All pet ants disappeared

[Toonlord]

I had 2 of the 3 baby ants and now both (while following me) just disappeared. No marker, no dropped inventory and no way I can find to get them back. I'm sure the inventories are probably gone for good but is there a way to recover the pet itself at least?

[Ensign Toby]

The only sure-fire way to retrieve a lost pet is via a past game save.

Supposedly there is a Recover Pet option (under Repair Game?) in the game now.
Good Luck.

[Pigeon Chest]

I would reach out to [e-mail]

This is the official reporting email for Grounded Bugs

They'll also want your save file I'd assume, they'll provide steps for that once you email.

[LuckyHero]

Originally posted by Ensign Toby:

The only sure-fire way to retrieve a lost pet is via a past game save.

Supposedly there is a Recover Pet option (under Repair Game?) in the game now.
Good Luck.

This unfortunately only works on pets getting stuck under terrain rather than them disappearing. Having lost my pet red ant and trying this option several times I can confirm it won't work (assuming the pets disappeared under similar circumstance to mine).

[kl250d]

Its not only ants that it happens to. My mate lost an aphid or two that was carrying all his food. We made pets immortal so its not like they were killed anywhere, just disappeared

[LuckyHero]

Originally posted by kl250d:

Its not only ants that it happens to. My mate lost an aphid or two that was carrying all his food. We made pets immortal so its not like they were killed anywhere, just disappeared

Pets can leave if they aren't cared for properly. They have a "hidden" happiness stat that must be maintained by feeding and petting them and bringing them with you. One can assume the even though they are immortal, taking damage can reduce this stat but I can't say for sure, so you probably just didn't keep them happy so they left.

I will say the devs need to add a way to retrieve pets that leave in this way or at least have them leave your items behind in a bag that can be tracked.
Edit: forgot to mention, the reason the stat is "hidden" is because you CAN check it, but only by putting the pet in a pet house which will tell you if it's happy/sad etc.

[kl250d]

I had no idea that this was a feature of pets. I just figured that they were with us until the end

[Ensign Toby]

Originally posted by kl250d:

I had no idea that this was a feature of pets. I just figured that they were with us until the end

I have found the Baby Ants are MUCH more susceptible to being "Sad" (over legacy pets).

They are voracious eaters, needing 2+ pieces of food PER DAY or they get "Sad".
They seem to enjoy all the normal Ant foods (ignore what the Pet House says):
* Normal Apple Pieces
* Normal Billy Hog Bites
* Normal COOKIES!!!
* Spoiled Meat (yuck), and
* Will steal food off your drying racks if you don't watch them...

There is where the Ants' food hoarding comes in pretty handy though...
While on a run for Queen Pheromones/Eggs, clean out ALL the hoarded food as well.
They don't seem to mind you taking it all, and it's a quick way to stockpile food for Pets.

My legacy Pet (weevil), doesn't appear to get "Sad" & Leave at all (don't judge, 1200+ days).
It does not get fed (much) or accompany me anymore on adventures after I got Baby Ants.

And, to flex just a bit :), I've still got a Weevil and all 3 Baby Ant Pets after 100+ game days (since I got my last Baby Ant)... So it is (if totally OCD about it), possible to retain your Pets.

[pcdeltalink]

Originally posted by Ensign Toby:

And, to flex just a bit :), I've still got a Weevil and all 3 Baby Ant Pets after 100+ game days (since I got my last Baby Ant)... So it is (if totally OCD about it), possible to retain your Pets.

As someone who does not have immortal pets I'm honestly not sure what I am supposed to do with these baby ants. For now I just have em stashed at one of my bases but I had no idea you even had to feed them at all. Just built 3 pet houses and was like "Ok, you. Stay. Bye."

They just seem more trouble than they are worth. Black ant pet wouldn't walk through my base gate, had to relocate a wall out of the way for him to get in. And for some reason they seem obsessed with the workbench near them almost like they are using it or something.

[Saph]

In my solo world, I forgot to put my red ant baby in a pet house before going for the black ant baby. I ended up with them both following me and fighting enemy bugs.

When me and a friend tried to do the same in our shared world the red ant baby just despawned.

There really needs to be a way to recover them that isn't NG+.

[Lemniscate]

happiness on the ant was full, and I never managed to feed him no matter what i dropped sopets were the way, and the shed said its happy. disspeared anyway

[Luchian]

I lost the Red and Fire Ant babies both while out and about with them following me, they are immortal. The murderous Aphid, however, has been stashed at home and living on the wall I built out over for weeks in game with no food and no attention and hasn't had an issue. Still happy, even.