Truffle Hog

Truffle Hogs are a new tameable creature introduced with Publish 123 on 13 May 2026, designed to function as the Spritelight event's "companion drop" mechanic — a tamed hog accompanying a mushroom forager increases the player's truffle yield.

Truffle Hogs are a variant of the existing Pig family but with their own appearance, spawn locations tied to farmsteads, and a behaviour hook that fires while their owner harvests Spritelight Mushrooms.

Where to find them

Truffle Hogs spawn at various farms throughout Britannia during the Spritelight Bloom — the active phase of the Spritelight event (Publish 123 worldwide release through July 1st). They appear alongside other farm animals at the established farm tiles: Britain countryside, the Skara Brae outskirts, the Yew Empath Abbey farmstead, the Vesper outskirts, and similar rural-zone tiles.

After the initial Spritelight run, Truffle Hogs return annually with each Spritelight cycle.

Taming

A TC1 Publish 3 change made Truffle Hogs tameable by anyone, regardless of Animal Taming skill level. Earlier TC1 builds had a skill threshold; the WW build removed it entirely so casual foragers don't need a tamer template to participate in the event.

Once tamed, the Truffle Hog becomes a standard companion pet — it bonds, it stables, it can be released or transferred via the usual pet mechanics. Its in-combat utility is minimal — Truffle Hogs are not Pet Training-relevant beyond Slot 1 — but its non-combat utility is the entire reason it exists.

The truffle-discovery mechanic

A Truffle Hog within range of its owner while the owner is harvesting a Spritelight Mushroom grants a per-harvest chance to additionally yield:

• Black Truffle — common, used in new Tinkering recipes added in Publish 123.
• White Truffle — also common, used in new Tailoring recipes.
• Giant Truffle — rare. Worth a large number of Spritelight Trader points at turn-in. Cannot be used in recipes; pure currency-item.

The hog must be alive and following the owner — pets in the stable do not contribute. Pet positioning matters: a hog left behind in a previous tile while the player walks to the next mushroom won't trigger a discovery on that harvest.

Truffle drops stack with the normal mushroom yield — players still receive a Spritelight Mushroom from the harvest, and also a truffle if the roll succeeds.

Strategy and team-foraging

The mechanic creates a natural cooperative-foraging pattern. Two players together with two Truffle Hogs each get truffle-discovery rolls on their own harvests (the hog must belong to the harvester, not just be nearby), but they can scout biomes together and share the new Tinkering and Tailoring recipe ingredients.

A tamer with high Animal Lore does not gain a higher drop chance — the property is binary (hog nearby or not), and intentionally accessible to casual players.

Comparison to the older "magic-finding" pet patterns

UO has a small history of pets that modify their owner's resource gathering — most notably the Fire Beetle tamed at Yomotsu Mines, which serves as a portable Blacksmithy forge for smelting ore in the field. The Truffle Hog is the first pet whose modifier specifically targets a non-skill harvest action (mushroom picking is not a skill-gated activity), making it a unique entry in the companion-utility pet roster.

See also

• Spritelight — the parent event
• Spritelight Mushroom — the harvest target
• Animal Taming — the skill (now unused for the hog itself, but still the umbrella system)
• Publish 123 — the launch publish