How to breed animals in Hytale

Breeding animals in Hytale can be a confusing process as, well, animal breeding has not been implemented yet. That said, you can start a lovely little farm full of rabbits, sheep, pigs, and cows; all you need to do is capture them. What's more, they can grow to like you, or rather tolerate you, under the right circumstances.

Here's how to build an animal farm, capture critters, and tame animals in Hytale.

---

How to capture animals in Hytale

As mentioned earlier, you can't breed animals in Hytale's current early access state, but you can capture them. One option is to build a large, fenced-off area, but leave it partly open so a wild herd (pigs, sheep, horses, etc.) can walk in. Once they're inside, quickly complete the enclosure. Beware that this is very tricky to pull off, as the animals will run away upon spotting you.

A much better way to capture Hytale animals is to build a capture crate at the farmer's workbench. This requires four pieces of wood and 50 essence of life. By holding the capture crate in your hand and left-clicking on a small animal, you will capture it. No lure required!

The only downside to this method is that only the smallest animals can be captured, including almost any critter and baby animal. To give you an idea, here are some animals that fit inside the capture crate:

• Calves
• Lambs
• Foal
• Rabbits (all sizes)
• Baby pigs
• Baby swine
• Mice
• Frogs
• Meerkats
• Armadillos

Now you can carry the captured animal back to your farm. Beware that wild animals will run away as soon as you release them, so build an enclosure first. You can craft a fence at the builder's workbench by placing any type of wood in the input slot. One piece of wood should yield two fence pieces.

To release an animal from the capture crate, equip the crate and left-click your mouse again.

Beware that there's been some confusion about Hytale's luring system, as the craftable feed bag (farmer's workbench) promises the power to "lure animals." However, after testing this on multiple animal species, the feed bag doesn't seem to work that way.

---

How to tame animals in Hytale

Although breeding is not an option, you can tame your Hytale animals — to some extent, at least. New animals released into the enclosure are fully wild; they'll run away as soon as they see you. However, after spending roughly a day inside the enclosure together with a feed bag, some heart icons began to appear, indicating their tamed status.

To temper your expectations, this doesn't mean the animals will follow you around or start breeding, but they will no longer be afraid of you. So, instead of panicking, they will simply ignore your presence.

Without the feed bag as a food source inside the enclosure, the taming didn't work. To craft a feed bag, you must use the farmer's workbench and spend 10 wheat, five vegetables, five fruits, and 10 essence of life. Beware that re-capturing a semi-tamed creature will restore it to its old, wild state.

In case you're wondering, Hytale's chicken coop doesn't seem to work yet. Both freshly captured and previously tamed chickens immediately run away from the coop.

Since animals can't reproduce, it's best to hunt wild animals to gather hides and leather in Hytale's current state. Proper taming and breeding mechanics should be added to Hytale in the future, and when that happens, this guide will be updated.