Petpetsitter: An Advanced Strategy Guide

Let me first say that I am not much of a gamer. When I started trying to play this game for the avatar, I could only score around 1200 points. 2500 seemed unreachable. I read all the guides I could find for this game; they were helpful, but only up to a point. After explaining the basics and offering motivational tips, they would simply say "Practise!" and offer no further help. It was after I'd done some experimentation on my own that I discovered a gameplay strategy, which I will now share with you in this guide. I hope you'll like it.

(My guide assumes that you have already played Petpetsitter a couple of times and are familiar with the game basics. If you are looking for an introductory guide, this one has pictures and descriptions of the various petpets and their needs. This is another good one that explains the point system.)

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1) The Accumulation of Petpets Over Time

You start with one petpet. After you place the petpet in the appropriate room, the room will show that it is occupied. (Bedroom door will be open, bathroom curtain will be pulled to the side, etc.) Then a new petpet will spawn in the middle of the floor, near the bottom of the screen.

Shortly afterward, the first petpet will come out of its room and the image of the room will update accordingly. (Bedroom door will close, bathroom curtain will be drawn, etc.) Then both petpets will begin to issue demands.

So, for instance, if you start with an Oscillabot, and you put it in the garage, and then a Feepit spawns, and you put it in the bathroom, and then you get a Noil and take care of that-- and you turn around and see an Oscillabot demanding to be put in the garage, it is the same Oscillabot that you started with.

It is important to keep track of what petpets you have, because that will help you establish your petpet-cycle later on.

2) Grouping the Petpets into a Cycle

After you have about five to ten petpets on the screen, it is time to start sorting them into groups.

At this early stage in the game when things are slow, it is tempting to use the mop to score bonus points. Do not do this. Instead, try to group the petpets according to what they need.

For instance, if you have a lone Noil asking to go to the kitchen, drag it till it is next to the kitchen and leave it just outside the door. The timer is 15 seconds; you do not have to satisfy it right away. 10 seconds later, perhaps you will have a Babaa asking to go to the kitchen as well. At that point, drop both petpets off in the kitchen milliseconds apart.

Keep on grouping the petpets in this way until you have, for example, a cycle of four robot petpets simultaneously asking to go to the garage, and then three organic (non-robot) petpets simultaneously asking to go the bedroom, and then five organic petpets simultaneously asking to go outside to play.

What I've discovered is that the organic petpets have need-cycles. They do not issue demands randomly. There is a specific order in which they ask to sleep, eat, go to the bathroom, and play, and the time between each demand is always the same. So if you've successfully grouped three organic petpets together, and they all ask simultaneously to play, the next time they issue their collective demand it will again be for the same thing.

I use my robot petpets as a "marker" for the beginning of each cycle, so it doesn't feel like this endless onslaught of petpet demands. My mid-game goes something like this: robot-group, sleeping-group, eating-group, playing-group... robot-group again! Woohoo, another cycle complete.

As the game speeds up and the timers go down to 10 seconds, you will be very grateful for having grouped the petpets into a cycle.

3) Mid- to Late-Game

The main difficulty you face as the number of petpets increases is that some of the new petpets may fall outside of your established cycle. (I'll call them "strays.") When the timers are still at 15 seconds, it is relatively easy to fit the strays into your cycle, but as the timers go down to 10 seconds and more and more petpets appear on the screen, you may have to abandon some strays. You can afford to lose five lives (if you type "oscillabot" at the beginning of the game, you start with six), so be sure to budget those lives strategically.

When there are 20 petpets all issuing demands at once, do not panic. Your first priority is to keep your cycle going. Second priority is to take care of any strays that happen to be in a convenient location. Do not sacrifice the maintenance of your cycle for a stray that is not in a convenient location. If your cycle falls apart, you will lose a whole chain of lives all at once and risk having your game end right there.

If you manage to survive past 2000 points or so, the game will start to slow down. At that point, you will have only three or four petpets issuing demands at any one time, and will then be able to hover the mop over a crowd of petpets repeatedly knocking over the bucket for bonus points. Getting to 2500 will then be a breeze.

It took me about 15 minutes of playing to achieve my high score of 3620, which was enough to qualify for a gold trophy at the beginning of the month.

Petpetsitter tests three main skills: short-term memory, hand-eye coordination, and reaction speed. If you're having a hard time building and maintaining the petpet-cycle that I speak of, it could be due to an Altador's heel in any or all of these areas. Good games for improving short-term memory include Techo Says, Kiko Match and Duelling Decks. To improve hand-eye coordination and reaction speed, try Hungry Skeith, Attack of the Revenge or TNT Staff Smasher. (The staff members are nice; they don't mind us bonking their heads for practice!)

Of course, playing real-life games helps, too. Board games and card games, such as Scrabble or Concentration, can help you improve your short-term memory. Physical games such as tennis and basketball are good for improving hand-eye coordination and reaction speed.

These skills cannot be cultivated in one day, so don't play Petpetsitter for hours at a stretch hoping to reach the avatar score. "Practice" doesn't work that way. Just play, for instance, two hours of indoor games and physical games per week (or whatever works best for you), and keep at it, and your skills will gradually improve over time.

4) Additional Tips

You may want to restart the game until you get a robot petpet as your first petpet. This will give you a slight headstart in establishing the robot-group.

Don't be discouraged if you keep losing at around 1600-1800 points. That's actually not that far from the 2000-mark and the relatively easy late-game. All you need to do is keep your cycle running for perhaps half a minute longer to get to the 2000-mark.

Listening with headphones can be helpful, especially in the late-game. The sound will come from the right or left depending on where the needy petpet is. When there are tons of petpets running all over the screen, it can be hard to see where the needy petpets are and what they need. Listening can help you pinpoint the needy petpets more quickly.

Some people say it's best to play on a big screen so you can see the petpets more clearly; other people say to play on a small screen so you don't have to drag the petpets over such a long distance. I say go for "Large" when you are selecting the game-size, so the game pops up in a separate window, and then press Ctrl-plus and Ctrl-minus to zoom in and out accordingly until you find a size that suits you best.

I've already mentioned this in Part 3, but it's worth repeating: Type "oscillabot" at the beginning of the game for an extra life. It is very easy to forget to do this; you never know when that extra life may mean the difference between 2400 and 2500 points!

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Final Words

Remember that in the end, Petpetsitter is just a game. Whether you're after the trophy or the avatar, don't take it too seriously. Games are supposed to be entertaining, not stressful.

I hope you've found my guide useful. Good luck and have fun in your Neo-endeavours!