Carry Pet Experience Reference
Posted: December 27th, 2013, 9:50 pm
***** Completely Out of Date as of patch 9.1.5 *****
A carry pet is one that is included with 1 or 2 higher level pets with the intent that the higher level pets will "carry" the lower level pet through the battle to help it get a larger experience boost and thus level faster. All pets gain experience based on a specific equation (will be provided below). For this guide, the expected context is usually two level 25 pets and 1 carry pet, though the equations can be modified for other scenarios.
The base equation for pet battle experience is:
experience = (your_pet_level + 9) * (opponent_pet_level - your_pet_level + 5)
Negative values result in 0 experience (this happens when opponent_pet_level - your_pet_level is less than -5).
*NOTE: This differs from wowwiki's formula in two ways: 1) [opponent_level + 9] was incorrect and 2) opponent_pet_level - your_pet_level is not capped at +2. I'm not sure if wowwiki was always wrong or if there were recent changes, but either way, wowwiki currently has a slightly wrong equation. Reference: http://www.wowwiki.com/Pet_Battle_System
In addition to the main experience equation, there are some multiplicative bonuses:
Multi-Pet Bonus: This bonus is based on the number of opponents faced and is denoted by the variable N.
N = 1.0 when fighting only one enemy pet (Little Tommy Newcomer, Celestials, Beasts of Fable, and low level wild battles)
N = 2.0 when fighting two enemy pets (Zunta and Julia Stevens are the only tamers with 2 pets)
N = 2.5 when fighting three enemy pets (Most tamers)
Tamer Specific Bonus: This bonus is based on the tamer. It doesn't appear to have any correlation to enemy pet rarety (epic vs rare pets have the same bonus for some sets of tamers for example). It may have some correlation to the Tamer's NPC level (not the pet level) as there are some trends, but there isn't enough data currently available to verify that. This bonus is denoted as T.
T = 0.15 when fighting most Menagerie battles (Squirt is a notable exception at T=7.50)
T = 1.50 when fighting wild pet battles (non-tamer battles)
T = 3.00 when fighting any Celestial Tournament tamer
T = 3.75 when fighting Zunta, Julia Stevens, Dagra the Fierce, or Old MacDonald
T = 4.50 when fighting any other Vanilla WoW tamer, Outlands Tamer, Northrend Tamer, or Cataclysm Tamer
T = 7.50 when fighting most WoD tamers, any Pandaria tamer, legion tamers, the Feasel brothers, and Little Tommy Newcomer.
T = 9.00 when fighting Ashlei
Experience Buff Bonus: There are various ways to gain pet experience buffs. All are additive together before multiplying. This bonus is denoted as B.
B = 1.00 when not using any buffs
B = 1.10 when using only a Safari Hat
B = 1.25 when using only a Lesser Pet Treat
B = 1.50 when using only a Pet Treat
B = 1.85 when using all 3 together.
B = 2.85 when using all 3 together during a Pet Experience bonus event.
Difficulty Bonus: The game highlights a "Difficulty Bonus" when levelling against higher level pets. This bonus isn't a multiplicative one and is already captured in the base experience equation. It is technically there when fighting lower level pets and serves as a penalty in those cases. It is represented by the opponent_pet_level - your_pet_level portion of the equation.
The final equation after all those factors is:
experience = B*T*N*[(your_pet_level + 9) * (opponent_pet_level - your_pet_level + 5)]
This equation is interesting in that it is a quadratic equation (Ax^2 + Bx + C). This means that pet experience gained will increase as your pet level increases up to a point, but after that it will then decrease, creating a peak level (or levels) that gains the most experience out of all options. As an example, this is the Pandaria Tamer curve (with B = 1.0):
Notice how level 10 and level 11 pets get the most experience out of any other (4750 experience). Pets lower and higher than those levels get less experience. To calculate this by hand, there is a standard max value for quadratics. For our particular cases, the standard max EXP value equation is:
level_for_most_exp = (opponent_pet_level - 4) / 2
For results that are less than 1, the most EXP comes from level 1 pets
For results ending in an decimal (.5), both the integer level above and below that value give max EXP.
Special Conditions
There are two special scenarios that can modify the equation further but aren't typical scenarios when levelling pets.
Capturing a Wild Pet: Though not a hugely common occurrence since a lot of mass levelling happens at tamers, sometimes while levelling against wild pets, you might run into a rare version of a pet you need (or even a non-rare version if you don't have the pet at all). While it wasn't your intent to farm for that new pet, it just dropped into your lap. In scenarios where you are levelling a pet but also capture a wild pet, the experience you gain is decreased by 25% before rounding (So multiply by 0.75 before rounding).
Multiple Carry Pets: Most of the time, a single carry pet is used with two level 25 pets. Sometimes, however, one might have two carry pets to split too much EXP (to not waste it) on a tamer that can be solo'ed by one 25 pet. If the two carry pets are equal level, they get split the EXP straight down the middle. If they aren't equal level, it gets a bit more complicated. In that scenario, the pet with the higher level gets slightly less than half its expected EXP while the lower level pet gets slightly more than half its exptected EXP. I haven't quite nailed down exactly how it is calculated, but have been collecting data on it when I can. On my last run of level 23 carry pet paired with various other levels, it initially appears to be a small amount EXP per level difference between the two, but that is not exact. With the rounding of EXP it's hard to tell for certain the exact value until I go through more data. So for example without the safari hat and a team of 25, 23, and 22 against a Pandaria tamer I got 1392 for the 23 (expected 1400) and 1559 for the 22 (expected 1550). There will be more work on this in the future.
Requirements for Getting Pet Experience
Knowing how to obtain experience is essential to forming a good new carry pet strategy. There are certain conditions that must be met in order to get experience for your pet:
Pet Experience Chart
Below is a chart detailing the total amount of experience needed to attain a level and the amount of experience needed to get to the next level. This is useful for planning out which pets to level if you aren't going for complete maximum experience gains.Special Cases:
This section provides details on some special pet battle situations. Most (but not all) reference low sources of experience.
Wasted Pet Experience Chart
Below is a chart detailing the level at which pet experience begins to be wasted in various scenarios. This can be useful for planning mass levelling sprees of similar level pets or for setting levelling pet caps in the teams addon Rematch.
Pet Experience Gained for Each Trainer
Below is a list of tamers, the experience equation of that tamer, and the pet level(s) that gain the most experience from that tamer. Equations are listed without any experience buffs (B = 1.0). Values highlighted in orange indicate that fighting the tamer under those buff conditions will result in levelling a single carry pet to 25. Values highlighted in light blue indicate that fighting the tamer under those buff conditions may result in levelling a single carry pet to 25, but it is not guaranteed. It depends on the amount of experience the pet currently has towards its next level. All values may be off by + or - 1 point due to how WoW rounds floating point numbers versus how excel does it.
15.0x Experience Tamers (Level 25)
These tamers all have pets below level 25 and are spread out in a way that they aren't usually used for levelling. I've included the equations for each but have yet to generate any charts for them. These are here for informational purposes.
These tamers all have pets below level 25 and are spread out in a way that they aren't usually used for levelling. I've included the equations for each but have yet to generate any charts for them. These are here for informational purposes.
A carry pet is one that is included with 1 or 2 higher level pets with the intent that the higher level pets will "carry" the lower level pet through the battle to help it get a larger experience boost and thus level faster. All pets gain experience based on a specific equation (will be provided below). For this guide, the expected context is usually two level 25 pets and 1 carry pet, though the equations can be modified for other scenarios.
The base equation for pet battle experience is:
experience = (your_pet_level + 9) * (opponent_pet_level - your_pet_level + 5)
Negative values result in 0 experience (this happens when opponent_pet_level - your_pet_level is less than -5).
*NOTE: This differs from wowwiki's formula in two ways: 1) [opponent_level + 9] was incorrect and 2) opponent_pet_level - your_pet_level is not capped at +2. I'm not sure if wowwiki was always wrong or if there were recent changes, but either way, wowwiki currently has a slightly wrong equation. Reference: http://www.wowwiki.com/Pet_Battle_System
In addition to the main experience equation, there are some multiplicative bonuses:
Multi-Pet Bonus: This bonus is based on the number of opponents faced and is denoted by the variable N.
N = 1.0 when fighting only one enemy pet (Little Tommy Newcomer, Celestials, Beasts of Fable, and low level wild battles)
N = 2.0 when fighting two enemy pets (Zunta and Julia Stevens are the only tamers with 2 pets)
N = 2.5 when fighting three enemy pets (Most tamers)
Tamer Specific Bonus: This bonus is based on the tamer. It doesn't appear to have any correlation to enemy pet rarety (epic vs rare pets have the same bonus for some sets of tamers for example). It may have some correlation to the Tamer's NPC level (not the pet level) as there are some trends, but there isn't enough data currently available to verify that. This bonus is denoted as T.
T = 0.15 when fighting most Menagerie battles (Squirt is a notable exception at T=7.50)
T = 1.50 when fighting wild pet battles (non-tamer battles)
T = 3.00 when fighting any Celestial Tournament tamer
T = 3.75 when fighting Zunta, Julia Stevens, Dagra the Fierce, or Old MacDonald
T = 4.50 when fighting any other Vanilla WoW tamer, Outlands Tamer, Northrend Tamer, or Cataclysm Tamer
T = 7.50 when fighting most WoD tamers, any Pandaria tamer, legion tamers, the Feasel brothers, and Little Tommy Newcomer.
T = 9.00 when fighting Ashlei
Experience Buff Bonus: There are various ways to gain pet experience buffs. All are additive together before multiplying. This bonus is denoted as B.
B = 1.00 when not using any buffs
B = 1.10 when using only a Safari Hat
B = 1.25 when using only a Lesser Pet Treat
B = 1.50 when using only a Pet Treat
B = 1.85 when using all 3 together.
B = 2.85 when using all 3 together during a Pet Experience bonus event.
- NOTE: Kiamoto on the WoW Pet Battle forums figured out that the Darkmoon Top Hat adds an additional 10% pet experience gain. It seems to be additive (I.E. B=1.85 becomes B=1.95). Be careful buying these as they cost tokens, cannot be sent to alts, and disappear for good once the DMF ends.
- NOTE: Every so often a bonus pet experience event (Sign of the Critter, aka: SotC) occurs over the weekend. Whenever this occurs, you can add 1.00 to your experience multiplier. Doing tamers at this point can greatly increase your levels on a single pet, so you may want to use low levels to avoid wasting all that delicious EXP.
Difficulty Bonus: The game highlights a "Difficulty Bonus" when levelling against higher level pets. This bonus isn't a multiplicative one and is already captured in the base experience equation. It is technically there when fighting lower level pets and serves as a penalty in those cases. It is represented by the opponent_pet_level - your_pet_level portion of the equation.
The final equation after all those factors is:
experience = B*T*N*[(your_pet_level + 9) * (opponent_pet_level - your_pet_level + 5)]
This equation is interesting in that it is a quadratic equation (Ax^2 + Bx + C). This means that pet experience gained will increase as your pet level increases up to a point, but after that it will then decrease, creating a peak level (or levels) that gains the most experience out of all options. As an example, this is the Pandaria Tamer curve (with B = 1.0):
Notice how level 10 and level 11 pets get the most experience out of any other (4750 experience). Pets lower and higher than those levels get less experience. To calculate this by hand, there is a standard max value for quadratics. For our particular cases, the standard max EXP value equation is:
level_for_most_exp = (opponent_pet_level - 4) / 2
For results that are less than 1, the most EXP comes from level 1 pets
For results ending in an decimal (.5), both the integer level above and below that value give max EXP.
Special ConditionsThere are two special scenarios that can modify the equation further but aren't typical scenarios when levelling pets.
Capturing a Wild Pet: Though not a hugely common occurrence since a lot of mass levelling happens at tamers, sometimes while levelling against wild pets, you might run into a rare version of a pet you need (or even a non-rare version if you don't have the pet at all). While it wasn't your intent to farm for that new pet, it just dropped into your lap. In scenarios where you are levelling a pet but also capture a wild pet, the experience you gain is decreased by 25% before rounding (So multiply by 0.75 before rounding).
Multiple Carry Pets: Most of the time, a single carry pet is used with two level 25 pets. Sometimes, however, one might have two carry pets to split too much EXP (to not waste it) on a tamer that can be solo'ed by one 25 pet. If the two carry pets are equal level, they get split the EXP straight down the middle. If they aren't equal level, it gets a bit more complicated. In that scenario, the pet with the higher level gets slightly less than half its expected EXP while the lower level pet gets slightly more than half its exptected EXP. I haven't quite nailed down exactly how it is calculated, but have been collecting data on it when I can. On my last run of level 23 carry pet paired with various other levels, it initially appears to be a small amount EXP per level difference between the two, but that is not exact. With the rounding of EXP it's hard to tell for certain the exact value until I go through more data. So for example without the safari hat and a team of 25, 23, and 22 against a Pandaria tamer I got 1392 for the 23 (expected 1400) and 1559 for the 22 (expected 1550). There will be more work on this in the future.
Requirements for Getting Pet ExperienceKnowing how to obtain experience is essential to forming a good new carry pet strategy. There are certain conditions that must be met in order to get experience for your pet:
- Must not be level 25
- Must not be 5 or more levels higher than the enemy pets.
- Must be alive at the end of battle
- Must be active at the end of at least one turn
- Performing an action or passing with the carry pet. This is a common one you'll see in pet levelling strats. Even to this day, there are still a lot of guide writers that think this is the only way to get experience for your pet. However, there are others.
- Manually swap in the carry pet and then swap it out for another. Each swap counts as a full turn. This is probably one of the more common method you'll see in guides.
- When a pet dies, select the carry pet, then immediately swap to another pet. This one is also pretty common in a lot of guides. The important thing to note is that when a pet dies, the round isn't over, so selecting the carry pet finishes the round and meets the criteria for the carry pet to be active at the end of a round.
- Abilities like Feign Death or Death Grip that force your carry pet to the front line. This works similar to a manual swap, except it is done via ability (and sometimes by the enemy...see Nearly Headless Jacob or Little Tommy Newcomer)
- Automatically having the carry pet selected when a pet dies. This is less commonly seen but still works very well. Here the game selects your carry pet for you. It occurs when two conditions are met:
- The other two pets have died, leaving only the carry pet
- The current pet died at the same time as the final enemy pet died. This method is most commonly seen in strategies that use Explode (see common Mo'ruk or Thundering Pandaren Spirit strategies involving the Darkmoon Zeppelin).
Pet Experience ChartBelow is a chart detailing the total amount of experience needed to attain a level and the amount of experience needed to get to the next level. This is useful for planning out which pets to level if you aren't going for complete maximum experience gains.
NOTE: Ril posted a slightly more detailed chart here: http://www.warcraftpets.com/community/f ... 83#p107583
Special Cases:This section provides details on some special pet battle situations. Most (but not all) reference low sources of experience.
- Various Low Experience BFA and Legion World Quests
The following world quest pet battles only award pet experience as if they were wild pet battles. They generally are not worth levelling off of.
Spineleaf
Jammer
Bristlespine
Chitara
Bloodtusk
All BFA Tamers as of patch 8.1 (they have a tamer bonus of 0.2x now)
Splint Jr.
Vinu
Thistleleaf Bully
Lil'idan
Chromadon
Hungry Icefang
The Maw
Rocko
Stitches Jr. Jr.
Heliosus
Blottis
Shipwrecked Captive
In Azsuna, you can can find the Sternfathom's Pet Journal toy, which allows you to summon and fight the Shipwrecked Captive once per week per account. This tamer gives very little experience, having only a tamer bonus of T=0.5
Garrison Visiting Tamer
The new random visiting tamer has a chance to use 5 different teams. The tamer has an decent tamer bonus with a set of level 23 pets. Despite the 5 versions of this collector (per faction), you can only complete this battle once per day per account.
Menagerie Battles
Experienced gained from Menagerie battles varies by battle. Currently only Squirt gives decent experience. She provides experience as if she were a MoP tamer (T = 5.0). All other Menagerie battles either have an extremely small tamer bonus (T=0.1) or give single wild pet only experience. Neither scenario is worthwhile for levelling pets.
Beasts of Fable and the Celestial Tournament Boss Pets
The Beasts of Fable only give experience equivalent to a wild pet battle versus a single enemy. It is not worth it to level pets against them. The same is true for the final 4 Celestial Tournament bosses.
Wasted Pet Experience ChartBelow is a chart detailing the level at which pet experience begins to be wasted in various scenarios. This can be useful for planning mass levelling sprees of similar level pets or for setting levelling pet caps in the teams addon Rematch.
NOTE: Special thanks to Ril for inspiration and data related to this chart.
Pet Experience Gained for Each TrainerBelow is a list of tamers, the experience equation of that tamer, and the pet level(s) that gain the most experience from that tamer. Equations are listed without any experience buffs (B = 1.0). Values highlighted in orange indicate that fighting the tamer under those buff conditions will result in levelling a single carry pet to 25. Values highlighted in light blue indicate that fighting the tamer under those buff conditions may result in levelling a single carry pet to 25, but it is not guaranteed. It depends on the amount of experience the pet currently has towards its next level. All values may be off by + or - 1 point due to how WoW rounds floating point numbers versus how excel does it.
15.0x Experience Tamers (Level 25)
- Ashlei
experience = 15.0*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(30 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 10 & 11
- Amalia
Sir Galveston
Durian Strongfruit
Beguiling Orb (Dazed and Confused)
Robert Craig
Odrogg
Trapper Jarrun
Nightwatcher Merayl
Xorvasc
Tiffany Nelson
Fragment of Fire
Grixis Tinypop
Bredda Tenderhide
Ominitron Defense System (Oh, Ominitron)
Bodhi Sunwayver
Varenne
Felsoul Seer
Surging Mana Crystal (Mana Tap)
Aulier
Ancient Catacomb Eggs (Clear the Catacombs)
Sissix
Madam Viciosa
Nameless Mystic
Crysa
Environeer Bert
Squirt
Gargra
Cymre Brightblade
Taralune
Vesharr
Tarr the Terrible
Hyuna of the Shrines
Farmer Nishi
Mo'ruk
Courageous Yon
Seeker Zusshi
Wastewalker Shu
Aki the Chosen
Whispering Pandaren Spirit
Thundering Pandaren Spirit
Burning Pandaren Spirit
Flowing Pandaren Spirit
Jeremy Feasel
Christoph VonFeasel
experience = 12.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(30 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 10 & 11
- Erris the Collector (Version 1) (Spores, Dusty, Salad)
Erris the Collector (Version 2) (Moon, Mouthy, Carl)
Erris the Collector (Version 3) (Enbi'see, Mal, Bones)
Erris the Collector (Version 4) (Sprouts, Prince Charming, Runts)
Erris the Collector (Version 5) (Nicodemus, Brisby, Jenner)
Kura Thunderhoof (Version 1) (Spores, Dusty, Salad)
Kura Thunderhoof (Version 2) (Moon, Mouthy, Carl)
Kura Thunderhoof (Version 3) (Enbi'see, Mal, Bones)
Kura Thunderhoof (Version 4) (Sprouts, Prince Charming, Runts)
Kura Thunderhoof (Version 5) (Nicodemus, Brisby, Jenner)
experience = 12.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(28 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 9 & 10
- Envoy of the Hunt
Wounded Azurewing Whelpling (Help a Whelp)
experience = 10.0*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(30 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 10 & 11
- Beegle Blastfuse
Okrut Dragonwaste
Gutretch
Nearly Headless Jacob
Major Payne
Brok
Bordin Steadyfist
Goz Banefury
Obalis
experience = 7.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(30 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 10 & 11
- Rydyr (Beasts of Burden)
Andurs (Beasts of Burden)
Flummox
Little Tommy Newcomer
Dr. Ion Goldbloom
Sully "The Pickle" McLeary
Wrathion
Chen Stormstout
Taran Zhu
Blingtron 4000
Wise Mari
Shademaster Kiryn
Lorewalker Cho
experience = 5.0*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(30 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 10 & 11
These tamers all have pets below level 25 and are spread out in a way that they aren't usually used for levelling. I've included the equations for each but have yet to generate any charts for them. These are here for informational purposes.
- Nicki Tinytech
experience = 7.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(25 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 8
Ras'an
experience = 7.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(26 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 8 & 9
Narrok
experience = 7.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(27 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 9
Morulu the Elder
experience = 7.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(28 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 9 & 10
Bloodknight Antari
experience = 7.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(29 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 10
These tamers all have pets below level 25 and are spread out in a way that they aren't usually used for levelling. I've included the equations for each but have yet to generate any charts for them. These are here for informational purposes.
- Julia Stevens
Zunta
experience = 5.0*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(7 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 1
Old MacDonald
Dagra the Fierce
experience = 6.25*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(8 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 1
Lindsay
Analynn
experience = 7.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(10 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 1
Eric Davidson
Zonya the Sadist
experience = 7.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(12 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 1 & 2
Steven Lisbane
Merda Stronghoof
experience = 7.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(14 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 2 & 3
Bill Buckler
Cassandra Kaboom
experience = 7.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(16 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 3 & 4
David Kosse
Traitor Gluk
experience = 7.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(18 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 4 & 5
Deiza Plaguehorn
Grazzle the Great
experience = 7.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(19 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 5
Kortas Darkhammer
Kela Grimtotem
experience = 7.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(20 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 5 & 6
Everessa
Zoltan
experience = 7.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(21 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 6
Durin Darkhammer
Elena Flutterfly
experience = 7.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(22 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 6 & 7
Lydia Accoste
Stone Cold Trixxy
experience = 7.5*[ (your_pet_level + 9)*(24 - your_pet_level) ]
Max at your_pet_level = 7 & 8
But ye I meant pet will land on level 24 with 93% into the level, alas a single wild pet battle is only needed
