How do you pet animals in Diablo 4?

Diablo 4 is a game about slaying hordes of demons and rescuing the last remnants of humanity from unspeakable evil. But, like any good video game these days, it also has dogs and cats for you to pet and befriend. Unfortunately, it’s still Diablo 4, so petting animals is a little more complex than just walking up and hitting a single button.

In this Diablo 4 guide, we’ll teach you how to pet your furry friends around town and what you get out of it.

How to interact with dogs and cats

Image: Blizzard Entertainment via Polygon

Petting dogs and cats is very easy in Diablo 4, but it’s also never explained in-game — which is a crime! You’ve been walking around Sanctuary not petting animals for potentially hundreds of hours already

If you want to start being a productive member of society (i.e. an animal lover), all you need to do is walk up to a cat or dog and use the “Hello” emote at them. Do so while close enough to a dog, and your character will reach down and pet them when they say hello. You can do the same for cats, but there is no petting animation — another crime from Blizzard! Instead, they will flop on the floor and present their tummy for belly rubs.

If you’re unfamiliar with how to use emotes like “Hello,” it’s very easy. Open your Action Wheel (the d-pad on controller and whatever your custom keybind is on PC) — like you do for several side quests — and simply select the part of the wheel that says “Hello.” Hit confirm and you’ll do the emote.

On the off chance that you don’t see “Hello” on your wheel, you may need to change pages (the shoulder buttons) or customize your wheel, which you’ll have a prompt for on the menu. If you hit customize, you’ll see a long list of emotes that you can place on the blank parts of your wheel. Find “Hello” and move it to a convenient spot. Then hit confirm and you’ll be able to do it whenever you want.

What does petting dogs and cats do?

Image: Blizzard Entertainment via Polygon

At the moment, there’s no tangible benefit to petting animals in Diablo 4 is. At least for now. (It’s possible that Blizzard could add a Trophy or Achievement at some point. Or it could be an objective on a Season’s Journey.)

However, petting dogs does cause them to follow you around until you leave town. If you’re in a large town with many dogs, you can become a little dog Necromancer and walk through town with an army following behind you. Cats, much like their real-world contemporaries, just flop down in front of you and will not follow you outside no matter how nice you are — they have cat stuff to do, and you were but a momentary distraction for them.

If you’re looking for dogs and cats to pet, travel to basically any town in the game. You should see at least one dog walking around somewhere. Cats are certainly harder to find, but you can definitely find one in the inn in Kyovashad, as well as in other cities.

Can you get a pet in Diablo 4?

Image: Blizzard Entertainment via Polygon

Unfortunately, Diablo 4 doesn’t have any kind of permanent pet system the way Diablo 3 did.

For those who never played Diablo 3, Blizzard eventually implemented a pet system in that game where you could unlock cosmetic animals to pick up gold dropped by enemies. This actually helped speed the game up considerably, as you wasted less time clicking on the ground to fill your coffers.

Blizzard hasn’t announced any kind of pet system for Diablo 4, and it’s entirely possible that the system will never come to the game, as the game’s dark tone doesn’t really allow for cute, unlockable pets the way its predecessor did.

If pets ever do come to Diablo 4, we’ll update this guide to help you unlock them.