I'm glad I've got you guys supporting me. Helping you guys can take a lot of effort sometimes but it all pays off when it's a feature I was wanting anyway, or something similar. I've learned a lot and I'm so grateful for the community here.
Aaaack that got sentimental, sorry~~
Anyway, I'm here to ramble a tiny bit about a new feature I'd like. I still haven't implemented my item drop system (I decided the existing mod just isn't going to fulfill my needs) but I did find an artist to help me keep up with making items. So my plan is this:
While visiting pets, there's a chance for you to find items. Most of it will be junk, but if you collect enough of it you might use these things for alchemy/similar recipes. But I had an even greater thought - rare materials! These will be so rare they're account-bound and will be given over to a special NPC. There will be several item 'sets' that need completed but the items can all be turned in separately whenever they're obtained. (Duplicates can safely be sold, but not to other players.) Once an item 'set' is completed you will obtain a rare pet!
I'd like to keep my rare pets rare, so some of them won't produce babies of themselves through breeding -- but they may produce some other unique kind of offspring (like in Pokémon, Manaphy > Phione).
When a rare item set is completed I'd like to display it on user profiles. They're proof of a user who has put forth a lot of effort participating in the site by visiting lots of user's pets.
Certain site-wide events and items may temporarily boost the chance to find rare items like these.