As a cold, weak, and probably starving new player in the world of Valheim, any and all animals probably look like nothing more than a potential meal. Hunting them for their meat and other resources will become a standard part of your routine as you carve out a life for yourself in the hostile world, but that’s not all these creatures are good for. In the early days of the game, you will mostly come across deer and boars, but only one of the two can be tamed.
It isn’t an easy process to make friends with a wild boar, but if you can manage to do it, it will provide you with amazing benefits. Once you start taming them, breeding becomes an option, and from there, life in Valheim will get a lot smoother. The game won’t tell you how it’s done, and the process is a bit tricky, so let us help you tame your first wild boar with this guide.
Further reading
Prepare your pen
Before we get to taming any boars, you will want to have a nice little home ready for them when you eventually bring them back to your base. A simple wooden square and gate will work, but don’t light it up with torches since boars are scared of the flames and may not want to get too close.
The pen doesn’t have to be anything fancy and can always be improved later, but just make it big enough to hold a few boars to start with.
Taming a boar
With your pen waiting for some occupants, it is time to get to work on actually taming a boar. If you’ve played another survival game with a taming mechanic, such as Minecraft, then the basics will sound familiar. You need to feed a boar in order to tame it, but unlike Minecraft, you can’t walk up to one with food in your hand and just shove it into its mouth until it loves you. Using food in your item bar will only make you eat it yourself.
In terms of what food to use, boars love berries, mushrooms, and carrots. Meat, especially boar meat, is not going to work (and would be rather cruel, too). Gather up at least 10 pieces of food and go out looking for boars. The moment you spot one, go into stealth. If the boar becomes scared or aggressive, it can’t be tamed. Cautiously drop a stack of food on the ground where the boar can see it, and back away. With a little luck, the boar will come and start eating the dropped meal, producing some yellow hearts over its head.
That cue may seem like you’ve succeeded, but there is a chance it might not have eaten enough to fully be tamed just yet. If you get close too quickly, it may still try and attack you, wasting the food you dropped. Your best bet is to wait just a little longer than you think to make sure the boar has eaten everything before approaching. You can see how tame a boar is by checking the little bar that appears on the bottom of the screen when you look at it. If the bar isn’t full, drop some more food. Once you and your new friend are acquainted, lead him back to your pen, and repeat the process to bring him or her some friends.
Taming a boar (the easy way)
If the natural way of finding, feeding, and carefully taming a boar sounds like too much time and trouble, there is an alternative method players have found that can cut down on the time and difficulty. This method involves finding boars out in the wild, of course, but instead of dropping food to win them over, you intentionally make them mad and let them start to attack you. Once they’re pissed and chasing you down, lead them back to your base and into that pen you built, and trap them inside.
Once you have one (or more) angry boar in your pen, all you need to do is drop 10 or so pieces of food inside for each one and leave until they calm down and eat it. Boars have a short memory, so once you come back after they’ve eaten, they will be tame, plus already in their pen.
Breading your boar
Once you have at least two boars tamed in whatever method you pick, you can start breeding them for an endless supply. To make boars want to mate, they need to be “happy,” which you can do by feeding them once they get hungry. Just wait until their status becomes “hungry,” feed them all some fruits and vegetables, and look out for pink hearts appearing. That’s the sign that two boars have mated and will eventually spawn a baby boar. Eventually, that baby will grow into an adult, and you can repeat the process.
Keep in mind that you need to take care of these animals — at least feed them regularly if you want to maintain your little farm. The price of tossing in some of your berries and vegetables is nothing compared to the value you get out of an endless supply of meat and leather you can harvest.
