Taming

Saddles, rider presets, saddlebags, genetics and map tracking for your server's chosen companions. Taming works alongside LetMeTameYou and MountUpRestored.

Install on server and clients. Menus and notifications follow Valheim's language: English, French, Russian and Simplified Chinese, with English as fallback.

What Taming adds

• Saddles and dorsal carriers: 19 styles for compatible mounts, with independent saddle, rider and cargo placement. Makeshift saddles suit horizontal creatures; carriers suit upright bipeds.
• Riding: optional player-style movement, sprint, flight/diving controls, reticle-directed native attacks, charged attacks and mounted bows/crossbows.
• Saddlebags: 6 slots per pair and one pair per mount by default; configurable second pair, recipes, capacity and weight limits. Contents persist and are recoverable after death. Bipeds carry a backrest backpack.
• Map tracking: species portraits or initials, visibility filters and multiple favorites per species; last known positions for unloaded animals.
• Sex and variants: configurable sex/size/stat traits, four Bjorn coats and three-generation inheritance, three Asksvin coats, Moose traits and spotted female zero-star Deer.
• Protection: Follow/Stay defense for Bjorn, Lox, Asksvin, Moose, Greyling and Greydwarf; the four large mounts can guard allied players while their master is offline.

Taming supplies feeding/taming rules for Greyling, Greydwarf, Hare and Bjorn, plus Bjorn/hare breeding and growth. Other species retain native/dependency rules. It does not automatically tame every species, enable universal breeding or invent attacks. Mounts require compatible attachments.

Menus

F9 — player settings

Menu	Purpose
Species / Saddle or Rider carrier	Select the species and equipment style to configure.
Saddle	Choose an attachment and adjust the model's position, rotation and scale; automatic fit provides a starting layout.
Rider	Adjust the rider's attachment, position and orientation independently.
Panniers	Position cargo or attach it to a carrier backrest. Capacity is configured by the server.
Server / My presets / Favorites	Browse shared/personal presets, star favorites, delete personal entries or double-click to preview.
Manage preset	Create, duplicate, rename, save or delete a preset.
Copy/reuse a placement	Copy saddle, rider or cargo settings between styles, or adapt a placement from another species.
Share	Export preset packs and inspect/import shared packs into the personal library.
Server administration — admins	Save and manage shared presets and species defaults.
Family tree / Bjorn genetics	View recorded ancestry and Bjorn offspring probabilities with a partner.
Map and favorites	Show/hide species or individual animals; select favorites or display favorites only. These choices are personal.

Preview locally is temporary; Apply to this animal shares the placement. Save records a personal choice per world/species/style; templates can be reused across servers. Restore server placement clears that override. Theme and UI-scale controls adjust readability.

Shift + F9 — administrator tools

Step	Purpose
1 · Reference	Select/tame a permitted creature, set sex rules or create a named test animal with a chosen level/sex. Natural creatures offers crosshair selection and confirmed removal.
2 · Source	Choose the starting preset or reference layout.
3 · Saddle	Calibrate the saddle or dorsal carrier.
4 · Rider	Calibrate the rider's attachment and position.
5 · Panniers	Adjust cargo placement and species storage settings.
6 · Check	Preview the layout during available native rest, movement and attack animations.
7 · Save	Save a personal preset or shared server default.

Despawn requires removing riders, equipment and cargo; natural creatures need confirmation. Both panel shortcuts are rebindable in [Client].

Controls and crafting

• Use: mount/dismount. Left Alt + Use: remove an unoccupied saddle. Shift + Use: rename supported companions.
• TAB while riding or aiming at a mount opens player + mount inventories; SHIFT + TAB removes one empty bag pair.
• Common controller: ZQSD / WASD, Sprint, double-tap Jump to charge; held Jump / Crouch to ascend/descend on flying or marine mounts.
• Equipped bows/crossbows retain normal draw, fire, cancel, reload, ammunition and stamina rules while mounted.
• Choose saddle/carrier models through the crafting recipe's Style submenu or F9. Saddlebags cost 10 iron, 20 leather scraps, 20 bronze nails and 15 troll hides at a level 1 workbench by default.

Choose your server's creatures

Configure BepInEx/config/Zephyrfit.Taming.cfg and dependency YAML using exact prefab IDs. Lists are comma-separated: * means all, an empty allowlist means none, and exclusions take priority.

Goal	Where to configure it
Natural taming, food and breeding	LetMeTameYou YAML: consumeItems, tamingTime, procreation; exclude species with removeTameable: true. For Taming's four added species, choose Owned taming rule priority = Dependencies in [Mount Bridge] to use YAML values; breeding has its own priority.
Admin tame/catalog selection	[Administrative Taming] Allowed prefabs (default *) and Forbidden prefabs. Exclusions and LetMeTameYou removals win. Diets/breeding remain separate.
F9, saddles and storage	[Mount Bridge] Allowed mounted prefabs; use Automatic saddle support or a MountUpRestored declaration. Existing declarations take precedence.
Actual riding permissions	[Mount Bridge] Allowed riding prefabs (default *) and priority Forbidden mounted prefabs. The integration list alone is not a riding ban.
External ZQSD/WASD, attacks and jump/charge	Add the ID to both Allowed mounted prefabs and [Mount Controls] External mounted controls prefabs. Empty by default: external controls are retained.
Set sex and cargo rules	[Server Rules] Additional tameable sex mode / Species sex mode overrides; [Mount Storage] defaults and [Mount Bridge] Species storage overrides.

Example: six riding species, with Taming's controller for Wolf/Boar:

[Mount Bridge]
Allowed mounted prefabs = Bjorn,Lox,Asksvin,Moose,Wolf,Boar
Allowed riding prefabs = Bjorn,Lox,Asksvin,Moose,Wolf,Boar

[Mount Controls]
External mounted controls prefabs = Wolf,Boar

Natural food-taming is selected separately. Troll / Drake / Fuling Berserker IDs are Troll / Hatchling / GoblinBrute: configure food taming in LetMeTameYou, then riding/integration above. External bows/crossbows work independently of common movement; Prefer external mounted combat retains recognized providers' weapon settings, including OdinHorse.

Administrator console commands

Use F5 in a connected client (-console launch option). Admin actions require server-recognized rights through adminlist.txt.

Command	Purpose
tame	Admin: tame permitted supported creatures within 20 m; normal console command permissions apply. Food, breeding and riding remain separate.
zf_breeding	Admin: inspect loaded breeding animals within 50 m, pregnancy times and ZDO IDs.
zf_pregnancy_advance target 1h	Admin: advance an existing pregnancy. Replace target with an exact ZDO ID if needed; maximum 168h.
zf_defense	Admin: request nearby Bjorn defense reports.
zf_status, zf_companion, zf_bear_food, zf_guard	Read-only configuration, companion feeding, bear food and guard reports.
zf_input 30	Record mounted-input diagnostics for 30 seconds.
zf_reload	Hosting instance only: reload Taming's CFG; not a remote dedicated-server reload command.

Pregnancy advance requires a loaded animal with native Procreation; birth uses its next native update. It does not start pregnancy, hatch eggs, accelerate growth or change world time. Use the game console, not the hosting provider's console.

Installation

Install through Gale or a compatible mod manager on the server and every client, using matching versions. Required dependencies: BepInExPack_Valheim, Jotunn, Valheim10Compatibility, LetMeTameYou and MountUpRestored.

Manual DLL path: BepInEx/plugins/Zephyrfit-Taming/ZephyrfitTaming.dll. Keep one copy and existing configuration/presets. Dedicated servers: see SERVER_INSTALL.md.

💬 Help, bug reports and suggestions

Discord: zephyrfit
User ID: 251341133085540352

I can help in English and French with installation, bug reports and suggestions. Contributions are welcome. For a bug report, include the game and mod versions, reproduction steps and BepInEx/LogOutput.log. Screenshots or a short video are useful for visual issues.

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Created by Zephyrfit · Independent Valheim community mod, built on LetMeTameYou and MountUpRestored. Logo created with AI assistance.