How To Tame Lox in Valheim

Taming a Lox is an endgame milestone in Valheim that transforms a terrifying reptilian beast into a powerful mount, an effective base defender, and an infinite source of high-tier food.

This step-by-step guide is designed for advanced players who have entered the Plains biome and are fully equipped to handle high-damage creatures.

Overview: Lox In Valheim

The Lox is a massive, aggressive herbivore exclusive to the Plains biome. While its area-of-effect stomp attacks can easily demolish a player early on, domesticating these creatures provides immense strategic value.

A tamed Lox serves as a living tank that can actively defend your compound from base raids, clear nearby enemy encampments, and be harvested for Lox Meat, a mandatory ingredient for some of the best health foods in the game.

Prep For Lox Taming

Before you even approach a wild Lox, you must gather specialized equipment and an abundance of agricultural crops to sustain the lengthy domestication process.

Weapons and Armor

• Weapons and Armor: Equip a full set of Padded Armor or better and carry a Black Metal Shield or Serpent Scale Shield to absorb sudden stomping impacts.

Food Supplies

• Cloudberries: Gather at least 20 to 30 Cloudberries from the low-lying yellow bushes spread across the Plains. This is the easiest food source to collect in bulk.

  

• Barley: Harvest raw Barley from Fuling Villages and cultivate it at your base; it serves as an excellent alternative taming food.

• Flax: Like barley, Flax can be grown in Plains soil and dropped as feed.

Materials for Pen Construction

• Iron for Stone Walls: Pack a minimum of 2 Iron to construct a portable Stonecutter station near your trapping site.

Building A Secure Lox Pen

Do not try to contain a Lox using basic wooden fences or even reinforced stakewalls. A panicked or aggressive Lox will smash through wood in two hits, leaving you exposed.

To build a proper holding cell, you must craft a Stonecutter using 10 Wood, 2 Iron, and 4 Stone. Use this station to erect a pen that is at least 6x6 floor tiles wide using double-thick Stone Walls. Install an Iron Gate at the entrance, as standard wooden doors will fail instantly under pressure.

Alternative Trapping Methods for Lox

If you want to save your precious stone and iron resources, you can use the environment to trap the beast naturally. One highly effective approach is the pit-trap method, where you use a pickaxe to dig a deep, steep-sided trench into the earth. You then construct a temporary wooden bridge over the pit, lure the Lox onto it, and break the floor panels to drop the animal into the hole.

Alternatively, you can use a Hoe to raise natural earth walls. By spending stone to raise the ground into tall pillars around a wild Lox, you create completely indestructible terrain barriers that no amount of physical stomp damage can break. If you choose the open-plains lure method without walls, prepare to sneak constantly, as an uncontained Lox will wander away and stop taming the moment it loses sight of food.

Taming Process and Feeding

Follow these steps to successfully tame a Lox:

Lure the Lox

Draw the creature's aggression, sprint into your trap, and immediately close the iron gate or break the pit bridge.

Drop the Food

Toss a stack of Cloudberries, Barley, or Flax over the wall directly onto the ground near the animal's snout.

Break Line of Sight

Crouch immediately to enter sneak mode and break the Lox's vision. It will not eat if it is actively trying to kill you.

The entire taming process requires roughly 2 full in-game days (approximately 40 to 50 real-time minutes). To ensure the internal taming clock continues ticking, you must remain within an active 64-meter radius of the creature. Leaving the zone completely or teleporting away via a portal will freeze the process until you return.

Monitoring Taming Status

You can safely check your progress by sneaking up to the edge of the pen and looking directly at the beast. If it is calm and actively eating, you will see bright yellow hearts float into the air, and a text overlay will appear displaying its Tameness percentage.

If the text reads "Frightened" or "Alerted," the taming process is completely stalled. This usually happens if a nearby Deathsquito or wandering Fuling patrol enters the area, causing the Lox to stampede against the walls. The moment you see the animal panic, hide behind a solid wall or step back until it cools down.

Moving And Breeding Tamed Lox

Once the meter reaches 100%, the Lox is permanently domesticated. To move your new companion across the map, craft a Lox Saddle at a Level 3 Workbench using 10 Leather Scraps, 20 Linen Thread, and 15 Black Metal. Equip the saddle, interact with the Lox to mount it, and you can actively steer, sprint, and trample obstacles.

To breed them, keep two tamed adult Lox inside the same spacious stone pen. Keep a steady supply of cloudberries on the ground to maintain their "Happy" status. When they stand close together, pink hearts will appear, eventually spawning a Lox Calf. The calf will take roughly 2 to 3 in-game days to fully mature into a massive adult.

Using Tamed Lox Effectively

Tamed Lox are unparalleled assets for heavy base hauling and resource collection. When mounted, you can use their primary bite and stomp attacks to easily clear whole forests of timber or flatten rock nodes. Their high health pool allows you to execute devastating charging tactics directly into Fuling camps, trampling smaller enemies underfoot without taking personal damage.

However, traveling long distances across water presents a challenge. Lox cannot be legally loaded onto a Longship, as their massive weight and unpredictable movement physics will clip through the hull, destroying your boat or causing the animal to slide off into the ocean. If you must change islands, you must construct a massive, land-connected bridge or lead them through shallow sandbars during low tide.

Troubleshooting And Safety Tips

Troubleshooting

• Clear the Perimeter: Always hunt down and eliminate nearby Deathsquitos and Fuling patrols before you start taming, as rogue enemies will permanently aggro your trapped Lox.

  

  

• Maintain Backup Supply Stacks: Keep an extra chest packed with 50+ cloudberries near the pen; if the food floor stack runs empty, the taming progress resets its active daily tick.

Safety Tips

• Repair Walls Instantly: Keep your hammer out and stand behind the stone walls during the initial trap phase to fix structure damage while the Lox is still aggressive.

Quick Taming Checklist

• Craft a Stonecutter and pack at least 100 Stone and 2 Iron for a secure pen.

• Gather a minimum stack of 30 Cloudberries or cultivated Barley to use as feed.

• Build a double-thick stone wall layout or dig a steep earth pit to hold the target.

• Lure the animal inside, drop the food stack, and crouch out of sight until yellow hearts appear.

• Maintain a safe, loaded distance within 64 meters for roughly 50 real-time minutes until fully tamed.