Maintaining a band of mercenaries in Wartales is no easy job. Players will often find themselves outnumbered in most combat encounters, and simply filling their parties with more members might put unnecessary strain when it comes to earning money. Luckily, there's one cost-efficient way to maneuver around that number difference, and that's by using captured animals.
Wild beasts like wolves, boars, and bears can be tamed and turned into allies. They'll move around on their own and help fight enemies on the battlefield. More importantly, they don't need to be paid for their assistance. However, Wartales doesn't tell players how to make this happen, so here's a guide covering all the steps needed to do it.
How To Capture Animals In Wartales
Catching live animals works the same way as capturing human targets but with one key difference: players need to use ropes instead of chains. Visit any town-based or traveling merchant and check to see if they have any ropes in their inventories. If none of them have any, go to the nearest jail and buy some from the warden instead.
After acquiring ropes, find an animal pack in the wilds and start a fight. Engage with them normally but don't kill any targets. Once an animal is down to 50% health or less, have a party member walk behind them and use the Knock Out skill that appears on the actions bar. This will only appear if the targeted animal is engaged with another party member, so make sure that they're fighting some other person before attempting to capture them.
The odds of successfully tying a wounded animal down in Wartales will increase based on how low the target's HP is. There are no capture attempt limits, though, so feel free to keep trying.
Captured animals will become party members of sorts. They will appear whenever the group sets up camp, and they'll come rushing to battle as NPC allies when a battle breaks out. As mentioned, animals don't need to be paid any wages, but players still need to feed them. Make sure to bring a healthy stockpile of food and follow other best practices to compensate for increased consumption rates.
Animal companions can be directly controlled during combat if players have an Archer with the Beast Mastery skill. Additionally, animals can specialize in combat or support-oriented roles based on the skills players unlock for them as they level up. Bears, for example, make for great tanks while boars and pigs can be used as either high-health frontline units with strong damage-over-time attacks or simply slaughtered to feed the band's hungry mercenaries.
Wartales is available now on PC.