- For the battle pet family, see critter companions.
Critters are mobile non-player entities, typically small or non-predatory animals or vermin, intended primarily for ambiance.
While critters are a kind of mobile object, in World of Warcraft, "mobs" differ from critters in that critters are primarily for ambiance, provide no direct experience and little or no loot, and are trivial to kill. There are subtle mechanical differences, such as critters cannot be targeted by use of the tab key.
Contents
Characteristics of critters in World of Warcraft
- Critters have hit points.
- Any 'attack' that causes no damage will not kill a critter.
- Many critters have just one hit point and always die when hit by a damaging attack.
- Some critters have a few hit points and will survive a weak attack.
- Size is a poor indication of relative robustness.
- Many larger critters, such as deer and sheep, have one hit point.
- Squirrels, which are among the smaller critters, have eight hit points.
- Critters are (mostly) harmless and low level.
- Most will run in fear if they survive the first attack.
- Some critters, such as the rats in Deadmines and the Deeprun Tram, the Biletoads in Wailing Caverns, or Frogs (no, really!) will strike back at an attacker if the attack doesn't immediately kill them. They do minimal damage.
- Players can use attacks or abilities that do not immediately deal damage to test critter reactions.
- Unlike mobs, critters do not yield experience nor loot (with the exception of Giant Marsh Frog and Dig Rat).
- Before Patch 3.2.0 (although it was not mentioned in the patch notes - the effect just occurred) critters such as Sheep, rabbits, Gazelles, and Deer were able to be skinned. As of Patch 3.2.0, they can no longer be skinned.
- Larger predator animal mobs (cats, wolves, etc.) frequently chase and kill prey critters.
- Critters can also be killed by certain companions, such as
[Sleepy Willy] and the 
[Creepy Crate].
- Critters can also be killed by certain companions, such as
- Critters can be Polymorphed by Mages, Feared by Warlocks, Shapeshifted by engineers, and various other status effects that do not deal damage.
[Glyph of Crittermorph] increases Polymorph's duration to 24 hours when used on critters, and allows it to affect multiple critters simultaneously.- Amusingly, sheep can be polymorphed into sheep. The visual effect looks like dust billowing from the sheep.
- [Growl] causes critters to run in fear instead of coming at you (although see above note about critter aggressiveness).
- Many small pets share the same 3D model with the critters of the same type.
- Many critters have an older, generic representative of the type, and representatives with more specific names added with new content.
- Some critters represent a type of creature that is also or is primarily represented by mobs; spiders for example.
- Some critters are quest objectives and achievement objectives.
- Whenever a critter is the object of a quest or achievement, the name must match exactly.
Achievements
Interacting with critters is the objective of the following achievements:
- [To All The Squirrels I've Loved Before]
- [To All The Squirrels Who Shared My Life]
- [To All the Squirrels Who Cared for Me]
- [To All the Squirrels I Once Caressed?]
- [Pest Control]
Notes
A "Mouse"
- Ironically, the achievements [To All The Squirrels I've Loved Before] and [To All The Squirrels Who Shared My Life] do not actually require the need to hug a Squirrel. However, killing a Squirrel is required for the achievement [Pest Control].
- The Stonetalon Pass plateau in between Mulgore, Stonetalon Mountains, and Desolace is home to some particularly militaristic critters.
Characteristics in previous Warcraft games
- Main articles: Critter (Warcraft II), Critter (Warcraft III)
- In Warcraft II and Warcraft III, if the player clicked on a critter in rapid succession a sufficient number of times, the critter would detonate in a large, bloody explosion.
- Critters varied depending on the current map tileset.
List of critters
The following is an incomplete list of critters.
- Critters marked with * are needed for the [To All The Squirrels I've Loved Before] achievement.
- Critters marked with ‡ are needed for the [To All The Squirrels Who Shared My Life] achievement.
- Critters marked with † are needed for the [Pest Control] achievement.
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