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TL;DR Beefalo Taming Tips/Guide
By Pastah
A guide and tips on how to tame beefalo.
   
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Created by
Pastah
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Category: Gameplay Basics
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
Dec 2, 2023 @ 9:26am
Mar 25 @ 9:11am
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14 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
Introduction 
Tips 
Good Video Guides 
Recommended Mods 
Comments
Introduction
I wrote this mainly as notes for myself because I keep forgetting these things when I come back to the game.

Use the DST wiki with this guide if things are unclear.
https://dontstarve.wiki.gg/wiki/Beefalo/DST

Feel free to comment more tips to add to this guide.
Tips
    Preface
  • If you are constantly taming/domesticating a beefalo it should take ~20 days to tame.
  • You can tame beefalo by either just riding it (hungry beefalo) or satisfying its hunger without riding it.
  • Fully domesticated tamed beefalo will not shake off their saddles, even with domestication % loss from not feeding & riding.
  • Beefalo riding time increases based on domestication %.
    • 99% domestication (untamed/undomesticated) = 4 min
    • Fully Domesticated at 100% = 13 min 20s
  • Beefalo will lose 0.1276% domestication a day and gradually more for every consecutive day without domestication gain, maxing out at 10 days with 2.5% a day.
    • If a domesticated/tamed beefalo loses domestication % it will not become undomesticated unless it hits 0%. It takes over a season of constant neglect for this to happen.
    • Max riding time will be less on domesticated beefalo with 90% domestication vs 100%.
  • Beefalo have obedience that determines whether you can mount it or not.
    • ANY FOOD/ITEM that you feed it will give it 10% obedience, e.g. lightbulbs, twigs, steamed twigs, dragonfruit pie.
    • Saddles will be shaken off when obedience < 40%
    • Beefalo cannot be mounted when obedience < 50%
  • Beefalo have variants/tendencies: https://dontstarve.fandom.com/wiki/Beefalo#Tendencies
    • (50 damage, 7 speed) Ornery = best; basically an infinite tentacle spike weapon.
      • However, you have to feed Ornery once before mounting it.
      • If you plan to fight on foot (you're Wolfgang) then aim for Rider variant beefalo.
    • (25 damage, 8 speed) Rider = fastest
    • (34 damage, 7 speed) Default = average stats
    • (20 damage, 6.5 speed) Pudgy = slowest & weakest BUT gives +6.25/min sanity aura

    Advice
  • It's suggested to have the beefalo follow you for 1-3 days where you feed it. Less annoying to deal with fast bucking off. You can gather twigs & dig saplings during this.
  • I would shovel 40 saplings for base, then you have easy twig farm for beefalo every 4 days.
  • Even better to dig up spiky bushes from deserts as they grow in winter & summer.
    • Your beefalo makes it easy tanking the spiky bush damage when picking them. This helps give it ornery variation.
    • Can grow during summer without requiring a flingo-matic as they are immune to withering. They can still smolder and catch on fire due to wildfires.

    Main Tips & Hacks for not shaking off Saddle
  • You can feed the beefalo while mounted!
    • When you feed the beefalo it resets the bucking off player timer. Thus you don't need to get off it to reset bucking timer and feed the beefalo for obedience.
  • Spamming mount on a beefalo where it refuses you to mount stops it from shaking off the saddle where it damages it. Just be quick feeding it after its refusal animation stops.
    • If beefalo knocks you off, spam mount on beefalo to stop saddle from being shaken off.
  • Feed beefalo 5 things if it refuses you to mount, or 10 if you have not fed it any items at all for entire day.
    • If you're feeding it no hunger items like light bulbs or petals, feed its hunger once too like a twig, grass, or whatever. I.e. 4 bulbs + 1 twig, having hunger satisfied will decrease obedience decrease rate.
  • Lightbulbs are an easy obedience food, but gives 0 hunger. You can farm them in caves' wilds where there are 3 lightbulbs per plant.
  • If you get off beefalo manually:
    • You can spam mount back on the beefalo to check if the beefalo is low on obedience.
    • Feed 3-4 things to beefalo when you need to do stuff off beefalo for a short time, e.g. shoveling, chests, cooking, etc.

    Combat
  • Beefalo getting hit will decrease obedience "by a tiny amount". Careful in combat where you're fighting mounted, taking damage, then need to unmount. Expect to not mount afterwards.
  • If you're planning for combat or a long journey where combat might happen, better safe than sorry and feeding 10 hunger items such as twigs.
  • Beefalo aren't that tanky, they're equivalent to a thelucite crown. Yes they regenerate health slowly, check wiki for more info.
    • Therefore it's recommended to kite & attack instead of tanking.
  • You can tell if the beefalo is low on health (<1/4 HP) if the edges of your screen are red and if your character comments that the beefalo is going to die, e.g. "this creature is not long for this world" or something like that.

    Food

  • Wilson is good for taming beefalo
    for his transmutation skill that lets you craft 1 log > 2 twigs.
  • You can cook Steamed Twigs in crockpot. It gives 100 hunger to beefalo, compared to 4 twigs of 37.5 hunger (1 twig = 9.375 hunger), meaning you get 2.6x more hunger value for same # of twigs.
    • Recipe: 4 twigs || 3 twigs + 1 ice || 1 twig + 3 ice || etc
    • Beefalo consume 300 hunger a day, so feed 3 steamed twigs for a day's worth of hunger.
    • Beefalo have 375 hunger max, don't overfeed as it can decrease domestication.

    Gear

  • Beefalo Grooming Station is SUPER useful for parking/hitching your beefalo, it will not follow you. You can keep the beefalo bell on you and leave your beefalo at base.
    • It will STILL LOSE OBEDIENCE and shake off its saddle when hitched.
    • Dressing up your beefalo will also stop players from mistaking your beefalo as a wild one, and hopefully stop them from attacking it.
    • If you have bell and go into caves your beefalo will teleport with you, even if it's hitched.
  • Salt lick stops domestication loss, very good when you don't want to feed beefalo for a long time. Set it up next to grooming station.
    • It will STILL LOSE OBEDIENCE and shake off its saddle when licking.
  • Saddlehorn is useful to have if you want to play dismounted for a long time and don't want to feed beefalo. It removes the saddle preventing saddle durability loss when shaken off.
  • All 3 of the above are very useful when you're in middle of taming and don't want to lose domestication. I.e.
    1. Setup Grooming Station + Salt Lick next to each other
    2. Use Saddlehorn on beefalo to remove its saddle.
    3. Hitch your beefalo to the grooming station
    4. Go do stuff that you need to do on foot.

    Miscellaneous
  • Beefalo getting hit by you or a "friendly" player will decrease domestication.
  • If beefalo is in heat/rutting, go to caves then back to remove it.
  • To quickly mount after feeding: Examining (right click) the beefalo will put item/food back into inventory then you can mount (right click) right after
Good Video Guides
Recommended Mods
5 Comments
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Pastah  [author] Mar 24 @ 1:05pm 
Added a modification for a mod and the undomestication.

> "Each tendency has base obedience level, and ornery one requires constant feeding, including midfight, won't even let you ride it until you feed it."
It won't buck you off AFAIK, so yes you just need to feed it a bit before you get on it. Just don't get off it.
avil Mar 6 @ 5:03pm 
Hey, your tl;dr is rather good, but one thing is missing: you say that ornery beefalo is the best, but it's also the highest maintenance. Each tendency has base obedience level, and ornery one requires constant feeding, including midfight, won't even let you ride it until you feed it. While most obedient riding one will always stay at 95 pretty much ignoring any inconveniences. So if you don't want any pain in the ass you also should pick riding tendency. Though I still agree that ornery one is the best for most characters.
zandberg Jan 5 @ 1:23am 
Small error, this is incorrect: "If a domesticated/tamed beefalo loses domestication % it will not become undomesticated."
Tamed beefalo *are* able to become undomesticated again if their domestication hits 0%, just that it takes over a season of constant neglect for this to happen.

Otherwise pretty okay guide, I do prefer text guides over video format (I don't wanna listen to you talk! Xd)
OmarTheInsomniac Apr 18, 2024 @ 10:23am 
The Beefalo Widget mod you have listed in your guide is outdated as it was not updated to reflect wigfrid's Beefalo skills and does portray information such as ride time accurately when playing as her. I recommend you use these ones instead as they have been updated to reflect wigfrid's new skills.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2158755579

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2477889104
KODLIX_user1 Dec 4, 2023 @ 5:37pm 
tl:dr