Pack animal

Pack animals refer to animals that you can bring along on a caravan to carry extra weight. The current pack animals in the game are Alpacas, Bison, Donkeys, Dromedaries, Elephants, Horses, Muffalo, and Yaks. Below you will see a table that will help you decide what will be the most appropriate pack animal for you.

Analysis

Horses offer the fastest riding speed, tie for 2nd best weight capacity (at 84 kg), and only have a 0.68 hunger rate. This arguably makes them the best pack animal, and always useful to have more of until you reach maximum riding speed (1 horse / colonist). However, horses are not found in all biomes, and other animals have other benefits. Elephants can be used as combat animals, muffalo can be used for their wool, etc.

You need to take into account the distance you're going, whether you plan to stay (or might) and for how long, and the return trip's length, and bring food accordingly for your colonists and animals. However, take note of the following:

• All of the pack animals currently in the game are herbivorous. As a result, provided the season and terrain allow, they can sustain themselves through grazing while in a caravan. They will not be able to graze outside of the growing season however. Be careful about bringing many animals or large animals, such as Elephants, during this time.
• Colonists will forage for berries/agave fruit/etc proportional to their Foraged Food Amount stat, with Tribal pawns receiving a 170% bonus. This food can supplement both the pawn and the pack animals food needs.
• Depending on the scenario, the traveling colonists can set up a temporary base and produce food (and other items), the same as at your home location. Time permitting, they can even construct buildings and workbenches, etc. This is only recommended for long-term stay.

The more weight you add to the caravan, the slower it'll move. A caravan at maximum weight capacity moves at half the speed of an unladen one. Adding carrying capacity thus makes a caravan move faster.

Mechanoids

Friendly mechanoids can also add to a caravan's carrying capacity. While on a caravan in the world map, they do not use any sort of power. Only when they enter into an event map, like an ambush, will they use power normally. If the mechanitor and their mechs are separated, then no mech commands can be issued, but mechs can still carry things as usual.

Treat mechs like extra carrying capacity, rather than an animal you have to feed and manage. If a mech isn't doing any work, you might as well bring it into the caravan. And if you need the extra carrying capacity to hold some supplies, then you may want to load a mech on there. Combat mechs can be used to protect their traveling mechanitor

The most efficient mech for capacity per bandwidth is the tunneler. Tunnelers are also the most efficient mech for capacity per material resource, even when ignoring bandwidth, but assuming plasteel and components are readily available. However, every mech has a use beyond a caravan, and caravan efficiency should rarely be a determining factor in mech choice.

Comparison table

Note that Thrumbos will refuse to carry packs, making them not technically a "pack animal", but they can be ridden, providing a speed factor of 1.6 to their rider in a caravan on the world map. They are included for comparison's sake.

Animal		Type	Carry Capacity	Health Scale	Hunger Rate	Carry Capacity / Hunger rate	Mass (kg)	Carry Capacity / Mass	Wildness	Riding Speed	Move Speed
	Alpaca	Animal	35 kg	1	0.44	79.55	60 kg	0.58	0.25	-	4.1 c/s
	Bison	Animal	84 kg	1.75	0.856	98.13	144 kg	0.58	0.6	-	4.7 c/s
	Donkey	Animal	49 kg	1.45	0.52	94.23	84 kg	0.58	0	1.3	5 c/s
	Dromedary	Animal	73.5 kg	1.6	0.856	85.86	126 kg	0.58	0.25	1.3	4.3 c/s
	Elephant	Animal	140 kg	3.6	2.568	54.52	240 kg	0.58	0.75	1.3	4.8 c/s
	Horse	Animal	84 kg	1.75	0.68	123.53	144 kg	0.58	0.35	1.6	5.8 c/s
	Human	Animal	35 kg	1	1.6	21.88	60 kg	0.58	0	-	4.6 c/s
	Muffalo	Animal	84 kg	1.75	0.856	98.13	144 kg	0.58	0.6	-	4.5 c/s
	Thrumbo	Animal	-	8	2.8	-	240 kg	-	0.985	1.6	5.5 c/s
	Yak	Animal	73.5 kg	1.5	0.856	85.86	126 kg	0.58	0.2	-	3.2 c/s
	Agrihand	Mechanoid	24.5 kg		-	-	42 kg	0.58	-	-	3.4 c/s
	Centipede blaster	Mechanoid	105 kg	4.32	-	-	180 kg	0.58	-	-	1.9 c/s
	Centipede burner	Mechanoid	105 kg	4.32	-	-	180 kg	0.58	-	-	1.9 c/s
	Centipede gunner	Mechanoid	105 kg	4.32	-	-	180 kg	0.58	-	-	1.9 c/s
	Centurion	Mechanoid	126 kg	3	-	-	216 kg	0.58	-	-	1.6 c/s
	Cleansweeper	Mechanoid	10.5 kg		-	-	18 kg	0.58	-	-	3.4 c/s
	Constructoid	Mechanoid	24.5 kg		-	-	42 kg	0.58	-	-	3.4 c/s
	Diabolus	Mechanoid	140 kg	4.5	-	-	240 kg	0.58	-	-	2.4 c/s
	Fabricor	Mechanoid	24.5 kg		-	-	42 kg	0.58	-	-	3.4 c/s
	Lancer	Mechanoid	35 kg	0.72	-	-	60 kg	0.58	-	-	4.7 c/s
	Legionary	Mechanoid	35 kg	0.72	-	-	60 kg	0.58	-	-	4.3 c/s
	Lifter	Mechanoid	24.5 kg		-	-	42 kg	0.58	-	-	2.8 c/s
	Militor	Mechanoid	24.5 kg		-	-	42 kg	0.58	-	-	3.8 c/s
	Paramedic	Mechanoid	24.5 kg		-	-	42 kg	0.58	-	-	3.8 c/s
	Pikeman	Mechanoid	35 kg	0.85	-	-	60 kg	0.58	-	-	2.5 c/s
	Scorcher	Mechanoid	35 kg	0.7	-	-	60 kg	0.58	-	-	4.5 c/s
	Scyther	Mechanoid	35 kg	1.32	-	-	60 kg	0.58	-	-	4.7 c/s
	Tesseron	Mechanoid	35 kg	0.72	-	-	60 kg	0.58	-	-	4.7 c/s
	Tunneler	Mechanoid	122.5 kg	1.5	-	-	210 kg	0.58	-	-	1.9 c/s
	War queen	Mechanoid	140 kg	5.2	-	-	240 kg	0.58	-	-	1.6 c/s
	War urchin	Mechanoid	24.5 kg	1.3	-	-	42 kg	0.58	-	-	4.2 c/s

^1 While no one is going to carry a pack animal on their back, transport pods and shuttles do have weight limits of 150 and 1000 kg respectively. Thus animal mass must be taken into account when planning caravans that involve them for one or more leg of the journey.