Here Boy, Go Fetch!

by Joe Jr Yamut
Posted On May 19, 2021

Yes, this is not a post about a puppy or any living, furry, four-legged companions that many people love and keep at home. Unfortunately.

Rather…

This is about Diablo III non-combat pets that were intentionally and unintentionally acquired during the course of ~~playing~~ wasting thousands of hours on this once classic and popular, hack and slash, Action RPG game from Blizzard (Some came in with the package too).

These pets are, most of the time, for cosmetic purposes only. While they are not worn on your in-game character, they make for nice companions. These pets don’t attack, can’t put out damage, won’t block, and/or impair movements of enemies. They do have, however, one useful ability, and that is to fetch dropped gold that your character will not have picked up automatically, saving you some time from going around in circles collecting all that shiny. But that’s about it. That utility stops short of picking up loot or other droppable materials.

Do know that their appetite for sweeping up the floor for that gold is limited by a few annoyances that I’ve noticed while playing the game. One of those is pet AI pathing issue. Or perhaps it’s really not an issue, yet I’ve seen a pet stand idly by because there is an obstacle in its way and it would rather not go around it. Another is when your character is running too fast. Your pet is leashed to your character. It will stay close to your side no matter what, and the further away the gold drop is from you, the more it cannot interact with that object because it has to keep up with you running away.

How To Obtain Pets

Well, you can’t buy Diablo III pets directly via in-game vendors or through Blizzard’s official store. At least I have not heard of Blizzard offering their players a way to do so. How, you ask, do you get to collecting pets then? There are 3 ways that I know of in order to get these virtual collectibles in your game inventory:

“Farm” them from the Menagerist Goblin – These goblin characters spawn randomly all throughout the Diablo III maps on all Acts. That is except for inside Greater Rifts and single boss events, such as defeating Diablo or Malthael. Just run around and start killing demons and such in the game. Chances are you will encounter these unique goblins, and it is a guaranteed drop when you do get them elusive creatures. The Menagerist Goblin will only drop pets that you don’t have in your collection yet. So that’s a plus!
Rewards – Completing objectives in the game. One is by playing Seasons. This is a recurring game mode in Diablo III. Start playing a Seasonal character. The harder-to-achieve objectives will almost always award you with a pet. The more normal objectives does not always reward one, however. That depends on the season so check in the game seasonally.

Another is by logging into the game during special Blizzard events, like a Star Craft 2 anniversary.
Purchase – Now I did say you can’t get these pets by buying them directly. But there are Blizzard products that do give players a Diablo III pet for buying such. I got one with the purchase of the Rise Of The Necromancer expansion pack. So you should get one too if you do.

Whether the difficulty level of the game matters on pet drop RNG and/or rather the spawn rates of menagerist goblins, is something I am not so sure about. I know I’ve encountered a number of goblin types while leveling characters even in Normal setting. Though I cannot recall if one ever spawned for me during that time. I think the majority of my pets were obtained while playing Nephalem Rifts and Bounties at Torment 16.

That Most Sought After Pet

For me I am aiming for the Liv Moore pet. It is a reference to the the Olivia Moore lead character from the iZombie TV series. More than half of the pets in Diablo III drop from Menagerist Goblins. Again, guaranteed. This particular pet however does not. It is a super rare pet that can only be had by encountering and defeating an equally hard-to-find elite monster by the name of Ravi Lilywhite. The probability to find this bad boy is low. Fortunately, there is some consolation in that it only spawns exclusively around the Weeping Hollow section of Act 1. So open your map, teleport on over there, and start scouting the area for this elite. Luck be with you! I know I have not been, so far.

Without Further Ado

Currently, I have 14 of these Diablo III non-combat pets. I’ve listed them below, along with screenshots in no particular order.