Disappearing Injured Animals

[hozz1235]

Recently, I've been shooting wolves and one bear with my bow.  I wait a while for them to bleed out, but I can't find their carcass afterwards.  Crows aren't helping and mapping isn't showing them either.  Ideas?

[JAFO]

26 minutes ago, hozz1235 said:

Ideas?

They can cover surprising distances before dying.. bears especially. My guess would be that you're not looking far enough afield.

Also, are you sure you're wounding them, and not just grazing them? A graze gives a blood splash, but no blood trail, and the animal won't die. If you scored a solid hit, you should get a skill point increase icon briefly appear at the centre-right edge of the screen.

If you go indoors (loading-screen locations) before the animal dies, there's a bug that can cause it to miraculously heal. The workaround for this is to exit the building again in less than 60 seconds after entering. After that, you can go back indoors again without triggering the bug.

[Xanthos]

Also note that they can run up hills and rocks you can't; this greatly increases the area in which you have to search. That is how I lost track of a few.

[omoon66]

A tip to avoiding this, when hitting an animal (not a grazing shot like @JAFO said), go to the radial menu and select “pass time” (the deck of cards). Make sure the animal is in your view. The animal will bleed out faster (almost instant), but will appear to move at the same speed. The animal will drop way closer to you. Keep in mind that you’re safe if it’s a hostile animal, and watch your gauges. Last thing you want is to freeze while passing time. This is especially helpful for deer (and bears if your brave enough for that).

[hozz1235]

On 11/1/2017 at 9:20 AM, omoon66 said:

A tip to avoiding this, when hitting an animal (not a grazing shot like @JAFO said), go to the radial menu and select “pass time” (the deck of cards). Make sure the animal is in your view. The animal will bleed out faster (almost instant), but will appear to move at the same speed. The animal will drop way closer to you. Keep in mind that you’re safe if it’s a hostile animal, and watch your gauges. Last thing you want is to freeze while passing time. This is especially helpful for deer (and bears if your brave enough for that).

This works like a charm!  As long as I surprise the bear with a hidden shot and he runs away (vs. at me), this works for bear too.