This page offers a guide on how to set up an Animal Husbandry Facility at your Outpost in Starfield. The Animal Husbandry Facility allows you to run your own animal farm, harvesting produce from them to build more stuff in your outpost! On this page, you’ll learn how to research Domestication at the Research Lab and how to build a fully automated facility to feed and water all your cute new alien friends!

How to Unlock Animal Husbandry - Domestication 1¶

To research Domestication 1 at the Research Lab, you’ll need to put one skill point into Zoology and Outpost Engineering. If you’re looking to fully automate, we also recommend putting skill points into Botany so you can set up a greenhouse to produce fiber. To research Domestication 1, you’ll need the following materials:

• x5 Molecular Sieve
• x10 Adaptive Frame
• x30 Aluminum
• x10 Sealant
• x10 Adhesive

All of these things can be purchased from Vendors like the Trade Authority, the Jemison Mercantile in New Atlantis, or our personal favorite: The Depot in the Crimson Fleet Base, The Key. We do recommend, however, that you try to have at least some mining set up at an outpost so you can collect the Aluminum from your sources rather than having to purchase and carry around 27 Aluminum! If you haven’t set up extractors yet, head over to our guide for more information!

How to Set Up an Animal Husbandry Facility¶

There are a few things you’re gonna need to do before you can even access the Animal Husbandry Facility in the build menu. First off, you’ll naturally need to be on a planet that has available fauna. You’ll then need to scan the fauna in your Outpost’s biome (doesn’t have to be within the proximity of your outpost, just the same biome) until it’s reached 100%. It’s also worth mentioning that not all fauna can be domesticated, a lot of defensive/hostile creatures can’t be domesticated, for example.

Once you’ve scanned something to 100% you’ll be able to see if it can be domesticated in the small info box in the scanner.

Once you’ve scanned a valid creature, you’ll now find the Animal Husbandry Facility underneath the ‘Builders’ tab in outpost build mode. It costs the following to build:

• x5 Adaptive Gauge
• x3 Reactive Gauge
• x3 Sealant
• x8 Aluminum

After building it, you’ll be able to use the control board to open up the Animal Husbandry Facility menu and select the material you want to start producing. You’ll only have the materials that can be dropped by your scanned creature so bear that in mind when looking for fauna.

To produce any of the fauna materials, you’re gonna need Fiber and Water. And to fully automate the facility, you’re gonna need a production of Fiber and Water going into it.

As long as you’ve set up an outpost on a planet with water, you’ll be able to extract water from the ground or through a vapor extractor. If you want more detailed information on how to set up an extractor, head over to our guide! You can then link up your Water Extractor to the facility. Don’t forget to power them too - the Husbandry Facility requires 3 power and the extractor requires 5. If you’ve got decent winds or solar energy then you may be able to power both with one generator (you can see how much power a generator produces in build mode).

How to Get Fiber for Animal Husbandry Facility¶

Next up is the Fiber. Fiber isn’t that easy to come by and is found by harvesting it from specific plants, such as the Glossy Stickweed and Boreas Root (found in Forest and Mountain biomes). To harvest these plants, you’ll first need to 100% to scan them (like you did with fauna) and then you’ll have the option to place down a Greenhouse. A Greenhouse can also only be built once you have a skill point in Botany as well as Outpost Engineering. Head over to our guide on how to set up a Greenhouse for more information!

If your outpost isn’t in the right biome to find Fibrous plants, you might find it easier to buy some Fiber in bulk and dump it in a storage container linked to the facility, then you can just keep topping it up whenever you need. Or, you could set up a new outpost in a fiber plant area and then you could set up a Cargo Link to then feed fiber into your Animal Husbandry Facility.

Make sure to link both the Greenhouse and the Water Extractor (you can also set up storage containers in between) and ensure there’s power going to all three components by wiring them up.

And there you have it, your very own animal farm - you’ll even be able to watch your cute lil creatures roaming around the area. And if you’re so inclined, you can “harvest” them for XP and they’ll always be passive and infinitely respawn…so that’s an option too for quick XP farming.