Donkey

Donkeys are tameable herbivores with a medium movement speed. A Donkey will increase the carrying capacity of any caravan it's part of by 52.5 kg. Donkeys are the second-fastest pack animal, outpaced only by horses. They are the only pack animal with a very low wildness rating, never having their tameness decay.

Obtaining

Donkeys can be found in Arid Shrubland, Temperate Forest and Tropical Rainforest. They can either be tamed by a handler or self-tame in a random event.

Donkeys can be bought and sold in other faction bases and from bulk goods traders. Donkeys purchased from traders will be already tamed.

Analysis

Due to the high chance of successful taming and training plus lack of training decay, Donkeys make an extraordinary unit for most beginning colonies while still managing to stay relevant at all points in the game. Combined with the ability to graze in warmer and non-desert biomes this makes them an extraordinarily low-cost hauling unit around the colony. As a pack animal their high speed and respectable capacity means they will accelerate all but the fastest and most-tuned caravans. Although not an animal that specializes in combat, Donkeys can be trained to guard and attack, and have enough health that they may survive a fight that is lost if they are tended after.

Compared to the Horse, generally the Donkey is better for early colonies while the Horse is better for advanced colonies. In combat, the Donkey has higher damage but less health. As a hauling unit, Donkeys have lower speed (5.30 vs 5.80) and lower carrying capacity (113 vs 150 respectively, though carrying capacities above 75 are both high and used infrequently). However the Donkey's accessible training and lack of decay will save a colony lacking a high-skilled trainer a good amount of time and food required for training. As well, Horses eat more daily, which is a concern in winter and dry biomes, though in a winter caravan, the Horse's increased carrying capacity as well as speed more than sufficiently compensates for this.

As with all herbivore animals, it is recommended to zone them outside of crops you don't want them to eat.

Training

This animal can be trained as follows:

Guard:
Attack:
Rescue:
Haul:

*As of version 1.1.2610, all animals can be tamed. The percentage of likelihood of success depends on factors such as the Animals Wildness Percentage, Pawn Handling Skill, and others. More information can be found on the animals page.

Health

Body part	Health
Head	36
Skull	36
Brain	15
Nose	15
Neck	36
Jaw	29
Eye ^[1] (left, right)	15
Ear (left, right)	15
Body	58
Kidney^[2] (left, right)	22
Lung^[2] (left, right)	22
Liver^[2]	29
Heart^[2]	22
Spine^[2]	36
Stomach^[2]	29
Limbs (left, right, fore, hind)	44
Appendage (left, right, fore, hind)	29

↑ Located inside of Head.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 ^2.4 ^2.5 Located inside of Body.

Version history

1.1.0 - Added as part of the integration of the Vanilla Animals Expanded - Livestock mod into the basegame.
1.1.2559 - Decrease minimum comfortable temperature
1.2 - carrying capacity (in a caravan) reduced from 70kg to 52.5kg.

Animals