History of Hunter Glitch Pets

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This blog is dedicated to the timeline and history behind World of Warcraft hunter pets that were unintended tames, or glitch pets. As much of the history behind these pets is lost to old forum posts or insider knowledge, I will be detailing each expansion's glitch pets to the best of my ability, to not lose this important part of WoW's history.

If you would like to make a video detailing these events to spread the history, please feel free to use the information I have gathered here, though a name credit to the blog is appreciated. If you would like to obtain footage of these pets, please reach out through DM's.

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?? - Naraxas Worm (Hotfixed)

Very little is known about this tame, making it possibly the most mysterious glitch pet of all.

Popularly known as the Legion boss Naraxas, all that is confirmed about this pet was that it was a glitch tame prior to TWW, and that is has been hotfixed to be untameable during the current Live.

As the companion model to the Chasm Makers, this pet is the only half-worm that remains as a confirmed once-tameable pet.

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TWW - Chasm Maker & Highland Hatchling (Removed)

The Chasm Maker and Highland Hatchling mobs were two mobs mistakenly flagged tameable at the start of The War Within. The Highland Hatchling was a baby salamanther that came in two colors, with and without head fins, while the Chasm Maker was a burrowing worm model that lacked movement animations.

Both pets were only tameable for a little over 24 hours during TWW early access, only attainable by those who paid for the 3-day "head start' by purchasing the Epic edition. The Chasm Makers in particular were a difficult tame, as they suffered from an Evade bug once spawned, leaving entire servers where every single mob was stuck in perma-evade and could not be tamed.

Blizzard initially hotfixed the mobs to be unattainable, before then performing a second hotfix that turned the tamed baby salamanthers into adults, and the Chasm Makers into a common Vanilla model worm.

While the removal of baby pets had been done several times, the move to remodel the Chasm Makers was met with widespread incredulity, as this was the first time Blizzard had ever removed what was effectively a normal adult beast. In addition, as only those who had paid an extra $40 to access TWW early had tamed these pets, it was criticized as a bizarre deterrent to hunters looking for glitch tames from purchasing early access moving forward.

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DF - Blight Toad (Removed)

Initially posted to Petopia in Nov '23 by user Frumble, the Blight Toad was once a regular Blue Loa Toad model that was changed into the smaller, battle pet model in accordance with a Waycrest Manor M+ change in 10.2.

However, Blizzard had still left the mobs tameable and changed the already-tamed mobs into the battle pet model, leaving hunters with a window in which to tame these pets.

However, after a short period of time the pets and mobs were changed back into the previous Blue Loa Toad model.

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DF - Pre-Mythic Nah'qi (Removed*)

Nah'qi is a Spirit Beast, only tameable through the Cinder of Companionship obtained by acquiring the Mythic-only Fyrakk mount.

However, prior to Mythic Fyrakk's WF kill, it was discovered that by polymorphing Nah'qi, hunters could bypass the coding requirements of the Cinder and tame Nah'qi freely while the mob remained polymorphed.

Blizzard quickly fixed the Polymorph glitch and removed Nah'qi from every hunter's stable, as it was impossible to acquire at that time.

*However, since this was an outright removal and not a model change, several hunters are reported to have successfully petitioned unaware GM's into restoring their 'missing' pet, leaving quite a few hunters without the Mythic mount still running around with Nah'qi back in their possession.

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DF - Murkfur Pup (Hotfixed)

One of the more recent controversial pets, the Murkfur Pup was announced on Twitter by Petopia's owner Wain in a now-privated post in January '24.

The controversy immediately arose when this pet's status was only announced posthumously. The Murkfur Pup was initially tameable on live in 10.2, but changed in a patch to be untameable when its model was turned into the baby 'battle pet' version of the Bakaar instead. However, those who had gone to tame the Murkfur Pup on live before the patch hit would have their adult Murkfur Pups model-changed into the babies, but the change left anyone who had not known beforehand unable to obtain the pets. In addition, the Murkfur Pup was an non-unique model in an extremely low-traffic area of the game, meaning the vast majority of players would never have one in their stables.

While hunters had initially expressed disappointment that the pet had only been brought to light after the fact, Petopia's owner apologized and expressed that he had been busy and forgotten to announce the change beforehand. However, further controversy arose when it began to be reported that multiple Petopia Helpers, those who tested on the beta for Petopia's pet database, had the pup in their stables and were accused of having consciously elected to keep the knowledge from the general public until it was too late.

The alleged decision to hide the pup has been theorized that it is due to the fact that this tame occurred on the heels of the Vorquin removal, and a larger observation in the hunter community as a whole of the increasing pattern that the more popular a glitch tame was, the more likely its removal. As far as any are aware, the tamed Murkfur Pups were not removed, and remain to this day.

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DF - "Baby Duck" (Hotfixed)

First posted to Petopia in January '23 by user Naturae33, the "Baby Duck" pet is semi-unique in that it was and remains largely unknown to the majority of the hunter playerbase.

What is known (according to the pet's owner) is that this pet was briefly available through the use of a bugged item, the Nokhud Battlegear, that allowed the user to be hostile to enemies outside of the designated quest area. The "Baby Duck" is believed to be a friendly NPC that was tamed through this method, while the quest item itself was hotfixed to no longer function outside of its designated zone.

There have been no other reports of friendly-taming since, so only one confirmed tame of this pet exists as it stands.

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DF - Tundra Vorquin Foal (Removed)

The Tundra Vorquin Foal was a baby pet available since the start of Dragonflight's launch, but was only posted to Petopia and thus made well-known to the general public in January of 2023 by user Ijomi.

The pet was only tameable through the use of Dragonkin Taming, which was only able to be learned by a player with a hunter who had Reknown 23+ with the Valdrakken Accord, a harsh grind to undertake with the game's fresh launch. Because of this, several hunters who did find the pet prior in beta admit within the thread to withholding the knowledge of the pet from the public and thus Blizzard's inevitable hotfixing to allow more people to naturally raise their rep before the knowledge came to light and the pet became unobtainable.

However, this plan would end up to be for naught. In a bizarre move, Blizzard did not remove the tameability of this mob in 10.0. Instead, they hotfixed the mob on the 10.1 PTR servers to both make the pet untameable and change the model of the tamed baby pets to the adult forms.

This was a very unpopular move with hunters, who both protested the removal of this baby pet when two others had been allowed to stay, as well as the overly lengthy delay in a hotfix that had led to attachment and belief the pet would not be removed.

Nevertheless, when 10.1 hit all tamed baby Vorquin were now the adult models, and all baby Vorquin mobs are now flagged untameable.

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DF - Frostytrunk Calf & Snowy Mammoth Calf (Hotfixed)

Posted to Petopia in Nov 2022 by user Fangszz, the Baby Mammoths were a pair of Mammoth family pets available for 2 days after Dragonflight's launch before being hotfixed into an untameable status.

Available in both a blue and brown variant, these pets were available even post-hotfix for a few hours if the mobs were left unkilled, as only the mammoths that were killed and respawned were flagged untameable.

Blizzard did not remove these pets, leaving them one of the few and currently largest baby pets to date.

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SL - Volatile Emberspark (Hotfixed)

Posted to Petopia by elitecore123 in July 2021, the Volatile Emberspark was a mob summoned by a daily quest that was misflagged as a Mawrat in the Rodent family.

The mob was hotfixed to an elemental in less than 24 hours, but the tamed pets were not removed. Instead, without a family, the tamed pets could no longer be moved or used in the stables, leaving them an effectively dead slot. If you had one in your active summon slots before the hotfix, you can still summon it, but it cannot be Mended or Dismissed, leaving the only option to technically dismiss them via outranging them.

However, with Glyph of the Dire Beast, hunters with these in their stables can still summon the skin of these pets as a Dire Beast, so they still can be seen with a hunter in battle from time to time.

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SL - Friendly Pet Taming (Hotfixed)

Posted on Petopia by Pokcmvmxck Jan 6th 2021, it was discovered that in Shadowlands, players were able to become hostile to any faction through the use of the Maldraxxus covenant item Construct Disguise.

The item was meant for use only within a specific area; however, hunters realized they could use the item in the open world, allowing them to tame any Friendly-flagged mob available.

Although the active time period of this exploit was short, less than 15 hours, a handful of hunters managed to tame several cloud serpents that were normally flagged as Friendly, allowing the Gold, Green, Blue and Crimson cloud serpents to be tamed, as well as the Heavenly Gold variant from the ToeS boss Tsulong.

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BfA - Ivory Cloud Serpent & Rajani Warserpent (LIVE*)

The Ivory Cloud Serpent and Rajani Warserpent are two Friendly mobs flagged tameable, that are only tameable through the use of the Sliver of N'zoth.

The Sliver of N'zoth was a toy only obtainable during Battle for Azeroth. Its intended use is to make the player hostile to all factions in limited areas in order to facilitate PVP combat with the same faction.

However, hunters realized they could use the sliver to become hostile to NPC factions as well, allowing them to tame both the Flight Master's serpents (Rajani) as well as the elusive rare mount spawn (Ivory).

Neither of these pets were intended for hunters to obtain, with a heavy emphasis on the Ivory in particular as taming the mob meant robbing other players of the chance to lasso it and obtain the mount. Still, Blizzard has not removed the tameability of either, leaving them up for grabs... though, only for those who already have the now-unobtainable Sliver.

Special mention also goes to Dolly and Dot, tameable by Horde hunters with the Sliver. Not a unique skin, but uniquely cruel and funny to rip Dolly and Dot away from poor Meerah. They're her best friends!

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Legion - Hati Essence Swaps (Removed)

While not a Hunter pet in full, the Hati Essence Swapper shenanigans played a fun part in the Legion experience and feel worth a mention.

Back in Legion, Hunters could use the item Essence Swapper to change the appearance of Hati to that of their summoned hunter pet. However, the item was model-dependent - meaning that if your pet was affected by a model-changing spell, you could swap that over to Hati for a permanent Hati skin.

This led to hunters running around with Valkyrs, demons, abberations, and anything else that could be applied to a hunter pet for well over a month since its discovery in September of 2016.

Eventually fixed at the start of Oct 2016, the Hatis were eventually all wiped and the Essence Swapper was hotfixed to no longer be model-dependent.

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Legion - Dreamway Prowler Pup & Emberspit Scorpion (Removed & LIVE)

The Dreamway Prowler Pup & Emberspit Scorpion are a pair of Legion tames that were found in the Legion class halls of Druids and Shamans respectively, areas that could not normally be reached by hunters.

Posted to Petopia once again by Wamo in April 2017, the method involved using the Recruit-a-Friend summon to bring a warlock into the normally inaccessible class halls, then use the Warlock's summoning stone to summon in hunters to perform the tames.

As RAF was not meant to be used in this manner, a hotfix went out relatively quickly that removed the tameability of both mobs, but large groups of hunters had successfully come, tamed and gone via the use of Group Finder in the meantime.

However, controversy quickly arose when a hotfix went out that wiped the Prowler Pups into regular Classic-model wolves. Anger stirred in the hunter community, largely stemming from confusion at how the baby direhorns had been allowed to remain, yet the baby wolves had been removed.

More confusing still, Blizzard not only allowed the scorpions to remain but added in the Lost Emberspit Scorpion to the Molten Front, allowing all hunters to freely tame the skin moving forward. Complaints of mixed messages spread, with hunters not understanding why one side had been punished for abusing the mechanics, and one had not.

Regardless, today the scorpions remain and the wolves do not, marking the first episode of a split in the hunter community over whether sharing and spreading glitch tames would increase the likelihood of their removal.

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Legion - Baby Direhorn (Hotfixed)

Posted to Petopia in August 2016 by the hunter Wamo during the Legion pre-patch, the Baby Direhorns are a uniquely fond memory amongst the Hunter community. They came in the colors Green, Blue and Light Blue.

Originally regular adult Direhorn models shrunken down to baby-sized, the Stunted Direhorns on Isle of Thunder/Giants were flagged tameable but retained no unique skin. When a new patch hit and they were changed to the 'battle pet' skin, the direhorns were changed to Friendly to all factions - but still left flagged tameable.

During the Legion pre-patch Dreadlord event, players could gain the Hysteria buff from Dark Thoughts, making them hostile to all factions. By grouping together and utilizing Warlock portals, hunters created chain groups to both keep Dark Thoughts up repeatedly, then teleport hunters to the friendly baby direhorns and cast Tame Beast before their own hostile debuff expired.

Due to the difficulty in making such a group, it's generally estimated somewhere around ~50 hunters accomplished this before a hotfix rolled in, changing the babies to an untameable status. Due to their unintended nature, the direhorns were extremely large and persisted as such until BfA, where Blizzard hotfixed the size - accidentally.

Mages had received a new Tome of Polymorph - Direhorn, allowing them turn opposing NPC's into the same baby direhorn models that hunters had already tamed. When casting Polymorph: Direhorn on any hunter pet, it would grow to the same enormous size as the tamed ones. As such, Blizzard hotfixed the size of what happens when hunter pets use the baby direhorn models, inadvertently affecting the hunter pets and tricking the game into thinking all tamed direhorns with these models are polymorphed and thus, shrunk down. This has left them extremely tiny, a state in which they have remained to this day.

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WoD - Marsh Gulper (LIVE)

The Marsh Gulper is a mob in Tanaan Jungle that receives an extremely small size when tamed, due to a bug in Blizzard's coding.

The Marsh Gulper shares a model with the toad form used in the spell Hex - because of this, the game appears to believe that any hunter pet using this model is under the Hex effect and scales them down appropriately. As the teeniest tiniest hunter pets available in game, these pets are a great boon in PVP and have been popular throughout the expansions for how difficult they are to see.

Once, this bug was shared with the rare mob Bufo, who seems to have had this size issue fixed.

The Marsh Gulper however remains unfixed to this day. This pet is available on Retail and can be freely tamed at any time.

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WoD - Chilltongue (LIVE)

Chilltongue is a Rylak in the Chimaera family, that also has a permanent frosty, glowing effect around its mouth.

While existing since WoD on the quest The Iron Wolf, the beast only attacked/aggroed on an NPC target and was thus thought to be unobtainable. The actual method to do so was discovered by Petopia hunter Vesania in 2022.

Per Vesania's instructions, the method is still available and can be found in detail below:

Grab some haste buffs (foods, potions, flasks, etc.) and a Ferocity pet

Use Ancient Hysteria to increase your haste and dismiss the pet before Chilltongue becomes targetable

Spam Scare Beast as soon as possible and then start taming

Your position and angle matters a lot; the farther it can go without being attacked, the better chances you have to tame it

Consider timing with its Icy Blast since it can add up to 2.5 seconds to your taming.

Any hunters looking to tame this beast on Retail can still do so to this day.