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

Updated 14 September 2026 for Voidpet Dungeon v5.29.40 (App Store build of 11 September 2026). Since our March version the game has added Temperance, Humble, Denial, Malice and Rancor, plus HigherForm Down Bad and Parallel Forms, and the community tier lists have moved – so this list has been re-ranked from scratch.

Table of Contents (17)

Quick answer: the three pets to level first

If you only read one paragraph: Lust (and later HigherForm Lust) is still the safest single XP sink in Voidpet Dungeon – a metal fighter that carries from the early floors into the thousands and is the HigherForm most players buy first. Down Bad is the other must-level fighter: fast, self-sufficient, and its HigherForm is now widely rated the second-best in the game. Merry is the support every high-floor team is built around – Ding Dong and Cleanse make her a permanent priority even though she does no damage. Get those three online, then a healer (Persistence) and a tank (Resistance or Temperance), and the daily XP limit stops feeling like a wall.

Voidpet Dungeon tier list at a glance

Tier	Pets	Role in your XP plan
S+	HigherForm Lust, HigherForm Down Bad, Merry, HigherForm Greed	Account-defining. Cap them as soon as you own them.
S	Lust, Down Bad, Persistence, Rapture, Defiance, Mischief	Main carries and the healer you will still use at floor 3,000+.
A	Sonder, Ambition, Greed (base), Resistance & Temperance (tanks)	Bridges, tanks and niche solvers – level to a working breakpoint, not to cap.
Bench	Pain (and Lonely, Curious, Grumpy, Glee)	Fine for the first floors, dead weight after that.

Voidpet Dungeon tier list: where to spend your XP first

Voidpet Dungeon does something a lot of gacha RPGs don’t dare to: it limits how much XP you can farm in a day unless you spend gems on extra keys. 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 floors.

This tier list is built around one question: which pets give you the best return on that limited daily XP? It focuses on floor-clearing efficiency, boss viability, and how well a pet holds up when it’s your main or only high-level carry. Rarity obviously helps, but some legendaries are more future-proof than others, and the game now has four HigherForms – Lust, Down Bad, Greed and Sloth – that reshuffle the top of the list depending on which one you can afford with Vivid Dust.

The rankings below cross-reference the September 2026 build with the two lists r/voidpet actually argues about: the “Only Voidpet Dungeon Tier List You’re Ever Going To Need” series (V4, June 2026) and the 112-player Official Community Legendary Tier List from August 2026, where 41% of respondents were past floor 3,000. Where those sources disagree, we say so rather than pretending there is one true order.

What changed since March 2026

Five legendaries have been added through monthly events: Temperance (March, water tank), Humble (April, water attacker), Denial (June, earth support), Malice (August, wood) and Rancor (1–30 September, earth fighter, via the Relics of Rancor event). The May update added the monthly boss Skeetus and four legendary items, and the 10 August update introduced Parallel Forms – rare alternate forms hatched or created with mushrooms, which are a separate system from HigherForms. Balance-wise, the April notes reworked Bogar (faster Enrage, less speed and defence) and lowered daily-boss enemy levels; the builds from late August through 11 September are listed only as bug fixes. None of the new pets displaces the top of the list yet, but Rancor matters if you lack an earth attacker, and Denial has slotted straight into the SS bracket of the June community list.

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 metal fighter 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 floors other pets have to sweat through manually. Where Lust truly breaks the game open is once you unlock its HigherForm. HF Lust sits in the SSS/S+ club on every list we checked, and the standard r/voidpet advice on which HigherForm to buy first is still “HFL > HFDB > HFG > HFS”. Players credit the Alloy Burst scaling for that: HF Lust gains damage over a fight without depending on a partner pet.

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 Resistance or Temperance and Merry on support, and you have a classic shell that carries you through most of the game. Unless you somehow pull multiple S+ legendaries right away, Lust should be your first max-investment project.

2. Down Bad (and HigherForm 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. New players who pull it early consistently report the same thing: it makes an immediate difference, and it doesn’t need speed investment to act first.

The big change since March is that HigherForm Down Bad is now live and is the consensus second-best HigherForm in the game. The June 2026 community list puts HF Down Bad in its SSS tier alongside HF Lust, and high-floor players describe it as a sweeper for long boss fights thanks to its speed buff and first-strike ability. If you pulled Down Bad before Lust, spending your Vivid Dust on HFDB first is a perfectly defensible call.

Down Bad also scales well with offensive gear. Legendary attack items 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 Lust and Down Bad as your first major project, Lust is slightly safer for weaker accounts because it needs less from its teammates. But once you have even a basic defensive core in place, Down Bad is absolutely worth being your main XP sink.

3. Merry (support)

Merry is the pet we got most wrong in the March version of this list, so let’s be precise: Merry is a wood support, not a damage dealer. Her three dungeon abilities – Cleanse, Ding Dong and Rejuvenate – remove debuffs, hand out extra actions and heal. She deals essentially no damage, and players who try to run her as a solo carry complain that she gets one- or two-tapped by bosses. That is not what she is for.

What she is for is making everything else on your team better. The r/voidpet consensus is blunt about it: “Merry is the better support thanks to Ding Dong and Cleanse … her utility means she will always be a priority to level.” The April community list called her the best pet in the game outright; the June list keeps her in SS and the September PocketGamer list in S+. The one dissenting camp argues she should sit a tier lower because she is only as good as the fighter she combos with – which is fair, but by the time you have Lust or Down Bad you also have the combo.

From an XP standpoint, Merry is the rare support you should level to parity with your main carry rather than parking at a “good enough” breakpoint. Her speed lets her act right after a boss summons, and cycling Ding Dong and Cleanse is how a lot of Tauron and Syclinder clears are done. If you own Merry, she goes on the team; the only question is who she is buffing.

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 sits in S on the June community list – a fantastic tertiary pet for metal or AoE encounters, in the words of one player – but not something you want to pour all of your limited XP into long-term. HigherForm Greed (HF Greed), on the other hand, is still in the SSS/S+ bracket on the June list and the September PocketGamer list.

That said, HF Greed’s reputation has slipped since March. In the “which HigherForm should I buy” threads it is now routinely ranked third of four, and a well-upvoted August post from a player near floor 6,000 argues it is the worst of the HigherForms – too much competition for fire damage, no passive upgrade, and reliant on a partner pet to build stacks. Others at floor 5,000+ counter that against bosses HF Greed builds faster than any other HigherForm when used correctly. The honest summary: HF Greed is elite for boss fights and merely good for floors.

From a progression standpoint, be deliberate. If Greed is one of your only decent fighters early on, bring it up to a comfortable level so it can help you farm materials, but don’t cap it until you know you’ll realistically fund the HigherForm – and if you own Lust or Down Bad, buy their HigherForms first. Think of Greed as a “planned investment” pick: fantastic if you already have a solid mid-game carry like Ambition to bridge the gap, but a little rough as your very first project.

5. Persistence (healer)

Persistence lives up to its name by refusing to fall off. It is a water healer – arguably the best pure healer in the game now that the community has stopped treating Merry as one – and unlike most healers it also brings a real amount of damage. That is why players describe it as an “offensive healer” and why several run it as a second damage source on boss teams.

Tier-wise, Persistence is in SS on the June community list and S+ on the September list, and it has been there consistently all year. The key distinction the community draws is this: “if you want your team to survive all the way, you go with Persistence; if you want the other team dead and buried, you go with Merry.” On metal and fire bosses with heavy AoE, Merry alone cannot keep up with the healing – that is exactly when Persistence earns its XP. Popular gear pairings on r/voidpet are the Ice Cream Hat and Mermaid Scarf, which lean into its passive healing.

Where Persistence really shines is on accounts that don’t have perfect gacha luck. If you’re missing Merry, Persistence keeps a team alive on its own; if you have both, they are compatible and regularly run together. Build it, gear it, and let it be the backbone of your boss teams while you slowly accumulate the S+ fighters. The one caveat: it is not a carry. Do not expect Persistence to clear floors solo the way Lust or Down Bad can.

6. Rapture

Rapture doesn’t always get the same hype as Lust or Down Bad, but it lands in SS on the June community list and S+ on the September list. 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.

Rapture is also the pet the two big community sources disagree about most. The 112-player August survey averaged it down to A overall and B for intermediate floors – a result that some veteran players openly called “Rapture slander”. That gap is a good illustration of how averaged surveys punish pets that are excellent in specific hands and merely fine in others. If you are the kind of player who reads gear guides, Rapture is a top-tier investment; if you auto-battle everything, it is still very good.

On accounts where you have Rapture and one of the headline fighters, Rapture is often the second pet you should be happy to raise all the way rather than sitting at a half-finished level. If your luck gives you Rapture before Lust or Down Bad, don’t hesitate: build it as your main carry, then let any future S+ pulls slot in beside it later.

7. Defiance

Defiance is the entry that has moved the most since March, and in the right direction. Our previous version parked it around A because early community lists had it there; the June 2026 community list has it in S, the September PocketGamer list has it in S+, and even the sceptics on r/voidpet argue for “one tier lower”, not for benching it.

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 Resistance or Temperance. If your box is light on true damage dealers, sinking a big chunk of XP into Defiance gives you a pseudo-carry that also soaks hits. The recurring criticism is its speed: slower fighters feel worse the deeper you go, which is why some high-floor players rate Wrath above it for pure damage.

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 it’s competing directly with Lust, Down Bad or a HigherForm, favour those first and keep Defiance at a solid but not overcapped level. It’s strong, it’s flexible, and it is a lot more future-proof than we gave it credit for in March.

8. Mischief

Mischief is new to this list, and it earns the slot on community enthusiasm alone: a September thread asking whether it is any good drew a wall of “yes” from players at every floor range. It sits in SS on the June community list – above several pets people spend months chasing – and it is the kind of legendary that quietly makes an account work.

Its value is utility rather than raw numbers. Players run it as a fast stun (a Paralysis or Jelly Scarf is the standard pairing), use its buff-steal to defuse dangerous enemy setups, and pair it with the Plunger Hat to turn it into what one player called “a concussion grenade” that can solo floors. It is relatively squishy and won’t out-damage Down Bad, but a stun that lands before Apathy would is a genuine problem-solver on the floors where enemy AoE wipes you before you act.

XP-wise, Mischief is an excellent second or third priority once one primary carry is capped, and a very strong first legendary if it is what the eggs hand you. It also scales with speed investment more than most, so it is a pet you build fast rather than tanky. If you pull it, level it; you will use it far more than its tier label suggests.

9. Sonder

Sonder is the most divisive pet on this list, and we would rather show you the split than hide it. The September PocketGamer list puts Sonder in S+; the June r/voidpet community list has it in A, and one of the top replies on that thread argues it belongs in S at minimum. Meanwhile, players progressing without top legendaries describe Sonder as an underwhelming healer without the right items. Both things can be true: Sonder is a team-friendly support whose value depends heavily on gear and on the fighter it is paired with.

On paper, Sonder is a flexible support rather than a selfish hyper-carry, and there is a good argument that it is the pet to level when you do not own Merry. Its sustain becomes noticeably more valuable once you are into split-team content and longer boss fights, which is where the “S+” crowd is coming from.

XP-wise, Sonder is a second or third priority once you have one primary S+ carry capped, and it drops down the queue entirely if you already run Merry and Persistence. If you are choosing between finishing an epic-rarity support and pushing Sonder to parity with your main carry, Sonder usually wins that race.

10. Ambition

Not everyone is going to roll a legendary in their first few days, and that’s where Ambition quietly becomes one of the most important pets in Voidpet Dungeon. It has slipped a band since March – the June community list has it in S, the September list in A – but it remains 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 a HigherForm, but it has a very respectable floor and a forgiving curve. Its passive, Undertow, ramps the damage of its other abilities every time it uses its basic attack, which is why it comes online quickly without perfect gear. It pairs nicely with other A-tier companions like Kind or Sadge, and you rarely feel like you’ve “wasted” XP on Ambition even if you later pull a legendary – 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.), give it serious XP. Push it far enough that void floors start falling over without constant retries. Once an S+ pet like Lust or Down Bad enters the picture, shift your daily XP towards them and leave Ambition at a strong, semi-finished state. It will still contribute, just without demanding to be your primary project forever.

11. Resistance and Temperance (tanks)

Tanks are an unglamorous but crucial part of an XP plan: they let your carries stay alive long enough to do their jobs. In a meta where fighters vastly outnumber tanks at the top, having one sturdy frontline pet you can trust is a significant advantage – and since March the two names that come up are Resistance and Temperance, not Scorn and Cringe.

Resistance is the tank most r/voidpet regulars call the best in the game outside of HigherForm Sloth, and the one plenty of players list as their “main tank” through the 3,000s. Temperance, the legendary water tank added in March 2026, is the other name in that conversation; the usual debate is defence (Resistance) versus raw stamina (Temperance). Level whichever you own – both are S on the June community list – bring it close to your main carry’s level, and give it your best defensive gear. If you are lucky enough to own HF Sloth, it replaces both for floor clearing.

What about Scorn and Cringe, the tanks we recommended in March? They have not been nerfed, but they have been passed. Cringe still sits in A on the September list; Scorn has drifted to B on both the June and September lists. They remain perfectly serviceable if they are the only frontline you have, and you don’t need to level two tanks deeply – but the moment Resistance or Temperance shows up, stop investing in them and move on.

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 lands in C tier on the June community list and the September list alike – PocketGamer calls it “arguably the weakest tank” despite its stamina – 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 floors. The mistake is pushing them too far once you start hitting the daily XP limit. Every level that goes into a low-ceiling rare is a level not going into Ambition, Mischief, or any of the S+ pets higher on this list.

A gentler version of the same warning applies to Joy, which we recommended as a healer in March. Current community lists have Joy in B (June) or A (September), and the blunt r/voidpet advice is that if you need fire damage you level Panic, then Anger, and only reach for Joy as a third option. She is not a trap, but with Merry and Persistence covering healing she is no longer a priority XP sink. Treat Pain and its C-tier peers as temporary stepping stones: 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.

Final thoughts: a simple XP game plan

Voidpet Dungeon is built to punish scattered investment. The daily XP limit, 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+ fighters and one support that can drag entire teams through void floors, a handful of A-tier workhorses and tanks 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 carry (Lust, Down Bad, Rapture, Defiance or Mischief) and pour the majority of your daily XP into them. Support that carry with Merry if you own her, exactly one serious tank (Resistance or Temperance), and – once you hit tougher bosses – a leveled Persistence. Save your Vivid Dust for HigherForm Lust or HigherForm Down Bad before Greed or Sloth. Only after those pieces are in place should you start spreading XP into secondary damage dealers, the new event legendaries, 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.