As is the usual custom, each preseason Riot Games introduces huge changes to League of Legends. In the past, we’ve been hit with major gameplay shifts such as the Elemental Drakes or the addition of mythic items.
And now it’s the turn of the jungle pets!
If you aren’t a jungle main or if you’re a returning player, pets might seem like a really strange idea for LoL. However, Riot made them fit well enough within the general gameplay of season 13.
And to put it simply, every jungle champion now must choose between one of the 3 different jungle pets!
Here’s What Jungle Pets Do in League of Legends:
Jungle pets replace the jungle items Emberknife and Hailblade. There are 3 different pets, each offering unique benefits when they’re fully evolved.
The pets can be evolved with treats that you get by slaying monsters. After 20 treats your Smite gets upgraded to 900 damage and after 40 treats to 1200 damage.
At the start of each game, every jungler needs to make a decision about which jungle pet to choose. The jungle pets are found in the in-game shop and can be purchased with the starting gold just like any other starting item.
When you purchase a jungle pet, you get its egg in your inventory with the number “40” (referring to the number of treats you’ll need to give to your pet).
Your pet immediately starts to follow you and has an indicator for the recommended jungle camp for your champion.
This is part of the many changes that Riot Games introduced to the jungle in season 13 of League of Legends.
And besides your pet’s helpful indicator, your minimap will also tell you which jungle route is preferred for your champion, no matter whether you’re on the blue or red side.
So, when you start fighting a jungle monster your pet immediately starts attacking alongside you. Your pet assists you with damage but it only attacks jungle monsters, not enemy champions.
Additionally, your pet’s auto-attacks also heal you while fighting jungle monsters.
The damage output of your jungle pet is actually pretty high. And it scales with your item build. So the stronger you are, the more damage your jungle pet will do.
This is due to the fact that Riot Games removed the healing part of your Smite (Smite no longer heals when used on monsters).
So instead of healing yourself with each Smite, now you take down monsters faster, and your pet helps you keep your health up.
As I mentioned above, every pet offers a unique benefit when it’s fully evolved, so let’s talk about each one specifically and see what they can give you.
Read Also: Rift Herald – A Complete Guide for Junglers
Red Pet – Scorchclaw
Here’s what Scorchclaw gives:
- Allows you to collect Ember stacks when slaying monsters. At 100 Ember stacks, your next auto-attack slows down the target and burns them based on max Health.
- Reduces the damage you take from Epic Monsters if 2 or more allies are nearby.
- Transforms your Smite into Unleashed Smite (900 damage) after 20 treats and into Primal Smite (1200 damage) after 40 treats. Against champions, both Primal and Unleashed Smite deal a bit of true damage and slow down the target.
As you can see, the red jungle pet, Scorchclaw, is a great choice for aggressive early game junglers.
It’s great for dueling, especially for jungle champions that like to go for 1v1 skirmishes in the early game or invade the enemy jungler’s territory.
The only tricky part about Scorchclaw is getting your Ember stacks up before you gank.
This means that you have to spend some time fighting jungle monsters, but the payout is really worth it since the extra slow and damage makes your ganks super scary.
Here are a few jungle champions that really benefit from Scorchclaw:
- Lee Sin
- Kayn
- Bel’Veth
- Shaco
- Viego
Blue Pet – Gustwalker
The blue jungle pet, Gustwalker, grants these bonuses in League of Legends:
- Grants bonus movement speed when you enter a brush and even more movement speed after you kill a large monster.
- Reduces the damage you take from Epic Monsters if 2 or more allies are nearby.
- Transforms your Smite into Unleashed Smite (900 damage) after 20 treats and into Primal Smite (1200 damage) after 40 treats. Against champions, both Primal and Unleashed Smite deal a bit of true damage and slow down the target.
This pet is perfect for jungle champions that like to move around the map quickly and clear their jungle camps efficiently.
It shortens the time between finishing one camp and starting another, so it’s a good pet for junglers that focus on farming during the early game.
What’s great about the blue pet is that if you smite an opponent while being in a brush, your movement speed will be increased while theirs greatly reduced.
So it’s quite unlikely that they’ll be able to escape you, no matter what they do.
Gustwalker is recommended for these jungle champions:
- Hecarim
- Lilia
- Master Yi
- Rammus
- Rengar
Read Also: 7 Best AD Junglers to Solo Carry
Green Pet – Mosstomper
Mosstomper, the green pet in League of Legends, offers this:
- Gives you a permanent shield when you’re out of combat. The strength of the shield increases with each monster you kill. And while the shield is up, you have increased tenacity and slow resist.
- Reduces the damage you take from Epic Monsters if 2 or more allies are nearby.
- Transforms your Smite into Unleashed Smite (900 damage) after 20 treats and into Primal Smite (1200 damage) after 40 treats. Against champions, both Primal and Unleashed Smite deal a bit of true damage and slow down the target.
As you can see, Mosstomper is the ideal choice for tank junglers looking to be the frontline of their teams.
Besides the bonus shield, they also get tenacity and slow resist which will help them control the start of each team fight.
On top of this, the bonuses here are great no matter which champion you’re playing. The survivability is simply fantastic and it can make any squishy jungler into a tank one.
But here are the best champions for the green pet, Mosstomper, in LoL:
- Sejuani
- Maokai
- Shyvana
- Udyr
- Amumu
Read Also: How to Carry as Jungle in League of Legends?
Evolving Your Jungle Pet with Treats – How Does it Work?
Evolving your jungle pet in League of Legends is done through treats. And the idea is to work on as many treats as you can during the early game so your pet evolves faster.
There are two ways of getting treats as a jungler in League of Legends:
- You get a treat after 2 minutes of starting the match, regardless of what you do. After that, the game continues to give you 1 treat every single minute.
- Slaying a large or epic monster in the jungle grants you 1 treat, no matter whether it’s the Blue Buff, the Dragon, or the Scuttle Crab.
Note that you don’t need to do anything in order to activate the treats. Your pet automatically consumes them after you slay the monster or when you’re out of combat.
But each treat grants you bonus gold when your pet consumes it.
After you’ve given your pet 20 treats, your Smite transforms into Unleashed Smite and deals 900 true damage to monsters.
At this time, you can start using your Unleashed Smite on enemy champions. And your pet also transforms and gets bigger.
After 40 treats, your pet reaches its final form and grants you the full benefits I’ve mentioned above. Your Unleashed Smite turns to Primal Smite and deals 1200 true damage to neutral monsters.
Read Also: How to Gank as Rengar? (Guide)
Conclusion
Obviously, different jungle champions are able to evolve their pets faster than others. However, there isn’t a large gap here and all junglers evolve their jungle pets at a similar pace.
On the other hand, the jungle pets of season 13 make it so nearly all champions can become junglers. Even the off-meta jungle picks are good options for ranked matches.
So, no matter what you play in the jungle, remember that the blue pet is for more movement speed, the red for more damage and slowing down your opponents, and the green for becoming tankier!
And if you’re interested, you can check this YouTube video to see the jungle pets in-game!
