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Wendy Portrait
What demented thoughts must lie behind those eyes.

Wendy

Beefalo are neutral Animals that spawn in the Savanna biome. Upon death, they drop 4 Meat, 3 Beefalo Wool, & 1 Beefalo Horn (33% chance). Shaving them while asleep also drops 3 Beefalo Wool, which will regrow in three days. When blown, Beefalo Horn causes up to 5 grown Beefalo to follow during daytime.

An injured Beefalo regenerates 6.9 Health Meter every 10 seconds. In Don't Starve Together icon, they have a maximum of 1000 health and a full regeneration takes 3 days. In Don't Starve icon, they have a maximum of 500 health and a full regeneration takes 1.5 days.

Beefalo drop Manure every 40-60 seconds, provided there is only 1 other Manure within 10 Tiles, and none within 4 tiles.

Considered innocent creatures, killing one adds 4 points to the player's Naughtiness level, which may spawn Krampus.

Baby Beefalo

Wortox Portrait
It belongs with its momma.

Wortox

Baby Beefalos are the offspring of Beefalo. They grow into a Toddler, then a Teen, and finally, an adult; each stage takes 3-5 days.

They follow their parent, cannot attack, and run away when approached. If the parent is killed, they will walk towards the murder spot, even if chased away a long distance. They roam around freely once they become adults.

Killing one raises Naughtiness by 6 points.

Brain Behavior

Herds

A sleeping herd.

All herds have a "home": the location they were formed in. Beefalo wander away from their home during Day & Dusk, and return to it if outside the wander limit. The herds tends to sleep closely packed together at Night.

A herd with less than four members may merge with any other, provided the new herd doesn't exceed 12 members. A full herd won't spawn any offspring, but will still have a Mating Season (or be "in heat"), as usual.

​Mating Season

Beefalo in heat

In-heat Beefalo have red rears.

There are 2 Mating Seasons per year. One lasts all Spring. A single beefalo can turn into a sizeable herd during the long Spring mating season.

The other mating season occurs in late Fall or early Winter and lasts 3 days. Baby Beefalo will spawn 1.5-2 days after that. Each herd goes into the Fall/Winter heat as a group and on a different different day than most other herds, which can aid in telling different herds apart. However, any members that reached adulthood late may not go into heat until the next cycle.

Beefalo in heat are effectively hostile, targeting any nearby mob, player, or pet, regardless of whether the beefalo is likely to win or lose. Beefalo in heat will also wake up if approached (e.g. for shaving). A Beefalo Hat negates these effects for the wearer, but any other nearby players, mobs, or pets will still draw aggro from beefalo in heat.

Spear Hunting

Beefalo attack every four seconds, making it easy to kite them by quickly striking 5-6 times before dodging. While possible to hit a Beefalo 7 times before dodging, doing this requires perfect timing which is hard to consistently do.

When one is attacked, 5 Beefalo in vicinity become aggressive; however, any Beefalo that was not attacked will lose interest quickly. [Verification Needed]

Although faster than the player, they must stop for a moment before attacking, allowing an easy escape.

One may lure a single Beefalo away from the herd by attacking it, bonding it with a Beefalo Bell (Don't Starve Together icon), or feeding it.

Below is the number of hits it takes with each weapon to kill an adult Beefalo (for characters with normal damage modifiers). The Weather Pain is not included due to the random nature of its projectile.

Weapon Fishing RodBug Net Lucy the Axe ShovelPitchforkHammerTorchWalking CaneWillow's Lighter Axe Pickaxe Luxury Axe Opulent Pickaxe Boomerang PickSlashAxe Spear Battle SpearBat Bat Ham Bat Morning Star Slurtle SlimeTentacle Spike Thulecite ClubTooth Trap Dark Sword Blow Dart Gunpowder Old Bell
No. of hits 118 37 30 19 17 15 12 9 - 17 7 or 12 10 9 8 5 3 1
No. of hitsDon't Starve Together icon 236 74 60 38 34 30 24 17 - 34 14 or 24 20 17 15 10 5 N/A

They take three blasts from the Ice Staff to be frozen; Baby Beefalo are immune.

Saddle Domesticating/Taming a Beefalo

Wilson Portrait
This one is slightly less smelly than the others.

Wilson, when examining a Domesticated Beefalo.

Overview

Taming a beefalo takes a considerable amount of time and resources, but can usually be started in the first few days of the game, making a beefalo among the fastest practical ways for the player to explore the non-ocean parts of the world. Food for the player and beefalo can be gathered while mounted and taming. In addition to providing high-speed transportation, a mounted beefalo is a melee weapon with unlimited durability and a shield for up to 1000 hp of melee damage absorption, which also regenerates health(though care must be taken not to let the beefalo be killed). The 'Pudgy' temperament also provides a sanity aura.

Advantages over other speed boosts

You needn't cobblestone the world(Or possibly cannot in DS, due to requiring rocky turf which isn't renewable without teleportato). Riding a beefalo negates speed penalties from equipping items like a Marble Suit or Piggyback and allows fast travel regardless of which hand or chest-slot items are equipped. A rider beefalo with a glossamer saddle is exactly twice the player's base speed, which takes up multiple equip slots and cobblestone to approach on foot. Once fully tamed, tendencies other than Ornery require no recurrent cost, unlike magiluminescence or coffee. A beefalo is the only way for a character other than a Mighty Wolfgang, Walter with the help of his dog Woby and Wanda with her Rift Watch to move heavy items like Suspicious Marbles and Celestial altar pieces overland quickly.

Mounted Combat Mechanics

One may freely make melee attacks with the Beefalo while mounted. Mobs' melee attacks will hit the Beefalo instead of the player, but ranged attacks (e.g. Clockwork Bishop, MacTusk) will target the rider directly. A Charged Volt Goat will also target the rider directly, although not being a ranged attack.

In DS, most hand-equipped items become the damage output, losing durability as normal. The Beefalo will only deal its own damage (including extra damage from War Saddle) if either nothing or one of the following items is equipped in the hand slot: Deconstruction Staff, Divining Rod, Lantern, Lazy Explorer, Pretty Parasol, Star Caller's Staff, Telelocator Staff, Umbrella; when attacking, these items don't lose durability. Another difference is that Characters' damage modifiers will also affect the output, for example: a Beefalo mounted by Wigfrid deals 25% more damage.

In DST, the combination of saddle and temperament determine the melee damage output (see tables below). If the player wields a ranged weapon while riding, it will be used instead of the beefalo's attack.

Mounting During Combat

Mounting a beefalo during a fight can be treacherous. Multiple enemies can keep either the Beefalo or the player stun-locked. The Beefalo can ignore the player's attempts to mount, or feed it healing foods, preferring to fight instead (especially while in heat). At night, the beefalo can also fall asleep (be especially careful of this in the caves where the day/night cycle is not always apparent).

An Ornery temperament, or not-fully-tamed beefalo often needs to be fed before mounting, making it a 2-step process. Once a beefalo is fully domesticated and the temperament is locked in, only the Ornery still needs to be fed before mounting. This is the main drawback of the Ornery temperament.

Mating Season vs. Taming

A fully domesticated beefalo will no longer go into heat or be influenced by mating season. However, heat poses multiple problems during the taming process. A shaved or in-heat beefalo will buck the player off in 1/3 the current ride duration. Even if the player wears a Beefalo Hat to overcome beefalo aggression, the beefalo will continue to aggro on other players, pets, and any nearby mobs, even if those mobs are likely to kill the beefalo.

A beefalo in heat can be left at a Salt Lick in a safe area until its season is over. In the Spring, 20 days is enough time for a single beefalo to turn into an entire new herd which will require several salt licks. Combined with beefalo wanting to fight every angry spring bee and the sanity drain of wearing a soggy beefalo hat all season, it's best to avoid domestication in Spring altogether.

If the Beefalo is in heat outside of Spring, taking the Beefalo into or out of the Caves will make it docile again. The same technique can be used to break herd allegiances (this may be a bug).

The 4 Attributes of Taming

There are four statistics track while taming a Beefalo:

  • Domestication - the over-all progress toward having a tendency locked into a fully domesticated beefalo.
  • Obedience - the beefalo's current willingness to be Saddled, mounted, or ridden
  • Hunger (and Health) - Beefalo slowly gain domestication while their hunger is above zero (or while being ridden). Health is covered here too because
    • It's an important part of beefalo care
    • Food provides a beefalo with 4x the health benefits (or detriments) that it would give a survivor
    • Non-food healing has a minimal affect on a beefalo's over-all health
  • Tendency - determines which special perks the Beefalo will have once fully tamed

Domestication (timer/attribute)

A beefalo can be tamed in a minimum of 15 game-days with a brush, 20 without. Beefalo gain 1/960 domestication every 10 seconds (5%/day) while being ridden OR while their hunger is above zero. Brushing once a day adds 1/60 Domestication (1.67%) for a maximum total of 6.67% domestication/day.

Beefalo lose from 0.017% (1/5760) to 0.052% (1/1920) every 10 seconds when not being ridden AND at zero hunger. The loss increases with the time elapsed since last gaining Domestication and reaches a maximum of 2.5%/day after 10 days of not being ridden, fed, or brushed. This results in a 100% loss of domestication (and accumulated tendency points) after 45 game days. Parking a Beefalo at a Salt Lick (by dropping its bell nearby and ideally removing the saddle with a Saddlehorn) will keep its Domestication from declining over time. In 2020, JazzyStarves said that leaving the beefalo in a distant corner of the map and running away (unloading the beefalo) also freezes domestication [Verification Needed]. Unless Klei adds some sort of unloaded beefalo logic the way they do for Bee Boxes, this should be a cheap an easy technique in a solo world.

A beefalo generates 300 hunger/day, so must be fed regularly to domesticate it without riding. Pudgy and Default tendencies can be trained this way. Pudgy points are gained when a Beefalo's hunger is above 187.5. This threshold can be avoided by feeding at least twice per day. A beefalo will fart when it's fed past 240 hunger (80%) as a sign to stop, or slow down feeding. Each overfeeding above 100% hunger results in regurgitation and removes 1% domestication.

The most economical Beefalo feed is Steamed Twigs which provides 100 hunger. A steamed twigs can be given before bed to avoid (the tiny) domestication loss while it sleeps through a long night, or three will keep a Beefalo fed for a day (for only 12 sticks!). Steamed Twigs can be made with fillers, allowing one to utilize otherwise unused food items to save twigs. Example: 3 butterfly wings and 1 twig, or 2 twigs and 2 honey.

To train an Ornery or Rider tendency, begin fighting with it or riding it almost constantly by the time domestication reaches 70% in order to complete enough training before the final feeding (see tendencies below).

An untamed Beefalo will buck the rider off every 15 seconds at 0 zero domestication. This increases with domestication to a real-world minute of riding time at 20% domestication (after about 4-5 days). The maximum is 800 seconds (13 minutes and 20 seconds). Especially in the beginning, it's important to dismount in safe areas before being bucked off during dangerous situations.

A Beefalo attacked by the owner loses 30% of Domestication, but this can be used to change the Tendency of a fully domesticated beefalo without starting over from zero. Attacking a Beefalo's offspring will not reduce its domestication, but it will anger the Beefalo and make it attack you.

Beefalo Tendencies

Domesticated Beefalo with groomed fur & different Tendencies.

At 100% Domestication, the Beefalo takes on a more groomed appearance. It no longer loses hunger, but must be fed once more to become fully domesticated. The final feeding locks in a Tendency based on the conditioning (see the Tendencies section below).

The following items can make domestication easier (in roughly decreasing order of usefulness):

  • Beefalo Bell - so you can lead it, even in and out of the caves
  • Crock Pot - to cook Steamed Twigs
  • Saddle - to ride it. There are 3 kinds, but the cheapest will do for taming.
  • Beefalo Hat - prevents the beefalo from attacking you when it goes into heat (it will continue to aggro on anything and anyone else within range). See the section on heat for additional details.
  • Brush - speeds domestication if you can afford it
  • Salt Lick - to give yourself a break, esp. during heat

Hunger (and Health)

Beefalo have a maximum of 375 Hunger Meter and lose 300 per day so fully taming one by feeding alone can cost up to 640 Twigs over 20 days. The most hunger is satisfied with Steamed Twigs (3x/day is 240 twigs total).

While riding, hunger is irrelevant, but feeding is still required to keep Obedience (see below) high enough for the beefalo to accept the rider again after a dismount (and to keep its saddle on while dismounted). Economical foods for obedience include Cut Grass, Foliage, Light Bulbs, Petals, Stone Fruit, and Twigs. Beefalo are strictly vegetarian and won't eat Meat-based food, generics like Glommer's Goop and Butter, or goodies like Frozen Banana Daiquiri, Jellybeans and Royal Jelly.

Beefalo take 4 times the foods' health effects, whether positive or negative. This makes healing foods much more effective than salves. Beefalo can also be fed certain inedibles such as Twigs, Cut Grass (and Cut Reeds in Don't Starve icon), Steamed Twigs, and Beefalo Treats.

The problem with beefalo healing is that it requires a dismount which can easily result in death of player and beefalo, or a boss can despawn during a fight. Because beefalo recover Health Meter over time, healing is most useful after a fight where the beefalo barely survives - a situation to avoid whenever possible!

Beefalo Treats wrapped in Bundling Wrap are wonderful in a pinch, but for the effort, they are not clearly superior to other vegetarian healing foods that the player can eat too. Dragonpie, Trail Mix, or Figatoni can be consumed by the player though none heal a beefalo as much as Beefalo Treats. Blue Caps can often be picked fresh and heal a player 20 points each, or a beefalo 80 points each. For a complete list of foods Survivors and beefalo can both eat, sort Food/Table by Spoil Time (descending), Healing (desc.), DST Type (desc.).

Foods for Beefalo (most potent/common only)
Icon Food DLC Hunger Health Health×4 Perish time (days) Prep
Beefalo Treats Beefalo Treats Don't Starve Together icon 25 75 300 10d Crock Pot
Dragonpie Dragonpie 75 40 160 15d Crock Pot
Trail Mix Trail Mix Reign of Giants iconDon't Starve Together icon 12.5 30 120 15d Crock Pot
Butter Muffin Butter Muffin 37.5 20 80 15d Crock Pot
Blue Cap Blue Cap 12.5 20 80 10d
Steamed Twigs Steamed Twigs Don't Starve Together icon 100 15 60 10d Crock Pot
Glow Berry Glow Berry 25 11 44 10d
Cut Grass Cut Grass 4.6875 1 4 Never
Cut Reeds Cut Reeds Don't Starve icon 4.6875 1 4 Never
Light Bulb Light Bulb 0 1 4 6d
Twigs Twigs 9.375 0.5 2 Never

Obedience

Obedience is a scale from 0-100 representing a beefalo's willingness to be ridden. A wild Beefalo has an obedience of zero and becomes hostile if someone tries to put a saddle on it. A Beefalo being tamed cannot be saddled with Obedience lower than 10%, shakes off its saddle below 40%, and refuses to be mounted below 50%. More Obedience means more riding time until the beefalo bucks the character off at 50% (a longer "buck timer").

Obedience increases by 40% when brushed (once/day max), 10% when fed.

Obedience decays at a rate of about 1%/minute or 50%/game-day. [Verification Needed] Overfeeding decreases it by 30%; mob attacks by 1%; being shaved or attacked by the player reduces it to zero. Fully domesticated beefalo take on the minimum Obedience of their domesticated temperament, but all temperaments are higher than zero (only the ornery minimum requires the player to usually feed it before mounting).

Foliage, Light Bulbs, and Petals increase Obedience but not Domestication, as they provide zero hunger. One must feed something with calories, or ride or brush the beefalo for it to gain Domestication.

(Don't Starve Together iconKeeping beefalo hunger above 0 decreases rate of decay on obedience, i.e. your obedience will last at least twice as long if you feed the beefalo to 300.) [Verification Needed]

Tendencies

A Glossamer saddle on a Rider Temperament provides the fastest land-travel in the game. An Ornery beefalo with a War Saddle can be a significant fighting force against all but a few of the most powerful bosses. A Pudgy temperament has the same sanity aura as Glommer or a Friendly Fruit Fly Fruit. The Default tendency is a compromise between Ornery and Rider (no sanity aura).

The tendency can be identified by the facial features of the the tamed and untamed beefalo. It will change in response to tendency points gained, but gives no benefits until the animal is fully tamed and a tendency is locked in (in-training beefalos has Default tendency characteristics, regardless of the face). Whichever tendency is dominant at the final feeding is locked into the domesticated beefalo. The only way to change it is to attack the domesticated beefalo, which costs 30% domestication (at least 6-7 days of training).

Here are the 4 tendencies and their attributes. Damage and speed are also affected by saddle choice which is broken out in a table below.

  • Base Obedience is the minimum obedience level of the fully domesticated beefalo (Below 50 means you sometimes have to feed it before mounting).
  • Base Speed is with no saddle, or unmounted.
  • Saddle refers to the basic riding Saddle and its 1.4× speed boost.
  • Damage is without a War Saddle
  • Training Method describes how to accumulate points for that specific tendancy before domestication is complete.
Tendency Base Obedience Base Speed Saddle Damage Training Method Notes
Default
Default
80% 7 9.8 34 Dominant tendency total < sum of other 2. Same stats as a wild Beefalo.
Ornery
Ornery
45% 7 9.8 50 +0.004/attack made or received. Must be fed before mounting.
PudgyDomesticatedBeefalo
Pudgy
60% 6.5 9.1 20 +0.000416/sec when hunger > 50%.


+0.02 each overfeeding (but decreases domestication).

Sanity +6.25/min.
Rider
Rider
95% 8 11.2 25 +0.000416 per second when mounted. Useful for fast travel (and kiting with a strong weapon in Don't Starve icon).
Default vs. Ornery: Feed Before Mounting

A Default beefalo and an Ornery one have the same speed. The difference between them is an increase in damage (from Ham Bat to Darksword) at the cost of having to feed before mounting.

When an Ornery (or not-fully-domesticated) beefalo's obedience drops below 50%, it must be fed before mounting and may decide to fight or fall back asleep rather than accept food! This can easily result in the accidental death of the survivor, beefalo, or both. Be especially careful in the caves because it's easy to lose track of time-of-day there.

Speed vs. Damage Trade-offs

While an ornery beefalo with any saddle(or default beefalo with a war saddle) is fantastic for day-to-day mobs, the time and resource cost of taming one makes their death a devastating setback. Without very good kiting, beefalo will wear down quickly in long boss fights, and healing them requires getting off of them which can expose one to danger.

Most beefalo are primarily ridden as rapid transportation, and/or as an infinite durability weapon against common smaller mobs, especially 400hp Terrorbeaks, 300hp Crawling Horrors, and 100hp Spiders. The number of hits to kill a mob determines how quickly you can dispatch one, which in turn can possibly determine how many opponents you can face at once. Assuming that anyone will upgrade the basic saddle to either a glossamer or war saddle, here are the available temperament and saddle combinations along with their speed and damage:

Additional Columns:

  • Boost Comparison - the most common non-beefalo items that provide a similar Survivor Speed boost
  • Damage - in hp
  • Weapon - the most common weapon that deals that approximate amount of damage.
  • Hits to 400 - The number of hits it will take to kill a Terrorbeak, Spider Warrior, or Dangling Depth Dweller (all have 400 hp)
  • Hits to 300 - Number of hits to kill a Crawling Horror (has 300 hp). This is the most common shadow monster fought when "farming" nightmare fuel and a non-degrading weapon is ideal for this task.
  • Hits to 100 - Number of hits to kill a Spider, Red Hound, Blue Hound, Frog, Bee, etc. (all have 100hp)
Temperament & Saddle Speed Boost Comparason Damage Weapon Hits to 400 Hits to 300 Hits to 100
Rider & Glossamer 12.4 Unmatched 25 Axe (27.2) 16 12 4
Ornery & Glossamer 10.85 Cobblestones + Walking Cane + Magilum (10.5) 50 Tentacle Spike (51) 8 6 2
Default & Glossamer 10.85 Cobblestones + Walking Cane + Magilum (10.5) 34 Regular spear (34) 12 9 3
Pudgy & Glossamer 10.075 Cobblestones + Walking Cane (9.3) 20 Walking Cane (17) 20 15 5
Rider & Battle 10.4 Cobblestones + Walking Cane + Magilum (10.5) 30 Axe (27.2) 14 10 4
Ornery & Battle 9.1 Cobblestones + Walking Cane (9.3) 55 Tentacle Spike (51) 8 6 2
Default & Battle 9.1 Cobblestones + Walking Cane (9.3) 39 Battle spear (41.5) 11 8 3
Pudgy & Battle 8.45 Cobblestones + Thulecite Club (8.4) 25 Axe (27.2) 16 12 4
Rider & War 10 Cobblestones + Walking Cane (9.3) 41 Wigfrids Spear (42.5) 10 8 3
Ornery & War 8.75 Cobblestones + Thulecite Club (8.4) 66 Darksword (68) 7 5 2
Default & War 8.75 Cobblestones + Thulecite Club (8.4) 50 Tentacle Spike (51) 8 6 2
Pudgy & War 8.125 Cobblestones (7.8) 36 Regular spear (34) 12 9 3

Prototype Tips

  • An unmounted beefalo does not know when to run away from a fight and can quickly get itself into fatal trouble with a variety of hostile mobs, spring bees especially. A wall (or row of close-planted pine trees?) can discourage interaction between bees and beefalo, but distance is the safest buffer. Run away from the scene with the bell on your person, or toss it in a wormhole.
  • A saddlehorn is not required to swap between two saddles - Attempting to put a saddle on a saddled beefalo will remove the other saddle. This can be used as an advantage, for example for a default beefalo who wants to swap between glossamer saddle for getting around and war saddle for fighting. (Especially important for default to reach the 50 damage threshold)
  • If one is unable to keep Beefalo's Obedience above 40% during training, remove the saddle with a Saddlehorn to preserve saddle durability. When choosing not to ride the Beefalo this way, leave the beefalo's bell (and therefore the beefalo) at a Salt Lick to avoid loss of Domestication.
  • The first season is a good time to start taming a beefalo, as the player will presumably spend most of it exploring the map. This will greatly speed up exploration and mitigate the need to keep the beefalo fed.
  • When rushing the Ruins, one can bond a Beefalo using a Beefalo Bell in advance. It will follow the player into the Caves and into the Ruins, and can be killed whenever the player needs its Meat for a Ham Bat. This way the player can craft up to two Ham Bats when they find the ruins, without the meat spoiling before they get there.
  • Similarly, the Beefalo Bell can be used to safely lure a single Beefalo far enough away from its herd, allowing the player to kill it one on one.
  • Bees, Baby Tentacles, and Lureplants can be used to quickly gain Ornery points. Bees and Baby Tentacles deal rapid, yet small damage, and can be killed quickly. Eyeplants can be dispatched before they hit. Be wary with Baby Tentacles, as they can overpower and kill the Beefalo if deep in their field.
  • The speed penalty from the Piggyback or Marble Suit doesn't apply when riding a Beefalo. Thus, a Beefalo can allow carrying more items or better protection from ranged attacks from Clockwork Bishops and MacTusk without the speed penalty.
  • Taming a Beefalo can be additionally advantageous for the following characters:
    • Wendy and Wes: Their -25% damage penalty does not affect the Beefalo, (Don't Starve Together icon) but Abigail's damage bonus does affect the Beefalo.
    • Wormwood and Maxwell: Their health-related downsides are mitigated by the Beefalo absorbing the melee attacks. Wormwood attracts bees while blooming, so extra care must be taken in spring to not accidentally have bees swarm and kill an unmounted beefalo.
    • Walter: Unlike Woby, Beefalo's hunger doesn't affect its speed and won't buck the player off when it takes damage. This makes kiting and sling-shotting more consistent. Protection from melee damage and dealing melee damage without losing durability are huge advantages for preserving sanity and inventory slots for slingshot ammunition.
  • If the rider is wearing either the Scalemail or the Bramble Husk, their counterattack properties will still trigger when the Beefalo is attacked without losing durability. While the Scalemail must be used with caution lest the flames get out of control, the Bramble Husk could prove invaluable against hordes of enemies that could stunlock the Beefalo. This does not apply in Don't Starve Together icon.
  • General domestication strategy
    • Consider using a mod to make the beefalo's Obedience, Domestication, Hunger, and Health visible.
    • Bond a beefalo with the Beefalo Bell
    • Feed at least one item with a hunger value. Feed the beefalo 10 items total to achieve 100% Obedience. Plentiful foods like Twigs, Cut Grass, Foliage, Petals or Lightbulbs are ideal.
    • Saddle and mount.
    • After 15 seconds, dismount or be bucked off. Bucking doesn't hurt anything, but dismounting is quicker and doesn't stun-lock you, so it's often worthwhile to count the seconds and choose to dismount somewhere safe, rather than be momentarily stunned on the ground with things attacking you. It's especially important to choose your dismount times at night because the beefalo will quickly go to sleep when not mounted.
    • To remount, feed a cheap item or two and hop back on. If it does not let you mount, its Obedience is below 50%. Feed it enough items to max out its Obedience again.
    • If Obedience drops below 40% while unmounted, the beefalo will shake off it's saddle, decreasing the saddle's durability - avoid this by feeding to 100% obedience every 3 minutes, or removing the saddle.
    • At first, the buck timer increases by about 1 second each mounting. The timer increases in bigger increments later on. At 20% domestication (4 days with a brush, 5 without) the beefalo will let you ride for a whole minute before bucking.
    • After about 3 minutes of riding, a partially tamed beefalo's Obedience will be low enough (40%) that it will quickly shrug out of its saddle if you dismount for more than a second or two. Dismount before that point, then feed immediately to increase Obediance above 40%.
    • Brush the Beefalo once a day if a Brush is available. Additional brushing will waste Brush durability without adding Domestication.
    • Feeding before riding is for obedience only.
    • Feeding after riding is to keep hunger above zero in order to continue the gain of Domestication. The most economical food for this is Steamed Twigs.
    • Leave an undomesticated Beefalo by a Salt Lick to avoid loss of Domestication in case hunger drops to zero while the player isn't riding it.
    • Start checking for your preferred tendency by 70% domestication. It takes time to turn a beefalo from Rider or Pudgy to Ornery. Default is the trickiest as you have to balance multiple kinds of training. The tendency will be locked in with the final feeding at 100% domestication. The domestication and hunger timers continue to run down until that final feeding, so you need it to be your desired tendency before that point.
    • When crafting a Glossamer Saddle or War Saddle, consider using a Construction Amulet to mitigate the high cost of these items.

Placeholder Trivia

  • Real Beefalo are man-made hybrids between American Bison and domesticated cattle, intended for increased beef production.
  • The Baby Beefalo sound clips are just the normal Beefalo sounds sped up.
  • A Baby Beefalo growing to its next stage has the same animation as an adult re-growing its wool.
  • Trapping a Baby Beefalo in a pen made of walls will cause it to try to get to its parents, but it is unable to due so because of the pen.
  • Maxwell has said the Koalefant is a distant cousin of the Beefalo. This might explain the slight visual similarities between the two.
  • Beefalo in DST take 4 times the effect of food that they eat, whether it's positive or negative. This means that, for example, a Blue Cap fed to a Beefalo will heal it for 80 .
  • Beefalo also have their own emotes, used when mounted by the player.
  • A Baby Beefalo and an adult Beefalo appear in the animated short Possessions.
  • Domestication and mounting were introduced to DST in A New Reign, and to DS in the Quality of Life update.
  • During the development of Wolfgang's Character Rework, it was once planned for him to be able to carry a whole Beefalo. However, this idea was ultimately scrapped.
  • Sound Designer Mattesque made a Beefalo Song, which was published on the official Klei YouTube channel. [1]
    • There is also an alternate version called Le Beefalo Chanson, which was posted on the Klei YouTube channel, but is only available via the link.
  • Developer autographs are included within the Beefalo files.

Mosquito Bugs

mouseover
  • Beefalo may sleep at Dusk instead of at Night.
  • In DST, an angry Beefalo may give chase indefinitely.
  • When entering or exiting a Cave, a Beefalo may spawn and follow the player.

Blueprint Gallery


  1. Mattesque said on forums: "Ok. So the song is done! My madness finally sees the light of day. Thank you all so much for contributing to this. It really wouldn't be as epic as it is with out all of you. Here are links to the MP3 and WAV versions of the song. MP3 is really the one for listening to. But I'm putting up the higher quality one to see what you guys will do next. Please remix, cover, do stuff to it. But please nothing commercial and attribute us on it as the original. Basically a Creative Commons license. (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International to be exact.)"
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