Valheim guide: How to tame and breed wolves

In this Valheim guide, we’ll show you how to tame wolves. With the right plan, you can turn these dangerous creatures into companions for hunting. If you tame more than one, you can even breed wolves.

How to tame wolves in Valheim

Taming wolves in Valheim requires fearlessness and a good plan. To begin the process of taming wolves, you’ll need:

• A good patch of area in the mountain biome
• A workbench
• A pen for your wolves
• Some food like raw meat
• Time

If you want to tame wolves, build a workbench in the mountain biome.

You could establish a wolf pen near wherever you are prepping for your fight with Moder. Considering that the fight requires a fair bit of work before you summon the flying creature, a mountain base is a good place to set up a home for your wolf pack. If you need wood and food, find a mountain biome near meadows or a black forest.

Image: Iron Gate Studio/Coffee Stain Publishing via Polygon

Once you’ve set up a place for your wolf pen, build a new workbench and gather plenty of wood.

Creating a wolf pen

With your workbench completed, begin creating your wolf pen. This might be a challenge as building a pen works best on flat ground. You may have to stack pieces of your pen to create a good enough barrier.

You have two options for the fence itself: roundpole or stakewood. They both function the same, but roundpoles cost less wood to create.

As you build your pen, leave one space open. Use this gap to lure wolves in.

Trapping a wolf

Image: Iron Gate Studio/Coffee Stain Publishing via Polygon

Now that you have a pen with an open gap built, it’s time to find a wolf. Survey the area near your pen until you find one. When a wolf spots you, a red exclamation point will appear over its head. Get ready to run. Wolves will chase you down until you’re dead.

Keep letting the wolf chase you until it follows you into the pen. Once it does, circle around it and build the last bit of your fence behind it. This will trap the wolf in. Before the wolf tries eating you, jump over your fence to safety.

The trapped will wolf begin to attack the fence once inside, so be ready to tame it quickly.

Taming a wolf

It will take some time for a wolf to acclimate to being in a pen. From outside the pen, you can highlight the wolf with your cursor to see a percentage of how close it is to being tamed.

As the wolf gets more comfortable and more tame, yellow hearts will appear above its head.

Image: Iron Gate Studio/Coffee Stain Publishing via Polygon

Throwing in raw meat will satisfy the wolf’s hunger and help it become more tame. You can get raw meat from other animals such as boars and deer. To throw the food into the pen, stand outside the gate and drag the raw meat out of your inventory. This will cause your character to toss it out in front of them.

After a few days of being in captivity and eating raw meat, the wolf will eventually become tame. Once it does, you can enter the pen without fear. Interacting with the wolf causes pink hearts to appear above its head.

Petting your wolf isn’t the only thing you can do. When you pet a wolf, you can either have it follow you or stay put. So yes, you can form your own wolf pack in Valheim.

How to breed wolves

If you manage to tame two wolves in the same pen, you can breed them.

Image: Iron Gate Studio/Coffee Stain Publishing via Polygon

To encourage your wolves to mate, keep them happy by filling their enclosure with raw meat. In time, the two wolves will cozy up to one another and a burst of pink hearts will appear above them.

After that magical moment, leave the wolf pen and come back within a few in-game days. We found that the wonders of child birth take about a week in game time. After the wait, you should find a wolf cub hanging out with its parents.

Image: Iron Gate Studio/Coffee Stain Publishing via Polygon

If it’s been a few days and a wolf cub isn’t born, try expanding the size of your pen. We found that a small pen is usually what stops wolves from giving birth. Often times, the baby will be born once there’s enough space to accommodate it.

With a large enough pen and time, wolves can continue breeding if they have a steady supply of raw meat. Keep breeding wolves, interact with all of them, open up your pen, and roam the Viking afterlife with your wolf pack.