If you’ve started collecting minions in Deskrawl: Idle ARPG, you’ll quickly realize that they aren’t just cosmetic companions. Your active minion does two important things: it pulls your loot carriage and gives you its passive bonus.
That makes choosing a minion surprisingly important. You might have one minion that’s amazing for boss damage, another that’s better for farming materials, and another that gives you exactly the defensive stat you need when you’re struggling to survive.
There are currently 67 minions in the game, ranging from Common all the way up to Legendary. Each one also has a different carriage capacity, so there is a trade-off between the passive you want and how much loot you can carry before returning to town.
In this guide, I’ll go through the minion system, explain what carriage capacity means, and list all 67 minions with their bonuses so you can quickly find the ones that fit your build.
Deskrawl Idle ARPG Minions Guide – All Carriage Capacity
Minions have a pretty simple purpose.
Once you’ve unlocked a minion, you can make it your active companion. It then pulls your loot carriage while giving you its passive effect.
The passive is the important part when you’re trying to optimize your character.
For example, Emberfang gives +30% damage to Elite and Boss enemies, making it an obvious choice when you’re focusing on bosses.
On the other hand, something like Tazan Camel gives +30% Material Find, which is much more useful when you’re farming materials rather than trying to maximize combat damage.
So don’t automatically assume that the Legendary minion with the biggest carriage is always the one you should use.
Look at the passive first.
What Is Minion Carriage Capacity?
Carriage capacity determines how many items your loot carriage can hold before you need to return to town.
A minion with a capacity of 35 can therefore carry more loot than one with a capacity of 20.
This matters more than it might initially seem.
If you’re doing long farming sessions, higher capacity means you can stay out in the world longer before having to head back.
But there is an obvious trade-off.
A minion with an excellent combat passive might have a lower carriage capacity than another minion.
So you essentially have two things to consider:
What does the minion give my character?
and
How long do I want to stay out farming before returning to town?
Deskrawl Legendary Minions
Legendary minions are the highest rarity shown in the current collection and generally come with the strongest or most specialized passive bonuses.
There are 22 Legendary minions in the list provided.
Armored Horse
Legendary · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 35
Passive:
+15% Move Speed
Armored Horse is a simple but useful choice if you value faster movement.
The 35 capacity is also the highest capacity shown among the Legendary minions, so you’re getting both a good carrying capacity and a movement bonus.
Ancient Shellwarden
Legendary · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 35
Passive:
+15% Armor
This is a defensive option for players who want additional Armor.
The 35 capacity also makes it convenient for longer farming sessions.
Blue Mammoth
Legendary · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 35
Passive:
+15% Armor
Blue Mammoth has the same Armor bonus and carriage capacity as Ancient Shellwarden.
So if you’re choosing between them based purely on the listed stats, they’re effectively offering the same passive package.
Dread Sand Manticore
Legendary · Demon
Carriage Capacity: 35
Passive:
+30% Poison Damage
This is an obvious choice for a Poison-focused build.
If you’re using Poison Shot, Venom Bolt, Poison Trap, or other Poison-related effects, this passive becomes much more interesting than a generic defensive bonus.
Raptor
Legendary · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 35
Passive:
+30% Damage Over Time
Raptor is broader than a Poison-specific minion.
The Damage Over Time bonus can benefit builds that rely on effects that continue damaging enemies after the initial attack.
That makes it particularly interesting for builds using Bleed or Poison-style damage.
Frost Dragon
Legendary · Dragon
Carriage Capacity: 35
Passive:
+30% damage to enemies more than 6 units away
Frost Dragon is a very interesting option for ranged characters.
If you can consistently maintain distance from your target, this passive gives you a substantial damage bonus.
It naturally fits classes like Hunter and Sorcerer that are comfortable fighting from range.
Ice Hound
Legendary · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 35
Passive:
+30% Lightning Damage
If you’re building around Lightning, Ice Hound is one of the most obvious minion choices.
It works particularly well with Lightning-heavy skills such as Sorcerer’s Lightning abilities or Monk’s holy Lightning attacks.
Lord of the Cinder
Legendary · Demon
Carriage Capacity: 35
Passive:
+12% Cooldown Reduction
Cooldown Reduction is useful for ability-focused builds because it lets you get back to your important Specials more quickly.
This is a more general-purpose combat passive compared with something like Poison Damage.
Defiled Wyrm
Legendary · Dragon
Carriage Capacity: 34
Passive:
+100% Life Regeneration
If survivability is your priority, this is a very noticeable bonus.
A 100% increase to Life Regeneration can be especially interesting for builds that already have strong regeneration mechanics.
Tidewrath Crab King
Legendary · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 32
Passive:
+40% Critical Hit Damage
This is a clear offensive choice for a critical-hit-focused build.
The carriage capacity is slightly lower than the 35-capacity Legendary minions, but the Critical Hit Damage bonus is much more specialized.
Ancient Oak Treant
Legendary · Humanoid
Carriage Capacity: 30
Passive:
+10% Max Health
This is another straightforward defensive option.
More Max Health gives you a larger health pool and can work particularly well with builds that scale from or benefit from having more HP.
Bone Reaper
Legendary · Undead
Carriage Capacity: 30
Passive:
+30% Lightning Damage
Like Ice Hound, Bone Reaper is aimed at Lightning-focused builds.
If you’re trying to maximize Lightning damage, having multiple minions with the same type of passive gives you some interesting options depending on which one you prefer to use.
Flying Fish King
Legendary · Dragon
Carriage Capacity: 30
Passive:
+10% Mana Cost Reduction
This is particularly useful for builds that spend Mana quickly.
If your Strong Attacks and other abilities constantly drain your Mana pool, reducing their cost can make your overall rotation much smoother.
Ogre
Legendary · Humanoid
Carriage Capacity: 30
Passive:
+30% Damage to Stunned enemies
Ogre is a conditional damage minion.
Its bonus becomes especially valuable if your build can reliably stun enemies.
For example, Warrior has Earthstrike, while Monk has Charge and other crowd-control options.
Serparmat the Devourer
Legendary · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 30
Passive:
+30% Damage to Bleeding enemies
This is another conditional damage bonus.
If you’re applying Bleed consistently, this passive can turn into a strong source of additional damage.
Warrior is particularly relevant here because it has Bloodblade and Rending Onslaught.
Emberfang
Legendary · Dragon
Carriage Capacity: 30
Passive:
+30% Damage to Elite and Boss enemies
This is one of the easiest minions to understand.
If you’re fighting an Elite or Boss, Emberfang gives you a direct damage increase against them.
For boss farming, this is one of the most interesting choices in the entire minion collection.
Sandstorm Harpy Queen
Legendary · Demon
Carriage Capacity: 27
Passive:
+30% Damage to Slowed enemies
This is another conditional damage minion.
It becomes more useful when your build regularly applies Slow effects.
Venom Queen
Legendary · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 27
Passive:
Reduces Poison damage taken by 30%
Unlike Dread Sand Manticore, this is defensive rather than offensive.
If you’re dealing with enemies that rely heavily on Poison damage, this can make a meaningful difference to your survivability.
Dark Elf Mage
Legendary · Humanoid
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+50% Mana
A huge Mana increase can be valuable for ability-heavy builds.
If you constantly find yourself running out of Mana before you can use your strongest attacks, Dark Elf Mage is worth considering.
Redrock Lord
Legendary · Elemental
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+30% Strong Attack Damage
This is one of the more universally useful offensive passives for builds that rely heavily on Strong Attacks.
Instead of boosting one particular element, it directly improves Strong Attack damage.
Lord of the Crimson Vale
Legendary · Dragon
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+30% Damage to Vulnerable enemies
This works particularly well if your build can reliably apply Vulnerable.
For example, Warrior has Valiant Strike and Deadly Hook, while Hunter has Flare.
Goblin Giant
Legendary · Humanoid
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+40% Gold gained from enemies
This is the kind of minion you want when you’re farming currency rather than trying to squeeze out maximum combat damage.
Bloodmoon Werewolf
Legendary · Demon
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+10% Life On Hit
This gives you additional sustain through your attacks.
For melee characters that attack frequently, Life On Hit can be particularly useful.
Deskrawl Rare Minions
Rare minions sit below Legendary but still have some very useful specialized passives.
Tazan Camel
Rare · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 32
Passive:
+30% Material Find
If you’re farming crafting materials, this is one of the most useful options in the list.
The 32 capacity is also excellent for a Rare minion.
Orc Fighter
Rare · Humanoid
Carriage Capacity: 30
Passive:
+10% Strength
A straightforward choice for Strength-based builds.
Ice Rock Elemental
Rare · Elemental
Carriage Capacity: 30
Passive:
Take 20% less Lightning damage
A defensive choice specifically against Lightning damage.
Cinderlash
Rare · Demon
Carriage Capacity: 28
Passive:
+25% Fire Damage
A good elemental choice for Fire-focused builds.
Hellguard
Rare · Demon
Carriage Capacity: 28
Passive:
+20% Armor
Another simple defensive option.
Magma Golem
Rare · Elemental
Carriage Capacity: 28
Passive:
+20% Maximum Health
A good choice if you’re looking to increase your health pool.
Undead Axemaster
Rare · Undead
Carriage Capacity: 27
Passive:
+20% Physical Damage
This works well for physical-damage builds.
Keep Succubus
Rare · Demon
Carriage Capacity: 27
Passive:
+20% damage to enemies more than 6 units away
Like Frost Dragon, this rewards ranged positioning.
Shoal Naga
Rare · Humanoid
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
Restores 6 Mana per second
This is particularly useful for Mana-hungry builds.
Brinescale Serpent
Rare · Demon
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+20% Cold Damage
A good choice for Frost-focused builds.
Dark Horse
Rare · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+15% Move Speed
A movement-focused option.
Dune Eagle
Rare · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+5% Dodge
A simple defensive bonus based on avoiding attacks.
Fae Dragon
Rare · Dragon
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+25% Arcane Damage
Useful for Arcane-focused abilities.
Frost Whelp
Rare · Dragon
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+15% Special Ability Damage
This is a flexible option if a large portion of your damage comes from Specials.
White Horse
Rare · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+15% Move Speed
Another movement-focused minion.
Mutating Wolf
Rare · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 20
Passive:
+15 Life On Hit
This provides sustain through attacks, but its carriage capacity is lower than many other Rare options.
Deskrawl Uncommon Minions
Uncommon minions may not have the flashy bonuses of the Legendary collection, but several are still useful while you’re progressing.
Skeleton Warrior
Uncommon · Undead
Carriage Capacity: 30
Passive:
+10% Physical Damage
A useful physical-damage bonus with a surprisingly high carriage capacity for its rarity.
Oakback Pack Bull
Uncommon · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+5% Move Speed
A basic movement option.
Boar
Uncommon · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+150 Max HP
A simple early defensive bonus.
Carrion Scarab
Uncommon · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+15% Item Find
Useful when you’re more interested in finding items while farming.
Sand Kobold Warrior
Uncommon · Humanoid
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+15% Armor
A basic defensive choice.
Goblin Warrior
Uncommon · Humanoid
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+15% Gold gained from enemies
A useful farming minion when you’re specifically looking for more Gold.
Barrens Crocodile
Uncommon · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+20% Damage to Injured enemies
This increases damage against enemies that have already lost health.
Scorched Imp
Uncommon · Demon
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+20% Fire Damage
A useful early Fire-damage minion.
Redrock Golem
Uncommon · Elemental
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+20% Critical Damage Reduction
A defensive option against critical damage.
Barrens Satyr
Uncommon · Demon
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+20% Basic Attack Damage
Useful for builds that rely heavily on their Basic Attack.
Grizzly Bear
Uncommon · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
Restores 8 Health per second
A straightforward regeneration option.
Crimson Guardian
Uncommon · Elemental
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+1 Health Potion charge
This gives you an additional Health Potion charge, which can be useful when survivability is more important than raw damage.
Mountain Tiger
Uncommon · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+15% Damage to Healthy enemies
This gives you extra damage against enemies that haven’t taken much damage yet.
Skeleton Archer
Uncommon · Undead
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+3% Critical Hit Chance
A small but useful critical-hit bonus.
Frozen Zombie Warrior
Uncommon · Undead
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
+3% All Damage
This is one of the more generally useful Uncommon bonuses because it doesn’t require a specific element or condition.
Ember Bat
Uncommon · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 25
Passive:
Reduces Fire damage taken by 20%
Useful when you’re dealing with enemies that use Fire damage.
Reef Squid
Uncommon · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 22
Passive:
Restores 6 Mana per kill
This is particularly useful when you’re fighting lots of weaker enemies and constantly getting kills.
Chestnut Pony
Uncommon · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 22
Passive:
+10% Move Speed
A simple movement bonus.
Defiled Ooze
Uncommon · Elemental
Carriage Capacity: 22
Passive:
Reduces Physical damage taken by 20%
A useful defensive choice against Physical damage.
Driftshell Hermit Crab
Uncommon · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 20
Passive:
Reduces Cold damage taken by 15%
A specialized defensive minion for Cold-heavy areas or enemies.
Sand Kobold Thief
Uncommon · Humanoid
Carriage Capacity: 20
Passive:
+20% Damage to Bleeding enemies
This works nicely with a Bleed-focused setup.
Sand Wasp
Uncommon · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 20
Passive:
+15% Damage to Poisoned enemies
A useful choice for builds that consistently apply Poison.
Frost Slime
Uncommon · Elemental
Carriage Capacity: 20
Passive:
+10% healing received from all sources
This is especially interesting when combined with a build that already has reliable healing.
Venomous Spider
Uncommon · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 16
Passive:
+25 Mana
A simple but useful boost for Mana-hungry characters.
Stumplin
Uncommon · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 16
Passive:
+10% Thorns
This is a natural choice for Thorns-focused Warrior builds.
Black Spider
Uncommon · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 15
Passive:
+15% Poison Damage
Another option for Poison-focused builds.
Grey Forest Wolf
Uncommon · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 15
Passive:
+5% Attack Speed
A small Attack Speed bonus that can be useful for faster attacking builds.
Deskrawl Common Minion
There is currently one Common minion in the supplied list.
Brown Horse
Common · Beast
Carriage Capacity: 20
Passive:
+5% Move Speed
Brown Horse is a simple early-game option.
The 20-item carriage capacity is respectable for a Common minion, and the movement-speed bonus is useful when you’re still building up your collection.
Best Deskrawl Minions for Different Builds
Instead of trying to create one universal “best minion,” I’d match the minion to what you’re actually doing.
Best Minions for Boss Damage
For bosses and Elites, some of the most interesting choices are:
Emberfang — +30% damage to Elite and Boss enemies.
Lord of the Crimson Vale — +30% damage to Vulnerable enemies.
Serparmat the Devourer — +30% damage to Bleeding enemies.
Ogre — +30% damage to Stunned enemies.
The important thing is that several of these are conditional.
If your build can reliably apply the relevant status effect, the passive becomes much more useful.
Best Minions for Ranged Builds
If you’re playing Hunter or another ranged-focused setup, look at:
Frost Dragon — +30% damage to enemies more than 6 units away.
Keep Succubus — +20% damage to enemies more than 6 units away.
These passives reward you for doing what a ranged build already wants to do: keeping your distance.
Best Minions for Poison Builds
For Poison-focused characters:
Dread Sand Manticore — +30% Poison Damage.
Black Spider — +15% Poison Damage.
Sand Wasp — +15% damage to Poisoned enemies.
Venom Queen — reduces Poison damage taken by 30%.
The first three are much more offensive, while Venom Queen is the defensive choice.
Best Minions for Lightning Builds
For Lightning:
Ice Hound — +30% Lightning Damage.
Bone Reaper — +30% Lightning Damage.
Ice Rock Elemental — take 20% less Lightning damage.
If you’re building around Lightning damage, Ice Hound and Bone Reaper are the obvious offensive options.
Best Minions for Fire Builds
For Fire:
Cinderlash — +25% Fire Damage.
Scorched Imp — +20% Fire Damage.
Ember Bat — reduces Fire damage taken by 20%.
These give you both offensive and defensive options depending on what you need.
Best Minions for Bleed Builds
For Bleed:
Serparmat the Devourer — +30% damage to Bleeding enemies.
Sand Kobold Thief — +20% damage to Bleeding enemies.
These are especially interesting for Warrior because Warrior has multiple ways to apply Bleed.
Best Minions for Critical Builds
For Critical-focused builds:
Tidewrath Crab King — +40% Critical Hit Damage.
Skeleton Archer — +3% Critical Hit Chance.
The Crab King is the much larger damage modifier, while Skeleton Archer directly improves your chance to land critical hits.
Best Minions for Farming
If you’re farming rather than pushing combat content, don’t overlook utility minions.
Tazan Camel gives +30% Material Find.
Carrion Scarab gives +15% Item Find.
Goblin Giant gives +40% Gold gained from enemies.
Goblin Warrior gives +15% Gold gained from enemies.
These aren’t necessarily the minions I’d use for a difficult boss, but they can be much more useful when you’re specifically trying to increase your farming returns.
Best Minions for Survivability
If you’re struggling to survive, there are several different directions you can take.
Defiled Wyrm gives +100% Life Regeneration.
Ancient Oak Treant gives +10% Max Health.
Magma Golem gives +20% Maximum Health.
Bloodmoon Werewolf gives +10% Life On Hit.
Dune Eagle gives +5% Dodge.
Defiled Ooze reduces Physical damage taken by 20%.
Venom Queen reduces Poison damage taken by 30%.
Driftshell Hermit Crab reduces Cold damage taken by 15%.
So instead of simply looking for “the tank minion,” you can pick a passive that addresses the type of damage or weakness you’re actually struggling with.
Best Minions for Mana
Mana-heavy builds have several useful choices.
Dark Elf Mage gives +50% Mana.
Flying Fish King gives 10% Mana Cost Reduction.
Shoal Naga restores 6 Mana per second.
Reef Squid restores 6 Mana per kill.
Venomous Spider gives +25 Mana.
These work in different ways, so the best choice depends on whether you need a larger Mana pool, cheaper abilities, regeneration, or more Mana from kills.
Minion Carriage Capacity vs Passive
One thing I wouldn’t ignore is carriage capacity.
Some minions have excellent passives but relatively small capacities.
For example, Black Spider has a carriage capacity of only 15, while Dread Sand Manticore has 35.
If you’re specifically building around Poison, Black Spider still has a useful passive, but the Manticore gives you both a stronger Poison bonus and a much larger carriage.
This becomes more important when you’re spending a long time farming.
A combat-focused minion might give you better damage, while a higher-capacity minion can let you stay out collecting loot longer.
The minion system in Deskrawl is more important than it first appears.
With 67 minions currently listed, there are plenty of different bonuses to collect, and the best choice changes depending on what you’re doing.
You don’t necessarily want the same minion for every situation.
For boss farming, Emberfang is extremely interesting because of its direct Elite and Boss damage bonus.
For ranged builds, Frost Dragon and Keep Succubus reward you for maintaining distance.
For Poison, Dread Sand Manticore stands out, while Lightning builds have options such as Ice Hound and Bone Reaper.
For farming, Tazan Camel, Carrion Scarab, and Goblin Giant provide bonuses that can be more useful than pure combat damage.
And if survival is your problem, minions like Defiled Wyrm, Ancient Oak Treant, Bloodmoon Werewolf, and Dune Eagle give you several different ways to make your character harder to kill.
The biggest thing to remember is that your active minion is part of your build. Don’t just choose one because it looks cool or because it’s Legendary. Look at the passive, look at the carriage capacity, and think about what you’re actually doing in the game.
Once you start matching your minion to your build and the content you’re farming, the system becomes much more useful than simply collecting all 67 and forgetting about them.