Hero Wars pets: patronage, upgrades and the best pet for your team

This guide covers both Hero Wars: Alliance (mobile) and Hero Wars: Dominion Era (browser and Facebook). The pet system is the same in both, but new pets and pet events can differ. Robin, the newest pet, is confirmed only for Dominion Era as of 10 November 2026. Back to the Hero Wars hub.

How pets unlock and the ten classic pets

Pets live in the Sanctuary, which unlocks at team level 40. h-w.fun and Hero Wars Olympus both list the same first choice: Oliver, Fenris or Merlin. Oliver is the usual starter pick because his patronage protects tanks well, but none of the three is a mistake, since you eventually collect them all.

The classic roster has ten pets: Fenris, Oliver, Merlin, Cain, Mara, Albus, Axel, Biscuit, Khorus and Vex. The last four came one per year, Axel in 2020, Biscuit in 2021, Khorus in 2022 and Vex in 2023, and then the roster stood still until Robin. Guides for both versions cover the same ten.

Active pet and patronage: the two jobs of a pet

Every pet can do two different jobs, and the Robin card above shows both.

• Active pet (companion). One pet joins the battle with your team. Its first skill works like a titan totem: a strong team wide effect that you can trigger by hand in manual mode. The second skill fires automatically. These two skills only work when that pet is your active pet.
• Patron. All your other pets can be assigned to individual heroes. A patron pet adds two bonus stats to its hero and, from Violet rank, a patronage skill that works like an extra passive for that hero. The pet does not have to fight for this, and the patronage skill stops if the hero dies.

Each hero can take only one patron, and each pet can patron only a fixed list of heroes. That list is why some heroes rise in the meta when a new pet arrives: a hero who could only take a weak patron suddenly gets a strong one. h-w.fun counts a maximum of six pets in one battle, one companion and five patrons.

Byrna (Dominion Era art) and Nebula (Alliance art) are both on Robin's patron list. That kind of fit, a hero who needs energy faster, is exactly what to look for when you assign patrons.

Upgrading pets: level, rank, stars and gems

Pets grow on four tracks. Spending in the right order saves months of resources.

1. Level with Pet Potions. Pet level is capped by your team level. Potions come from Adventures, the Sanctuary and pet events, and Hero Wars events regularly hand them out as rewards.
2. Rank to Violet. Blue rank lets a pet patron a hero and give bonus stats, but the patronage skill only unlocks at Violet. Hero Wars Olympus and h-w.fun both name this as the most common mistake: raising every pet to Blue instead of pushing one pet to Violet first.
3. Gems with Chaos Particles. Each pet has gems on two sides. The left side strengthens the pet as an active companion, the right side strengthens patronage. Only upgrade the side you actually use.
4. Stars with Pet Soul Stones. Stars go from one to six and are the slowest and most expensive track. Treat them as a long term goal.

Where pet resources come from

In Dominion Era the official event calendar has two regular pet events. Portal Anomaly pays Chaos Particles and Portal Charges for pet upgrades, and The Great Storm is a solo Adventure whose Storm Coins buy pet resources. Pet Summoning Eggs also appear as rewards, for example in an official Easter gift that held 10 eggs and 3 Portal Charges in April 2026. We did not find these exact event names in the official Alliance news, so check your in game calendar on mobile. Free pet resources sometimes come through gift links, which we track on the Hero Wars promo codes page.

Pets cost a lot of Emeralds per point of power. Before you buy pet bundles, read our Emerald guide for where Emeralds pay off most.

A simple pet plan for your first months

Pets reward focus more than any other system in the game, because the power jump comes at one specific rank. A plan that follows the advice of both guides above looks like this:

• First, right after the Sanctuary opens. Level your starter pet with Pet Potions and push it toward Violet. Do not touch stars yet. Put it on the hero who carries your team, usually your tank if you took Oliver.
• Next target: your main active pet. Choose the companion you will run in the Arena and Grand Arena (Axel is the most common pick) and raise it to Violet, then upgrade the left gem side, since that side powers the active skills.
• Then patrons one by one. Bring each further pet to Violet before starting the next, and upgrade only the right gem side on pets you use purely as patrons. Skipping the unused side is where most Chaos Particles are saved.
• Stars last. Pet Soul Stones are slow to collect, so stars are a project for the long run once your main pets are Violet.
• Time your spending. Keep Chaos Particles and potions for the pet events, where spending them also completes event quests. Check the events guide for what is running now.

If you returned after a break, do not assume your old pet setup still fits. New heroes change who deserves the best patrons, and a pet that was your companion two years ago may now be more useful as a patron.

Robin, the new pet in Dominion Era (2026)

On 28 September 2026 the Dominion Era team posted "New Pet! Yes, Really!": the first new pet in three years. Robin was available on pre-order until 4 October and debuted in the Mead Festival, a guild event that replaced the Autumn Festival from 4 October 2026, where Barrel Keys and the shared Barrel paid out Robin's Soul Stones. The Mead Festival is running again in November 2026.

Robin is built around energy. According to his official card:

• On Borrowed Wings (active): steals some energy from each enemy hero and gives it to the ally who received the least energy recently.
• Counterflow (passive): when an opponent receives bonus energy, Robin lowers that hero's physical and magic attack for a few seconds.
• Fair Wind (patronage): gives his patroned hero bonus energy every few seconds.
• Bonus stats: Health and Magic Defence.
• Some heroes he can patron: Nebula, Byrna, Somna, Astaroth, Amira, Martha, Folio and Fafnir.

The official post sums up the idea: Robin helps slower heroes reach their ultimates sooner and makes enemy energy spikes less comfortable. In Hero Wars Olympus' 2026 pet guide, Robin's gems go right side first, because Fair Wind scales with patronage power, and left side only if you run him as the active pet.

The Anti Energy Pet: Robin Explained

Best pet for each team type

Pet choice depends on your heroes, so treat these as starting points from named guides, not fixed rules. The main source is Hero Wars Olympus' pet priority list (2025, updated with Robin in 2026). The companion ranking comes from h-w.fun (2023), the most detailed popularity ranking we found.

Pet artifacts?

We found no pet artifact system in either version. The closest equivalent is the gem system on two sides plus ranks and stars. If a guide or video mentions pet artifacts, it is mixing up pets with hero or titan artifacts, which our skins, glyphs and artifacts guide and the titans guide cover.

FAQ