Advanced Pets: Appreciate the Small Things (Inherited Pedigree #'s)

Over on Twitter earlier today, there were a few Tweets made between my good in-game friends, Fallon Deathslinger and Heather Emeraldflame, expressing their concern about the behavior of Pedigree number(s)--which I will from here on forth denote as Ped#--of higher generation pets, such as the second and third.  There are instances where there is a significant decrease in the Ped# of the offspring.  For example, a 54 (10) parent mixed with a 54 (10) parent has a chance of producing a 48 (0) child.  Before you read on, if you have yet to understand exactly what Pedigree Numbers represent, please visit this page for a thorough explanation.




The drop in the figures may seem disappointing, initially.  After all, we have become so used to thinking that "higher is better," and are mild victims to our natural need and desire for completion.  Generally, that means pursuing for the most beneficial equipment, and in Wizard101, it's about greater values of n, whether that's damage, accuracy, resistance, or Power Pip chance.

Unconventionally, Ped# strays from this concept.  Remember that it only signifies the sum of Rarity Points potentially available to the pet in question.  Thus, when the Ped# of the child is greater than one of the parents', we know that it inherited "rarer" Talents and Derby Skills (i.e. child sports many Ultra-Rare skills while the parent has 2 or 3 Ultra-Rare and the rest are Rare). 

But, on Twitter, you said that it's not necessarily a bad thing...wouldn't we rather have a pet with more Ultra-Rare or Epic Talents?

While it is true that the "rarer" the skills, the more powerful or flexible (in terms of what classes are allowed to use) they are, it doesn't mean that they will be useful for your Wizard or Derby Pet.  For example, some pets have the ability to place obstacles across all lanes in the Derby, and those generally tend to be Epic skills.  However, if your pet does not have a protection ability such as Clear (uncommon) or Immunity (ultra-rare), you are giving your opponents a chance to pass you on the second lap if the obstacles are permanent and if the other contestants have protection.

Now, for those of you who don't Derby and/or are more interested in the Talents (beneficial to Pet or Wizard), take a look at the picture down below:

This was taken inside the Hatchery window.  Let's say that we are after a pet that has both Life-Shot and Life-Proof, combined with Pip Boost and Courageous.  Take note of the Rarity Points of the Life-based skills, and compare it to the Talents' rarities on Rusty.  Here's a picture with the Ped# based on Talents only, and a *possible* child:

Keep in mind that this is just a visual; this is not in any way the actual result or process.  This also represents how inheritance of Talents work in the Hatchery.  The child will randomly take 5 Talents from each parent to form its own Talent column.  Note that the child's Ped# is higher than either of its parents; instead of a second Rare slot like the Magma Colossus has, the child has only one Rare Talent.  Naturally, we would assume that the pet has become improved and stronger.  However, that's not the case.

The five Talents taken from the Pixie Queen are not any of the Life-based skills we wanted!  Had the Ped# in the child been one unit higher, meaning all Ultra-Rare skills (30), then there would be ZERO percent chance of the Life boosts manifesting, since the child would require Rare traits for those to unlock.

To obtain what we wanted, we would have needed a baby pet with at most a Ped# of 28.  Thus, in this case, higher Ped# would act against your goals.