Your New Best Friend

The farm feels different when there's a little companion wandering around it. That's the simplest way I can describe pets.

Pets are also one of the most time-friendly features in the game. You can spend thousands of steps in a few seconds, send your pet off, and come back hours later to collect whatever it found. If you only have a minute to play today, an expedition is the single best thing you can do with that minute. And if you're someone who racks up a ton of steps, expeditions give you a whole new way to put them to work alongside your farming, mining, and everything else. Here's how it all works.

Adopting your pet

The first time you visit the adoption board, six little faces are waiting for you - 3 cats and 3 dogs, each with their own look and personality. You tap one, it looks up at you, and that's it. That's your companion.

Cats

Shadow

Sleek and mysterious. Watches everything from a distance before deciding you're worth her time.

Mochi

Round and curious. Will sniff every corner of your farm and then sit right in the middle of the path.

Frost

Cool and graceful. Moves through the farm like she owns the place.

Dogs

Rusty

Warm and loyal. The first one to greet you when you open the app. Every single time.

Pip

Small and energetic. Covers twice the ground of any other pet and never seems to get tired.

Cloud

Fluffy and gentle. Finds the softest patch of grass on your farm and claims it immediately.

Your first adoption is free - no cost, no catch. After that, picking up a new companion requires a pet adoption token. You can only have one active pet at a time, so take your time choosing. This one's going to be with you on every expedition and every quiet morning on the farm.

Life on the farm

When your pet isn't out exploring, it hangs out on your farm. And I don't mean it just stands there. It wanders. It walks between tiles, sits down for a rest, sniffs around at things. Cats will groom themselves. Sometimes they'll take a nap right in the middle of a path. They avoid your crops and buildings, so they won't get in the way - they just exist in that space with you, doing their own little thing.

It's the kind of detail that doesn't sound like much on paper, but when you're watering your crops in the morning and you see your dog trotting along beside you, it changes the feel of the whole farm.

Expeditions

Expeditions are the main thing your pet does - and they're powered by your steps.

You pick a destination, slide a bar to choose how many steps to invest, and send your pet off. When the timer's up, you collect your loot and everything goes straight into your inventory.

5 destinations, each with a different theme and level requirement:

More steps means a longer expedition but better rewards. Duration scales at roughly 1 hour per 1,000 steps, and you choose your investment in multiples of the minimum. A quick 500-step trip to Blooming Fields takes half an hour. A full 10,000-step deep run into the Old Ruins takes most of the day.

This is where expeditions really shine for different play styles. If you're short on time, you can open the game, dump 5,000 steps into an expedition in about five seconds, close the app, and come back after work to collect your loot. That's it. No watering, no minigames, no tapping - just send and forget. And if you're the kind of person whose step count is always climbing, expeditions are a way to keep spending those steps even after you've planted your crops, gone fishing, and hit the mines. There's always somewhere to send your pet.

Rocky Outcrop and Winding Stream are worth calling out specifically - they're a passive way to get mining and fishing resources without grinding those activities directly. If you're low on ore or need some fish for a recipe, send your pet out and go about your day.

Companion bonuses

Having your pet at home isn't just cozy - it's useful. While your companion is on the farm, you get passive bonuses during other activities:

These bonuses scale with your pet's level. A level 1 pet gives a small nudge. A level 10 pet gives a noticeable edge. But here's the trade-off - if your pet is out on an expedition, you lose these bonuses until it comes back. So there's a real decision: do you send your pet out for loot, or keep it home for the passive boost while you mine or fish? It depends on what you're focused on that day.

Leveling up

Your pet earns XP every time you collect an expedition. More steps invested means more XP earned. The max level is 10, and every level matters:

• New destinations unlock - harder expeditions with better loot become available
• Expedition rewards improve - both the quantity and quality of what your pet brings back
• Companion bonuses get stronger - those passive mining, fishing, and foraging boosts grow with each level

The progression feels natural. Early on, you're doing short trips to Blooming Fields and Rocky Outcrop, picking up flowers and basic ore. By the time you hit level 5, you're sending your pet into the Deep Forest for mushrooms and rare foragables. And at level 7, the Old Ruins open up with gems and precious ores that you can't easily get anywhere else.

Ascension

Level 10 isn't the end. When your pet hits max level, you can ascend it - resetting back to level 1, but permanently unlocking a perk of your choice. Things like faster expeditions, better loot rolls, stronger companion bonuses. Each ascension also adds a star to your pet's portrait, so other players can see how far you've come together.

You pick one perk per ascension from a pool, and the ones you don't pick lock out for that cycle - so there's real weight to the choice. Over multiple ascensions you build out a perk loadout that shapes how your pet plays. Maybe yours is a loot specialist. Maybe someone else's is built around companion bonuses. No two pets end up exactly the same.

I don't want to spoil the full perk list yet, but I will say there's one that removes the expedition-versus-companion-bonus trade-off entirely. It's the kind of thing you have to earn.

Expedition stories

Every expedition comes with a short story about what your pet got up to while it was out there. Maybe it got distracted chasing a butterfly through a meadow. Maybe it made friends with a squirrel and they shared a berry. Maybe it found a warm sunny spot and took a twenty-minute nap before remembering it had a job to do. They're small, silly, sometimes sweet - and they make every expedition feel like its own little adventure, not just a loot timer.

You can browse your expedition history anytime to look back at past trips - what loot came back, how many steps you invested, and the story from each adventure.

Notifications

You can opt in to get a little nudge when your pet returns from an expedition - handy if you sent it on a long trip and forgot about it. Your companion's home, the loot is waiting on the farm, go collect it whenever you're ready. No rush.

What's coming next

There will also be pet cosmetics - hats, scarves, little accessories to customize how your companion looks on the farm and during expeditions. I'm not going to say too much yet, but picture Mochi in a tiny mushroom cap.

The loop

Walk in the real world. Earn steps. Send your pet on an expedition. Wait for it to come back. Collect loot. Level up. Unlock harder destinations with better rewards. Hit level 10, ascend, pick a perk, and do it all again - stronger. Keep your pet home when you need those passive bonuses for mining, fishing, or foraging. Dress it up. Watch it nap on your farm.

Pets add a whole new layer to StepHarvest - a companion that grows alongside you, a second way to spend your steps, and a reason to check in even on days when you're not farming. On busy days, an expedition might be the only thing you do, and that's perfectly fine - your pet's out there earning loot while you live your life. On big step days, it's one more thing soaking up all that walking you're doing. Either way, they make the game feel warmer.

If you want to follow along with development, the Discord is where the action is. Come hang out.