Trieste is by no means a lonely place, but if you are looking for company who can assist you in your travels, but can be summoned or dismissed at will, consider adopting a pet. 

While adventuring in the world, you may find eggs, which contain pets. Using the egg will hatch it, revealing the type of pet inside. Pets are small creatures who follow you around, but do not fight or otherwise directly assist in combat. They are still helpful, however. 

Pet eggs can be received from events. They can also be purchased from the DShop. 

Equipping and Summoning a Pet 

Pets need to be equipped like items (in your Pet equipment slot) and summoned. Because they are equipped like items, pets usually come with modest stat bonuses, making even a weak pet worth keeping around. Pets of Magic, Noble, and Divine Noble ranks possess random Rank Options like normal items. Unique pets have an additional static bonus, specific to that type of pet. The static bonus granted by a Unique pet is visible under Skill Info, on the Pet Management screen, which you can press Y to view. Some pets also include a socket, and there are pet-specific socket stones to be found in the world for even more stat bonuses. Pets only have a socket if they are created with one; they cannot have sockets added to them like other equipment. Pets do not grant any of their stat bonuses unless they are summoned. 

Once a pet is equipped, you can summon it by pressing the T key. Summoning a pet takes a few seconds. Once a pet is summoned, it follows you around the world until dismissed, or you log out, change servers, or are killed, in which case you can just summon it again. 

You can only possess a maximum of 20 hatched pets at a time (the in-game tooltip might claim that the maximum is 10, but this is outdated). 

Pet Item Collection and Inventory 

Some of the rarer pets are symbols of wealth and prestige, have powerful Unique options, or just look charming. But pets are also helpful because they will collect items for you, saving you the trouble and contributing their inventory space for you to use. You can access your pet’s inventory via the Pet Management screen. All your pets share a single inventory, so changing pets does not mean you will lose access to whatever it was carrying. 

The Select Pet tab configures whether your pet picks up items, and which type they collect. If you want your pet to ignore items of specific rarities or types, you can have them do so on this tab. 

Pet Ranks, Options, and Upgrades 

Pets function like items in that they have rank: Magic, Noble, and Divine Noble (pets can never be of Normal rank). Each rank adds one Rank Option, from one at Magic to three at Divine Noble. Divine Noble pets may also have one socket. 

If you are not happy with the Rank Options of your pet, you can generate a new set via the Soul Chain tab on the Pet Management screen. Place the pet item into your pet inventory, and then open the Soul Chain tab. Click the pet whose options you wish to change, and then click the Soul Chain button. Soul Chain costs DIL every time it is performed and can only be performed a maximum of ten times on a single pet. There are items when can reset a pet’s Soul Chains back to 10 if they have all been used, but they are rare and precious, so it is best to be cautious when using Soul Chain. 

Pet rank cannot be upgraded, but you can use Pet Combination to combine two pets, even sleeping ones, to receive a new pet. The rank of the pet you receive will depend on the rank of the pets which are being combined; usually the new pet will be the same rank as the higher of the two being combined. You even have a very small chance of receiving a Unique pet. The process also costs some DIL. Combination can't be reversed, so don't combine pets that you aren't willing to lose. 

Sleeping Pets 

Pets do not last indefinitely; they go to sleep after 30 days. A sleeping pet cannot be equipped. You will have to seek a new companion to follow you on your journeys, but if you are especially attached to your pet and can’t bear to part ways, you can purchase an Awakening Ocarina from the DShop, and be reunited with your pet for 30 more days. 

If you're lucky enough to get your hands on a rare and precious Ocarina of Eternity and play it, all your character's current and future pets will never expire. All pets you find will remain with you indefinitely from then on.