Level 1 to 25 in thirteen minutes.

Note: this guide was made in 5.4. It still works; this is how I level a new pet each day. However, with all of the new tamers and pets in WoD I imagine some PvE experts have come up with better ways than this for leveling. Make sure to check out the links section to keep up with all of the new pet leveling strategies.

This is a short guide for people like me who don’t like to spend a lot of time doing the tamer battles to level up your pets. When the Pandaria tamers were first introduced I did the whole circuit almost every day and I really got burned out on it. In fact, I stopped leveling pets all together. That really isn’t realistic though, because if I want to use a new pet for PvP it needs to be level 25. So what I’ve done is tried to find the fastest way to get a level 1 pet to level 25. The method described here takes about thirteen minutes.

Limitations: This method requires the use of a “hamburger” pet treat and the Safari Hat. The pet treat is an item that increases battle pet experience by 50% for one hour. These treats are obtained through the weekly pet battle PvP quest or bought from Master Li on the Timeless Isle for one celestial coin. There is another type of 25% pet treat often referred to as a “sausage” pet treat. We will not be using that. The Safari Hat is obtained by completing the achievement “Taming The World”, which requires you to defeat 40 master pet tamers. If you don’t have the hat yet then go out and defeat any tamers you need to complete the achievement.

Here are the level 25 pets I use:
H/P Shimmershell Snail
H/B Darkmoon Zeppelin
P/S Zandalari Anklerender
S/B Clockwork Gnome
P/S Eternal Strider
S/S Blue Clockwork Rocket Bot*
H/B Tranquil Mechanical Yeti
H/H Chrominius

The breed of the snail and raptor are not that important. I put an asterisk by the Blue Clockwork Rocket Bot because most mechanical pets will work in its place. The Tranquil Mechanical Yeti works much better for finishing off Nishi’s beast.

I highly suggest using Simca’s addon “Auto Safari Hat”. Among other things, it allows you to click on the tamers once to get the daily quests then click on them once more after the battle to turn in the quest. It saves some time.

Overview:
Choose a level one pet that you want to level. This pet will be referred to from now on as the “carry pet”. We will utilize the mechanic that allows the carry pet to receive experience from winning the battle even though it doesn’t contribute much to the battle, or even participate in the battle at all. It only takes four tamers to get to level 25. We’ll start with the Thundering Pandaren Spirit, then Aki, then Nishi and finally Mo’Ruk. Get your level one carry pet out and lets get started by heading to the Thundering Pandaren Spirit. Don’t forget to use your hamburger treat before starting the first battle. I should also mention that you really want to hustle through this because the duration of the hamburger treat is one hour. More importantly, it persists through logging out. What this means is that if you don’t waste any time and you have a dedicated alt you can level four pets this way with only one treat. So let’s hustle!

Thundering Pandaren Spirit
I got this strategy from Rendigar’s 5.4 Guide to Master Tamer (levelling) + Beasts Of Fable at WarcraftPets. We’ll use the Shimmershell Snail, Darkmoon Zeppelin and of course our carry pet. After you’ve used your treat start with the snail. In this battle you won’t need to swap in your carry pet at all, it will be the sole survivor at the end of the battle.

Shimmershell Snail:
Start with Dive against the Pandaren Earth Spirit. After the Dive hits use Acid Goo and Ooze Touch until the first enemy pet dies. Then use Acid Goo and Ooze Touch against the Sludgy until your Shimmershell Snail dies.

Darkmoon Zeppelin:
tf AAfter the snail dies bring in your Zeppelin to finish off Sludgy with Missiles. The final npc pet is Darnak the Tunneler. Use Missile then Decoy after he goes under. Cast Missile, then Decoy, then spam Missiles until he is with Explode range (less than 619 health). Usually Darnak brings the Darkmoon Zeppelin to 0 hp with a Stone Rush, but the mechanical racial will bring the mech back to life so it can get off Explode. Explode will kill Darnak and your level 1 pet will get 5800 experience, bringing it to level 13. This first fight takes a little over 2 minutes. Don’t forget to turn in the quest (or just click on the NPC if you use Auto Safari Hat). Jump on your mount and head towards Aki.

Aki the Chosen
This strategy was left as comment by Choan on 2/2/14. It uses a Zandalari Anklerender, Clockwork Gnome and your carry pet.

Zandalari Anklerender:
tf BUse Bite once then spam Leap. You probably won’t kill Chirrup on the second round but it’s good to use Leap a turn early in case you get some crits. You need to be faster than the dragon when it comes out. After Chirrup dies use Black Claw on Stormlash before it kills your raptor.

Clockwork Gnome:
Bring in the Gnome and cast Turret.

Carry pet:
Swap in the carry pet just to take a hit. The Turret will kill Stormlash thanks to its own lightning.

Clockwork Gnome:
tf DSwap back to the Clockwork Gnome and cast Turret again. Metal Fist until Whiskers dies, your carry pet gets 7480 experience and is now level 19. The elapsed time to this point is around six minutes. Turn in the quest and fly towards Farmer Nishi.

Farmer Nishi
This strategy is the most obvious and was created by yours truly. Use your Eternal Strider, Blue Clockwork Rocket Bot and carry pet.

Carry pet:
Start with your carry pet against Siren. Use any attack then swap to the strider.

Eternal Strider:
tf ECast Cleansing Rain then charge Pump. Use Water Jet, then finish off Siren by releasing Pump. Toothbreaker will be the next npc pet. Use Water Jet before Toothbreaker cast Sons Of The Root to go under ground. While Toothbreaker is under cast Cleansing Rain again then recharge Pump. When Toothbreaker comes up finish it by releasing Pump. Brood of Mothallus is the final npc pet. You will be able to get off one Water Jet on it. It is faster than you and will Burrow next. The Burrow will kill your strider, bring in your Blue Clockwork Rocket Bot (or other mech).

Clockwork Rocket Bot:
Cast Batter three times to finish off Brood Of Mothallus. Your carry pet will get 6160 experience and will be level 22. Elapsed time is right around nine minutes.

I started using the Tranquil Mechanical Yeti as the third pet. You can alwyas kill the Brood Of Mothallus in two rounds with the yeti. Turn in the quest and head off to Mo’ruk.

tf F*Since both Water Jet and Pump are 95% moves you may miss. If that happens you don’t need to reset, just improvise. This is why it may be better to chose a pet with aquatic attacks as a back up. I don’t really feel that it is necessary since I’ve only ever had to reset this encounter once in all of the times I’ve done it this way (since Nishi was “fixed”).

Mo’ruk
I used to hate this encounter until I found SuperD’s guides at Pet Charge. Now it’s easy. We will use the Darkmoon Zeppelin, Chrominius and the carry pet.

Darkmoon Zeppelin:
Start with Missile, then use Decoy as Woodcarver goes under for the Burrow. Then spam Missiles until Woodcarver is gone. The annoying moth is next. Swap to Chrominius.

Chrominius:
Lightstalker will use Moth Dust, but don’t worry if it puts you to sleep. It’s weak damage and Chrominius can handle it. Howl then use Surge of Power and Lightstalker is dead. Needleback will come out and most likely kill Chrominius. If it doesn’t kill you then Bite until you Chrominius is dead.

Darkmoon Zeppelin:
tf LBring back the Darkmoon Zeppelin to finish off Needleback. Use Missiles until it has less than 619 health then use Explode. The only thing that you need to worry about is getting stunned from Headbutt, so drop a Decoy right before Headbutt comes off CD. If rng is really bad to you and you can’t finish Needleback with the Zeppelin it’s not a big deal. Your carry pet is a level 22 with full health so it can easily kill the turtle, but this is rarely necessary. Your carry pet will get 4445 from the battle and will now be level 25.

In the screenshots I took above I was hustling by clicking, dismounting and selecting my moves as fast as possible. That combined with the fact that Nishi’s beast missed its Burrow (remember this was created when Burrow misses were still possible) meant that I finished about a minute quicker than usual. If you go at a reasonable pace and all of the battles go as normal then it generally takes right under 13 minutes as you can see from the screenshots below.

tf M

tf N

16 Responses to Level 1 to 25 in thirteen minutes.

  1. Alakallanar says:

    On Farmer Nishi I once had the Siren barely surviving the third Water Jet, which meant one additional Sunbeam and therefore the Strider only hit Toothbreaker once before being killed by the first round of Sons Of The Root.

    (The carry was a mechanical pet with only mechanical attacks, so it’s starting hit was weak.)

    • Vek says:

      I usually run a Sea Pony instead of Eternal Strider. Cleansing Rain then Pump until Sunflower is dead. Then Tidal Wave to sweep away the Sons. Now you can switch in the carry pet that will take no damage. Then switch back to Sea Pony and Pump until it is killed by the Brood.

      Gotta try Chrominius on Mo’ruk, seems much better than what I currently use.

      Mo’ruk and Wastewalker are the only trainers that still give me trouble some times, with some bad rng.

    • Discodoggy says:

      Were you using a P/S strider? I used to have this happen when I used an H/S Mirror Strider.

  2. Lue says:

    The Thundering Pandaren Spirit strategy doesn’t work. First off, you never explain when to bring in the carry pet for an attack. I am new to pet battles, so I don’t know if you wrote this before 5.4 where perhaps your carry pet didn’t have to attack to get experience? But that isn’t the case now. I tried bringing the carry in right after placing Decoy but that still doesnt work. My Zeppelin is too low in HP after the 2nd pet to get to the point where I can explode the Tunneler. And the one time I did manage to get explode off, it was the turn that the Tunneler did his second burrow.

  3. Lue says:

    Nevermind, I apologize. I read Rendigar’s guide and he made it clear that because the only pet that would live through the battle was the carry, I will still get experience. It’d be great if you could clear that up in this guide. Thank you for all your hard work.

    • Discodoggy says:

      Thanks for pointing out the lack of clarity. I added a sentence explaining that you don’t need to bring in the carry pet.

  4. Nev says:

    Cannot recommend this method highly enough! Just scored my first “hamburger” treat and this was exactly the guide to lead me on the path of using it most effectively!

    These pet battles can only be completed once a day per account, so to make the most effective use of my treat I mailed it to a little used level 90 alt that has Pandarian flying and max flight speed. My rationale is that once these four battles were complete, I could log off and leave the alt untouched until the following day when the dailies were available again, thus preserving the buff. These treats are rare (I received this one in a pet battle PvP quest reward bag, first I have spied), or the cost is high (one Celestial token from the tournament, in which only one token can be earned a week), so I was anxious to find the most effective way to enjoy it.

    My first time, including commute time, completed all 4 battles in just under 19 minutes. This will probably go a little smoother tomorrow and each time in the future as I will tab out a little less to the guide as I become more familiar with the recommendations. Factoring this, should be able to level 3 pets to 25 at the minimum in 3 days, and at least a forth should be 25 or a good chunk of the way to 25 every three days.

    In addition to my own pet battling needs, I often level pets to be given away as prizes for guild contests and events, so this method is very welcome and appreciated. Happy leveling!

    • Nev says:

      Oh, I forgot to mention… for Farmer Nishi, I do not have the Blue Clockwork Rocket Bot or an Eternal Water Strider maxed, so I used two Dancing Water Skimmers both with Water Jet, Cleansing Rain and Pump. Worked like a charm!

    • Discodoggy says:

      Sweet! I’m glad it’s working well for you :)

    • Nev says:

      If you do not happen to have a 50% exp buff treat, you can use a 25% exp buff treat (and Safari Hat) and get a pet to level 25 in five pet battles. For the fifth fight, I use Seeker Zusshi in Townlong Steppes and two Emperor Crabs – just make sure to swap in the carry pet for a hit or two, it should be over level 20 at this point and survivable.

  5. Steve says:

    Nothing happened. My carry pet did not get a single exp. I followed the guide exactly and my anklerender is still a level 2.

    • Discodoggy says:

      Can you be more specific? I haven’t leveled any pets in about a month, but I haven’t heard of any changes to carry pets getting experience.

    • Zel says:

      Used this technique today again and it works like a charm, got my little Falcosaur levelled up in no time.

      • Discodoggy says:

        Nice! I wasn’t even aware this page was still accessible, I thought I had taken it down due to newer strats being available. I guess it still works :)

        • Discodoggy says:

          Also, I was planning on hosting an event to see how fast people can raise a pet from 1 to 24 (since most people use a stone for the last level). If you have any good ideas keep em to yourself for now, the contest should be around in December. Trying to work out some kinks with the rules.

        • Gráinne says:

          Oh yes, it still works. It’s what I do when I get a new pet.

          I use a couple of differences in the strats, but the idea of the nice straight line down to Mo’ruk is great.

          I will often then pop over to the Pandaren Water Spirit. The Teroclaw destroys that battle. If I used a sausage instead of a burger, the pet will hit 24 at the PWS, and I might get a sellable pet in the bag.

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