when is taming creatures useful?

[battledroll]

I thought I'd try taming for the first time on a new game and it'd be a shortcut to upgrading the bench and bow to level 3 but it can't contribute to that at all. You wouldn't need much skin by the time you have the butcher knife and have spent 30 min (wow) hanging around the boars. The wolves can fight but you could use that time investment to defeat Modurr instead. Seems like animal taming is just a side quest unrelated to the game...?

[adritheonly]

Early game, in particular, having tame boars on hand for meat and skin leave you free to do other things. Same principle as growing veg instead of hunting for them. Tamed wolves make great base protection, better than spikes IMHO. Tamed lox is great to ride into battle and for base protection and to harvest other creatures like squitos/hares/black metal.

[blackphoenixx]

You need boar meat up to swamps at least and leather scraps possible up to mistlands (for ooze bombs), so taming boars saves you a lot of time running around the meadows when you're long past that biome.

Wolves are a little more iffy - you probably get all the wolf meat and pelts you need just FINDING a 2-star wolf and their drops are basically useless post-mountain.
On the other hand they have some decent combat power so they can be useful for base defense.

Loxes - same as wolves pretty much, you don't really tame them for the drops but for the big chunky meatwall that kills your enemies for you. Also they can be used as a cart replacement since you can ride them even when encumbered.

Asksvin are more of a mix of the earlier tames. You're gonna need a whole lot of asksvin hide and meat for ashlands armor and food, so taming a bunch makes those easier to farm. And they have some decent combat power and can be ridden too - even over lava, which is great for corpseruns and ashlands exploration.

Also once you find the bog witch you can brew up some animal whisper mead to halve the taming time.

[Calico-Jack]

Originally posted by adritheonly:

Early game, in particular, having tame boars on hand for meat and skin leave you free to do other things. Same principle as growing veg instead of hunting for them. Tamed wolves make great base protection, better than spikes IMHO. Tamed lox is great to ride into battle and for base protection and to harvest other creatures like squitos/hares/black metal.

tbh Every time I've looked into animal taming it hasn't been rewarding.

The time involved is just not worth it for what you get back. Boar drops from hunting require less time than farming, same with chickens - if it's for feathers, you're quicker hunting along a shoreline. If it's for eggs there are better foods. Tame Lox get targeted by deathsquitoes and Lox health regen is too slow to make them useful as battle mounts unless you go for a one use.

That said maybe I'm missing something cruicial.

One tip I will share is :
Naming a tamed animal will guarantee it gets targeted by npcs.

[L♥DK]

Originally posted by battledroll:

Seems like animal taming is just a side quest unrelated to the game...?

It is, but it just makes things easier. Especially starred askvins, traversing ashlands gives you a better pace.

[OctoberSky]

Try askvins in your next Fader encounter. Worth it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3324933453

[Sinclair]

Originally posted by Calico-Jack:

Originally posted by adritheonly:

Early game, in particular, having tame boars on hand for meat and skin leave you free to do other things. Same principle as growing veg instead of hunting for them. Tamed wolves make great base protection, better than spikes IMHO. Tamed lox is great to ride into battle and for base protection and to harvest other creatures like squitos/hares/black metal.

tbh Every time I've looked into animal taming it hasn't been rewarding.

The time involved is just not worth it for what you get back. Boar drops from hunting require less time than farming, same with chickens - if it's for feathers, you're quicker hunting along a shoreline. If it's for eggs there are better foods. Tame Lox get targeted by deathsquitoes and Lox health regen is too slow to make them useful as battle mounts unless you go for a one use.

That said maybe I'm missing something cruicial.

One tip I will share is :
Naming a tamed animal will guarantee it gets targeted by npcs.

Work involved is minimal really. For boars you simply make a barn, then allow the boars to chase you inside. Drop some fruits next to them and leave. If the barn is part of your regular base, the boars will tame themselves pretty much automatically.

For wolves, just dig a pit, lure some animals into it, and build a roof over it. You can feed them deer meat, which you should have tons of by that point.

Chickens you can literally buy from the trader and feed all your surplus seeds to.

I haven't tamed lox yet, though I've build an enclosure for them: literally a pit going as deep as possible, with a roof over it out of flooring.

[MacKaris]

Yeah it's quite pointless, a bit like fishing. You can do it if you find it fun but practical it certainly isn't. Taming animals (and I'm talking about the pigs here) takes absolute ages, and you'd need a massive number of them if you wanted to really benefit from slaughtering them. Much more time-efficient simply to go hunt some if you need the leather or the meat.

I tried taming some of those mammoths as well, never succeeded. I guess you'd need to build a solid stone or black marble holding cell first where you lure the mammoth in and then spend the next 4 days of real life time throwing food to it? It just makes no sense.

[Dragon]

I just tame creatures for the fun of it. Like fishing, it may not be productive but I find it to be a fun pastime.

I once tried to tame a lox by kiting it into my base and trapping it in an enclosure. Big mistake. The lox eventually got away from the pile of rubble that used to be my base...

Talking of tamed animals, is there a way to transport them now? Back then I tried transporting them via longship but this didn't work (unless you move very slowly), haven't tried again in newer versions.

Taming mounts could be useful, but not really if they are stuck on the landmass where you tamed them.

[adritheonly]

Originally posted by Calico-Jack:

tbh Every time I've looked into animal taming it hasn't been rewarding.

The time involved is just not worth it for what you get back. Boar drops from hunting require less time than farming, same with chickens - if it's for feathers, you're quicker hunting along a shoreline. If it's for eggs there are better foods. Tame Lox get targeted by deathsquitoes and Lox health regen is too slow to make them useful as battle mounts unless you go for a one use.

That said maybe I'm missing something cruicial.

One tip I will share is :
Naming a tamed animal will guarantee it gets targeted by npcs.

If the half hour it takes to tame is too much effort and you enjoy the repeated effort to hunt, that's why there is a choice. My tame lox seldom died from squito bites, but then, I fed them when their health got low and honestly, it is convenient for them to be stomping the squitos and fulings while I'm planting or harvesting barley, but, hey, whatever floats your boat. That's why there are options. You can seriously go through the game without ever taming anything.

[adritheonly]

Originally posted by Sinclair:

I haven't tamed lox yet, though I've build an enclosure for them: literally a pit going as deep as possible, with a roof over it out of flooring.

Taming lox is not that difficult. When I spot potentials I raise a stone platform and aggro them to the platform, throw down enough food below, hunker down and admire the view for 30min whilst they'r taming. Usually use this time to plan my next moves.

[pipo.p]

Originally posted by MacKaris:

you lure the mammoth in and then spend the next 4 days of real life time throwing food to it?

A bit exaggerated, isn't it?

[MacKaris]

Originally posted by pipo.p:

Originally posted by MacKaris:

you lure the mammoth in and then spend the next 4 days of real life time throwing food to it?

A bit exaggerated, isn't it?

No. I've had the mammoth contained in a wooden enclosure (which I have to keep repairing everytime I visit the place) for about 3 MONTHS now, I keep trying to feed it but it's still not tame.

[adritheonly]

Originally posted by MacKaris:

Originally posted by pipo.p:

A bit exaggerated, isn't it?

No. I've had the mammoth contained in a wooden enclosure (which I have to keep repairing everytime I visit the place) for about 3 MONTHS now, I keep trying to feed it but it's still not tame.

Yes, when you don't really understand the game mechanics, things can be tough. Enclosing lox in wood is ehm... not advised. Think trying to restrain a tiger with tissues. You have to be close to them for the taming to continue, it will stop and regress whenever you leave. A halfhearted attempt at anything is not really an attempt at all.

[Lord451]

Originally posted by Dragon:

I just tame creatures for the fun of it. Like fishing, it may not be productive but I find it to be a fun pastime.

That's 80 percent of why I tame. Having a pig farm to feed my wolf farm is aesthetically appealing, and going into battle with a half dozen wolves is just cool. That's most of it.

[Calico-Jack]

Originally posted by Calico-Jack:

The time involved is just not worth it for what you get back.

Originally posted by Sinclair:

Work involved is minimal really.

The time I'm talking about is the time needed where you have to be near them (a) to tame and (b) have them breed.
Due to how easily they die you need several breeding pairs.

I've tamed up to Lox fwiw.