How to Stop Your Farm Animals From Fleeing When You Hit One

Understanding Why the Herd Scatters

When you strike a cow, pig, sheep, or chicken, the mod makes every nearby animal of the same type panic and run. This is the core behavior, and it can be frustrating when you are trying to cull or breed a large pen. The panic radius is configurable, so the first thing to do is open your mod config file (usually found in the config folder of your instance) and look for the herd radius or panic radius option. Lowering it means fewer animals react when you hit one.

Practical Workarounds In-Game

If you do not want to edit configs, you can still manage your herd:

• Build a small holding pen or chute and lead animals into it one at a time before hitting them. Only animals inside the tight space will panic, and they cannot run far.
• Use a lead to pull a single animal away from the group before killing or shearing it.
• Breed animals in a separate enclosure so your main herd stays calm.
• Attack from a position where the fleeing animals will run into a wall or fence corner, making them easy to catch again.

Remember that panicking animals still drop loot normally, so the only real cost is the chase. Planning your pen layout with corners and narrow gaps makes recapturing them much faster.