I started my nutzlocke/Hardcore run- the pets I've chosen aren't super special but I'm about to mutate, dye and name them (so this will make them special).

My 3 pets were chosen by being the first sylesti encountered in a specific area. The three areas I used were Trollsblight Caverns, Fungus Grove, Nightfall Bandit Camp

Pet 1 (middle pet): Trollsblight Caverns https://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=4142939
Pet 2 (top pet): Fungus Grove https://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=4142940
Pet 3 (Bottom pet): Nightfall Bandit Camp https://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=4142941

I haven't found any armor items except for fairy mushrooms lololol. So I have to be extremely careful (even in trollsblight caverns) as my sylesties are extremely weak RN.

I also haven't allocated them proficiency points yet. I'm thinking of just using an RNG to randomly assign each pet.

What a fun idea!

I would probably start with three pets from the lost grove, take them to esiors, and then if any get knocked out they get replaced with the first wild(s) the party meets in their current region.

However... I am pretty far from reaching the endgame! I'm slow at grinding, so bleh. My current team still isn't rank 4, but doing something like this might shake things up for me. (I currently spend my sylestia time mostly chatting, breeding, or missions..)

I dont have a single battle pet with a 100% record, but that might be something for me to aim towards. Imagine raising a pet from 0 with 100% in all elements, skills, ranks, and max wild stats!

Okay, so I'm giving this a go!

Picked up three from the LG:





and



No equipment found yet, so its going to be tricky...

edit: rolled for elements and proficiencies...interesting combos to say the least...

wish me luck!

ooooh good luck.

I'm really scared about my pets now lololol I really hope they don't die because i'm attached to this family

edit: try to avoid pet deaths because your first set have boosted stats, and the ones you replace with will be worse off!

also a rikki first try :O that's going to be quite useful as the stats are really good :D

oh gods RNG just assigned my 'tank' spot with fire and my 'dps' spot pet with earth

Oh. There are some things we really need to be aware of. Once we transition from esiors fields to umbra forest, the difficulty curve is going to ramp up suddenly. And I mean. It's going to ramp up like crazy. So we need to be prepared.

Dungeon farming will be useful to find items. But again, we're going to really feel the difficulty, especially against bosses. so we need to make sure that our pets are good to go before we start tackling the hard stuff.

You dont move them around? Hmmm.. that would be much harder....

My initial thoughts after getting to lvl 10:

Lvls 0-5 were tricky. Without equipment, each 50 health mushroom became precious, and I had to rotate my pets constantly. Also, there was no healing ability. It felt like the endless waves challenge in the arena.

But instead of gettig harder, it got easier. Even without equips, trollbight caverns are designed for 1 party pet. With three its a breeze, and feels like grinding again...

Also, I'm not super invested in the pets. The Rikki was nice, maybe if I chose 3 rikkis, or rare themed pets, I'd feel the pressure more. But ultimately, these are currently pets I would release anyway.

I suspect it will be a process of a few really difficult moments (moving to a higher level zone or facing a boss or dungeon), coupled with loads of grinding (that I'm seeking to avoid). Way back when I first started, it took me more than a year to get past Umbra Forest originally! (since i was more interested in other things, and only battled during the fests). I don't think I have the stamina for more grinding in weak zones.

It's a fun idea, and if it was my main team from the start, I'd probably be more interested. i guess battle oriented challenges just arent for me! :P

hmm...good point about the difficulty curve. Its been ages since i've looked at these zones. you've done the tutorial. did you find any challenging moments then?

That's alright. The challenge won't be for everyone. The real game is going to start when we get this party into TLG. That's when the fun really begins.

(If you wanted to make it super risky, then you could purposely choose a valuable pet: like a max stat or something, and try the challenge with it. But it would be a lot more risky.)

Hmm things that I find most challenging were the nasty in game plot line surprises. Like the bomb trap in the ground, the giant ogre suddenly knocking out a pet. It's events like these that wouldn't work to well with hardcore pets. On the flipside, you don't get events like these if you've played through the storyline already.

The other challenge was the big army battles in umbra forest involving like 9 or more enemies. You won't get those if you've done the story-line, but you DO get those in DotF. Speaking of which, that dungeon will be necessary to get hardcore pets into TLG (you'll need the gear from it). But just being in the dungeon will be risky.

The third challenging thing was aryth's spire. Those potions you can pick up have a small chance of exploding. I wouldn't risk it with my hardcore pets.

edit: I guess the biggest challenge will be facing off like...3 myconids in battle at once. Especially if all of them are 3 star. Or even facing 1 4 star enemy (like an archmage) will happen rarely. But you got to be ready for it.

Found this eggy from my hardcore run!

https://www.sylestia.com/view/pets/?petid=4145409

Thinking of making this pet a hardcore pet.

edit: added a rule that any pets found while playing the hardcore party become hardcore pets themselves