How to Tame a Bear in 99 Nights in the Forest

The Bear is the first apex pet most players go for — a walking damage-soak with the same ~350 HP it has as an enemy. It is a much bigger project than the Wolf: a Strong Flute, five cycles, and a large food stack. This page is the practical how-to; stats and drops live on The Bear, and the full per-animal food table is on Taming Guide.

Last verified: 2026-09-30.

What You Need Before You Start

Step 1 — Get the Strong Taming Flute

The Strong Taming Flute is the Tier 3 flute. You do not start with it — you earn it by taming lower-tier animals first (Bunnies and Wolves build XP, then an Alpha Wolf or two), then take the flute to the Upgrade Station (the Workshop). The full tier ladder is on Taming Guide. Practically: tame Wolves → upgrade to Good → tame an Alpha Wolf → upgrade to Strong.

Step 2 — Find the Right Bear

A tameable Bear shows up in the deeper Forest (once the campfire is around Level 5–6), at the Cultist Hunter Camp, and inside Locked Caves (as a guardian). Two will not take the flute:

• Bears that spawn on you during a night raid.
• A guardian Bear you have already started fighting — it must be undamaged.

Find a calm, undamaged bear and do not damage it before you start.

Step 3 — Play the Mini-Game

Walk into the green circle around the bear. A vertical bar appears with a light-green target zone and a red marker; hold to push the marker up, release to let it fall, keep it inside the green zone until the bar fills. A Bear is a hard mini-game — the green zone is small and the timing is tight, much stricter than the Wolf. The Zookeeper class makes this easier.

Each completed attempt pacifies the bear long enough to feed it and flips one face above its head.

Step 4 — Feed It

After each successful mini-game, the bear asks for food. The most-cited set is 1 Steak + 1 Pumpkin + 1 Salmon; feed that, then repeat. Five cycles total:

One guide (sportskeeda) reports a Steak + Stew + Pumpkin variant instead of Salmon — same 1-of-each-per-cycle × 5 structure. When every face flips to hearts, the bear is yours.

Rules That Break Taming

• The bear must be undamaged when you start. If it has already taken a hit, the flute will not work.
• You need the Strong Flute. An Old or Good Flute cannot start a Bear tame — do not show up with the wrong tier.
• Match the prompt exactly. The food a bear asks for can vary (Salmon vs Stew), so always read the speech bubble in your own run before you commit your stack.
• Bring the whole stack. Five cycles means five full food sets; turning up short means a reset.

The Two- (or Three-) Pet Limit

You can keep two tamed pets by default, three as Zookeeper or Beastmaster. A tamed Bear is a long-term investment — most players tame one Wolf early for cheap fight help, then swap to a Bear once the Strong Flute is ready. See Best Pet for whether the Bear is worth the food versus other animals.

Sources

The Strong Flute + 5 cycles + Steak/Pumpkin/Salmon setup is consistent across bloxodes, mmojugg, pockettactics and 99nightsintheforest.net, all checked 2026-09-30. sportskeeda reports a Steak + Stew + Pumpkin variant. Exact food can shift with balance patches, so always confirm with the on-screen prompt in your own run.

Related Pages

• The Bear — the stats and drops of the animal you are taming
• Pet Food — where every taming ingredient (Steak, Pumpkin, Salmon) comes from
• Taming Guide — flute tiers and the full per-animal food table
• How to Tame a Wolf — the easier first pet to build flute XP on
• Best Pet — is the Bear worth the food?
• All Locations — where the Cultist Hunter Camp and Locked Caves sit
• Missing Kids Locations — the guardian Bears and their keys