Every animal you have tamed, apart from the companion at your side, lives at home with your Goddess: this is your herd. At home your animals wander her land, guard it from enemies, and give you goods now and then: wool, milk, eggs, feathers, fur and more. Two happy animals of a kind in a pen can have a little one.
CONTENTS
How animals come home
- Tame an animal while you already have a companion, and it heads home (see Taming).
- Choose SEND HOME on your companion's page (K): it walks home and joins the herd. Inside a pen in her land, STAY IN RANCH settles it in that pen.
Home is the Goddess you sleep by, or else the nearest one. An animal walks there while you can see it; once out of sight it is simply there. Animals never follow you down a dungeon.
How many you can keep
You can keep 5 animals in all, counting your companion, plus 4 more for each Jewel you hold:
| Jewels held | Animals you keep |
|---|---|
| 0 | 5 |
| 1 | 9 |
| 2 | 13 |
| 3 | 17 |
| 4 | 21 |
| 5 | 25 |
The HOME page on the stats screen shows your animals at each Goddess and how many you keep.
Pens
A pen is a space closed on every side by fences, walls or gates (see Building). Animals in a pen stay in it, even with its gate open. Outside a pen they wander their Goddess's land.
What you can do with one
Press E at an animal at home. If it has goods waiting, this collects them (see below). Otherwise it opens its window:
- Make it your companion: it comes along, and your companion stays home in its place. You must be in your Goddess's land.
- Follow: it follows you, so you can lead it into a pen. Walk away inside the pen and it stays there.
- Give a treat: see Happiness below.
- Let it out of its pen: it walks to the gate, opens it, goes out, shuts the gate behind it, and wanders her land.
What each animal gives
Each animal makes its goods on its own clock. Up to 3 batches wait on it; a little picture over it shows what is waiting and how many. E collects them all. Collecting adds 3 to its happiness.
| Animal | Gives | Each batch | A batch every |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sheep | Wool (shear) | 2 to 3 | 1 day |
| Cow | Milk | 1 to 2 | 1 day |
| Hen | Eggs | 1 to 2 | half a day |
| Rabbit | Wool (comb) | 1 | 1.5 days |
| Bird | Feathers | 1 to 2 | 1.2 days |
| Raven | Black Feathers | 1 | 1.5 days |
| Deer | Hollow Antler (shed) | 1 | 4 days |
| Fox | Fox Fur (brush) | 1 | 1.5 days |
| Frog | Frog Slime | 1 | 1.2 days |
| Wolf, Bear | nothing | - | - |
"Day" means a day in the game (see Day and Night). Happiness changes the wait: at 80 or more, a batch comes 25% sooner; under 45, it takes 50% longer. An animal that is following you makes nothing until it is home again.
A Rancher tenant collects these for you and puts them in the chests in their house.
Happiness
Each animal has a happiness from 0 to 100. A newly tamed animal starts at 75. At home it slowly drifts toward:
| Where it lives | Happiness drifts toward |
|---|---|
| Loose in her land | 60 |
| In a pen | 65 |
| In a roomy pen (at least 6 floor tiles for each animal in it) | 85 |
A treat raises an animal's happiness to 100, heals it fully, and gives it 30 experience. Make treats at a crafting table (TREATS tab; see Taming). A happy animal (70 or more) now and then shows a heart.
Guarding home
Your animals see off enemies that come into their Goddess's land: sheep and deer butt them away, cows charge, foxes bite, wolves hunt them down, bears maul them, the rabbit kicks, birds and hens peck, the raven casts its spell and the frog spits poison. Like companions, they back off when badly hurt and are knocked out, never killed.
Little ones
Two animals of the same kind in the same pen can have a little one when:
- both have a happiness of 75 or more;
- both are grown, and neither has had a little one in the last 2 days;
- both have been in the pen for at least a third of a day;
- no other little one of that kind is on the way or growing up in that pen;
- you have room for one more animal.
They court for a while with hearts, then the mother is expecting (a hen sits on an egg). The little one is born half a day later (a third of a day for a hen), named, and starts at half size and half health. It grows up over a day and a half, and can't come along as your companion until then. Each parent's happiness drops by 15 (to no less than 55).
What a little one inherits
- Traits: each of its parents' traits has a 55% chance to pass on, and there is a 12% chance of a new trait. Up to 8 traits.
- Build: each stat is its parents' average, give or take 1 (1 to 10). There is an 18% chance that one stat is 1 or 2 higher.
- Coat: one parent's coat, or (8% of the time) any of its kind's coats.
Breeding is how you get animals with many traits and high stats. See Companions for what traits and stats do.
