Once Human is rebuilding the Beastmaster around a single idea: get on the animal. The September 16 (PT) update adds Beast Riding, folds three whistles into one, throws out two ranching stats, and hands Gardeners a reworked Portable Planter Box that can drop multiple biomechanical crops in a fight. Here is exactly how the new rules behave.
Quick answer: Put a saddle on an adult animal with Energy above 20%, summon it from your backpack or hotbar, and mount it. Only a Beastmaster on a saddled animal can trigger that animal’s special ability (Ctrl on PC, the dedicated button on mobile, R1+X / RB+A on console).
Beast Riding requirements in Once Human
Summoning gets simpler and stricter at the same time. You use the animal item straight from your backpack or hotbar to call the animal out, and using it again recalls it. Summoning shares a 10-second cooldown, and after the update a Beastmaster can only have one animal out at a time.
The animal has to be an adult with more than 20% Energy. If you try to summon one that is running low, the game opens the feeding interface instead of spawning it — that is your confirmation that Energy, not a bug, is blocking the summon. Every time an animal dies it also loses some Energy.
Other classes are not locked out of mounts entirely. A non-Beastmaster can summon and ride a saddled animal in the open world, but not inside dungeons and not during combat, and they get none of the special abilities.
Saddle riding vs bareback riding
Bareback is the emergency option. A Beastmaster can walk up to a free wild animal, or a summoned one without a saddle, and climb on through a normal interaction. Each mount costs character Stamina, so you cannot do it on an empty bar, the animal’s special ability stays locked, and the animal keeps trying to throw you off.
A saddle turns that into a stable ride. You can equip one by using the saddle item, dragging it onto the animal, editing the animal’s gear in its details panel, or fitting it while the animal is anesthetized. Once saddled, you can fire weapons, swing melee, gather, interact with objects, eat consumables, and use Deviation abilities without dismounting.
Anything with a special animation kicks you off instantly. That includes opening weapon crates, teleporting, and switching worlds, so expect to land on your feet after a fast travel.
Four saddles ship with the update, and only Beastmasters can craft or swap them. Other classes can look at what an animal is wearing and benefit from it, but cannot change it. When a Beastmaster trades a saddled animal away, ownership of both the animal and the saddle transfers with it.
| Saddle | Effect |
|---|---|
| Basic Saddle | No extra effect; unlocks unrestricted mounting |
| Recovering Saddle | Animal continuously recovers Max HP after leaving combat |
| Reinforced Saddle | Increases the animal’s Attack while mounted |
| Stamina Saddle | Increases the animal’s Max Stamina while mounted |
Mount abilities for Deer, Boar, Bear, and Wild Buffalo
Four species are ridable at launch, each with one active skill you trigger and one passive that runs while you are on its back. More ridable animals are planned later.
| Animal | Active skill | Passive skill |
|---|---|---|
| Deer | Enters a gallop for a large Movement Speed boost | Converts current movement speed into rider Weapon DMG and Status DMG |
| Boar | Drains Stamina to charge forward, stacking DMG Reduction per enemy hit | Has its own DMG Reduction and absorbs part of the rider’s damage |
| Bear | Swings out a shockwave at range; each target hit raises rider Weapon DMG and Status DMG | Has DMG Reduction and raises rider Weapon DMG and Status DMG |
| Wild Buffalo | Hunts for edible crops nearby and eats them to restore Energy | Chance to produce Milk directly when devouring crops |
Wild animals have no active or passive skills by default. The abilities above only exist for a Beastmaster riding with a saddle equipped, so a Chef or Gardener on the same bear gets transport and nothing else.
Beast Whistle merge and commanding animals
The three whistles become one. The Beast Whistle is no longer tied to a specific animal and exists purely to issue commands, and Beastmasters know its crafting formula by default. The old red whistle is simply renamed to “Beast Whistle” and kept; the other two are not recalled, and you convert them yourself by using them. Nothing is auto-removed from your inventory and no new whistles are handed out.
Behavior changes too. An animal summoned from an animal item now sits in a waiting-to-mount state and will not help you until you whistle a command, such as fighting or gathering. You also cannot command an animal more than 10 levels above your own. Non-Beastmasters can summon combat animals, but those animals arrive without combat abilities.
Note: Beast Partner still lets a Beastmaster walk up to wild animals without them fleeing or attacking, and read their thoughts, Stats, and Traits.
New and adjusted animal traits
Breeding Expert picks up seven new attribute groups and two reworked ones. Most of them only do anything while you are actually mounted.
| Trait | Animal | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Nimble (new) | Deer | Jump height +10% / 20% / 30% while mounted |
| Swift (new) | Deer | Movement Speed +3% / 6% / 10% while mounted |
| Thick Fur (adjusted) | Original types + Boar | When attacked, DMG Reduction +3% / 4% / 5% for 10s, up to 4 stacks |
| Healing Pelt (new) | Boar | HP recovery speed +80% / 100% / 120% after leaving combat |
| Aftermath (new) | Bear | Shockwave range +10% / 20% / 30% while mounted |
| Adaptive Fur (new) | Wild Buffalo | +10 / 20 / 30 Cold and Heat Resist while mounted |
| Fertile Constitution (new) | Wild Buffalo | Milk production chance rises to 5% / 7% while mounted (without Level III attribute) |
| Stamina (new) | All four mounts | Max Stamina +15% / 25% / 40% while mounted |
| Attack Boost (adjusted) | General | Attack Boost 15% / 30% / 50% |
One detail that is easy to misread: mounted movement speed is a separate stat from normal animal movement speed. The regular bonus does nothing while you are riding, though it still applies to animals summoned to help with combat and exploration.
Beastmaster starting items and manual feeding
New Beastmasters begin with a partner of their choice — Deer, Boar, or Bear — plus a Beast Whistle and a Basic Saddle, which is enough to mount on day one. Saddle, animal husbandry, animal breeding, and tranquilizer throwing needle tech formulas are known from the start, along with the recipes for tranquilizer throwing needles, animal troughs, and youngling huts.
Manual feeding is the new field fix for a drained mount. Summon the animal, interact with it, and feed it whatever its preferred food is. This does not work for animals in a ranching state inside a Territory.
Energy replaces Tameness and Hydration in animal ranching
Ranching drops two of its three upkeep bars. Tameness and Hydration are gone, and Energy alone decides growth, breeding, byproduct output, and slaughter yields. Mixed Meat Feed, Mixed Grain Feed, and Mixed Herb Feed now only add Energy.
| Energy | Byproducts | Slaughter | Growth | Breeding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80–100% | Efficient | Large supplies | Normal | Breedable |
| 20–80% | Normal | Moderate supplies | Normal | Not ready |
| 0–20% | Paused | Small supplies | Paused | Not ready |
The “Docile” trait loses its Tameness link and is replaced with a new effect that speeds up youngling growth. Trait attributes now unlock in sequence at Lv. 20, 30, 40, and 50, and anything already unlocked before the update stays unlocked.
The animal list also gains icons for Energy status, courtship status, and breeding cooldown, so you can read a pen at a glance instead of opening each animal. Offline feeding only consumes food sitting in the animal trough — items dropped on the ground do not count — and the World Map can now show animal distribution in your current Scenario, the same way it tracks crops and ores.
Gardener changes: Portable Planter Boxes and biomechanical crops
The Gardener’s combat problem was placement. After the update, Portable Planter Boxes hold different biomechanical crop types and deploy them independently, each on its own cooldown, so you can stage several effects in one fight instead of committing to a single pot. The trade-off is durability: the box wears down and is consumed along with its crops when it hits zero.
| Biomechanical crop | Combat effect |
|---|---|
| Balloon | Taunts enemies, then explodes |
| Rain Reaper | Increases Status DMG |
| Flare Bulb Fly | Increases Weapon DMG |
| Watcher | Petrifies enemies |
| Portal | Teleports the player |
| Agent | Attacks nearby enemies |
The update lands on September 16 (PT); no exact launch time has been confirmed. If you are playing a Beastmaster, the single most useful prep is keeping your favourite animal fed above 80% Energy and crafting a saddle for it, because every mount ability, breeding attempt, and efficient byproduct run hangs off that one number now.
