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Valheim has several aggressive animals that you can find in the various biomes. These animals can be killed for their meat and hide, but you can also spend some time taming them. This holds true for the boar. Boars are small, pig-like animals that you will become acquainted with shortly after starting the game.

Related: Valheim: Tips For Creating The Best Farm

Here, we are going to go over how you can tame a boar. Once you have them in captivity, you will be able to breed them, so we will take a look at that as well. Taming animals in Valheim is completely optional, but having some animals provides a steady source of meat and hide.

How To Find Boars In The Wild

valheim boar closeup in the meadows

Boars will naturally spawn in the Meadows biome, which is the biome that you start in. Overall, boars are quite easy to find, as they will appear in groups scattered throughout the biome.

Boars are aggressive and can do serious damage if you are just starting out! If you have no armor, be cautious around this little pig.

In the Meadows biome, you will come across runestones with a glowing red inscription on the front. Some runestones are designated as 'Boar Runestones', with several boar nearby.

valheim runestone with a short story about boars

Within the Meadows, you will also find abandoned structures. These range from buildings to fences in the ground. Boars have a chance to appear in these fenced areas.

Lastly, boars can spawn during the Eikthyr event. Prior to defeating this world boss, an event can happen near your base, displaying the words, "Eikthyr rallies the creatures of the forest".

During this event, boar and necks will attack you. This event will only occur if you haven't defeated Eikthyr yet, making it early-game content.

Capturing A Boar

valheim boars in boar pen within meadows

There is no easy way to obtain your first boar. You will need to trap one, which can be a lengthy task.

Setting Up The Area

Before luring a boar into captivity, it's best to set up the area. We recommend building a pen with one section of the wall missing. This allows a boar to run in, while you quickly place the wall with your hammer.

The sides of your pen can be built with normal walls, as well as roundpole fences. This is an outdoor fence type that does not take rain damage.

Luring A Boar

valheim player crowing and looking at a boar

Now, it's time to find a boar. Search through the Meadows until you find one. Once a boar is nearby, you will need to approach it, causing an exclamation point to appear above its head.

The boar will then follow you while trying to attack. From here, you will essentially need to kite the boar to the pen. Be sure not to run too far away from the boar, or it may stop following you.

Approach the pen you made earlier, leading the boar through the opening. Once the boar is in, quickly dart out and place the final fence post. The boar will run around for a bit in anger, running into the fence. To prevent the boar from breaking out, you can add another layer of fence for extra protection.

Taming Your Boars

valheim covered boar pen with several boar spread out in grass
via shadowqiller/Steam

The boar is now yours! You will still need to tame it though, but this is relatively straightforward. To tame a boar, you will need one of the following food types.

  • Blueberries
  • Carrots
  • Onions
  • Raspberries
  • Red Mushrooms
  • Turnips

With one of these food items in hand, you will need to toss it into the pen with your boar. While doing this, we recommend crouching, so as to not startle the boar.

Boars are afraid of fire. If there is a fire close enough, the boar will not become tamed. Be sure to remove any nearby fire sources!

After tossing in the food, take a step back. If you are too close to the boar, it will be frightened and not eat the food.

A calm boar will begin to eat the food, and yellow hearts will appear over its head. This will also cause a taming percentage bar to appear when you are close to the boar, but getting this close may cause the boar to be spooked.

From here, you just need to feed the boar a few more times until the percentage bar gets to 100.

How To Breed Boars

valheim boar loves you message message shown while hoving over boar

You will only be able to breed tamed boars. This breeding process happens between two well-fed boars that have plenty of room.

All boars are the same, so you won't have to seek out male and female versions.

To start breeding, you will need to have no more than five boars within ten meters of each other. When boars are too close, they won't breed, so be sure to give them some room.

valheim boar pen with piggy inside
via ipsok/Reddit

If there is enough room between your well-fed boars, all you need to do is sit back and relax! Boars that display as 'happy' will begin to breed with each other.

If your boars are not well-fed, you can simply toss some food on the ground and they will eat.

After a short period of time, the boars will begin to mate, with pink hearts appearing. Once this happens, one of the boars will be pregnant and then give birth to a piglet. These piglets don't have any value (besides their cuteness), but they will eventually grow up and become an adult boar that can continue breeding. Boars that are birthed from already-tamed boars will not need to be tamed.

Next: Valheim: Everything You Need To Know About Beehives