Taming animals in Once Human is a rewarding system that adds depth to your survival experience. From keeping them as pets to harvesting valuable resources like milk and meat, animals play a crucial role in making life easier in the post-apocalyptic world. In this guide, we will explore everything you need to know about capturing, taming, and caring for animals, ensuring that you make the most out of this exciting game mechanic.
If you would like to read more of Once Human guides, you can find some here on KeenGamer:
- Once Human: Acid Farming Guide
- Once Human: How to Beat Ravenous Hunter Boss
- Once Human: Best Deviants
- Once Human: Unfinished Expedition Quest Guide
Unlocking Animal Taming
To begin taming animals in Once Human, Animal Capture Memetic is required. Unlock it in the Logistics tab of the Memetics menu. This will cost 7 Ciphers and 2,000 Energy Links. Once unlocked, you gain access to craft Tranquilizing Throwing Needles, the essential tool for capturing animals. These tranquilizer needles require the following materials to craft:
Rubber and Steel
- Steel Ingot (3)
- Engineering Plastic (8)
- Rubber (5)
- Stardust Source (3)
Make sure to craft multiple needles, as missing your target is common, and you may need more than one to bring down larger animals. Once the needles are crafted and in your inventory, you are ready to head out into the wild and start capturing.
How to Capture Animals
Capturing an animal is a multi-step process that requires precision and patience. First, equip the Tranquilizing Throwing Needles in your hot bar. When you locate an animal in the wild, the next step is to weaken it. The animal’s health bar will have a specific threshold that you need to get below to use the tranquilizer. A useful tip here is to bring a low-tier weapon to ensure you don’t accidentally kill the animal while trying to lower its health.
Once the health is sufficiently reduced, use the tranquilizer needle to put the animal to sleep. If successful, the animal will fall to the ground, and you can press F to capture it. The captured animal will now appear in your inventory and can be returned to your base.
Building a Safe Pen and Caring for Your Animal
Once you return to your base, creating a pen for your animal immediately is crucial. If not secured, the animal will escape. To build a pen, press Z to enter Build Mode and select any fence or wall from the available options. Ensure there are no gaps in the enclosure, which could allow your animal to get out or become vulnerable to enemies.
Sintered Brick and Log
After building the pen, the next step is to craft an Animal Trough to feed your new companion. To do this, go into Build Mode again and select Facilities from the menu, then navigate to the Function Facility tab and choose Agriculture. The materials required for crafting the Animal Trough are:
- Log (50)
- Sintered Brick (12)
- Aluminium Ingot (15)
- Adhesive (15)
Once the trough is built, open your inventory, go to the Tools section, and press F to place the animal in its new home. By interacting with the animal, you can see important information such as its favorite food, diet, and tameness level.
Feeding and Maintaining Animal Happiness
Feeding your animals properly is key to increasing their tameness and happiness. The better the care, the more useful the animal becomes. To maintain your animals, you can feed them directly or use the Animal Trough, where food and water can be placed for them to consume.
Different types of feed can be crafted for various animals:
- Grain Concentrate Feed
- Herbal Green Feed
- Meat Pellet Feed
- Body Boost Feed (raises animal attributes to level 50)
These feeds last for 6 days in the trough while storing them in a fridge extends their shelf life to 69 days. Ensure you use a water pump and filtration system to provide your animals with purified water, as this reduces the frequency of refilling the trough.
To sum it all up, animal taming in Once Human is a robust system that offers a variety of benefits, from resource gathering to base protection. By carefully selecting and raising your animals, you can gain valuable advantages that help you thrive in the game’s harsh environment
