Paleo Pines How to Make Dinosaurs Trust You Faster

So, let us take our friend Tulip here. As you can see, her happiness bar is missing a chunk. This does not mean she is about to become a helper the next day, it means I haven’t completed all the optional tasks I could do that day to make her happier. The happiness bar works like a points system, I do not know how many points exactly it’s worth or how many points each dinosaur has, but that’s the basic idea. We can further break it down by dissecting what I’ve done today to make Tulip happy:

[These points aren’t completely accurate, this is just an example]

She has a dreamstone Yes – +5 points (The dreamstone does not have to be biome specific)
She has food Yes – +2 point
Her pen is clean Yes – +2 point
She likes her pen size Yes – +2 points
(Optional) She likes her pen biome Yes – +3 points
(Optional) She has a friend and is a pack dinosaur Yes – +2 points
(Optional) She has been visited that day Yes – +1 point
(Optional) She has been petted that day Yes – +3 points
(Optional) She has had her friend call played to her Yes – +7 points
(Optional) She has been taken out on a walk outside the ranch No – +0 points

[Note: You can feed them treats of their favorite flavor/discover their favorite treat, but I find it doesn’t change much and probably has the same point worth as just petting them]
[Note 2: If you’re housing multiple dinosaurs in one pen, the size must equal their size preferences combined. For example, Tulip has a Dilophosaurus friend, they both want 25 square meters, therefore the pen has to be 50 square meters minimum to satisfy them]
[Note 3: You can get extra points by walking them in the area they prefer, so Veridian Valley for plains dinosaurs and so on]

Daily Point Total: 25/30
Helper Point Total: 25/125

See what I am missing? I have not taken her on a walk yet. All of the lower tasks are optional, but they substantially decrease the amount of time it takes for the dinosaur to start helping you. Of course once you have a lot of dinosaurs like I do, walking individual ones is kind of out of the way and takes time, hence why I haven’t walked Tulip, but walking bigger dinosaurs that take more points until helper happiness is reached is a good idea. I had a Tyrannosaurus who I took with me on walks and even she took like half the season to become a Helper. The point total also depends on what your dinosaur’s skills are and what species they are, give or take.

Now keep in mind, if you neglect a dinosaur in any way for multiple days, they will lose friendship ‘level ups’ and may even leave the ranch. If you dinosaur is a helper, they will just rebel and stop helping you until you calm them down. You can release dinosaurs normally without having to abuse them [Get it to follow you with the flute, lead it out of the ranch, and play the ‘Return to the Wild’ song], but your actions DO have consequences, so be a good dino parent or else >:c

[Thank you Wobblegong for showing me more data about how exactly this works]

So, originally the ‘Tier System’ functioned off of my own speculation, which wasn’t exactly accurate and was definitely the most speculative part of this guide. However, now that I have access to new data, I will simplify what I have read and explain it in this guide.

The concept of a ‘Tier System’ is not entirely wrong, it just doesn’t work exactly how I thought it did. The time that it takes to befriend your dinosaur depends on the species/individual more than anything else, skill type does not matter. It’s measured by a hidden ‘trust meter’ which works similarly to the taming meter, where certain species start low on the trust meter and thus take more time, while others have a higher starting point and therefore take less time. It’s difficult to explain, but I will try my best:

There are 3 stages of the trust meter; Unhappy, Friend, and Helper. Every dinosaur has varying amounts of trust and where they start in the trust spectrum as previously stated. [Examples taken directly from the provided website]

Example A: Tyrannosaurus Rex [Utahraptor, Therizinosaurus, Kentrosaurus & Baryonyx share this]

Example B: Ankylosaurus

Example C: Small Dinosaurs – All small dinosaurs have the exact same trust meter [Gallimimus and other medium sized dinosarus share it as well]

Extra Example: Lucky’s trust meter is nothing but the Helper level and it is impossible to upset her enough to make her a Friend or leave the ranch. Makes sense but it’s just a better idea of Lucky’s trust.

Essentially, all dinosaurs have three variable trust meters and trust starting points, which determines how fast dinosaurs bond with you compared to other species. Those on the lower end take longer and so on. I hope this explains some of the ‘inconsistencies’ with the bonding mechanic. [The link to these trust meters is in the comments, but I’m not posting it in the guide in case Steam disapproves]

Extra section time. Stamina goes up when you level up, obviously, but my dino has already broken 50 rocks today and now their stamina is drained but I’m not done clearing rocks. What now?

Feed them their favorite poppin! It seems wasteful since you need those to tame stuff, but feeding a Helper their favorite poppin will completely fill their stamina bar. I would recommend saving that trick for when they have more levels and therefore more stamina, though. Yes they have very low stamina at lower levels, but feeding a poppin just to restore the equivalent of 5 rock breaks in stamina is even more of a waste, don’tcha think? Plus feeding them poppins probably gives a massive boost to the happiness bar, but I haven’t been bold enough to try it lol