The Watcher pet is one of the most sought-after companions in TBH: Task Bar Hero, and for good reason. Its passive ability adds 15% more Gold to every kill across your entire party, permanently. Gold is the engine behind every meaningful Rune Tree upgrade, so getting Watcher early changes how fast your account grows. The catch: you need 5,000 Giant Fly kills to unlock it. That number looks brutal at first glance, but with the right stage, it goes faster than you'd expect.
Giant Fly kill tracker
Where do Giant Flies spawn in TBH: Task Bar Hero?
Giant Flies are concentrated in Act 2, and two stages stand out as the go-to farming locations: Act 2-4: Bug Nest and Act 2-5: Scorching Dunes. Both stages spawn Giant Flies consistently, but 2-5 is the stronger pick. Community testing puts the kill count at roughly 20 Giant Flies per run on 2-5, compared to around 11 per run on 2-4. Over the course of 250 runs, that difference adds up to tens of thousands of missed kills if you stick to the wrong stage.
To reach these stages, head to your Portal and select the appropriate Act 2 entry. Your heroes will handle the combat automatically, so the farming loop is straightforward: enter the stage, clear it, repeat.
Act 2-5 stage selection
How many runs does it take to unlock Watcher?
At roughly 20 kills per run on Act 2-5: Scorching Dunes, you are looking at approximately 250 runs to hit the 5,000 kill threshold. That sounds like a lot, but the idle nature of TBH: Task Bar Hero means your heroes are grinding those stages while you do other things. The kill counter tracks progress in the Hero menu, so check it periodically to see how close you are.
Does difficulty affect Giant Fly kill progress?
Yes. Running Act 2-5 on higher difficulties such as Nightmare, Hell, or Torment increases the number of Giant Fly kills you accumulate per session. If your party can handle the damage spike, pushing to a harder difficulty is the fastest path to 5,000. For players still building out their roster, Normal difficulty works fine and the kill count still climbs steadily.
For party composition, Archer + Priest is widely considered one of the strongest combinations right now. The Archer's damage output significantly outpaces the Knight's basic attacks, while the Priest keeps the party alive through sustained healing and support. A third hero slot opens up your options further. Check out this guide to classes and gear to figure out which third class fits your playstyle before committing to a farming setup.
What does the Watcher pet actually do?
Watcher grants a flat 15% Gold bonus per kill, applied globally to every hero in your party regardless of which hero is actively fighting. You do not need to assign Watcher to a specific hero slot to benefit from the bonus. Every pet you unlock in TBH: Task Bar Hero provides permanent, party-wide passive bonuses, and Watcher is one of the best in the base game.
To put the Gold bonus in context: the Rune Tree is where most of your long-term power comes from, and unlocking those permanent passive upgrades costs significant Gold. Having Watcher active while farming means every stage run is also quietly accelerating your Rune progression. For a deeper look at how to spend that Gold efficiently, the Cube, Runes, and Pets guide breaks down the full priority order.
There are currently 8 pets in TBH: Task Bar Hero. Five come with the base game, and three are locked behind the Supporter Bundle DLC. Of the base game pets, Watcher is the only one that boosts Gold directly. The two other Gold-boosting pets, Butterfly and Dragon, are DLC-exclusive. That makes Watcher the best free-to-play Gold pet in the game by default.
Watcher's 15% Gold bonus
Is Watcher worth the grind?
Short answer: yes, especially if you plan to invest in the Rune Tree long-term. The 15% Gold bonus stacks on top of every kill your party lands, which means the return on investment compounds the longer you play. Getting Watcher early in your progression snowballs into faster Rune unlocks, which in turn lets you push harder stages sooner.
For a full breakdown of which Rune upgrades to prioritize once the Gold starts flowing, plus tips on unlocking your second and third hero slots to speed up the farming loop even further, the hero slots unlock guide is the next stop. Three heroes farming Act 2-5 simultaneously will hit that 5,000 kill count noticeably faster than two.
For everything else in the game, from pet rankings to achievement tracking, the full TBH: Task Bar Hero guide collection has you covered.