One of the more important choices you'll make with your character is with your companions. Guilds are trickier beast that I can deal with here, but in terms of tames and evos your companion choice can completely change your approach to creatures.
Evolution Pets
Evolution pets are a popular thing on many free shards. The gist of evos is that you get them at a very young state and, though fighting monsters to gain Kill Points, they grow into different stages of creature with better stats, resists, and over-all survivability. Paradise Found currently has four evo pets (with the potential for another on the way): Mercenary, Dragon, Hound, and Torditsaron (Demon, basically). I have all four of them at various stages and have a fair grasp of what they're capable of.
Thus far, I haven't been overly impressed with the evo pets. They're definitely helpful, but they really shine at the highest stages which can take millions of Kill Points. Earning KP for your evos gets harder and harder as they advance through the stages, so pulling together high stage evos is somewhat unlikely without donating for the evo boost.
Generally, the evo plays for you in one of two ways: He serves as a distraction, taking little damage, while you're freely throwing your spells around to melt faces. The alternative is that he tanks something big for you, forcing you to count on his damage primarily while you're stuck healing and curing him so he doesn't roll up and become even more useless. Much of the time the Evo will be in the middle of these two extremes, edging towards one or the other. This isn't to say that evos should be avoided or aren't worth the hassle; getting yourself a fully evolved Merc is definitely worth the trouble. Just be prepared for a long, sometime tiresome road.
- Mercenary. The Merc is likely the most commonly used evo, for good reason. Unlike the other Evos, it's able to use any weapon and shield you give it. It gains new armor as it progresses through stages and this armor doesn't have need upkeep. Because of this, it's fairly easy to get a merc to mid-high resists at even low stages. He has solid stats, a base 700 skill cap that can be raised to 1000 with Mercenary Elixir, and can be trained in any fighting skill, tactics, anatomy, parrying, magic resist, and meditation.
All in all, the merc is a great tank pet. With his current gear, my merc has 96% Physical resist and 80+ in all but Cold. He can easily tank through Lethal Poison, which makes him a great choice for dealing with big creatures like Navery. He's not much in the damage department, however. Even with an offensive weapon (with damage, hci, ect), they don't really wheel it out even at stage 5 (though I'm told 6 is where they start to shine). Worse yet, the weapon and shield you give him *do* require upkeep, and since his damage is so low he can go through durability like no one's business; Self Repair 3+ is highly recommended on your merc gear.
- Dragon. The dragon is another solid pet. He starts with low resists, but gains a solid amount at each stage (20% in some of the firsts, 10% in later ones). Getting him to stage 3 or 4 only takes a few hundred thousand KP, where he becomes a much more solid pet. You can feed him Dragon Dust (dropped by dragon-types generally) for 5 KP per dust.
The dragon comes with a double-edged sword, however: It casts magic. This is a good thing, because it makes him much more offensive than the merc. It's a bad thing because magic doesn't raise KP, only hitting in melee (also with bows for a merc) does that. Every time it damages a creature with a spell, that's fewer hits you're getting which means slower growth. All in all, though, the dragon is a worthwhile evo if you can get your hands on one. Having magic also means that it can teleport to enemies as well as cure and heal itself.
-Tordtisaron. This little guy was my favorite evo until last night. He's very clearly one of the offensive evos; mine is stage 3 and has more Str than my stage 5 merc. It also deals lots of melee special moves, deadly poison being one of them. It has Poisoning skill, which can be raised with Glycane Venom (created with cooking, 1 arcane gem and 2 DP potions) at 0.5 skill per cake. As of the upgrade, the gain Poisoning skill naturally like any other pet with Poisoning. Whether this is an intentionally change or not, or permanent, I can't say. It can also be fed Captured Souls (generally looted from demon-types) to gain 50 KP per.
Tordits are rare to see in use. Unlike other evos, you don't find an item that creates it for you, you have to go out and find a Tordit to tame. I found mine in the swamp SW of Paupa. It looks like an Imp initially. It also does not bond instantly like the other evos, so either wait a week or purchase a pet bonder with Plat. Tordits start out with 20% in all resist, gain 20% at stage 2, and 10% at stage 3 (where mine currently is) for a total of 50% resist all at stage 3. I can't say when/if their Poisoning skill will let them LP, but as of 63 skill they still Deadly.
- Hound. *This* is my favorite. He's a fragile little thing to start, 20% resist all and 300 HP. He's a rough one, though. My fresh Hound took out an Ancient Guardian with some healing from me. It's also the only Evo capable of weapon skill greater than GM, specifically a 130 Wrestling cap. This is a massive advantage over other pets and evos, as many of the custom creatures have high weapon skills that make them hard to hit and avoid. Evo Hounds can be fed Bone (from skeleton/undead types) for 2KP per.
He does share a drawback with the Dragon, however. As of stage 3, he'll gain the use of Magic, which will slow his KP gains. As of Stage 3, he's also capable of Lethal Poison and mortal strike. This can be both good and bad; good because it means he kills high HP creatures that can heal easier than other pets, but bad because it prevents him from gaining extra KP from healing foes. All the same, I'd rather have him the way he is. Stage 3 still only has 50% in all resists and 500HP, so it will not tank. It does have 850 Str, 130 Wrestling, and a really vicious bite so it pairs really well with a merc.
It does appear to be the easiest evo to full evolve; It has four stages, the top stage being at 3 million KP. This is much lower than the other three, which tend to top out at 10 million or even 15 million in the case of the dragon.
I'll conclude this topic in a later post, where I'll go over some of the worthwhile tamables you may find interesting.
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