So recently it has been speculated the addition of pets within spiralknights. This brought me to think of a new idea.

Now speculating that the pets within the game will act much akin to mecha knights this works well. Now the knight has a new slot called a collar slot, they go to a special new zone or shop in haven known as a Nursery where three species of pets are available, wolvers, chromas, and snipes.

-Wolvers: aggressive high damage close range companions
-Chromas: ranged damage over time specialty companions
-Snipes: Non aggressive stat boosting companions

Snipes would act like mecha knights too in order to keep their attribute bonus a knight would have to defend his/her snipe. Now like any other item these collars require heat to level. This is where things get interesting. A collar starts as a 1star and gives you a default companion of any species (aside snipes, they can still upgrade they just don't specify stratum's). New recipes allow for upgrades of the collar to 3 star and then 5 star. Depending on the recipe you choose your animal will upgrade a new stratum being shock, fire, stun, frost, poison. Not only will it edit your companions stats but it would also choose what their appearance would become.

The Vendors

-Vox: trades chroma base collar and collar upgrade recipes
-Farf: trades snipe special collar species type (upgrades must be found or bought from bazil)
-York: trades wolver base collar and collar upgrade recipes

Just an idea, but the more i think about it the more i hope this is the chosen method. The names for the vendors is random and i don't mind having them changed.

Concept image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69180171@N06/6723548861/