Short answer: pets are cosmetic, and that is official
Every “what do pets do in Dome Keeper” thread ends the same way. The wiki states it plainly: pets are companions to the keeper that are purely cosmetic and sit in the dome. They have no mining, combat or resource effect. What they do have is behaviour — while you are underground a pet randomly chooses an action and a location in the dome, re-rolling both on a 30 second cooldown, and it occasionally greets you when you return.
So there is no best pet. The only real decision is which one you like looking at for a 20-wave run, which makes the list below a shopping list rather than a tier list.
All 13, by where they come from
| Source | Count | Pets |
|---|---|---|
| Pet cave (unlock any time) | 3 | Cat, Kiwi, Armadillo |
| Seasonal events | 3 | Dragon, Flaming Skull, Snake |
| Cosmetic gear packs | 2 | One from the Engineer Gear Pack, one from the Assessor Gear Pack |
| The Lost Keepers DLC | 5 | Vigilant Owl, Sea Dragon, Fawn, Dog, Tiny Bird, Bunny, Catgoblin (five of these seven are DLC pets) |
The arithmetic is the useful part: 6 of 13 are free (pet cave plus seasonal), and 7 sit behind purchases — two cosmetic packs and the Lost Keepers DLC. If you have not bought anything, your realistic target list is Cat, Kiwi, Armadillo and whatever the current seasonal event offers.
The pet cave
The three “normally obtainable” pets are the ones the wiki files under that heading: Cat, Kiwi and Armadillo. They are unlocked from the pet cave at any time, which means they are the only three you can go and get on demand rather than waiting for an event or a purchase.
This is also why “dome keeper cat” is such a common search: the Cat is the default pet that most players meet first, and it is the one people ask about when they are trying to work out whether they are missing a mechanic. They are not — the Cat, like every other pet, is decoration.
Seasonal pets
Dragon, Flaming Skull and Snake are tied to seasonal events rather than the pet cave. The practical consequence: if one of them is missing from your collection, the answer is not “keep playing”, it is “wait for the event to come round again”. Events are the only route, and the wiki does not offer an alternative unlock.
DLC and pack pets
Seven pets come from paid content:
- The two cosmetic gear packs (Engineer Gear Pack and Assessor Gear Pack) each add one pet. These are cosmetic bundles, so the pet is the point of the purchase rather than a side effect.
- The Lost Keepers DLC carries five. The wiki lists its pets as Vigilant Owl, Sea Dragon, Fawn, Dog, Tiny Bird, Bunny and Catgoblin — the DLC is the only source for all of them.
If you already own The Lost Keepers for the Infiltrator and Beastmaster (see the keeper guide), you already own five pets and may not have noticed.
Does any pet change the run?
No. The only things in Dome Keeper that change a run are the dome, the keeper, the gadgets and the upgrades. Pets are excluded from all of it, and they do not appear on the Prestige leaderboard either — the board records keeper, main gadget and dome only.
That also means pets are safe to ignore while you are learning. If you are choosing between spending an evening unlocking a pet and spending it learning the iron and water conversions in the resource guide, the resource work will change your scores and the pet will not.
Related guides
- Keeper Guide — the four keepers, including the two the Lost Keepers DLC adds.
- Dome and Keeper Guide — the choices that actually change a run.
- Achievements guide — what the base game actually asks you to do.
- Prestige guide — where cosmetic choices stop mattering entirely.