«Ackadia's Guide to Guild Wars… Mini-pets »
A Guide to Guide Wars MiniPets
Most of the minipets are given as a birthday present to players of GuildWars with characters that are a year old (i.e. who bought the game when it was released and who have had the same character for over 12 months). Others include promotional items, collectors edition minipets and even as chest drop (see 'Mallyx the Unyielding').
Basically they are just that, pets. They cannot be used in towns, only in 'explorable areas' - like quests - and they cannot fight for you. They simply follow along with you.
You may also be please to note that, via the The Hall of Monuments, you should be able to transfer minipets over to Guild Wars 2 when it is eventually released, should you so wish.
If you have a Collectors Edition version of the game and want to recieve your pet, type /bonusitems in the chat window.
Needless to say the chat on release, especially in the new character towns, abounds with wtb minipet
messages. Given their rarity the selling price can be around 100k plus ectoplasm, though I have seen several people after 400k and even 800k (800,000 gold) for one. The (newer) really rare rare ones like the Panda and Kanaxai can regularly trade in the 5 to 8 million range!
Sadly, as with everything, there are also those who prey on new players and offer then a relatively tiny sum, only to sell them for tenfold minutes later in another town or area where the players are not nieve enough to fall for this con trick… It may come as no surprise that some of these may be the same people making serious money by selling game gold on ebay - and getting anywhere from $1 to well over $300 for minipets - raising to about about $1,300 (£675) for Kanaxai! 
What really amazes me is people were selling the CE 'Green miniture Kuunavang' for up to $65. Why bother when you can practically buy the CE game for the same about and have two/four extra slots to play with into the bargain! 
/bonusitems to recieve
Guild Wars Miniature pets guide
The guide values are a rough guide to what you can expert to buy / sell for in trade. Watch out for dealers only offering 20k, and making a killing later. The values are based on what I have paid for them, the average WTS I see in trade and offers under WTB and the threads on Guru etc.
Bear in mind that prices fluctuate faster than I update this page. Note also that since the changes to allow minipets in town, the value for all pets has gone up, though that fluctuation has settled itself.
Collector Edition miniature pets
- Factions campaign: Kuunavang Dragon (Green)
From the Factions Collector's Edition
Original trade range was 95k to 100k + 'n' ecto, then it dropped to 60 to 80k, then the introduction on minipet to towns pushed their value right up. Unlike the overly vaulted Bone Dragon, the number of these in circulation will never increase!
Guide value: 100k +5 Ecto - Nightfall campaign: Varesh (green)
That's from a ridiculous 60k when it first came out, though I have seen people asking upwards of 100k and 20 ecto's in the first week. Tiny thing isn't even worth 10k in my opinion!
My complete and utter contempt for this 'collectors' minipet proved to be right as you can pick up a Varesh for 10k any day of the week, now! Price hasn't even risen much since allowing pets in towns.
Guide value: 10k
1st Year Birthday mini-pets
Wrapped, unopened mini-pet present- Bone Dragon (Green)
Still very highly sought after. To me it just looks like a turkey carcass trying to wipe it's bum while it waddles!
GWGuru guide (Feb 2007: 275-310k) (June: 170k-205k) but I'm still holding out for just 100k - It will be a cold day in Hell before I'll pay 300k for a Birthday item - especially with Cantha Birthdays coming up!
Guide value (July 2007): 85k to 100k + 'n' ectos (typically +2 ectos, down from a typical +20 ectos). - Burning Titan
We like this, with all the dripping lava. Large scale too.
Guide value: circa 15-20k (From a high around 60k) - Charr Shaman (Purple)
Guide value: circa 10-20k (Used to be around 60k. Doesn't come up that often). - Fungal Wallow
Guide value: 5k (Used to be over 25k) - Hydra
Guide value: 5-15k (rarest of the whites, apparently. Used to sell around 60k) - Jade Armor
Guide value: 5-10k (Don't like it myself) - Jungle Troll
Guide value: 5k. Used to sell around 25-30k. - Kirin (purple)
Guide value: circa 5-20k (down from 50-60k) - Necrid Horseman
Guide value: circa 5-10k. (from a high of 50k) - Prince Rurik (gold)
Meh, not impressed! (Started off circa 95k to 100k + 'n' ectos)
Guide value: 15-30k (Guru (June is 40-45)) - Siege Turtle
Guide value: 10-15k (It is kind of cute). Was around 35-50k
- Shiro (gold)
Meh, not impressed! (Original guide value was circa 100k + 'n' ectos) Guide value: 15-30k (Guru (June is 30-40)) - Temple Guardian
Guide value: 5-10k (down from 25-35k).
- Whiptail Devourer
Very poorly thought of for some reason. I like them, myself! Cheapest minipet, but close call with Pig.
Guide value: circa 2-5k (down from 20-25k)
2nd Year Birthday mini-pets
Expect them to sell in game at a premium, certainly some people are askingin excess of 100k and 'nn' ecto as a starting point, even for whites. On average as not so many folk keep a character, let alone have played the game since it's inception! Like with all things, the prices will plummit fast. I've already seen them sell in the 15k to 60k range. All the same, not going to rush to buy a birthday pet I don't have for over 500,000g, no way!
- Bladed Aatxe
Some of the WTS's for this are utterly ridiculous, but I can see why people are willing to consider something of a premium, despite it only being white - it's a decent size and - with it's apish hands, cloven feet and burning red eyes - the thing exudes evil menace!
Guide value: Typically in the 50 to 100k range - Fire Imp
This one's nice, rather like an evil Gremlin (like the movie)
Guide value: 30-60k seems current. - Gwen (Green)
Looks OK, at least she's not diminutive like Varesh. I expect she'll appeal most to veterans who started with the original Prophecies campaign. No-one else find it a little creepy having a little girl dancing behind you in a battlefield!?
Guide value: Fetching in the 100k + 40Ecto range (±20e) (Ectoplasm around 5k) - Harpy Ranger
Looks OK but apparently not terrible popular. Seen a few times around 15k, but people will down out for 60k. Nah!
Guide value: 25k - Juggernaut
It's OK. Reminds me rather of a leaf insect!
Guide value: Again, mixed response. 30-50k, 60k at a push - Koss (Purple)
Looks OK, but I have him as a hero, why would I want his diminutive clone tailing me too?
Guide value: Apparently others feel the same! Often sells in the 20-50k range. - Lich Lord (Gold)
It's OK. Looks good when he flexes his wings.
Guide value: You can get it for 100k, but seems to hold it's own at 100k+20 Ecto - Mandragor Imp
Possibly the ugliest of all the minipets - justs reminds me of a big flea!
For some reason that eludes me, people like this, but prices are all over the place, from 15k to 100k+ I'd not pay over 25k myself.
Guide value: 50k -ish - Palawa Joko (Purple)
Not greatly impressed.
Guide value: 30-50k as a guide - Stoneaxe Heket
Despite only being white, I think this is my favourite of all the mini pets; it's like having a little toad familiar! He follows you around, seeming to ribbet and waving his wee axe. Good size too!
Guide value: Seems consistant around 25k. - Thorn Wolf
Big, nasty and ugly. I'm sure it will appeal to many of you!
Guide value: Or not, as it hovers in the 15k to 25k range. - Water Djinn (Gold)
This one looks good - but only against dark backgrounds. Against lighter background, for instance sandy soil (or heavens forbid, snow) it looks like a featureless white blob!
Grossly over-priced in my option. Wouldn't pay over 50k!
Guide value: Circulating around 100k+10 ecto. - Wind Rider
This is decent, with it's tentacles flailing is it floats around you.
Guide value: 25k to 40k range - Wintersday Elf (Purple)
Looks like a, errr, Wintersday Elf. Value probably boosted by it's purple rank and it's festive nature.
Guide value: 30k to 60k,
3rd Year Birthday mini-pets (to be confirmed)
Only due for release from April 2008, I'm getting an early start and have added a mini-pets Poll to the forums
Excluding characters and possible specials from the Eye of the North expansion, my top bets include:
Purples: Grench, Griffon and Turtle Dragon
Whites: another Demon (grasp, torment), another Elemental (Stone or Ice), Gargoyle / Mergoyle, Giant / Ettin, Mantid, Minotaur, Forgotten Sage and a Wraith
Festival and chest gained mini pets
- Greased Lightning (green)
(Rain Beetle)
Awarded to the players with the top 100 scores (per territory) in the Cantha New Year (2007) Rollerbeetle Racing
I mentioned this in-game and probably elsewhere on the site, but it was a fairly obvious prediction as a 'mystery prize'. D'oh! I tried and tried but, personally, I got nowhere near the scoreboard. *Sigh*
Guess I'll have to do it the hard way to get one - gold and ecto's. As there are apparently only 500 in the world (100 per gaming zone) it is a given they will be painfully expensive.
Currently offers (Feb 2007) are around 100k plus 100 Ecto, GWGuru is seeing bids around 200 Ectoplasm, though one lunatic bought one outright at the races - for 500 Ecto! (when Ecto's had value)
Guide value: 800-900+ Ecto. Depends on the rates.I've seen a few sell at up to 5 million Guru (June) has it at 2.5-3m - Ghostly Hero (green)
A new one, I believe. Apparently, along with other rare items like crystalline sword, it is one of the items that may be had from 'Hall of Heroes' victory chest.
Can't begin to think of a value as it will be something of a status symbol. I think I'll be haunting those hallowed halls myself soon!
Guide value: 5+ million (Guru June, not seen one sell mself) - Mallyx the Unyielding (green)
A Margonite demonlord from the Gates of Anguish. This miniature may be retrieved from a 'Coffer of Whispers', a chest traded for 4 Anguish Gemstones with the 'Keeper of Whispers' in the Gate of Anguish.
That makes it around 80k a try and, as a chest, it may take a number of tries to get one… Personally I'd assume odds of 1% or lower, but you are seeing more and more filter out.
Initially, based on the cost to try I had the price probably starting around 2,000k, give or take! According to the forums you were looking at 100k +'nnn' Ecto, to 250 Ectos (about 2million gold) so I wasn't far out at all.
First one I saw on Guru was (starting bid) 100k and 50 Ectos, buy out at 100k and 160 Ecto's. Someone else claimed buys and sells in the range though +20 to +220 Ecto, but I'd go with +50 Ecto myself.
As more and more filter out though, the price is dropping considerably. Last one I was offered was 750k (100k +65 Ecto)
Guide price: 100k +45 ecto (±15) Ectoplams are at a low of 5-7k, so, in the 370k range (Guru (June) 650-730k) - Pig, Hog (gold)
A prize in the (2007) Cantha New Year in the Factions campaign.
These are a random drop when using () - it seems the drop rate is roughly 0.3%
Fortunately for all, despite being a gold pet, these are also awarded with the hats and gift parcels from the Celestial Pig, making them possibly the commonest mini-pet of all. Begger really as I paid 20k for mine after giving up with the lunar fortunes. Guide price: 1 - 5k. Possibly the cheapest and most common minipet there is! - Wraith
As seen with Halloween effect from using a 'Ghost-in-the-Box'
This does NOT actually exist as a minipet, but if NCSoft are looking for suggestions (hint, hint), then this would be an great (purple or gold) minipet for necromancers…
(And yes, I did submit it, around October '06)
Promotional miniatures
Note that nearly all of these are limited to Japanese and Taiwanese promotions, a fact that I consider grossly unfair given the global nature of the game and that the majority of players are in North America and Europe.
- Asura (gold)
Guide value: 30k
This is a special promotional minipet for the forthcoming 'Eye of the North' campaign
Also, he is so cute!
Note: This quest is time sensitive, unless they release it later for birthdays. In the UK, look for the June issue of PC Zone (in the shops from 26th April 2007.
Guide price: 10k - Gray Giant (gold)
This is a special promotion quest minipet for Nightfall. Basically get a key from one of several magazines and do a quest involving a broken toy.
Get the details from the Guild Wars site
Note: This quest is time sensitive, unless they release it later for birthdays. In the UK, look for the January issue of PC Zone (in the shops from 7th December, 2006.
Guide price: 5-10k (was circa 60k originally but dropped fast. Not popular!) - (Far East) Nightfall promotion: Guild Wars Championship in Japan
According to GameWikis, the total numbers pan out like this:
14 Kanaxai
126 Panda
126 Island Guardian
Miniature Kanaxai (green)
First placed team (up to 8 members)
Kanaxia has been seen at 500 Ecto, but this was considered grossly undersold. 1,000+ Ecto would not surprised me! Only ever seen these sold (illegally for hard cash!)
Guide price (Guru June: 7 million+)
Miniature Panda (gold)
Top two teams (up to 8 members each)
I have heard of up to 100k +350 Ecto and even 650 Ectos buy-out on the Panda mini pet (about 5 million gold). Saw a WTS Panda 700 Ecto's in Shing Jea. (Feb 2007). I'm sure it was a fast sell in the starter town!
Guide price 4 to 5 million+
Miniature Island Guardian (gold)
Top three teams (up to 8 members each)
Guide of 250 to 500 Ectos for these and the above Pandas as it's a sellers market
Recently saw the Island Guardian (WTS) for 100k and 300 Ecto. I really need to farm Ecto's!
Guide price: 3 to 5 million+ - (Far East) Nightfall promotion: Japanese Netcafe promotion
Apparently, again accordingly to GameWikis, a total of 561 of each of these Nescafe minipets were given out to the lucky few.
Oni (purple)
Guide price: 1 to 2 million
Longhair Yeti (purple)
Guide price: 450k to 750k
Naga Raincaller (purple)
Guide around 200k+ for these, with 350k and WAY upwards being more likely (100k and 25+ Ecto). Those I've been offered are generally in the 350k region, which makes a mockery of people asking that much and more for the Bone Dragon and Kuunavang.
(WTS March 2007, fella was asking 100k and 150 Ectoplasm for a Naga. Recent thread put it in that range too. Guess I missed a huge bargain, but I didn't have enough at the time. Ah well!)
Guide price: 350k to 2 million. Last seen at 1 million ono. - I've heard there are a further 3, supposedly from an anniversary prize draw in Taiwan…, those recorded elsewhere as a (second) Japanese Nescafe promotion. Personally I think I should get all these as free gifts, the amount of coffee I drink I'm helping keep their stocks and shares prices up! Anyway, this years three are:
Vizu (Green) (assassin)
Zhed Shadowhoof (Gold) (Centaur)
Shiro'ken Assassin (Gold)
Guide price (these 3): 3.5 to 4.5 million is what I'm seeing. Hard call: According to GameWiki, there are 29 green (!?) and 50 of each of the gold, split between the Netcafe promotion lucky draw and Taiwan GW official blog draw. Expect prices to be on a parr with the previous Far East promotion above.
Minipets in Guild Wars Trade
Guild Wars release history:
Guild Wars Prophecies was officially launched on April 28, 2005
Factions came out a year later, also globally released on April 28 (2006)
Nightfall came out barely a few months later, on October 27, 2006
Eye on the North, the next campaign is in development and expected in late tsummer (though I figured a release on April 28th, but what they hey!).
All this means what, precisely?
There is a flourishing and potentially lucrative in-game trade in mini-pets, with the value being based on availability. Every day characters are having their birthday, releasing more and more minipets into the system, naturally exerting a downward pressure on prices…
Come the end of April three things are going to happen together that will turn the market on it's head. For a start huge numbers of characters - potentially millions - will all have their birthdays together, flooding the market. Even the prized Bone Dragon's value will buckle under that pressure!
Secondly, of these, a number of veterans will be having their second birthdays which, I believe (correctly as it happened), will bring into the game another dozen or so new minipets for collectors to bid for. (I'm routing for my Wraith suggestion!). So, we are now looking at a two tier bazaar. Incidentally, I'd expect to see Ntouka beasts and Djinn amongst any new troop of pets, other likely candidates being griffons, centaur and some form of Torment creature. … Well, I was right about the Djinn and the demon (Aatxe), while the Centaur is rumoured to be part of (another) Taiwan only promotion… *mutter*
Finally, if I'm right, we will also see a new campaign released in the same timeframe, bringing with it another CE green minipet. I just hope it's better than the naff Varesh! No news on where this will take place but if it was me, I'd have it all deep underground, in the dwarven tunnels said to link the continents.
OK, Eye of the North is an expansion, not a standalone campaign and covers new areas of the Shiverpeaks and points north, but beyond that I was right: players get to delve into the depths of the world itself and explore multilayered dungeons.
Anyway:
Prices on the existing birthday minipets WILL plummit by May.
Expect a new range to arrive, refreshing the trade - and attracting some insane bids for the golds!
A new Collectors green is given, though there's likely to be a relatively large number of CE boxes released, affecting the value. I can't see it being another useless 'Varesh' mind, I think Anets ears are still burning over all the disappointment. I paid an extra £20/$40 and I get a pigging toy doll following me, pttt!
Observation:
Lowest (scam) price offers I've seen, pitched to new players, was 9k for Kuunavang.
Highest price offers I've seen (for a birthday miniature to older player): 800k plus Ectoplasm in Droks for a Miniature Prince Rurik!
Mini-Pets on Ebay.com
Note: The EBay.com prices below are a one off snap-hot taken 10th May, 2006. Some will be from people with multiple accounts raising a little money, others…
Either way, as the sellers are all aware, it is a direct violation of the terms and conditions. Ho hum! Oh aye, don't forget that if you get caught buying items or gold you will lose you Guild Wars account instantly. No reprieve, no second chance. Read the T&C!
Bone Dragon : ($90)
Burning Titan: ($5.50)
Charr Shaman : ($12 - $39)
Fungal Wallow : ($3.25)
Hydra : ($1)
Jade Armor : ($4.25 - $13)
Jungle Troll : ($7.50)
Kirin : ($7 - $10)
Kuunavang Dragon : ($55-$59)
Necrid Horseman : ($5.50)
Siege Turtle : ($13-$35)
Shiro : ($25)
Prince Rurik: ($16-$75)
Temple Guardian : ($1.84 - $27.93)
Whiptail Devourer : ($1.84 - $27.93)
Update 18/Jan/2007
(Bone dragon down to around $20)
(Kuunavang, Prince Rurik and Shiro down to $5 - $20)
Longhair Yeti: $49 - $59
Naga Raincaller: $59
Panda : $245 (7 bids, 20 days to go. )
