Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press.

Strangely, the guild reward that players seem most excited about in the early days of Cataclysm is not the Kor'kron Annihilator or Golden King but the Armadillo Pup. We all have a long way to go to earn the mounts, after all, but we can all help earn the pup whether we're running Heroics at 85 or leveling a new character. This noncombat pet is unlocked by earning the achievement Critter Kill Squad and getting exalted with your guild. Ending the carefree lives of 50,000 critters seems like a monumental task, but smart guilds can take advantage of some special tactics to earn this achievement in no time.

Let's take a look at how you can earn this adorable pet for your guild.

Squad up!

The achievement says "squad" for a reason: Grouping up multiplies the amount of critters you kill. Bring a friend to get double credit. Bring a 40-man raid to get a whopping 40 kills for every eviscerated ewe. It's not yet clear whether this is intended. Some people believe this "cheat" will be hotfixed, but considering some of the other issues Blizzard is dealing with right now, I doubt this is riding on top of the priority list.

Target density is key

Some areas are more critter-rich than others. Here are a few of the denser population centers:

• Terrorweb Tunnel This cavern in Eastern Plaguelands is chock-full of creepy crawlies.
• Zul'Gurub Now a questing area in Northern Stranglethorn for characters of level 30-35, this subzone has convenient clusters of snakes.
• Northrend icebergs Around the coastal areas of Northrend are icebergs full of helpless penguins. The southern coasts around Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord have the biggest concentrations. You can also find some in the hills around the Argent Tournament.
• Akhenet Fields In central Uldum, there is a small farm with four flocks of sheep. Each flock has about 10 sheep, and they are so close together that you can blow them all up with one spell. It's probably not the best place to camp critters, but the location makes it an ideal spot to chalk up a few dozen more kills in mere seconds as you pass by it.
• Stonecore This dungeon is accessible once you can enter Deepholm at level 82. Shale hatchlings are so rampant that you can't help but squash a few on every run. If you target them on purpose, however, you can really rack up the score here.
• Capital cities Orgrimmar 2.0 is swarming with critters. Bored waiting for your dungeon finder queue? Why not step on some lizards? For Alliance, the Deeprun Tram is swarming with rats that respawn quickly.

Engage in some PvC

Capitol cities are great areas for passive critter extermination. That's right -- passive! Believe it or not, there are two ways you can extinguish the fragile lives of bunnies and chipmunks while completely AFK. The first is PvC: pet versus critter combat. At least four noncombat pets will target and eliminate nearby critters:

• Lil' K.T.
• Lil' Ragnaros
• Toxic Wasteling
• Sleepy Willy

There may be others, but those are the ones I could dig up. As of right now, pet kills do count toward the guild achievement. Unfortunately, they aren't the most accessible pets. The first two require real-world cash to obtain from the Blizzard Store. The other two are only available from holiday events.

Snacks of doom

Not content with Lil' Ragnaros' kill rate? Snack on some Stormchops for extra AFK death. The recipe is available via the daily cooking quests offered by The Rokk in Shattrath City. Making them requires Clefthoof Meat, which you can farm from the various clefthooves of Nagrand and Terokkar, and Lightning Eel, which can be fished up most frequently from certain areas of open water between noon and 6 p.m. server time. Chow down and park yourself in a critter-friendly area for some free splats.

Knee-deep in murder

Sorry, Horde -- this one is for Alliance only. I haven't tested this myself, but I've seen reports of a quest in the Worgen starting area where you are supposed to repel a horde of ravenous spiders and rats with a torch. If you murder them instead, you can rack up a huge critter score. You must be a Worgen phased in to the quest Knee-Deep in order to see the critters. Anyone else who visits the area won't see them.

Beware, though -- these critters do pack a punch in numbers, so warriors or druids (in bear form) may have the easiest time with it. Just make sure you get invited to the guild prior to the slaughter!

What's not a critter?

Some NPCs that seem like critters may not actually count toward the achievement. These include:

• Muddy Crawfish in Orgrimmar
• Serpentbloom Snakes in Wailing Caverns
• Fanged Pit Vipers in Gundrak
• Sunchaser Gazelles in Uldum
• Rustberg Gulls in Tol Barad (oddly enough, the aggroable -- and plentiful! -- Darkwood Hatchlings are critters)
• Bugs from the event in the hallway to Professor Putricide
• Sadly, Tinkerbell

Is your guild powering through this achievement? What tactics did you use?

/salute

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Join us to learn how to survive the leveling process, deal with guild perk freeloaders, and discuss the guild talent controversy or the guild reputation system. Send Scott your guild-related questions and suggestions at scott@wow.com; you may find your question the subject of next week's Officers' Quarters!

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Tags: armadillo-pup, building-guilds, cataclysm, critter-kill-squad, critters, featured, guide, guide-to-officers, guild-achievements, guild-advice, guild-leadership, guild-management, guild-officers, guild-rewards, guilds-guide, leadership, officers-quarters, wow-guide, wow-guild-management, wow-guilds, wow-leadership

Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)