any way to train a zero level animal handler?

[Nonbinary]

when i read the wikis it says alpacas need 0 skill to tame, but its misleading. i have a bunch of alpacas in this world, but when i click to tame them it says minimum skill is 1, so there is no way to train a lvl 0 pawn?

[For_Science!]

Have them train (and/or milk, shear, etc.) an already-tame animal. You may need to buy a dog or something from a trader to get them started.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Head to the wiki, to this page specifically: https://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/List_of_animals

You can sort that list by handling skill. If you use the animals (you may need to buy some of those), there are plenty that require zero handling skill.

[Nonbinary]

Originally posted by BlackSmokeDMax:

Head to the wiki, to this page specifically: https://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/List_of_animals

You can sort that list by handling skill. If you use the animals (you may need to buy some of those), there are plenty that require zero handling skill.

some of those in the zero handling skill, including alpaca, i have not been able to tame because the requirements were actually higher

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Originally posted by vilju norkedof (performer):

Originally posted by BlackSmokeDMax:

Head to the wiki, to this page specifically: https://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/List_of_animals

You can sort that list by handling skill. If you use the animals (you may need to buy some of those), there are plenty that require zero handling skill.

some of those in the zero handling skill, including alpaca, i have not been able to tame because the requirements were actually higher

Likely the wiki is just not up to date :(

[Nonbinary]

Originally posted by For_Science!:

Have them train (and/or milk, shear, etc.) an already-tame animal. You may need to buy a dog or something from a trader to get them started.

i think the requirements are also the same for all the other handling options, for example one of my pawns with a higher skill tamed a rat requiring level 4, when that pawn died and i tried to retrain the rat with my zero skill pawn, it still required 4. it was still tame though

above: yes i think thats whats wrong. for example it also lists the rat as requiring only 3, so its like all the animals are in reality 1 skill higher than it states, meaning none of them can be tamed, trained or handled in other ways at zero skill

[bulbatrs]

the easiest way is to buy animal neutroliser, they are like 1k silver and not that rare.

[The Last Helldiver™]

Originally posted by bulbatrs:

the easiest way is to buy animal neutroliser, they are like 1k silver and not that rare.

Easiest way without relying on RNG is shooting animals, then patching them up. Rinse, repeat. Trains medical a bit too.

[Burki from Turki]

Donkeys can be tamed with 0 animals.

Also a cool trick; medicine is a way to tame animals :-). Take my word for it, doctors can make bond with wild animals while healing them after rescuing. When a wild animal makes a bond with a colonist, the animal will join your colony.

[Cannenses]

Yes, buying dogs will usually be best way to work this one. But handler with zero skillset is way too low for useful handling work. They take a long time to shear for instance. If you have no one else, that skillset should be your next capture target. On neurotrainers, unless this pawn have at least a single flame, it is almost certainly wasted because they do not progress (much) even with a boost.

[Nonbinary]

Originally posted by Burrrkey:

Donkeys can be tamed with 0 animals.

Also a cool trick; medicine is a way to tame animals :-). Take my word for it, doctors can make bond with wild animals while healing them after rescuing. When a wild animal makes a bond with a colonist, the animal will join your colony.

oh that sounds cool, will try that

im mostly struggling with the 0 animal skill because i like to keep animals around in a setting with only 1 pawn, as meatshields during unexpected attacks basically. its not so much for breeding or for their products. i had one rat safe me from a mad alpaca attack, i generally have a very good experience with pets as guardians

[Cannenses]

Meatshields? I did that in earlier playthrough. Get some chickens (buy them). They breed fast and you'll get tons of potential fried chickens, with meatshield to boot. Handling, if I remember correctly, did not come into consideration because they breed so quickly. Very good meatshields.

[Razor 2.3]

Note that bonding won't help with the training requirements, and the bonded pawn will mourn the death of the meatshield.

To get the animals skill past 0, you need to focus on animals at or below 23% wildness. That limits you to:

Chicken
Pig
Cow
Duck
Goat
Sheep
Yak
Donkey
YorkshireTerrier
Husky
LabradorRetriever
Cat

That's a house cat, not a big cat.

[Nonbinary]

Originally posted by Razor 2.3:

Note that bonding won't help with the training requirements, and the bonded pawn will mourn the death of the meatshield.

To get the animals skill past 0, you need to focus on animals at or below 23% wildness. That limits you to:

Chicken
Pig
Cow
Duck
Goat
Sheep
Yak
Donkey
YorkshireTerrier
Husky
LabradorRetriever
Cat

That's a house cat, not a big cat.

a lot of these seems to be from the new version of the game, 1.1 is the newest right? i have only played a few hours since the update, so i was not aware of the change, i will make sure to look into these new species for training needs

[Nonbinary]

Originally posted by cannenses:

Meatshields? I did that in earlier playthrough. Get some chickens (buy them). They breed fast and you'll get tons of potential fried chickens, with meatshield to boot. Handling, if I remember correctly, did not come into consideration because they breed so quickly. Very good meatshields.

oh ya i can see the deaths become a problem in that sense, however i like to think of them as meatshields in the way they should distract while my pawn(s) attack from afar, so if hits are lucky the pet will stay alive. or it will just get immobilized while my pawn hopefully gets the last hit on the attacker. anything to draw out the fight in my favor

[Burki from Turki]

Originally posted by Razor 2.3:

Note that bonding won't help with the training requirements, and the bonded pawn will mourn the death of the meatshield.

Not the case if your bond animals can mate as heck