How to be a big star in Littlest Pet Shop: hints, tips, and tricks

If you're enjoying Gameloft's freemium builder Littlest Pet Shop but you're finding it tricky unlocking the exact colour of dachshund you're after, want more toys for your pets to play with, or just want to get more from the game, then you'll be in need of a guide.

Luckily for you, I've been playing Littlest Pet Shop for the last week and have loads of tips and tricks up my virtual sleeve.

So, if you want to know how you can grind more Kibble out of your game time and fill your town with the cutest num-num-nums known to man, read on.

Kibble chasing



There are plenty of ways to nab yourself more Kibble (the game's infinite currency).

Firstly, ensure that you have plenty of pets at your disposal, for you'll need them to play with the toys and in the play areas you've set up as part of your buildings.

Each time you fire up the game, you should go through and collect all of the Kibble - indicated with a golden coin marker - and set your pets to work enjoying themselves. Make sure you do this methodically, checking off each building as you go down the street, ensuring the pets slide down each slide, spin on each merry-go-round.

As you're heading down your cute boulevard, tap on any items that look out of place to clean up the environment. Mirrors; cakes; buckets and spades... anything that looks like it doesn't belong.

Not only will you make the place look nicer, but you're also given a small Kibble reward for each one. Plus, you may even fulfil a challenge requirement for doing so along the way.

Any cars on the road and planes in the sky will also yield a Kibble piece every time you tap them, so if you can time your stroll down the road to coincide with their coming into sight, even better. Just give them a prod, get on with the next activity, then scroll along. Rinse and repeat.

Pets at play



To unlock all the variations of a breed, you'll need to level-up your pets. This is really easy: you simply have to keep interacting with the animals you already have, wait for the cooldown period of the activity to pass, and then do it again.

Feeding, cleaning, and playing are the three basic mini-game types. By shelling out Bling, you can repeat these mini-games at a much faster rate. These higher tiers of care also seem to build XP in your pets faster - perfect for those of you who just can't wait for the sparkly new tabby.

The mini-games don't require much from you in the way of skill, but there are a couple of tricks you can pull to get through them fast.

In the washing mini-game, for example, don't worry about targeting dirt on your pup's coat. Just rub it as quickly as possible in the general area of its body, and it'll soon be clean.

You feed your pet by flicking food into its mouth, but, again, there's no points on offer for accuracy. Swipe at the food bowl quickly and your animal will scoff its dinner really rapidly, thus ending the task.

The last is the ball-bouncing mini-game. Again, if you want this done and dusted lickety-split, that's no problem. Flick the ball to start the game, then instead of hanging back and waiting for the ball to come all the way across the screen back to you, keep your finger poised just over where it'll hit the ball. Tap the screen here quickly and you'll be bouncing the ball back and forth at a supersonic pace.

General upkeep



Here are a few miscellaneous tips and hints to help you maximise your time spent in Littlest Pet Shop.

One way of doing so is to avoid playing the Lucky Paws game. You can get plenty of Kibble by taking part in it, but it costs 300 hundred a spin. The only trinkets I was given were cosmetic toys for living environments of pets. It seemed a rip-off to me, but maybe if you're really lucky there are other goodies to be found. I certainly didn't see the point.

The task involving finding a pet's best friend is really easy; you just need to scroll through your town and find the corresponding pet.

You should also visit friends' towns and clear the town up for them. By doing so, you gain Hearts, which you can spend on the second tier of play activity. Again, this seems to build XP in your pets faster.

Oh, and keep watching those ads. You'll get free Bling for your troubles, and if you've got spare time to kill and are desperate for this finite currency, then you might as well.

They're all our Littlest Pet Shop tips, but what about yours? Let us know your tips and tricks for this game by sharing them in the comments box below.