Gameplay and Pet Development

This article covers common questions about desktop-pet development mechanics, stats and conditions, AI chat, and numerical overflow.

Q1: My pet is ill and I have no money. What can I do?

A1: ① Feed the pet Earth or the Solar System (this deducts experience); or ② delete Save.lps and start over. Select the three-line icon on the right side of the Shop menu to view food attributes.

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Q2: Food and drinks restore only half of the stated amount.

A2: The other half is restored gradually over time. This is normal.

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Q3: How do food effectiveness and preference work?

A3: Eating reduces that food's effectiveness, which recovers gradually over time. The lower the effectiveness, the less efficiently it restores stats. Rotate between several kinds of food for better results.

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Q4: Do streaming and work earn money faster at higher levels?

A4: Yes. Higher levels unlock work and study activities with greater multipliers and higher returns.

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Q5: What causes Health to decrease?

A5: Health decreases when hunger, thirst, or similar values turn red and remain in a poor state. Keep each status value within its normal range to prevent this.

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Q6: How can I view Health and Affection?

A6: These are hidden values. You can infer them from the pet's behavior and dialogue.

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Q7: What should I do if the pet accidentally ate Earth or the Solar System?

A7: Their negative effects have been removed in the latest version, although they still deduct experience. To reset the game, delete Save.lps from the game directory and start over.

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Q8: Can I run multiple desktop pets at the same time?

A8: You can start the game more than once, but this may cause bugs and the saves will not stay synchronized. An official multi-instance feature is under development.

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Q9: I downloaded a DLC, but I cannot switch pets or summon the new pet.

A9: Complete all three steps below:

1. Confirm that the corresponding DLC has been downloaded through Steam.
2. Enable the corresponding MOD in the game settings.
3. Switch the pet animation in the game.

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Q10: How do I reset my save?

A10: Delete Save.lps from the game directory. If Steam Cloud is enabled, also clear the game's cloud-save data in Steam; otherwise, the old save may be downloaded from the cloud the next time the game starts.

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Q11: Can I raise several different pets at the same time?

A11: At present, each save corresponds to one pet. To use different pets, subscribe to the relevant DLC and switch pets in the game, or wait for the multi-instance feature.

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Q12: Why can't I move the multiplier slider?

A12: Each multiplier is unlocked at a corresponding level. See the relevant Develop documentation for the calculation method.

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Q13: Are activity rewards affected by level?

A13: In the current version, rewards depend only on the selected activity and its multiplier. The same activity at the same multiplier always provides the same rewards, regardless of level.

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Q14: Why did my level fall back to the hundreds after passing level 1,000? What is a Level Breakthrough?

A14: Level Breakthrough is a high-level progression system designed for long-term players with thousands of hours of playtime. It also changes how experience and levels are calculated.

• The first breakthrough threshold is level 1,000. Each completed breakthrough raises the next threshold by 100 levels.
• Upon reaching the threshold, the breakthrough count increases by 1 and the current level returns to 100 × the breakthrough count.
• After a breakthrough, the character has higher Strength and Mood limits at the same level than a character without that breakthrough. The Affection limit is also retained, so actual progression is not reset.

Q1: My non-overpowered-MOD badge disappeared. Can I get it back?

A1: Load an earlier backup save. See System → Restore from Backup in the Settings documentation for instructions. If even the oldest backup does not contain the badge, you may need to start over.

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Q2: How can I avoid losing the badge?

A2: If you subscribe to a MOD whose values do not follow the game's balance rules, a warning appears when you purchase something, work, or perform a similar action. Do not select “Yes” in this warning, or the badge will be removed.

When Automatically Calculate Reasonable Prices is enabled, the game adjusts unreasonable values automatically, and you normally do not need to worry about losing the badge.

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Q3: Does losing the badge affect achievements?

A3: No.

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Q4: What does the badge do?

A4: It reflects your patience and affection for the game and indicates that your save data is eligible for ranking statistics.

Q1: My pet's level is not increasing, and experience has become negative.

A1: A MOD may be responsible. Some MOD activities consume experience in exchange for other attributes, and some MOD foods deduct experience directly. Read the descriptions of enabled MODs, disable the relevant one, and check whether experience returns to normal.

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Q2: Achievements or statistics are stuck, and actions such as head pats are no longer counted.

A2: This usually occurs when the desktop pet's settings file is lost. Statistics are stored in the settings file and are not included in save backups. A future version is expected to address this.

Steam displays the historical maximum rather than the current value. After statistics are reset, the game starts counting again from zero, so Steam may appear unchanged. Another possible cause is an overpowered MOD, such as one that produces negative money. You can restart the game from Settings.

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Q3: Why does the in-game playtime differ from the playtime shown by Steam?

A3: The game and Steam use independent statistics, so some difference is normal. Achievements are unlocked according to the game's internal statistics.

If the playtime has fallen back significantly—for example, by dozens of hours—Steam Cloud probably overwrote the new save with an older copy. Try synchronizing the data under Settings → Data Recovery. If you do not need synchronization across devices, disable Steam Cloud for this game to prevent an older cloud save from replacing local data.

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Q4: Steam does not show the pet's level in the status panel.

A4: Steam statistics stop working at approximately level 4,635 because of a platform limitation. This is not a game bug.

Q1: How do I use ChatGPT or another AI chat feature?

A1: ChatGPT and similar chat features have moved to the Steam Workshop. Subscribe to the desired feature and enable it in Settings.

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Q2: How do I resolve errors when connecting my own GPT service?

A2: Common errors and solutions:

• 400: Delete the chat history. Check for duplicate user messages and clear the history regularly.
• 401: The API key is incorrect.
• 404: The URL is incorrect.
• 429: There is a network or proxy problem.

If increasing the GPT temperature produces garbled text, the high temperature is making the output unstable. Reduce the temperature setting.

Q1: Why did a value suddenly become negative?

A1: This is numerical overflow. The integer limit is approximately 9.2 × 10¹⁸. It does not occur during normal play in the unmodified game. It is usually caused by high-level work MODs—such as activities designed for levels in the thousands or tens of thousands—combined with compound growth until the value exceeds the limit. The latest version restricts work above level 1,000.

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Q2: My level or money disappeared after an overflow. How can I fix it?

A2: There are two options:

1. Roll back the version: In Steam, open Game Properties → Betas and select vpet_v1.9, then load an earlier backup save. Version 1.9 will not receive further updates.
2. Use the latest version: Overflowed data is automatically corrected to level 100. Compensation levels or experience will later be granted based on playtime.

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Q3: At what level do different problems begin to occur?

A3:

• Above approximately level 4,635: Steam leaderboards/statistics stop working, and click-to-talk and chat features become unavailable.
• Above approximately level 9,604: Numerical overflow causes values to become negative. The latest version largely prevents this by restricting work above level 1,000.