Abandoned Courtyard Pet Cave
What this page helps you decide: whether you need a courtyard run at all, which depends entirely on whether pet enhancing is the thing currently blocking your build.
The Abandoned Courtyard is the cave that feeds pet enhancing. It costs one Cave Ticket to enter, takes up to four players and has four levels, which is the same shape as the other two ticket caves - the difference is that what drops here goes to Ali rather than to Milo or the blessing statue. The material that matters is named: Broken Scales, which the official pets page identifies as the enhancement cost alongside Gold. This page explains what a run buys you, why the courtyard is the bottleneck on a system that otherwise never fails, and exactly which numbers are missing, which is most of them: neither the drop rate for materials nor the amount required per enhancement level is published anywhere.
Why this cave is the bottleneck of the pet system
Pet enhancing is described as similar to equipment upgrading with one enormous difference: there is no failure chance. That makes it the most reliable power increase in the game per unit of material, and it means the only limit on it is supply. Supply comes from here. The official example is the useful detail - a pet taken from level 1 to level 7 consumed the player's entire stock of Broken Scales, which tells you that a single courtyard trip is not going to finish a pet, and that the system is paced by cave tickets rather than by risk. If your pet has stopped progressing, the answer is almost always more tickets rather than a different strategy.
Enhancing is not ascension, and one guide conflates them
This matters because it changes what you farm. Enhancing consumes courtyard materials plus Gold and raises a pet's level. Ascension consumes another pet - the official example uses a second Icy Dragonet to take one from ascension 1 to 2 - and breaks through the ceiling that ordinary enhancing hits. One third-party guide describes enhancement itself as feeding duplicate pets to raise a star rating, which merges the two systems into one and would send you hunting duplicates when what you actually need is a cave ticket. We follow the official pets page here: materials for enhancing, duplicates for ascension, and the courtyard supplies only the first.
What is not published about the courtyard
The material drop rate is not published for any cave level. The quantity of Broken Scales required per enhancement level is not published. Which of the four cave levels drops which material is not published. Whether other named materials besides Broken Scales exist is unclear - the sources say pet materials in general and name only that one. And there is no enemy or boss list for this cave anywhere, which is consistent with the other two caves being described as resource trips rather than combat content. That is a lot of blanks for a cave whose purpose is completely clear, and it is why this page is about how to spend a ticket rather than how to optimise a farm.
Step-by-Step
- Spend a Cave Ticket here only when pet enhancing is your blocker. All three caves cost the same ticket, so a courtyard run is a decision not to farm runes or crystals today.
- Enter through the cave entrance and pick one of the four levels, exactly as with the other two caves. No source publishes which level yields which material tier.
- Collect pet enhancement materials, with Broken Scales the only one named in any source. Two independent databases confirm the courtyard as the pet material source.
- Take the materials to Ali at the pet stall by the Dragon's Grave entrance. Select the first dialogue option, Pet enhance and ascend, choose the pet, and use the Enhance tab.
- Spend on one pet rather than spreading. Pet enhancement has no failure chance at all - unlike blessing, which drops to 80% success at +4 - so every material you feed is progress that cannot be lost.
- Expect to run out of scales before you run out of levels. The official worked example takes an Icy Dragonet from level 1 to level 7 and ends with the Broken Scales exhausted, which is the clearest published signal of how the cost curve behaves.
Data Tables
| Cave | What it supplies | Which system it feeds |
|---|---|---|
| Abandoned Courtyard | Pet materials, including Broken Scales | Pet enhancing at Ali |
| Cave of Runes | Frost, Burn, Corrode and Methysis runes | Enchanting at Milo |
| Cave of Crystal | Crystals | Blessing at the stone statue |
All three cost one Cave Ticket, hold four cave levels and take up to four players. Source: community wiki Caves page, edited 26 June 2026, with the blessing link confirmed on the official Blessing page.
Tips & Notes
- Blessing materials and pet materials are both described as scales in places - the Grocery stocks a Whole Scale and Broken Scale entry - so check which system a guide is talking about before farming.
- Ali's stall is where three separate pet systems live, so one walk covers enhancing, ascension and sending expeditions out.
- Keep one usable pet at home if you send others on expeditions, because an expedition removes a pet from your active roster while it runs.
FAQ
What is the Abandoned Courtyard for?
Collecting the materials used to upgrade pets. It costs one Cave Ticket, has four levels and takes up to four players. The only material named in any source is Broken Scales, which the official pets page lists as the enhancement cost alongside Gold.
Can pet enhancement fail?
No. The official pets page states that pet enhancing works like equipment upgrading except that it has no failure chance, which makes courtyard materials the only limit on the system.
How many Broken Scales does a pet level cost?
Not published. The only quantitative signal available is the official example, where taking an Icy Dragonet from level 1 to level 7 consumed the player's entire stock of Broken Scales.
Sources
- Community Iron Soul Wiki (community) - Caves — The courtyard's purpose, one Cave Ticket entry, four levels and the four-player cap.
- Community Iron Soul Wiki (community) - Pets — Broken Scales as the named enhancement material, the no-failure rule, the Ali menu path and the level 1 to 7 worked example.
- Community Iron Soul Wiki (ironsoulwiki.com) - Maps database — Cave entrance as the entry point and pet enhancement materials as the drop, independently of the wiki.
- Community Iron Soul Dungeon (ironsouldungeon.com) - Abandoned Courtyard — Second independent confirmation of the pet material drop, with drop rates recorded as untested.