WoW player embraces the Pokemon life by leveling only with Pet Battles

WoW has had some truly innovative leveling schemes before, but Pacifist’s Pokemon-like “Pet Battles” is the most interesting, for my money. Deciding to level a character without killing any monsters, they don’t even have a class specialization selected! Sure, they aren’t the first person to try and level in a unique way. There was a player who also leveled only by picking Herbs on the starting Pandaren area, so they never had to pick an allegiance, which was also interesting.

However, that also sounds maddening and boring. What Pacifist has done is interesting, and honestly something that, if not already common, might trend that way.

What I think is interesting about leveling up as a Pokemon trainer in WoW, via Pet Battles, is that they didn’t fall back on just going with an easy, overpowered team. This is easily my favorite version of a "Pacifist" playthrough in World of Warcraft.

WoW Player Pacifist explains their Pet Battle level grind and what’s next for the virtual Pokemon Trainer

Redditor Flunkeren revealed in a recent post on the WoW subReddit that they leveled a Hunter to 80, using only Pet Battles — World of Warcraft’s answer to Pokemon Battles. Introduced back in Mists of Pandaria, players could capture a variety of creatures from around the world and battle other NPC trainers, as well as players.

Level 80 only by pet battling byu/flunkeren inwow

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While not much has changed about the system over the years, new Pets have been added with each expansion, including the most recent The War Within. On their alt character, Pacifism, this WoW player leveled only with Pet Battles, with a blend of PVE and PVP fights, similar to what a Pokemon trainer might do.

This World of Warcraft player focused on PVP battles from levels 1-50 and 70-80, but chose to spend about 20 of those levels, 50-70, doing PVE battles. They even showed off how they have no kills, and no kills that grant experience or honor, at level 80. It’s truly an impressive achievement.

This is technically a very easy challenge to complete, if you use some of the many overpowered teams you can pick from. There are well over 1400 pets in the game, so the possibilities are well and truly endless. That includes some limited-time pets that were available in interesting ways, such as the Parrlok pet, from a Discord collaboration.

I have a long way to go before I Catch 'Em All (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Instead of going with something easy and overpowered, Pacifism went with Fel-Afflicted Skyfin, Twilight Clutch-Sister, and Tranquil Mechanical Yeti, to keep things interesting. This isn’t the end of their Pokemon journey, either.

The next character will be done only with PVP battles, with an ultimate goal of getting the “5000 PVP Pet Battles Won” achievement. I’d like to wish them the best of luck, because this is such a cool thing to see.

The only thing that may slow people down from trying it Pacifism’s way, is that it took 7 days, 18 hours, 10 minutes of in-game play time to get to level 80, as they went through approximately 1,500 PVP Pet Battles.

However, I do think this is something that could catch on and become more popular. There have been lots of in-game, community-led efforts over the years. Maybe we’ll see people start popping up trying to be “Gym leaders” like in Pokemon with guildmates serving as their subordinates. Now that would be interesting.

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About the author

Jason is an Esports and Gaming journalist at Sportskeeda holding an amazing 11 years of experience under his belt. Having put out 4000-plus articles and amassing over 12 million reads for Sportskeeda, he is among the company’s most experienced writers. Jason holds a Bachelor's degree in English from UNC Pembroke and was inspired to become a gaming journalist very early on in life after reading Nintendo Power.

Jason is a jack of all trades when it comes to gaming journalism. He’s a key writer in Sportskeeda's MMO department, but he also likes to help out in other categories, like streamers, RPG, card games, and whatever else is needed. A solo gamer at heart, Jason's favorite titles include Earthbound and Dragon Warrior.

Jason places high value on accuracy and relevance in his write-ups. He achieves this with thorough research to sift facts from rumors. One of the biggest highlights of his career is his interview with Canadian pro wrestler Kenny Omega about his inclusion in the Like a Dragon game series. He is also good friends with journalist Kazumo Hashimoto, who he admires for the kind of stories he works on and his deep ethics.

A true cinephile, one of Jason’s primary hobbies involves enjoying cinematic experiences. He also loves reading, be it fiction or manga, when not working. Additionally, he streams on Twitch and posts his gaming insights on YouTube.

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Edited by Jason Parker