There are 295 beast rows in the PoE2 database covering 234 unique names. If you are searching for the best one to tame, the answer is not the one with the biggest damage number, and it is not the one you keep seeing in videos.
This page ranks the roster on the two numbers the database actually publishes for every beast — damage percentage and life percentage — and then explains the part almost nobody mentions: a large chunk of these beasts cannot be captured or raised at all, and 46 of them exist twice with opposite answers.
How to read the bestiary
Every beast row carries four things: a damage percentage, a life percentage, a Spectre flag, and a Tame Beast value. Damage and life are multipliers on the base monster’s stats. They are the only two numbers that let you compare a crab to a bear.
One caveat on the fourth column: a Tame Beast value is present on all 295 rows, so it does not filter anything on its own. The Spectre flag is the only per-beast yes/no availability signal the database publishes, which is why it carries the weight on this page.
Damage across the whole roster runs from 10% (Hatchling) to 500% (Vornas, the Fell Flame and Morvak, the Infernal). Life runs from 0% up to 350%. That is a 50x spread on damage, so picking blind is not a small mistake — it is the difference between a body that deletes rares and a body that tickles them.
Two mechanics get confused constantly and they are not the same thing. Tame Beast is a gem: conjure Azmeri wisps to engulf a Rare Beast for a duration, and if you defeat it while it is engulfed, the gem transforms and lets you summon that beast as a Reviving Companion. Spectre is a separate flag on the monster itself. A beast can be valid for one and not the other, which is exactly why people report that taming “does not work” on a beast they can clearly see on screen.
The top of the roster by raw damage
Of the 234 unique names, 198 have at least one raisable version. These are the twelve with the highest damage among them.
| Beast | Damage | Life | Damage per life point |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vornas, the Fell Flame | 500% | 313% | 1.60 |
| Morvak, the Infernal | 500% | 313% | 1.60 |
| Mighty Silverfist | 463% | 250% | 1.85 |
| Zekoa, the Headcrusher | 463% | 250% | 1.85 |
| The Abominable Yeti | 463% | 250% | 1.85 |
| The Frostborn Fiend | 463% | 250% | 1.85 |
| Quadrilla Sergeant | 462% | 250% | 1.85 |
| Wild Bear Spirit | 450% | 150% | 3.00 |
| The Crowbell | 375% | 163% | 2.30 |
| The Black Crow | 375% | 250% | 1.50 |
| Drudge Osseodon | 358% | 325% | 1.10 |
| Bahlak, the Sky Seer | 333% | 250% | 1.33 |
Read straight down the damage column and the 500% pair looks unbeatable. Read the last column instead and the ranking flips.
Vornas and Morvak pay 313% life for their 500% damage. That is the worst ratio in the top eight at 1.60. The four beasts sitting at 463% all pay exactly 250% life. And Wild Bear Spirit pays 150% — the lowest life multiplier of anything in this table — while still holding 450% damage.
That is a ratio of 3.00 damage per point of life, the highest of any beast above 200% damage. The Crowbell is second at 2.30 and everything else in the top bracket is at 1.85 or below.
What the ratio means in practice: if your build can keep a companion alive — leech, flasks that apply to it, Life Recovery from your Flasks also applies to your Companions, the ally life notables — the bear returns more damage for every point of survivability you invest in it than any other beast in the game. If your build does not support it, the bear dies, because 150% life is not much of a cushion.
If you want the opposite trade, Crested Behemoth at 298% damage and 350% life is the tankiest thing in the roster that still clears 298%, and Drudge Osseodon at 358%/325% is the best compromise between the two extremes.
The 36 beasts that never work
This is the list to check before you spend an evening hunting something.
36 of the 234 unique beasts have no raisable version at all. They are not rare spawns you failed to find — the flag simply is not set on any version of them.
| Beast | Damage | Life |
|---|---|---|
| Rakkar, the Frozen Talon | 333% | 288% |
| Spire Burrower | 293% | 325% |
| Count Geonor | 280% | 237% |
| Anundr, the Sandworm | 250% | 200% |
| The Blind Beast | 250% | 300% |
| Cecaelian Ravager | 240% | 240% |
| Ngamahu Ravager | 225% | 250% |
| Primate Chieftain Spirit | 150% | 300% |
| Mist Raven | 150% | 150% |
| Hatchling | 10% | 0% |
Some of these make sense the moment you look at them. Count Geonor is a campaign boss. Rakkar is a boss. Mist Raven is already a companion gem whose own description calls it undamageable — it was never a spectre candidate in the first place.
The lesson is that the bestiary is not a shopping list. A beast showing up in the roster tells you it exists and what its stat multipliers are. It does not tell you it is capturable.
Why the same beast gives two different answers
This is the part that causes the “tame beast not working” threads, and the data explains it cleanly.
56 of the 234 names appear in more than one row. 46 of those have opposite Spectre flags between their rows — the identical name, the identical stats in many cases, one version raisable and one not.
| Beast | Version A | Version B |
|---|---|---|
| Mighty Silverfist | 463% / 250% raisable | 463% / 250% not raisable |
| Scourge of the Skies | 250% / 250% raisable | 250% / 288% not raisable |
| The Devourer | 250% / 250% raisable | 213% / 100% not raisable |
| Pack Werewolf | 105% / 105% raisable | 105% / 105% not raisable |
| Sun Clan Scavenger | 200% / 200% raisable | 200% / 200% not raisable |
Mighty Silverfist is the perfect example, because it is the single most-asked beast on this topic. There are two Silverfist entries, both at 463% damage and 250% life, and only one of them carries the flag. Nothing on the beast itself tells you which one you are looking at. So a player who tames Silverfist successfully and a player who fails are both telling the truth.
Two rules fall out of this. First, check the flag on the specific encounter, not the name. Second, if a beast refuses to be captured, one of the two versions is the reason — it is not a bug and there is no trick to force it.
What actually makes a good beast
Given that damage and life are the only published numbers, the decision reduces to three honest questions.
Does it clear 400% damage? Seven beasts do: the two 500% pair, the four at 463%, Quadrilla Sergeant at 462% and Wild Bear Spirit at 450%. Below 400% you are choosing a body for a reason other than damage.
Can you keep it alive? Multiply nothing — just read the life column. Anything under 200% needs support. The bear at 150% is the extreme case, and it is the one most likely to feel bad if you have not built for companion survival. Flask recovery that applies to companions and the ally life notables do the work here, and if the body you want reserves more than your spirit budget allows the whole plan stalls before the first map.
Is the version you can reach the flagged one? With 46 conflicted names, this is not a formality. It decides whether the whole plan works.
If you want the full mechanics picture on how a captured beast actually fights once it is yours, the companion page covers the summon rules, the one-companion limit and the support layer. If you are building around minions more broadly, the minion build baseline covers the support gems and the skeleton ladder that sits alongside this.
One last piece of housekeeping: none of this matters until the gem is actually available to you. Check the skill gem unlock rules before planning a build around a capture, and confirm the gem level and uncut gem behaviour so you are not carrying a level 1 capture into maps.