This guide covers everything you need to know about catching, crafting, mutating, and leveling up your companions, from common bugs to powerful peccaries and even the legendary LeYak bug.
Getting Started: Pet Beds and Essential Tools
Before you can start collecting pets, you’ll need somewhere for them to sleep. There are three types of pet beds, and the size matters depending on what you’re housing:
- Small Pet Bed: 4 boards + 6 cloth scraps + 2 screw boxes
- Pet Bed: 4 reinforced boards + 8 cloth scraps + 2 screw boxes
- Great Pet Bed: 8 boards + 8 cloth scraps + 2 screw boxes + 6 digital ore
Bugs can sleep on any bed, but peccaries are too big for the small one. You’ll also need a Bug Trap (1 stapler + 1 nachos + 2 duct tapes) to catch bugs, and two key crafting stations: the Distillation Apparatus (2 metal pipes + 1 quantum glass + 1 reinforced board + 1 lab burner) and the Chemist’s Workbench (2 metal pipes + 2 quantum glass + 3 reinforced boards + 2 lab burners).
The Distillation Apparatus is used to create various distillates for mutations. You’ll need boiling distillate (from Anteverse gel), alien distillate (from Anteverse II remains like Exor hearts or bug/peccary parts), brain distillate (from sniper heads, yeti heads, and brains), mycological distillate (from spore fungi), expanding distillate (from Anteverse XLII remains like Tarask parts and Ichor), and invigorating distillate (from plants like Ante-wheat and bio-waste).
Taming and Mutating Bugs
Common Bug
You can catch this by placing a Bug Trap nearby. Feed it 3 Ante-wheat to tame it. It’s basic, flies toward enemies when attacking, and can be mutated into other bug types.
Electro Bug
Catch it like a common bug, or craft it: 1 bug + 4 capacitors + 8 part scraps + 1 power cell. It creates an electric explosion when taking off to attack, recharges after a few seconds, and is immune to electricity. Shooting a discharged one with electricity instantly recharges it.
Explosive Bug
Found in the Reactor area. You can catch it there or mutate a common bug by feeding it 3 plutonium blood. It explodes on attack, so you’ll need to revive it after each fight.
Snow Bug
Found in the Residence area, often in staff rooms. Mutate a common bug with 3 frozen essences (dropped when shining a RR lamp on Krasue). Its attacks apply a chilling effect.
Fizzy Bug
Not found in the wild. Mutate a common bug by feeding it 3 cans of any soda. Its attacks create an explosive shockwave.
Bugus Crisis
Another non-natural bug. Craft it: 1 bug + 1 rat suit + 1 memory block + 6 leather scraps. It attacks like a common bug. Some say it steals items from enemies, but I didn’t notice this effect during testing.
Enlightened Bug
A unique ranged fighter. Mutate a common bug with 3 shadow berries (found in the Shadowgate portal or grown from seeds). It hovers and fires a purple beam from its forehead. Low health, so keep it at a distance.
Magmatic Bug
Mutate a common bug with 3 boiling distillates. It damages attackers and periodically creates fire explosions.
LeYak Bug
This is the crown jewel of bug pets. To create it, feed a common bug 3 pieces of Strange Meat Pie. The pie requires a convection oven (unlocked at cooking level 10) or a microwave (found in the Voices of the Void portal at the Hydrostation). Recipe: 2 raw dough + 2 eyeballs + 2 carbuncle mushrooms + 2 raw bugs.
Important: Don’t feed the whole pie! You need exactly 3 pieces. I wasted 5 whole pies learning this the hard way.
The LeYak bug is incredibly powerful. It has the highest health of any bug, is a pure melee fighter, and can kill armed soldiers in a few hits. It levitates, moves faster than other bugs, and can teleport to enemies. At level 5 with the Faithful Companion amulet, it can tear apart a Gate Keeper witch in seconds. It also scares away LeYaks thanks to its functional eyes, and makes softer, more pleasant sounds. It’s afraid of X-ray and RR lamps, just like real LeYaks.
Skinks
Common Skink
Catch it with a bug trap (hard) or a net gun (easier, takes about 8 shots). It feeds on radioactive liquid and can be turned into organic weaponry: 1 skink + 2 plutonium shells + 1 hypercompact neural chip + 4 military electronics. It spits explosive projectiles that stick to surfaces and apply radiation. Hold the use button for a powerful spit attack. It also leaves glowing poop everywhere.
Magmatic Skink
Mutate a common skink with 3 boiling distillate injections. Turn it into organic weaponry with the same recipe. It feeds on molten liquid (found in the production sector) and spits fire charges that leave pools of fire. Also produces plenty of poop.
Peccaries
All wild peccaries are aggressive. To tame them, throw a Pheromone Flask at them to calm them down, then feed them any food 3 times (3 Ante-wheat works). The flask recipe: 6 alien distillate + 4 mycological distillate + 4 brain distillate. Place them in the Chemist’s Workbench in that exact order, or you’ll get a different mixture or an explosion. This yields 2 flasks.
Common Peccary (and Alpha Peccary)
Found everywhere. Charges and attacks with claws. Alpha Peccaries are very rare.
Female Peccary
Found in the lab sector or Anteverse II worlds. Mutate a common peccary with 3 cosmic lettuce leaves. It shoots projectiles from its tail and melees. Tamed females can be milked with a test tube. You can also process their milk organ in the Distillation Apparatus for clean milk.
Mushroom Peccary
Found in labs. Mutate a common peccary with 3 carbuncle mushrooms. Its attacks can infect you with spores causing coughing. Wear a respirator or hazmat suit.
Snow Peccary
Found in the Residence sector. Mutate a common peccary with 3 frozen essences. It melees, charges, and shoots explosive projectiles from its tail. Wear warm clothing to avoid hypothermia.
Electric Peccary
Craft it: 1 peccary + 6 capacitors + 8 part scraps + 1 power cell. Attacks with claws, charges, and electric discharges from its back coils.
Explosive Peccary
Mutate a common peccary with 3 plutonium blood. It charges with acid and attacks faster than other peccaries.
Taraskari
An experimental subspecies. Inject a common peccary with 3 expanding distillates (from Tarask remains). It has significantly more strength and survivability.
Leveling Up and General Tips
- Carrying pets: You can only hold them in your active slot, not in your backpack. If you take a weapon-skink out of your bag, you can’t put it back.
- Leveling: Feed your pets to level them up. They get hungry about every 8 in-game hours. Check their hunger by looking at them or listening for unusual sounds. Put food in your active slot and right-click to offer it. Complex foods like Cosmic Salad Rolls, pies, or burgers from the Voices of the Void portal give the most XP (3-4 feeds per level). Ante-wheat gives very little.
- Combat behavior: Pets won’t attack until enemies have aggroed on you. Once triggered, they’ll join the fight.
- Fixing bugs: If your pet gets stuck, stops following through portals, or won’t attack, take it out of the pet slot, put it in your active slot, then put it back in the pet slot. This usually resets its behavior.
- Invincible beds: Pet beds and sleeping pets can’t be destroyed. Even during a Gate Keeper invasion, my beds survived constant attacks from high-level enemies.
- Sleeping pets: They won’t attack while sleeping. They only fight when awake, in the pet slot, or if you throw them from your active slot (great for bugs).
- LeYak bug warning: It will scream to warn you of approaching LeYaks. If you don’t look, it will stare at the threat until it’s gone, ignoring everything else.
- Max level: 20. Health definitely increases with level, and damage likely does too. The Faithful Companion amulet now boosts health by 1.5x instead of 2x. My level 15 LeYak bug with the amulet one-shot a rocket-launcher rat.
- Friendly fire: You can accidentally kill your own pets if they’re low on health.
- Healing: Use healing syringes, throw healing flasks, or place a medical case nearby.
- Tesla towers: They ignore pets and only target enemies and you (unless you have the Glowing Shard amulet).
- Size scaling: Pets grow larger with each level. A level 20 peccary will be taller than a scientist.
Final Thoughts
That’s everything you need to know about pets in Abiotic Factor! Whether you’re looking for a loyal defender, a ranged attacker, or just a weird glowing friend to follow you around, there’s a mutation path for you. The LeYak bug is hands-down the most versatile and powerful companion, but don’t sleep on the explosive peccary or the magmatic skink either.
Got any questions? Drop them in the comments—I’m happy to help. Found a trick I missed? Let me know and we’ll figure it out together. And with the summer update promising fluffy new pets, I’ll be updating this guide as soon as I get my hands on them.
Happy hunting, scientists! May your pets always be loyal and your mutations never explode in your face.
