Taming

*Taming* was completely overhauled with Update 1.3 Watery Water. It is a mechanic that allows a player to ride most animals and collect Milk and Wool from some. The maximum number of tamed animals a player can have is 36. The maximum number of Companion bonded animals is 5.

## Basic Process

The steps to tame an animal are as follows:

1. Craft the correct bait.
2. Place the bait near the animal.
3. Wait for a thought bubble to appear above the animal's head.
4. Immediately approach the animal and pet it with empty hands to make it friendly.
5. Pet the animal a second time to fully tame it.

## Domestication Levels

There are three levels of domestication; Wild, Friendly, and Tamed, with tamed animals also able to be Companion Bonded.

**Wild**
Wild animals cannot be ridden and will generally flee or attack players.

**Friendly**
Friendly animals can be ridden but cannot be named or summoned.

**Tamed**
Tamed animals can be ridden and be named but cannot be summoned unless a companion bond is formed by ticking the check-box when naming/renaming the animal in the radial menu or at an animal pen.

**Companion**
Companion animals are tamed animals that can be easily summoned at any time and anywhere, allowing for quick relocation of animals between maps.

## Baits

The first step to *Taming* is to craft the correct bait, most animals have their own unique bait while others share a bait, for example, all Bears share a bait rather than there being a bait for each individual bear.

## Taming

Once the player has crafted the correct bait, they then should place the bait near the animal. A green circle will show the area of effect, then they must leave the immediate area to let the animal see the bait so that they do not get attacked or spook the animal away. The animal will then have a thought bubble appear above it's head, which resembles a food dish icon, when it is ready to be tamed. If the animal is not tamed fast enough it will eat the bait and then flee or attack again and the process will have to be repeated. If tamed fast enough, the player can pick up the bait before it gets eaten and reuse it.

Once the food dish icon is above the animal, the player can tame the animal either one of two ways:

* Pet the animal with no items in their hands by holding `Q` when given the prompt,
* OR equip a preferred food item to feed the animal. See Food Preferences of Tamed Animals for a list of what each animal will accept.

**IMPORTANT:** When petting the animal, make sure the hands are **empty** and that there isn't another item highlighted in the hotbar.

Each time an animal is pet or feed it will increase the bond between it and the player. An animal needs to be pet twice or fed between 2-4 times in order to fully tame it. Once fully tamed and the window comes up with the ability to name it, then the player can also choose to form a Companion Bond. Having this box ticked means the player can summon the animal anywhere at any time.

### Taming Mythical Animals

The procedure for taming Mythical Animals is mostly the same but requires a few extra steps.

First the player must find a Random Encounter of a Zoologist's Hut or Tent containing a Zoologist's Note which details the mythical animal, it's spawn requirements which can be certain environmental conditions such as weather (snow, rain etc) or time (day, night), and also adds a marker of the mythical animals spawn onto the player's map as well as unlocking the recipe for it's unique bait. If the map's Zoologist's Note gets lost or destroyed before the player get's to read it then they will have to find another note of the same animal on another map in order to learn the bait recipe. Alternatively, another player can also gift the scroll to allow them to learn the bait recipe.

The player must head to the location marked on their map and find the spawning area. They are usually lit up with quartz crystals and have the various food items that the animal likes scattered about on the ground. A pop-up message will appear to confirm you have found a site of interest. Screenshots of each spawn can be found on the individual mythical animals wiki page. Next, the correct bait must be placed near the mythical animals spawn during the correct weather event or time in order for the creature to spawn.

If placed when the requirements are not met then a *NOTHING HAPPENS...* pop-up message appears. If it is successful then a *SOMETHING IS APPROACHING...* pop-up message is displayed. At this point the player must leave the immediate area otherwise the mythical animal will be frightened away and the message *THE CREATURE WAS FRIGHTENED AWAY AND WILL LIKELY NOT RETURN FOR SOME TIME* appears. At least one day will have to pass in order for it to spawn in again, even if the conditions are correct.

Once the mythical animal has spawned in and has the food dish icon above them then there is a short window of time to move in and tame it by holding the *Q* button. It only needs to be tamed the once and it will then become available to be named and the option to bond with it which adds it to the Radial Menu for summoning companions.

## Summoning Companion Animals

Once tamed and a companion bond formed, animals can be summoned to the player using the Radial Menu by pressing Q and selecting the Summon Animals option in the bottom left. There are 8 slots available with 1-7 being available for tamed animals and the 8th slot reserved for an extra sub-menu which brings up the full list of tamed animals present on the current map. The maximum number of tamed animals allowed is 36. While there are 7 slots, the maximum number of companion animals is only 5.

In addition, the player can assign a fully tamed animal to an Animal Pen to bring it to a specific area. From here the player can also choose to unassign the animal again, rename it, set it free and form or break companion bonds. The Animal Pen also shows the Max Mounted Speed and Food Preferences of Tamed Animals. Milk and Wool can only be obtained from the player's own fully tamed (3 heart) animals. Injured animals can be healed by feeding them.

## Breeding

Both passive and aggressive terrain animals can breed naturally, including Mutated Animals, but there is currently no way to force breeding to happen faster. There are some conditions which have to be met for breeding to occur at all, these are:

* Two or more of the same species are present and,
* These animals are within 100m or roughly 265 blocks of each other.

It can take anywhere between 1-11 in-game days for breeding to occur. The domestication level of the animals does not affect breeding, so any two animals of the same species can breed regardless if one is wild or tamed. This is also the case for if the animals are assigned to an animal pen or not.

There is also a limit on the number of how many of one species can spawn in the breeding zone which is capped to 6, so if there are already 6 tamed or wild animals within this radius, no more will spawn in until one or more either leave the area or get killed. Animals which have multiple colour variants, such as sheep, will spawn in as a random colour from the available variants.

Page last updated 22 November 2023.

1. ↑  Many thanks to Vigilante360 for helping test this out and confirming it works.