The planned cut to how many animals a Beastmaster can have out at once is not sticking. After player pushback on the class overhaul heading into Once Human‘s September 16 (PT) update, Starry Studio is walking the change back, though not instantly. There is a transition window where the old limit of three drops to one, and then it comes back.
Quick answer: Beastmasters can summon one animal at a time after the September 16 update, and three at a time again after the September 28 update. Every other class stays capped at one permanently.
Summon limits before and after the September 28 update
The rollback happens in two stages because the Beast Riding rework ships first and the restored limit follows later in the month. Plan your ranch around the gap if you normally run a full pack.
| Stage | Beastmaster | Other classes |
|---|---|---|
| Before September 16 | 3 animals | 3 animals |
| After September 16 update | 1 animal | 1 animal |
| After September 28 update | 3 animals | 1 animal |
Bred animal traits that only work with several animals on the field, such as Pack Wolves and Alpha Wolf, keep functioning. They are simply limited by whatever the current summon cap is, so they come back into play once three summons return.
Summoning and recalling animals from the backpack
Summoning no longer runs through a separate flow. You use the animal item straight from your backpack or hotbar to call the animal out, and using the same item again recalls it. Summons share a 10-second cooldown.
- Only adult animals with Energy above 20% can be summoned.
- Summoned animals start idle and only assist after you give a command with the Beast Whistle.
- Each time an animal dies it loses some Energy.
- If you try to summon an animal with too little Energy, the feeding interface opens automatically.
- A Beastmaster cannot command animals more than 10 levels above their own level.
The three colored whistles collapse into a single universal one. The Red Beast Whistle is renamed “Beast Whistle” and kept as is, and the blue and green versions are not recalled from your inventory — you convert them yourself by using them. You will know the merge applied when your whistle is no longer tied to a specific animal and just issues commands.
Beastmaster vs. other classes after the rework
Riding is not exclusive, but almost everything that makes riding good is. Other classes can climb onto an animal that already has a saddle on it, and that is where their access stops.
| Capability | Beastmaster | Other classes |
|---|---|---|
| Simultaneous summons | 3 (from Sept 28) | 1 |
| Carrying load for animals | 70% reduction | No reduction |
| Craft or swap saddles and gear | Yes | View only |
| Animal active and passive skills | Yes | No |
| Combat-capable summons | Yes | No |
Saddled animals can be sold to other players, and ownership of the animal and its saddle transfers with the trade. That is the practical route for a non-Beastmaster to get a mount at all, since they cannot craft or replace saddles themselves but do still benefit from whatever saddle is already equipped.
Rideable animals and their mount skills
Four animals can be ridden at launch, and each one has an active skill plus a passive that applies while you are in the saddle. Wild animals have no abilities by default — the skills only exist for a Beastmaster riding with a saddle equipped.
| Animal | Active skill | Passive skill |
|---|---|---|
| Deer | Gallop, large Movement Speed boost | Weapon and Status DMG scale with speed, up to 37.5% |
| Boar | Charge forward, stacking DMG Reduction per hit | Takes 20% of the rider’s damage |
| Bear | Shockwave swing dealing 200% attack damage | +20% Weapon and Status DMG for the rider |
| Wild Buffalo | Seeks out and eats crops to restore Energy | Chance to produce Milk when eating crops |
Deer is the damage mount if you keep moving, since its bonus scales off current movement speed and the gallop pushes that number up. Boar is the survivability pick, soaking a share of incoming damage and building its own damage reduction as it plows through enemies. Bear is the flat-buff option with an area attack attached, and Wild Buffalo is the farm animal of the group, keeping itself fed while occasionally handing you Milk.
Riding without a saddle is possible on wild animals and unsaddled summons, but it drains Stamina, disables the animal’s special abilities, and the animal will try to throw you off.
More rideable animals are planned, including aquatic mounts in a future update. No date has been confirmed for those.
Where riding is allowed and what dismounts you
Mounted play is permitted during exploration, combat, dungeons, and public crisis events. The restriction is on summoning, not riding: non-Beastmasters cannot call an animal out inside dungeons or while in combat, so they need to already be mounted before things start.
While riding you can fire weapons, melee, gather, interact, use consumables, and trigger Deviation abilities without being kicked off. Anything with a special animation ends the ride immediately.
- Teleporting
- Switching worlds
- Opening weapon crates
Director Fox and bred animal Energy costs
The Director Fox deviation‘s Taming Expert trait is being retuned to fit the new ranching rules, where Energy is the stat that governs growth, breeding, byproducts, and slaughter yields. With the update it reduces the Energy consumption of bred animals in your territory by up to 20%, and the effect does not stack.
Gardener changes: Nature Affinity and grafting success rates
Gardeners get two concrete changes. Nature Affinity becomes a craftable item, which means sanity recovery or reduction is something you choose to carry and use rather than a passive you are stuck with. The second change is straightforward math on grafting.
| Biomechanical crop | New grafting success rate |
|---|---|
| The Portal Biomechanical | 80% |
| Rainfall Reaper Biomechanical | 80% |
Both are the harder biomechanicals to roll, so the bump mainly cuts down on wasted grafting attempts for players building out a combat garden. You can confirm the new rate on the grafting screen before you commit materials — the listed percentage updates once the patch is live.
Work is still ongoing on the rougher edges of summoned animals, including pets blocking doorways and pathing badly in tight interiors. Those fixes are separate from the summon limit schedule, so the two-week window at one animal is the main thing to plan around before the cap goes back to three.
