12 Voidpet Dungeon pets that actually deserve your XP (and one you should bench)

Voidpet Dungeon tier list: where to spend your XP first

Voidpet Dungeon does something a lot of gacha RPGs don’t dare to: it hard-caps how much XP you can earn in a day unless you pay. That means every level you pump into a pet is a real opportunity cost. You simply can’t keep 10+ Voidpets equally geared and leveled as a free or light-spend player, especially once you’re pushing higher void dungeon floors.

This tier list is built around one question: which pets give you the best return on that limited daily XP? It focuses on dungeon-clearing efficiency, endgame viability, and how well a pet holds up when it’s your main or only high-level carry. Rarity obviously helps, but some Ubers are more future-proof than others, and a few “just” Epic or Legendary options punch way above their weight.

As of March 2026, there haven’t been major balance patches since late 2024, so the meta has settled. Community tiermakers, YouTube runs, and in-game testing all point to a fairly stable S+ core: a handful of Ubers that trivialise chunks of the game when built properly. Around them sit strong A-tier options that can absolutely carry accounts without perfect luck, and a painful C tier of emotion pets that look cool but don’t justify serious XP past the very early game.

Below are 12 Voidpets you should think about when deciding who gets your limited XP – including one that’s better left at base level as soon as you have anything stronger.

1. Lust (and HigherForm Lust)

If you only remember one name from this list, make it Lust. Both base Lust and its evolved form, HigherForm Lust (HF Lust), sit at the very top of current tier lists, and for good reason: this is the closest thing Voidpet Dungeon has to a one-unit solution for most PvE content. When your XP income is throttled, having a single hyper-carry that scales from mid-game into deep void floors is priceless.

Base Lust is already S-tier material. Even without evolution, it offers the kind of reliable, repeatable damage that lets you auto-farm dungeons other pets have to sweat through manually. Where Lust truly breaks the game open, though, is once you unlock its HigherForm. HF Lust sits in that tiny S+ club that can chew through endgame voids with the right support, thanks to superior stats and synergy with the game’s fighter-heavy meta.

From an XP-planning perspective, Lust is about as safe as it gets. You can push it hard early, knowing every level will keep paying dividends once you evolve into HF Lust. Pair it with a sturdy tank like Scorn or Cringe and a competent healer such as Joy, and you have a classic three-slot shell that carries you through most of the game. Unless you somehow pull multiple S+ Ubers right away, Lust should be your first max-investment project.

2. Merry

Merry is that rare Uber that still feels good even when your account is a mess. You can throw Merry into half-finished teams, with mismatched gear and underleveled supports, and it still pulls its weight. That flexibility is exactly what you want in a high-priority XP target when you don’t control what the gacha hands you.

In the current meta, Merry shares the S+ spotlight with HF Lust, Down Bad, and HF Greed. Where those other picks tend to lean into pure damage, Merry works beautifully as an all-rounder. It hits hard enough to function as your primary carry but doesn’t fold the second a dungeon wave looks at it funny. That blend of damage and survivability makes Merry especially valuable for accounts that don’t have perfect tanks or healers online yet.

On my “worst luck” alt account, Merry was the first real Uber I pulled, and it immediately became the focal point of my XP spending. The payoff was obvious: dungeon floors that previously required manual piloting suddenly became safe auto-farms once Merry’s levels and gear caught up. If you already have Lust as your main project, Merry is an excellent second carry for split-team content; if you don’t, Merry comfortably takes the #1 slot for your XP until something even more broken shows up.

3. Down Bad

Down Bad is one of those units that doesn’t just clear content – it changes how aggressive you can be with your runs. Once you’ve built it up, you start cutting corners you wouldn’t dare attempt with lesser carries: greedier pulls in higher void floors, fewer manual restarts, and faster clears overall.

It sits comfortably in the S+ bracket alongside Lust, Merry, and HF Greed, specialising in raw offensive pressure. Where Merry is a forgiving generalist, Down Bad leans more towards “if things die fast enough, they can’t kill you.” That makes it especially good in compositions where you’ve already solved your frontline – say, with a leveled Scorn or Cringe – and want your XP concentrated on something that erases waves before they snowball.

Down Bad also scales very nicely with offensive gear. Rare attack-boosting items like Soft Dumbbells are a huge part of the late-game damage puzzle; fitting them onto a pet that’s already in the top echelon of fighters supercharges your returns. If you’re playing free-to-play, that synergy matters: you’re not just limited by XP, but by how many strong gear pieces you can realistically farm. Concentrating both XP and your best items on Down Bad can turn it into an account-defining carry.

If you’re choosing between building Merry or Down Bad as your first major DPS project, Merry is slightly safer for weaker accounts. But once you have even a basic defensive core in place, Down Bad is absolutely worth being your main XP sink.

4. Greed and HigherForm Greed

Greed’s story is a perfect example of why raw tier labels don’t tell the whole truth. Base Greed is often rated around B tier in more recent community lists – perfectly usable, but not something you want to pour all your limited XP into long-term. HigherForm Greed (HF Greed), on the other hand, rockets straight into S+ territory once you unlock its evolution.

From a progression standpoint, that split personality means you need to be deliberate. If Greed is one of your only decent fighters early on, it’s fine to bring it up to a comfortable level so it can help you farm materials. Just stop short of hard-capping it until you know you’ll realistically reach HigherForm. The moment HF Greed comes online, though, it becomes one of the best XP investments in the game, rivaling Lust, Merry, and Down Bad for endgame dungeon clears.

Some tier lists even put HF Greed above base Lust in pure late-game power, but the opportunity cost of crawling there with a relatively mediocre base form keeps it a touch lower on this particular ranking. Think of Greed as a “planned investment” pick: fantastic if you already have a solid mid-game carry like Ambition or Persistence to bridge the gap, but a little rough as your very first project. If your box supports it, though, committing XP to Greed with a clear path toward HigherForm is one of the smartest long-term plays you can make.

5. Persistence

Persistence lives up to its name by refusing to fall off. In almost every account I’ve seen where it’s built properly, it remains relevant from the moment it comes online right through to high void floors. That consistency is a big deal when your XP budget is tight: you want pets that don’t become dead weight just because the meta shifts a little or you unlock a new evolution system.

Tier-wise, Persistence is usually parked in the same S+ conversation as Lust and the HigherForms. It might not have the same peak showcase moments as HF Lust or HF Greed, but it answers a simple question very well: “If I dump a ton of XP into this one pet, will it be able to drag weaker teammates through hard content?” The answer is yes, especially once you pair it with a reliable healer like Joy and a sturdy tank.

Where Persistence really shines is on accounts that don’t have perfect gacha luck. If you’re missing Lust, Merry, or Down Bad, but you do have Persistence, you don’t need to wait for a miracle pull to start making real progress. Build it, gear it, and let it be the backbone of your teams while you slowly accumulate other S+ options. Several community lists even highlight Persistence as one of the best “first 6-stars” for free-to-play players, precisely because it stays good long after many early-game carries would start to fade.

6. Defiance

Defiance is the first truly controversial pick on this list. Some early tier lists pushed it up into the S+ conversation alongside Lust and Rapture; more recent community rankings have settled it closer to A or even B, especially in its base form. That spread says one thing very clearly: Defiance is powerful, but a bit more sensitive to team context and itemisation than the absolute no-brainer Ubers.

In practice, Defiance works best as a bruiser-style frontline fighter – something that can stand in harm’s way without being a pure, passive tank. That gives it a different flavour from Scorn or Cringe. If your box is light on true damage dealers, sinking a big chunk of XP into Defiance can give you a pseudo-carry that also soaks hits. However, if you already have monsters like Lust, Down Bad, or HF Greed online, Defiance shifts into more of a luxury pivot rather than a must-max.

In practice, Defiance works best as a bruiser-style frontline fighter – something that can stand in harm’s way without being a pure, passive tank. That gives it a different flavour from Scorn or Cringe. If your box is light on true damage dealers, sinking a big chunk of XP into Defiance can give you a pseudo-carry that also soaks hits. However, if you already have monsters like Lust, Down Bad, or HF Greed online, Defiance shifts into more of a luxury pivot rather than a must-max.

My recommendation is to treat Defiance as a “conditional priority.” If your early pulls give you Defiance plus mostly mid-tier rares, go ahead and invest – it will absolutely feel like a stat stick that props up your runs. If, on the other hand, it’s competing directly with clearly S+ options, favour those instead and keep Defiance at a solid but not overcapped level. It’s strong, it’s flexible, but it’s not as future-proof as the true monsters at the top of this list.

7. Rapture

Rapture doesn’t always get the same hype as Lust or Merry, but it consistently shows up in the S+ bracket for dungeon performance. Think of it as one of the cleanest “plug-and-play” high-damage pets in the game: you don’t need extreme setups or niche comps to make it work. Give it XP, give it decent gear, and it does its job.

What makes Rapture worth prioritising is how well it slots into existing team shells. Got Joy as a healer and Scorn on tank duty? Rapture is a natural fourth or fifth slot that turns a solid, safe team into a fast one. Still running mostly A-tier supports like Ambition or Sanctimony? Rapture doesn’t care; it scales off its own stats enough that even mediocre backline help is fine.

On accounts where I’ve had both Rapture and one of the headline Ubers, I’ve found that Rapture is often the second pet I’m happy to raise all the way rather than sitting at a half-finished level. That alone is a big deal under an XP cap: most pets you want to park around a usable breakpoint, but Rapture is worth the full investment. If your luck gives you Rapture before handing over Lust or HF Greed, don’t hesitate. Build it as your main carry, then let any future Ubers slot in beside it later.

8. Sonder

Sonder rounds out the usual suspects in the S+ conversation, and it fills a slightly different niche from the more straightforward brawlers. While the details of kits vary, in practice Sonder tends to feel like a flexible, team-friendly damage dealer rather than a pure selfish hyper-carry. That distinction matters when you’re trying to squeeze maximum value out of every XP point and every gear piece.

On my main account, Sonder started as a “backup project” behind Lust and Persistence. The surprise was how quickly it went from secondary to indispensable once it crossed a few level and gear thresholds. Dungeon waves that occasionally slipped through my main carry’s burst started evaporating once Sonder joined in, and boss fights became significantly more consistent thanks to the extra throughput.

XP-wise, Sonder is an excellent second or third priority once you have one primary S+ carry capped. It’s rarely going to be the very first thing you hard-invest in (HF Lust and Down Bad are better suited for that), but the moment you’re thinking about split teams or deeper void runs, Sonder jumps up the queue. If you’re choosing between finishing an S-tier AOE-focused rare and pushing Sonder to parity with your main carry, Sonder wins that race almost every time.

9. Ambition

Not everyone is going to roll an Uber in their first few days, and that’s where Ambition quietly becomes one of the most important pets in Voidpet Dungeon. Sitting solidly in A tier, Ambition is the definition of “good enough to carry” without being a long-term trap. For free-to-play players, that’s gold: you need something that can use your early XP efficiently while you wait for the luck gods to cooperate.

Ambition doesn’t reach the same ceiling as Lust or HF Greed, but it has a very respectable floor and a forgiving curve. It comes online quickly, doesn’t demand perfect gear to start working, and pairs nicely with other A-tier companions like Estrangement, Sadge, or Kind. Most importantly, you rarely feel like you’ve “wasted” XP on Ambition, even if you later pull an Uber – the work it does getting you through early and mid-game content pays for itself.

My rule of thumb: if you hit Ambition early and your box is otherwise full of low-impact rares (Pain, Lonely, Curious, etc.), go ahead and give it serious XP. Push it far enough that void dungeon floors start falling over without constant retries. Once an S+ pet like Lust, Merry, or Persistence enters the picture, you can shift your daily XP cap towards them while leaving Ambition at a strong, semi-finished state. It will still contribute, just without demanding to be your primary project forever.

10. Joy (Healer)

Joy is one of the very few healers that consistently shows up in high tiers, and that alone makes it worth talking about. Voidpet Dungeon’s meta leans heavily towards fighters – S and A tiers are packed with damage dealers – but that doesn’t mean you can ignore sustain once you’re pushing deeper void floors and longer boss encounters.

Many early teams can brute-force content by stacking damage and running minimal healing. That works… until it doesn’t. At some point, you start hitting stages where even your S+ carries take unavoidable chip, or where messy wave patterns punish glass-cannon comps. That’s when a well-leveled Joy stops feeling like a luxury and starts feeling mandatory. It smooths out RNG spikes, lets you run slightly greedier gear on your carries, and makes auto-farming much more reliable.

From an XP-priority standpoint, I wouldn’t recommend building Joy before you have at least one serious damage dealer established. However, once your main carry is in a healthy place, Joy deserves to be your next or third-biggest XP sink. Among the A-tier mid-game options (Ambition, Sanctimony, Panic, Wistful, Charity, etc.), Joy stands out as the healer you’re most likely to still be using in late-game dungeons. You won’t regret taking it well past the casual “support level” breakpoint.

11. Scorn & Cringe (Tanks)

Scorn and Cringe are both tagged as tanks in most tier breakdowns, and they fill an unglamorous but crucial role: letting your hyper-carries actually stay alive long enough to do their jobs. In a meta where fighters vastly outnumber tanks and healers at the top, having even one sturdy frontline pet you can trust is a significant advantage.

On raw rankings, Scorn usually edges out Cringe by a bit, floating between A and B tier depending on the list. Cringe lands in a similar A-ish space. The main takeaway, though, is that both are more than serviceable anchors for your team if you’re light on defensive Ubers. If you’ve ever tried to run Lust, Down Bad, and Rapture together with nothing solid up front, you’ll know exactly why investing XP into a proper tank is worth it.

XP-wise, you don’t need to level both deeply. Pick whichever one you pulled first or prefer visually and commit. Bring that tank close to your main carry’s level, slap on your best defensive gear, and let it soak. Once one of them is properly built, additional XP is usually better spent on more damage or on Joy rather than overcapping a second frontline. Still, in the pool of non-Uber pets, Scorn and Cringe are two of the safest defensive investments you can make.

12. Pain (and the XP traps)

Every collection RPG has them: the cute, early pets that feel like friends for your first few hours and then quietly turn into dead weight. In Voidpet Dungeon, Pain is the poster child for that category. Alongside Lonely, Curious, Grumpy, and Glee, it consistently lands in C tier across multiple lists – meaning it underperforms badly once XP becomes the main bottleneck on your account.

That doesn’t mean Pain is useless. Early on, when you’re still unlocking core systems and your pet pool is tiny, it’s perfectly fine to pump a few levels into Pain or its C-tier friends just to smooth your first dungeon clears. The mistake is pushing them too far once you start hitting the daily XP cap. Every level that goes into a low-ceiling rare is a level not going into Ambition, Joy, or any of the S+ monsters higher on this list.

Could you slap something like Soft Dumbbells onto Pain, micromanage every run, and drag it into viability? With enough effort and gear, probably. But that’s the opposite of what you want under Voidpet Dungeon’s resource model. Treat Pain and its C-tier peers as temporary stepping stones and fusion fodder: get them just high enough to keep your team functional in the opening chapters, then park them and never look back once a serious carry appears. Recognising these XP traps early is one of the biggest quality-of-life upgrades you can give your account.

Final thoughts: a simple XP game plan

Voidpet Dungeon is built to punish scattered investment. The daily XP cap, slow organic progression, and reliance on a few standout carries all push you towards focus. The pets above reflect that: a small group of S+ Ubers that can drag entire teams through void dungeons, a handful of A-tier workhorses that carry unlucky accounts, and a clear line between safe investments and XP traps.

If you’re looking for a practical plan, it’s this: pick one primary S+/S carry (Lust, Merry, Down Bad, Persistence, Rapture, Sonder, or eventually HF Greed) and pour the majority of your daily XP into them. Support that carry with exactly one serious tank (Scorn or Cringe) and, once you hit tougher floors, a leveled Joy. Only after those pieces are in place should you start spreading XP into secondary damage dealers or niche favourites.

Above all, avoid the temptation to endlessly prop up early rares like Pain, Lonely, Curious, Grumpy, and Glee. They do their job in the tutorial-style phase of the game; beyond that, your limited XP is far better spent on pets that stay relevant for the long haul. Stick to that priority and Voidpet Dungeon’s grind becomes much more manageable, even without leaning on pay-to-progress shortcuts.