rules of Thumb:

Once I started following those rules (and subsequently stopped accidentally killing dragons ๐Ÿฅบ), discovering the Abandoned egg section and joining the Discord really boosted my enjoyment of the game.

The Abandoned egg section allowed me to actually see the eggs instead of just read the descriptions, which helps to pick eggs that develop into more aesthetically pleasing adult forms. It also helps to use the wikiโ€™s egg identification guide to see what unfamiliar eggs will turn into before adopting them.

On Discord, breeders regularly give away completely free, rare eggs and hatchlings, including ones from breeds that were tied to events I missed. The generosity of these folks makes me feel like thereโ€™s a chance to get any type of dragon no matter when I joined, which, in the modern gaming ecosystem thatโ€™s driven by pay-to-play and scarcity, feels so great and refreshing.

๐Ÿ˜‡ List of Dragon Cave Click Sites
๐Ÿ˜ตโ€๐Ÿ’ซ The Life & Death Complexity Behind the Rules of Thumb When you get a new egg, a 7-day death countdown begins. In order to hatch the egg, you need to feed the egg ~2000-3000 views while maintaining a correct ratio of between 1:1 and 15:1 overall views to unique views. If you exceed the 15:1 ratio, your eggs will get sick and eventually die, though you can hide them in fog to stop them from getting views and eventually cure the sickness. If this sounds like a lot to manage, there's even more you need to worry about:

Eggs are vulnerable to getting sick and dying if they receive too many views in a short amount of time, but they are most vulnerable within the first 24 hours (when the site says they have 6-7 days left to live).
  • Do not put the eggs in more than one click sites on their first day. Wait until they have 5-6 days left. They can still get sick at that age, but are less likely.
  • You can see how much time an egg has left to live by clicking on the egg and looking at what is says after โ€Egg will die if it doesnโ€™t hatch in:โ€
  • Hide eggs/hatchlings in fog if they become sick. You'll get a prompt at the top of your scroll with which ones are sick that will disappear when they are fine.

In addition to the aforementioned view requirements, eggs must have <4 days left on their timer in order to hatch.


Magistream

Site Link | Summary (source: forum FAQ)

Concurrent Egg Limit: 5
Concurrent Growth Limit: unlimited
Growth Rate: determined by unique clicks
Clicks: determines growth rate
Art: 1360+ species (~50% are retired/unobtainable)


My Rating: โญโญโญ โ€“ straightforward, fast pacing based on clicks, good art (though some designs look older than others & ~50% of the species are retired/unobtainable by yourself)

This site was the most accessible to me as a beginner and was originally my favorite. Clicking to grow the pets is straightforward, and I could easily recruit my friends and folks on the forum to help me evolve them. The species seemed endless, but as Iโ€™m nearly my third week in the game, Iโ€™ve collected the majority of the breeds that are cute and easily available to me without asking for help in the forums or completing costly quests. Additionally, this site is very slow to load. Overall, my pets are pretty and easy to grow, so Iโ€™ll definitely keep playing. However, I prefer The Final Outpost and Dragon Cave since all their species are possible to obtain, and they use Discord, making it easier to get free, rare eggs from other players.

Other Virtual Pet Sites

There are many other virtual pet sites Iโ€™ve found going down this rabbit hole. There are way more vector art pet sites if youโ€™re into that. Here are some that I found:

If this was helpful or if you join/play any of these sites, please let me know in my guestbook. Donโ€™t forget to share links to your pets, so that I can give you clicks and views to help them grow too! ๐Ÿฅš๐Ÿฃ๐Ÿ‰๐Ÿ’•