Domestic animals produce many valuable resources but can be time-consuming to maintain. Looking after them gets easier and easier as you gain skills and experience.
Early on it makes sense to share the responsibility with your friends.
Sheep can be found scattered around the countryside in grassy areas. They’re very cute and very heavy. You can attempt to slaughter an unrestrained sheep, though your odds of success are extremely low. Depending on your talent points, you can probably carry one or two back home. They do not fit in boxes, so you’re stuck carrying them until you build or borrow a pen. Once a sheep is housed, you can keep it as a breeder or easily slaughter it for resources. Most regions will have some public sheep pens available for slaughtering.
Sheep eat onions, which means you’ll need onion seeds to grow a steady supply of food. There are a few ways to get them.
In addition to providing a slow but steady supply of dung, as well as valuable oil and leather, mutton, and maybe bones from slaughtering them - Sheep can also be sheared to produce wool.
Camels are resource intensive to maintain, but valuable. Start making straw as soon as you can. Build a Dromedary Pen and load in some straw. Every night wild camels will wander around to find an open pen with the most straw and enter the pen, eating every scrap of food. Feed them well and you will be rewarded.
Camels are sneakier than sheep. To acquire one, you need to build a Dromedary Pen and fill the manger with straw. Each night, a single camel invisibly prowls the area for the open pen with the most straw, where it will settle, eating every scrap of food. To lure in a camel, you’re competing with everyone else in your area to have the most tempting Dromedary Pen. You can catch as many camels as you like, though gathering that much straw is challenging. Close the door to stop luring new camels.
Once you have a reliable source of straw Camels produce a steady supply of dung, as well as leather, oil, camel meat, and maybe bones from slaughtering them. They can also provide Camel Milk for a short time after being fed Honey.
Bees make honey, of course, and beeswax which is needed for industrial processes. Finding a Queen Bee can be tricky, but once installed in a hive, they quickly get to work provided they are not crowded too much.
Be warned, the species of bee domesticated is highly territorial, and will leave if other hives are too close by.
Wild cattle can be found feeding in the wilderness. As you gain skills, the cows can be milked to make cheese. Bulls can be hitched to a plough and used for farming vegetables. Both produce extra resources when slaughtered and will breed when well cared for.
Pigs are mostly used as pets and to find coloured clays. With more skills you can capture and breed them for a plentiful supply of meat, fat, bacon and bones – all of which will come in useful or can be traded.
Rabbits are cute, but fairly demanding, with a few specific uses, including falcon food. Their fur is used for polishing crystals. They eat carrots and run away if their numbers get too high, or they sense they are running out of food.
Wild rabbits can be caught by dropping piles of carrots on the ground. If you wait, and watch carefully, you can grab them quickly while they're eating.
Fish, Cobras, Cicadas, Gazelles, Falcons, Bullfrogs, Oysters, Desert Rats, Insects and other animals can be seen, heard or captured for various purposes. Keep your eyes out when travelling through the desert! Discovery is part of the fun!