The easiest battle pets from The War Within to pick up (without pet battling)

There’s no better feeling in World of Warcraft than adventuring with the perfect pet buddy by your side. We’ve been able to obtain a menagerie of cute sidekicks over the past twelve years, with each new continent adding another huge caravan of critters to be tamed, bought, found, and given. If you still haven’t found that perfect little companion, then good news — the launch of The War Within added dozens of new pets, many with a non-alarming number of legs.

If grinding your team of companion battle monsters up to level 25 and seeking out the wild pets of Khaz Algar is your thing, then you can go on a safari to tame and capture them all. If you’re looking to bolster your ranks by other means, here are my picks for the best ones in each category. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll want to pick up every single pet possible, so you can use this as a checklist while you’re waiting for the boat to Siren Isle. We’ll also stick with sure things — anything that requires luck or patience, like drops from dungeons or Delves, we’ll leave for another time.

Questing for the perfect companion

Is there a more satisfactory ending to a quest chain than being handed a brand new buddy? There are five such pets waiting for a bold adventurer to claim them. My favorite is the Fathom Incher, an adorable slimy-spiky thing from below. The quest chain is one of the more interesting ones in Hallowfall, and you can start it by defeating korbyss mobs at the Sunless Strand until you loot a Gasping Fish. If watching Beledar shift into void phase with an abominable buddy isn’t your cup of tea, you can also get:

• Cinderwold Sizzlestinger, a fiery bumblebee, from a 20-quest chain in the Ringing Deeps ending with Home is Where the Candle Is
• Rak-Ush Battleshell, a cute but fierce bug, for cleaning up the southeastern corner of Azj-Kahet starting with Beautification Project
• Thunder, the tawny violet-eyed lynx cub, for wrangling a whole litter of kitties after you go through Attica Whiskervale’s dialogue in the far northeastern reaches of Hallowfall
• Vanilla, the steely blue-eyed lynx cub, for helping out at Hillhelm Stead farm in Hallowfall starting with Seeds of Evil

Treasure hunting is better together

It’s a great feeling to find an out-of-the-way treasure chest, but it gets even greater when there’s an octopus inside that wants to be your friend. There are eleven pets scattered around Khaz Algar that are just a puzzle away from your inventory. I’m partial to Blightbud, a grumpy mushroom that joins your menagerie if you can clear a blocked pipe near the Waterworks in the Ringing Deeps. You may have stumbled across a few in your pursuit of Xal’atath, but here is a full list.

• Dalaran Sewer Turtle, a survivor of the events of The War Within’s prologue, can be found behind Freywold Village on the Isle of Dorn. Bring fish!
• Faithful Dog is waiting for a new master on the beach southwest of Dornogal, although you’ll need to start all the way back to your Pandaria farm if you aren’t already best friends
• Lil’ Moss Rosy, an Earthen sheep, can be guided back to her farm in Rambleshire on the Isle of Dorn
• Oop’lajax, a white-and-red baby octopus, is an easy one from a chest just east of Gundargaz in the Ringing Deeps
• Hallowed Glowfly, a maximum-cuteness lightning bug, can be coaxed into a Sparkbug Jar near Stillstone Pond in Hallowfall
• Nightfarm Growthling, Blightbud’s pale purple cousin, is revealed in the farms of northeast Hallowfall by waving a Patrol Torch
• Shadowbog Hopper, a blue-and-pink frog, can be discovered by ripping up Shadowrooted Vines near Stillstone Pond in Hallowfall. Bring your Darkroot Grippers!
• Mind Slurp, an oozing purple brain, lurks in a chest in the Maddening Deep within Azj-kahet
• Pillarnest Bonedrinker, a disturbing miniature flying arachnid, can be picked up from an egg on the webbed ceiling of Azj-Kahet just west of the Weaver’s Lair
• Spinner, a baby crypt fiend, can be rescued from a treasure chest within a nerubian structure attached to the cavern ceiling above the City of Threads

When in doubt, buy local

It may not be the most satisfying way of collecting a new buddy, but there are plenty of vendors in Khaz Algar that are willing to part with their pets for the right amount of currency. Coppers, a brave kobold, is my new squire, and you can grab them by exchanging Odd Globs of Wax in Gundargaz. You can continue your wax-gathering ways to pick up Wobbles, a horribly ugly baby mole.

Head to The Little Strings, a spine-chilling pet shop in the Umbral Bazaar section of the City of Threads, and bring your Kej purse. For 2,250 each there are three companions to be bought. There’s Itchbite, another baby crypt fiend, and Fringe, a captivating little jumping spider. Disturbingly, one of the wares for sale is a Freshly Webbed Kebab, which contains a golden-eyed black-furred lynx kit named Bean.

Hopefully you’ve got some Kej leftover after a day of shopping at the bazaar, because you can fly just east of the City of Threads to Rak-Ush and collect a Threadling from Ves’trak for another 2,250.

If you’ve been enjoying Delves, you are likely to have your pockets bulging with Undercoin. For a whopping 10,000 you can head to the Explorer’s League pavilion in Dornogal and get Sir Shady Mrrgglton Junior, a cute little void horror (and don’t forget to grab the matching mount when Beledar strikes midnight)

Finally, there are always those vendors who won’t agree to sell you their pets until they are sufficiently impressed by your deeds. Each of the four major factions has a companion that becomes available for purchase somewhere between renown rank 13 and 17 for 6,500 Resonance Crystals (or 2,250 Kej if you’re haggling with a vendor with more than two legs)

• Loamy, a copper mosswool, from the Council of Dornogal
• Guacamole, a greenish-tinged baby mole that wins my award for best pet name of the expansion so far, from the Assembly of the Deeps
• Tiberius, yet another lynx, this time an earthy-looking tawny kit, from the Hallowfall Arathi
• Jump Jump, a void-tinged jumping spider that might be the most adorable of the bunch, from the Severed Threads