Fallout Shelter pets are mostly cats, dogs and parrots that you equip to a dweller, and each one carries a single bonus, from extra wasteland junk to cheaper crafting. The right pet depends on the job its dweller does. Below is every way to get one, every bonus by rarity and the best pick for each job, as of October 3, 2026.
How Fallout Shelter pets work
Fallout Shelter pets arrived in a December 2015 update. They equip like a weapon or outfit, through a single pet slot on each dweller. A pet’s breed sets its bonus type, with a few legendary exceptions, and its rarity sets the size of the bonus.
According to the Fallout Wiki, common pets go by their breed name, rare ones get generic names and legendaries carry unique names such as Dogmeat.
Rooms allow one pet per room section, so two in a double room and three in a triple, which matters when you plan your Fallout Shelter layout. The community-run Fallout Shelter FAQ notes one exception: the vault door holds two guards and two pets. Bethesda’s support page caps each vault at 100 pets.
Matching bonuses in the same area do not stack; only the highest counts, according to the FAQ. And pets “cannot be harmed or killed”, in the wiki’s words, though they add a little damage in fights.
How to get Fallout Shelter pets
- Pet carriers: each holds one common, rare or legendary pet. The in-game store sells them for real money; the Fallout Wiki lists US prices from $0.99 for one to $19.99 for 40.
- Your 15th dweller: the first time a vault reaches 15 dwellers, you get a free pet, once per game.
- Objectives: some pay out pet carriers, though not all.
- Lunchboxes: pets can drop from them, but rarely.
- The wasteland and quests: carriers can turn up while exploring or questing, and some quests award pets outright.
- Seasons: when Bethesda brought back the House Always Wins season in September 2026, its announcement said “pets are part of the jackpot” for the season’s Spin the Wheel.
Three quest pets stand out. The six-part A Wasteland Tail questline ends with a legendary pet, which the wiki lists as Bigsby. Codename: DOG, in the TV-inspired Power Struggle questline, brings home the show’s dog, CX404, with an XP bonus of 37 to 45 percent, according to the Fallout Wiki. The legendary German Pointer Cocoa Bean is tied to the Saving Daylight quest.
Every bonus Fallout Shelter pets can give
Names and ranges below follow the Fallout Wiki’s tables for the standard breeds. Where a cell says None, the wiki lists no pet of that rarity with that bonus.
| Bonus | Helps with | Common | Rare | Legendary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damage | Fights | +2 | +4 | +6 |
| Damage resistance | Fights | +20 to 24% | +36 to 40% | +46 to 50% |
| Health | Fights | +25 to 33% | +58 to 66% | +91 to 100% |
| Healing speed | Recovery | x2 | x3 | x4 |
| Rad healing speed | Recovery | x2 | x3 | x4 |
| Happiness | Morale | +25 to 33% | +58 to 66% | +91 to 100% |
| XP | Levelling | +6 to 15% | +21 to 30% | +36 to 45% |
| Training time | Training | +6 to 10% | +16 to 20% | +26 to 30% (as Uninterrupted training) |
| Crafting time | Crafting | -6 to -15% | -21 to -30% | -36 to -45% |
| Crafting cost | Crafting | -6 to -10% | -16 to -20% | -26 to -45% |
| Crafting time & cost | Crafting | -6 to -10% | -16 to -20% | -26 to -30% |
| Wasteland caps | Exploring | +6 to 15% | +21 to 30% | +36 to 50% |
| Wasteland junk | Exploring | +25 to 33% | +58 to 66% | +91 to 100% |
| Wasteland weapons & outfits | Exploring | +6 to 10% | +16 to 20% | +26 to 30% |
| Wasteland return speed | Exploring, quests | x1.25 | x2 | x4 |
| Objective completion | Objectives | None | x2 | x3 |
| Stranger chance | Mysterious Stranger | x2.5 | x5 | x7.5 |
| Twins chance | Breeding | None | +25% | +75% |
| Child SPECIALs | Breeding | None | +1 or +2 | +3 |
A few breeds break the pattern. The Bloodhound only comes as three legendaries, Duke, Moose and Valentine, each at a different level, so a unique name does not guarantee the top figure.
The less obvious bonuses
- Objective completion multiplies a dweller’s progress: at x3, each cap they collect counts three times towards an objective. GameRant and the FAQ say it covers the whole room the pet is in.
- Child SPECIALs adds +1 to +3 to a random SPECIAL stat on a newborn. Equip it on the pregnant dweller before she gives birth; GameRant warns that placing it in the living quarters does nothing.
- Uninterrupted training is the stronger, legendary-only form of Training time, found on Bangor, Muttface and the Persian Pugsley.
- Happiness only lifts the dweller wearing the pet, per the FAQ. Since vault happiness adds up to 10% to production (according to the wiki and GameRant), this is the closest thing to a production pet.
- Wasteland return speed covers the whole team on a quest, the FAQ says.
- Stranger chance does not bring the Mysterious Stranger more often, according to the FAQ; it seems to affect which room he appears in.
The best Fallout Shelter pets for each job
These are the top legendary picks for each role, named as in the wiki’s tables.
| Job | Bonus to look for | Best pets |
|---|---|---|
| Exploring for loot | Wasteland junk | Barry (St. Bernard), Cinder (Pallas’s Cat) |
| Exploring for caps | Wasteland caps | Sterling (American Shorthair) |
| Exploring for gear | Wasteland weapons & outfits | Speckle (Ocicat), Cindy (Golden Retriever) |
| Faster trips | Wasteland return speed | Trench (Husky), Bastet (Sphynx), Cocoa Bean (German Pointer) |
| Quests and vault defence | Health, Damage resistance, Damage | Shadow (Bombay), Maizie Rai (Rottweiler), Zula (Abyssinian), Calypso (Lykoi) |
| Crafting | Crafting time, Crafting cost | Little Helper (Greyhound), Diamond (Burmilla), or Gaston (Brittany) for both |
| Training | Uninterrupted training | Bangor (Maine Coon), Muttface (Black Lab) |
| Levelling | XP | Ginger (Scottish Fold), Scavver (Boxer) |
| Breeding | Child SPECIALs, Twins chance | Duchess (Turkish Van), Bandit (Australian Shepherd), Pongo (Dalmatian) for twins |
| Objectives | Objective completion | Dogmeat (German Shepherd), Pip (Vault-Tec Parrot) |
| Happiness | Happiness | Lord Puffington (Poodle), Mr. Pebbles (Persian) |
| Healing | Healing speed, Rad healing speed | Apolda (Doberman), Goblet (Siamese) |
| Mysterious Stranger | Stranger chance | Kato (Toyger) |
If you can only chase a few, the FAQ’s top tier is Objective completion, Child SPECIALs and Wasteland junk, while GameRant ranks Gaston first for cutting crafting time and cost at once. The FAQ rates both healing bonuses worst: natural healing in the vault is slow, and they do nothing in the wasteland or on quests.
Swapping, selling and losing pets
Fallout Shelter pets are meant to move around. Tap a dweller’s pet slot to switch in another pet or leave it empty; unassigned pets wait in the storage room. TheGamer notes you can only swap a pet while its dweller is inside the vault. Happiness pets are the exception, since the FAQ says they only work while left on the dweller.
You can sell a pet for caps, but a player on the Steam forums describes the payout as tiny. The FAQ argues against selling, since every pet adds +2, +4 or +6 damage in the vault and on quests, depending on rarity.
Pets cannot die. If a dweller dies on a quest or in the wasteland and is not revived, the pet comes home alone with the dweller’s inventory, including equipped items.
For eviction, GameRant’s guide says the game removes a dweller’s items automatically. Moving a prized pet to someone else first still only takes seconds.
Quick answers
Can Fallout Shelter pets die? No. If their owner dies outside the vault, they come home alone with the owner’s gear.
How many Fallout Shelter pets can one dweller have? One, in its own slot alongside the weapon and outfit.
Do pet bonuses stack? Not in the same area: only the highest matching bonus counts, per the FAQ.
Is there a free pet? Yes, once per game, the first time one of your vaults reaches 15 dwellers.
More Fallout Shelter: our tips for beginners, our guide to legendary dwellers and the full Fallout Shelter review.
Which legendary pet rides with your best explorer: a junk hunter like Barry, or a return-speed pet like Trench? Comments are open.
Sources: Fallout Wiki on Fandom (pets), The Fallout Wiki (pets, Pet Carrier), Bethesda Support, Fallout Shelter on Steam, GameRant (best pets, babies, eviction), TheGamer, The Fallout Shelter FAQ, Steam forums, GameRevolution, Android Authority. Fallout Shelter is developed by Bethesda Game Studios and Behaviour Interactive; all rights belong to Bethesda Softworks.
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