Hunting
Hunting can be separated into active and passive hunting. Passive hunting means using traps. Active hunting means encountering the animal and killing it down by using hunting weapons, of which various bows and spears are the most commonly used. Animals can be encountered randomly - which is especially the case with the widespread small animals like hares, squirrels and birds. Or one can use his tracking skills to find and follow the tracks of his prey. Sightings of big carnivores - bear, lynx, wolf and glutton - are usually such a news that you'll most likely hear about them if you talk to the people you meet. -Game Encyclopedia
Contents
Hunting advice
While potentially very rewarding, hunting can be a daunting challenge as it takes a lot of skills and some luck to be able to locate, track, and kill an animal. Many of the animals, such as lynxes or bears can injure or even kill you if you are not careful.
Finding Prey
To find an animal, try to locate an area that has high elevation, such as mountains, hills, or heathlands, so that you will have unobstructed viewpoint of the surrounding. Use the mouse wheel to shrink the map to see more visible area. Once there, turn around and survey the area. Sometimes, you may be able to catch sight of an animal. Move over to the location where you last saw the animal. One of the three things may occur.
- You are in the location of where the animal is. If it is a bear, lynx, wolf, or glutton, it will automatically zoom in at the location. Any other animal, if will ask if you want to zoom in at the location.
- You are notified that you found tracks, in which you can zoom in to be place at the location of the track
- You get nothing. Try to go to a nearer high point to try to relocate the animal. Sometimes it will "disappear" due to you losing sighting on it (depends on eyesight stat?).
Hunting Prey
If are zoomed in at the hunting site, the animal will always be on the same screen as you when you first zoom in, but may be obscured by trees or they might not be where you're looking. You will be facing the direction of the animal when you zoom in, so you only need to walk straight ahead.
The weapon of choice for many hunters is the bow. Failing that, or in winter when you need a hand to hold a ski stick, javelins and spears are also very effective. Thrown rocks are also effective in taking down small game (e.g. squirrels) at close range and are plentiful. In any case, attacking from a distance is much safer than trying to get up close and personal, unless you are doing it on purpose. Javelins have two advantages: they can be used as a melee weapon, and they let you use a ski stick in the other hand.
For a skilled hunter, aiming for the legs will severely impede the mobility of the animal whether it is to hinder their ability to flee or slow down approaching dangerous ones so you can get more shots in before you are force into melee combat.
Different animals behave differently. For example, squirrels like to jump from tree to tree, while hares take off as soon as they see you. Forest reindeer tend to run, but will attack if enraged. Bears and lynxes are deadly, and can kill you. For this reason, it's a good idea to hide, sneaking close enough to attack from a short distance away.
Chasing/Fighting Prey
Your first shot is not going to deal the killing blow unless you hit the larynx or head straight on, assuming that you hit in the first place. Animals are usually faster than hunters even at running speed and generally react to danger with fight or flight mentality.
Fight Bears, Lynxes, Wolves, and Gluttons may rush and attack you upon being struck. If you are not skilled in melee combat, this is a dangerous position to be in and you are most likely going to suffer some serious wounds or even die; having dogs or companion hunters will help greatly in this situation. A pack of wolves will become aggressive as a group if any member is struck; they will not necessarily all attack at the same time. Even Elks, Stags, and Reindeer may try to kick you, despite not being aggressive, if you try to get close while chasing them. The best way to mitigate the situation is having their legs struck, either shooting or or striking it close range, so their mobility is impaired allowing you to give yourself some distance. A skilled fighter may try to use a blunt weapon or any damage type on the head to try to preserve the animal hide's condition.
Flight Other animals will run at the slight sign of danger, even the aforementioned above dangerous ones that normally fight. This may also happen if they are struck by a projectile while you are still hidden. Because an uninjured animal will usually outrun a human pursuer, you will have to rely on finding them through their tracks. If you end up losing them, due to the animals trail ending due to going into terrain that does leave tracks, or the tracks inter-crossing in a confusing manner, you can try to return to the world map to find them again.
Causing any injury will make the job much easier; the animal will tire sooner and in the case of an extreme injury may be unable to run fast enough to get out of sight in the first place. In some situations, you may be able to cause the animal to bleed, allowing you to follow the bloodscape trail instead of tracks. Sometimes the animal will fall unconscious or even dead from blood loss during the chase.
For speedier characters that are traveling light, it is possible to run down the prey down to exhaustion. While tracking and chasing, run several tiles before returning to walking to recover from fatigue (to prevent fatigue from slowing you down). With sufficient persistence, an animal can be fatigued (their fatigue level can be confirmed by [l]ooking at them), allowing you to catch up to their back and strike them down. Large animals may try to turn around and fight back but their severe fatigue will impede their capability to do so, and you can kite them with range weapons if you don't want to engage in melee combat. This strategy is less feasible in winter: the effort of running through thigh-deep snow makes skiing practically mandatory, but it still tires you and you can't run while skiing, and prey doesn't get tired as quickly as humans in cold weather.
Reward
Dead animals give great rewards in the form of meat, hide and fat. Make sure to first use hideworking to skin the carcass and only after that cut the carcass for meat as cutting for meat destroys the hide. Meat is very nutritious, and hide can be worked into a number of useful items, such as clothing and cord.
Note that the condition of the hide depends on what attack type in inflicted upon the animal and where. Edge weapons tend to cause the hide to deteriorate faster while blunt weapon will keep its integrity intact. Attacks on the head will prevent damage to it, though it may present a more difficult target and may not always hit the head.
Passive Hunting
There other ways to hunt in Unrealworld, Active hunting, while exciting can also be somewhat dangerous. Perhaps you or your avatar is a pacifist and prefers the cunning art of baiting and trapping your prey. Check out the trapping skill page for more information.
Related content
Further articles on hunting.
Concepts
- Animals - The species of animals available for hunting in the game.
- Stealth (Skill) - The player character's skill that determines the potential success at sneaking up on prey.
- Tracking (Skill) - The player character's skill that determines the potential success at tracking down prey.
Equipment
- Clubs - Weapons useful for up-close active hunting.
- Spears - Weapons useful for up-close active hunting.
- Axes - Weapons useful for up-close active hunting, particularly for already caught or wounded animals.
- Bows - Weapons useful for ranged active hunting.
- Throwing weapons - Weapons useful for ranged active hunting.
- Knives - Weapons useful for up-close active hunting, but particularly for butchering caught animals.
- Skis and ski sticks - Types of transport useful for cross-country, long-distance travel and hunting.
Rituals
- Bear Skull Rite
- Hunter's Request to Catch a Fox - Spawns a fox somewhere nearby.
- Hunting Incantation - Increases the Tracking skill by 30% for the rest of the day.
- Oath of Iron - Makes an iron weapon stronger.
- Making Foxes to Come at the Bait
- Mittens for Bear Hunting
- Preventing a Lynx from Escaping
- Sacrifice For a Newly Killed Animal - Increases standing with the spirits.
