Bear Spawning Question

[tnbp]

I'm just over 80 days in on Voyageur.  I'm using the Trapper's Homestead as my base.  Everything is going pretty great.  Since I've been keeping my venison outside in the snow, I've got plenty of food stockpiled.  I've made supply runs to CH and PV, I have tons of arrows, and if I start to get low on supplies, I can always head to the other zones I've left untouched up to this point.

The only thing I haven't really accomplished that I want to is killing a bear or two, both for the loads of meat and also for the bearskin bedroll.  But I have only once or twice even seen a bear in my 80 days in Mystery Lake.  I keep running over to the Unnamed Pond on "bear hunts" but I never see one there.  I've seen one once when I was in a rough spot and without my rifle over by Clear Cut.  I've never been lucky enough to see one near the rabbit grove by my home, sweet home.  I'm wondering: do bears only spawn one at a time on a map?  How long do they spawn for?  I know there's a bear den over by Mystery Lake but I've never yet looked over there (I thought hunting from home or from the hunting blind was a safer idea.)  So what's the story with bear spawns?  Why am I seeing so few?

[selfless]

Just like there are multiple possible places for a rifle to be but they are not all used in every game, so there are multiple possible locations for a bear cave.  Not every possible cave will house a bear in any one game.  Where you saw the bear last game may not be true this game.  And changing difficulty could see more bears on the same map than witnessed before.  I have never seen the active bear cave shift from one location to another during a single game, but I can't say I've always kept tabs on them.  Still, every time I have hunted a bear and returned later to check his cave, the bones were still there and eventually the bear respawned in that same place.

So your bear(s) will be in or around their caves.  You've checked a few possibles and found them empty.  So unless you've seen the tell-tale bones, it must be that the bear(s) are living somewhere else this time.  Know that if you are fortunate enough to track one down and kill it, it will respawn after about 7 days.  Happy hunting. 

[tnbp]

Thanks for this. But just to clarify, this is all in the same saved game. Do they spawn in multiple places in the same game? Or is there one or two spots where they would spawn over and over?

[Scyzara]

Bears can definitely change spawn locations within the same game, but they don't have to.

If you kill a bear, it may either respawn in its old cave or in one of the other caves. I've also observed bears changing spawn locations without being killed, but only twice so far. My guess is that there's some chance for them to change locations every 3-4 weeks or so, but it seems to be a rather small chance. That's why it's possible (and not even unlikely) to observe a bear living and respawning in the same cave for months in a row.

[Pillock]

When I last played on Mystery Lake, I saw my first bear at Unnamed Pond, then over by Clearcut, then over the far side of the Lake, then back and Unnamed Pond, all within the first couple of weeks. I was starting to think he was following me and had flashbacks to my miserable (and abandoned) attempts at The Hunted challenge.

But yeah, they do get around.

[tnbp]

4 hours ago, Scyzara said:

Bears can definitely change spawn locations within the same game, but they don't have to.

If you kill a bear, it may either respawn in its old cave or in one of the other caves. I've also observed bears changing spawn locations without being killed, but only twice so far. My guess is that there's some chance for them to change locations every 3-4 weeks or so, but it seems to be a rather small chance. That's why it's possible (and not even unlikely) to observe a bear living and respawning in the same cave for months in a row.

So it sounds like the bear I've seen near Clear Cut twice means that's the place to hunt. Tricky location. I'd better be a great shot. Either that or maybe I could get him to tail me out to the hunter's blind at Unnamed Pond...

[tnbp]

7 minutes ago, Pillock said:

When I last played on Mystery Lake, I saw my first bear at Unnamed Pond, then over by Clearcut, then over the far side of the Lake, then back and Unnamed Pond, all within the first couple of weeks. I was starting to think he was following me and had flashbacks to my miserable (and abandoned) attempts at The Hunted challenge.

But yeah, they do get around.

I'll have to plot out a few multi-day hunts, I suppose, and loop around the map until I find him. Thanks for the info. 

[tnbp]

Well, I headed over to Mystery Lake and found the cave there.  No bear, no bones.  I guess I will circle around to Clear Cut and see if I can find him there.  That seems like the best option, as I've seen him there twice (once when I didn't have my gun on me and once when I was barely alive and stumbling through a fog.  I could hear him stomping around in the snow and then came pretty close to him inadvertantly.  Nice of him not to have killed me as that was a good 20+ days ago of game time.  Scariest moment I've had in the game, thus far...) and noplace else on the map.

[MueckE]

At clearcut (between lookout and logging camp) - this one is always there in my runs

At lone lake cabin - this one was always there before the TM-update but now didnt spawn there for me

At unnamed pond - spawned a few times

At trapper's homestead (between the cabin and Max, rabbit spawn, end of the lake) - this one also spawned a few times for me (before the update always, now sometimes)

Mystery Lake is pretty small, so with these spawn points, you will find a bear guarateed

[tnbp]

Woo hoo!  I shot my first bear.   He was in Clear Cut (as I supposed I should have expected he would be.)  I decided to be somewhat brave and just crept up close enough to him to shoot him twice in the face before he murdered me.  lol.

I set out for the cabin just beyond Unnamed Pond with a few days' worth of food and firewood and decided I would set it up as a sort of "hunting shack."  The plan was to either live out there for a bit and hunt other wildlife to sustain myself as I was checking Clear Cut or maybe just drop supplies there and use it as a staging ground for some future hunt.  I had settled on the former; but to my good luck, I found the bear in Clear Cut the very first morning.  I shot him, harvested him, dropped everything off at the hunting shack, slept and ate, and started lugging everything back to the Homestead early the next morning.  Two trips and I was officially stockpiled.

With any (more) luck, the next one will spawn close to Home Sweet Home and I'll be able to start crafting my bedroll.

Thanks for the tips, guys.  Very rewarding to nab him.  Best as I can tell, there is only one bear at a time on this particular map and he only spawns in one place until you kill him.  Am I right about that?

[Landogarner]

1 hour ago, tnbp said:

Best as I can tell, there is only one bear at a time on this particular map and he only spawns in one place until you kill him.  Am I right about that?

I think there are 2 Bears in ML.

At least I happened across Bears in different locations during the same trek.

[tnbp]

9 hours ago, Landogarner said:

I think there are 2 Bears in ML.

At least I happened across Bears in different locations during the same trek.

Good to know.  This last time, I had done a full loop from the Homestead, out to the lake, out to Clear Cut (where I found him), and then back past the pond, so I've only ever seen the one.  But it's good to know another one could at least potentially be out there.

[tnbp]

So...  On my 100th day of survival, I found my second bear, also at Clear Cut.  Three bullets later and he gave me a whopping 76 pounds(!) of meat, 10 guts, and the bearskin that I really coveted.  That's two bears down.  Just a few more days to that comfy, comfy bedroll...