Are Beefalo the NEW Meta?

[Mike23Ua]

It’s a simple question with a simple yes or no answer, explain why you think they are, or why you think they are not in your comment.

My reasons: Easy as Day 1 to obtain, loyal until death, can be customized from horns, head, body, feet & tail, They are faster then characters, can be used to gather resources without dismounting them, have 600hp and will passively heal themselves overtime when not in Combat. Oh and can now go inside Caves.

[Cheggf]

Depends on your character. Wendy can deal 154% damage on a Beefalo + the damage of Abigail, but mighty Wolfgang will end up losing damage. Faster characters like Wormood get less use of them than slower characters.

They're always good, but some characters are great with them.

[Yuuko]

Depends on the character and what you're doing.  If you're Wendy, then yes.  Beefalo is the meta.  It sidesteps your damage penalty so you build up really good damage.  Basically never leave your beef.

idk about Wanda - she has much higher damage on her whip, I typically stay insane to farm nn fuel as I move around, and getting bucked would probably spell death...  Also she has great travel perks.  So I pass with Wanda.

[Mike23Ua]

Guys, I didn’t mean in Combat: haha I meant as a general thing you use to get from point A to Point B faster and dismounting to do battle. (Unless your Wes)

For example: You can hold a lantern & also refuel it while atop your noble Fuzzy companion.

& no @Terra B Welch I’m not talking about Glommer, but I bet you would love to be able slap a saddle onto him and ride him wouldn’t you? 

[Well-met]

a day 1 bell beefalo is nothing compared to the perks it gets with domestication so no i see no point in bothering with them until proper care.

[GenomeSquirrel]

honestly, it's hard to reconcile what's meta when there's no win condition, i wish you would have defined it

i voted no because even when given one, i'm not motivated to use them.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

5 minutes ago, Well-met said:

a day 1 bell beefalo is nothing compared to the perks it gets with domestication so no i see no point in bothering with them until proper care.

taming them day 1 gives a lot of benefits and the only downside is not having the speed and combat saddle and the brush, but exploring faster, safer taming since no big hound waves or seasonal bosses, saves materials for early fights, etc also, if perform properly, you end the process in winter more or less. If you go for the fighting or default one you wont need ruins gear to beat klaus or the shadow bosses which is a good upside plus refresh the way the game can be played

[Well-met]

Just now, ArubaroBeefalo said:

taming them day 1 gives a lot of benefits and the only downside is not having the speed and combat saddle and the brush, but exploring faster, safer taming since no big hound waves or seasonal bosses, saves materials for early fights, etc also, if perform properly, you end the process in winter more or less. If you go for the fighting or default one you wont need ruins gear to beat klaus or the shadow bosses which is a good upside plus refresh the way the game can be played

youre gonna get thrown off often

plus id rather keep the 4 pig helmets instead of the saddle craft

i guess it works but then again i dont mind taking a while to explore

[Bird Up]

44 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

have 600hp

They actually have 1000 hp.

The year of the beefalo update made them so good because you don't have to dismount, and they enter caves. I think it's still a big challenge to feed them enough for 20+ days straight to tame. And there's always the possibility that some random person attacks your beefalos - and that sets it's domestication back by several days instantly...

[ShadowDuelist]

If your character’s perks synergizes well with the beefalo, or the beefalo helps the character to overcome cons, then yes. If you lose a lot of your character from using them then no.

Although anyone (except Wanda) can benefit from a rider to move from point A to B regardless, glossamer+rider is faster than any character (again, except late game Wanda)

Personally I like them and try to get an ornery ASAP, unless I’m playing Wanda or Woodie.

[Yuuko]

2 minutes ago, Bird Up said:

They actually have 1000 hp.

The year of the beefalo update made them so good because you don't have to dismount, and they enter caves. I think it's still a big challenge to feed them enough for 20+ days straight to tame. And there's always the possibility that some random person attacks your beefalos - and that sets it's domestication back by several days instantly...

As long as you're riding it, you don't need to feed it much.  Just a few twigs to mount really.

[Mike23Ua]

17 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

As long as you're riding it, you don't need to feed it much.  Just a few twigs to mount really.

I think a lot of people underestimate how easy that is and/or are only familiar with pre-YoTB taming procedures: Before this update they absolutely were a waste of time but now..

now I see them as being viable, let’s consider Wolfgang’s Rework *poof*’bye bye speed BUT they also made it so his Sanity drains faster: A beefalo (I forget which taming approach) negates this by just giving sanity while riding & more speed.

Couple that alongside the scrapped concept of him being able to Bench Press Beefalo..

And it’s Clear Klei intended him to be using them more often after his Rework.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

29 minutes ago, Well-met said:

youre gonna get thrown off often

just the first days, later (like 10 days?) they hold you for minutes

[Juny Pear]

38 minutes ago, Bird Up said:

I think it's still a big challenge to feed them enough for 20+ days straight to tame.

Funny story about that, feeding them is entirely optional [besides what little is needed for obedience] so long as you stay on your beefalo throughout most of the taming process.
You'd only really need to feed them if you don't have a salt lick at that point.

[Bird Up]

taming takes 20+ days. Even just taming a beefalo food for minimum obedience to ride every time still works out to be hundreds of twigs/grass/bulbs etc when it is finally tamed.

[Juny Pear]

While that is definitely true, you're not gonna be needing a lot of them at a time, just one or two per dismount usually. And those should be easy enough to come by just about anywhere, without you needing to really go out of your way for them.

And I dont know about you, but I personally would say it's a pretty good deal to use two twigs or grass every now and then in exchange for nice bonus speed and combat utility.

Especially since once you do have a tamed beef, feeding will usually stop being something to worry over.

[Owlrust]

To me, I would say no. For something to be meta it usually has to be well-known amongst players (ie: pre-rework Wolfgang was meta and it was common knowledge about his utility even to newer players, and required very minimal knowledge and strategy [just eat]). True it's easier to use Beefalo than is ever used to be, but it's still a large learning curve to use them properly (even I still have trouble understanding it at times) just like RWYS; not to mention it's already difficult for newer players and average players to effectively balance fighting, farming, surviving seasons, and now taming all in one go.

TL;DR - It's awesome, but it's definitely a little ways from being meta.

[Juny Pear]

I have learned to love using beefalos since the quality of life changes made to them and I have to say they're really really neat.

You can basically have a beefalo for almost any major task and won't regret it.

But saying they're meta is to imply that they are THE way to play if you want to be as """efficient""" as possible, and that is not really the case I feel.
There's still enough things beefalos cant help with so they're not the answer to almost any problem you could possibly have, so they're far from meta in my eyes. 

And even then it's kind of a moot point since most """meta""" things in this game are either useful because they deal with a whole aspect of the game entirely in the quickest way possible, and/or are ridiculously simple to do.
Even though this is a sandbox game and how quickly or efficiently you do anything really does not matter at all.

[Hornete]

beefalos are so good when I lost mine i felt so demotivated.

guys i had to walk, i had to craft armor and actually make weapons for the first time in a while, u wouldnt understand my pain 

Spoiler

My poor beefalo got blended into beef stew by the Celestial Champion, phase 2 blended him, phase 3 cooked him with lasers. I'll miss you BarnacleLover69.

Gotta say though, my sick twisted mind kind of liked losing him. I actually felt some sort of loss in this game, which is a feeling I haven't really felt other than when I first started playing, I couldn't just use a life giving amulet to fix it, I had to actually deal with the consequences and raise another beefalo. It feels nice to remember why I loved Don't Starve at first, making mistakes and actually dealing with consequences. 

 

[lakhnish]

I rushed a Beefalo, named him Philly Cheesesteak, and then once tamed, proceeded to eat him. To me, that is the Beefalo meta :>

[IanKSB91]

I love my beefalo and the domestication process but I don't think they are meta jaja I'm sure not everyone consider it worth it because the process can be a bit tedious without iron whool, but I think every character can benefit from its speed at least to move from place to place, except Wx I guess.

[Captain_Rage]

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

Guys, I didn’t mean in Combat: haha I meant as a general thing you use to get from point A to Point B faster and dismounting to do battle. (Unless your Wes)

The domesticated Beefalo is virtually unparalleled when it comes to annoying your server buddy by standing in the way in the kitchen and obscuring the crock pots. The only other time he screams as much is when Shadow Splumonkeys kill him in the ruins.

Not a hard attribute per se but it definitely adds to the general value when playing.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

13 minutes ago, lakhnish said:

I rushed a Beefalo, named him Philly Cheesesteak, and then once tamed, proceeded to eat him. To me, that is the Beefalo meta :>

eating a delicious honey ham from a well feed beefalo always makes worth the 20 days process

[Gi-Go]

Wendy on a beefalo and Wanda with or without one is the current meta. Or rather they would be, if this game had a winning condition. 

Edit: people are confused what you mean by meta. Im gonna assume you mean what is the best strategy to win, and by win you probably mean killing celestial champion and/or fuelweaver, or all the raid bosses. Yes, yes beefalo is meta

Meta has nothing to do with how common or easy the strategy is. Definition of meta is “most effective tactics available". 

[BoysenSyrup]

They're good, better with some characters then others, but all around useful.
My main Wigfrid doesn't really mesh well with them for combat, which is a shame, but they're still nice to have for traversing your world quickly.

As for being "meta"... that doesn't really have a set definition in this game. This certainly isn't a competitive game, everyone has different end goals. But compared to other things, Beefalo are generally more useful for most common goals, basing, exploring, fighting, etc. They're definitely up there in the vague and hazy DST """meta""".