Valheim Taming Guide: Boar, Wolf, Lox, Asksvin and Moose

Valheim's tameable creatures include Boar, Wolf, Lox, Asksvin, and now Moose in 1.0. Hens work differently and aren't part of this same system. Here's how the mechanic actually works, and what each animal needs.

How taming works

This section describes the previously documented animals. Moose-specific details are limited to the sourced section below.

Drop food near a wild creature — it'll walk over and eat it. Each successful feeding advances a hidden taming meter, visible as a percentage when you aim at the animal and as small hearts in-world. The creature cycles through states: Hungry (eats, but doesn't progress taming), Frightened (won't eat at all, shown by a red exclamation mark), Acclimatizing (calm and eating, progress advances), and Happy/Tamed (taming complete).

Taming needs a steady food supply and can be interrupted by fright. Exact duration and Brew of Animal Whispers multipliers are omitted pending verification. You don't need to stand and watch the whole time, but the area needs to stay active — wander too far and the zone unloads.

Getting scared pauses progress rather than resetting it outright, but a frightened or unfenced animal can simply run off and take your progress with it — which is why every guide agrees on penning the animal in before you start.

Boar (Meadows)

Food: blueberries, raspberries, red mushrooms, carrots, turnips, onions. Not yellow mushrooms.

Fencing: a relatively simple enclosure — a basic Roundpole fence holds a boar even when frightened. Keep the pen away from torches and campfires; boars startle near fire and won't eat while scared.

Wolf (Mountain)

Food: raw meat generically — boar, deer, lox, neck tail, raw fish, or sausages. Wolves won't eat wolf meat, seeker meat, or bear meat.

Fencing: a plain Roundpole fence isn't enough — a frightened wolf will smash through it. Use Stakewalls instead, and consider a small raised platform inside the pen so you can feed it without it clawing at you through the fence. Tamed wolves won't retaliate even if attacked, so keep the pen well away from other wolf territory — a wild wolf can kill your captive mid-tame with no pushback. Starred (higher-level) wolves try to despawn during daylight, so start or maintain taming a starred wolf at night.

Worth flagging: some sources claim wolves need a Fenris-tier item like Fenring hair to tame. That didn't check out against any source consulted for this page — plain raw meat is all that's actually required.

Lox (Plains)

Food: Cloudberries primarily, with Barley or Flax also cited.

Fencing: Lox are large enough that standard wood fencing is unreliable. Build a noticeably bigger enclosure than a boar or wolf pen, ideally stone or reinforced wood — or skip a formal pen and feed them repeatedly in the open, since Lox tame reasonably well even semi-wild.

Asksvin (Ashlands)

Food: Smoke Puffs, Vineberry Clusters, Fiddleheads.

Fencing: less standardized than the earlier animals — a dug pit is the most repeated approach, since higher-star Asksvin actively try to escape during the day. Once tamed and saddled (Asksvin Saddle, crafted at an upgraded Black Forge), a ridden Asksvin is immune to the lava surface itself, letting you cross lava lakes — though stray lava-geyser fireballs can still hit you, and you can't attack or jump while mounted.

Moose (1.0)

Iron Gate's release notes explicitly identify Moose as tameable and rideable. They also list Moose Calf and a craftable Moose Saddle. Food preferences, taming time, breeding conditions, and saddle recipe quantities are not published in the cited notes as of September 17, 2026; this guide does not infer them from other animals. See the Deep North reference.

Hens — a different mechanic

Hens aren't tamed from the wild the way the wild tameable creatures are. You get one already-tame, either bought as an egg from the trader Haldor or found as loot, then hatch it near a heat source. A fed hen lays an egg rather than producing live young directly; that egg needs to be kept warm near a fire to hatch into a chick, which matures into an adult hen over time.

Breeding

The following is the existing guidance for the earlier animals, not a verified Moose breeding procedure.

Once two tamed animals of the same species are both fed and Happy, and near each other, pink hearts appear and they can breed — a separate mechanic from the yellow hearts shown during taming. There's a periodic random chance each check to build toward a birth once both animals are well-fed and calm.

A population cap applies per species in a given local area — cram too many of the same animal into one pen and breeding stalls out until numbers drop. After a successful breed there's a short real-time delay before a baby appears, then a considerably longer maturation period before it reaches adulthood. Offspring inherit a parent's star rating and are born already tame — no need to re-tame babies born in captivity.

Once tamed

Boar: mainly a renewable food and leather-scraps source via breeding.

Wolf: fights alongside you as a combat companion, though it won't defend itself if attacked directly.

Lox: usable for hauling, and once saddled, a mount — faster than sprinting, ignores your carry-weight limit while ridden, and tramples smaller enemies, though you can't attack while mounted.

Asksvin: primarily a mount for crossing Ashlands lava safely once saddled.

Common mistakes

• Penning a boar near a torch or campfire — it never leaves the frightened state.
• Using a Roundpole fence for a wolf instead of Stakewalls.
• Approaching or repairing the fence while the animal is still alerted, which delays it calming back down.
• Taming near a wild spawn of the same species, risking an attack on your defenseless captive.

Sources: Official 1.0 patch notes, September 11 hotfix, 1.0 FAQ, Taming — Valheim Wiki (Fandom), Asksvin — Valheim Wiki (Fandom), Taming Guide: How to Tame Boars and Animals — Game8, How to tame boars, wolves and lox — GamesRadar+.