horse vs. donkey

[MiguelCairo]

pros and cons?

[Andrew123]

Pro horse
better fighters
faster movement in caravan (40tiles/day empty)

Cons horse
high nutrition required (which is problematic during winter and toxic fallout)
high wildness ( so more labour by a tamer to keep them trained)
taming revenge
high filth rate

Pro donkeys
low wildness
faster movement in caravan (35tiles/day empty)
low nutrition required

Cons donkeys
high filth rate
taming revenge


Pro huskys
low wildness
can eat corpses
no filth
snooze colonists which increases their mood

Cons huskys
cant eat gras
cant carry in caravans


Pro Pigs
omnivours (can eat everything)
low wildness
high reproduction rate

Cons Pigs
high filth rate
no caravan

[flu007]

Horses eat slightly more than donkeys. (1.36 vs. 1.2)
Horses are a little faster than donkeys. (5.80 vs. 5.30)
Horses have somewhat higher taming/training requirements. (Handling skill 4 vs. 0 / Wildness 50% vs. 3%)

The one putting horses clearly ahead: They can carry more than donkeys. (70kg vs. 52.5 kg.)

The one pulling donkeys alongside again: donkeys are cute!

[Markus Reese]

The decider for me was horses have advanced training capabilities, meaning hauling and rescue. Big perks for such a quick animal. In my new colony, will be selling off the huskies if I can get me a stallion. Dont need the fast breeding and can get more mares.

[esculapio]

Originally posted by twistedmelon:

The decider for me was horses have advanced training capabilities, meaning hauling and rescue. Big perks for such a quick animal. In my new colony, will be selling off the huskies if I can get me a stallion. Dont need the fast breeding and can get more mares.

Keep de huskies for hauling into your base with no filth.

[76561198356019466]

I own donkeys IRL, so donkeys.

[gussmed]

Huskies are THE in-colony haulers, due to lack of filth. Horses, donkeys, and huskies all can take “advanced” training. The main drawback is that they need to eat colonist food, unlike the equines. But if that gets out of hand they can always be slaughtered.

In practice, I haven’t really found “horses vs. donkeys” to be the choice. Rather, it’s “whatever I can get.” I’ll prioritize horses over donkeys if they’re both on the map, but usually it’s one or the other, not both.

The improved hauling capacity of horses only matters in caravans, but it’s nice there. The improved speed often doesn’t matter so much, since often it’s something else limiting my caravan speed. The exception being when I’m raiding, since I usually only take 3-4 horses in that case.

[MiguelCairo]

Thank you for all the replies. Donkeys can haul too. Looking at the stats, horses a have around 2 dps and donkeys at 2.5... and also donkeys have 16% melee armor penetration as opposed to horses' 10%... that would make donkeys better in fights, right? Or am I missing something?

[gussmed]

I'd bet long odds horses are more resilient in combat. There are no stats for HP, since rimworld combat doesn't work that way, but bigger creatures definitely take more punishment than smaller ones.

[Cormac]

Originally posted by flu007:

Horses eat slightly more than donkeys. (1.36 vs. 1.2)
Horses are a little faster than donkeys. (5.80 vs. 5.30)
Horses have somewhat higher taming/training requirements. (Handling skill 4 vs. 0 / Wildness 50% vs. 3%)

The one putting horses clearly ahead: They can carry more than donkeys. (70kg vs. 52.5 kg.)

The one pulling donkeys alongside again: donkeys are cute!

that are the most important points.
neither donkeys nor horses are good fighter, they are to big to relyable get close to the enemy and to weak to take much of a beating. (can you even release them?)

the main reason to have either of them are as caravan animals.
the nutrition requierment can be ignored, if you want to have a decent amount of caravan animals, you'll most likly have a large enough hayfield anyway (and if it is so small that you fear problems during winter/toxic fallout, you should expand the farm or slaughter 2-3 animals during those outbreaks, you'll want more than a few anyway for your caravans)

horses are somewhat faster and carry more, that is the biggest advantage of them (and in many colonies, this will be the main reason to use them instead of donkeys), faster caravans means less time on the road, your pawns will be back in your "safe" conony faster and you lose them for less amount of time as a defender/worker.
the difference is small, but it is there.

the only advantage of donkeys is their very very low wilderniss, and as far as i remember, a wilderness below 10% means they will never lose their training.
this may be an disadvantage if you want to train your animal handler, but if you want him to have as much time doing other things (farming, cooking, cleaning), donkeys will save him some time. once tamed, they stay tamed, unlike horses who might go back into the wild if you stop training them.

[TalonJade♔]

I named my Donkey Sherk

[MiguelCairo]

Originally posted by TalonJade♔:

I named my Donkey Sherk

LOL 1 year later

[F33$H]

Yes

[ambi]

horses if your colony is rich

donkeys if your colony is ghetto