Animal Domestication Questions

[Insomnium]

I've only been playing H&H for a couple of weeks now, and i was wondering what all i needed to do to tame animals. I have rope. I just don't know if ill get my ass handed to me by a cow/ram. So far I've only really been focusing on being ranged and increasing my Marksman skill. After reading a few forums i learned that i apparently need to have unarmed combat leveled? If someone could give me a walkthrough of how to get some barn animals, that would be awesome.

[Kahim]

Here is how you do it. You need a rope equipped and it doesnt matter what your unarmed is lower is actually better.

Find the cows at this point get osme branches and put up "traps" (traps are piles of wood where only one peice of wood has been put in and it traps the animal.)

After ALL the cows or sheep are pinned punch a cow till yuo get 2 initative tokens

Once you have this use opperturnity knocks. Do this a few times to gain a good amount of tokens.

After you have enough tokens you will need to sidestep the cow till you have the advantage all the way up in your favor. Then consume the flames

Consuming the flames will harm you so i suggest eatting food to keep your hunger up so it can heal you.

After you have full combat advantage and the battle intesity is 0 quell the beast.

Just repeat this a few times and youll get either a cow or a bull a ram or a sheep

[DeadlyPencil]

the cows hit 20+ so if your new, they will beat you down fast.

[A_Big_Bear]

If your wondering why to build traps, it's because they swarm you.

[Insomnium]

could you please explain why i should be doing those? i mean i very vaguely understand the game mechanics of the fighting? I read the "how do i" forum on the attack maneuvers, but that only slightly helped. what does it mean when it says "the battle intensity?" So far the only thing i really had to do was fire arrows pew pew so... i never really had to learn how to fight.

[Loopoo]

Isn't the whole point of trapping the cows to stop them from hitting you?

Also, does it work if I have a bow equipped? Or must I have a rope equipped?

I'd do this, but I just don't have 50 minutes of constantly spamming buttons...

[Lothaudus]

could you please explain why i should be doing those? i mean i very vaguely understand the game mechanics of the fighting? I read the "how do i" forum on the attack maneuvers, but that only slightly helped. what does it mean when it says "the battle intensity?" So far the only thing i really had to do was fire arrows pew pew so... i never really had to learn how to fight.

I know very little about the combat system but this is what I've gleaned about the basics from my various attempts. Readers should be advised I make no guarantees as to the accuracy of this information and it may in fact change at any time. I also need to advise that I've only managed to partially tame a single Ram (after slaughtering four entire herds)... Which I then killed anyway while trying to tame it completely. That doesn't include the partially tamed animal I lost during a server crash while I was walking it back to camp.


1. When Animals Attack

When you begin combat (that is, you choose an attack from your menu and click on an animal), if it's a herd animal, then the entire herd will zerg rush you. n00bs should expect to be KO'd and raped repeatedly but I recommend you try it all the same. They can't kill you and it's always fun to learn.



The red circles with swords next to the animal's picture means they are aggressive and want to attack you. One of the swords represents your stance, the other is the animals. You can click this circle next to each animal to offer peace (your stance will change to an olive branch). They usually won't accept it unless you've beaten most of their friends to death. In other words, it's only worth it if you see a green olive branch being offered by the animal already (like when a Boar runs away).

You can click on the portraits with your attacks and you will attack that animal. This makes it easier to ensure you're focussing your efforts on the same animal. However, whichever one you click will become first in the list, so there's no real way of telling them apart (that I can tell).

I have no idea what the numbers in the boxes (0 0) mean. I guess combat advantage and battle intensity.


2. Combat Advantage

When you attack something (or something attacks you) the "time of day" image up top center changes into a set of scales with a number beneath them.



The scales themselves are showing who has the Combat Advantage. Who gets the advantage appears to be some-what random (sometimes things will go in your favour, sometimes not). If the scales are tipped to the left (as in the image below), then you have the advantage. If they are tipped to the right, then your opponent has the advantage. The scales usually start off perfectly balanced.



Whomever has the advantage will hit more often, so you generally want to have the advantage. That means attacking while you don't have the advantage will cause you to miss a lot (generally speaking). So you have to use the various Combat: Attacks, Moves & Maneuvers to tip the balance in your favour.

You need to have the scales tipped completely in your favour in order to Quell the Beast.


3. Battle Intensity

This is the number below the scales. It goes from 0 to 10.



Haven't really worked out what it does yet but if you're trying to tame an animal, it needs to be 0. During the battle and as you attack, the intensity will increase and decrease so once again, you will have to use the various combat moves to reduce intensity down to 0 before you can attempt to Quell the Beast.


4. Combat Bar

When you are in combat, the combat bar will appear at the bottom of the interface.



Attack: The attack shown is the attack you are attempting to perform on the animal. Punch, Chop, Swing, side-step etc...

Maneuver: This is the combat maneuver you're using. Combat Meditation, Dodge and so on.

Initiative: These gold coins build-up during combat. They build-up when you miss. There are various combat moves you can make that use initiative points, with various costs and benefits to the combat. There are also some combat moves you can make which will increase the number of initiative points you have. The short version is that you need these initiative points in order to use most of the combat moves in order to tip the battle in your favour. Using a combat move without having enough initiative to use it means nothing will happen.

Purple Bar: The purple bar is the time you have until you can make your next attack. Some attacks are quicker than others, some take a lot more time, various combat moves will speed this up or slow it down.


5. Taming the Beast

To actually tame the animal requires the use of "Quell the Beast". As with all combat moves, it has a number of requirements that need to be met before you can even attempt to use it:

1. Full combat advantage.
2. 0 combat / battle intensity.
3. Two initiative points.
4. An equipped rope.

If you try to use it without all of those conditions being met, nothing will happen and you will be all like "WTF? did something happen?" and the answer is "No, nothing happened". So, as you attack an animal you will gain and lose combat advantage, initiative and combat intensity. The trick to taming is to get them all at once.

First of all, that means building up a lot of initiative points. Use the various moves and maneuvers to do that.

Once you have enough initiative, you can use some of the other moves to gain full combat advantage. Keep in mind that combat moves CAN AND DO FAIL from time to time. There's no guarantee of success. You'll have to keep trying until it works.

Now with full combat advantage (scales tipped completely in your favour) and some some initiative points to spare, you'll need to get battle intensity down to 0. Once again, use the moves available that reduce battle intensity.

Finally and hopefully having enough initiative points left after all of that, you can attempt to Quell the Beast. Oh yeah, you need to have a rope equipped too. Don't forget that.

... and you need to Quell the Beast 5 times to completely tame it before it will morph into a domesticated animal that you can fence in at camp. It will take at least an hour to tame a single animal.

There are all sorts of quirks and quite frankly, some really dumbass exploits you can use to get more ini and keep ini and other things. Just read the forums or ask in IRC if you want to know what those are. It's tricky, it takes time to master and it's a little bit different than just "Click arrow; shoot at Cow" but it's fun. Expect to fail repeatedly until you get the hang of it. Most of the players who seem to have large herds already are those who know the combat system a lot better than I do.

[Kahim]

Nicely done I approve this guide

[Alamarian]

Was it really necessary to quote ALL of that?

[Insomnium]

GOOD LORD MAN! NOW THAT, IS WHAT I CALL DEDICATION.