Pets are a newly introduced mechanic in Darkest Dungeon 2. They are attached to your Stagecoach in their own specific slot and offer you a variety of different buffs that aid you both in, and out of combat.
You can use Pets either to buff up your heroes, Stagecoach Items, or just to help your heroes in some way while in combat. These will mostly depend on the type of Pet that you have equipped.
Moreover, each Pet in Darkest Dungeon 2 is a reference to a specific creature from DD1. For example, the Shrieker Chick is a reference to a special boss that appeared back in DD1.
With a total of 10 different Pets in Darkest Dungeon 2, it becomes challenging to consider each of their buffs to decide which one is the best to choose. Some Pets may be the best in most situations, while some are in certain specific situations, and some of them may not really be of any benefit at all.
That said if you’ve come to take a look at all the Pets of DD2 ranked from worst to best, then you’ve come to the right place.
How to unlock and equip Pets in Darkest Dungeon 2
You can only unlock Pets from the Intrepid Coast after reaching the Altar of Hope in Darkest Dungeon 2.
This is a location that you visit after starting a new chapter run. This is also where you unlock your Stagecoach upgrades, Stagecoach skins, and bonuses.
You need to upgrade your Companionship by spending Candles of Hope. There are 10 nodes here to upgrade, each unlocking a new Pet in Darkest Dungeon 2. You are going to need a total of 155 Candles of Hope to unlock all 10 Pets in the game.
Once you have unlocked a Pet (or Pets) at the Altar of Hope in Darkest Dungeon 2, you have to reach an Inn to equip a single Pet to your Stagecoach.
You will reach an Inn right after entering the Valley, so you do not have to wait that long. However, it is important to know beforehand that equipping a Pet in your Stagecoach is permanent. You cannot replace or remove them even after reaching the second Inn at the end of your first run.
Secondly, the first Inn store will give you three random Pets to choose from all of the Pets you have unlocked. These will be free.
Darkest Dungeon 2 Pets ranked from worst to best
As another reminder, a low-ranked Pet does not mean that it is completely useless for an expedition. It all depends on what Stagecoach Items you are getting and what kind of buffs you want for a specific party of heroes.
10) Larval Carrion Eater
Unlock Cost: 50 Candles of Hope
Description: You gain a +30% heal, Block, and Crit for landing a killing blow on a corpse.
Although the Larval Carrion Eater may give a +30% heal, Block, and Crit, which sounds amazing on its one, it does so in a condition that makes these buffs pretty much useless in most conditions.
With the condition imposed that you can only get the buffs after landing a killing blow on a corpse, this Pet becomes one that is highly situational.
If you aren’t using any strong teams that have high damage outputs or one that can target multiple enemies at once, then this may be one of the worst pet buffs you can get in Darkest Dungeon 2.
9) Hatchling Crocodilian
Unlock Cost: 60 Candles of Hope
Description: Grants you a +3% boost in Damage when moving for one Battle. However, it gives -1 to Speed for one battle when moving (20%).
Although the increased damage stat that you get with the Hatchling Crocodilian can be really good, especially with heroes like the Highwayman or Jester, it also decreases your Speed by 1.
The decrease in Speed can really set back the increased damage buff, no matter how good it may be, especially late in the expedition.
To counter this con, you will have to use other items that increase your speed, which hence makes it highly situational and one of the worst pet buffs in the game.
8) Unnatural Owlet
Unlock Cost: 15 Candles of Hope
Description: For every Tinker’s Gear that you have equipped, the Unnatural Owl offers a +5% Debuff Resistance Piercing. It also boosts the production of items from the Stagecoach Items to some extent
The Unnatural Owlet brings forth some amazing buffs that are especially useful for teams that specialize in putting out Debuffs.
Given the buffs acquired from the Unnatural Owlet, we can see that it can only benefit teams that specialize in putting out lots of Debuffs. This makes it highly specific and only useful in a particular situation like making Traps or producing Combat Items.
In conclusion, if you have a team specialized in Debuffs, then this might be one of the best pet buffs for your team. If not, then this is probably one of the worst pet buffs for most other situations in DD2.
7) Mucilaginous Slime
Unlock Cost: 30 Candles of Hope
Description: You gain a +5% Debuff Resistance for every Road item that you have equipped. Increases your chances of looting different items from road debris.
With the sheer number of Debuffs that most enemies can inflict on your team, the Mucilaginous Slime can come in pretty handy given its effects on Debuff Resistance. This allows you to maintain your party’s relationship and save the skills involved in debuffing the team.
Other than that, in most other situations, the Mucilaginous Slime may become useless if not for Debuffs. The increased chances of looting items from road debris are also fairly insignificant because those items are already very common.
6) Reanimated Robot
Unlock Cost: 20 Candles of Hope
Description: You gain a +1 Speed for every Food Gear Item you have equipped. You also gain a +1 Max Health for every Food Item in your inventory.
The Reanimated Robot makes use of random Food Items and Gear you get along your journey to buff you up with some very useful effects. While Food Gear and Items are pretty common, you do need a lot of inventory space to store them and increase the potency of the buffs this Pet gives.
However, if you do manage to stack enough items, the buffs provided to you by this Pet will become absolutely insane. Especially with heroes having low Max HP, this particular Pet can greatly increase their chances of lasting longer.
5) Orphan Wolf Cub
Unlock Cost: 5 Candles of Hope
Description: You gain a +10% Positive Relationship Stance. For every Luxury Gear Item that you equip, you also get a +5% Stress Resistance buff
The Orphan Wolf Cub is the first Pet you can unlock in Darkest Dungeon 2. While this may be the first one, it still offers one of the best pet buffs, especially useful in the early stages of the game.
Both of these buffs are very helpful in increasing your party’s relationship, which makes the Orphan Wolf Cub a great pet for players that are already aiming to do so in the early stages.
Moreover, the Luxury Items that the pet is linked with are amazing items in themselves, which means that it has great synergy with the other buff.
4) Pygmy Pliskin
Unlock Cost: 10 Candles of Hope
Description: You get a 10% boost to Healing Received from Skills for every Medical Item that you equip. It also heals every hero worth 10% of their total HP after reaching every new location.
The Pygmy Pliskin can be a very useful pet for players that are looking to boost their healing capabilities.
The buffs offered by the Pygmy Pliskin aren’t half bad because most players usually use only one healer on their team. These could serve as one of the best pet buffs out there for players who are mostly relying on Combat Items and other external factors for healing rather than additional heroes.
3) Crimson Tick
Unlock Cost: 70 Candles of Hope
Description: Grants you a chance to produce The Blood (5%) after landing a Killing Blow.
With The Blood item granted to you by the Crimson Tick, you can make your damage specialists insanely powerful and allow them to wipe out most enemies with a single hit. These include heroes like Jester and Hellion who are highly proficient damage dealers.
Moreover, The Blood also offers your heroes Tokens for Speed, Crit, and Strength at the cost of Stress.
2) Shrieker Chick
Unlock Cost: 40 Candles of Hope
Description: You gain a +2% Crit for every item of Scouting Gear that you have equipped. Also adds a +2 in quantity to any Baubles looted.
The two extra Baubles you can loot with the help of the Shrieker Chick are greatly useful because Baubles are pretty rare in Darkest Dungeon 2.
Moreover, the higher Crit chance you get with this Pet is also pretty good as Scouting Gear is very common. You can get Scouting Gear from the Hoarder and Provisioner to stack the items and greatly increase your chances of Crit.
1) Shambler’s Spawn
Unlock Cost: 85 Candles of Hope
Description: You gain a +200% Cultist Encounters location scouting. You also get -100% on Location and Route scouting.
As you can see from the effects themselves, the Shambler’s Spawn is the best Pet that you can get in Darkest Dungeon 2.
With the buffs provided with this Pet, you gain a high amount of flexibility in your team builds. The fact that it allows you to equip Cultist Tinkers without having the need to equip a Dark Impulse as well, alone overpowers any other Pet buff there is.
Moreover, this buff can single-handedly overhaul the drawback of the loss in Location and Route Scouting. This is precisely the reason why this is the last pet that you can unlock in Darkest Dungeon 2.
