Pets in TBH: Task Bar Hero work differently from heroes. There are no slot restrictions, no party management headaches. Every pet you unlock activates automatically and stacks its bonuses on top of everything else you have running. That makes the unlock order matter a lot more than most players realize.
The pets available right now split into three clear tiers based on how much value their abilities actually deliver. Some combine multiple bonuses that compound nicely over a long session. Others offer a single modest stat bump that gets outpaced fast. Here is exactly where each one lands and why.
Pet unlock screen overview
How do pets work in TBH: Task Bar Hero?
Unlike heroes, pets have no activation limit. Once you unlock a pet, it runs permanently alongside your party and its bonuses apply at all times. You can have every pet in the game active simultaneously, which means the real question is never "which pet should I equip" but rather "which pet should I unlock next."
That framing changes how you should think about this tier list. S-tier pets are worth grinding toward immediately. A-tier pets are solid secondary targets. B-tier pets are either locked behind paid DLC with underwhelming payoff or just offer less value than the alternatives.
Complete TBH: Task Bar Hero pets tier list
Dragon pet triple bonus active
Which pets belong in S-tier?
Dragon
The Dragon is the strongest pet in the game by a clear margin. It runs three separate abilities at once: a 20% boost to Common Chest drops, 15% extra Gold on every kill, and 20% additional EXP from all activities. No other pet touches that combination. If you can unlock it, do so before anything else in this tier.
Dark Spirit
Stage Boss Chests are where the meaningful gear starts showing up, especially once you push into Act 2 and beyond. The Dark Spirit bumps your chance of those chests dropping by 15%, which translates directly into better loot over a long farming session. The value scales with how far you have progressed, so it gets better the deeper you go.
Bat
The Bat is the pet every free-to-play player should target first. It combines a 10% Common Chest drop boost with a 15% EXP gain, giving you two meaningful bonuses without spending anything. The unlock requirement points toward Act 1 farming, so grinding that zone hard is the most efficient path to getting it. For players not spending on DLC, this is the single highest-priority unlock in the game.
Bat pet dual bonus breakdown
Which pets belong in A-tier?
Sword
A flat 15% EXP gain is never wasted. The Sword pet does exactly one thing, but leveling faster has a downstream effect on everything else in your run. It sits comfortably in A-tier because EXP is always useful, even if the pet lacks the multi-ability punch of the S-tier options.
Burning Skeleton
Think of the Burning Skeleton as a budget Dark Spirit. It adds a 10% chance for Stage Boss Chests to drop instead of 15%, so the gap is real but not enormous. If you unlock this before Dark Spirit, it still contributes meaningfully to your loot rate from boss encounters.
Watcher
The Watcher gives you 15% Gold per kill, which beats the Butterfly's 10% Gold bonus while being completely free. That comparison matters because the Butterfly requires purchasing DLC to access. If you want a Gold-focused pet without spending real money, Watcher is your pick.
For more on building an efficient party around these bonuses, the guide on how to progress faster in TBH: Task Bar Hero covers how pet stacking fits into a broader farming strategy.
Which pets belong in B-tier?
Blue Golem
A 15% boost to Common Chest drops sounds appealing on paper, but Common Chests flood you with filler gear more often than anything useful. The Blue Golem is not useless, it just delivers less practical value than the S-tier options that offer similar or better chest bonuses alongside additional stats.
Butterfly
The Butterfly is the only pet locked behind paid DLC, and its single ability (10% Gold per kill) does not justify the cost when the free Watcher already offers 15% Gold per kill. Unless you purchased the DLC for other reasons, this pet is a poor standalone investment.
Gold pet bonus comparison
What is the best pet unlock order?
Given that all pets stack, your unlock sequence should follow the tier list from top to bottom with one exception: the Bat comes before the Dragon if you are playing free-to-play, simply because the Bat is accessible through Act 1 farming while the Dragon may have a higher bar.
Priority order for free-to-play players:
- Bat (farm Act 1 to meet requirements)
- Dragon (highest total value in the game)
- Dark Spirit (essential for Act 2+ loot)
- Watcher (free Gold bonus, no DLC needed)
- Sword (solid EXP filler)
- Burning Skeleton (secondary boss chest booster)
- Blue Golem (low-priority Common Chest boost)
- Butterfly (skip unless you already own the DLC)
If you are also working on converting your gear progress into Steam Wallet value, the guide on how to earn Steam money in TBH: Task Bar Hero explains how high-rarity drops from those boss chests factor into the equation.
For everything else across the game's systems, the full TBH: Task Bar Hero guide collection has you covered from hero slots to alchemy and beyond.