How to Tame Boars in Valheim

I think we’ve all tried to make friends with a wild animal at least once in our lives. There used to be a little rabbit that hung out outside my garage growing up, so I’d leave carrots out for him (not knowing that the whole rabbits and carrots thing is actually a common misconception). Of course, I’ve never had the guts to try and make nice with anything bigger than a rabbit, but then again, I’m not a Norseman. If you fancy yourself a proper Norseman, then here’s how you can tame boars in Valheim.

Besides all of the monsters lurking around in the world of Valheim, there’s also plenty of ordinary wild animals going about their business. One of the first kinds of animals you’ll likely encounter out in the wilderness is wild boars. Boars can be a bit territorial, but won’t usually bother you unless you give them a reason to. However, with a bit of work, you can tame these boars and either keep them as pets or breed them for their meat and hides.

Related: How to Summon and Defeat Eikthyr in Valheim

How to Tame Boars in Valheim

The one thing all wild animals instinctively want is free food. You give an animal food it likes, and they’ll like you. Ergo, in order to tame a boar, you’ll need to forage in the wilderness for food that they like, such as mushrooms, berries, and carrots. You’ll want to have a lot of food on you for this process, at least twenty items in total, as it’ll take more than just a couple of bites to get a boar on your side.

When you’ve got the food, go find a boar. They can show up in a lot of different places, but they’ll appear most frequently in a meadow biome. When you’ve found one, you might want to build an enclosure beforehand for later. You can either build one around the boar, or build one separately, get the boar’s attention, then have it chase you into it. 

To tame the boar, stand a few feet away from it, drop a piece of food on the ground, and back off. If you get too close, the boar will turn hostile, so let it do this at its own pace. Make sure to sneak up to it to drop the food. When the boar sees the food, it’ll walk over and start eating it. As it eats, it’ll gradually start to like you, and when you see little hearts over its head, that means it’s officially domesticated. At this point, the boar is officially your responsibility, so remember to feed it on a regular basis so it doesn’t starve.

If you tame multiple boars and put them in an enclosure together, they’ll mate and produce piglets, with which you can do whatever it is you were planning to do with these things in the first place (food, materials, pets, etc.). Just remember to expand your enclosure if their family starts getting bigger.

Be sure to check out our Valheim guides How do you Build a Chicken Farm in Valheim and How to Make Skoll and Hati in Valheim for more info on how to conquer the world of Valheim!