The machine in The Dark Cupboard
The Critter Cleaver is a feature in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, added in Patch 4.0, alongside The Forgotten Sanctum. It adds a peculiar machine to The Dark Cupboard in Periki's Overlook, Neketaka, which gives you the ability to create new and exciting pets with your existing ones.
Background
After installing The Forgotten Sanctum, you will receive a missive from a fellow pet collector, describing a newfound solution to the problem of having too many pets, and not enough affection to go around.
The machine itself is of Engwithan origin. Having recently been yanked from an Engwithan dig site, it has been restored to working order.
How it works
Critter Cleaver interface
Interacting with the machine gives you the option to sacrifice your pets. When a pet is - rather gruesomely - sacrificed, the machine "remembers" its appearance and bonuses, allowing you to create a new pet by combining stats of one and the appearance of another, in addition to naming it. Once a pet is sacrificed, the machine remembers it permanently, so you can create as many copies of it as you like, given you have the coin. Creating a pet with no bonuses costs 
1,000, while adding bonuses will cost 2,000.
Steps
- Drag a pet into the grinder on the right, to get a preview of it's look and bonuses.
- Click "Sacrifice Pet" at the bottom, and the machine will work its magic.
- Now, your pet appears in the "Creature Assembly" panel, accessed by clicking the bottom tab on the left.
- In this panel you can see the pets that have been fed into the machine. There are two sockets to the right, one for pet to be used as a "Pet Sleeve" - defining the pets appearance, and one to be used as a pet for bonuses.
- To create a new pet, you can drag any two pets from the left panel into these sockets and click "Create Pet".
Your newly-created furry friend will have a value of 0, and the following description:
Your pet has changed. While they still follow in your step with an air of loyalty and cheer, something about their sharp, jerking movements seems unusual. Unnatural. Maybe they're still groggy from the recent 'adjustments' to their form. Or maybe they've just seen too much.
Gallery
The cleaver in action
