This is something I actually get asked a lot! What pet is the hardest to get?

To be honest, that’s not actually an easy question. Just like what pet is the rarest–it’s not a question that is easy to answer just because there’s a lot of different factors to indicate what makes it hard.

As an example, here are some of the top contenders:
Minimech CE + Hutt Observer – These are considered hard by some people due to needing to have the Collector’s Edition to get them. Of course, if you have the Collector’s Edition, it isn’t very hard, is it?

Little Sandcrawler/Interrogation Droid – Depending on which alignment you are going for, one (or both if you are playing neutral/grey) of these pets may seem hard due to needing to grind down to an opposite alignment to use it.

Mouse Droid – If you’re one to lose things or do not have a smartphone (yes, there are people who don’t have one!), this pet may seem hard due to the fact that you can only get it from a Security Vendor.

The Czerka Eye – If you’re more of a solo player (yes, there are people who have played the game by themselves completely!), this pet may seem hard due to the Social Requirement.

M0-GUL Thrall Droid – Due to it’s rare drop rate (although, it is much more common in Nightmare now) and the fact that you need at least 7 other people to try for it, this is considered to be hard.

Taunta – Taunta is the most expensive pet you can buy off the GTN at 200K. So, if you’re poor like me, this could be ahard 😛

Taunling – Due to the rare drop rate and the fact that it’s gotten from a World Boss (Which, of course, other people may be hunting for loot, quests, and/or codex), this can be considered hard.

Taunlet – Taunlet can be considered difficult due to several reasons. Besides needing to find it before the coordinates were posted, if you were not Biochem, you also needed to find someone to make it for you… and if you were Biochem, you still needed the schematic in the first place. And with only 2/5 ingredients being gotten through Biochem, that wasn’t exactly all you needed either.

Taun Fawn – Due to the fact that you can only get the code from conventions or things Bioware held for fans, this makes it a bit of a hard to get pet. Sure, there’s Ebay and occasionally contests held on fansites and SWTOR’s official twitter, but it’s definitely still a challenge.

Orokeet – Hunting around to get an egg and the journey to hatch it can be considered hard.

Midnight Rakling – Once again…drop rates.

Lawgriffarl + Lobelisk – PVP. Especially hard if you hate PVP.

Deep Wriggler – TFB is the hardest operation, ignoring difficulty levels (As NM EC is obviously the hardest thing out right now), at the moment. Even though the Deep Wriggler seems to have a high drop rate, there’s still a matter of killing TfB on HM which, while a lot of guilds have gotten it done now, there’s still many having trouble…and that doesn’t mean the people going care about pets in the first place.

The Cartel Market Pets – Not even just packs, but any that involve this kind of currency, people may consider hard…then we get to the packs with the chance of getting them…and of course the super rare ones: The Red-Backed Gizka and the Ruddyscaled Monkey-lizard. All hard in their own ways.

I would say that the Crimson Rakling also gets a big mention due to having to find all those ship parts which was essentially just wandering around aimlessly hoping to find them before coordinates came out.

For those reasons, a lot of these pets are also considered rare. Other rare pets are the Pale Rakling, the Gannifari, the Hagnoffarl, the Tauntaun Ram, and the Lobelot due to being pets you just…can’t get anymore. They were either event-based or given out for an achievement and who knows if they will ever be gotten some other way.

Thus why the which pet is the hardest/rarest is kind of hard to answer 😛 Hardest really depends on the person… if they hate PVP, the PVP pets will be the hardest… if they can never get groups together, raid, world boss, and flashpoint dropped and social requirement pets will be the hardest… If they have a lot of trouble earning credits, the expensive pets will be the hardest….

For rare, it becomes an argument over how many people have it vs. the retirement of the pet. A lot of people have the Gannifari and Tauntaun Ram as they were given to EVERYONE subscribed at the time. Meanwhile, the Pale Rakling and Lobelot, while they took more effort, could come back one day.

But yes, in short: There’s really no clear way to say which pet is rarest or hardest to get. It really depends on the person. And even if people say “the rarest is the pet that the least people have”…that is only half right as there’s the chance of a lot of people just not caring for it (thus, even if it’s technically rare, it’s not “rare” in the sense of wanting) or if it’s new…well, of course it’s rare, it just came out (Even if it may be gotten in a very common way–like just going to the vendor and buying it).

…I’ll stop talking now.