Animals provide a variety of resources for players in Hytale, from hides and meat to feathers, eggs, and more. Building a farm full of all sorts of animals is completely possible, but before you can even think about making one yourself, you’ll first need to know how to actually get animals to come with you.
Players can tame and capture animals in Hytale using a number of different tools that they must first craft. Once those tools are ready, it’s all about finding animals and learning how to befriend them without scaring them away, which is exactly what we’re going to cover in this guide.
How to Craft Backpack Upgrade in Hytale
Expand your inventory size in Hytale by crafting and upgrading your very own backpack.
Updated February 14, 2026 by Marc Santos: Update 3 for Hytale introduced a basic form of taming animals. Unlike the earlier versions of the game, mature animals can now be given food, making them friendly toward players. This mechanic can be used to collect all sorts of animals, letting players create farms without having to worry about animals trying to escape.
How to Lure Animals and Use Feed Bags in Hytale
Wild animals will usually run away from you when you approach them (unless they’re predators), and to prevent that from happening, you need to have a Feed Bag. You can craft this at a Farmer’s Workbench using the following:
- 10 Wheat
- 5 of any Vegetable
- 5 of any Fruit
- 10 Essence of Life
You can find all of these by exploring. They’re fairly common, but if you’re having trouble getting Essences of Life in Hytale, try harvesting vegetables and other crop plants like Wheat. You can farm the latter at your base by tilling some ground and planting Wheat seeds.
Now that you have a Feed Bag in your hands, some smaller prey animals should no longer run away from you when you approach them. As of writing, this typically applies to young or small animals like chicks, piglets, and rabbits.
Hearts will appear above an animal’s head while you’re holding a Feed Bag. However, not much else seems to happen, at least as far as the current version of the game is concerned, which suggests that the luring mechanic may be incomplete or not fully implemented yet.
Some animals can also be lured by holding specific kinds of food. Rabbits and horses, for example, are attracted to carrots, and they will follow you around if you have one in your hand.
How to Capture Animals in Hytale
Players can capture small animals like rabbits, chicks, and piglets by crafting a Capture Box, which is great if you want to keep some sources of leather or food nearby. To unlock the recipe for this, upgrade any Farmer’s Workbench to level 2 first using the following:
- 50 Essence of Life
- 5 Wheat
- 5 Lettuce
- 5 Softwood Trunks
Wheat and Lettuce Seeds can be crafted at Farmer’s Workbenches using Essences of Life. Plant them at your base, then harvest them for the upgrade. Meanwhile, Softwood Trunks can be harvested from Beech trees, which you can find in meadow biomes.
To use the Capture Box, simply hold it in your hands, aim at a small critter, then press Left Mouse Button. The animal will get trapped inside the box, and if you want to free it, simply press Left Mouse Button again.
Taming Animals with Food
Update 3 for Hytale implemented a basic version of animal taming. You can approach animals like sheep, boars, and chicken, then press your Interact key to see what types of food they want. They may run away when they first see you, but as long as you can give them their favorite food, they’ll immediately become friendly.
Tamed animals will follow you around, making them much easier to corral. When tamed, they’ll no longer try to run away, even if you don’t have food or a Feed Bag in your hands. With this, you’ll be able to get resources like milk and wool, or have horses ready as mounts in your base.
