If you're fairly new to Ultima Online and are reading this page, you've come to the right spot. The very basics of taming will be covered in this guide. If you know all about that kind of stuff, you can go on to the next page.
It is very important to create your character very carefully. Try to pick a name for your character that you think you'll still be happy with a few years down the road. Some people don't put much consideration into their character names and find that now they're older and more mature, the name TamerDude or HorsieGirl for their now gm tamer wasn't such a good idea after all.
![[ Will you be my friend? ]](../images/newbie-tamingstart.jpg)
Plan ahead as to what skills you think you'll want for your character. Take 2 of the hardest skills to raise at 50 each (if you're taking resist, that should be one of your 2 skills). It isn't a good idea to have 3 skills at 30, since you can purchase most skills to that level fairly cheaply. Keep in mind that you only have 700 total skill points (applies only to base skill) to spend, unless you are a veteran player (+5 to skill cap per year, up to 4 years). This means that you can only have 7 skills at 100.0.
Take the most strength you can get, since it will be the hardest stat to raise, and effects how many hit points you have as well as how much you can carry. Your stats will raise slowly as you work on your skills.
Most of the animals you will be taming as a newbie will be non-aggressive. As you become a more skilled tamer, more and more of the high leveled animals will attack you while you're trying to tame them.
![[ Success! ]](../images/newbie-tamingsuccess.jpg)
To initiate the taming process, no more than 2 steps, or tiles, should separate you from the animal you wish to tame. This can be done by using the blue sphere next to "Animal Taming" in your skill scroll (aka gump) or through a context menu by single clicking on the animal you wish to tame. However, it is best if you create a macro for animal taming, since it will be much faster than the first 2 methods. If more than two tiles are between you and the animal, you will be told that it is too far away and the context menu to tame will be grayed out instead of white.
If at any point during the taming process the animal is hurt in any way, it will become upset and you will have to start all over again. This means you can't even accidentally punch any aggressive creatures you're taming in self defense. Other things that will upset the creature and stop your taming attempt are paralyzation or poison kicking in.
![[ Give that pet a noble name ]](../images/newbie-renaming.jpg)
Care must be given to your new found friend. You should use animal lore on it first and find out how happy it is. If it says "Wonderfully Happy" under "Loyalty" on the 3rd page of the scroll, then you're in business. If it is unhappy or confused, it needs to be fed very soon or it will decide that life was better without a master! Don't fear, though, animal lore also will tell you what the animal's favorite food is. You can find fruits, vegitables, and hay at provisioners or farmers, meat from butchers or by carving animal corpses, and fish from fishermen or by cutting up fish. To make your pet happier, simply give it one piece of food.
Now that your pet is fed, it needs a name. To name your pet, single click on it and drag off its health bar. The lettering there should be somewhat of a purplish color if you use the 2D client. Click where the the pet's current name is and rename the pet to whatever you want. If you are using the 3D client, you can highlight the pet's entire name to quickly rename it. You can leave any spaces in the pet's name and give it a multi-word name, but you can't add any additional spaces. This will make it a little more difficult to give commands to the pet or claim it from the stables, though.
![[ Let's try a command ]](../images/newbie-commanding.jpg)
Pets can follow many basic commands, such as follow, stay, and attack. Most people use a text macro to give their pets commands, since it saves a lot of typing, especially when you use the commands frequently. Commands are structured as [petname] [command], such as "Fido follow". Some commands can use "all" instead of the pet's name and all of your pets will be able to respond to that command. Pets can also be released if you no longer wish to keep them, or transfered to other people.
Pets can also be commanded with a context menu. Commands made with the menu work exactly as their spoken counter-parts. The only difference is that you will not speak anything out loud. However, using the menu will reveal you if you are hidden. If you mistakenly chose "release" from the menu, you will receive a confirmation menu, asking if you're sure you want to release the pet.
When you log out for the evening, your pet will need someone to look after it if you wish it to be there when you return the next day, otherwise it will think it has been abandoned and go wild. Stablehands or stablemasters are located in most cities and will care for your pet for just 30 gold. Some old player run establishments also have stablehands. Simply say "stable" near a stablehand and target the pet you wish to stable. The pet will be cared for while in the stables and will not lose loyalty while there.
Any mount you are riding when you log out will log out with you, so it does not need to be stabled.
![[ Un-sheared and sheared sheep ]](../images/newbie-sheep.jpg)
To adventure with your pet, you will need some way of healing them. Magery can be used to heal both you and your pet, but it might make you go broke very quickly if you haven't already got a good sized nest egg in the bank. Veterinary can be used to heal a pet very inexpensively with bandages and heals more damage than magery can. And, if you happen to have both magery and veterinary, you can heal both ways at the same time.
Bandages can be made for free if you make the cloth yourself. Go to the sheep pens in Yew (there are 3 of them; you will receive double the amount of wool if you go to Felucca), and use your newbie dagger by double clicking on it and target a "fluffy" sheep to shear it. This should give you a pile of wool that will produce 3 balls of yarn when used on a spinning wheel as well as make the sheep "skinny". If you just kill the sheep, you will find 3 reddish piles of wool on the corpse after carving it that produce 1 ball of yarn each. Both give you the same amount in the end, but shearing it first will make you weigh less since you are carrying less items. Once you shear the sheep, you should kill them to make them respawn with fresh wool.
Once you've got enough wool, find a tailor shop or a public house with a spinning wheel and loom. Use the wool on the spinning wheel to get your yarn. It will take 5 balls of yarn to create a bolt of cloth when used on a loom. Each bolt of cloth equals 50 yards. One yard of cloth becomes one bandage when cut with scissors. If you use scissors on a big pile of cloth, they will all turn into bandages.
Well, now you've got the basics down. On to the next page »
Last modified on January 11, 2003 4:29 pm EST.
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