Animals
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Wild animals occasionally spawn on the map according to the biome and from random events. These wild animals and tamed animals will wander and graze on vegetation, including player-grown plants, regardless of type. Growing food outdoors can sometimes attract animals to your base perimeter. Animals are an important source of food by the meat they provide once hunted and butchered.
Raiders will target tamed animals as often as colonists.
As of version 0.14.1234 (15 July 2016) animal trainers receive 90 xp per training attempt, which is increased from 60 in Alpha 13. Taming an animal also grants 90 xp per attempt, which previously did not occur. When animals nuzzle a colonist, it counts as a social interaction and is logged in the social tab of both the colonist and animal.
As of version 0.17.1546 (23 May 2017) animals will flee when harmed.
Animals Tab
The Animals tab is in the menu bar at the bottom of the screen. The default hotkey is F4.
- The Animals tab lists all the colony animals. Clicking an animal name will center the map to that animal.
- A button lists the animal's master, if it has one. Click the button to assign a new master.
- Allowed areas are also listed here including Unrestricted, Home area, and animal areas. Each animal stays in its assigned area unless its master is drafted.
- The [Manage areas...] button at the top of the tab opens a window to edit allowed areas.
As of version 0.14.1234 (15 July 2016) several features have been added to the Animals tab:
- Gender and life stage informational columns
- A "Slaughter" checkbox column to allow easy slaughtering of multiple tamed animals at once
- Checkbox columns for each trainable skill to allow easy training of many animals
Appearance
Most animals appear to have no limbs, just as colonists do.
Male and female animals may have different appearances.
Behavior
Animals will wander the area when they have nothing else to do, e.g. eating or hunting.
When wandering, animals of the same species tend to stay together.
While walking on constructed floors they can leave animal filth. The rate of producing filth is proportional to body size and wildness.
Occasionally tamed males will approach a tamed female of the same species to initiate mating. More than 1 male can mate with the same female at once.
Aggression
Sometimes a single animal may go mad, or every animal of the same species be driven mad by a psychic wave, and attack any humans not behind closed doors. If injured by a colonist, certain species of animals will become maddened into a manhunter state and will relentlessly seek out humans to attack. Unless otherwise neutralized, a maddened animal will eventually return to a normal mood. As of version 0.14.1234 (15 July 2016) animals in manhunter state will attack doors if colonists try to go in and out of them.
Breeding
Animals are born by live birth or by hatching from a fertilized egg.
Live Birth
Female animals that give live birth become pregnant when a male animal approaches them and mates. Only tamed animals may breed. An animal's gestation period specifies how long a female's pregnancy will last.
A pregnant animal suffering malnutrition or is injured may miscarry. Miscarriages are noted by an in-game message.
Live births produce amniotic fluid (see Filth).
Some animals will give birth to multiple young. The probability of this is determined by a curve, and is different for each animal.
As of version 0.14.1234 (15 July 2016) animals will no longer engage in incest and breed with members of their own family.
| Early stage (hidden) | : Starts at 0%. This stage is not displayed but may be surmised by the vomiting it causes. |
|---|---|
| Middle stage | : Starts at 33%. At this stage Moving is reduced by 15%. |
| Late stage | : Starts at 66%. At this stage Moving is reduced by 30% and may include vomiting. |
| Full term | : At 100%. At this point the female will give birth. Some species may have multiple offspring in a litter. |
Eggs
Egg-laying animals include Cassowary, Chicken, Cobra, Duck, Emu, Goose, Iguana, Ostrich, Tortoise, Turkey. Females become fertilized after mating with males, causing them to lay fertilized eggs. Most animals will not lay unfertilized eggs, with the exception of chickens.
Fertilized eggs display their progress on the inspect pane and hatch when ready.
Fertilized eggs can be ruined by temperature if not kept within their safe temperature range of 1 °C (33.8 °F) to 49 °C (120.2 °F).
- Eggs may start to overheat at/above 50 °C (122 °F).
- Eggs may start to freeze at/below 0 °C (32 °F).
The inspect pane will indicate 'Overheating' or 'Freezing' followed by a percentage rising up to 100%. This status is halted when safe temperate is restored, but it is not reset - if the temperature is unsafe again, it will pick up where it left off. If it reaches 100% the egg is 'ruined by temperature' and will not hatch even if returned to a suitable area. A ruined egg still has full nutritional value and can be used to make a meal (or eaten raw, with a mood debuff).
Diet
While most carnivorous animals can eat raw meat, corpses, kibble, and meals, Wargs can only eat raw meat and corpses.
All strictly herbivorous animals and some omnivorous animals (notably pigs and boars) can eat live plants (except trees) and haygrass.
Dendrovorous animals such as the alphabeaver and the thrumbo can eat trees, in addition to other plant-based foods.
Health
Animals have the same set-up as humans when it comes to health, minus the ability to operate on them (except euthanasia). They feel pain, and have all of the different health stats that human pawns possess. Needs to have an animal bed (or sleeping spot) to be healed.
Like humans, they have a life expectancy, and are affected by chronic diseases. There is no way to cure them in the base game.
Hunting
Wild animals may be marked for hunting. After killing their target, hunters will haul the carcass to a stockpile zone even if they are naturally incapable of hauling, but will not start hauling it again if they're interrupted.
Animals harmed by hunting that were not killed yet may become enraged and if its a pack type, its full horde may turn hostile against the entire colony.
Hunting may take longer during bad weather since there's a shooting modifier while it`s raining or snowing that makes it more likely for shots to miss.
- Fog (with or without rain): hit chance multiplier is 50%.
- Rain or snow: hit chance multiplier is 80%.
To mark animals to be hunted use one of the following methods:
- Click Orders, Hunt, then click one or more individual animals.
- Click Orders, Hunt, then click and drag a box to surround and select multiple animals.
- Select one or more animals, click Hunt.
Hunting tips
- When hunting close to your home area, it`s safer to manually draft a colonist closer to the animal instead of just using the hunt order. Since hunters attempt to keep distance from targets, it is very likely other colonists will walk through the firing range and get injured from friendly fire.
- In the occasion of a full horde revenge due to manhunting, early stage colonies may easily become overrun, getting all colonist downed by their attacks. But down is not out. While all colonists are downed, players may instantly think of loading the latest autosave and re-try (aka. save-scumming), but that`s unnecessary and unchallenging. Eventually, one or more of your colonists may recover from incapacitation. With luck on favor, this miracle may take place at nightfall, when wildlife sleeps (except for the most enraged beasts among those), or they have wandered far enough, opening a chance to rescue everybody else. The manhunter revenge status of the horde will dissipate overnight.
As of version 0.15.1279 (29 August 2016) hunters will no longer hunt without a ranged weapon.
Life Stages
Animals all have three different life stages. Animals have different graphics for different life stages, or may simply appear smaller. Animals start out as babies and their age is listed as minutes, hours, or months. Some animals have a specific name for this stage (e.g chick). They then move on to juveniles (teenagers). Eventually, they reach the final life stage, adulthood. In the stages before adulthood, animals have lower stats (body size, health scale, mass, carrying capacity, move speed, hunger rate, meat amount, leather amount, market value) that normalize when they reach adulthood. Animals have different sounds (call, anger, wounded, death) for different life stages. Babies may simply make a higher pitched sound, or have a different sound altogether (such as chicks). Depending on the species, animals will need to reach the juvenile or adult stage before they can reproduce.
Needs
Animals require food and sleep and will fulfill their needs on their own.
Food: Animals will eat any available food according to their diet. Herbivorous animals of the colony can be left to eat grass on their own. As of version 0.14.1234 (15 July 2016) flowers are no longer good animal food, due to reduced nutrition.
Rest: Animals will sleep as needed. Tamed animals will sleep in animal sleeping spots, animal sleeping boxes, or animal beds. If none of which are available, the animal will crash out on the ground inside its allowed zone. A tamed animal will not sleep as long as its master is drafted.
Predators
Certain carnivores are predators. When hungry, a predator will prefer an easy meal. They'll first go for meals or food types within their diet. They may go for a downed or dead animal or a human corpse. But when a hungry predator has no other food nearby, they will hunt, kill and consume almost any animal smaller than them. Predators tend to choose more vulnerable and weaker animals, and wisely avoid boomrats and boomalopes. Their attacks usually stun their prey, leaving them unable to fight back or flee.
Predators include Arctic fox, Arctic wolf, Cat, Cobra, Cougar, Fennec fox, Grizzly bear, Lynx, Panther, Polar bear, Red fox, Timber wolf, Warg.
Products
Certain tame animals produce milk, wool, or eggs.
Eggs
| Animal | Eggs Per Clutch Average | Egg Laying Interval | Eggs Per Season Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| [[Cassowary|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 1 | 3.33 | 4.5 |
| [[Chicken|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 1 | 1 | 15 |
| [[Cobra|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 1.5 | 10 | 2.25 |
| [[Duck|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 1 | 1 | 15 |
| [[Emu|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 1 | 3.33 | 4.5 |
| [[Goose|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 1 | 2 | 7.5 |
| [[Iguana|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 1.5 | 5.661 | 3.97 |
| [[Ostrich|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 1 | 3.33 | 4.5 |
| [[Tortoise|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 2 | 6.66 | 4.5 |
| [[Turkey|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 1 | 1.333 | 11.25 |
Milk
| Animal | Milk Amount | Milking Interval | Daily Milk Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| [[Boomalope|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 11 | 1 | 11 |
| [[Caribou|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| [[Cow|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 14 | 1 | 14 |
| [[Dromedary|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 18 | 2 | 9 |
| [[Elk|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 11 | 1 | 11 |
| [[Goat|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 12 | 3 | 4 |
| [[Yak|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 11 | 1 | 11 |
Wool
| Animal | Wool Amount | Shearing Interval | Daily Wool Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| [[Alpaca|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 45 | 10 | 4.5 |
| [[Bison|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 120 | 15 | 8 |
| [[Megasloth|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 200 | 20 | 10 |
| [[Muffalo|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 120 | 15 | 8 |
| [[Sheep|<ul><li>The symbol "[[" was used in a place where it is not useful.</li> <!--br--><li>The part "]]" of the query was not understood.Results might not be as expected.</li></ul>]] | 45 | 10 | 4.5 |
Social
Each animal has a Social tab that lists that animal's bonds and relations. Clicking an entry jumps to that bond's counterpart. Bonded humans have a persistent mood bonus, unless they have the psychopath trait, while set as that animal's master. Animals do not have such thoughts or bonuses.
Occasionally, tame animals will nuzzle your colonists. More pet-like animals such as Yorkshire Terriers and Cats will nuzzle often, whereas wilder animals such as Timber Wolves and Grizzly Bears can still nuzzle colonists, but this interaction will rare for them. In Alpha 16, animals will be able to nuzzle patients in bed.
Taming
Wild animals can be tamed by a animal handler with sufficient Animal skill and available food. Tamed animals may be bred, trained, traded, slaughtered, or farmed.
Wild animals may be marked for taming using the Tame button.
An animal handler will attempt to tame marked animals using food fitting that animal's diet. The chance to tame an animal depends on the animal's wildness (displayed on the info window) and the handler's 'Tame animal chance' stat. This stat is determined by the colonist's animals skill, manipulation, and talking. When a handler fails to tame an animal there is a cooldown period before another attempt can be made and there's a small chance it will turn manhunter and start attacking the handler and others. After a while the handler may drop unused food. Tamed animals will remain in or near the colony or they may be assigned to animal areas to contain them. Setting animal areas is usually necessary to restrict them from eating food not intended for them.
Some animals require a minimum skill before they can be handled. The game will prompt the player if no colonist has enough skill to handle the animal. In the case a colonist has only 1 point as an utter beginner and has learning ability, the easiest...
- Animals that require no points (zero) to tame are: Alpaca, Cat, Chicken, Cow, Dromedary, Husky, Labrador retriever, Pig and Yorkshire terrier.
Tamed animals may be slaughtered using the Slaughter button. An animal marked in this way will be slaughtered by an animal handler. The handler need not be equipped with a weapon.
If you try to slaughter a bonded animal, the game will warn you about it due to the mood impact this has on the animal's master.
Interaction
Tamed animals can be trained by colonists. With Obedience trained, they will follow their master around.
Some animals can be milked or sheared, which will be handled if necessary. Only adult animals can be milked.
Besides this, two other animals, the Muffalo and Dromedary can also be used as pack animals and will carry items in caravans.
Occasionally, animals can nuzzle colonists, giving the colonist a mood buff and allowing the animal to be named. Animals can nuzzle anyone regardless of handling skill.
When injured, they will go to animal sleeping spots/ beds for rest and treatment.
Naming
Newly tamed animals get numerical designations so you can tell them apart (“Muffalo 1”, “Muffalo 2”, etc.). The game names certain animals when tamed or bought. Other animals have a chance to be named when they nuzzle a colonist, or form a bond with them. Names are always generated by the game and cannot be changed by the player.
Animals without a pet name may have a gender-specific name (i.e. hen, rooster, buck, doe), or a lifestage-specific name (piglet, warg puppy), or even a gender/lifestage-specific name (cockerel).
Names of tamed animals are not shown on the map unless the option is turned on. See Menu, Options, 'Show animal names'.
Training
Tamed animals may be trained depending on their trainable intelligence. Click the animal's training tab to specify training and view progress.
Once Obedience is trained, they can be assigned a master which they will follow. You can configure when the animals will follow their master, by toggling whether or not the animal will follow while doing field work (hunting/taming), or while drafted.
Many skills require multiple steps to fully train.
Combat
Once Obedience is trained, animals will gather around their master upon drafting, and will attack nearby threats, or (unintentionally) block ranged attacks for their master.
This is configurable and can be disabled by disabling follow during drafted.
With Release trained, animals can be released to attack threats from a distance.
Animals can be downed during combat, and can be rescued by your colonists.
Raising animals
Growing haygrass
While the land can sustain a sizable population of animals grazing on it, it doesn't have an infinite supply and can still be depleted. If you need to raise a lot of animals at once, e.g. an exponentially growing group of chickens, you will need to grow haygrass to sustain them all.
Haygrass gives a total of 0.9 nutrition (18 units of hay) when fully grown and harvested, compared to 0.15 of grass. However, you have to keep your hungry animals from getting to it otherwise they'll only get a max of 0.2 nutrition from eating the plant.
Making kibble
Kibble is a kind of animal feed made with both plant and animal sources. It can be made using haygrass and any kind of meat, including human or insect meat.
All animals except wargs can eat it, so it makes a good way to feed your animals using mixed sources of nutrition, including those that animals won't normally eat. Kibble also lasts forever under a roof so you can store it and use it to feed animals when in need, such as in winter when there is nothing to eat.
Bird coop
An improvised Chickens coops who just joined without "Taming".
Turkeys released from coop to feed.
Birds in general, migrate following weather, leaving the map when conditions are unsuitable. If you happen to have some in your colony, you will need to take care of them during winter as they are vulnerable to cold weather and may lose body parts to frostbite. Each according to their age will be more tolerant to cold. Construct a room with roof and a heater to keep them warm. They will need to be fed, either by creating an area to stock or free them during daytime so they can eat grass. They must be commanded to return before nightfall or risk being frozen (just returning to sleep isn't enough).
Birds will eventually produce eggs, make sure your main freezer settings doesn't`t allow fertilized eggs if you intend to keep them reproducing. You can create another stockpile zone within the chicken coop so that the eggs remain where they were placed by the birds themselves.
Trade
Tamed animals may be sold to traders. Animals purchased from traders will be already tamed. Bulk goods traders offer pets and farm animals while exotic goods traders carry most of the wild species.
- Herbivorous
- Alpaca • Bison • Boomalope • Capybara • Caribou • Cassowary • Chicken • Chinchilla • Cow • Deer • Donkey • Dromedary • Duck • Elephant • Elk • Emu • Gazelle • Goat • Goose • Guinea pig • Hare • Horse • Ibex • Megasloth • Muffalo • Ostrich • Rhinoceros • Sheep • Snowhare • Squirrel • Turkey • Yak • Toxalope
- Omnivorous
- Boomrat • Grizzly bear • Human • Husky • Iguana • Labrador retriever • Megascarab • Megaspider • Monkey • Pig • Polar bear • Spelopede • Raccoon • Rat • Tortoise • Wild boar • Yorkshire terrier • Waste rat
- Carnivorous
- Arctic fox • Arctic wolf • Cat • Cobra • Cougar • Fennec fox • Lynx • Panther • Red fox • Timber wolf • Warg
- Dryads
- Barkskin • Berrymaker • Carrier • Clawer • Gaumaker • Immature dryad • Medicinemaker • Woodmaker