Skills/Animal Taming

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Animal Taming lets you win over wild creatures and make them your pets. Tamed animals fight beside you, carry your goods and carry you. The best tamers command dragons and nightmares.

For a full list of what you can tame, see Tameables.

At a glance

Skill cap	100 (Grandmaster), raised up to 120 with Animal Taming power scrolls
Use	Use the skill, then target a creature within 2 tiles
Partner skills	Animal Lore, Veterinary
Main uses	Taming pets and mounts
Stats it trains	Strength, Intelligence and Dexterity

How to tame

1. Use the skill: Tame which animal?
2. Target a tameable creature within 2 tiles. You must already have at least its Taming needed value, or you get You cannot tame this creature.
3. Your character starts speaking softly to it: *You start to tame the creature.* Every 3 seconds for 3 or 4 rounds you say something soothing.
4. Stay within 6 tiles with a clear path, and don't let it be hurt. If anything damages it: The animal is too angry to continue taming.
5. At the end the game checks your skill: It seems to accept you as master. or You fail to tame the creature.

Your chance starts near 0% at the creature's requirement and rises 2% per point above it, reaching 50% at 25 points over and certainty at 50 points over.

Previous owners

A creature remembers who has owned it. Each previous owner makes taming it 6 points harder, and a creature with 5 owners can't be tamed again by anyone new (This animal has had too many owners and is too upset for you to tame.). Retaming a pet you've owned before always succeeds.

Angry beasts

Some proud creatures, such as the Dragon, White Wyrm, Nightmare and Swamp Dragon, will usually fight back when you try: You seem to anger the beast! Keep trying; there's a small chance each time that they let you begin.

After the tame

• A newly tamed creature keeps 90% of its skills (86% if it was paralyzed during taming).
• Every pet takes up control slots. You can't tame more than your follower limit allows: You have too many followers to tame that creature.

Examples

Creature	Taming needed	50% chance at	Always succeeds at
Rabbit	Any	6	31.0
Cat	Any	24	49.0
Horse	29.1	54	79.0
Black Bear	35.1	60	85.0
Brown Bear	41.1	66	91.0
Grey Wolf	53.1	78	103.0
Grizzly Bear	59.1	84	109.0
White Wolf	65.1	90	115.0
Hell Cat	71.1	96	121.0
Frenzied Ostard	77.1	102	127.0
Dire Wolf	83.1	108	133.0
Drake	84.3	109	134.2
Hell Hound	85.5	110	135.4
Dragon	93.9	119	143.8
Nightmare	95.1	120	145.0
White Wyrm	96.3	121	146.2

Will it obey?

Pets don't always do as they're told. Your weighted skill is (4 × Animal Taming + Animal Lore) / 5. Compare it to the pet's taming requirement:

• At equal skill, it obeys 70% of the time.
• Each point above adds 6%, up to 99%.
• Each point below subtracts 14%, down to 22%.
• An unhappy pet obeys less often, so keep it fed.
• Pets that need 29.1 Taming or less always obey.

Your weighted skill minus the pet's taming requirement	Chance it obeys
-20	22%
-10	22%
-5	22%
Equal	70%
+5	99%
+10	99%
+20	99%

Training Animal Taming

• Every completed attempt is a chance to gain. Pick creatures you succeed with about half the time: about 25 points below your skill.
• Release a pet and retame it? Retaming your own former pet always succeeds and doesn't train: That wasn't even challenging.
• Each attempt also trains Animal Lore.
• Below 10.0 you gain on every attempt, sometimes several tenths at once. Above that, each attempt has a chance to gain 0.1.
• The harder the attempt is for your skill level, the better your chance to gain. Your chance also drops as you get closer to your Animal Taming cap and to your total skill cap of 700.
• If you've set Animal Taming to go down (the arrow in your skills list), gains elsewhere can lower it to make room under your total cap. Lock skills you want to keep.
• Reaching 100.0 adds Animal Taming to the Skills Mastered count on your achievements.
• Animal trainers and ranchers will train you for gold: up to a third of their own skill, at most 42.0, for 1 gold per 0.1 points. Ask them (or use their context menu) to train the skill, then drop the gold on them.

Stats: each successful use has about a 4% chance to raise Strength, a smaller chance (under 1%) to raise Dexterity and about a 1% chance to raise Intelligence by 1 point. Each stat can rise at most once every 10 minutes, and only if it's set to rise.

Suggested path

Animal Taming	How to train
0 to about 33	Buy it from an animal trainer.
33 to 50	Horses, ostards, boars and giant rats.
50 to 65	Black and polar bears, llamas, walruses.
65 to 80	Brown bears, cougars, alligators, scorpions.
80 to 95	Grey wolves, panthers, snow leopards, grizzly bears, great harts.
95 to 100	White wolves, hell cats, bulls.
100 to 120	Requires a power scroll. Frenzied ostards, dire wolves, drakes, then dragons and nightmares.

Power scrolls

Power scroll

Animal Taming tops out at 100.0 unless you use a Animal Taming power scroll. There are three kinds: exalted (110), mythical (115) and legendary (120). Double-click one to raise your Animal Taming cap to that number: "You feel a surge of magic as the scroll enhances your Animal Taming!"

• Animal Taming power scrolls come from champion bosses: Barracoon, Lord Oaks, Mephitis, Neira, Rikktor, Semidar and Silvani. Each champion boss leaves 6 power scrolls in random fighting, magic, bard and animal skills, handed out among the players who helped kill it. Each scroll is a 110 (60%), 115 (35%) or 120 (5%).
• A scroll only works if it's higher than your current cap. Otherwise: "Your Animal Taming is too high for this power scroll."
• Champion power scrolls are cursed: they always drop when you die, even from a blessed container. Use them or bank them quickly.
• Raising the cap doesn't raise your skill. You still have to train the extra points.

Messages

Message	What it means
You cannot tame this creature.	Your skill is below the creature's requirement.
You are too far away to continue taming.	You moved more than 6 tiles away.
The animal is too angry to continue taming.	Something hurt the creature. Start again.
You do not have a clear path to the animal you are taming, and must cease your attempt.	Something is in the way.
You must subdue this creature before you can tame it!	This creature must be beaten down to a tenth of its health first.
Someone else is already taming this.	Another tamer is working on it.
That animal looks tame already.	It already has an owner.
You have too many followers to tame that creature.	You have no free control slots.

Tips

• New tamers start with a shepherd's crook.
• Bring a bard. A Peacemaking friend can calm an angry beast while you work.
• Train Veterinary so you can heal your pets in a fight.

See also

• Tameables · Animal Lore · Veterinary · Herding · Peacemaking