Caravans (Llama Trains)

A caravan turns a herd of pack llamas into a working crew. They follow you in a spaced line, carry your goods, run trips home to deposit cargo while you keep mining, and spit at anything that tries to jump you on the road. You never type a command — two crafted tools drive the whole thing.

The two tools

Forming the caravan

1. Right-click a pack llama with the Drover's Stick.— nearby packs form up behind you in a tidy line, spaced about 2.5 blocks apart with no conga pile-ups
2. Right-click the air with the stick to whistle in any straggler.— a llama that falls behind speeds up to about 1.5 times walking pace to catch up
3. Sneak-click to halt the line where it stands.— any animal you never recruit stays fully vanilla

Over rough ground, shorelines, and obstacles the train holds formation and routes around trouble instead of clumping up.

Storage runs

A storage run sends llamas home to empty their bags, then walk back to you.

1. At home, right-click your depot chests with the Khipu to record them.— runs fill your depots in the order you recorded
2. Out on the road, hold the Khipu and sneak-tap the air twice.— the farther half of your llamas walk off to deposit
3. Watch the boss-bar timer count down while they work.— about 10 seconds for a depot within 24 blocks, up to 90 seconds for one 256 blocks away

They merge into partial stacks and skip anything full, so nothing overflows. A following caravan past 80% full sends a run all by itself — you rarely have to think about it.

Saddlebags that grow

Every recruited caravan llama earns +3 saddlebag slots per hour you play. Once a llama reaches its full strength its bags open all the way: up to six 15-slot pages, 90 slots in one animal. Flip the pages with the Khipu. Donkeys and mules make solid extra haulers, but they stay vanilla at 15 slots with no pages and no growth.

Guards and leaders

• Spitting guard. Put a red carpet on a llama's decor slot and it posts as a sentry, spitting at hostiles within 12 blocks for 3 damage plus Slowness and a shove. Take the carpet off to stand it down.
• Camel lead. Appoint a camel with the Drover's Stick and the herd follows it as quartermaster. As you play, it brings storage runs back up to 40% faster.
• Wolf protector. Appoint a wolf and it screens the moving caravan, engaging hostiles within 16 blocks.

See also

• The Item Network — where a caravan's cargo can sort itself once it is home
• The Smeltery — bulk-smelt the ore your caravan hauled back
• Automation — the rest of the systems that work while you play