Domesticated Giant Creatures

[Ceesie]

So my elf neighbors came to trade with me, and I decided to buy their whole stock for ♥♥♥♥♥ and giggles. Now I have three domesticated giant creatures I have NO idea what to do with:

*Giant Sloth: from what I can tell, it’s kind of useless for everything except companionship and meat. Y/N?

*Giant Moth: Okay yeah I can’t use this in battle really, but DOES THIS COUNT AS A FLYING MOUNT??? Because I started on an island and I could REALLY use a flying mount.

*Giant Bushmaster: Clearly my deadliest and scariest new acquisition. What would be the best way to use this buddy? Traps? Have it as a war mount? *Is it even safe to have out of its cage??*

And most importantly of all, DO YOU HAVE TO FEED ANY OF THEM? (I’m still new at the game, I’m still not completely sure how animals work here besides putting the grazing guys in the grass.)


Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Johan 2.0]

Outside of adventure mode, or rather within fortress mode you can't utilise mounts. Enemy combatants can though.

Giant Sloth: less valuable than an elephant. Definitely meat.
Giant Moth: Can't even train them for war and their only attacks are pushing attacks, which is basically like being nuzzled really damn hard. Think about real life, smaller moths just dinking into the lights and windows constantly but bigger.
Bush Master: Get more. Breed the jesus out of them. Unleash them on your enemies. Thats lethal venom right there. Very good danger value, I recommend. Indiana Jones won't visit your fortress.

[Soul4hdwn]

only animals that feed are herbivores and anything that goes through a training session (these don't need as they're domesticated)

also flying mounts are a thing only for invaders. flying pets stay grounded (98% of the time as far as i remember)

[The Trashman]

Originally posted by Ceesie:

So my elf neighbors came to trade with me, and I decided to buy their whole stock for ♥♥♥♥♥ and giggles. Now I have three domesticated giant creatures I have NO idea what to do with:

*Giant Sloth: from what I can tell, it’s kind of useless for everything except companionship and meat. Y/N?

*Giant Moth: Okay yeah I can’t use this in battle really, but DOES THIS COUNT AS A FLYING MOUNT??? Because I started on an island and I could REALLY use a flying mount.

*Giant Bushmaster: Clearly my deadliest and scariest new acquisition. What would be the best way to use this buddy? Traps? Have it as a war mount? *Is it even safe to have out of its cage??*

And most importantly of all, DO YOU HAVE TO FEED ANY OF THEM? (I’m still new at the game, I’m still not completely sure how animals work here besides putting the grazing guys in the grass.)


Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I just checked, doesn't look like any of these are grazers. The page below explains, but you need to keep animals that graze in a pen/pasture zone with grass or moss floors or they'll eventually starve, but your animals all look fine
https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Grazer

Any domesticated animal should be safe, and it generally shouldn't attack your people or aninals. Wild animals that you train will be marked as 'trained' rather than domesticated. Those trained animals can revert to a wild state, but domesticated ones won't.

Unfortunately, you can't use mounts in fort mode yet. In terms of what to do, giant animals tend to have more valuable meat, bones and leather, so butchering is an option. You could build a chain or rope near your entrance and tie some animals to it to act as guard creatures. Some animals can be trained for hunting or war, you can see in the units->pets and livestock screen if this is an option. From the same screen, you can also set whether the animal is available for adoption as a pet

[Ceesie]

Gosh dangit, no mounts for me, I guess. Can’t wait until adventure mode comes out (I know it’s far in the future, doesn’t mean I can’t be excited about it!)

Lots of good ideas here. In terms of breeding, do I require another giant animal of the same species and opposite gender, or would I be able to make do with a smaller counterpart?

[The Trashman]

Originally posted by Ceesie:

Gosh dangit, no mounts for me, I guess. Can’t wait until adventure mode comes out (I know it’s far in the future, doesn’t mean I can’t be excited about it!)

Lots of good ideas here. In terms of breeding, do I require another giant animal of the same species and opposite gender, or would I be able to make do with a smaller counterpart?

You need a breeding pair of the same species, so both giant... which really seems like it's the best option for everyone involved!

Then they just need physical access to each other, like being in the same pen. Bear in mind that not all animals will breed, a small percentage might be gay or asexual, so not every single male/female pair will breed. The vast majority will, but it's not 100% guaranteed

[Grimmrog_SIG]

Originally posted by Johan 2.0:

Outside of adventure mode, or rather within fortress mode you can't utilise mounts. Enemy combatants can though.

Giant Sloth: less valuable than an elephant. Definitely meat.
Giant Moth: Can't even train them for war and their only attacks are pushing attacks, which is basically like being nuzzled really damn hard. Think about real life, smaller moths just dinking into the lights and windows constantly but bigger.
Bush Master: Get more. Breed the jesus out of them. Unleash them on your enemies. Thats lethal venom right there. Very good danger value, I recommend. Indiana Jones won't visit your fortress.

a 1 tile bridge over a lavariver and moths that bump enemies into it. If that ain't a usecase.

[Ceesie]

Originally posted by The Trashman:

Originally posted by Ceesie:

Gosh dangit, no mounts for me, I guess. Can’t wait until adventure mode comes out (I know it’s far in the future, doesn’t mean I can’t be excited about it!)

Lots of good ideas here. In terms of breeding, do I require another giant animal of the same species and opposite gender, or would I be able to make do with a smaller counterpart?

You need a breeding pair of the same species, so both giant... which really seems like it's the best option for everyone involved!

Then they just need physical access to each other, like being in the same pen. Bear in mind that not all animals will breed, a small percentage might be gay or asexual, so not every single male/female pair will breed. The vast majority will, but it's not 100% guaranteed

Gotcha, that makes sense. Well, looks like I’ll have to keep being friends with my new elven neighbors for now, see if they don’t come with more giant new friends. Thanks!

[Ceesie]

Originally posted by Grimmrog_SIG:

a 1 tile bridge over a lavariver and moths that bump enemies into it. If that ain't a usecase.

Oooh, noted. Looks like Mothra may have a good battle use yet. Thanks!

[The Trashman]

Originally posted by Ceesie:

Originally posted by The Trashman:

You need a breeding pair of the same species, so both giant... which really seems like it's the best option for everyone involved!

Then they just need physical access to each other, like being in the same pen. Bear in mind that not all animals will breed, a small percentage might be gay or asexual, so not every single male/female pair will breed. The vast majority will, but it's not 100% guaranteed

Gotcha, that makes sense. Well, looks like I’ll have to keep being friends with my new elven neighbors for now, see if they don’t come with more giant new friends. Thanks!

No worries

You can also catch wild creatures in cage traps and train them, if you happen to be in a biome with giant creatures.