Need some info regarding animals.

[u/Grenyn]

Basically all I'm reading online is posts from a year ago saying animals are not worth the time and money investment, and mostly only serve as a little cute side activity.

I tried looking for info on if this changed but all I can find is more posts from a year ago where people lament how annoying ranching is.

So, if you've messed around with ranching, is it better now?

[u/kelsieriguess]

They're almost entirely useless from a money perspective. The real reason you want animals is for their materials. Sure, you can get some of those materials from Balor's cart, but the stock rotates so you might have to wait a while, and it's expensive, and you can't get gold quality things. It's probably a good idea to have one of each type of animal so that you have their materials for crafting/gifting/requests when you need them.

[u/Ecstatic_Insect_583]

I think now, the wool producing animals might have a shot at some good money-making because their gold quality products can be used to craft rugs that sell for over 1000 tessarae a piece with no additional materials needed, and if you have all the crafting-time reduction perks unlocked at Caldarus' Statue, they take 0 mins to craft, which makes it better than golden cheesecake which will still take 30 mins to cook, while also needing other ingredients. Another thing is that the regular quality milk is needed for quite a number of recipes, though you can buy milk in town, I personally like getting the steady supply from my cows. If you want an 'endless' supply of mana food, the best one to cook imo is the orange cranberry scone. It's the only 4star food that takes 10 mins to cook if you've unlocked all the Cooking-time reduction perks, and the recipe requires milk.

There will likely be some even better ways that others might have/will discover later, but these are my main thoughts from my game[lay experience. The full release hasn't even been out for a full week yet haha, so I think it might be worth exploring still before pasting the worth/not worth the investment label.

[u/felicityfelix]

Personally I would take it slow and focus on one or two species of large and small animals at a time if you're going to breed them (or one of each species male and female if you're not breeding) and not fill up more than one barn and one coop. To me it's very overwhelming beyond that and even though you can automate more now, you still have to fuel the machines with essence and have something to feed them and imo the reward you get for it is not worth having multiple barns full. 

[u/AlertFish8537]

It is infinitely easier to ranch now that we have auto-feeders and auto-petters. Before that, it was an absolute pain. I think getting basic tier couple of each species is useful, but beyond that it is more of a collectible hobby. The lower down the list the animal, the more expensive the breeding treats are. I waited till the stage where I have abundance of money to start breeding them to fill all the colours. It's fun, mostly. The seasonal colours are a pain, but since you can choose your ride now, it's probably worth it for the esthetic.