Desert island life sounds peaceful until the silence starts to get to you. Farming, mining, fishing — it’s a solid loop, but doing it completely alone gets old fast. Fortunately, Starsand Island has a surprisingly deep companion system that lets you fill your homestead with cats, dogs, foxes, and even a capybara.
Getting there takes a little work, though. After tracking down strays, burning through expensive food items, and untangling how the affection system actually functions, here’s the full breakdown of every pet you can adopt, where to find them, and exactly what it takes to win them over.
One thing to nail down before anything else: you need the Pet House blueprint to keep any animal on your property. Without it, adoption isn’t possible. Keep that in mind as you read through the methods below.
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The Three Ways to Adopt a Pet
There’s no single path to pet ownership here. The game gives you three distinct routes depending on how patient you are and how much coin you’re willing to part with.
Buy One Outright From Stella
For players who’d rather skip the grind entirely, head to Woof & Wow Pets on the north end of Starsand Town. Stella is the owner, and she stocks two animals: a dog called Scrappy and a cat called Nana. The downside? Each one will set you back 7,500 Coins — which is genuinely steep at most stages of the game. The one silver lining is that Stella tosses in the Pet House blueprint at no extra charge with any purchase, saving you the trouble of tracking it down separately.
Rescue a Stray During a Random Event
While you’re out in the world fishing, mining, or just running errands, there’s a chance a stray animal will show up as a random encounter. Feed it when it appears to keep the event going. After that, your next conversation with Pastelle will reference the stray — she’ll clean it up and hand you a recipe for a Bamboo Cat Ear Pet Bed, which requires 1 Bamboo Strip and 3 Flannel to craft. Build the bed, loop back to Pastelle, and the stray will automatically reach affection level three, letting you adopt it for free.
Tame a Wild Animal Through Affection
This is the slowest method but costs nothing if you already have the blueprint. Named wild animals roam the island, and you can adopt any of them by building up Affection Level 3 through daily interactions — petting them and feeding them until the adoption prompt unlocks.
Food choice matters a lot here. A favorite food earns 15 affection points for the day. A food they merely like is worth 10 points. Feed them something they dislike and you earn zero points while burning the item for nothing. Once level three is reached, the prompt to adopt appears. Just remember — if you’re going this route, you’ll still need to buy the Pet House blueprint from Stella separately, since it won’t be bundled in like it is with a store purchase.
Grinding affection daily can feel like a commitment, similar to the kind of patience required when working toward something like a Nioh 3 100% trophy completion — methodical, but satisfying once it clicks.
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If you’re after a specific animal, you’ll want to know exactly where to look. These animals wander, so use the Residents tab on your map to track their current position rather than camping one spot and waiting.
Mellowhen — Capybara
Location: Hopeland, generally near your farm area. Favorite Food: Pasture Grass.
Octa — Fox
Location: Roams the grassy areas around the Exploration Guild and Flower Corridor. Favorite Food: Sheep Cheese Block.
Bobo — Black Shiba Inu
Location: Patrols the streets near Marlo’s Morning Delights in Starsand Town. Favorite Food: Celeste Berry.
Crescent / Celeste — Orange Cat
Location: Drifts through Starsand Town and the central park area. Favorite Food: Sheep Cheese Block.
Meow Alum — Siamese Cat
Location: Hangs around the Starsand Town plaza close to the Aureleaf restaurant. Favorite Food: Yellowtail Damselfish or Royal Twig Catfish.
Scrappy — Black & White Dog
Location: Wanders the center of Starsand Town. Don’t mix this one up with the dog sold under the same name at Stella’s shop — they’re separate. Favorite Food: Sheep Cheese Block.
Sheriff — Black & White Cat
Location: Typically found lounging on the beach at Half-Moon Bay. Favorite Food: Sheep Cheese Block.
Zippy — Squirrel
Location: Starts near Hopeland but roams far — check the map tab regularly. Favorite Food: Pasture Grass.
Booboo — Panda
Location: Found at the Panda House east of Cloudrest Lake. Status: Currently bugged and cannot be adopted despite appearing in the in-game app. Skip this one for now and check back after future patches.
Getting the hang of resource management for pet food and crafting materials is easier once you understand how item systems work across games like this — the same strategic thinking that helps in something like mastering throwable strategies in Arc Raiders applies here: know your consumables, use them efficiently, and don’t waste them on the wrong targets.
That covers every companion currently available in Starsand Island. The taming route takes the most time but is the most rewarding, while Stella’s shop is the fastest option if your wallet can take the hit. Either way, the Pet House blueprint is non-negotiable — get that sorted first and the rest falls into place.
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