How to Tame Animals in Solarpunk and Collect Their Produce

Animals are how Solarpunk turns your island into a working farm, and you’ll hit that wall the moment you go to upgrade the airship a second time and realize it wants eggs. The good news is you already own the animal you need to start, so the first stretch is about housing and feeding rather than hunting anything down. Later, pigs hand you truffles and sheep give sheep’s milk, and both of those ride on the same care-and-transport loop you learn with your first chicken.

What animal taming unlocks in Solarpunk

The practical reason to bother with animals is progression: the second airship upgrade needs eggs, and eggs come from a housed, fed chicken. Everyone starts with one chicken on their home island, and that single bird is enough to begin egg production, so you don’t need to transport anything to get rolling.

Beyond eggs, the same system feeds the rest of the game. Once you can move and house animals, pigs produce truffles and sheep produce sheep’s milk, both of which matter for later airship progression and animal farming. Everything below builds outward from that starting chicken.

Research and structures you need first

Animal care is gated behind Research Table Tier 5, where the Animal Basics Pack appears. Reaching it means having Wheat unlocked and pushing past the starting island, since wheat isn’t found at home. Unlocking the pack lets you craft the shelter and the two troughs that keep any animal alive, plus the Animal Feed that fills the feeding trough.

How to get eggs from your starting chicken

House your starting chicken properly and it will lay eggs on its own — here’s the order that gets the basket filling.

Place the coop and both troughs near your chicken

Set the Chicken Coop, Feeding Trough and Water Trough close to the starting chicken’s position — put the coop too far away and the chicken may never find it.

Wait for the chicken to claim the coop

You’ll know it has moved in when the chicken’s name appears written on the sign atop the coop itself.

Fill the feeding and water troughs

Craft Animal Feed from Wheat (2x Wheat each) and pour in roughly three to four bags to fill the feeding trough; the water trough tops up automatically when it rains, or manually with a watering can.

Let eggs collect in the basket

With food, water and shelter all satisfied, eggs start appearing in the basket next to the coop — you only need six for the second airship upgrade.

Bringing new animals home with the transport system

1. INTRO: When you want more chickens, or your first bird gets stuck in the terrain, the transport system relocates wild animals straight into an empty shelter at your base.
2. Learn the Animal Transportation blueprint at the Tradebot — Visit the Tradebot in the center of the map and research the blueprint before you try to move any animal.
3. Build an Animal Receiving Station at home — Place it on your own island, positioned close to the empty shelter you want the transported animal to occupy.
4. Craft an Animal Transportation item to carry with you — Think of it like a Pokeball — it captures the wild animal and ships it back to your receiving station.
5. Use the transport item on a wild animal — Put it in your quick bar and use it on the target — there’s another chicken on the large island northeast of the start, the same place you found wheat.
6. Select your receiving station and confirm transport — Choose which station to send the animal to, then click transport and it flies back to base.
7. Let the animal settle into an available shelter — If a matching empty shelter is ready, the animal moves in automatically and starts producing.

One naming caveat worth knowing: the transport pieces show up under slightly different labels across builds — Animal Transportation, transporter, receiver and receiving station all point at the same two-part system, so match the function rather than the exact word if the menu text differs.

Video help

Every tameable animal at a glance

All three follow the same rhythm — a dedicated shelter, its preferred lure crop, and produce that appears on the ground nearby for you to grab by hand. Chickens are the entry point on your home island; pigs and sheep live on farther islands you reach through airship upgrades, so you’ll bring them home with the transport system rather than finding them underfoot.

Keeping animals fed and productive

Every animal runs on the same three needs: shelter, food, and water, plus enough open space to actually walk to its home and troughs. Keep the feeding trough stocked with Animal Feed and the water trough topped up and the animal keeps producing on a steady timer; let any of those slip and production simply stops.

Water is the low-maintenance one — the trough fills on its own when it rains, and you can always top it off manually with a watering can between storms. Feed is the crop you’ll actually plan around, since every batch of Animal Feed eats Wheat, so scale your wheat farming to the number of mouths you’re keeping.

Mistakes that stop your animals producing

The most common stall is placing the coop too far from your starting chicken, so it never claims the shelter — keep it close. Right behind that is building the shelter but skipping the troughs, or leaving the troughs empty, which quietly halts everything since the animal’s needs aren’t met.

Wheat management trips people up too. You’re spending it on the Animal Basics Pack and on every batch of Animal Feed, so running out mid-project leaves hungry animals; bank enough before you commit. Also leave real pathing space around shelters — an animal that can’t physically reach its home or troughs won’t settle.

On the transport side, don’t fire the transport item before you’ve built and placed a receiving station, or the animal has nowhere to land. And set your expectations correctly: produce never enters your inventory on its own — eggs, truffles and milk all sit beside the shelter for manual pickup. If the receiving station doesn’t seem to unlock after research, reloading to the menu has been reported to make it appear.

Where animal produce takes you next

The whole loop feeds progression. Those first eggs pay for the second airship upgrade, which extends your range to islands that hold pigs. Truffles from those pigs bankroll the next airship step, and sheep’s milk becomes a later-game farming staple once sheep islands open up. Start with the chicken, and each animal you add widens the range for the next.