Capybara Pet - Alpha

Capybara Pet - Alpha

Adds a calm capybara companion with her own art, her own Den Journal of skills, blessings, and a petting interaction.

Why she exists

Pets in the base game hit level 10 far too quickly, and then they are finished. You raise one, it maxes out in an afternoon, and from that point the only way to have something to work towards is to put it away and start again with a different animal. The pet you actually like becomes the pet you have no reason to carry.

This mod is the answer to that. The capybara keeps levelling - you never have to replace her. She goes to level 1000 by default rather than 10, and every level past the tenth hands her a leaf to spend in her Den Journal. So the pet you bonded with at the start is still the pet you are improving a hundred hours later, and the levels keep meaning something instead of stopping dead.

Everything else here grew out of that one idea: if she is going to level forever, she needs somewhere for all that progress to go.

⚠️ Please read first - this mod is still in testing

She is playable, but she is not finished. Three things you should know before you install her:

• She is still being balanced. Some skills are almost certainly too strong and some are too weak. Numbers will change between versions.
• There may still be a small FPS drop while the Den Journal is open. The big one was fixed in 1.9.7 - it could drag 85 FPS down to about 20 - so if you still notice it with the skill menu open, please say so, because that is new information.
• Your saved build is safe. Skills are saved by name, so adding, removing or reordering them does not wipe what you have spent.

I need your help to balance her. I cannot test every build myself, and the whole point of her is that she should feel good to play rather than obviously correct to min-max. If something feels overpowered, useless, or just unfun, please say so in the Discussion tab on this page - tell me the skill and what you expected. That feedback is what the next version is built from.

How to use

• Craft her at the My Mods Table for 100 Ancient Coins.
• Put her in a pet slot.
• Walk near her and press interact to pet her.
• Press the pet button to open her Den Journal.

She does not fight

She is a companion, not a battle pet. She follows you, heals you and cheers you on, and she never picks a fight with anything. Everything she learns makes you stronger instead.

How she reacts

She is one animal, so you can tell what she is doing by watching her:

• Petted - a happy wobble, hearts, and the game's own petting sound.
• Blessing - she draws herself up slowly and proudly while the sparkle plays.
• Hot spring - two deliberate pulses, like a heartbeat, and hearts.

The reactions are drawn on your own machine, so on somebody else's dedicated server she still blesses and still mends - she just does not move while doing it.

The Den Journal

Only the capybara has one. Every other pet keeps the game's own talents.

She earns one leaf per level, and because she levels to 1000 rather than 10 there is always something worth planting. Leaves go anywhere you like across fourteen kinds of skill:

• Thorn - melee damage, melee attack speed, damage to anything stunned.
• Feather - ranged damage, ranged attack speed, piercing shots.
• Spore - magic damage, burning turned back into power, a ghost caveling raised from something you killed, and a wellspring that often swallows the cost of your casting altogether for a minute.
• Pack - minion damage, minion attack speed, minion crit, and a lighter mana reservation so you can keep more minions out at once.
• Fang - attack speed, crit chance, crit damage, boss damage, and a finisher that hits harder the closer something is to dying.
• Bramble - what your hits leave behind: radiation, poison, burning, slippery footing, a headbutt that stuns, and extra damage to anything already suffering.
• Hot Spring - healing, mana, a bigger mana pool, a shield, a second wind when you are running low, and a spring that overflows into a minute where mana stops being a problem.
• Trail - mining damage and speed, movement speed, a much longer reach for picking things up, a better nose for what is inside a wall, and a capybara that gathers up every critter you walk past and hands it to you.
• Glow - a lantern that follows you, in warm orange, blue, pink, green or void violet. Up to +50 light each, which is a very long way into the dark.
• Hide - armour and tools that resist wear, a step that dodges outright, softer boss hits, and a nap that catches you instead of a killing blow.
• Orchard - seeds saved from a harvest, bigger harvests, two fish from one bite, an extra helping out of the pot, and cooked-food buffs that last far longer.
• Ember - wider explosions, hotter explosions, and explosions that hurt you less.
• Workshop - an extra item out of the alchemy table, the industrial benches, and anything you build.
• Herd - what standing near you is worth: damage for you and your allies, a warmth that sets nearby enemies alight, a faint glow that irradiates them, more out of a full belly, a knockback on your hits, and ranged speed for every minion you have out.