Category Archives: Pets of the Old Republic

March comes in like a Pritarr and goes out like a Nerf! I couldn’t quite think of a pet from Star Wars: The Old Republic that was truly like a lamb, but I do think nerfs are an acceptable choice for me to illustrate to celebrate the official start of Spring.

Across Star Wars lore Nerfs are traditionally depicted as domesticated farm animals raised for their meat and leathery hides. Since they are native to Alderaan, they are unable to appear on screen in the movies, but they are most famously referenced by Princess Leia as part of a string of insults aimed at Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back.

Nerfs are suggested to be analogous to cows very early in the “Expanded Universe,” and that designation has remained throughout the decades of Star Wars lore. Not all nerfs died on Alderaan; their hardiness allowed them to adapt to different planets and ecologies around the galaxy. Players of SWTOR, of course, can visit them on their homeworld of Alderaan and they are a common sight on the grasslands of the world.

In a the very crowded cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo proves he actually isn’t much of a nerf herder.

SWTOR’s depiction of nerfs is consistent with how they are seen in other Star Wars stories, and players can interact with and even occasionally battle nerfs on Alderaan. Nerfs are also associated with the Spring Abundance Festival on Dantooine. During this event, players are tasked with caring for and healing three sick and injured young animals from across the galaxy, including a tiny nerf calf which is stricken with Nerf-Pox. I do suggest handling this task with care since Nerf-Pox is known to also afflict humans. Make sure you have all your shots!

An Opal Vulptilla herds the Arctic Nerf Calf, the Nightlands Nerf Calf and the Hill Nerf Calf in front of the Art: Nerf decoration awarded from SWTOR‘s “…Who’s Scruffy Looking?” Achievement.

The Hill Nerf Calf, which is the subject of this post, can be found by players who pursue the secret Nerf Herder achievement which has our characters learn hidden lore about nerfs and unlock them as pets. Indeed, the only nerf pets available to players come from this exploration achievement. I’ve often referred to the Nerf Herding achievement as my favorite in the game, so much so that I wrote a guide helping players discover it for themselves. In addition to the three nerf pets, players can earn paintings of a nerf to hang in their strongholds and also unlock the absolutely essential “Nerf Herder” title for their characters.

I do want to take a moment to explore the name “nerf.” That nerfs would eventually be explained to be space-cows was hardly surprising and consistent with the notion that they should be creatures that need to be herded. That said, as a kid who grew up during the time of the first movies, the word “nerf” was most strongly associated with “the world’s first official indoor ball.” Nerf balls and footballs are soft-foam balls that excitable children, like myself, could throw around without fear of causing property damage. Cheap, disposable and compact, Nerf balls were common sights around the playgrounds, backyards, swimming pools and camping trips of my youth.

I would be shocked to learn that Leia’s line in The Empire Strikes Back intentionally referenced a Nerf Ball, but calling someone a “Nerf Herder” always struck me as funny, not because I thought Leia was calling Han a hick farmer, but because it seemed to me that she was saying that the only task up to his speed was wrangling harmless, soft foam toys with which even the smallest child could be trusted. It’s a job so easy, even Han Solo can’t screw it up.

For obvious reasons, this could not be official, but it always seemed to me to be the best explanation.

Addendum: Over on Bluesky, Cody Menzies reminded me that MMO-RPG players will be most familiar with the word “nerf” as the term for what happens when the developers weaken or “rebalance” certain classes or abilities. No one likes it when their favorite character suddenly hits with the force of Nerf ball, hence the origin of the term. Now, if my attacks landed on my enemies like full grown Alderaanian nerf dropped from a great height, I certainly would not complain!

Up Next: Man’s best friend?

Lucky number seven in my Pets of the Old Republic series is the Akk Dog. Akk Dogs go back a long way in Star Wars lore and are represented in SWTOR with several varieties of pets, an Akk Dog companion and in the wild as creatures to fight. Akk Dogs are known for their lizard-like appearance and jagged and hardened carapace. In the Star Wars universe, Akk Dogs are classified as “reptomammals” which perhaps means they have more in common with armadillos than dinosaurs. Akk Dogs are native to the planet Haruun Kai, the homeworld of Mace Windu, one of Star Wars‘ most famous Jedi Masters. Like Windu, Akk Dogs are thought to be Force Sensitive, but attempts to test their degree of skill with the Force often end badly for any curious researchers.

The particular Akk Dog I’ve drawn is a breed known in the native language of Haruun Kai as “Lawgriffarl.” has distinctive deep blue eyes and a steel blue hide. It can be acquired by players of both factions in the Combat section of their Fleet hubs for the cost of 50,000 credits. However, characters wishing to adopt this armored puppy must also acquire Valor Rank 23. Those wishing to reach that level will need to commit to a modest amount of PVP, but Valor 23 can be earned with a couple weeks of casual matches.

Akk Dog pets: front row: Hagnoffarl, Lawgriffarl, Gannifari; back row: Ember Akk Dog, Painted Akk Dog.

If you’d prefer to skip PVP, there are other varieties of Akk Dogs available. Two of these, the Painted Akk Dog and fiery Ember Akk Dog can be found on the Cartel Market and sold by your fellow players on the Galactic Trade Network. The Gannifari Akk Dog pet was awarded to players who took advantage of SWTOR’s first round of server mergers in 2012 and is no longer available to new players. The other, the Hagnoffarl, which was originally acquired during the Chevin Grand Acquisitions Race, also in 2012, but these days this gray Akk Dog is now randomly dropped by mobs out in the game world, so it cannot be reliably farmed. Finally, players looking for a sturdier Akk Dog can also find one as a creature companion, again from the Cartel Market or the GTN. When I started this series, Akk Dog were one of the most popular suggestions and I selected the one that players can earn on their own without having to spend Cartel Coins or credits or without having to hope for a lucky drop.

An Akk Wolf with an Akk Dog in the background in the swamps of the Minboosa district on Nal Hutta.

Players will, of course, also battle Akk Dogs in the course of their adventures around the galaxy. While they appear in the Colicoid Games flashpoint and the Xenoanalyst operation, they are most commonly found on Hutta. A larger, wilder, saber-toothed cousin called the Akk Wolf also stalks the swamps of the Jigunna and Minboosa Districts.

The Akk Dog as depicted in 2010 in the book The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force.

Akk Dogs first appear in Star Wars lore in the prequel era comics of the early 2000s, and their depiction has varied widely over the course of their appearances. On the cover of the comic in which the Akk Dog debuts, they seem more insectoid than lizard-like. Over the course of subsequent appearances, they were drawn to be more like a combination of a Komodo Dragon and an armored dinosaur, with long, serpentine bodies. Over time, their appearance has evolved to be more in line with what we see in SWTOR with shorter, stouter bodies and an emphasis on their armor-like hide.

Top: The Bullete as it appeared in the 1977 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Monster Manual. Bottom: The modern interpretation of the Bulette.

I don’t know if it is intentional, but it seems to me that many common depictions of Akk Dogs bear a striking similarity to one of Dungeons and Dragons’ iconic monsters: the Bulette, a large armored, dinosaur-like creature nicknamed the “Landshark”. The development of many of the original D&D monsters in the 1970’s is weird and fascinating, (and worth discovering for yourself), but outside the scope of this article. Suffice it to say that the Bulette was inspired by Chinese-made, cheap, plastic bootleg toys based on “Kaiju” from Japanese giant monster shows of the 1960s like Ultraman.

Top: A “Patchisaur” miniature toy; Bottom: Two Kaiju from the Japanese TV show Ultraman that may have inspired the toy.

While the connection might be tenuous, you can’t deny that a weird, decades old plastic toy from a dollar store could be confused for an Akk Dog. That fierce, little dino-pup that accompanies you on your adventures across the Star Wars galaxy might very well be a distant cousin to the Zillo Beast or even Godzilla himself. So toss your loyal doggo an extra bone to keep it happy, but be careful because you never know just how big it will grow up to be!