Kingshot pets guide: build order, skills and refinement
Pets look like a side system until you add up the combat power inside them. Every pet by generation, which ones to level first, and how to refine without burning Taming Marks.
Quick answer
Free-to-play: max Gray Wolf and Bison first — construction speed and instant gathering pay off every day. Level Lynx to 20 and stop: that covers the stamina for four daily Pet Adventures. Spenders add Cheetah and then Moose, whose enemy-HP debuff scales in competitive play.
Refine only the pets you keep deployed. Refinement rerolls Health and Lethality per troop type — keep rolls that raise total power, reroll the rest.
Start here
How the pet system actually works
Unlock by server age
Pets arrive in generations as your kingdom ages — Gen 1 around day 55, Gen 7 around day 440. You cannot rush them; you can only be ready for them.
Two layers of buffs
Every pet gives Squad Attack and Defense that grow with level, plus six secondary stats (Health and Lethality per troop type) that grow through refinement from level 10.
Upgrade vs Advance
Leveling costs Pet Food. Every 10 levels the pet caps out and must be Advanced with Growth Manuals, then Nutrient Potions and Promotion Medallions. Advancing also levels the pet's unique skill.
Quality matters
SSR pets give better buffs per level than N or R pets, but cost more to level. A high-quality pet is where your refinement materials belong.
Stockpile before day 55. Pet Food comes from the Beast Whisperer event, Pet Adventures and packs; Growth Manuals from the Arena, Pet Adventures and the Alliance Championship shop. Players who saved materials tame and level Gen 1 pets on unlock day.
The roster
Every Kingshot pet by generation
Unlock days are approximate — they follow server age and can shift by a few days. Skills unlock at pet level 10 and level up automatically each time the pet is Advanced.
Gen 1
Unlocks ~Day 55
- Gray WolfNConstruction Aide — cuts construction time for projects started in the next 5 minutes
- LynxRComforting Embrace — restores Governor Stamina daily
- BisonSRGrip of the Titan — instantly completes a gathering march
Gen 2
Unlocks ~Day 80
- CheetahRScent Mastery — locates Pet Food
- MooseSRHorror Stare — reduces an enemy squad's Health; stronger the more HP they have
Gen 3
Unlocks ~Day 110
- LionSRGift of the King — unearths lost items on the Badland
- Grizzly BearSRThe Howler — raises March Speed and reduces enemy Lethality
Gen 4
Unlocks ~Day 180
- Mighty BisonSSRFearless Roar — increases Squad Capacity
- Giant RhinoSSRWild Charge — increases all squads' Attack
Gen 5
Unlocks ~Day 270
- Alpha Black PantherSSRDeadly Bite — increases Troop Lethality
- Great MooseSSRAntler Impact — increases Rally Capacity
Gen 6
Unlocks ~Day 350
- Ironclad War ElephantSSRElephant's Guard — increases Squad Health
- Regal White LionSSRTerritorial Power — increases squads' Defense
Gen 7
Unlocks ~Day 440
- Ironclad War BearSSRUrsa's Rage — reduces enemy squad Defense
Build order
Which pets to level first
Pet materials are the scarcest resource in the system, so order matters more than effort. The right order depends on whether you spend.
Free-to-play order
- 1Gray Wolf
- 2Bison
- 3Lynx (to 20 only)
- 4Cheetah
- 5Moose
Growth skills first: construction speed and instant gathering compound daily. Moose and Cheetah arrive with Gen 2, so push Gray Wolf and Bison hard before then.
Spender order
- 1Lynx
- 2Cheetah
- 3Bison
- 4Gray Wolf
- 5Moose
Spenders lean into combat earlier: Moose's Horror Stare debuff scales with enemy HP, which makes it one of the strongest competitive-event skills in the roster.
Taming Marks
Refinement without the regret
Refinement rerolls six stats — Health and Lethality for Infantry, Cavalry and Archers — and it is where most players quietly waste months of Taming Marks.
Replace green, retry red
Each roll can raise some stats while lowering others. If total power goes up, tap Replace to lock it in. If it goes down, tap Retry. Never Replace a red roll because one stat looked pretty.
Use the Auto button
Auto keeps improving rolls and rerolls bad ones until you stop it. It removes the temptation to settle for a mediocre roll because you were tired of tapping.
Refine deployed pets only
Refinement stats only apply while the pet is active. Refining a pet that sits in the kennel is the most common Taming Mark sink in the game.
Health and Lethality are the prize
Those are two of the scarcest combat stats in Kingshot, and refinement is one of the few renewable sources. That is why pets belong in every serious combat plan, not just the collection screen.
Combat
Where pets show up in events
Pet buffs are part of your combat stats, so anywhere your stats matter, your pets matter. Two details are worth knowing:
Bear Trap: host pets count, joiner pets don't
The rally host contributes their full stats including active pet buffs. A joiner contributes only one hero skill — their pets add nothing to the rally. One more reason strong accounts host.
Alliance Championship snapshots your pets
Registration takes a snapshot of your march including active pet buffs. Register while your best pet is active and the buff is remembered — update the team later and expired buffs are lost.
Questions
Kingshot pets FAQ
›How do you get pets in Kingshot?
Pets unlock with server age, not player level. The first generation (Gray Wolf, Lynx and Bison) arrives around day 55 of your kingdom, and a new generation follows roughly every 25–90 days after that. Once unlocked, you tame pets and then level them with Pet Food from the Beast Whisperer event, Pet Adventures and packs.
›Which pets should I level first in Kingshot?
Free-to-play players should max Gray Wolf and Bison first — construction speed and instant gathering completion pay off every single day. Keep Lynx at level 20 only: that is enough for the stamina her skill restores to cover four Pet Adventures a day. Spenders add Cheetah and then Moose, whose enemy-HP debuff scales in competitive events.
›Which pets should I refine in Kingshot?
Refine the pets you actually keep deployed, because refinement stats (Health and Lethality for each troop type) only matter while the pet is active. Spend Taming Marks on your highest-quality pet first — SSR pets give better base buffs per level, so refinement multiplies a stronger base.
›How does pet refinement work?
Refinement rerolls six secondary stats — Health and Lethality for Infantry, Cavalry and Archers — using Taming Marks. Each roll can raise some stats and lower others. If total power goes up, tap Replace to keep it; if it goes down, tap Retry. The Auto button keeps good rolls and rerolls bad ones for you.
›Do pet skills work in Bear Trap?
Pet buffs apply to the rally host, because the host contributes their full combat stats — including active pet buffs — to the rally. That is one more reason the strongest accounts should host Bear rallies. A joiner's pets do not add anything to the rally beyond their own march.
›How many pets are there in Kingshot?
Fourteen pets across seven generations so far, from the Gen 1 Gray Wolf, Lynx and Bison up to the Gen 7 Ironclad War Bear. Higher generations unlock as the server ages — Gen 7 arrives around day 440 — so every kingdom eventually gets the full roster.
›What is the difference between upgrading and advancing a pet?
Upgrading is normal leveling with Pet Food. Every 10 levels the pet hits a cap and must be Advanced with Growth Manuals, and later Nutrient Potions and Promotion Medallions. Advancing also levels the pet's unique skill, so a pet below level 10 has no skill at all.
Pet data cross-checked against the Kingshot Wiki roster and community pet guides on September 29, 2026. Unlock days follow server age and can shift by a few days per kingdom.
Next step
Share the build order with your alliance
The most common alliance chat question after day 55 is "which pet do I level?" Publish your alliance's pet priorities where members actually read them and stop answering it weekly.