Short Questions/Quick Answers

[PALU]

Odd. I've never seen anything but dogs eat bone. Birds get ample opportunity to chew on human bones with my character, but I've never seen any wear on any of those (apart from the bones of the first Njerp, which were eaten by a dog). The human bones are on skerries in the rapids, and so can be reached only by flyers.

[Pastah]

I'm stuck in playing this game. How can I survive as a newbie without using fishing? Also, I can't seem to tire out any medium game when chasing them. Am I able to effectively trap without using bait? I keep running out of food and I'm constantly starving. How can I efficiently trap at the beginning of the game?

[princebunnyboy]

I'm stuck in playing this game. How can I survive as a newbie without using fishing?

I personally trade for a dog in the beginning, keep your knife.  You can trap without bait, but like I said in the start I make javelin or paw board traps to get a dog. They make everything easier, atleast until you get your main traps/ trap lines up.

[Pastah]

I'm stuck in playing this game. How can I survive as a newbie without using fishing?

I personally trade for a dog in the beginning, keep your knife.  You can trap without bait, but like I said in the start I make javelin or paw board traps to get a dog. They make everything easier, atleast until you get your main traps/ trap lines up.

Why are dogs even needed? How can you even make boards when it won't let you do it with a stone axe?
Also, why do I almost never see medium game in the overworld (zoom out)?
How do you even sneak in this game properly? I try going in sneak mode and even crawling when the animal is looking at me and try passing turns, but it still notices me and puts me to unsneak.
There seems to be no good ways to hunt besides cursorial hunting.
There are no good guides on generally surviving early game.

[PALU]

At the very beginning my character makes a bunch of the smallest lever traps, as those can be made without anything you can't get through scavenging. I also have my character go from world tile to world tile, zoom in, look for game, zoom out, and throw rocks at bird that are sufficiently close. It has worked surprisingly well (i.e. mostly kept out of starvation).

Endurance hunting can be greatly improved by being lucky and some player skill to drive the prey to the bank of a river or lake and get them to run back and forth until they run themselves into the ground. It can be quite hard early on, though, as the tracking skill is generally rather poor. A key to endurance hunting is to keep the prey running and don't allow it to catch its breath. Looking at it you can see it being slightly fatigued, which means it will move a little slower. If you can press it you can get it to fatigued, which slows it down further. However, an elk or reindeer deciding to walk in a straight line will recover its breath while outpacing all but the fastest walkers. I used to never run, but have changed that to run towards prey starting to tire to get them to run again. As soon as they run I switch back to walking.
I give up if the prey has made so many tracks in an area that I can't follow them.
A javelin thrown at a reasonably short distance can hurt a prey sufficiently to slow it down, allowing you to whittle its breath down.
Also consider whether it's worth trying to hunt prey in spruce infested forests, as the visibility is horrible and the trees hide many of the few tracks your poor tracking skill can locate.

I don't get a dog until my character is "rich" enough to afford it and can provide enough meat to keep it fed (spoiled raw meat works well, so don't discard that).

I've rarely managed to sneak up on animals, although I rarely try... I've had a few cases of sneaking up on sleeping Njerps, killing them in their sleep, though.

I generally don't fish, as my experience is that it's a method of slowly starving to death, although net fishing works (not reliably, but it takes a sufficiently short time that you have time to get food using other methods). Nets are expensive, and so aren't options early on. Fishing rods are cheap, though. Also note that my characters tend to have lousy fishing skills.

When you've killed a bird, you may want to consider whether to spend the time and effort on preserving its skill, as it uses up a lot of time. Also, you can't perform the last step of leather making (whacking on it) if your character is unable to stand (e.g. due to an injury from the start scenario or trying to resist a starting scenario robbery).
Preserving the skin of 5 birds take a full day, and if it's hazel grouse the meat won't feed you fully. However, you tend to want leather and hide early on, so it's a balancing act.

I suspect the distance at which you can see animals is dependent on their size and your character's eye sight. Thus, elks, reindeer, and bears can occasionally be seen at quite a distance, while badgers, and gluttons usually are seen at a closer distance, and hares and birds are usually seen only on neighboring tiles.

[Pastah]

I found no animals for 3 days straight, almost a week now. What is going on? I'm constantly starving and the only way I'm able to get any meat is from light lever traps working by shores for birds. I usually walk around zoomed out around my shelter checking on mountains and zooming in on open areas to check for tracks.

[MrMotorhead]

Not every character will be a fantastic hunter, but there are some things you can do to increase your chances.  You really need a decent hand axe to be able to make decent javelins, I find that these are extremely powerful hunting tools.  Your character's speed and endurance play a big part in tiring out and catching game, if these are low you need a higher weapon skill to cripple your target.  Make sure you are not carrying anything but necessities when you are hunting, I think every percent of penalty slows you down one way or another, so leave heavy clothes behind with your axe when you're chasing game.  Practice hunting birds with your javelins, I will usually walk between a spruce mire and pine mire (make sure you're zoomed out as much as you can, it took me too long to figure that out) looking for birds.  I'll stay in the trees to try and get behind them, then sneak and get as close as possible.  When they see you, throw your javelins, which you already had wielded, one in each hand.  Go pick up your javelins and keep trying until you can't find that bird anymore.

With persistence I have been able to get enough food with this method to feed a slow character with lackluster spear skill ~50%.  The powerful thing is that you never really lose any javelins, unlike arrows which can be hard to replace in the early game.  You should also see your spear skill increase which is when things start getting easier.  I would probably only take along 3 javelins at most to save on weight.

You can try making some light lever traps, I find that I have the best luck with them set around my camp.

Getting that first big kill is such a huge payoff, good luck with your hunting!

[PALU]

Walking around zoomed out is a sure way to find little, as it's not that common to run into something sufficiently to be given the option to zoom in, while zooming in randomly has a decent chance of seeing a bird (and annoyingly often bird presence prevents you from zooming out).

A problem with javelins is that they tend to destroy the skin of birds (which is not a problem if you didn't want to waste time on tanning them anyway). You can also lose javelins by having them stick in a large game that gets away, but it's not very common. 3 javelins is what I used when having that as my main weapon (two can be thrown and the last one used in melee if you're cornered).

And yes, encumbrance is very important. Don't carry more than you need, as it will slow you down and cause fatigue to accumulate faster. This also means you shouldn't wear more clothing than you need either (but gear up before getting into planned combat, as armor can protect you from wounds).

[Edico]

Penalties will build up more quickly (especially while running) the higher your penalties are. This holds true for NPCs too. I will very often give up a chase if the animal isn't fatigued, injured, or close to water. However, getting that animal to "slightly fatigued" is most of the battle of persistence hunting. Big sized game can feed you for months, so you need not be successful every time. Also, if your character is slow (4km/h or less walking speed,) low endurance, and low weapon skills, hunting will be extremely difficult without a dog.

Anyone done weaponless persistence hunting? Seems like it could be quite effective in summer to have 0% penalty.

[PALU]

Low encumbrance doesn't matter much (unless you're swimming or performing heavy work), and even non predator game can attack you (apart from killing an elk by kicking it should take a fair bit of time).

[Edico]

You can sprint much easier with 0% penalty, and you can wear 10% of your weight with no penalty.  Weapons automatically add 1% or more.  Shouldn't be too hard to find a rock near where the exhausted animal is, and they won't fight well while breathless anyway.

[zer0lis]

Is roasted meat more valuable than plain meat when trading? Thanks!

[MrMotorhead]

When you roast the meat it will be sorted into qualities based on your cooking skill.  I think decent quality (no description) is the same or very nearly the same value as uncooked meat.  Lowest quality cooked meat is worthless in trade, bland meat is worth about half vs decent (plain good) quality.  If your cooking skill suffices, and you can make tasty or delicious roasted cuts, those are certainly worth more in trades than raw meat, I think 125% and 150% respectively.

Bear in mind that when you roast the meat you also get some value in that it will take longer before it turns stale, which is important in warm weather.  Also you can possibly increase your cooking skill, which will help future rates of return.

[Pastah]

How do you level trapping?
If I don't see animals around my shelter/hunting-grounds, should I move? If so, how far should I go? Or are you able to stay in one area and get a good game in the area?
What's my best bet for preserving meat at the start in the summer?
Also, how are you supposed to start and make a living when you don't have a fishing rod or a dog? How can you even make a living off trapping when you don't have bait?

[MrMotorhead]

Light lever traps are the easiest traps to make at the start of the game, they don't require cords.  It's possible to catch game without baiting the traps, but it helps.  You can set the traps where there are narrow gaps in trees in a spruce mire or coniferous forest.  These traps can catch birds, hares and maybe a fox.  If you use the bird leathers to make cords, you will be able to make the larger traps and catch bigger game.  I don't set the traps for larger game until I see them.

I don't know how to advise on moving locations.  I see small game like birds almost everywhere but bigger game is sometimes hard to find in some areas than others.  I've always had good luck getting started between pine and spruce mires.

I've seen my character's trapping skill increase from just setting a tripped trap.  You can punch or kick a trap to trigger it, with the 9 or 0 keys.  It's also possible to increase trapping skill by producing paw board fox traps, this requires an axe.