Pets

Currently, there are 5 pets in-game: a German Shepherd Dog, an Orange Tabby Cat, a Goldfish, a Snake, and a Horse. The pet you choose at the start of each playthrough cannot be changed. You may name your Pet as you wish, and it will travel with you if you choose to move to another shelter.

## Feeding

Depending on the pet you chose you will have to feed it either once a day, once every other day, or 3 times a day. To feed your pet you must have at least one food ration in your storage. If you don't feed your pet it will start making a mess and slowly die.

## Death

The death of a pet will immediately cause 60 trauma to every member of the shelter and will leave a corpse that will stay and cause stress until you either bury the corpse in a grave or just eat it which might not go so well with the family.

## Types

### Dog

*"Mans best friend. Can be taken out with you on expeditions to increase your perception and help you in combat. Provides a small stress reduction to all family members (passive effect). Requires daily feeding."*

The dog is a great asset to expedition parties - their increase to perception can be of huge aid, and the help in combat is always a boon. The minor stress reduction is a small help, but is not a complete replacement for actual stress reduction methods (e.g reading books). The fact that it requires daily feeding will be quite punishing early game as it will consume as much if not more food as an additional survivor, meaning if chosen the player may wish to invest in a freezer, stove, and animal traps post-haste to ensure sufficient food is collected.

### Cat

*"The cat is a natural Hunter. Excellent at killing Rats. Any Rats it kills will be transferred into a freezer (if freezer space available). Provides a small stress reduction to all family members (passive effect). Requires feeding every other day."*

The cat is a great way to control rats in your shelter as well as providing slight stress relief. It only needs to be fed once every **other** day. (The best way to prevent rats is to clean your bunker regularly. The dirtier your bunker is the more frequent rats will spawn. The more people in your bunker the faster your bunker gets dirty.) The fact that it needs to be fed only once every 2 days makes it a huge help in the early game, where it will eat very little food and provide stress relief and a small amount of food before most methods of stress relief are available to craft.

**Note:** If there are many rats, the cat can die by starvation because it chases rats whole time.

### Goldfish

*"This trusty goldfish provides an escape into an underwater world of peace and tranquillity. Provides a large stress reduction to all family members (passive effect). Requires cleaning out every seven days (requires 10 water) and feeding daily."*

The goldfish is a huge help in regards to stress in any playthrough. The reduction it provides will mean that early on, when stress reduction methods are perhaps not available, family members will not reach high-stress levels regularly, and later on, it means stress reduction methods are not needed so regularly, freeing up time for other actions.

The requirement of water in order to clean out the Goldfish Tank can be an issue early on - if the goldfish is chosen, you should take care to ensure you have 10 water every 7 days, and should pay close attention to when the Tank was last cleaned to ensure you do not forget and realize too late when you have too little water to clean the tank as well as support the rest of your survivors. The daily feeding can also be an issue in the early game, meaning the player will have to be careful with their food income and make sure that expeditions are sent out regularly to acquire rations at a steady rate.

The goldfish is currently the only way to find the code for the Mystery Hatch, by counting the bubbles he does, which is possibly why the Goldfish is so hard to keep alive.

### Snake

*"The snake has the ability to keep rats away. Whilst the snake is out of its vivarium no rats will come to the shelter, even whilst it is dirty. requires feeding (whilst in the vivarium) every other day. Beware its bite."*

The snake is an excellent pet for deterring rats in your shelter. It will mean you do not have to worry about cleaning your shelter early on, freeing up time and resources for other projects, and it requires very little food overall, making it an excellent pet early game, requiring very little food and helping to keep rats away. If your shelter is attacked, there's also no defense quite like a massive snake, but beware, as the snake can also take damage and will need to be medicated.

### Horse

*"Majestic and beautiful. The horse can be used to travel the wasteland at a faster pace. Capable of carrying items with a saddle bag. Requires three portions of food a day. Don't forget to build a stable!"*

The horse is the most interactive pet in the game, and also the hardest to use effectively. The additional speed with which expeditions can be conducted and the additional items that can be carried is fantastic at any stage in the game; early game, it can be used to stockpile resources rapidly and explore the map quickly, and later on can be used in addition to the Camper Van to send out 2 fast, high cargo capacity expedition simultaneously.

On the flip side, the horse requires by far the most food of any pet (or survivor) at 3 portions of food a day, which can be a huge hit to your food supply at any stage of the game. This can be especially damaging early on in the game where the player may not have much food stockpiled, and could potentially be game ending. Because of this, the player should be sending out constant expeditions to acquire rations to keep on top of the food supply, and should be trying to quickly acquire food-based items, e.g Stoves, Freezers, animal traps etc. to ensure that none of the survivors (or the horse) succumb to starvation. The player is also required to build a stable to house the horse in order to protect it from radioactive sandstorms. If the player does not, the horse will be attached to a hitching post above the stable and will suffer damage during a sandstorm. It should be noted the Stable takes up a considerable amount of surface space, limiting the amount of room for Solar Panels and Animal Traps.

Feeding a horse will restore 30 health points before it becomes starving again.

#### Costs

##### Stable

* Wood x10
* Nail x8
* Tier 1 Work Bench

##### Saddle

* Leather x6
* Nylon x4
* Wool x4
* Tier 2 Work Bench