RimWorld Animals Guide and Tier List
All 107 tameable animals scored from the game's own numbers and sorted S–F, plus a second tab with the hand-picked best for combat, hauling and farming — and the why behind every rank.
Every animal you can tame in RimWorld, scored by a single transparent formula and dropped into tiers — then a second tab with the hand-picked best of each job. This covers official content only: the base game plus the Odyssey expansion, no mods. Every chip is tagged for what you need to own, and tapping any animal opens its jobs, the numbers behind its rank, and the catch.
There are two ways to read this list. All animals ranks the whole roster the same way, by the numbers, so you can see exactly where any creature lands and why. Best picks is the editor's cut — the few animals worth building a colony around for war or for work, with the longer case for each. Use the first to settle an argument; use the second to decide what to tame next.
Patch 1.6 + Odyssey Base game + DLC No mods
How the ranking works
Each animal is scored for two jobs, and its tier is the better of the two — a great fighter that's useless on the farm still ranks on its fighting. Nothing here is hand-placed; the tiers fall out of the numbers below, which is why a few pets and pests sit lower than their reputation.
War only counts animals you can actually train to attack — everything else scores zero on this side, however scary it looks in the wild. For the ones that do fight, the score is damage per second times health scale (staying power), then docked for how dangerous and skill-hungry it is to tame, and for a pure-meat diet you have to keep feeding in the field. Crowd-control abilities — the mastodon and elephant's war trumpet, the alpha thrumbo's terror roar, the hive queen's acid spew — add a bit on top.
Utility is throughput: how much food an animal returns over a year — its breeding rate times meat yield times nutrition efficiency, which already prices in the feed spent raising young — plus points for what else it hands you. Eggs, wool, milk and chemfuel count; so do the work jobs — hauling, caravan packing, and Odyssey's foraging (pig, raccoon) and digging (megasloth, megavole). Therapy and nuzzling pets get a mood bonus, which is the only thing keeping cats and lapdogs off the floor.
Figures are from the 1.6 / Odyssey game data on the RimWorld Wiki. The formula is deliberately simple and a little opinionated about risk and upkeep — treat the tiers as a strong starting read, not gospel, and tap a chip to see the exact numbers it was scored on.
All animals, ranked by the numbers
The whole roster in one grid, S to F, each animal at the better of its war and utility score. Tap any icon for its jobs, the stats behind the rank, and what it costs you. Tiers below: S 13 · A 19 · B 12 · C 22 · D 25 · F 16.
Playing with the Giddy-Up! mod? It lets a drafted pawn ride any animal large enough to carry them, so mounts become far more valuable — for kiting, charging and caravan speed. Flip to the Giddy-Up view and every rideable animal (the large mounts: horses, muffalo, bison, elephants, bears, mastodons, hippos and the rest) climbs one tier, capped at S, and is tagged rideable. Vanilla stays the default; small animals that can't bear a rider don't move.
Alpha thrumbo S
What's good
- Attack — can be ordered onto targets
- Terror roar — makes enemies flee in panic
- Haul — fetches items on the map
- Hits hard and soaks hits (9.7 DPS x 12 health scale)
What's not
- Needs animal skill 14 to tame and handle
- Eats a lot (2.8/day)
- Poor food return (0.19)
// vanilla — tap any animal for its jobs, the numbers, and the catch
Alpha thrumbo S
What's good
- Top mount — Giddy-Up keeps it at S
- Attack — can be ordered onto targets
- Terror roar — makes enemies flee in panic
- Haul — fetches items on the map
What's not
- Needs animal skill 14 to tame and handle
- Eats a lot (2.8/day)
- Poor food return (0.19)
// with Giddy-Up — rideable animals move up a tier (capped S); tap any for details
The short list: the animals actually worth building around. War first — the ones you can field in a fight — then utility, the ones that feed and supply the colony. The longer case is on each chip.
War animals
Ranked S to D by what they bring to a fight. Tap any animal for the full case.
Alpha thrumbo S
What's good
- Highest combat power in the game — routs raids on contact.
- "Terror roar" makes nearby enemies flee before they reach your line.
- Absurd HP and natural armour; grazes for free.
What's not
- Legendary spawn, usually quest-only.
- Near-impossible to tame without the sentience catalyst.
- Eats like a colonist and then some.
// tap an icon to see why it's in that tier
Big animals do more than deal damage — every thrumbo, bear or elephant in your line is a wall of hit points that soaks bullets meant for your colonists. A wild herd thrown in front of a raid is a real tactic, not a meme.
That's the fighting half. The other reason to keep animals is everything they hand you between raids — food, materials and labour — which is where the next set earns its place.
Utility animals
Ranked S to D by output against upkeep — the ones that haul, pack, or hand you food, wool, milk and chemfuel.
Chicken S
What's good
- Most food-positive animal in the game — lays faster than it eats.
- Breeds into a flock within days.
- Trivial to feed on grass.
What's not
- 1.6 lets them fly fences — roof or zone the coop.
- Low value per bird (that's the point).
// tap an icon to see what it produces and what it costs you
The catch
- Carnivores hunt your pets. A hungry bear, wolf or cougar will go after your tamed chickens and cows. Keep predators fed and zoned away from livestock.
- Predators eat your animals when you starve. In a food crunch the bottom of the food chain disappears first. Plan meat supply before you plan a pack of wolves.
- Megafauna appetite is real. Thrumbo, megasloth, elephant and mastodon each eat roughly a colonist's worth of food. Two or three of them is a second kitchen.
- Wealth raises raids. Every tamed animal adds colony wealth and nudges raid points up, so a high tier only pays off if the animal earns more than the tougher raid it invites.
FAQ
How are the tiers decided?
By one formula, not by hand. Each animal gets a war score (damage and staying power, if it can be attack-trained, docked for taming risk and a meat diet) and a utility score (yearly food throughput plus points for eggs, wool, milk, chemfuel, hauling, packing, foraging, digging and mood). Its tier is the higher of the two. Tap any chip to see the numbers behind its rank.
What's the difference between the two tabs?
All animals is the full roster scored the same way, so you can see where anything lands and why. Best picks is the curated short list — the few animals genuinely worth building around for war or work, with the longer case for each. Same rankings underneath; one is complete, one is the editor's cut.
Which of these need the Odyssey DLC?
Anything tagged Odyssey on its chip — crow, greatwolf, mastodon, alpha thrumbo, hippo, panda and the rest of the new roster. A handful of jobs are Odyssey-only too, even on base-game animals: megasloth and megavole digging, pig and raccoon foraging, cat and panda comfort, the mastodon and elephant's war trumpet. Base-game animals without those tags work with no DLC.
What's the single best all-round animal?
Muffalo, by a wide margin, if you have the space. Wool and milk, packs for caravans, grazes for free and shrugs off cold. Nothing else does that many jobs from one feed bill, which is why it tops the utility side.
Why is the cat (or my favourite pet) ranked so low?
Because the score is about what an animal does for the colony, not how much you like it. Cats, lapdogs and the like can't fight and return almost no food, so they sit low — lifted off the floor only by the mood their nuzzling gives. A low tier here means "not a workhorse," not "don't keep one."
Can I attack-train a wild boar or a hippo?
No. Neither has attack trainability — they only fight back when something attacks them. A hippo is a fearsome wild body and useful roaming meat that defends itself, but you can't order it onto a target, so it scores zero on the war side.
Do tamed animals make raids harder?
Yes. Tamed animals count toward colony wealth, and raid strength scales with wealth. A few high-value beasts are fine; a zoo of low-value pets just buys you tougher raids for no payoff.
