So many hides, not enough fat

[doomstrike53]

Animal droprate seems to HIGHLY prioritize raw hides, when there's a much bigger demand for fat. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a way to get more fat out of animals? What do you guys usually do with all these extra raw hides that will soon spoil because there's no fat to oil them with?

[Thorfinn]

I rarely turn them into pelts. Only if I have no other source of warm clothes. Fat is too valuable to use that way. They get turned into leather. At least until I start throwing them away and letting them despawn.

[doomstrike53]

I'm not near ready for leather yet. Should I just be making enough pelts for backpacks and then throw the excess away? Or is there another use for hides/pelts I'm not aware of? I'm still in spring, so no worries about winter yet.

[Thorfinn]

I'm the wrong one to ask. I have never in my life made a hunter's backpack. I've always skipped straight from baskets to linen sacks.

[Yskar]

13 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

I rarely turn them into pelts. Only if I have no other source of warm clothes. Fat is too valuable to use that way. They get turned into leather. At least until I start throwing them away and letting them despawn.

let the hides rot and use them as part of compost.

[Dilan Rona]

Take a look at RMeat. It boosts meat and fat.

[Maelstrom]

To increase fat and meat from animals, be sure the animal has a "good" classification for its weight.  Best source of fat I have found is hogs.  Mostly because breeding them yields a LOT of piggus.  Breeding just one sow can yield like 2 dozen swine by the second generation.

As mentioned fat is much more valued for other things, like components for mechanically powered devices.  The only thing I use pelts for is the fur clothing for winter.  Once that's done, I begin saving fat for axles, windmills and the like.

[Lemonspray55555]

Fat can apply to multiple hides for small and medium ones, anyway starting the leather making process isn't that difficult, if you found enough copper nuggets for a hammer and pick then you should be able to mine under the nuggets for enough for an anvil (9 ingots) and saw and chisel 2 combined.

With 3 boards you can make a barrel and with 5 "hard" stone blocks that have been leavened (break the 8 blocks touching it) you can make a quern to grind lime bearing stones (or buy lime directly from a trader) this all now requires an anvil for saw and chisel. but finally with a ratio of 1 lot of lime with 1 liter of water up to 50 in the barrel you can soak the hides and they no longer rot.

[Maelstrom]

2 minutes ago, Lemonspray55555 said:

With 3 boards you can make a barrel and with 5 "hard" stone blocks that have been leavened (break the 8 blocks touching it) 

6 blocks.  Only need to get ride of the blocks directly touching the block to be leavened.

[Thorfinn]

And 4 hard stone blocks, right, @Maelstrom?  

[Maelstrom]

If you want.  All that needed is a full block (of your choice) to prevent the vine from trying to spawn a punkin in a block that another vine could try (and fail) to spawn a punkin.  Thereby potentionally increasing the punkin yield.

Edited March 28, 2025 by Maelstrom

[Thorfinn]

No, I meant 4 blocks for the quern, not 5.

[Poxxs]

In late summer I’ve killed some boars that have produced 2 fat per. Same with the larger game in late summer when they are fattest. 

[Thorfinn]

True. In more remote areas, I like to leave the wolves alone until August or so. Pretty common to get a couple from them.

[Thorfinn]

18 hours ago, Yskar said:

let the hides rot and use them as part of compost.

I'm kind of new to compost. First time I looked into it, I was totally underwhelmed. How much rot do you get from hides? Enough to make them worthwhile lugging back?

[Yskar]

Not much, but it's better than just let despawn, i store them in the Reed chests and let it rot