Rather than being a standalone game, Adopt Me! is a sub-game you can play within Roblox.

Don’t know how Roblox works? We’ve got a full guide here, but in brief: it’s a huge collection of different games made by a range of creators using the platform’s built-in tools. It’s available on PC, Mac, iOS, Android and Xbox One and it’s incredibly popular, with more than 100 million monthly users.

In Adopt Me!, you build and customise a home, look after pets and make friends with other players.

The main focus is on adopting, raising and collecting the various pets. You can also decorate your house and unlock vehicles.

You can do most of these things without making additional purchases and most players don’t spend anything on the game – but as you progress, there is a drive to sell items that enable you to access rarer pets.

As with many Roblox games, Adopt Me!’s popularity comes from a combination of an avid community of players and freeform play.

A bit like games that evolve in the playground, it changes over time as the developers add features suggested by the players. You can browse the latest updates on the Play Adopt Me! YouTube channel.

Rare pets

There are five ranks of pets: common, uncommon, rare, ultra-rare and legendary. The most valuable legendary pets include Dragons, Unicorns, Griffins, Ninja Monkeys and Kitsunes.

Getting these takes effort and a lot of time. 

You train your pets by completing tasks. Once you have four fully grown pets, they can be traded for even rarer Neon pets with glowing parts. You can then do this four times to trade them in for a Mega Neon Pet that glows in rainbow colours.

It’s worth noting that to earn the rarest of these pets you’d have to put in a large number of hours in the game. To create a Mega Neon Diamond Griffin, for example, would require a minimum of 1170 consecutive days of playing.

Trading

As well as buying pets, players can trade them with each other. This can lead to disputes if trades are not fair.

It is important that children understand that they should only use the in-game trading platform to trade. Roblox’s terms state that anyone making trades outside of the game will not be protected if the deal goes wrong. What’s more, in order to conduct a trade via eBay or another external site, the child would have to meet the seller outside of the game to receive their purchase. This in turn poses a grooming risk.

You could suggest that children should only trade with people they know and trust, or that they shouldn’t risk trading anything they couldn’t bear to lose. And, of course, make sure they know to talk to you if they’re unsure about anything.

In-app spending

This ecosystem of pets encourages extended play time as well as the purchasing of currency. There have been stories about children running up large bills on Adopt Me!, including one where a six-year-old reportedly spent $6000 on it.

As with any game, it’s important to set up Adopt Me! with the appropriate limits on spending. You can talk to your children about this so they understand how the game makes money and can make an informed choice about spending – and so that they realise that while the game may be virtual, the money is real. 

Scams and price-hiking are the main concerns. Given the time (and, potentially, money) required to create the rarest pets, some people have taken to selling them outside of the platform.

In-game scams

Even within the game, there are scams to be wary of. Some examples are:

- Cloning: players may claim they can clone a pet, in order to get you to part with a valuable one. Cloning is not possible in Adopt Me! and this is a scam.

- Robux deals: players may offer to trade a pet for Robux, Roblox's in-platform currency – but again, that isn’t possible in Adopt Me!, and the likelihood is that they’ll simply steal the pet and then disappear.

- Pet sitting: players may offer to level up a pet in order to get you to give them a high-level pet. Again, levelling up pets in this way isn't popular. 

There’s more information about scams on Roblox here, and a handy guide (to avoiding being scammed) from BBC's Newsround here.

Social communication

Like most Roblox games, Adopt Me! is a social game at heart – and makes a good introduction to in-game communication for younger children.

The game’s text-chat function is monitored and limited in language, so there’s little risk that children will be exposed to harmful content.

If you are setting up an account for your child, make sure it has the right age specified, as the chat is more limited for players under 13 years old.

Spot something that doesn't look quite right? You can email librarian@parentzone.org.uk to submit comments and feedback.

This article was last updated on 22/07/22.

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