Knowing how to level your Battle Pets quickly in World of Warcraft can make all the difference if you’re someone who enjoys collecting pets. There are some steep achievement requirements if you want to unlock certain rare pets, like leveling 75 pets to level 25, so it’s good to have a speed leveling method at your disposal.
Luckily, there’s plenty of ways to speed run the leveling process and get your favorite pets from 1-25. I’ve picked out the most common methods for leveling, timed them, and noted my thoughts on their efficiency.
Here’s how to level Battle Pets quickly in Dragonflight, with advice on the best locations to visit and items to pick up on the way. I’ve included the regular leveling route at the start, so you can contrast the other methods against it.
Before We Start
I’ve tested each method in this article with one level 1, uncommon Critter pet and two level 25 Battle Pets. I started from Stormwind each time, too.
This was to make the times as accurate as possible. I picked Critter Battle Pets as my baseline pet as they’re immune to a lot of CCs and have no second life or healing mechanics. The methods in this article will work with any pet, though.
Some methods require you to have certain items, like Battle-Stones, so I’ve ignored any that were already in my inventory and started from 0 to make the times accurate.
It’s also worth noting that it’s theoretically possible to level your pets using PVP battles, although I had no luck with this on my server. PVP matches are set up between teams of exactly the same level, and it’s rare to find someone else training a duo of level 25 Battle Pets with a single level 1 pet.
Follow the Standard Leveling Route
Time: 3:13:47
Necessary elements: flying mount and flight paths unlocked.
To get a feel for the baseline leveling process, I leveled one pet from 1 to 25 using the standard leveling route. This means I went from zone to zone according to the wild pet level shown on the map.
I went from 1-18 in Eastern Kingdoms, 18-20 in Outland, 20-23 in Northrend, and 23-25 in Pandaria. These zones can vary, of course, but I was playing an Alliance toon and it was the quickest path for me to take.
To get the fairest possible grasp on the standard leveling route, I didn’t use any portals or time-saving travel methods. I used flight paths, my flying mount, and my Hearthstone for my Garrison to help me hop in between zones.
Leveling a pet from 1 to 25 with no items or time-saving methods is somewhat of a grind, but it certainly is possible. If you’re leveling a new character, you could level up a Battle pet while you go from zone to zone.
This certainly isn’t the fastest way to level Battle Pets quickly, though. Going from zone to zone takes a lot of time and the grind from 18-25 takes the most time. If you prefer taking the scenic route and would like to get your ‘Explore’ achievements, though, this could be the best method for you.
Battle NPC Tamers
Time: 1:50:38
Necessary elements: NPC Tamer and wild boss pet dailies unlocked, two strong level 25 Battle Pets, and Battle Pet bandages.
If you’re decent at winning pet battles with 2 Battle Pets, chances are that you’ll be able to do this method in a quicker time than me. I mainly used my Albino Chimaeraling and Anubisath Idol pet for this method, along with my Flamering Moth and Kun-Lai Runt.
I started leveling my pet up by going around the Eastern Kingdoms and defeating the lower level tamers with my team of 2 level 25 pets and focus Critter pet.
Once I hit level 18, I went to Pandaria and looked for the Spirit tamers, regular tamer battles, and strong pets to level against, too. This is definitely where I lost some time, as I didn’t quite have my 2 pet strategy down for the Spirit tamers.
Once I got to level 23, I wanted to switch it up and used my Garrison hearthstone to get to Draenor. I finished up the leveling process there.
If you’re not in too much of a rush, spend some time looking up efficient 2 pet strategies to save yourself time here, and save up Battle Pet bandages to limit how much time you spend heading back and forth between Stable Masters.
This method is certainly viable, but it’s worth checking out the other methods to help you save even more time while leveling.
Use Pet Battle-Stones
Time: 1:28:40
Necessary elements: Decent level 25 Battle Pets, a flying mount, Polished Pet Charms, Garrison pet vendor, world quests unlocked, and daily quests unlocked.
Next, I wanted to test how quick it is to farm enough currency to purchase enough Battle-Stones to level up a pet completely from 1 to 25.
If you’re unfamiliar with these items, a Battle-Stone can immediately upgrade a Battle Pet’s quality and/or increase its levels. They’re similar to Rare Candies in Pokemon.
You’ll need Polished Pet Charms to pick up Pet Battle-Stones. You can get them from supply bags, like the Brawler’s Pet Supplies that drop from weekly quests and world quests.
To start, I found two world quests currently up in Shadowlands which did not take too long to complete. One gave me 17 Polished Pet Charms and the other gave me a Fel-Touched Battle Training stone which provided my chosen pet with 10K experience.
I went back to my Garrison, and used the Polished Pet Charms to buy Flawed Battle Training Stones from the pet vendor to use on my Critter pet.
I then focused on completing the Battle Pet Tamers: Warlords quest, as this rewards 10 Flawed Battle-Stones.
I completed two PVP pet battles while doing these daily quests as I had won 8/10 battles for the What We’ve Been Training For quest and was curious to see if I’d get anything from the Brawler’s Supplies.
Predictably, no stones dropped when I got the quest reward. I definitely wasted some time here (I would estimate 15 minutes) so I would recommend just burning down the daily quests and world quests to make this process a lot easier.
Using Battle-Stones is certainly a lot quicker than just following the standard leveling route, but it’s not the quickest method for leveling Battle Pets by a mile.
Power Level Against Wild Pets
Time: 29:16
Necessary elements: Two strong level 25 Battle Pets and a flying mount. Optionally, Battle Pet bandages as well.
Leveling against wild pets that are significantly stronger than your chosen pet is a great way to level up Battle Pets quickly. To do this, head to a zone with level 25 wild pets.
I chose to go to Bastion, in Shadowlands. I followed the main paths and rode around until I found wild pets, and made sure that my level 1 Critter was in the first slot of my team.
This method was decently quick, especially when compared against the standard leveling route, and I managed to find some Battle Pets that I hadn’t caught yet to help me out with the Safari achievements.
I’d recommend either getting your hands on some Battle Pet bandages or staying near a settlement with a stable master, to save time healing up pets in between fights.
You could also find a pet with the ability Devour, or pets with self-healing abilities. Dragonkin pets have some great healing abilities, like Ancient Blessing, and Aquatic pets have moves like Cleansing Rain too.
Again, this method is still significantly quicker but it’s still possible to get the time down under 20 minutes for leveling a pet from level 1 to level 25.
An Optimized Technique
Time: 15:24
Necessary elements: Safari Hat toy, Battle Pet treat, Battle Pet bandages, and a flying mount.
This is the technique that I personally use to quickly level my Battle Pets in Dragonflight. It’s a combination of a few techniques and items that we’ve looked at already, and you could swap out a few elements e.g. change up where you find the wild pets to battle.
If possible, I would recommend doing this technique while the Battle Pet event is on, to get an extra XP boost.
To start, make sure you have the Safari Hat toy equipped. Use a Pet Treat, too. These items together help to gather up a lot more experience and streamline the process.
Head to a main city and take the portal to the Jade Forest, in Pandaria.
When you load into Pandaria, you’ll be able to find densely packed pockets of wild pets. Look for areas with 5-6 pets on the mini-map. I found a good herd of pets right by the nearby river, as shown in the screenshot below.
Simply tackle the wild pets with a good team of two, putting your target pet in the first slot so it gets experience for ‘participating’ in the battle. The best Battle Pets that I’d recommend picking for a team of two that can comfortably take on wild pets include:
- Anubisath Idol. My personal favorite, as it is incredibly tanky and versatile. It can drop from Emperor Vek’lor in the Twin Emperors boss battle in the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj with a decent drop rate, or it can be found on the Auction House.
- Albino Chimaeraling. This pet has a good combo of move types. You can get it from the Mastering the Menagerie quest or it can be found on the auction house.
- Flamering Moth. Any kind of moth is a good pick, but these moths in particular are great for taking down wild pets with their unique move sets. These pets can be found in Suramar or on the Timeless Isle
- Mechanical Pandaren Dragonlings. While these pets are definitely more suitable for PVP battles, they’re great for taking down wild pets, too. You can craft them if you have 75 points in Pandaren Engineering, and they can be found on the Auction House for a decent sum on most servers, too.
- Any of the Zandalari Dinosaur pets. These tiny dinosaurs look like they’ve been designed with Rogue spec transmogs in mind, and can drop on the Isle of Giants from the Zandalari Dinomancer mobs.
With the double experience boost and high quality pets to soak up the damage, power leveling against wild Battle Pets is one of the best ways to level up pets quickly and efficiently.
Final Thoughts
Combining elements from all the above methods is the most effective way to speed level your Battle Pets in World of Warcraft. To summarize my research, I would recommend:
- Making sure you have at least 2 level 25 pets who can solo groups of 3. Ideally, make sure these pets have self-healing moves.
- Picking up Battle Pet bandages, Battle-Stones, Pet Treats, and the Safari Hat toy.
- Finding a pocket of wild pets to take down. I’d personally recommend visiting Pandaria, as I found it to have the most densely packed wild zones.
This will help you get your chosen pet from level 1 to level 25 in 15 minutes or less. It’s a great method to use if you need to speed level pets in order to prepare for Pet Battle dungeons, tricky Tamer fights, or even if you’re trying to collect every pet in Dragonflight.
