Comparing the cuteness of Azeroth’s ducks against the real thing

It’s another Monday in This Crazy World We All Apparently Live In Now, so let’s distract ourselves with some cute duckies. For well over a decade we had to settle for the ducks of Earth when browsing adorable fowl content, as Azeroth was curiously devoid of any sort of quacking beasts.

Luckily the Dragon Isles were stuffed to the rafters with ducks of all shapes and sizes. Let’s take a look at some cute real-life ducks, run down how to acquire each duck battle pet in the game, and decide once and for all which waterfowl takes home the cute crown.

What could be cuter than a swimming duck? How about an entire cardboard box of ducks of varying sizes enjoying a day at the pool? Some are fuzzy, some are feathered, but they all enjoy a good splash and a few laps. It’s hard to choose a favorite part, but watching the smallest of the duckies fall into the pool and recover with a definite “that was deliberate” attitude is definitely a highlight.

This one’s short but it might be the winner. If you’re at the end of a long Monday, you might identify with the struggle that this little peeper is going through. From the initial “I’m just resting my eyes” through the full-fledged head tilt, this duckie goes through the exact same stages that I do when I’m trying to focus on an end-of-the-day meeting that could have been an email. Even the dramatic conclusion feels like a cuttingly accurate parody of my efforts to stave off a trip to dream land.

I, for one, welcome our new quacktastic overlords

While ducks from real life are undoubtedly cute, World of Warcraft players had no basis for comparison for most of the game’s history. With the re-appearance of the Dragon Isles in 2022’s Dragonflight, our 17-year wait was finally over. While other players seemed excited to explore new regions, acquire powerful loot, and save Azeroth (again), I immediately deployed my duck-targeting macro and got collecting.

To the best of my waterfowl-counting abilities, there are twelve duck or duck-adjacent battle pets to collect in WoW right now. The easiest ones are the Ironbeak Duck, Wild Duckling, and Plucky Duckling which can be found as wild encounters around the Dragon Isles. Cooking up a few meals (or buying them on the Auction House) will allow you to trade with Pakak in Valdrakken for a Mallard Duckling.

Once you collect any other duckling pet, then Elianna at the Central Encampment of the Emerald Dream offers Reverie, a dreamy spectral-green pet. If you didn’t collect enough eggs during this year’s Noblegarden, you’ll have to wait until April and gather 250 Noblegarden Chocolate to purchase a hot pink Lovely Duckling.

You can find Gracus the Ancient Protector at the Shady Sanctuary in Ohn’ahran Plains for some grove-tending quests that reward the handsome blue-beaked Pilot. If you find Ludo the naughty bakar in Maruukai, you can wrestle a treasure map from him that reveals where he buried his Slightly Chewed Duck Egg. Wipe off the drool and incubate for three days to hatch your very own Viridescent Duck.

If the current pattern of legacy raid challenge holds, we should be able to easily solo Dragonflight raids after the release of Midnight. In addition to revisiting Amirdrassil for the customary Every Transmog Piece Ever, you can challenge yourself to complete the Ducks in a Row achievement which rewards Sergeant Quackers, who comes complete with a tiny sword and shield.

While you’re enjoying the rolling green vistas of Ohn’ahran Plains, pick up some Essence of Awakening at a hut just north of Timberstep Outpost. A quick sprinkle of that allows one to see the spirits of the ancestors, which includes the very capturable Quackcestors found in the woods north of Teerakai.

Aura tops my list of adorable ducks of Azeroth as a magical duck with a hat, cape, and staff. She was available on the Trading Post, so if you didn’t enlist her in your pet battle army you’ll have to cross your wing feathers that she’ll make a return appearance during a future month. Finally, Quack-E is a mechanical duckling that can be crafted by Engineers, or picked up on the Auction House for a reasonable price if your Dragonflight tinkering lessons never panned out.

Now all that’s left is to compare the ducks of Earth and Azeroth. While there are some really adorable feathered companions available in World of Warcraft, I have to give this one to the fuzzy waterfowl of Earth by a fairly wide margin. Which set of quacking beasties would you give the crown to?