Ever since Meadow was released, some players would always ask themselves "Which animal is the fastest runner?" or "Which animal is the fastest eater?". Over the course of playing, they would find out by experience, but still not quite able to rank all animals based on their speeds if asked. And in fact, these questions are periodically popping up in the Meadow Discussion Forum as well, sometimes with conflicting answers. It's clear that animal stats are still a hot topic for Meadow players!



The first attempt at a guide which would rank the animals based on their stats was Me.'s Animal Rankings- Speed, Jump and Swim Guide on the 25th of December 2016. The animals would be ranked in descending order by their "Sprinting speed", "Walking speed", "Swimming speed" and "Jumping height" (Excluding the Eagle, of course!). They ranked the animals based on their own observation and tests. Unfortunately, it was incomplete, the ranking by "walking speed" and by "leap jump" was not done, and was last updated on the 10th of May 2017, meaning that animals such as the Hedgehog and Wolf are missing from their list.

The second attempt at ranking these animals was done by user Kaija in their guide titled The Animals and Groups of Meadow, published on the 18th of July 2018. The animals are not ranked this time around, but rather qualifiers are given for their "Speed", "Jump" and "Swimming" (such as "Slow" and "Very Fast"). The Eagle is excluded from this guide. It is assumed that these qualifiers are given based on the author's own experience with each animals. Since the guide was last updated on the 23th of July 2018, unfortunately the Wolf is not included in their guide.

This is where our guide steps in and attempts to not only fill the gaps, but also to provide information about every animal stat there is, from "Walking speed" to "Eating duration" and various other interesting stats! And this time, we'll finally include the Eagle!

(We brought up the previous guides out of courtesy, not to criticise them. We appreciate their work to classify the animals and help other Meadow players! If the authors of these guides would prefer not to have them mentioned in this section, please contact either of us and let us know! We want to respect your wishes.)



Know the Authors:

hustich - Hey here! I'm a relatively new Meadow player and occasionally code programs in my spare time! Ever since I got introduced to the game I was always interested in what makes the game tick. The first guide I made for the game is the Comprehensive Food Guide, in which I cover everything about the food system. If you ever had questions like "When does food respawn?" or "How can I eat faster?", my guide answers those questions and more, so be sure to check it out! Until then, may we meet in Meadow :)

Wolfycatt(Ana) - Hi! I'm an artist and also a huge fan of both the Shelter series and Meadow! I have also done other Meadow guides before ^^ If you're interested in playing on the Roleplaying grove (or just want to learn more about the real life animals that Meadow borrows), I recommend my Foodchain guide! If you're already more familiar with the Roleplaying grove, or just want "advanced" interactions such as creative ways to use your animations and much more, you can instead check out my Roleplaying Extras guide :) Regardless of the self-promoting, I hope to see you around on Meadow!

In order to obtain information about an animal, we would need the ability to objectively know our animal's current position in-game. Thankfully, the game has a hidden feature that allows one to check their animal's current coordinates in the world of Meadow! A coordinate is made up of three numbers, which we'll refer to as X, Y and Z:

• X - this number represents your animal's position on the SOUTH-NORTH direction. The bigger this number is, the further up North your animal is!
  
• Y - this number represents current altitude that your animal is at. The bigger it is, the higher up your animal is as well!
  
• Z - this number represents your animal's position on the WEST-EAST direction. The bigger this number is, the further to the East your animal is!

The main purpose of this feature is to help locate where various level bugs occur in-game. It's extensively used in the Support section by selfless players in order to help the developers quickly find and fix these bugs, making Meadow a better place for everyone!

Thus, using this feature alongside video recording, timers and a flat terrain (in our case, the winter lake in Meadow which has flat ice sheets), all of these stats about each animal are possible to calculate to a surprisingly accurate degree!

However, to make sure that our results are as accurate as possible, it would take more than the listed tools to obtain that sort of precision. The main cause of imprecision is human error. Thus, we took a step further when we've decided to objectively calculate each animal's ability.

The animal position feature works as follows: one pushes both "Shift" and "G" keys and their current animal's coordinates will be copied in the operating system's clipboard system, allowing one to "Ctrl" and "V" (Paste) them wherever they are needed. Knowing this, a program can be coded such that it can continuously obtain accurate data about an animal position at any point in time.

The program keeps accurate track of the operating system's time and also extracts the animal's position at any given time. This gives us the most accurate way of obtaining data using the animal position feature. And once this data is obtained, a separate program calculates the ability of an animal, like its horizontal speed or jump height.

We are pleased to present our results in the most accurate manner we could achieve!

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Speeds! Probably the most interesting stat of the bunch. Before we present the values of these speeds, there are certain facts about them that we need to elaborate on and keep in mind.

The first thing about these speed values is what they're measured in. Currently, each value is listed as measured in m/s (meters per second), but what does this really mean in the world of Meadow? The reason why we used meters or m for short is because the game already uses this unit of distance. In the "Character Options" menu in-game, the distances from other animals are measured in m. Furthermore, we've correlated this shown distance with the coordinate system of the game itself. What this means is that the coordinate numbers discussed in the "Methodology" section represent meters as well, since if the in-game display says that a certain animal is, say, 78m away from your animal, this means that if you were to take their coordinates and your animal's own coordinates, the distance between these coordinate points will also be 78! Thus, the entire coordinate system in meadow is based on meters.

Fortunately, time remains the same for Meadow as for our computer and the real world, which means that we can safely use seconds or s to measure time in.

The second aspect about the speeds we've measured is that they are horizontal speeds unless mentioned otherwise (for reference, the only time where the speeds are measured differently is for the Eagle, when we also measure the vertical speeds). What this means is that we are only concerned with how fast animals are moving in the cardinal directions (North, East, South, West), and not up or down. In order to get the most accurate speeds, we've measured them on the only entirely flat terrain found in Meadow, the lake with the ice sheets. The ice sheets themselves are perfectly flat and provide a perfect testing ground to measure speeds the most accurately.

Whew! That was a lot of info to take in! But now we're ready to move onto the results, and fully understand what they mean!

We will start by presenting the speeds of most basic movement option in the game: walking speeds! The stat that you care about mostly when you want to calmly explore with other animals!
Although those stats aren't something that truly defines the animal you're playing as (since you rarely need to be good at "walking" in Meadow) it is still worthwhile to keep them in mind, even if just for trivia. :)



‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!




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The Goat and the Rabbit are the slowest at walking by just a really small margin - they prefer to take their time!

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Just 0.01 m/s faster, we find all Cub animals - Badger Cub, Bear Cub and Lynx Cub - walking together with the Pheasant, who is taking the lead as the "fast animal that doesn't want to be there", hahah

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The Hedgehog and the Frog take the middle place in this ranking, almost alongside the Badger, who is 0.01 m/s faster than these two smaller critters.

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Possessing the second fastest walking speed, the Wolf is the third fastest walking animal regardless of its slower walking animation and old physique.

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The title of "The Fastest Walking Animal" is tied between the Fox and the Lynx - both preferring to explore the world of Meadow at a brisk trotting speed, proudly sharing this title together :)

Trivia! To traverse the entire newly added White Crystal Cave, it takes a Fox roughly 8 minutes and 35 seconds to walk from the entrance next to a berry bush to the other, while a Goat takes roughly 12 minutes and 43 seconds on the same walk! These times were measured in-game with a timer. The theoretical times for this walk would be 7 minutes and 58 seconds for the Fox and 11 minutes and 59 seconds for the Goat. The discrepancy between these practical and theoretical results is given by the fact that the in-game walk was uphill, slowing the animals down even further.

Running, the activity you will be doing the most on a regular session of Meadow. Arguably one of the most important stats in the game, the running speed dictates if you're able to keep with with a group or not, and the pace with which you can travel together with other animals :)
This is not the only stat that determines how fast an animal really is - the Frog's exceptional swimming speed might make it faster overall if the route that the group is taking has a lot of water to cross. Similarly, the pheasant's ability to fly might make it way faster to navigate rocky terrain. Overall, however, it's the main speed stat that your animal will depend on!


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!


Poor Badger Cub finds itself in last place, not being able to keep up even with other Cub animals due to its short legs. Just 0.04 m/s faster is the Frog, that relies on water crossings to keep up with the group!

Mother Badger takes care of the Bear Cub and the Lynx Cub with help of the Pheasant. Overall, these animals have the third slowest running times, with values that are close to the end of the line :)

The Fox takes a comfortable sort of middle spot with its decent running speed, being slower by 0.04 m/s compared to the Hedgehog and the Wolf!

In third and second place respectively, we can find the Lynx and the Goat, friendly racing with each other with their somewhat close top speeds, with the Goat having a slight edge, being 0.24 m/s faster :)

And in first place, unsurprisingly, the quick Rabbit leads the way! At almost 6 m/s, this small fella is the quickest runner of the bunch! :)

Trivia! To reach the Swamp from the Central Tree, a Rabbit would have to run for roughly 1 minute and 46 seconds, while a Badger Cub would run for roughly 2 minutes and 14 seconds on the same identical path! These times were measured in-game with a timer. The theoretical times for this walk would be 1 minute and 44 seconds for the Rabbit and 2 minutes and 12 seconds for the Badger Cub. The discrepancy between these practical and theoretical results is given by the fact that there were obstacles that needed to be avoided and a few uphill areas which slowed the animals down. However, note that the discrepancy is quite small, meaning that one could make calculations that are accurate just with speed and distance alone!

While it's not something that most animals like to do due to its slow speed, swimming it is still an important part of exploring the vast world of Meadow! From crossing shallow rivers to entire oceans, it might be interesting to know which animals are best equipped for long travels through water :)


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!

In last place, we yet again find all Cub animals (the Badger Cub, the Bear Cub and the Lynx Cub) with the Pheasant, who is wondering why it didn't just fly over the water instead!

In second last place, the Goat and the Wolf calmly swim together with the Rabbit and the Hedgehog :)

In the middle position by just 0.01 m/s faster we find the Badger doing quite swimmingly!

With the second fastest swimming speed, the Fox and the Lynx swim together back to shore :)

And to no one's surprise, the Frog takes the lead with almost twice as much speed as the two animals right behind it!

Trivia! If a Frog were to swim directly Westward from the small isolated island near the edge of the Ocean biome's water to the shores of the Ocean biome's beach area, it would take 2 minutes and 50 seconds to accomplish, while the Cub animals would have to spend 7 minutes and 41 seconds swimming to get across the same distance! Since water areas are flat and lack any sort of water current, there are no possible hazards that would slow down a swimming animal! Thus, a theoretical time calculated only by speed and distance travelled is almost identical to one that would be timed in-game.

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If you ever wanted to find out how high an animal can jump, then you've reached the right section! Did you know that animals actually have two jumping heights, one when standing still or walking, and one for when sprinting? Some animals jump the same amount regardless if they're walking or moving, while others don't! We've compiled all these jumping stats to see the exact amount an animal can jump!

This is less complicated to measure than speeds, since we're only concerned about the altitude number in our coordinates. By subtracting the initial height of our animal with the maximum one it can reach, the maximum jumping height is obtained! We measure this height in meters or m for the same reason given in the "Movements Speeds" section.

Now, without further ado, let's jump right into these stats!

Generally the highest of the two jump types, the walking jump has the trade-off of not being the best for covering horizontal distance, when wanting to jump over a gap for example. Good for climbing mountains and clear tall obstacles, it's important to have a decently good jump to keep up with others :)


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!

Most animals find themselves having the shorter, "regular" jump: the Badger, the Cubs (the Badger Cub, the Bear Cub, the Lynx Cub), the Fox, the Hedgehog, the Lynx and even the Rabbit!

The Goat is weirdly alone with a slightly taller jump than the above mentioned animals.

And the "Highest Jump" title is tied between the high leaping Frog, the light semi-flyer Pheasant, and (seemingly out of place) the Wolf!

Trivia! The animation for the Fox's walking jump is reminiscent of the high jumps that the Arctic Foxes do while hunting for prey in deep snow. They jump high into the air and land with their front paws close together against the prey they're hunting. With this technique, they hunt small rodents which are tunnelling deep below the snow, crushing the little critters before they can react and escape.

Running jump tends to be slightly shorter than the walking jump, but its trade-off is being able to leap across longer distances for most animals :) This jump is mainly used when running with a group, to casually clear obstacles such as gaps, rocks and fallen trees!


‏‏‎*The Pheasant has a special, limited flight move when it jumps while running. Although it's not a jump but rather a flight, we decided to leave it in the table for comparison sake. Frog still has the highest running jump.

‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!

With the smallest running jump we find the Badger and the Badger Cub, as well as the Rabbit and the Hedgehog, having trouble jumping over rocks that are over three times their size!

With a slightly better running jump, the Bear Cub and the Lynx Cub are able to reach the Goat's jumping heights!

At this point, naturally almost always together, the Fox and the Lynx jump at a similar height despite their size differences.

In second place, we find the Wolf with the second best running jump height, almost flying!

And naturally, the Frog leaps into first place, with its almost two meter jump :) Meanwhile, the Pheasant is disqualified for using his wings way too much for a jump!

Trivia! Whenever your animal jumps while walking or running, it needs to wait for a period of time before it can jump again. If your animal jumps while running, this period amounts to 1.5 seconds. If jumping while walking, this period amounts to 1.15 seconds. If your animal is not moving you can make it jump in place as many times as you want without having to wait in-between! Holding the "Jump" key ("Space" key) will make your animal jump as soon as it's able to, so there is no need to press the "Jump" key for each individual jump.

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From eating fruit to waking up from sleep, each animation is unique and gives each animal their own personality and charm! Since we're in a guide about animal stats however, we're going to focus on how long it takes for each one of them to play out from start to finish. We first present the stats for the two animations that are most relevant to gameplay, the Eating animation and the Fall Recovery animation.

One fact to keep in mind regarding the stats obtained in this section is that we did not measure the animations by how long it takes for each one to visually play out, but rather for how long the animal is not allowed to move after initiating a certain animation. Ideally, the developers would have made it such that these times are identical to each other, but that is not the case for every animation. We measure animation times in seconds or s for short.

It's essential to know how fast your animal eats if you wish to stop at various fruit trees in your travels, or to know if you can eat more calmly or need to hurry up, depending on how fast your animal chews those fruits down!


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!

The Goat and the Rabbit calmly eat together, preferring to take their time to savour every bite!

In third place, taking only two seconds to eat an entire fruit, the Hedgehog and the Lynx Cub quickly finish up each fruit that stands in their way!

In second place, the big (but not bad!) Wolf takes only 1.75 seconds to finish a fruit. When you're as big and as strong as them, you would have to!

And in first place, the gourmand Pheasant takes only 1.60 seconds to eat a single fruit!

Trivia! The fastest way of gaining Essence in Meadow is via eating fruits from various trees and bushes! A successful feast can net you between 50 and 150 Essence from a single bush or tree. Since the Pheasant is the fastest eater, it's the ideal candidate for gaining considerable Essence in the shortest amount of time.

At some point you will miss your landing spot and fall, activating your animal's falling animation! It's useful to know how long you will be punished for your own mistakes ;)
If you're an animal with a longer Fall Recovery animation, you might want to reconsider your routes and not risk distant jumps!



‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!

‏‏‎*When the Bear Cub falls, not only does it enter a recovery animation, but when that animation ends, it stays in the "sitting" position, requiring it to stand up to fully recover from a fall. The time listed for the Bear Cub is the sum of the crashing animation duration (3.70 s) and his standing up animation duration (2.50 s).

By far the slowest, the Bear Cub crashes and barely gets up again, taking almost 7 seconds to recover. Poor thing!

In second place together, the Pheasant, the Badger Cub and the Badger don't even flinch when they fall, recovering in only two seconds!

In first place, the Lynx lands on their feet like a natural feline and only takes 1.80 seconds to start running again!

Trivia! All animals in Meadow have the same falling acceleration, namely 17.50 m/s²! When falling off the edge of the world, animals can reach speeds exceeding 270 m/s before being teleported safely back up!

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Roleplaying is tons of fun! You don't have to head on to the dedicated "Roleplaying Grove" in order to roleplay in Meadow, chances are you've already done it when hunting for collectables or essence in one of the regular groves! Ever had your animal drink from a river after crossing it while waiting for other animals to arrive to the shore? Ever had a relaxing break by having your animal sleep in a small den after a long obelisk hunt? Even if it's not serious, it still counts as roleplay! And if you were ever curious how long each animal's roleplay animations take, we've compiled these results especially for you!

These are the values of how long it takes for your animal to go to sleep, and how long it takes for it to wake up. From the slowest sleeper to the fastest riser, these animations add a surprising amount of character to your animal!


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!

The Pheasant takes ages to go to sleep, taking almost 10 seconds to close their eyes!
Meanwhile, the Badger and the Badger Cub take only a single second to fall asleep and to wake up! What a record!

Trivia! If you don't make your animal interact (by doing animations, showing emotes or calling) for 1 minute and 30 seconds, it will automatically enter the "Sleeping" animation. This is a measure taken to mark players that are away from the game as inactive. As an extra trivia, the game won't make the animal sleep if it is swimming, for obvious reasons!

These are the values of how long it takes for your animal to sit down, and how long it takes for it to stand up! This animation is usually used to signal that your animal is relaxing or waiting for something to happen. It usually signifies that the animal ready to start moving again at a moment's notice!

The ability to perform a "Sit" animation is unlocked once 2,000 Essence is collected.


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!


The Wolf takes the longest to sit down at 2.70 seconds!
Meanwhile, the Rabbit, the Fox and the Pheasant only need a single second to sit!

Nothing like a friendly wave animation to greet fellow animals! These are the values of how long it takes for you animal to wave its paw! This animation can be made while your animal is standing up as well as when sitting down. Both of these situations are presented, as they influence the duration values for certain animals!

The ability to perform a "Wave" animation is unlocked once 9,000 Essence is collected.


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!

*Curiously, when sitting, these animals have this alternate waving duration and animation :)

**It's interesting to note that when standing, the Hedgehog waves 0.20 seconds faster than the next slower animal group, but when this small critter is sitting, an additional 0.40 seconds are needed to finish the waving animation, becoming slower than the mentioned animal group.

The Bear Cub lazily greets other animals, taking 3.70 seconds to wave its paw, meanwhile the Frog can wave its own small paw twice and over, in just 1.70 seconds!

Even though you don't need to drink water to survive in Meadow, you can still use this animation to give everyone else a reminder that they need to stay hydrated! After crossing a body of water, it's usually the most appropriate time to initiate a drinking animation while the others are still swimming towards the shore. And don't forget to stay hydrated yourself, the player! Below are the durations for starting to drink as well as stopping the action.

The ability to perform a "Drink" animation is unlocked once 15,000 Essence is collected.


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!

*While the other animal's times account for the animation between standing still and the drinking animation loop, the Pheasant simply enters this animation loop immediately. So technically, the Pheasant starts drinking the fastest by having 0 transition frames!

The Wolf takes the longest to start drinking, while the Pheasant goes right away to it!
The Rabbit takes the longest to stop drinking, while the Frog is fastest to stop :)

Trivia! Veteran players tend to use the "Drinking" animation to give the impression of "looking down" from higher places! If you're bored waiting for everyone to climb a mountain or a long natural staircase (found in the Spiral Cave or the Hollow Tree), you can use the "Drinking" animation on the edge of the ground to symbolise the fact that you're looking down below.

The play animation is unique for every animal, and the fact that each one of them has a different duration per animal further supports this claim. It's also the animation which arguably gives the most personality to an animal. We present these durations below!

The ability to perform a "Play" animation is unlocked once 30,000 Essence is collected.


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!

*The Hedgehog's "Play" animation can be played for at least two seconds or more. What that means is that, if a Hedgehog is not on a slope and activates its play animation, it will exit it immediately and the whole play action takes two seconds. If it's on a slope, the play animation will last for as long as the player is rolling down the slope/rock/mountain/etc.

Naturally, the Wolf's "facepalm" animation is the longest, taking 7.20 seconds to be done. Meanwhile, the Rabbit's stomping feet animation is the fastest overall, taking only two seconds! Note that the Hedgehog can also execute his play animation in two seconds if it's not standing on a slope to roll down from.

Trivia! The Pheasant is able to perform its "Play" animation while flying!

These expressive and "vocal" animations will usually grab the attention of every other animal around you! Useful to keep everyone grouped up, show tiredness or to express triumph over a really hard climb! Unfortunately, not every animal has access to these animations, as we will show below.

The ability to perform a "Yawn" animation with the Cub animals and the ability to perform a "Howl" animation with the Wolf are both unlocked once 50,000 Essence is collected. Other "Howl" animations for other animals are unlocked in different ways, detailed in the "Animal Specific Features" section of the guide.


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!

*The Lynx has two Howls (long calls)!

Trivia! The Cub animals can Yawn and the Wolf can Howl while sitting! Sadly, the Lynx, Lynx Cub, Badger and Badger Cub can't Howl while sitting, needing to stand up to perform their long calls.

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In an average Meadow session, some animals are arguably rarer to find than others, due to popularity, how you obtain those animals or simply just luck! This is the only section that will be based on empirical evidence of what I (Wolfycatt(Ana)) have observed during my playtime across more than two years :)

It's important to keep a mental "list" of the rarer animals as there are obelisks for each animal (excluding the Eagle), and that extra variety in your group might be the difference between extra Essence or extra shards you need to complete your animal, skin or animations collections!


The Badger Cub, the Rabbit, the Fox, the Goat, the Pheasant, the Lynx and the Wolf.
These are animals that are common to find! You might find one or multiple of this animal in your group :) This is due to their widespread accessibility (Badger Cub, Rabbit, Pheasant), plain popularity (Lynx, Wolf), or a combination of both (Fox, Goat)!


The Frog, the Hedgehog, the Lynx Cub and the Badger
Animals that are slightly harder to find, you might find a single one of them with you in each Meadow session! They are either unpopular animals (Frog), harder to obtain (Lynx Cub) or a mixture of both (Hedgehog, Badger)!


The Bear Cub and the Eagle
Almost mythical, you will probably go through multiple Meadow sessions without seeing one! They are extremely hard to find for being both expensive (needing to at least buy three games) and sometimes slightly unpopular (the Bear Cub is overall slow and has a hard time keeping up with groups, while Eagles have a very limited set of emotes to use, no action animations and is unable to collect Essence).

We went around and checked as many Tall/Medium and Big/Large Obelisks as we could, and one thing we've noticed is that the Obelisk patterns are actually not random but rather pre-set patterns! In our whole Meadow playtime we never found odd Obelisks patterns like a "Lynx + Badger Cub" one. And during this playtime, we believe that we've witnessed all the Obelisk patterns possible!

We've decided to list these Obelisk patterns in this section, in the visual style that they're encountered in-game, and point out some interesting observations about them, so here we go! We will start by presenting a helpful table containing an animal's Obelisk symbol alongside the actual animal emoticon for easier recognition!


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons or Animal Symbols to read their names!

Knowing this, we will now list all Obelisk patterns that we've ever encountered in Meadow!



The patterns that we've presented are only the ones we've encountered. This does not speak about the probability of each individual pattern. What this means is that it is possible that a certain pattern that we've listed could have a bigger chance of appearing on a freshly spawned Obelisk than others.

We will now list the animals in order of appearance count on the Obelisk patterns mentioned above. Each time an animal appeared twice on the same Obelisk (Ex: Two Wolves Obelisk), we counted two (2) points.


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!

Disclaimer! By choosing the animals with the highest Obelisk symbol count, opening more Obelisks is not guaranteed! Statistically, if more people play these animals, the patterns involving other animals with lower count will inevitably appear, so one would have to switch animals accordingly again! If possible, always try to keep in mind the patterns of Tall/Medium and Big/Large Obelisks that are far away, so that you choose the rarest animal and finally unlock those pesky Obelisks in your next Meadow session!

Some animals have more "content" than others, be it more skins, animations or abilities!


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!

* The Eagle has no skins from comic book DLCs, however it does have a special skin that is attainable in-game. Check the details below to find out more!

• One Howl (Long call) Animation (Needs Meadow Soundtrack)
  
• One Yawn animation (Needs 50,000 in-game Essence)

• The Frog is the only animal with only two size options, "Regular" and "Bigger". It is missing a "Smaller" option (although probably for obvious reasons).

• Currently the Rabbit and the Fox are neither missing any features nor have extra features in comparassion to other animals.

• The Goat has a "Special" cosmetic slot that lets the player choose a variety of different shaped horns (as well as long musk teeth and no horns at all)

• The Pheasant has a limited flight ability that substitutes its absent running jump. When a Pheasant jumps while running, it will take off into the air for a couple of seconds and will land with a slow fall.

• The Hedgehog's Play animation (obtained with 30,000 Essence) lets it roll down mountains, big rocks and slopes with the player having control on the sideways movement (heading left, heading right, or cancelling the animation).

• One Howl (Long call) animation (Needs Shelter 1 Soundtrack)

• One extra comic-slot skin, a blue and white skin with pink details. (Needs Blossom: A Meadow Comic Book)
  
• Has two Howl (Long call) animations. (Shelter 2 Soundtrack and Shelter 2 - Mountains EP respectively)

• One extra comic-slot skin, a blue and white skin with pink details. (Needs Blossom: A Meadow Comic Book)
  
• Has Howl (Long call) animation (Needs Paws Soundtrack)
  
• Has Yawn animation (Needs 50,000 in-game Essence)

• When the Bear cub enters a fall (falling from a high altitude) animation and crashes into the ground, it will transition to its sitting animation instead of transitioning directly to a standing up animation.
  
• Has Yawn animation (Needs 50,000 in-game Essence)

• The Wolf is the only animal that doesn't have an Art of Shelter skin, due to being released after this particular DLC.
  
• One extra comic-slot skin, a orange and dark brown skin with white details (reminiscent of a Maned Wolf). (Needs Trails: A Meadow comic book)
  
• Has Howl animation (Needs 50,000 in-game Essence)
  The Wolf has a "Special" cosmetic slot, that lets the player choose between various types of facial fur.
  
• Currently the Wolf is missing unlockable skins #5 to #10.

• Players can obtain an exclusive White skin by collecting enough essence to reach the Global Top 100 Essence scoreboard. (You can also obtain the Eagle itself this way, bypassing having to buy games, soundtracks and comic books)
  
• The Eagle has the unique ability to fly and hover indefinitely, as well as achieve high speeds when ascending / descending, ideal for really quick travels and scouting.
  
• Eagles only have two ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, one inspired by the bald eagle and another one inspired by the african eagle.
  
• The Eagle is one of the most incomplete animals, currently missing various emotes, all unlockable animations, and much more. It also can't collect Essence, and can't access certain areas of the map such as caves due to its massive size.

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Certain animals in Meadow have a feature that is exclusive only to them. Starting from the most obvious flying ability of the Eagle to the lesser known "play" animation of the Hedgehog, we will analyse each aspect of these unique abilities!

The rarest animal in Meadow is finally being put under the microscope and analysed to see what it's capable of! Before we delve into the speed stats of the Eagle, we will first discuss a movement technique that helps us achieve faster speeds, which we named the "Fast Ascent".

As an Eagle, if you simply move forwards you'll move rather slowly compared to other animal's sprinting speed, and unfortunately the Eagle does not have a "sprint flight". In order to have a faster horizontal speed, you can combine moving forwards with Ascending ("Q" key) your altitude and Descending ("E" key) your altitude to move faster. However, you will notice that when Ascending, you move slower then when Descending. There is a trick that allows you do ascend just as fast as you descend, which we will refer to as the "Fast Ascent".

To achieve "Fast Ascent", one must first descend by holding the Descent key ("E"), and then as fast as possible, let it go, and then press the Ascent key ("Q"). It takes several tries to get right, but it's noticeable when it's achieved because your Eagle will ascend way faster than usual. After that happens, keep holding the Ascent key ("Q") for as long as needed. Letting go of the Ascent key will cancel the trick, so it will have to be performed all over again.

This movement technique is not particularly useful for a scouting Eagle, but we will mention it for posterity. By holding the Ascent or Descent key ("Q" or "A") and the Left or Right key ("A" or "D"), the Eagle will very slowly ascend directly upwards or descend directly below in a spiral movement. Useful for Eagles that want to relax and have some fun, or for roleplaying Eagles that want to indicate that they're injured and are falling.

With both these tricks in mind, we can now present the entirety of the Eagle's attainable speeds! We've added the Rabbit's running speed as a comparison point for the horizontal speeds that the Eagle can reach.


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!


Trivia! The Eagle is able to reach the Moon at night, and the Sun during daytime! Try reaching for these celestial objects sometime!

Extra trivia! There is another celestial object high above the Central Tree, dubbed "The North Star" by veteran Meadow players! It's always there, be it day or night. It can be reached with the Eagle in 3 minutes and 45 seconds by ascending directly upwards normally, or in 1 minute 30 seconds by Fast Ascending directly upwards!

The Pheasant is a special mention since it has the ability to fly somewhat. We've listed its maximum flight height as "Running Jump" in the "Jumping Heights" section since the Pheasant doesn't have a separate running jump ability. There is one stat that was not listed in any of the sections, namely the speed of the Pheasant's flight itself. However, for presentation purposes, we will mention the running speed stat of the Pheasant while adding the speeds of its flight, in one convenient table! For extra comparison points, the Rabbit's running speed is also included!


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!

Thus, to answer the age old question, "Is the Pheasant faster when it's flying than when it's running?", the answer is yes, the Pheasant is indeed faster when flying compared to his running speed, by about 0.33 m/s!

Trivia! The Pheasant also has the ability of starting its flight from mid-air, and thus reaching higher heights! Perform a simple jump or a walking jump, and as soon as your Pheasant starts falling from the jump, perform an extra running jump (by pressing "Sprint" key and "Jump" key simultaneously) and the Pheasant will start its flight from mid-air!

Extra trivia! While each animal falls with an acceleration of about 17.50 m/s², including the Pheasant, when the Pheasant is flying, it's falling acceleration changes to about 1.75 m/s², leading to a descent that is 10 times slower!

The Hedgehog gets its own section for one simple reason: its play ability! Whenever the Hedgehog plays, it curls up into a ball, but did you know that if the Hedgehog were to do this on a slope, it would start rolling around? And since this is a guide on animal stats, we just couldn't help but investigate the speeds that the Hedgehog can reach in this state! Similar to the Pheasant section, we will compile the running speed stat of the Hedgehog along with the maximum recorded speed we could achieve with it, as well as the running speed stat of the fastest Meadow sprinter, the Rabbit!


‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!

At this point, when we say "top speed", we need to recall that all speeds measured are horizontal until mentioned otherwise. This "top speed" is no exception, it's measured exclusively horizontally. To illustrate this point, let's assume that the Hedge rolls on an almost wall-like slope, very very steep! The real speed of the hedgehog would be really fast since it descends quickly, but its horizontal speed will be small since it's not moving very much horizontally. This is the type of speed that we're measuring.

One might assume that the Hedgehog would accelerate and roll faster and faster it's rolling on a slope. Sadly, it doesn't work like that in the game. The Hedgehog only accelerates to a certain speed, and then maintains that speed for as long as its on that slope. However, we've noticed that not all slopes give the Hedgehog the same top speed. One would assume that the steeper the slope, the faster the hedgehog speed would be! That would be true for its actual speed, but not for its horizontal speed. In order to get the fastest horizontal speed, we theorised that a slope of 45 degrees would be needed, and indeed, on such a slope we've achieved our maximum speed!

Trivia! MaD_Jens, one of the main Meadow developers, has stated in a Reddit AMA that the Hedgehog is his favourite animal in real life and one of his favourites in Meadow!

Originally posted by MaD_Jens:

My favourite Shelter series animal is a close tie between the Lynx Cub (even though I've spent so many hours implementing animations and otherwise looking at that model, I still can't handle how cute it is!) and the Meadow Hedgehog. I love its derpy emotes and animations, and Hedgehogs is one of my favourite animals IRL.

‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!

‏‏‎Hover your mouse above the Animal Emoticons to read their names!

For the trivia lovers, we've compiled a list of these lesser known facts that have been mentioned across the guide in one convenient section! Impress your Meadow friends with these really niche and overly specific details!

• To traverse the entire newly added White Crystal Cave, it takes a Fox roughly 8 minutes and 35 seconds to walk from the entrance next to a berry bush to the other, while a Goat takes roughly 12 minutes and 43 seconds on the same walk! These times were measured in-game with a timer. The theoretical times for this walk would be 7 minutes and 58 seconds for the Fox and 11 minutes and 59 seconds for the Goat. The discrepancy between these practical and theoretical results is given by the fact that the in-game walk was uphill, slowing the animals down even further.
  
  
• To reach the Swamp from the Central Tree, a Rabbit would have to run for roughly 1 minute and 46 seconds, while a Badger Cub would run for roughly 2 minutes and 14 seconds on the same identical path! These times were measured in-game with a timer. The theoretical times for this walk would be 1 minute and 44 seconds for the Rabbit and 2 minutes and 12 seconds for the Badger Cub. The discrepancy between these practical and theoretical results is given by the fact that there were obstacles that needed to be avoided and a few uphill areas which slowed the animals down. However, note that the discrepancy is quite small, meaning that one could make calculations that are accurate just with speed and distance alone!
  
  
• If a Frog were to swim directly Westward from the small isolated island near the edge of the Ocean biome's water to the shores of the Ocean biome's beach area, it would take 2 minutes and 50 seconds to accomplish, while the Cub animals would have to spend 7 minutes and 41 seconds swimming to get across the same distance! Since water areas are flat and lack any sort of water current, there are no possible hazards that would slow down a swimming animal! Thus, a theoretical time calculated only by speed and distance travelled is almost identical to one that would be timed in-game.
  
  
• The animation for the Fox's walking jump is reminiscent of the high jumps that the Arctic Foxes do while hunting for prey in deep snow. They jump high into the air and land with their front paws close together against the prey they're hunting. With this technique, they hunt small rodents which are tunnelling deep below the snow, crushing the little critters before they can react and escape.
  
  
• Whenever your animal jumps while walking or running, it needs to wait for a period of time before it can jump again. If your animal jumps while running, this period amounts to 1.5 seconds. If jumping while walking, this period amounts to 1.15 seconds. If your animal is not moving you can make it jump in place as many times as you want without having to wait in-between! Holding the "Jump" key ("Space" key) will make your animal jump as soon as it's able to, so there is no need to press the "Jump" key for each individual jump.
  
  
• The fastest way of gaining Essence in Meadow is via eating fruits from various trees and bushes! A successful feast can net you between 50 and 150 Essence from a single bush or tree. Since the Pheasant is the fastest eater, it's the ideal candidate for gaining considerable Essence in the shortest amount of time.
  
  
• All animals in Meadow have the same falling acceleration, namely 17.50 m/s²! When falling off the edge of the world, animals can reach speeds exceeding 270 m/s before being teleported safely back up!
  
  
• If you don't make your animal interact (by doing animations, showing emotes or calling) for 1 minute and 30 seconds, it will automatically enter the "Sleeping" animation. This is a measure taken to mark players that are away from the game as inactive. As an extra trivia, the game won't make the animal sleep if it is swimming, for obvious reasons!
  
  
• Veteran players tend to use the "Drinking" animation to give the impression of "looking down" from higher places! If you're bored waiting for everyone to climb a mountain or a long natural staircase (found in the Spiral Cave or the Hollow Tree), you can use the "Drinking" animation on the edge of the ground to symbolise the fact that you're looking down below.
  
  
• The Pheasant is able to perform its "Play" animation while flying!
  
  
• The Eagle is able to reach the Moon at night, and the Sun during daytime! Try reaching for these celestial objects sometime!
  
  
• There is another celestial object high above the Central Tree, dubbed "The North Star" by veteran Meadow Players! It's always there, be it day or night. It can be reached with the Eagle in 3 minutes and 45 seconds by ascending directly upwards normally, or in 1 minute 30 seconds by Fast Ascending directly upwards!
  
  
• The Pheasant also has the ability of starting its flight from mid-air, and thus reaching higher heights! Perform a simple jump or a walking jump, and as soon as your Pheasant starts falling from the jump, perform an extra running jump (by pressing "Sprint" key and "Jump" key simultaneously) and the Pheasant will start its flight from mid-air!
  
  
• While each animal falls with an acceleration of about 17.50 m/s², including the Pheasant, when the Pheasant is flying, it's falling acceleration changes to about 1.75 m/s², leading to a descent that is 10 times slower!
  
  
• MaD_Jens, one of the main Meadow developers, has stated in a Reddit AMA that the Hedgehog is his favourite animal in real life and one of his favourites in Meadow!
  

  Originally posted by MaD_Jens:

  My favourite Shelter series animal is a close tie between the Lynx Cub (even though I've spent so many hours implementing animations and otherwise looking at that model, I still can't handle how cute it is!) and the Meadow Hedgehog. I love its derpy emotes and animations, and Hedgehogs is one of my favourite animals IRL.

Thank you for reading! If you notice anything wrong with the guide, or simply want to suggest ways to improve it, please let us know, we are open to criticism and suggestions!

Huge thank you to the guide's co-creator Wolfycatt(Ana) for the incredible fanart (the illustrations found in the "Walking" section), screenshot taking and editing, guide structure, guide layout and design, putting stats into tables, the text behind the "Animal Popularity and Rarity" and "Animal Specific Features" sections, table design, various flavour text across the guide, and the overall willingness to help make this guide possible! The guide couldn't have looked this amazing without her!

Special thanks to SylvRabbit for helping with certain aspects of the program that computes the speeds and jumping height of animals and helping out with screenshots!

Warm thanks to Pannaca, juls and . for helping out with the screenshots!

hustich - that's me! I'm the main one behind the program that extracted the animal coordinates and the program that calculated speeds and max heights! I'm also the one that wrote the more technical text across the guide, the most notable one being in the "Methodology" section, various flavour text, putting the stats into tables, helping with screenshots and proofreading the guide.

Might and Delight for the official Meadow art, used in the "Introduction", "Methodology", "Compiled trivia" and "Conclusion and Credits" sections, and for the various Meadow in-game icons used throughout the guide.

You, the reader, for reading this far into the guide!

10th of December 2019 - v1.0

• Guide published!

19th of December 2019 - v1.1

• Update on the Animal Specific Features:
  
  • Updated the Hedgehog information, as of Meadow update 18/12/2019, the Hedgehog has all 10 unlock skins.
    
  • Updated the Eagle information, as of Meadow update 18/12/2019, the Eagle has one extra new skin.

6th of January 2021 - v1.101

• Updated the Animal Specific Feature:
  
  • Fixed the Wolf section containing the wrong DLC to unlock the brown wolf skin.