How to Get a Pet in Crimson Desert?

Crimson Desert pets are one of the best quality-of-life features the game never actually tells you about. You can befriend stray dogs and cats roaming the towns of Pywel, turn them into permanent companions, and they’ll automatically loot enemies for you after every fight. The whole system runs on a trust mechanic – you pet and feed animals until they hit 100 trust, then claim them as your own. You can hold up to 30 pets total (only one active at a time), and collecting all of them feeds into the Natural Collector trophy. Here’s everything you need to know about getting pets in Crimson Desert, from trust mechanics to the fastest taming strategies.

How the Trust System Works

Every stray animal you find starts at 0 trust, and you need to reach 100 trust before you can claim it. There are two ways to build trust: petting and feeding. Both have daily caps tied to the in-game day cycle, which resets at midnight (12:00 AM) in-game time.

Petting gives you +5 trust per interaction, and you can do it 5 times per day for a max of +25 trust. For dogs, just walk up and hold the interact button. Cats work differently – you need to pick them up first by holding the carry prompt, then pet them while you’re holding them.

Feeding is where you can really speed things up. You can feed an animal 3 times per in-game day, and the trust you get depends on the food quality and the animal type. To feed a stray, open your inventory, select a food item, and discard it on the ground near the animal. They’ll walk over and eat it after a few seconds.

Here’s the trust breakdown for feeding:

• Dogs + Fine Meat: This is the best option for dogs by a mile. Buy Fine Meat from the Grocer’s Shop or Butchery in Hernand, south of the inn.
• Dogs + Tough Meat / Basic Meat: +10 trust per feed. Way less efficient than Fine Meat, but it works if you’re hunting deer in the wild and don’t want to spend coin.
• Cats + Bird Meat, Fish, or Milk: +10 trust per feed. Cats are picky – they refuse regular red meat entirely. You’ll need to buy milk or fish from vendors, or hunt birds for bird meat. At +10 per feed with a 3-feed daily cap, cats are way slower to tame than dogs.

How to Get Your First Pet in Crimson Desert

The game introduces the pet system through a faction quest called “The Greymanes’ New Fangs”, found in the Scattered Embers tab. This becomes available after you finish “Greymanes Reunited” at the end of Chapter 3. Your campmate Naira takes you to see a stray Brown Dog near Hernand and walks you through the basics of feeding and building trust.

You don’t technically need to wait for this quest though. You can start petting and feeding strays as soon as you reach Hernand, which happens pretty early. The town square and surrounding streets have several stray dogs wandering around, and the mechanics work the same whether you’ve done the quest or not. That said, the quest is worth doing because it basically hands you your first pet with guided steps.

Once you’ve hit 100 trust with an animal, a new prompt appears – hold the interact button to select “Take In” and the animal becomes your permanent companion. You can find all your pets in the Crimson Desert Pets tab of the inventory menu, where you can summon or unsummon them at any time.

Fastest Way to Tame a Dog

Dogs are by far the easiest Crimson Desert pets to get. They eat pretty much any meat and give you massive trust from quality food. If you want to tame a dog in a single in-game day, here’s the play:

1. Stock up on Fine Meat. Head to the Butchery or Grocer’s Shop in Hernand (south of the inn) and buy 3 pieces of Fine Meat. This is the highest trust food for dogs at +35 per feed.

2. Find your dog. Hernand has multiple strays in the town square, near the tavern, around the blacksmith, and along nearby roads. Pick the breed you like the look of – they all function the same once tamed.

3. Pet it 5 times. Walk up and hold the interact button. You’ll get +5 trust each time for a total of +25 trust. This maxes out your daily petting cap.

4. Feed it 3 Fine Meats. Open your inventory, select the Fine Meat, and discard it on the ground near the dog. Do this 3 times for +105 trust.

5. Claim it. With +25 from petting and +105 from feeding, you’re at +130 trust – well over the 100 threshold. Hold the interact button and select “Take In”. Done.

That’s a pet in under a minute of actual interaction. The only real cost is the silver for Fine Meat. If you’re short on cash, check out our early money guide for quick silver strategies.

How to Tame Cats

Cats are a different story. They’re pickier about food and have a lower trust ceiling per day, so plan on at least two in-game days to tame one.

The petting process is also slightly different. You can’t just walk up and pet a cat – you need to hold the carry button to pick the cat up first, then press the interact button to pet it while holding it. Same +5 trust per pet, same 5-per-day cap.

For feeding, cats refuse any standard red meat. You’ll need to use bird meat, fish, or milk. The problem is that all cat food only gives +10 trust per feed regardless of quality. With 3 feeds per day, that’s only +30 from feeding compared to the +105 you can get with dogs.

Your best single-day total for a cat is +55 trust (25 from petting + 30 from feeding). That means you’ll need to come back the next in-game day, repeat the process, and you’ll hit 100 on day two. Use the pass time feature at campfires or cooking pots to skip 12 hours at a time so you’re not sitting around waiting.

One important note: when you need to walk through a doorway while carrying a cat, put the cat down first. Cats can’t pass through doors while you’re carrying them, so you’ll need to set it down, walk through, then go back and pick it up again.

All Crimson Desert Pet Breeds

There are 8 dog breeds and several cat breeds scattered across Pywel, many with multiple color variants. All breeds function identically once tamed – same auto-looting, same following behavior – so it’s purely an aesthetic choice. Here’s what’s been confirmed so far:

Dog breeds: Husky, Pointy-Eared Bulldog, Boarhound Puppy, Saluki, Greyhound, Beagle, Floppy-Eared Bulldog, Shepherd, and Jindo. Dogs are more common in early areas, and you’ll find multiple strays in most settlements across Hernand. The Shepherd, Husky, and Jindo breeds are more commonly found in the Kweiden region. The Saluki is absent from Pailune, and the Floppy-Eared Bulldog tends to appear in southern areas of Pywel.

Cat breeds: Cat, Short-Haired Kitten, Long-Haired Cat, Slim Cat, Fat Cat, Kitten, Short-Haired Cat, and Desert Cat. Cats show up more frequently as you move into later regions. Both cat breeds are found everywhere except The Crimson Desert region. The Desert Cat is the exception – it’s exclusive to The Crimson Desert region itself.

The Fat Cat is a special breed found near the Naz River fishing dock. It’s bigger and rounder than regular cats and needs Dried Fish to tame (found in buckets inside a building near the dock). There’s also a known bug where the Fat Cat can disappear right after you register it – if this happens, jump into the Naz River. Submerging your character forces the pet model to reload and the cat should reappear.

What Crimson Desert Pets Actually Do

Pets aren’t just for looks – they serve a genuinely useful purpose. When you have a pet summoned, they’ll automatically run around the battlefield after combat and loot everything from dead enemies. They also pick up resources while you’re gathering from ore nodes, trees, and other material sources. It saves a ton of time, especially in longer fights where bodies are scattered everywhere.

The catch? Pets have no loot filter whatsoever. They’ll grab every rusted sword, pair of worn boots, and piece of junk they can find. Your inventory will fill up fast if you’re not careful. Make sure you’re expanding your inventory slots and picking up Medium Bags whenever you can to handle the extra volume. Regularly clear out the junk between fights.

A few other things to keep in mind: pets don’t fight – they won’t attack enemies or take damage. They disappear when you mount your horse, so they won’t slow down travel. And when you’re not using them, unsummoned pets hang out at Greymane Camp once you unlock it in Chapter 3. You can switch between your registered pets at any time from the Pets tab in your inventory.

Pet Armor and Cosmetics

You can dress your pets up in hats, body armor, and full outfits. It’s purely cosmetic – no stat boosts or gameplay benefits – but watching a Beagle in tiny plate armor loot a battlefield is its own reward.

There are two known pet tailor shops:

• Milou’s Shop in Pororin Village: Located in the Pororin Forest area, run by Shai children. You’ll need to complete the “The Unreachable Village” and “Authorized Access” quests to gain entry to Pororin. This shop has the widest selection of pet outfits.
• Demeniss Pet Tailor: Found in the southeast corner of Demeniss, near Demeniss Castle. This one’s easier to access and sells helmets and outfits including the Puppy Plate Helmet and Rescue Puppy Outfit.

To equip pet armor, open your inventory, go to the Pets tab, select the pet you want to dress up, and you’ll see equipment slots at the bottom. Select the armor piece from your inventory and equip it. Each pet can wear one head piece and one body piece at a time.

Crimson Desert Pets Tips and Known Bugs

1. Watch out for food thieves. When you drop food in a busy village, other stray animals and even NPCs can run over and snag it before your target gets to eat. Try to lure the animal to a quiet corner before you start tossing food on the ground. Also, unsummon your current pet before feeding a new stray – your active pet will try to eat the food first.

2. Animals can despawn temporarily. If the stray you’ve been working on isn’t where you left it, don’t panic. Leave the area completely and come back after a short time. The animal should respawn and your trust progress is preserved.

3. Collect all 30 for the trophy. Registering 30 unique pets completes the Pets life challenge, which counts toward the Natural Collector trophy/achievement. Visit different settlements at various times of day to find every breed and color variant. You can track your progress in the Pets tab of your inventory.

More Crimson Desert Resources

If you’re looking for more ways to get ahead early, check out our Early Money Guide to turn your first gold bar into serious silver, and our Abyss Without Balance Puzzle Guide if you’re tackling Abyss content. Find pet spawn locations and everything else on our Crimson Desert Interactive Map, and browse all of our walkthroughs on the Crimson Desert Guides page. Stay up to date with the latest gaming guides on MetaForge and join our Discord community to share your pet collections and discuss Crimson Desert!