Guide: How to identifiy and find a pet in the archive [WIP]

[Asvoria]

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How to identifiy and find a pet in the archive
»»————————————————————————————- A step by step guide -————————————————————————————««

- currently work in progress, please bear with me -

What is this?
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This guide is a friendly little helper that may
come in handy when trying to identify a pet.
By identifying we mean that after going through
all steps of this guide you will know where your
pet exactly sits in the archive, which will
come in handy when trying to find out it's value.
Alongside, this guide also explains
historic events and several game mechanics.
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we hope that everybody who uses this thread will
at some point naturally be able to identify any
pet without the help of this guide! <3
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Directory
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[0.] Getting Started
[1.] Pet Growth
[2.] Adoption Date
[3.] Rarity
[4.] Species
[X.] Extended Releases
[Y.] Unreleased Pets
[$.] Store Pets
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guide was written by Asvoria
with the help of amarok. ★
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[Asvoria]

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Getting Started
»»————————- [0] -————————««

The Archive
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Every pet that was released for the public once has it's own place in the archive under the month or event they were first available. As there are alot of rarer pets that don't carry their official date with them, it is crucial to find out the "original date" of a pets release by finding it in the archive, to determine it's actual trading value.

Regular monthly releases start at the first of every month and dissapear at the end of the same month and can be found listed under the respective categories in each year:
xxJanuary | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | Sepember | October | November | December

There are many other opportunities to adopt pets throughout the year and those pets will be listed under the event releases. As those events change each year, we will only list those that come back regularily, although there might be many more happening throughout the year:
xxStore Pets | Special Releases | Chinese New Year | Valentine's Day | St.Patrick's Day | Easter | April Fool's |
xxCS Birthday | "Summer Event" | Halloween | Christmas | Hanukkah

Pet Information
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Clicking on the pet that you would like to identify, will bring you to the individual pet page where all information is stored that you need to get going. Here are a few (made up) examples:


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxOwner Asvoria xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxOwner Asvoria
xxxxxxxPet ID 238369923 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxPet ID 94594506
xxxPet's name YelmxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxAdopted 2019-12-18
xxxxxAdopted 2017-06-01xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxAge 77 days
xxxxxxxxxAge 13 daysxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxGrowth Full-grown
xxxxxxGrowth Still growingxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxRarity Rare
xxxxxxxRarity (unknown until adult) xxxxGiven to you by amarok. [view trade]
xxxxxxx

Those examples show how different pet pages can look like depending on how the pet was acquired and if it was given a name.

However, to identify the pet you will only need certain facts that are available on every pet:
Adoption date, Growth and Rarity

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[Here you can see pet pages with disabled rarity bars, but it does not matter if you prefer to have the graphic version or text]
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xxx

Now that you know where to find the information you'll need for this guide, you are ready to start identifying!
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[Asvoria]

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Pet Growth
»»————————- [1] -————————««

Newborn xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Age 3 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Age 9 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Age 22

Once adopted, most of CS pets take their time to grow into adults. Each of them starts as a newborn and will go through a varying number of growth stages until they reach their final stage.
To successfully identify a pet in the archive, the growth stage must be taken into consideration first.


- Still growing

The pet is in the process of growing and depending on how many outcomes exist, there might be a range of adult forms that it could possibly turn into. Depending on the information that you gather during the next steps, you might be facing a very newly released or re-released pet. To quickly find out which is the case, please check this months "Outcome thread" or the current "Event thread" in the forum.


- Pet shown on thread

If your pet is listed on the current months outcome thread or on the current event thread, then your pet is of this months or events release. Current months pets that are still growing, will not yet be listed in the archive and you'll only be able to find them there once the pet has grown. In that case, all you can do is watch your pretty pet evolve and enjoy the sight! If you can't find your pet in the archive at the beginning of the next month, then you should re-run this guide to see if you've followed the right path.
——»» end of guide [pet is too new and not yet listed in the archive]
- Pet not shown on thread

Your pet is not a regular release of this month or event, which means that it is a special pet. With the help of this guide you might be able to identify it's final outcome before it is fully grown, by comparing the current growth stage to the archive images and knowing the age that it turned its form, however it is generally advised to be cautious with such assumptions as different outcomes could potentially have a large value gap between them. It is always best to wait until a pet is grown before trading it or offering on it to be sure of it's final value.
——»» continue at [2.] Adoption Date

- Full-grown

The pet has reached it's final stage and will definitely be listed in the archive (although updates of current months might take a day or more to be released, so please be patient with the Team).
When looking through the archive, you might notice that some pets only have one stage that is labelled "Newborn" although representing a fully grown pet. This only means that the pet did not have to grow when it was adopted and that is actually a common thing to happen with most event-based pets, whilst regular monthly adopts are those that have full growth stages. Keep that in mind for the next section as it might give you a hint which tab to check first in the archive.

On the other hand, a pet might NOT look like an adult and show a younger growth stage than all other fully-grown pets of the same species, although apparently being fully grown! Most of those pets have a "PPS" stamp on their pet image and there will be a link on the pet page to an Q&A to explain what that exactly means. Now that you know for sure that your pet is fully grown, you might be able to find it in the archive during the next step!
——»» continue at [2.] Adoption Date

[Asvoria]

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Adoption Date
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Every pet on CS has an adoption date which marks the day it found it's first owner and as there are specific circumstances that may lead to variable adoption dates for the same pet, so we'll have a closer look at the dates first.
The date has the following format:

[ YYYY - MM - DD ]
x year - month - date

- Date format [YYYY-12-18] or [2011-12-24]

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If the pet was adopted on the 18th December of any year or on the 24th December of 2011, it will most likely not show it's original release date.
Every year during the month of December, the Advent Calendar event includes a specific gift for all users on the 18th (and as a one-time event on the 24th December of 2011).
The pets that will be adopted of the special Dec. 18th box will be Re-Released pets (RR pets) of the previous years, which means that many already existing pet designs are distributed again throughout the players by pure chance. Any of those pets that were adopted through this box will not show their original release dates, as the archive only lists a pet under the first month/ event it was released.

As it is possible for monthly pets to be adopted on those dates as well, it is worth checking the month of December of the respective release year to ensure that you are really facing a Re-Release.


- Monthly Release

Have you have managed to find your pet under the month of December of the respective release year? Great! Now you surely know that your pet's date is the original date of it's release and such pets are known as truedates!
This means that your pet is NOT a re-release but happens to be adopted on this very special day. Be cautious when trading for or trading away such pets as other people might not realize that it is an actual truedate and could pay more for it or try to trick you into buying something worthless. A quick look on the current month's newborns and growth stages in the archive or Outcome thread will easily help you to rule out such (usually still-growing) pets.
——»» end of guide [pet was successfully identified in the archive]
- Re-Release

If you didn't find your pet under the month of December of the respective release year (and the Outcomes Guide of December also doesn't list the pet), then you are in fact facing a Re-Released pet. This essentially means that you will have to manually look through the archive to identify your pet (and we advise you to take the time as your pet might be worth much more than what it's date and rarity suggests), but with the help of this guide you hopefully will be able to rule out a few factors beforehand, so that finding your pet won't be such a hassle.
——»» continue at [3.] Rarity
- Any other "regular" date

The pet most likely shows it's original release date, so the first step to reassure this information should be a quick check in the archive to see if the pet is listed under the month and year that it's date suggests.
Did you find your pet under the expected tab in the archive? Great! Now you surely know that your pet's date is the original date of it's release and such pets are known as truedates!
——»» end of guide [pet was successfully identified in the archive]

If that's not the case, then you'll have to consider one of the following options:


- C$ stamp on the pet's design (usually found under the chickensmoothie signature stamp).

The pet is a Store Pet and can be found under the respective category in the archive.
——»» continue at [$.] Store Pets
- Event Release

The pet could have been released during an event and in that case it will be listed under the special category. Try some more obvious categories, eg. Halloween if it has a date close to the end of October or check Valentine's if it sits around the 14th of February.
Did you find your pet? Great! Now you surely know that your pet's date is the original date of it's release and such pets are known as truedates!
——»» end of guide [pet was successfully identified in the archive]

- None of the above

If you could not find the pet under any event categories of the same year, then your pet might be an extended release. Please continue the guide, but don't worry if you still can't find your pet there. The guide will re-direct you to the next step ([3.] Rarity) afterwards and you'll surely find your pet if you gather more information.
——»» continue at [X.] Extended Releases

[Asvoria]

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Rarity
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WIP

[Asvoria]

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Species
»»————————- [4] -————————««

WIP

[Asvoria]

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Extended Releases
»»————————- [X] -————————««

WIP

[Asvoria]

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Unreleased Pets
»»————————- [Y] -————————««

WIP

[Asvoria]

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Store Pets
»»————————- [$] -————————««

WIP

[Asvoria]

This guide is still a WIP.
I started it some time ago but have too little time to continue it as of now.
Instead of letting it rot I decided to publish it, as although being unfinished, it might already prove useful.
I'm always open to any suggestions and improvements!