Anime Last Stand Tier List (December 2025) Best Units Ranked
Welcome to the most comprehensive Anime Last Stand tier list you’ll find anywhere! I’ve spent countless hours analyzing every unit…
The Mega Safari Harvest update has completely transformed Grow a Garden with six incredible new pets that can dramatically boost your farming efficiency. Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just starting out, understanding these new Safari pets is crucial for maximizing your profits and getting the most out of this limited time event. I’ve spent countless hours testing each pet, and I’m here to share everything you need to know about obtaining, using, and optimizing these powerful companions.
In this comprehensive guide, I’ll walk you through all six new Safari pets, their unique passive abilities, exact unlock requirements, and proven strategies for choosing the best ones for your garden. These pets aren’t just cosmetic additions they have game changing abilities that can multiply your earnings, speed up plant growth, and unlock exclusive mutations that won’t be available after the event ends.
| Pet Name | Rarity | Global Milestone | Key Benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gecko | Common | 130B points | Increased variant chance for Safari plants |
| Hyena | Uncommon | 165B points | Stackable XP bonus per Hyena |
| Cape Buffalo | Rare | 195B points | 10-15% duplicate harvest chance |
| Hippo | Legendary | 230B points | Watermelon value bonus + Monsoon mutation |
| Crocodile | Mythical | 245B points | Massive growth and XP boost |
| Lion | Divine | 290B points | Pet cooldown reduction + Safari mutations |
The Safari Harvest expansion introduced six brand new pets to Grow a Garden, each available for purchase from the Safari Shop using Sheckles. Unlike random egg hatching, you can directly purchase these pets once the community reaches specific global milestones, giving you guaranteed access to the exact pets you want. This is a massive advantage compared to previous updates where rare pets were locked behind frustrating RNG.
The Safari Shop is located right next to Safari Joyce in the main event area. The shop initially had a one hour restock timer, but as the community progressed through global milestones, the restock time was reduced to 45 minutes, then 30 minutes, and eventually down to just 15 minutes. This means you’ll have frequent opportunities to purchase these pets throughout the event.
The Gecko is the first Safari pet that becomes available, and while it may be classified as common, don’t let that fool you. This vibrant green chameleon like creature has a specialized passive ability that significantly boosts your chances of getting valuable plant variants.
Passive Ability: Safari type plants within a 30-stud radius receive a 0.66x increased variant chance. This might sound modest, but when you’re farming multiple Safari plants simultaneously, this bonus compounds quickly.
Why It’s Worth It: Plant variants like Silver, Gold, and Rainbow are essential for maximizing your Sheckle income. The Gecko essentially acts as a multiplier for your rarest and most valuable harvests. I’ve found that placing 2-3 Geckos strategically around my Safari plant clusters resulted in noticeably more variant drops during extended farming sessions.
Best Strategy: Group your Safari plants together in dedicated zones, then place Geckos at central locations where their 30-stud radius overlaps multiple plants. This maximizes the number of plants benefiting from the variant boost simultaneously.
The Hyena introduces a fascinating stackable mechanic that rewards players who invest in multiple copies. With its light brown coat, darker mouth and ears, this scavenging predator becomes exponentially more valuable the more you have.
Passive Ability: Each Hyena gains an additional 4.06 XP per second for every other Hyena placed in your plot. However, this ability only activates when you have at least one non Hyena pet equipped as well.
Why It’s Worth It: The math on Hyenas gets impressive fast. One Hyena provides baseline XP. Two Hyenas each gain +4.06 XP/s. Three Hyenas each gain +8.12 XP/s. By the time you have five Hyenas, each one is earning +16.24 bonus XP/s, dramatically accelerating pet leveling.
Best Strategy: Dedicate a section of your pet slots specifically to a “Hyena pack.” The minimum efficient number is three Hyenas, but if you can afford five or more, the XP gains become exponential. Just remember to keep at least one different pet type to activate the ability. I recommend pairing your Hyena pack with a Crocodile or Lion for maximum synergy.
The Cape Buffalo is where things start getting really powerful. This brown colored buffalo with distinctive long, rounded horns has a passive ability that can literally double your harvest output without any extra work.
Passive Ability:
Why It’s Worth It: Free crops are free money. With a Cape Buffalo active, roughly one out of every seven Safari harvests will give you double the yield. Over hundreds of harvests during a farming session, this translates to thousands of extra Sheckles. The passive nature of this ability means it works automatically no timing or strategy required.
Best Strategy: Cape Buffalo works best when you’re mass harvesting high value crops. Focus on planting expensive Safari seeds like Java Banana or Amber Shrub, then let the Buffalo’s duplication chance multiply your profits. The more expensive your plants, the more valuable each duplicate becomes.
The Hippo has sparked considerable debate in the Grow a Garden community. While it has powerful abilities on paper, some players find it underwhelming in practice. This large creature with prominent nostrils has two distinct passive abilities that work on different timers.
Passive Abilities:
Why It Might Be Worth It: For players running watermelon focused farms, the Hippo can be incredibly profitable. The 2x value bonus essentially doubles your income from watermelons every few minutes, and the seed recovery chance means less replanting. The Monsoon mutation is also a valuable exclusive effect.
The Controversy: Many players report that the Hippo’s performance doesn’t match its Legendary rarity. The watermelon specific bonus is too narrow for most garden setups, and the long cooldowns mean you won’t see frequent procs. Unless you’re running a dedicated watermelon farm, other Legendary pets might offer better value.
Best Strategy: If you want to use the Hippo effectively, commit to a watermelon monoculture strategy. Plant a large section of your garden exclusively with watermelons, position the Hippo centrally, and use other pets like the Crocodile to accelerate growth. This specialized approach maximizes the Hippo’s unique strengths.
The Crocodile is, in my opinion, one of the absolute best pets from this entire update. This sea green reptilian creature has a dual purpose passive that benefits both your plants and your pets simultaneously.
Passive Ability: Every 19.52 minutes, the Crocodile bites either a random plant or a random pet, triggering a powerful 30-second buff:
Why It’s Worth It: The Crocodile is incredibly versatile. Whether you’re focused on plant production or pet leveling, this companion accelerates your progress. The 30-second buff windows are substantial during each activation, plants can complete significant growth stages, and pets can earn hundreds of extra XP.
Best Strategy: The Crocodile excels in balanced garden setups where you’re actively growing high value plants while also leveling important pets. Position it near your most expensive crops and your highest priority pets. I’ve found that the Crocodile synergizes exceptionally well with multi harvest plants, where faster growth means more harvests per hour.
Pro Tip: Track the Crocodile’s cooldown timer. When you know a bite is coming soon, start planting new high value seeds or position newly acquired pets nearby to maximize the benefit when the buff triggers.
The Lion is the crown jewel of the Safari Harvest update and for good reason. This magnificent creature with a brown mane and brownish yellow body has two game changing passive abilities that make it the single most valuable pet from this event.
Passive Abilities:
Why It’s Absolutely Worth It: The Lion is mandatory for serious players. Here’s why: the cooldown reduction ability essentially accelerates all your other pet abilities, creating a multiplicative effect across your entire garden. More importantly, the Lion is the only way to continue getting Safari mutations after the event ends. If you have a Lion in your inventory permanently, you can access Safari mutations forever even months from now when the event is long gone.
Best Strategy: Prioritize getting the Lion above all other Safari pets. Once you have one, structure your entire pet loadout around maximizing Safari type pets to increase the number of mutation applications from King of the Safari. A setup with the Lion, 3-4 other Safari pets (Gecko, Hyena, Cape Buffalo, Crocodile), and your other essential pets creates an incredibly powerful synergy.
Investment Priority: Even if you can only afford one Safari pet, make it the Lion. The permanent access to Safari mutations alone makes it the most valuable long term investment from this entire event.
After extensive testing, here’s my definitive ranking of which Safari pets you should prioritize based on overall value and versatility:
1. Lion The absolute priority. Get this pet first, no exceptions. The cooldown reduction benefits your entire garden, and permanent Safari mutation access is irreplaceable once the event ends.
2. Crocodile Extremely versatile dual purpose pet. The growth and XP boosts help with everything you do in Grow a Garden. Works well in any garden setup.
3. Cape Buffalo The harvest duplication chance pays for itself rapidly, especially with high value crops. Very straightforward and effective.
4. Gecko Underrated for variant farming. If you’re focused on getting Gold and Rainbow variants, multiple Geckos create noticeable improvements.
5. Hyena Excellent if you invest in multiples (at least 3-5). A single Hyena isn’t worth it, but a pack becomes increasingly powerful.
6. Hippo Only worthwhile for dedicated watermelon farmers. Too specialized for general use despite its Legendary status.
Getting these pets requires understanding the Safari Harvest event’s unique global milestone system. Unlike previous events, every player across all servers contributes to shared progression goals.
The entire Grow a Garden player community works together to submit plants to Safari Joyce, who requests specific plant types every 30 minutes. These contributions add up globally, unlocking rewards for everyone as milestones are reached:
Once a milestone is reached, the corresponding pet becomes available for purchase in the Safari Shop. Here’s what you need to know:
Shop Location: Right next to Safari Joyce in the main event area
Currency: Pets are purchased with Sheckles (in game currency), not Robux
Restock Timer: Initially 1 hour, gradually reduced to 15 minutes as higher milestones are reached
Stock Availability: Limited quantity per restock; popular pets like the Lion sell out quickly
To afford multiple Safari pets, you’ll need substantial Sheckle income. Here are the fastest methods:
1. Participate in Safari Harvest Event Submit plants to Safari Joyce regularly. Every 500 points earned grants individual rewards, including Sheckles and valuable items.
2. Grow High Value Plants Focus on expensive seeds like Java Banana, Amber Shrub, and event specific plants. With proper pet setups, these generate massive profits.
3. Optimize Plant Mutations Use growth boosting pets and aim for Gold/Rainbow variants, which sell for significantly more Sheckles.
4. Complete Safari Achievements The update added new Safari Mini Achievements that reward Sheckles, pets, and exclusive items.
Now that you understand each pet individually, let’s discuss how to combine them for maximum effectiveness.
This is my personal recommendation for most players:
This combination provides cooldown acceleration, growth boosts, harvest duplication, and variant enhancement covering all the major profit vectors in Grow a Garden.
For players prioritizing fast pet leveling:
This setup is ideal if you’re trying to age pets quickly for the Safari Joe donation event or building high level pet collections.
For committed watermelon farmers:
Plant nothing but watermelons, position pets centrally, and watch the Sheckles roll in from the specialized synergies.
Where you place pets in your garden actually matters more than many players realize:
Central Positioning: Pets with area of effect abilities (like Gecko’s 30-stud radius) should be placed in the center of plant clusters for maximum coverage.
Growth Pet Grouping: Keep pets that boost plant growth (Crocodile, other growth pets) near your highest value crops.
Random Effect Pets: Pets with random target abilities (like Lion’s mutations) can be placed anywhere since their effects aren’t position dependent.
Visual Organization: Arrange pets by function in different garden sections (growth section, XP section, etc.) to mentally track what each group does.
The Mega Safari Harvest update also introduced Safari Joe, a new NPC who spawns every hour next to Safari Joyce. This creates an entirely new way to earn valuable rewards.
Safari Joe allows you to donate pets to his zoo in exchange for random rewards. The quality of rewards scales with the rarity and age of the pets you donate.
Spawn Schedule: Every one hour in the center of the map Identification: Look for the Safari Jeep and distinctive Safari Hat Duration: Available for limited time per spawn
| Reward | Drop Chance (Approximate) |
|---|---|
| Savannah Crate | 45.45% |
| Safari Crate | 39-45% |
| Safari Seed Pack | 5-10% |
| Safari Egg | 5-10% |
| Pet Shard Oxpecker | 2.44% |
What to Donate: Focus on donating aged pets (high level) rather than rare pets you actually use. The reward quality increases with age, so level up common pets specifically for donation purposes.
What NOT to Donate: Never donate your Safari pets (Lion, Crocodile, etc.) or any pets with unique abilities you rely on. These are far more valuable than any reward Safari Joe can provide.
Optimal Approach: Maintain a separate collection of “donation pets” common or uncommon pets you level up solely to trade to Safari Joe. This lets you access rewards without sacrificing your functional garden pets.
The Mega Safari Harvest update also introduced five new Pet Mutation Shards that add even more depth to the pet system:
These mutation shards allow pets to inherit an additional ability from another Safari animal while maintaining their original passive and receiving slight stat improvements.
Example: A Crocodile with Giraffe Mutation keeps its bite ability but also gains the Giraffe’s growth boosting effect for Safari plants.
Acquisition: Mutation shards are extremely rare drops from Safari Crates, Safari Seed Packs, and Safari Joe donations. They can also occasionally appear in the Safari Shop.
Usage Priority: Save mutation shards for your most valuable pets (Lion, Crocodile, pets you use long term). Don’t waste them on common pets you’ll replace.
After watching countless players in the community, here are the biggest mistakes I see people making:
Some players prioritize collecting all six pets equally instead of focusing on getting the Lion first. This is a huge mistake. The Lion’s permanent Safari mutation access is absolutely crucial, and its cooldown reduction benefits literally every other pet you own.
Solution: Save Sheckles specifically for the Lion. It should be your first Safari pet purchase, even if you have to skip other pets temporarily.
A lone Hyena provides minimal value since its power comes from stacking multiples. Players waste Sheckles buying one Hyena thinking they’ve covered that pet, then wonder why it feels weak.
Solution: Either commit to buying 3+ Hyenas for the multiplicative effect, or skip Hyenas entirely and invest in different pets.
I constantly see players scatter pets randomly across their entire garden, resulting in area effect abilities like the Gecko’s variant boost only affecting 1-2 plants instead of 5-6.
Solution: Group plants by type, then position pets with radius effects centrally within those groups. Think of it like organizing a real farm zones and sections, not chaos.
When players run low on Sheckles, some impulsively sell Safari pets to other players. This is almost always a mistake since these pets won’t be available after the event ends.
Solution: Farm Sheckles through normal gameplay (plant harvests, event rewards) rather than selling limited time pets you can never reacquire.
The Safari Shop has limited stock, and high demand pets sell out within minutes of restocking. Players who manually check miss out repeatedly.
Solution: Join a Grow a Garden Discord server with automated stock notifications. You’ll get pinged the instant valuable pets restock, giving you first access before they sell out.
Grow a Garden is playable on multiple platforms, and there are some important considerations for Safari Harvest pets:
The Safari Shop interface works well on mobile, but the frequent restocks mean you need notification access. Join Discord servers and enable mobile notifications so you never miss a Lion or Crocodile restock.
Mobile Advantage: Quick purchasing on the go means you can grab pets during restocks even when away from your computer.
Full keyboard and mouse control makes managing large pet collections easier. You can position pets more precisely and organize your garden efficiently.
PC Advantage: Larger screen real estate helps track multiple pets and plan optimal positioning strategies.
Console players can fully participate in Safari Harvest, though Discord integration requires managing notifications on a separate device.
Console Consideration: Use the Xbox Game Bar or mobile Discord app to track restock alerts while playing.
For experienced players looking to optimize further, these advanced synergy combinations create powerful multiplicative effects:
The Lion’s King of the Safari ability applies Safari mutations equal to your total Safari type pets. By loading your garden with 5-6 Safari pets, you get 5-6 Safari mutations every 23 minutes, creating exponential value on high tier plants.
When the Crocodile’s growth boost triggers on multi harvest plants, you get multiple harvests faster. Each harvest has the Buffalo’s duplication chance, meaning the speed boost translates directly to more duplicate procs.
Stack Hyenas for exponential XP, use the Crocodile to occasionally boost that XP even higher, and add any other growth focused pets. This creates a pet leveling engine that ages pets dramatically faster than normal.
Place 3-4 Geckos around a concentrated Safari plant zone, focus exclusively on high value Safari seeds, and farm for Gold/Rainbow variants. The compounding variant chance boosts from multiple Geckos create noticeable increases in rare variant drops.
Understanding when the event ends is crucial for planning your pet acquisitions:
Event Start: November 1-2, 2025 Mega Update: November 8, 2025 (added new pets and Safari Joe) Expected Duration: Approximately 4-6 weeks (similar to previous major events) End Date: Likely late November to early December 2025
After the Safari Harvest event ends:
Action Plan: Prioritize getting at least the Lion before the event ends. If you can only afford one pet, make it the Lion for permanent Safari mutation access.
The Mega Safari Harvest update added six new pets to Grow a Garden: Gecko, Hyena, Cape Buffalo, Hippo, Crocodile, and Lion. Each pet has unique passive abilities designed around the Safari theme and offers different benefits for garden optimization.
The Lion is unquestionably the best pet from the Safari Harvest update. It provides cooldown reduction for all pets (speeding up every other ability in your garden) and applies Safari mutations to fruits. Most importantly, owning a Lion gives you permanent access to Safari mutations even after the event ends, making it an invaluable long term investment.
All Safari Harvest pets are purchased from the Safari Shop, located next to Safari Joyce in the main event area. The shop requires the community to reach specific global milestones before each pet unlocks for purchase. Pets are bought with Sheckles, and the shop restocks every 15-30 minutes depending on milestone progress.
Safari pets offer specialized abilities that are extremely powerful during the event and provide lasting value afterward. The Lion, Crocodile, and Cape Buffalo are among the best pets in the entire game when properly utilized. However, Safari pets work best when combined with other essential pets rather than replacing your entire collection.
No, Safari pets from the Safari Shop (Gecko, Hyena, Cape Buffalo, Hippo, Crocodile, Lion) cannot be obtained from eggs. They must be purchased directly from the Safari Shop using Sheckles. However, there are separate Safari Egg pets (Oxpecker, Zebra, Giraffe, Rhino, Elephant) that can only be obtained by hatching Safari Eggs.
Pet prices in the Safari Shop vary by rarity. Common pets (Gecko) cost less, while Divine pets (Lion) cost significantly more Sheckles. Exact prices fluctuate based on shop restocks and rarity tiers. Budget for approximately 1-5 million Sheckles for common pets and 10-50 million+ for Legendary and Divine tiers.
No, Safari pets will only be available during the Safari Harvest event. Once the event concludes, the Safari Shop closes permanently and these pets cannot be purchased anymore. However, any Safari pets you already own will remain in your inventory forever, and the Lion will continue providing Safari mutations indefinitely.
It depends on the pet. Hyenas are specifically designed to be bought in multiples (the more you have, the more XP each one generates). Cape Buffalo and Geckos also benefit from having 2-3 copies. However, one Lion and one Crocodile are usually sufficient unless you’re running highly specialized strategies.
Yes, Safari pets can receive pet mutation shards. Applying mutations like Giraffe, Oxpecker, Zebra, Rhino, or Elephant to Safari pets gives them additional abilities on top of their existing passives. This creates extremely powerful hybrid pets, especially when applied to high value pets like the Lion or Crocodile.
The Safari Harvest update has brought some of the most impactful pets ever added to Grow a Garden. The Lion alone justifies participating in this event due to its permanent Safari mutation access, while the Crocodile and Cape Buffalo offer incredible versatility for any garden setup.
My recommendation for most players: prioritize getting the Lion first, add the Crocodile second, then expand to Cape Buffalo and Geckos based on your farming style. The Hyena requires commitment to multiple copies, and the Hippo is best saved for specialized watermelon farms.
Remember that these pets won’t be available after the event ends, so plan your Sheckle farming accordingly. Use Discord servers for restock alerts, participate actively in the global milestone progression by submitting plants to Safari Joyce, and don’t sleep on the Safari Joe donation system for additional rewards.
Whether you’re a casual player or a dedicated gardener, the Safari Harvest pets offer substantial upgrades that will serve you well long after this event becomes a memory. Get that Lion, optimize your pet loadout, and watch your garden flourish like never before.
Happy farming, and may your harvests be bountiful!
