How to Tame and Breed All Animals in Valheim Mistlands: Wolves, Boars, Loxes, and Chickens (A Step-by-Step Guide)

There are 3 types of animals in Valhaim that can be tamed: boars, wolves, and loxes. There are also chickens that don’t require taming but can be bred just as well as these creatures.

Taming process

Taming any tameable creature can be done in an identical manner: catch an animal in some kind of enclosure, feed it with suitable food, and wait inside the taming range. In general, that’s all.

Taming any animal always takes 30 minutes of real time. Each 3 seconds, an animal gains taming progress, and after 600 such ticks (1800 seconds = 30 min) it will be tamed. An animal will only gain taming progress if:

1. It isn’t hungry;
2. It isn’t alerted (there is no red exclamation mark);
3. Any player is within a ~64m range.

If you see yellow hearts above an animal, this means that taming is in progress. When taming is finished, you will see a message about this on the screen.

The best option to tame and breed any animal is a hole. It is because when the caught creature is alerted, it tries to attack the walls of the building around it to break out. While boars can be held with a common roundpole fence, wolves will require a much stronger enclosure, along with loxes that are able to break wooden fences like matchsticks.

In addition, keep in mind that monsters will attack your base from time to time. And if you don’t protect your animals, they may be killed.

Eating

Taming and breeding are only possible if animals are not hungry. That’s why you need to feed them suitable food that must be dropped directly on the floor.

Any tameable animal will stay fed for 10 minutes after last eating. Its status is checked every 10 seconds. A captured animal will be eating if the following conditions are met.

1. The creature is not fleeing (like boars from fire).
2. The creature is not alerted (red indicator) and doesn’t have a target. Awareness of the presence of a nearby player (yellow indicator) doesn’t prevent eating.
3. The creature is hungry. It checked every 10 seconds, as previously stated.
4. The creature can reach the valid food item on the floor with pathfinding within 10 meters.

If these conditions are met, the creature will eat one item from the dropped stack. Keep in mind that dropped items, including food, vanish after 1 hour. To prevent this, just install a workbench.

Player buildings like a workbench prevent spawning creatures within their range as well as preventing dropped items from disappearing.

How to tame boars

You will need: a hole (or some other kind of enclosure), suitable food, an Abyssal Harpoon (optional).

First of all, you should find a boar. Boars can range from 0 to 2 stars in rarity.The higher the rarity, the more items will drop after killing the animal:

• 0 stars = 1 boar meat, 1 leather scrap;
• 1 star = 2 boar meat, 2 leather scrap;
• 2 stars = 4 boar meat, 4 leather scrap;

For this reason, you are advised to tame and breed only 2-star boars. But this is a very (very) complicated matter because 2-star boars are a critical rarity. So you might not find them at all.

When you find a boar, you should alert it to make him attack you. Then you simply lead it to the hole, and when it tries to attack you, push it inside with blocking.

If you have an Abyssal Harpoon, you can simply harpoon the boar and easily drag it into the hole.

You can also build a small enclosure with a fence, and when the boar come inside, block an exit with the other fence part. This is the most simple way to catch the boar, but keep in mind that it will be alerted each time it sees you and try to break out. That’s why you are recommended to use holes instead of enclosures.

After that, you should drop a few units of suitable food inside the hole. It’s very important for the boar to be able to reach the food with pathfinding. Otherwise, the taming process will be stopped.

Boars can eat: Raspberries, Blueberries, Red Mushrooms, Turnips, Carrots, and Onions.

When the boar becomes calm, the taming process will start. You will see yellow hearts above the animal.

After 30 minutes, the taming will be finished.

How to tame wolves

You will need: a hole (or some other kind of enclosure), suitable food, an Abyssal Harpoon (optional).

Wolves live in the mountains and can be tamed in exactly the same way as boars, with the only difference being that they deal more damage to player buildings and are easier to lure into the hole.

Wolves in Valheim Mistlands can also be from 0 to 2 stars in quality.

• 0 stars = 40% (1) Walf fang, 1 Wolf meat, 1 Wolf pelt;
• 1 star = 80% (2) Walf fang, 2 Wolf meat, 2 Wolf pelt;
• 2 stars = 4 Walf fang, 4 Wolf meat, 4 Wolf pelt.

But you should know that 2-star wolves deal much more damage than 1-star wolves. So it is best to tame them directly in the mountains. Otherwise, there is a big chance of being eaten before you get to the base.

The best way to push the wolf into the hole is to jump inside and then drag it inside with a harpoon.

If you don’t have a harpoon, you can jump into the hole, get close to the wolf, and jump up a little. It will try to advance to attack you and will find itself in the pit.

Of course, you can try to build an enclosure, but be sure that the wolf will be breaking out fiercely, so wooden parts won’t hold him inside. That’s why it’s still recommended to use a pit for taming any creature.

After the wolf is in the hole, feed it suitable food and wait for 30 minutes until it is tamed.

Wolves can eat: Boar meat, Deer meat, Lox meat, Neck tail, Raw fish, Sausages.

How to tame loxes

You will need: a BIG hole, suitable food, an Abyssal Harpoon (optional).

Loxes live on the plains. A lox is a big creature that can deal a lot of damage and even kill you in one hit. Loxes can have only 0-star quality and a fixed drop: 4-5 Lox meat and 2 Lox pelt.

The simplest way to catch lox in the hole is to build a smooth descent into it. When the lox will comes down to kill you, you must quickly jump out of the hole and fill the exit with stone using a hoe.

If you have an Abyssal Harpoon, you can just drag a lox into the pit.

After that, you should feed it the appropriate food and wait for 30 minutes nearby.

Loxes can eat: Barley, Cloudberries, Flax.

How to get chickens

After killing the 5th boss (Yagluth), you will be able to buy an egg for 1500 gold from Haldor (a trader that can be found in the Black Forest).

The egg must lay in a building with walls and a roof near a fire for 30 minutes. Make sure there is no smoke in the building, and a chicken cannot reach a fire after it is born because it may quickly die.

Then the egg will hatch, and a chicken will be born. You should feed it with seeds, and very soon it will grow into a hen.

Chickens and hens can eat: Carrot seeds, Turnip seeds, Onion seeds, Beech seeds, Birch seeds, Barley, Dandelion.

How to move tamed animals

To move a tamed lox, you should craft a Lox Saddle (unlocked after crafting a Linen Thread). Put a Lox Saddle in the toolbar and use it on a tamed lox.

After that, you will be able to ride a lox, so moving it to the right place will be easy. Just look at the saddle and press “E” to mount. Keep in mind that you can remove the saddle by pressing “Shift + E“.

As for wolves, they can follow you like companions. Press “E” to see “Wolf loves you“, and the wolf will follow you. Press “E” again, and it will stay wherever you want, roaming around.

Even if you ride a lox, tamed wolves will follow you and protect you from enemies.

Moving boars is a much more complicated matter because you can’t make them follow you, much less mount. All you can do is push them in the necessary direction by running.

Chickens can be moved in the same way as boars, but it will be a more complicated task. So, since all chickens have the same quality, it will be wise to get eggs from hen breeding and move them into a new chicken coop.

The best mods for moving animals

• Improved Boar – boars will follow you like wolves.
• Teleport Wolves – wolves will follow you through portals.
• Mount Up – you will be able to mount wolves and boars.
• Beasts of Burden – you will be able to attach carts to tamed loxes, wolves, and boars.
• Teleport Everything – you will be able to teleport boars, wolves, loxes.

F.A.Q. about taming animals

• How long does it take to tame a boar / a wolf / a lox? If all the conditions are met, it takes 30 minutes of real time.
• How much food does it take to tame a boar / a wolf / a lox? Since any creature stays fed for 10 minutes, taming takes 3-4 units of food.
• What is the best food for taming boars / wolves / loxes? Any suitable. It all works the same way.
• How do you know if a boar / a wolf / a lox is tamed? When the taming is complete, you will see an appropriate message on your screen. In addition, the animal will become neutral towards you, and its HP will be green.
  
• How to tame a boar / a wolf / a lox faster? There is no way to do this faster with the “legal” methods. You can install mods, such as Adjustable Taming Speed or AllTameable, that will allow you to specify a shorter time for taming animals. You can also use the console command “timescale [0-3]” (0 – pause; 3 – maximum speed) to increase the speed of time. Or you can just use the command “tame” to tame all the tameable animals nearby. Both commands are cheats.

Breeding process

Creatures in Valheim Mistlands don’t have gender, so you can put any 2 animals of the same type into an enclosure to breed them. Different creatures require different numbers of love points to breed: boars, wolves, and hens – 3, loxes – 4. Breeding is checked every 30 seconds. If the conditions below are met, an animal will gain 1 love point.

• 33% chance of success at random;
• An animal is not hungry;
• An animal is not alerted (no red exclamation mark);
• The total number of animals and offspring is less than the limit (5 within 10 meters for boars, 4 within 10 meters for wolves, 4 within 20 meters for loxes, and 14 within 12 meters for hens);
• A suitable partner exists nearby (tamed, not hungry, not pregnant);
• Any player is within ~64 meter range.

You will see pink hearts above an animal when it successfully gains a love point.

When an animal reaches the required number of love points, it becomes pregnant. Pregnancy has no visual effect and lasts for different amounts of time depending on the creature: 1 minute for boars and wolves, 2 minutes for loxes, and 60-90 seconds for hens.

The creature’s offspring is born at the end of the pregnancy. Its growing time depends on the creature type: 50 minutes for boars and wolves, 100 minutes for loxes, 30 minutes for hatching an egg, and 50 minutes for chickens to grow to a hen).

The offspring inherits a number of stars from the parent that gave birth to it. This means, if you breed a 0-star boar with a 2-star boar, and the 2-star boar becomes pregnant, it will give birth to a 2-star piglet.

How to craft an Abyssal Harpoon

Traveling through the ocean, you can find islands, as in the picture below. In fact, it is not an island but rather some part of some underwater creature. Anyway, you will find several Abyssal Barnacles on its surface that can be gathered with a pickaxe.

Using these barnacles, you will be able to create a harpoon with a workbench. But be careful! After you gather a few barnacles, the creature will go underwater. So make sure you’re close enough to your boat and have enough stamina to swim to it without drowning.

If you’re still having any questions, please ask them in the comments below.